this blog could be your life!

Postscripts and Parting Shots

2008-12-31T17:57:00.005-06:00

Five years ago I started a weblog. At the time, I only knew a couple of bloggers, mostly the original crew over at Midwest Mindset. While they started in July of 03, I didn't join the conversation until early 04, after I'd been blogging on my own for about a month or so. In those "early" days, Blogger didn't come with the comment option, so one had to be a member of the blog to post response, and those responses had to be entire posts. It made for some really interesting discussions -- discussions that I think were soon lost after a comment section was added. And it was a blast just arguing with far away pals, truth be told.

When I started this blog, it was part of a personal website I created (that no longer exists). The blog was really just a side note. But I liked it. Much more than the website part. It was a way to communicate with friends even though I was far, far away in rural Montana.

Then came the 2004 election. And suddenly I was writing a political blog. I didn't really mean to, it was just natural after my experience blogging with Midwest Mindset to start focusing on what was going on in the news, too. That first year, whilst living in Montana and Wisconsin, away from friends, was the heyday of TBCBYL. Bush won, but I kept on going, because dammit, people were linking to me. At the time, I thought I'd blog through his entire second term. That didn't happen. Chicago did.

So this blog withered. It sort of become a pop culture blog for a bit after that, focusing on music, movies and lots'o'television (especially after I discovered TV Squad). But moving to Vermont killed that. I tried to revive it every couple of months, but to no avail. I kept up with Xanga and Myspace intermittently, but eventually gave up on those as well. I gave it one last go this fall again with another election, but my heart just wasn't in it. I said as much back in October. So now, it's time to officially retire the thing.

When I started, I remember having three of four links: Midwest Mindset, Erica and Andy Sikora. Andy's been through two or three blogs since. Erica's still around, but in different digs. And MM is dead dead dead. I'm still going to keep updating the (new) xanga (which could really use a name change), I'm currently having some fun on Saniel Bonders's list page, and I'm working on a blog for my workplace (check the new xanga in a few weeks for more info on that).

But this blog is ready to retire. Thanks to everyone who stopped by at some point or another to check it out, in whatever incarnation it might have been in at the time. I leave it up as a document, just like every other dead blog I've been apart of (except for Catfish Haven, Jake be damned), because even though there's so very, very much to be embarrassed about on this blog, I wouldn't have it any other way.

So long, this blog could be your life! It was fun. We should do this again some other time.

City of Big Shoulders

2008-11-05T00:17:00.002-06:00

On why voting for Chicagoans comes easy:

Come and show me another city with lifted head singing
     so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on
     job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the
     little soft cities;
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse.
   and under his ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of
     Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog
     Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with
     Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

from Chicago by Carl Sandburg

Notes on Nov 4th

2008-11-04T08:08:00.008-06:00

Three Loves

We do love Thomas Friedman around here.

"Given that Times columnists are not allowed to “formally” endorse candidates and given that the context of this election has changed so much from the policy positions the candidates started with, all I can suggest is that you vote for the candidate with these character traits....Vote for the candidate you think has the smarts, temperament and inspirational capacity to unify the country and steer our ship through what could be the rockiest shoals our generation has ever known."

And we do love British neo-liberals, too.

"For all the shortcomings of the campaign, both John McCain and Barack Obama offer hope of national redemption. Now America has to choose between them. The Economist does not have a vote, but if it did, it would cast it for Mr Obama. We do so wholeheartedly: the Democratic candidate has clearly shown that he offers the better chance of restoring America’s self-confidence. But we acknowledge it is a gamble. Given Mr Obama’s inexperience, the lack of clarity about some of his beliefs and the prospect of a stridently Democratic Congress, voting for him is a risk. Yet it is one America should take, given the steep road ahead."

And finally, we cannot help but love Ralph Nader with all our hearts.

"I believe in I.F. Stone's dictum that in all social justice movements, you've got to be ready to lose. And lose and lose and lose. It's not very pleasant, but you have to accept this if you believe in what you're doing."

Happy voting.

Me and John McCain Break Up Over 7 Things (I Hate About Him/You)

2008-11-02T20:42:00.017-06:00

Once upon a time, when this blog was updated near-daily, with weird Larry-King-like posts, I wanted to see John McCain run for president, so that I could vote for him and Christine Todd Whitman, and life would become better and better every day. Because he was a Responsible Conservative who would Rescue the Republican Party from People like this. And thereby usher in a new era of bipartisanship where Dems and Pubs got along and ate cotton candy and rode ponies together. Pony rides!* In Washington! O what a day it was going to be!!!11!!!!1!

But then something happened. John McCain ran for president again. And he promptly lost his frakkin' mind.

A not-so-comprehensive list of reasons I used to love John McCain but now can't because he believes something completely different now that he started trolling for votes in Hillsdale, MI and Huntington, IN.**:

1) Sen. McCain used to be a fiscal moderate [Part I]. I know this because he originally opposed the Bush tax cuts. McCain on the Senate floor: "I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us at the expense of middle-class Americans who need tax relief." Now he wants to make them permanent. Ostensibly it's because of the financial mess we're in. And I get that from a Righty McRight-Right perspective. But this is "The Maverick starring Mel Gibson" we're talking about. Why not extend them for another year or two until we're out of this mess, then let them quietly expire, so we can get back to balancing this crazy-ass budget deficit? Or am I making too much sense for you right now, Senator?

2) Sen. McCain used to have principles [Part I]. He used to oppose the torture of human beings. "We’ve sent a message to the world that the United States is not like the terrorists," he said while asking President Bush to support a bill that would ban all sorts of torture for anyone in US government custody, including waterboarding. He even made a good case against waterboarding, too: "All I can say is that it was used in the Spanish Inquisition, it was used in Pol Pot’s genocide in Cambodia, and there are reports that it is being used against Buddhist monks today…It is not a complicated procedure. It is torture." Then he voted against a bill which would have made the CIA abide by the same rules in the Army Field Manuel, which specifically bans waterboarding as an information gathering tactic. I don't get it. I really, really don't. I guess everybody needs a buddy sometime.

3) Sen. McCain used to stick up to bullies [Part I]. Once upon a time, McCain stood up to the NRA. After saying that "the NRA is entitled to their advocacy. I don’t think they help the Republican Party at all, and I don’t think they should in any way play a major role in the Republican Party’s policy making," the NRA labeled him "one of the premier flag-carriers for enemies of the Second Amendment." That is until he spoke these words at the NRA's national convention: "President Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton would put the rights of ‘law-abiding’ gun owners at risk." More buddies! The list just keeps on growing.

4) Sen. McCain used to stick up to bullies [Part II]. Another once upon a time, McCain called a duck 'a duck.' He railed against Jerry Falwell and other leaders of the Religious Right as “agents of intolerance.” After announcing a run for president, however, he delivered the commencement address at Liberty University, Jerry Falwell's school, after which he was the guest of honor at a reception and private dinner which included a number of conservative church leaders. Sure, endorsements are nice. But so are principles.

5) Sen. McCain used to have principles [Part II]. John used to be a big fan of immigration reform, including creating ways for illegal immigrants to gain citizenship without forced deportation. He even co-sponsored a bill in Congress (that eventually failed to pass). This year he admitted that he wouldn't even vote for his own bill today “because we know what the situation is today. The people want the borders secured first.” Mr. McCain, the people are often wrong. Two and a Half Men is the most watched sitcom in America. Yet How I Met Your Mother is clearly funnier. Sometimes, you have to fight for what you believe in. I believe in Slap Bets. You believe in sorting out this immigration mess without resorting to building huge fucking walls along the entire length of our southern border. Good for me. Good for you.

6) Sen. McCain used to be a fiscal moderate [Part II]. He used to argue for the "essential morality" of the estate tax, explaining that he “consistently voted against repealing this tax because of the impact it would have on the deficit, as well as the possible chilling affect it could have on charitable giving in this country." Now he calls it "one of the most unfair tax laws in the book." I like taxing dead people. Because over-taxing the living just plain sucks. We earn what we have as Americans. Everything else is just plain royalty.

7) Sen. McCain used to have principles [Part III]. Sen. McCain used to oppose a federal ban on gay marriage: “The constitutional amendment we’re debating today strikes me as antithetical in every way to the core philosophy of Republicans. It usurps from the states a fundamental authority they have always possessed and imposes a federal remedy for a problem that most states do not believe confronts them.” Wow. Now that's great statesmanship. And plausible conservatism in an age when conservatives can't tell whether they love big government or hate it. Yet, one more time, while on the Votes and Endorsement Trail, he told Jerry Falwell he would support a federal marriage amendment to the Constitution if a federal court were to strike state constitutional bans on gay marriage. Not a complete about-face, but he's definitely trying to have his small government cake and eat it, too.

Conclusion: Sen. McCain, I used to love your freakin' guts. Now, I just feel sorry for you. Sorry that you felt you had to turn your back on evertything that made you "you" in order to appeal to the American public, or at least the part of the American public that is pro-America. Because those anti-America parts of the country can fall into the ocean and die. Or they can elect our next president. I forget my point...

Oh, that's right. Sen. McCain, you just lost my vote.***

--------------

*Pony rides do solve everything. Because ponies are constitutionally non-partisan.

**Town names chosen completely at random, having nothing to do with those two great institutional influences of my formative years.

***Well, you kind of did about a year ago, but you know what I mean.

Sarah Palin, you're breaking my heart.

2008-10-26T17:53:00.009-05:00

I love Sarah Palin. She's basically every mom of every friend I had growing up in the Midwest, only way hotter. She's the new face of the new feminism (I can't even remember who the old face of the new feminism was anymore). She's everything Bush Republicanism could hope for in a not-so-much-ugly-old-white-man package. She's funny, she charming, she's got great taste in eye wear. She can shoot a gun and bake cookies and manage an entire state while raising a family. In other words, I want to build a time machine and marry her in place of the that bozo, pretty-boy Todd McGoofyPants. Why should he be so lucky?

But I don't want Sarah Palin to be my vice-president.

Gov. Palin has been/will be the downfall of the McCain campaign. For all the people who love her for all the same reasons I do (but who also plan on voting for her), there are even more Americans who see this selection for what it is: a desperate attempt by the McCain camp to seem younger, less Beltway, and more family friendly.

It's no secret McCain is old. It's no secret McCain has been involved in Washington politics for almost 30 years. And it's no secret that McCain has leaned centrist in the past when it come social conservatism. Picking Sarah Palin was supposed to solve all that. And for the Republican base, it did. But for the rest of America, it pretty much scared the bejesus out of us. I love Sarah Palin with all my heart. But she cannot, under any circumstances, be our vice-president in 2009. And this is why:

1) According to FactCheck.org (and check out their sources for further reading), until Palin became a VP candidate, she had no problems with the types of congressional earmarks John McCain has spent a good part of his career opposing. (McCain is on record as criticising three specific earmarks that went to Mayor Palin's old Wasilla stomping grounds; earmarks secured by a Washington lobbyist hired by Palin during her tenure as mayor.) She also failed to come out against the "Bridge to Nowhere" until after it was dead in Congress. And she still accepted the earmarked, pork-barrel funds anyway, spending them on her state's general transportation budget. We need someone who understands this budget mess. And Sarah Palin is not that someone.

2) Palin (along with McCain) also seriously misunderstands Obama's tax plan. Palin is on record criticising it as "painful tax increases on working American families." This in spite hard data that shows Obama's plan will lower taxes for 81% of all households (and 95% of those households with children), while raising them for those at the top of America's income bracket (those families making over $250,000 a year). Yes, rich people work, too. But chances are Joe Sixpack is making much less than a cool quarter-mil a year. Obama's tax plan takes care of him. And it's time for McCain-Palin to kill this stupid misconception/lie.

3) She has absolutely no experience in either of the biggest problems we are mired in today: managing a messy war in Iraq while simultaneously governing over a sluggish 13.8 trillion dollar economy. At the very least, McCain, Obama and Biden have congressional experience in these matters. Palin has managed the 45th largest economy of the United States of America for 22 months. This gives me pause. And these things tell me she just isn't ready for this position.

Two and half weeks ago conservative columnist David Brooks was quoted as saying that Palin was in no way ready to be vice-president:

"The more I follow politicians, the more I think experience matters, the ability to have a template of things in your mind that you can refer to on the spot, because believe me, once in office there's no time to think or make decisions."

What Brooks is saying here resonates tremendously with me. Presidents need to have wisdom, experience and a worldview in place before they take office, because once you're there, there's little time to formulate these things. You can't be catching up on William Buckley, Russell Kirk and Richard Weaver in the middle of a heated presidential campaign.

Maybe once Palin is safely ensconced in her vice-presidential office, she would have time for such things. But with McCain's age being what it is, she could be called on to serve as president before she is actually ready to be president. And because of that, I can't in good conscience vote for her. We just elected (and re-elected) a president who wasn't ready for the job, and look where that got us. We need to learn from our mistakes and vote for folks with the experience to lead from Day 1. Even Obama, with his political career only 12 years old, is light years ahead of Palin in that regard.

As a country in the midst of a teetering economic crisis, drawn out wars in the Middle East and Asia, problems with a resurgent Russian state, run-away health care costs and record budget deficits, we deserve a presidential team that's up to the task. And unfortunately, with Sarah Palin on the Republican ticket, the Republicans have failed to provide us with one. It's time to look elsewhere for a president if this is the best that McCain and the Republican Party can do.

I'm just not that into you.

2008-10-13T23:05:00.003-05:00

Oh, man, political blogging is dead. Ever since the markets imploded, I've basically stopped listening to Tweedle-Dum and Cranky-Pants-Dee. This blog will oficially retire come November whatsit.

But first, I'm working on a good old blog post about why Sarah Palin scares me to death and simultaneously ought to raise if not bear my children.

WTF?

* Awesome pic courtesy of oh-who-cares-because-the-internets-are-done-anyways.

Where do we go from here?

2008-09-29T23:24:00.002-05:00

I had been working on a post yesterday about a recent op-ed piece by Thomas Friedman, titled "Green the Bailout" -- A little ditty that encouraged our government to look beyond the bailout and work toward a Green buildup. The idea is that plenty of countries do fossil fuel extraction and gasoline fueled autos better than we do. So why don't we switch our focus to the next step in energy -- green energy. If we can't be number one in the old way of powering the World, why not be number one in the new way? Why not replace lost blue collar jobs with what author Van Jones is calling "green collar" ones? It was going to kill.

Then the shit hit the fan and Congress gave into millions of Americans who can't bother to read a newspaper.

Whoops. Guilty as charged. I'm a print-journalism elitist. CNN and Fox News can kiss my ass.

The House of Representatives should be ashamed of themselves. Instead of taking the lead, getting out on the stump, bumping elbows with folks at potlucks and community centers and Wal-Marts all across America, convincing Americans that though this plan isn't perfect, it would help regular Janes and Joes as much as it would help the Big Bad Banks on Wall Street, they sat back and went with whichever way the wind blew. Good job, Leaders of the Free World. You may have just won re-election....but you're completely responsible for where we go from here.

(Sort of) live blogging the first presidential debate

2008-09-26T22:45:00.002-05:00

Not only have I been (sort of) live blogging the debate, but in the spirit of Tony Reali's Around the Horn, I will dole out points arbitrarily to whomever for whatever reason I deem appropriate. This is what blogging is all about!

9:06 Kick-off!

9:07 I hate the lazy "Main Street" vs. "Wall Street" comparison. Our Main St is called Merchants Row. Or Highway 7. O-1

9:08 A 4-point plan for the bailout, GObama! O+1

9:09 Teddy's sick again. Really, McCain? M+0-1

9:10 Bipartisanship! The mark of old McCain. Where did he go? M+0

9:12 Blah, blah, I can't say whether I approve this plan. Blah, blah, Hillary had bigger balls than both of us. O/M -1

9:14 And forever....Go D-Day! M+0

9:15 They're being waaaaaay too nice. This just proves the point I've been trying to hammer home. These guys don't know enough about economics to have an honest conversation about the Economy. O/M -1

9:20 Yeah! Burn that tax plan to the ground Obama! Check out the Obamaculator to see your tax cut under the distinguished Senator from Illinois. O+2

9:22 "The sheriff". Nice nickname. I guess. M-1

9:24 "Pork-Barrel Obama". Much better nickname. True. O-1

9:26 Close the loopholes! Close-close the loopholes! O+1

9:27 Why can't they just be buddies? JK. Interruptions+1

9:30 Ohio! Michigan! Electric cars! O+1

9:32 Ethanol subsidies? McCain's right. Stoooopid! M+1

9:33 Eliminate the waste. M+1

9:35 Google the govt. O+1

9:35 Why is the eagle facing McCain? PBS-1

9:36 Education. Mmm-hmm. Woulda given you another point had you mentioned after-school education. O+1

9:37 Nuclear power. It's gotta be on the table. There's no way around it if we want to decrease our coal burnin' ways. M+1

9:37 Nuclear does next to nothing to wean our dependence on foreign oil. That's an outright lie. M-2

9:39 Health care needs the govt's help. Plain and simple, Johnny. M-1

9:40 Cutting taxes helps a hurtin' economy. But so does increasing spending on domestic projects that create American jobs. M+1-1

9:41 "Orgy of spending"! Great quote! O+1

9:41 Yes, McCain you've opposed him at times, but you've really fallen in love with Bush since 2004. M-1

9:43 The troop surge worked. McCain is right, and he was right when it wasn't popular to be right. M+3

9:44 You opposed the war in the Illinois Senate. Good job. O-2

9:45 Sports analogies. Took our eye off the ball in Afghanistan. Double points. O+2

9:47 Don't lean on Joey too much. O-1

9:48 Take him down, Obama!!! We screwed the pooch in 2003, no doubt. O+2

9:48 Tactic/Strategy? Ass-hole-ish joke, McCain. M-1

9:50 Troop funding. John McCain, don't lie about your opponent's record. M-1

9:52 Move the troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. I agree. But we can only do that successfully because the surge worked. O+1-1

9:53 Yeah, Obama! That's not true! Call a liar a liar. O+1

9:54 Obama can talk foreign policy and not sound like a novice. I guess we should expect that from a candidate, but I'm still giving him a point. O+1

9:55 3-point plan for Afghanistan! O+1

9:56 I have a soft spot for politicians who admit mistakes. M+1

9:56 Pakistan's a crazy/precarious situation. Walk softly is the correct way to handle it. M+1

9:57 No matter what happens, at the very least, we're going to have a sharp, whip-smart president. Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning? M/O+1

9:58 Call him on it, Obama.We don't attack Pakistan on a whim. Ending bin Laden, no matter where is resides, is the right strategy. O+1

10:02 I like success as much as the next guy, but at what cost, Senator McCain? M-1

10:03 Who can tell the most heart-warming troop story. Why, o why??? M-2 for bringing it up; O-1 for stooping to his level.

10:05 We didn't put enough emphasis on Afghanistan after 2003. McCain, you may have visited the area, but you and the Republicans dropped the ball. M-2

10:06 There's only a connection between Iraq and Afghanistan because we created that connection by mistakenly going after Iraq. M-1

10:07 Yes, John. We cannot allow a second Holocaust. Way to go out on a limb. M+0

10:07 I love the name "League of Democracies". It sounds like an awesome superhero group. And not necessarily a bad idea. Easy points because I'm a sucker. M+2

10:09 We cannot allow the situation in Iraq to spill into Iran. Shame on McCain O+1

10:10 We need the Ruskies and the Chinese, too. O+1

10:11 Preconditions. I really don't care, to be honest. But only if we can talk directly to the Dalia Lama as well. Jonny+3

10:12 Ahmadinejad's a crazy bastard. I know no one's arguing that, but still give him a point. M+1

10:14 Talk to North Korea, John. Il's crazy, too, but we weren't getting anywhere by ignoring him. O+1

10:18 I just microwaved some pizza. Are we really still talking about preconditions? M/O -1

10:18 I've never met Kissinger. He's not been my friend for 35 years. But I know this: He's a crazy bastard, too. Jonny+1

10:20 Cold war dumb. Reagan+1

10:21 Soul jokes! O+1

10:23 Prof McCain. Teach it! M+2

10:26 Russia's kind of boring. Russia-1

10:27 Clean coal. What happened to that?!! Has it been delayed along with my flying car? O+1

10:28 Offshore drilling will not help anytime soon. M-1

10:30 9/11 Commission. Oh man, I loved the old McCain. What happened to that guy? Straight-Talk+1

10:30 Torture is bad. M+1

10:31 No just our borders, but our ports, too! M-1

10:32 OBAMA MENTIONED PORTS RIGHT AFTER I TYPED IT. Psychic?!? O+1

10:33 Obama loves 'merica! O+1 (and I'm sure McCain does, too M+1)

10:34 Missile defense if a ridiculous boondoggle. M-1

10:34 How much longer does McCain feel we need these sort of troop levels in Iraq? Even Bush is ready for a phased withdrawal. Whaaaa? M+1

10:36 I love investing in science! Go NASA! Go NOAA! Go Scientists! O+1

10:38 "I love veterans, and I'll take care of them." One of the least political moments of the night. McCain was wearing his heart on his sleeve there. M+1

10:39 We need more kids loving 'merica! Obama's Dad+1

10:40 Like I said, these guys are two smart cookies. I don't think this election is as black & white as we tend to make it. (If i say' no pun intended,' does that make me an asshole?)

Let's see who won according to this ridiculous scoring system.

Obama +16 McCain -1

I have no idea what this means. Also, I have no desire to check my figures. Good debate, though.

Okay fine. Obama wins.

Let the spin begin!

A Debate! A Debate!

2008-09-26T18:18:00.005-05:00

Ha! Ha! I shamed McCain into debating tonight! Booyah!!!

More to come this weekend. Yezzir.

EDIT: Now let the game of lowered expectations begin!

Obama spokesman Bill Button sent an e-mail to reporters quoting news stories indicating McCain was the stronger debater, particularly on foreign policy.

"If he slips up, makes a mistake or fails to deliver a game-changing performance, it will be a serious blow to his campaign," Button said of McCain.

McCain, for his part, praised Obama's debate skills this week, suggesting his rival's performances against Hillary Rodham Clinton during the primaries had helped him win the Democratic nomination.

Next up, insane amounts of spin! I can't wait!!!

More of the same....but better

2008-09-26T08:58:00.009-05:00

Seriously America. Let's all take a deep breath and read.

Issue Is Payback, Not Bailout (NY Times)

Take it away, David Leonhardt:

"The first thing to understand is that a bailout plan doesn’t have to cost anywhere close to $700 billion, so long as it’s designed well. The $700 billion number that you see everywhere is an estimate of how much the government would spend to buy deteriorating assets now held by banks. Eventually, the government will turn around and sell these assets, for a price almost certain to be greater than zero. So this $700 billion is very different from $700 billion spent on a war or on Medicare."

In other words, we'll spend money, but we'll get some of it back.

"Figuring out how much to pay for the assets is the first problem. The drop in house prices and rise in foreclosures have made it clear that these securities are worth considerably less than banks expected. But there is enormous uncertainty about how much less.

Based on the underlying fundamentals (like the current foreclosure rate and the one forecast for the future), many of the securities appear to be worth something on the order of 75 percent of their original value. But thanks to the fear now gripping the market — not necessarily an irrational fear, given that most forecasts have proven far too sunny over the last year — very, very few of those securities are trading hands. Among those that have, the sales price has been roughly 25 percent of the value."

This is a much better way of saying what I tried to explain in my last post. The Treasury (and more accurately, we, the taxpayers) doesn't want to overpay too much more than these assets are actually worth. If we do, we could very well end up losing a large chunk of that $700 billion when we sell these assets back to the market.

"It [The Government] clearly shouldn’t pay 75 cents on the dollar, or anything close to it. That would mean the Treasury Department — which, in the end, is really you and me — was assuming nearly all the risk. But it probably can’t pay 25 cents. That might fail to fix the credit markets, because it would do relatively little to improve financial firms’ balance sheets. Firms might then remain unwilling to lend money to businesses and households, which is the whole problem the bailout is meant to solve."

BUT, BUT, BUT! We can't pay the low price either, because no matter what these assets are worth, if we pay too little, it might not be enough of a cash-kick-start to get the markets going and banks lending and borrowing again.

"The most obvious solution is to pay more than 25 cents on the dollar and then demand something in return for the premium — namely, a stake in any firm that participates in the bailout. Congressional Democrats have been pushing for such a provision this week, and it’s one of the most important things they have done.

The government would then be accomplishing three things at once. First, it would take possession of the bad assets now causing a panic on Wall Street. Second, it would inject cash into the financial system and help shore up firms’ balance sheets (which some economists think is actually a bigger problem than the bad assets). And, third, it would go a long way toward minimizing the ultimate cost to taxpayers.

Why? The more that the government overpays for the assets, the larger the subsidy it’s providing to Wall Street — and the more it is pushing up the share prices of Wall Street firms. As Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, notes, the equity stakes allow the government to recapture some of the subsidy down the road. It’s a self-correcting mechanism."

In other words, if this works, we spend cash, and then down the road, we make some of it back. All $700 billion? Who knows!? But this isn't money thrown down the drain. If we pay enough for these assets to get the economy flowing, but not so much that we won't get a healthy return when we decide to sell, this plan really does become a Payback, not a Bailout.

Now it's time to tell your friends and family. We need to understand this. And then we need to tell our elected officials to get off their rears and make it happen. And hey Obama. Hey McCain. Why you don't you try leading for once? Right now, this hand-ringing, card-holding, who can be more mysterious BS just isn't working for me. Come right and out either fully support this plan or reject it. With words like, "Hey, maybe it's not perfect, but we need this America!" Or, "This a bad idea, America. We gotta come up with something entirely different."

Or just cancel a debate. I know you don't want to embarrass yourself by speaking about economics, Johnny McCain. But this isn't the right way to go.

Blah-Blah, Blah-Blah, Money

2008-09-25T22:00:00.007-05:00

Bailout Proposal Gets Hung Up Over Central Issue: Will It Work? (WS Journal)

Yeah, it's a hellova lot of dough. Yeah, it's gonna fall onto you and me (but probably mostly guys like him and him) to pay for it. And yeah, there's the danger that the Treasury might pay too much for these nearly worthless mortgage-related securities; and there's the danger that they might not pay enough for them either, and in turn, fail to jump-start the ailing market. But it's getting harder and harder to borrow on credit. Right now, it's just the big guys who are stuck neither buying or lending. But here's what happens if that trend continues:

Less credit for homeowners to buy new homes or refinance current mortgages.
Further decline in home prices, as people find it harder and harder to buy a home or keep their current one.
Less credit to buy new cars, borrow money to fix old ones, and hence, get to work.
Less credit for businesses to buy materials and produce goods.
Less economic activity all around.
Slower job growth, as people can't get to work, are busy fighting for their homes, lose their jobs because their employers go under, or a scary combinations of all three.

From the Journal, an op-ed by Kenneth Lewis, one of those overpaid CEOs, who in spite of all that, can still expound coherently why this bailout is good for everyone:

"The proposed rescue legislation accomplishes one simple goal: It provides a buyer (the Treasury) for financial assets that cannot be priced today because the market for such assets has temporarily frozen up, enabling financial institutions to stabilize their balance sheets, regain confidence in the system and one another, and start lending again....In the meantime, consumers [that's people like you and me*] will see value as money starts to flow, home prices stabilize, and the economy avoids what could otherwise be a deep -- and preventable -- recession.

Overblown hype? Probably more than a little. But can we risk sitting on our hands and doing nothing, while we lose the means with which to make home loans, car loans, and business loans which make our jobs work and keep us working?

Mr. Economist, I agree with you. Congress should pass it. And soon.

*Added by me, not that it makes more/less sense with or without it.

Speaking of Sorkin...

2008-09-25T21:27:00.005-05:00

Mauren Dowd, who's true calling I'm sure was a Harlequin Romance novelist, had a column last week titled "Aaron Sorkin Conjures a Meeting of Obama and Bartlet." I say 'had' because she really didn't write a word of it. Aaron Sorkin did. Because I can't stand her picture, with that come-hither stare that only a 50-something, post-mid-life crisis, New York male could love (like, say, Aaron Sorkin), I reprint the column in its entirety so that you won't be forced to redirect to the NY Times website. And that scary, scary picture.

Really, Maureen. What were you thinking on photo day? Really.

**************************

BARACK OBAMA knocks on the front door of a 300-year-old New Hampshire farmhouse while his Secret Service detail waits in the driveway. The door opens and OBAMA is standing face to face with former President JED BARTLET.

BARTLET Senator.

OBAMA Mr. President.

BARTLET You seem startled.

OBAMA I didn’t expect you to answer the door yourself.

BARTLET I didn’t expect you to be getting beat by John McCain and a Lancôme rep who thinks “The Flintstones” was based on a true story, so let’s call it even.

OBAMA Yes, sir.

BARTLET Come on in.

BARTLET leads OBAMA into his study.

BARTLET That was a hell of a convention.

OBAMA Thank you, I was proud of it.

BARTLET I meant the Republicans. The Us versus Them-a-thon. As a Democrat I was surprised to learn that I don’t like small towns, God, people with jobs or America. I’ve been a little out of touch but is there a mandate that the vice president be skilled at field dressing a moose —

OBAMA Look —

BARTLET — and selling Air Force Two on eBay?

OBAMA Joke all you want, Mr. President, but it worked.

BARTLET Imagine my surprise. What can I do for you, kid?

OBAMA I’m interested in your advice.

BARTLET I can’t give it to you.

OBAMA Why not?

BARTLET I’m supporting McCain.

OBAMA Why?

BARTLET He’s promised to eradicate evil and that was always on my “to do” list.

OBAMA O.K. —

BARTLET And he’s surrounded himself, I think, with the best possible team to get us out of an economic crisis. Why, Sarah Palin just said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had “gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.” Can you spot the error in that statement?

OBAMA Yes, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac aren’t funded by taxpayers.

BARTLET Well, at least they are now. Kind of reminds you of the time Bush said that Social Security wasn’t a government program. He was only off by a little — Social Security is the largest government program.

OBAMA I appreciate your sense of humor, sir, but I really could use your advice.

BARTLET Well, it seems to me your problem is a lot like the problem I had twice.

OBAMA Which was?

BARTLET A huge number of Americans thought I thought I was superior to them.

OBAMA And?

BARTLET I was.

OBAMA I mean, how did you overcome that?

BARTLET I won’t lie to you, being fictional was a big advantage.

OBAMA What do you mean?

BARTLET I’m a fictional president. You’re dreaming right now, Senator.

OBAMA I’m asleep?

BARTLET Yes, and you’re losing a ton of white women.

OBAMA Yes, sir.

BARTLET I mean tons.

OBAMA I understand.

BARTLET I didn’t even think there were that many white women.

OBAMA I see the numbers, sir. What do they want from me?

BARTLET I’ve been married to a white woman for 40 years and I still don’t know what she wants from me.

OBAMA How did you do it?

BARTLET Well, I say I’m sorry a lot.

OBAMA I don’t mean your marriage, sir. I mean how did you get America on your side?

BARTLET There again, I didn’t have to be president of America, I just had to be president of the people who watched “The West Wing.”

OBAMA That would make it easier.

BARTLET You’d do very well on NBC. Thursday nights in the old “ER” time slot with “30 Rock” as your lead-in, you’d get seven, seven-five in the demo with a 20, 22 share — you’d be selling $450,000 minutes.

OBAMA What the hell does that mean?

BARTLET TV talk. I thought you’d be interested.

OBAMA I’m not. They pivoted off the argument that I was inexperienced to the criticism that I’m — wait for it — the Messiah, who, by the way, was a community organizer. When I speak I try to lead with inspiration and aptitude. How is that a liability?

BARTLET Because the idea of American exceptionalism doesn’t extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.

OBAMA You’re saying race doesn’t have anything to do with it?

BARTLET I wouldn’t go that far. Brains made me look arrogant but they make you look uppity. Plus, if you had a black daughter —

OBAMA I have two.

BARTLET — who was 17 and pregnant and unmarried and the father was a teenager hoping to launch a rap career with “Thug Life” inked across his chest, you’d come in fifth behind Bob Barr, Ralph Nader and a ficus.

OBAMA You’re not cheering me up.

BARTLET Is that what you came here for?

OBAMA No, but it wouldn’t kill you.

BARTLET Have you tried doing a two-hour special or a really good Christmas show?

OBAMA Sir —

BARTLET Hang on. Home run. Right here. Is there any chance you could get Michelle pregnant before the fall sweeps?

OBAMA The problem is we can’t appear angry. Bush called us the angry left. Did you see anyone in Denver who was angry?

BARTLET Well ... let me think. ...We went to war against the wrong country, Osama bin Laden just celebrated his seventh anniversary of not being caught either dead or alive, my family’s less safe than it was eight years ago, we’ve lost trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, thousands of lives and we lost an entire city due to bad weather. So, you know ... I’m a little angry.

OBAMA What would you do?

BARTLET GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!

OBAMA Good to get that off your chest?

BARTLET Am I keeping you from something?

OBAMA Well, it’s not as if I didn’t know all of that and it took you like 20 minutes to say.

BARTLET I know, I have a problem, but admitting it is the first step.

OBAMA What’s the second step?

BARTLET I don’t care.

OBAMA So what about hope? Chuck it for outrage and put-downs?

BARTLET No. You’re elite, you can do both. Four weeks ago you had the best week of your campaign, followed — granted, inexplicably — by the worst week of your campaign. And you’re still in a statistical dead heat. You’re a 47-year-old black man with a foreign-sounding name who went to Harvard and thinks devotion to your country and lapel pins aren’t the same thing and you’re in a statistical tie with a war hero and a Cinemax heroine. To these aged eyes, Senator, that’s what progress looks like. You guys got four debates. Get out of my house and go back to work.

OBAMA Wait, what is it you always used to say? When you hit a bump on the show and your people were down and frustrated? You’d give them a pep talk and then you’d always end it with something. What was it ...?

BARTLET “Break’s over.”

******************************

Sorkinized!

Well they're no Jed Bartlett, that's for sure

2008-09-16T00:15:00.010-05:00

Yes, yes, the sky is falling, but there's still an election going on. So dagnabbit, let's do this.

From the NY Times: In Candidates, 2 Approaches to Wall Street

With both candidates trying to convince America that they hold the answers to all our financial woes, it's worth noting that neither man has much more economic experience than you or I. Both guys have their strengths, to be sure. It's just the economy isn't one of them. From the Times:

"One reason for both men’s sketchy records on financial issues is that neither has been a member of the Senate Banking Committee, which has oversight of the industry and its regulators. Under both parties’ leadership, the committee often has been a graveyard for proposals opposed by lobbyists for financial institutions, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which last week were forced into government conservatorships.

Industry lobbyists’ success in killing such regulations meant senators outside the banking panel did not have to take a stand on them."

This shouldn't surprise us. It's typical Washington-think: "If it's not up for a vote, why should I care?" McCain seems to be toeing the party line as closely as possible, allowing for greater regulation during times of crises, to be replaced by deregulation as soon as the market rights itself (with nary a thank you to Uncle Sam).

What's wrong with this thinking is that it's essentially reactive. By default, it does nothing to prevent something like this from happening again. Greater regulation in response to the subprime mortgage fiasco is fine and dandy, but we really could have used it six years ago when lenders were handing out shady home loans like candy. McCain, in deference to his esteemed free market colleagues, doesn't seem to get this.

And while Obama has little more economic experience than McCain, at least he sees the inherent value in (continued) government oversight over profit-hungry financial institutions. In that sense, Obama is the truer Conservative on the matter. Conservative because he recognises the depravity of humans to put their personal interests over the interests of others. Conservative because he's not afraid to use established power to keep unchecked greed in check.

{/End quasi-Sorkin clap-trap}

In case you missed it...

2008-09-14T23:04:00.005-05:00

Tina Fey returned to SNL last night to play ~~Joe Biden~~ ~~Sarah Palin~~ Tina Fey with-a-Canadian-accent. Hot!

*Sigh* Tina Fey. The more I see fake versions of Sarah Palin, the more I love her despite her complete lack of vice-presidential credentials.

In what respect, Charlie?

2008-09-13T23:38:00.005-05:00

Don't worry Sarah Palin, I don't really understand the Bush Doctrine either. And neither do people who actually work/worked for President Bush.

Many Versions of 'Bush Doctrine' (Washington Post)

One of my favorite quotes from the piece comes from Philip Zelikow, who worked for the White House and the State Department under the president:

"I actually never thought there was a Bush doctrine...Indeed, I believe the assertion that there is such a doctrine lends greater coherence to the administration's policies than they deserve."

Zing!

Two Americas

2008-09-11T22:44:00.007-05:00

One that thinks this picture is brimming with awesomeness, and one that is bewildered and crapping their pants.

Seriously. Is the political Left really this far out of touch from the average American? I mean, don't we all don crazy Viking hats every other Thursday? From the Economist:

Gloria Steinem, the founder of Ms magazine, says that “Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton”. Kim Gandy, the president of the National Organisation of Women, dismisses her as a “woman who opposes women’s rights”. Debbie Dingell, a leading Michigan Democrat, said that women felt insulted by the choice. Joe Biden says that, if Mrs Palin becomes the first female vice-president, it will be a “backward step for women”. “Eighteen million cracks”, says the New Republic, (referring to Mrs Clinton’s 18m votes and the glass ceiling) “and one crackpot.”

Sometimes I think "the culture wars" are just lazy journalism. Americans agree more often than we disagree, right? We all bleed red, white and blue. We would never criticize someone simply because we don't understand them or their values, right?

Right?!?!

Good job alienating 50 million Americans Biden. Just because President Bush does it every other day doesn't make it right.

Obamaculator

2008-09-10T21:47:00.005-05:00

Change we can all believe in, even if we vote for the other guy (unless you're a richie).

While we've been discussing how you shouldn't trust pollsters, and how voting for one of the Big Two is like voting for ranch dressing vs. thousand island*, here is a story that ignores both from the Nation.

According to a recent Gallop poll, half of Americans expect their tax burden to rise if Senator Obama is elected. Not so according to Tax Policy Center -- an independent, non-partisan off-shoot of the center-sometimes-center-left Brookings Institution -- whose latest study finds that 95% of American families would receive a tax cut under Obama's plan:

Obama would give larger tax cuts to low- and moderate-income households and pay some of the cost by raising taxes on high-income taxpayers. In contrast, McCain would cut taxes across the board and give the biggest cuts to the highest-income households.

To find out how you would benefit under Obama's plan, check out Obamataxcut.com, a neat-o tax-cut calculator based on three simple questions. And no, not those questions three.

*Which makes sense to me, because both taste terrible; you on the other hand might love ranch, or Republicans.

Ron Paul Is Nuts!

2008-09-09T22:19:00.006-05:00

And I'm 90% with him.

Paul: Reject the major parties, go for a third (AP)

"The strongest message can be sent by rejecting the two party system," Paul said in prepared remarks obtained by The Associated Press. "This can be accomplished by voting for one of the non-establishment, principled candidates.

He recommended Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party, former Georgia Republican Rep. Bob Barr of the Libertarian Party, former Georgia Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party and possibly others."

I'm so fed if with the two-party crap-fest everyone else is gagga over that this kind of news makes me want to kiss Ron Paul on the mouth (chastely and platonicly, natch). Playing along for the moment, here are my thoughts on the aforementioned candidates.

1) Chuck Baldwin: This guy scares the bejebus out of me. He has ties to both the Moral Majority and the 9/11 Truth Movement. Also, he left the Republican party in 2000 because he felt GW Bush was too liberal. Yikes. I grew up with folks like this, and while I love them to death, I have no desire for them to run for president. Sorry, Freedom Farm.

2) Bob Barr: Barr is one cool cat (see: Glasses). He grew up travelling the globe; worked for the CIA; served as the most conservative congressman ever; supported the War on Drugs, the Patriot Act, and the Iraq War before he was against them all; and now is a bonafide Libertarian. I can't tell if he's genuiely a new creation (politically speaking), but man, those glasses!

3) Cynthia McKinney: According to USA Today (which I trust forever and ever amen), Cynthia McKinney, a former Democtraic Congresswomen from Georgia, lost her seat in 2002 because of crossover voting from Republicans in the Democratic primary (they allow it). Additionally, she sort of suggested that President Bush knew about the 9/11 attacks before they happened.

Ouch.

BUT, she hates depleted uranium, likes to make fun of Al Gore, has been extremely vocal about the plight of Katrina victims, and praised Hugo Chavez in her concession speech after she lost her seat in Congress for the second time. Come on, three out of four, right?

4) Ralph Nader: He's not on Ron Paul's list, but I'd rather sit at his feat than worship at the Church of Obama or Cranky-Pants McCain. Independent Lens ran a doc on him a while back that opened my eyes to all the crap he's gone through over the years. I mean, if you want to vote for a prophet for president, you don't have to look further than Nader. Hyperbole? Yes! Truth? Hells yes!!!1!11!

Polls, Polly! Polls!

2008-09-08T23:34:00.006-05:00

The latest Post/ABC poll shows that John McCain has pulled up even with Barack Obama in the race for president, 49 to 47 percent, with a sampling error of +/- four points. In fact, a whole slew of polls held over the weekend say essentially the same thing: McCain got quite the post-convention bump, anywhere from 4-13 percentage points depending on who you believe.

A couple of things to ruminate on though.

1) Both Slate.com and On the Media point out that the old phone-interview model tends to underrepresent those who only own a cellphone. Conventional wisdom says that cellphone only voters (who live without a landline) tend to be younger, and tend to lean left. Could that mean a percentage point or two for Obama that will remain unaccounted for until November?

2) Pollsters tend to force undecided participants to choose a side. Polls with a large number of undecided don't "sell" well. We want our two-party presidential polls to add up to nearly 100. However, as David Moore, a former senior editor at Gallop for 13 years, points out:

"One can take a look, for example, at the recent Gallup Daily Tracking Poll. They asked the question - if the election were held today, who you would you vote for, you know, Barack Obama or John McCain? They find that somewhere around 95 percent of the people have made up their mind.

But, of course, the election’s not being held today, so it’s a hypothetical race. The way you could ask the question is, do you support Obama, do you support McCain, or haven't you made up your mind yet? Right now there are probably around 35 to 40 percent of voters who are undecided.

Well, I think the reason the media pollsters don't want to emphasize the undecided vote is that they think the media, the journalists, would not be interested in a poll that said there are 40 percent of the people undecided. They’d say - but gee, if people haven't begun to just make up their minds yet, or such a large segment, why don't we wait and start polling later?"

That, of course, would put pollsters out of a job. Even by a more conservative estimate, Slate's Paul Maslin estimates the number of undecideds at around 10 percent, which means either candidate still has a good chance of pulling away from the statistical dead heat we're in right now.

All that to say, with the debates ahead (not to mention increasing tensions in Afghanistan), it's still anyone's game.

Free Choice and Choosing Rightly

2008-09-07T10:48:00.009-05:00

What does it mean to choose?

In the wake of last week's revelation that Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol "chose" to have her baby at age 17, much has been made in progressive circles that Bristol had the right to choose. One such example from the Huffington Post:

There was one overlooked part of Sarah Palin's announcement of her daughter's pregnancy. She said that her daughter had decided to carry the child to term. She later remarked that no one had pressured her daughter to do so.

I take Sarah at her word. Is it not wonderful, and will this not be a happier baby and marital circumstance, that they all had these unpressured choices? The issue is not abortion vs carrying to term, it is who gets to make that choice. Sarah Palin would have the government choose. My vote is for Bristol Palin.

What scares me the most about the abortion debate is that there is no more real debate on the issue. We've walled ourselves into two camps: those who believe in the right to choose, and those who believe there is really only one choice. We've stopped debating, and decided that shouting real loud is more cathartic and fun.

Maybe we ought to review the orginal debate. On the one side, Pro-choice/abortion advocates frame the issue thusly: abortion is a choice best left to individuals, not the government. On face value, it's a great libertarian argument. Why should the government get involved in medical decisions best left to individuals and the family?

The argument cracks, however, when you frame the debate as the Anti-abortion/choice camp does: abortion is, at its core, murder. Why should the government get involved? Because the government has been tasked to protect the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of all Americans; especially, it could be argued, those Americans who are marginalized, oppressed, and out of sight.

With that being said, the debate over Bristol Palin having a choice vs. making the right choice amounts to two side shouting "CHOICE" at each other without first agreeing what "choice" means. For the left, "choice" is the ability to choose what's best for the individual-- it's a celebration of the free will of the individual. For the right, "choice" is the ability to choose rightly -- it's a celebration of the choice to put the rights of the unborn over the physical pain, emotional turmoil, and social pressures of pregnancy and birth.

This is why politicos and pundits ought to shut up four-fifths of the time when they have the urge to speak about abortion and choice. The two sides are using such wildly different vocabularies that only under careful moderation can any headway be made. We need facilitators of debate, not talking-heads shouting at each other for ratings or political points.

What I wish progressives would understand is that there are many thinking-religious-types who want to see change in Washington, who can stand with progressives on issues like health care, the economy, the environment, crime, drug policy, campaign finance reform and America's foreign policy. But every time progressives take a swipe at how if Sarah Palin had her way, her daughter wouldn't have had the ability to choose in the first place, they miss the point:

Free choice is a wonderful concept. But as soon it impedes on the rights of others, choice can and should be limited. I can choose to drive my car to the grocery store, yet if I choose to drive down on the left side of the road, I break the law. I can choose to own a gun to protect my home from burglars, yet if I choose to shoot someone on the street for no reason, I break the law.

When thinking-religious-types hear from talking-heads that Palin's a hypocrite because she praises her daughter's choice but doesn't want to allow choice in the first place, they hear something like this: Palin's a hypocrite because she praises Americans when they don't kill their co-workers over missed deadlines but wants to legislate against Americans killing their co-workers over missed deadlines. Hypocrite city!

I don't know how else to say it, but every time progressives bring up this BS argument, I find myself one step closer to voting for Bob Barr, Ralph Nader, or no one at all.

Energy Schmenergy

2008-09-06T00:22:00.007-05:00

O the plans! O the ruin! O my brakes are failing! O this blog sucks!

So little to say, so much to not care about.

The Straight Dope on Energy Policy in the Midst of Electioneering

On the Media, that bastion of media critique which airs while I ought to be at church, says great things. Why just last week, they said great things about energy independence. An excerpt from the oh-so-short piece follows in transcript form:

DAVID FIDERER: An example I wrote about in Huffington Post was John Harwood, who writes for The New York Times and is also a political correspondent for CNBC, talked about how the Democrats now are talking about building new nuclear plants because gasoline is selling at four dollars a gallon.

BOB GARFIELD: And there is no relationship between the price of oil at the pumps and nuclear anything, correct?

DAVID FIDERER: That’s correct. Nuclear is used for generating electricity. Oil is used in the United States primarily for transportation. And there’s no viable way of converting nuclear energy into fuel for transportation.

BOB GARFIELD: Now, since both John McCain and Barack Obama and every other national politician are talking about energy independence, can we just establish a few things about that premise?

DAVID FIDERER: Sure.

BOB GARFIELD: Like given the way petroleum deposits are distributed on Earth, is it reasonable to imagine the U.S. being fully independent of foreign oil, ever?

DAVID FIDERER: Not if we consume oil at anything close to the rate we have for the last 50 years. If we consumed oil at the rate we did in 1965, we would still be importing 40 percent of our oil.

BOB GARFIELD: Another contentious issue is that of offshore oil reserves.

DAVID FIDERER: Yes.

BOB GARFIELD: The Republicans want to start [LAUGHS] drilling tomorrow, and they portray those against more drilling as tree huggers willing to put our nation’s energy security at risk to save a few whales. At least that’s how the media has been framing the controversy.

DAVID FIDERER: Even if all the oil reserves were there that the most optimistic oil person says is off the coast of California or Florida, it still wouldn't have a major impact on the price of oil. It still would take at best five years to bring production to market and it still wouldn't change our dependence on foreign oil in any major way.

Let's review:

1. Nuclear energy, with plenty of long-term problems not discussed here, does nothing to curb our dependence on foreign oil (unless we all drove electric vehicles, which we don't, because we love blowing things up and NASCAR and driving up rugged mountaintops).

2. Unless we create a time machine, or harness the power of Einstein-Rosen bridges, we will never become dependent of foreign oil unless we drastically change the way we consume and produce energy.

2-a. Absolute best case scenario if we allowed offshore drilling? The price of gas would finally drop by 2013. Best. Case. Scenario.

This is why politicians are stupid, and stupid politicians are running for president.

Mike D'Antoni = D-Bag

2008-05-11T12:09:00.001-05:00

Mike D'Antoni should be coaching the Bulls. Their roster fits his offensive system better than the Knicks. They're 2-3 years closer than the Knicks to competing in the Conference Finals. And look at that stash -- pure Chicago.

But the Knicks offered more money, proving, once again, that capitalism is friggin' awesome, and way more important than championship rings and working in a city where the entire waterfront is public property, "forever open, clear and free."

Good luck with Zach Randolph and Eddie Curry.

Sick Around the World

2008-04-15T21:25:00.005-05:00

Between this and climate change, you'd think no one in this country had anything above a third grade education.

Run, do not walk, to the nearest computer (I'm guessing you're already there, however) and watch the latest Frontline Doc, Sick Around the World. Whether you've seen Michael Moore's Sicko -- whether you've shunned it outright, whether you've celebrated it with fireworks -- Frontline's short film about Health Care systems around the globe should be required viewing for every registered American voter. And for all you Michael Moore haters, know this: Sicko is to Sick Around the World, as Three Ninjas is to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It's really not even worth comparing the two.

In the film, T.R. Reid travels to five countries -- England, Japan, Germany, Taiwan and Switzerland -- and weighs the pros and cons about their respective health care systems; including cost to patients, cost to providers, quality of care, efficiency, wait times, and government involvement. There are drawbacks in every system to be sure, but there are things to be learned from each one as well. And very rarely do people, especially poor people, slip between the cracks to fend for themselves.

This isn't rocket science. It's common sense. Our health care system is broken. It's way past the point of ideology (and if you read this blog, you know I'm a big fan of ideology). I don't care about concerns over market intrusion, individual responsibility or anecdotal health-service nightmares. All I care about is that people get sick, and they can't afford treatment. We as Americans spend too much money on medical care, and get too little service in return. Our current system is inefficient, and it lacks any semblance of a moral responsibility to assist those who need it most. In this arena, the free market has proven to be completely inept. We literally turn into gibbering idiots every time we try and argue that health care isn't a basic human right. And there, I said it. Health care is a basic human right. Finally, I'm a complete, flaming liberal.

But think about it. We provide citizens with police and fire protection, whether they can afford it or not. We give kids an education, no matter their family income. Are these institutions perfect? Hell, no. But our streets are policed, house fires don't turn into city blazes, and most voters know a thing or two about civics and the political system. If you don't care for what's offered, and you can afford rent-a-cops and private schools, go for it. But if you can't, there's at least something to fall back on.

Why should health care be any different?

There is no such thing as free universal health care. We'll all have to pay for it, in whatever way we can. But people are sick. And they can't get treatment. What else is there to understand?

Hugo Chavez says: Castro predicted fall of dollar; Also, that I would forget to call my parents last weekend.

2008-04-10T20:47:00.005-05:00

File under: Duh.

The dollar could never sustain its monolithic standing as the premiere currency of the world, especially as we near the globalised utopia as envisioned by Thomas Friedman and Ronald McDonald. I bet Fidel also predicted that the Roman Empire would one day come to a terrible end at the hands of the Vandals and Visigoths.

But Chavez couldn't just stick with the obvious: "I think if things continue on like this in the United States, we'll have to start preparing to receive the refugees here."

Oh that crazy, old codger. Refugee camp, here I come!

Day at the Beach

2008-03-30T19:47:00.004-05:00

Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson, reverends both, are appearing in a new commercial this week speaking up about the need to save our planet. In suits. On a couch. At the beach.

CBS News and 60 Minutes are reporting that Al Gore's non-profit Alliance for Climate Protection has hired the ad team behind Geico's Cavemen and Gecko commercials to create a series of ads that will bring climate change to the forefront of this year's election. The tongue-in-cheek ads will feature other odd pairings, such as Toby Keith and the Dixie Chicks, and Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich, in order to start a new, national conversation on climate change and environmental stewardship as the two major parties gear up for their summer conventions.

Below is the 60 Minutes story from earlier tonight that has a short preview of the Robertson/Sharpton pairing, at about 5:08 into the clip. It's not much, but I'm sure the videos will be up on YouTube soon enough. What I've seen so far looks like good stuff. It's yet to be seen how it will affect voters come November -- there's no doubt that Obama/Clinton will be vocal about it, but McCain is no stranger to speaking out against global warming either. Will he toe the "business first" line in order to stay pally-pals with Bush/Cheney and the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal? If McCain and the GOP really want to make some noise before the convention, it might not be a bad idea to come out with a strong position either way.

Funky Fresh

2008-03-01T23:30:00.010-06:00

Trying to delay a final decision on which lever I'm pulling for President (or however they do it in Vermont), I've spent most of today just bumming around the internets. You know, gettin' my Lost on, listening to Spring Training ball games, and finding sweet, sweet new music vids. Here's one, courtesy of Cee-Lo and DJ Danger Mouse, who are dropping a follow up to St. Elsewhere next month. If Gnarls Barkley had ever done Sesame Street circa 1987, it prolly would have looked alot like this:

GB: "Run"

Not to be a shill...

2008-02-28T20:16:00.005-06:00

...but the Office is back in 6 weeks. And maybe I will be too.

In the mean time, here's an old vid about summer vaca. It still sort of works. Just replace "summer" with "strike" and we're golden.

Take Down

2008-02-03T23:23:00.000-06:00

I've never seen a defensive line dominate like that in an NFL playoff game. You see it from time to time in College Bowl Games, but for the NYG's line to do what they did all day long to Tom Brady....

No question about it. Tuck & Strahan are your MVPs.

A Sort-Of Framework: What It Means for Me to Blog in 2008

2008-01-21T22:53:00.000-06:00

Why we type, at least part of the time. Mostly though, it's just for giggles.

If I'm up for it, alot is going to be said this year. And throughout all the bitching, and all the snark, and all the times I try to be funny or ironic or smarter than the world, I thought it might be nice to explain why I care about these things I type about. Why I care about elections and the elected and the function and responsibilities of the electors. Essentially, why I give a crap.

If there's one thing I want people to take away from whatever BS goes up on this blog, I guess it's this:

There is a thing called government, and it is a tool -- a means to an end. Government isn't inherently good, and government isn't inherently evil. It's a result of Evil to be sure. We wouldn't need it were we still living in the paradise of Eden. But it's a result of Good, too. We wouldn't have created it unless we saw in it some temporary relief from lawlessness and disorder. A democratic government is only as good as its people. And that's a plain fact. We get out of government what we put into it.

To wit, the government is the people. It is chosen by us, in a remarkable process of the popular vote (well, in most cases). It acts for us, legislating and executing laws on our behalf. And in the end, it is answerable only to the people. We are it and it is us. And when we grow tired of it, we tear it down and elect a new one, without a shot being fired. This is what we do every presidential election. We either confirm the status quo or reject it by brining in someone new. A bloodless revolution every four years.

My view of government has been evolving in fits and spurts for some time now. With all this rhetoric, it's easy to assume I've adopted a populist point of view. And maybe you'd be right. But mostly you'd be wrong. My view of government has less to do with the Roosevelts of the world, and more to do with the Calvins and Luthers. It's Judeo-Christian to be sure, but it's Reformed as well. My view of government is one that says the people have a right and a responsibility to stand up to the Great Powers of the world and say, "Sit down and shuttup. You are not our authorities, our representatives or our judges. We walk with you as long as you walk with us. The only power you have is what we give you. And should you cross us, we will tear you a new one. Then doodle funny little cartoons about how stupid you are. Because seriously. You are stupid."

Essentially, the purpose of government is to stand against tyranny -- in any form. 250 years ago, that meant the tyranny of Mother England. Unrepresented in Parliament, the people of the American colonies revolted. Today that might mean the tyranny of the few over the many. The tyrannies of excessive wealth and corporate greed, consolidated media and big business, corporations who tell us how to live our lives but who in no way represent us or our best interests. If the Founders had seen what unchecked business could do to their nation, they'd be aghast, Jefferson and Hamilton alike (for all their differences).

Anyone who knew me five or six years ago would have thought I was interested in theology mostly, and maybe a few other things from time to time. And theology still has a strong hold over me. But my reasons for asking the "Big Questions" have shifted somewhat. In the day, I asked the questions out of curiosity. Not enough people were asking them, so I thought, " Why not me?"

Now I ask the questions out of a desire for proper praxis. I want to know how to live rightly in 21st century America. Also, I want to know if that's even a possibility. And living rightly, in a political sense, brings up different questions than "Does God know the future?" or "Is there a magic way to read the Bible so that we all agree on every issue?" (And don't try to kid yourself; if you live and work in America, you're already a politically active person. The act of owning property or goods or simply buying milk and where you buy it are all political acts.)

And I want to know what it means -- both politically and theologically -- what it means to own land, and what it means to purchase items others have made, and what it means to buy milk at Kroger rather than IGA, or 2% rather than skim, or organic rather than conventional. And if you don't think your theology informs all those decisions, then it's time to rethink your theology.

Of course, exploring these issues brings up loads of hypocrisy. But that's only human. We believe in things so deeply at times, that it's hard to bring our praxis (our actions) up to speed with our doxis (our beliefs) in the midst of a fallen world. But just because it's a hard thing, doesn't mean it's a futile thing. We try because we must. We try because we're people, because we don't get things right the first time or the second time or the third time. Because we know that even though we may never get things right, we learn something new and something powerful and something useful every time we fail. And we become better people for it.

And yes. The process of reforming our government seems like an impossible task sometimes; but that doesn't give us the right to sit back and let someone else take care of it. This little website, in its own small, insignificant way, is my own small, insignificant voice. It is one of many small, insignificant political acts, that I hope add up to something not so small or insignificant. It's my way of saying, "I have a voice, weak though it may be. And it counts for something."

Over the next 10 months, remember that. And remember this, too: Your government functions on your behalf for as long as you would have it. And then, every four years, a revolution happens. Picking a new president isn't a political game, it is the responsibility of the polis, who in our country consent to be governed by others -- others who owe no loyalty to any other nation or institution or corporation, but do what they do for the express purpose of what's right for all of America. In a perfect world, we wouldn't need government....

But you know the rest.

Where We're Headed in 2008

2008-01-12T23:23:00.000-06:00

My Year in Review and Other Stories

2007 was so full of fullness that I've decided to extend it for two extra weeks. In doing so, I've also been able to put off my end of the year post until January 12th. Because let's face it. The Gregorian Calendar is a joke.

That being said, 2008 seems promising. I have a new position running a new Boys & Girls Club, and even though it's a little more stressful, it's a little more rewarding as well. It makes me realize that I would have made an alright minister....if it weren't for the whole dealing with dumb Christians thing.

Additionally, I'm writing again, which is fantastic. It's mostly awkward jumps and false starts, but it's really fun awkward jumps and false starts. And that makes all the difference.

But what of the blog? Wither my part in the downfall of Western Civilization? Two things are contributing to the attrition of my blogging commitment. One, I'm writing again. Not blog posts, but actual stories and tales of high seas adventure. Or something along those lines. So I don't have quite so many words left at the end of the day. And two, I still have no computer at home. This means every time I feel like shouting into interwebspace, I have to put my coat and hat on and trudge down to the office. It's not so bad. But we don't heat the place well on the weekends. Which builds character, I guess.

But here's the thing. It's an election year. You're probably not aware of that fact, I'm sure, because no one seems to be covering it. But it's true. And knowing the life cycle of this blog, it definitely peaks in years when we elect a president. In fact, I don't think it would be a stretch to say that the high water mark came in the weeks around and after November 2004. Knowing how much I like to loser, you might be expecting me to wax poetically about Ron Paul or Bill Richardson, both of which are fine public servants, but neither of which have my endorsement. Honestly, nobody has my endorsement at this point, because I hate hate hate political parties, but most especially the two-party system we cling to so dearly in these United States. It's like MLB with two teams and only two teams, playing every day. Like Anaheim and Boston, from here to eternity -- major suckville.

But I will tell you some things. Like how Barack Obama seems like an upstanding young man who might need a couple more terms (and one crushing presidential defeat) before I'd trust him with the keys to the kingdom. Or how John Edwards would make a great Secretary of Labor/Education/Health and Human Services/HUD or possibly even AG....but I'm not sure about president. Or how Hillary nearly won my heart the other day by laying her own heart on the table. Or how John McCain still puts the fear of God in my loins and ought to be Commander-in-Chief (though maybe not Head of State). Or how Mitt Romney gives me the willies. Or how Mike Huckabee is so likable whilst no having no qualifications whatsoever for the office. Or how this field, while more inspiring than 2004, still leaves me wanting.

And we'll talk more about this later. Yes, we will. But 2008 is exciting for other reasons as well:

48 days until Spring Training
Curb Your Enthusiasm Season Six on DVD
Chris Paul in the Summer Olympics
Two (count 'em, two!) solar eclipses
The Portland Trail Blazers
Pilot Season/Some kind of WGA settlement
Lots of people will do stupid things. Like crash minivans into buildings where people are trying to do the news.

I'm going to be an uncle.
I'm going to see the Pacific Ocean again

True, baseball is under a cloud of suspicion. True, the Blazers might fall flat just like the Brewers did last August. True, I have no money to get to the West Coast and I'm not sure what uncles actually do.

And true, the writers are still on strike. But that bothers me less and less each day. It goes without saying that I'd like 16 episodes of Lost rather than the 8 that are already in the can, but I can wait for the writers can get a bigger piece of the pie. I can wait for a lot of things. Like Arby's. Which I love, but only get maybe once a year living out in the middle of nowhere.

So the future of blogging looks blogtastic. There's life over at Catfish Haven. New pics will be forthcoming over at the New Xanga. I have plans to get back on the music review horse at some point on Bag-Trends. And who knows, maybe we'll all rediscover theology at some point and revive the olde Midwest Mindset? It is an election year...

So over the past year, I've stuck around in Vermont, tried to make it a little more like home, cut ties with Wisconsin, and found my parents in Tennessee. I've given into freak folk and the New Weird America, and given up on ever trying to like The Trumpet Child or Sky Blue Sky. I've perfected the art of IMDB, and developed a man-crush on everything Judd Apatow. I've lost a few friends to the dangers of email friendships, which happens every year, and is more my fault than the technology's, but geography is a bitch, too. My heart is here in Rutland, mostly, with slivers all the way across these United States, sort of like a scavenger hunt, for heart strings, on Miniclip, and Google Earth.

All that to say, this is the last day of 2007 (lies!). The first day of old things made new. My name is Jonny Rice, I live in Rut-Vegas, I'm not all that concerned with happiness right now, but for blogging's sake, I need to have contempt.

My 42 Favorite Albums of 07 - Part Two, Or: A Polite Listing of Albums 1-10

2008-01-03T12:32:00.000-06:00

The Nitty Gritty ~ Ten Albums To Make Your iPod Weep

Okay, so we've knocked down albums 11-42, and that was fun. But here are the best of the lot. So sit back, download Soulseek or iTunes, and find these albums quickly. Your ears will thank you later. I will thank you now.

10. The Angels of Light - We Are Him: Michael Gira scares the hell out of me. The literal Hell. Sometimes, when I listen to his Angels of Light stuff, I'm reminded of music class in High School when Mr. Townsend would play us Stryper in order to illustrate how Christian Rock fit better in the "basement" of the afterlife than in the tranquil perfection of heaven. Being all of 14 at the time, and not really liking Stryper in the first place, I think I just nodded and pretended to understand what he was talking about. If Mr. Townsend had really wanted to make his point, he would have skipped the whole Fundamentalist indictment of CCM and played us something like We Are Him. I can't really put it into words, but I'm of the opinion that Michael Gira writes music that could be described as Transcendent and Depraved in the same moment (which incidentally might not be a bad way to describe living on Earth). At 53 years old, it's amazing that he continues to produce serious art with such immediacy, and in ways that the rest of his baby boomer generation can only imagine (*he says, glaring at Dylan, Springsteen and Neil Young*). We Are Him manages to capture both the spirit of Southern Gothic Literature and Country/Western Music, most clearly on the title track -- four minutes and eleven seconds of pure pagan-Gospel hillbilly-tribal rock. Not for the faint of heart, but saints be praised for the gift of Gira.

9. Uncle Earl - Waterloo, Tennessee: Uncle Earl are a bunch of ladies who know how to rock through bluegrass. While most might be satisfied with the contemporary stylings of Alison Krauss & Union Station, this little cowpoke needs more -- more blue with his grass, more stomp with his fiddle, more tradition with his modern interp. And Uncle Earl deliver on all accounts. Waterloo, Tennessee restores my faith in the purity and continuity of the uniquely Southern musical tradition. When the gloss falls away, it's nice to know that you don't have to find LPs from 1954 to find good bluegrass. Uncle Earl find ways to make the string band genre sound new and fresh and exciting without resorting to the Nashville temptation "to reach a wider audience." If you like your mountain music, and you especially like your mountain music fun and adventurous and oh-so-pretty, give this album a whirl. There might not be a forthcoming sequel to Down from the Mountain, but this might be the next best thing.

8. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga: Almost three had years passed since I last thought about Spoon was up to. Their last album, Gimme Fiction, came and went like a lamb, not registering much when it dropped a couple of years back. But Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga managed to seize the cockels of my heart like Kill the Moonlight did, and suddenly, I cared about this band again. And life just seemed better because of it. I can't quite put my finger on it, but Fiction seemed to ape the idea of Spoon, not quite capturing the spirit and frenzy of "The Way We Get By" or "Jonathon Fisk." Instead, it was like a B&W Zerox of what a Spoon album should sound like. Everything seemed in place, but it wasn't as vibrant, it wasn't as refreshing. I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm describing a soft drink, but that might be a good metaphor for Spoon's music. It won't change your life, but when made correctly it can put a spring in your step and smile on your face. And from the opening notes of "Don't Make Me A Target" it's clear that Britt Daniel and Co. have gotten back to the business of putting smiles on the faces of the faithful. This is what a rock 'n' roll album circa 2007 should sound like. Why the rest of America doesn't agree is a complete and utter mystery.

7. The Innocence Mission - We Walked In Song: Karen Peris is like the Family Room couch -- as long as you keep the dogs off it, it only gets better with age (maybe that's OtR's problem, too many dogs). In an effort to stay away from Cheese and Wine metaphors, I might have just turned you off from sampling this album. If so, that would be a low-down shame. The Innocence Mission have been around the game long enough to have tasted "Alternative" success and survived to go on and become even greater songwriters in the process (the were college radio darlings for their mid-nineties single "Bright as Yellow" donchyano). And basically, I love them to death. In what can only be described as a marriage -- both musical and familial -- made in heaven, Don and Karen Paris make music for every day of the week, and twice on Sunday. Delicate vocals, gentle guitar work, subtle bass lines, and percussion so occasional it's almost surprising at times, We Walked in Song delivers it all. And in ways that make you want to hold your breath every time one song ends and a new one begins. Simply lovely.

6. Gatsby the Great - Karuna Rage: This album was a mistake; I downloaded it thinking it was Kanye West's Graduation. I have to admit that from the outset because I am in no way an expert (nor do I even resemble one) in underground rap. Karuna Rage ended up being the musical surprise of the year for me. Most albums I'll have some inkling of, whether from previous familiarity, recommendations from friends, or web buzz. But Gatsby was totally unfamiliar to me. To make it at number six, you'd expect it to have all the hip-hop bells and whistles -- hot producers, crazy samples and tons of guests. Instead, Karuna Rage is probably one of the simplest hip-hop records I own. Homemade production, mostly piano tracks and organic beats, and a simple yet outstanding flow. I still know absolutely nothing about who Gatsby is (Google searches are frustratingly pointless), other than dude is from NYC , he has an affinity for the Howard Beale character in Network, and not everyone likes him as much as I do. Which is too bad, because in a year when hip-hop was something of a turn-off for me, Karuna Rage made me want to take notes and sow my rap oats all over again.

5. Band of Horses - Cease to Begin: I used to think of Band of Horses as a Pac-NW ripoff of My Morning Jacket. And now I can say with all honesty and humility that I was very, very wrong. These guys have got it, whatever it is, and that it translates to one of my favorite rock albums of the year. Cease to Begin. . . .um, begins with a bang called "Is There a Ghost," and hardly lets up for 35 solid minutes. At the moment, I can't get over the more countryish tracks like "The General Specific" and "Marry Me," -- countryish because while not actual country songs, they employ some gorgeous Mason-Dixon-inspired harmonies that reel me in a little more with every listen. If Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and Cease to Begin were parallel lines cut by a transversal, then the pairs of their corresponding angles would most definitely be congruent. It's only because Top Ten Lists are better understood than random bunches of records that I reluctantly rank one of these albums "above" the other. I almost fully assume that where one goes, the other will follow. It's my own personal 2007 rock 'n' roll postulate.

4. Akron/Family - Love Is Simple: There's something of a disconnect between hippies and their music -- Jefferson Airplane and early Dead made some really great tunes. It's just when hippies open their mouths it tends to spoil the whole mystique; it's then when you realize that they're no more wise or transcendent or in-tune with reality than you are. What sounded like amazing words of love and acceptance when sung turn to bloated gibberish when said aloud without music. Maybe that's something for the Church to think about. Maybe not. But when a band like Akron/Family come around, with songs titled "Love, Love, Love (Everyone)" and "Don't Be Afraid, You're Already Dead"; and albums called Meek Warrior and Love Is Simple, my natural instinct is to love the music, hate the message. But Akron/Family do something the old hippies just couldn't. They shut the hell up and jam. Yes, I've said it once and I'll say it again. I can't stand Jam Bands. Except when the jam never overtakes the band. Akron/Family play Jazz as Rock 'n' Roll, or maybe Rock 'n' Roll as Jazz. To stick them with the Hippie or Jam Band labels doesn't began to describe their music. Love Is Simple is everything modern Praise & Worship could be if those musicians put half as much thought into their music as they did into updating Hebrew Psalms for a modern, image driven, consumer packaged culture. Am I digressing? Yes. But know this: Love Is Simple takes the ideas of Jesus Christ and Woodstock and sets them to some really bitching tunes. In case you haven't heard, Akron/Family are phenomenally sick musicians. Their jams are never pointless, and always weird as hell. Why these guys aren't huge in Vermont is beyond me. Maybe they're too good. Maybe they're too true. Maybe they're too lovely for people to stand. I don't know. But I do know that this album should be heard by joyous people, because it will increase their joy: They will be glad as in the time of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

3. Bowerbirds - Hymns for a Dark Horse: Folk music originated everywhere -- continually originates everywhere -- especially in the American South. Bowerbirds are a new folk band from North Carolina, and play a brand of folk oft times tagged as nu-folk, which is sort of ridiculous because they stand firmly among the old folk traditions of love and land and hard times. Hymns for a Dark Horse is one of those rare debut albums that capture a young band in its young band prime. That an album this good is a debut album is beside the point -- or maybe it's above it -- because the point is this: Folk music needs more artists who aren't afraid to write lyrics like It takes a lot of nerve to destroy this wondrous earth. Whatever you think of folk music in general, leave it by the wayside before listening to Hymns for Dark Horse. This album is not about making a statement (though there are statements made). It's not about maintaning an image (though the imagery is clearly there). And it's not about defining a genre and appealing to a certain clique (though it sounds like a certain music for a certain people). This album is about carefully crafting songs, balancing words and music in powerful ways, creating new tunes for new times, that speak of old themes and old mysteries. Were it not for three other people in the whole wide world, this would be my favorite album of the year. And unlike albums one and two, I would recommend Hymns for a Dark Horse to every person I know, and every person I don't know, and all the people that fall in between.

2. Panda Bear - Person Pitch: This album came to me in a storm. I think I downloaded it sometime late last winter, before it had even been released, and immediately fell in love. Panda Bear is another part of that Animal Collective, and after Person Pitch, probably my favorite part. The few few seconds of "Comfy in Nautica" literally woke me up from a long, dark winter above the 42nd parallel in New England. The idea of Brian Wilsonian sunshine pop in January might sound strange, but it really, honestly fits. Words are words, and they do an awful good job getting us around on most days. But words have very little to say when it comes to Person Pitch. It's the music, stupid. That's what's got my tongue strings and heart strings in knots. It's like a thousand nights of being wrapped up in your favorite blanket, listening to the stars. Or a thousand days of hanging out in the kiddy pool, content to simply be content with everything that everyone else says make you less-than. This is an album about being and becoming, and in that sense it's about the end of the world as much as it's about the moment we're in. There are times when you feel like a kid, and then there are times when you become a kid. If the kingdom of heaven doesn't sounds alot like this, then someone up above better have a really good reason.

1. Nina Nastasia & Jim White - You Follow Me: I can't even remember just how I came into contact with Nina Nastasia and You Follow Me. But thank goodness for providence, because Miss Nastasia is one for the ages, beautiful in song, and Jim White is her perfect foil, probably the most bad-ass drummer ever. When you think of singer-songwriters, you don't think of jazz and bop and music that swings. Until you hear You Follow Me, then you do, and you can't believe you never did, and the world falls out from under you, and proclaim this album your favorite of the year. Nina Nastasia was new to me this year; every album of her back catalog like a long lost gift from an old friend. But it was her collaboration with Dirty Three drummer Jim White that brought me into the fold, and made me a fan for life. I tried explaining to my brother what this album was about, and how it was the same as any other girl-singing-over-her-guitar album, and how it wasn't like anything you've ever heard before ever in the history of history. Nastasia is a superb songwriter, but we've heard that before. Nastasia has a captivating vocal presence, but we've heard that before, too. And White can drum, but so could Roach, Peart and Bonham. But they never played with Nina Nastasia, and that's their loss. In just ten tracks and thirty minutes, this pair rip through volumes of folk, jazz and pop, producing probably the quietest, most intense album the year. And my favorite musical moment of 2007. From opening to closing, I simply couldn't get enough. This is 2007 for me. And I am so very, very grateful.

My 42 Favorite Albums of 07 - Part One, Or: Random Thoughts and Bullet Points

2007-12-30T21:01:00.000-06:00

List City, Man!

2007 was a good year for music. I'm nearly 80% positive that that's a true statement. Since I've been without a home computer for over a year now, I've gotten back into the habit of listening to CDs on actual stereo systems and boom boxes. It's been rather pleasant. Unlike last year, I didn't go through quite so many random downloading phases, so this year's list is a little more focused. Downloading is scarce for a brother without a computer, but that doesn't mean I failed to gorge myself on new tunes.

Now the reason I'm only 80% positive that 2007 was a good for music is this: Lots of "good" music sucked. There were some albums that were just plain unlistenable (I'm talking to you Wilco, Josh Ritter and Rilo Kiley!). Others were major disappointments: Over the Rhine went from "sophisticated" to "boring" on Trumpet Child, a fine line to be sure, but one they've skated triumphantly for some time now. And who would have thought Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan, the half-voices and half-brains behind Animal Collective and Múm, could thud so hard? Even when reversed back to normal, Pullhair Rubeye wasn't much to listen to. And Modest Mouse's big team-up with Johnny Marr? Not quite as middling as Good News for People Who Love Bad News, but that's not saying much.

One last note before we get into the grime: There were a few albums I completely ignored this year. This happens on an annual basis, really, and shouldn't be taken the wrong way. Some albums I need to just wait until the right time to hear and appreciate. So you won't see Arcade Fire, Radiohead, Wu-Tang Clan, Ghostface, M.I.A., Beirut, White Stripes, Lucinda Williams or Kayne West on this list. Maybe next year, I guess. We'll see. Now, on with the show.

42. Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity: What more is there to say about Deerhoof? This: They are basically all that's left of anything resembling punk rock these days. In fact, they're actually too punk for punk rock. Cereal.

41. Dirty Projectors - Rise Above: Dave Longstreth has never really been a favorite of mine, and neither has Black Flag, but this album has legs, people. It's got legs and it knows how to use them.

40. Lucky Soul - The Great Unwanted: Girl pop is back! At least in the UK. They really are much hipper than us.

39. The Avett Brothers - Emotionalism: This album would have been in my top ten four years ago -- mellow, sweet sounds of country-ish/folk with occasionally off the wall subject matter. Like Whiskeytown fronted by a younger, happier version of Tom Waits. Sort of. I don't know. It's nice, I guess.

38. The Fiery Furnaces - Widow City: Will Fiery Furnaces ever release another album that makes me giddy all over for days at a time? Widow City is good times, but it's not hella good times, and that my friend, makes all the difference.

37. Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War: Maybe it is trite indie-pop for late 20-somethings, but I don't care dammit! Duets on almost every song! Sweet, suite serenades! Good for late, over-caffeinated nights while driving through New Jersey! Suck it, Pitchfork!

36. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala: I only downloaded this cause Ryan Schreiber told me to. I'm such a hypocrite. It's actually quite excellent. I should've ranked it higher. Sorry, Jens.

35. St. Vincent - Marry Me: Annie Clark is the new Karen O, only clever. So clever. "Jesus Saves, I Spend" is my fourth favorite single of the year. Also, she's the prettiest girl in indie pop at any given time. Like now. Or now. Maybe not now. But now. Yes, now.

34. The Bees - Octopus: The Bees play old-timey music, but not that old-timey, more like 66-72 old-timey. So not really old-timey at all, actually. I like it, though.

33. Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation: The winner of the most fractured album of the year award, a field recording of dissociative identity disorder to the tune of country/folk/jazz/jam/fuzz/rock. That means nothing to me, either. Good night.

32. James Blackshaw - The Cloud of Unknowing: Yes! The prettiest album of 2007 that doesn't have lyrics! Take that you electro-ambient fiends! Acoustic guitar arrangements can rock your face off and lull you to sleep!

31. Shannon Wright - Let In The Light: Shannon Wright is like Tori Amos if Tori Amos were punk. Or good, for that matter. Oh crap. I just plagiarized myself.

30. Peter Bjorn and John - Writer's Block: I was burning "Young Folks" on my May 2007 mix waaaaaay before it became the theme song for Sears/JC Penney/Target/Wal-Mart! And now everyone hates it! But not me! I don't watch commercials! Internet-television rocks!

29. The Go! Team - Proof of Youth: Maybe not as fun as Thunder, Lightning, Strike, but neither is Vermont. And I'm still here. So I guess that says something.

28. Frontier Folk Nebraska - The Devil's Tree EP: I have no idea when this EP came out, so maybe it doesn't even fit here. Do you like dusty folk? Do you like folk, Dusty? Do you like folk that no one else has heard of? Ever? Then go here. You too, can be as cool as me. Try it today!

27. Caribou - Andorra: Caribou lights fires in me that I never knew existed. It's sunny music for late nights. Where have you been all my life? To the north!

26. Feist - The Reminder: I liked "Mushuboom", but this takes the cake. Yes, cake. Go to Leslie Ann Feist. She is yours and you are hers! Her banner over us is love!

25. The New Pornographers - Challengers: Okay, this album possibly sucked. But when you think of it as a follow up to The Slow Wonder, you might really start to like it. I mean it. Burn the drum slowly. See where it goes. What have you got to lose?

24. Battles - Mirrored: Is this math rock? Post-rock? Prog rock? Well, your mom is prog rock. Oh crap. Now I'm plagiarizing internet trolls.

23. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver: When I first heard this album, I thought, meh. I think my heart wasn't calibrated correctly. Were the batteries out? Then "Time to Get Away" became my second favorite single of the year. This album is the boss hog, sister. The. Boss. Hog.

22. The National - Boxer: I keep telling everyone I know -- these guys write the songs that U2 wish they still had in their brains, but don't, because they made Rattle and Hum and all heaven and earth came crashing down in the terribleness that was 1988. It's not like Boxer's all signature delay; and Matt Berninger sounds nothing like Bono. But still, U2 are sooo jealous of these guys. Because this album sounds great. And moving. And cathartic. And oh, you know, relevant.

21. Dan Deacon - Spiderman of the Rings: "WHAM City" is my single of the year. Dan Deacon is my golden elephant of shiny, flickery, jump-up-and-down happiness. I don't understand half his electro-beat stuff, but that's okay. We're still prominent friends.

20. Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon: Disappointing? At times. Unfocused? Oh, yes. But I'm sofa king retarded for DB. "Seahorse" might just be my most favoritest moment of his career so far. Careen! Yes, Karen, you have a phone call.

19. Taken By Trees - Open Field: From the voice of the Concretes, only more Glasgow. Quiet and pretty as all get out. And better than I'm giving it credit for here.

18. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam: You rock, rock! I took a nap one night when I could have seen them live. I don't regret it. I regurgitate it.

17. Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog: If I didn't have to skip the first two tracks every time I put this one in the CD player, it could've have been a top 10 contender. Sam Beam has stolen my heart and hidden it under Joanna Newsom's couch. Gross.

16. Múm - Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy: Another album that grew on me after a while. Sure, it's nothing like Yesterday Was Dramatic – Today Is OK, but don't sweat it. Just go with the flow. Hey, Flow! These guys are with you! Thanks!

15. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha: I listened to this album way more than I should have. I kind of hate it now. But for most of 2007, it was one of my favs. Andrew Bird is such a nice, young boy. Good mannered. Excellent whistler. Enjoys his tea bitter and his women bitterer.

14. Patty Griffin - Children Running Through: Seeing her live was kind of terrible, but only because I was the only person who looked like me at the theatre. I never knew she had so many old, old fans. One of my true, true loves, even if my fellow Fatty Pans (thanks Liz!) are all collecting Social Security checks.

13. The National Lights - The Dead Will Walk, Dear: Oh, jeez. Seriously, the prettiest quiet album of the year. No kidding. If not for Sonya Cotten, I wouldn't be able to stand it anymore (another album I overplayed this summer). But whenever she chimes in on these sunny songs of murder, rape and mayhem, I go all melty.

12. Pharoahe Monch - Desire: I missed alot of hip-hop this year, but not Monch's return. Well-worth it? Well answer me this, what hath God wrought. That's right: "Body Baby." I can't believe this isn't everyone's album of the year. Including my own. We're all bastards!

11. Menomena - Friend and Foe: This is the closest thing I'll ever get to jam-bandiness, outside of the Akron/Family's New Age Love-fests. But if all jam bands jammed liked Menomena, who aren't really a jam band at all, then the world (especially Vermont, oh God Vermont!) would be a much better place. I'm not kidding. People listen to crappy music around here. It's kind of depressing.

------------------

Ha! You didn't think I was going to give you the whole list today, did you? Never! I need time to recollect my thoughts, and collect album art work, and call my physician. Albums one through ten will have to wait. No flipping!

But is it a Nor'easter?

2007-12-16T16:23:00.000-06:00

Folks this week have been all aflutter with news of a major storm that finally hit Rutland early this morning, though it's nearly done as I type this. The buzz word here in Vermont has been, of course, Nor'easter, a word that didn't enter my vocabulary until I read Carry On, Mr. Bowditch a few years back. But seeing as how simple Vermont folk are, like myself, hopeless landlubbers, I really don't know if they're using the term correctly. So what is this? A big winter storm or an actual nor'easter?

Using a Google News search doesn't clear things up. Like my Vermont friends, the local press and wire services seem to love a buzz word like nor'easter, whether they actually know how to define one or not. Lots of press articles about the "nor'easter," but little mention of what makes a nor'easter or why this storm should be called one. Yes, it's quite the storm. But it's the same storm that hit the Plains and Midwest earlier this week. But we wouldn't call a foot of snow over Kansas a nor'easter now, would we?

So is a nor'easter just a hella big storm that hits the Northeast US? Well, no. Big storms happen a few times a year, but not every one gets labeled a nor'easter. If we can trust Wikipedia, and I for one, really think we can within reason, then a nor'easter "describes a low pressure area whose center of rotation is just off the East Coast and whose leading winds in the left forward quadrant rotate onto land from the northeast." Aha! We've found it! Of course!

But wait a tic, I didn't understand that either. Let's try again. A nor'easter is a low pressure area, kind of like a hurricane or other large storm system. But unlike a hurricane, nor'easters feed off cold air. From Wikipedia again: "Nor'easters thrive on the converging air masses; that is, the polar cold air mass and the warmer ocean water of the Gulf Stream."

So for a storm to be a nor'easter, it has to be a two-parter. Part one is cold polar air, which is what a low front or storm system picks up when it breezes through Vermont. The storms that just blew through the Midwest are doing just that, bringing in loads of cold, Arctic air as they pass from West to East. Part two, however, is warm ocean water from the south, specifically the Gulf Stream. So do we have that?

I have no effin' idea.

According to the Weather Channel, I don't think so. For two reasons. One, the weather maps don't show a mass of warm air coming up from the south. Now, there's got to be some warm air off the North Atlantic Coast because of the Gulf Stream. But according to the radar (and of course, I could be terribly wrong), there isn't anything out of the ordinary. But the second reason is probably the best reason: there's no mention of a nor'easter on the Weather Channel's website. Not that these guys are the final word on weather, but if they ain't, then who is?

So if this isn't a nor'easter, why do people keep calling it one? Lundlubbing ignorance, I guess. I bet merchant marines and coastal fishermen up and down New England just hate it when the White Plains Journal (just to pick on one of many) calls every big snow storm a nor'easter. Typical, they mutter.

What's ironic is, there may be an actual nor'easter in our sights within the next few days. The remains of Tropical Storm Olga are menacing parts of Florida as we speak. Should that mass of warm, ocean air find its way up the Coast, we could very likely have that Part Two we were looking for earlier. Who knows, maybe that's what all the rumors this week were about. Maybe we all just got confused and jumped the gun by 48 hours. Cold arctic air? Check. Warm Gulf mass? We'll see.

Happy Times Are Here Again!

2007-11-13T06:32:00.000-06:00

A Health Plan for Wal-Mart: Less Stinginess (NY Times)

So Wal-Mart's finally starting to play the health care game. According to the Times, the Big Blue Box is "offering better coverage to a greater number of workers." In light of Wal-Mart's slowed growth in North America, it makes sense to give in from time to time, and spend that political capital on appealing to consumers who might not usually shop at their stores.

How Wal-Mart sold the new policy to the Old Guard within its own Home Office was through logic and sound economic sense -- taking care of your workers increases productivity and shrinks turnover:

If workers “are healthy, they will do a better job at work, they’ll be more productive, they’ll be happier, nicer to our customers,” Ms. Dillman said, all of which results in less absenteeism and turnover, a longstanding problem in retailing.

It might seem like a pretty big duh to most reasonable people, but you have to remember that Wal-Mart is steeped in a certain type of southern, small-town, social culture, where two-parent families are still the norm, and moms take part-time jobs at Wal-Mart while dads bring home the bacon (and the family's health insurance) through other full-time positions. It takes a lot of persistence to change the culture of Wal-Mart. And finally, that persistence seems to be paying off.

Wal-Mart’s insurance still pales in comparison to that offered by Costco, considered the gold standard in retailing because an employee pays just a few hundred dollars a year for generous individual coverage. But Wal-Mart is catching up to retailers like Home Depot and has in some ways surpassed Target, which makes part-timers wait two years to qualify for coverage.

And that's saying something. Target, with its upscale products and trendy store fronts, always seemed to dodge the bullet that other box stores like Wal-Mart and K-Mart couldn't. Expect Target to follow suite, otherwise they might see a bit more of the wrath that unions and worker's rights groups have been targeting towards Wal-Mart.

My favorite line from the article:

The New York Times disclosed a company memorandum proposing ways to reduce health care spending by....discouraging unhealthy people from working at Wal-Mart. One suggestion would have required cashiers to gather carts as exercise.

Yes! Now I realize why I had to fill in for the stock boys so often as a cashier! They were looking out for my health!

One reason for expanding health coverage to its workers that's only briefly alluded to in the article is that Wal-Mart might be interested in selling health care to its customers, too; and will likely penny pinch, scrimp and save in doing so. Remember this, if any one organization could single-handedly bring down the cost of health care for American citizens, it's Wal-Mart.

“If you really turned Wal-Mart loose and had Wal-Mart against the health care providers,” Mr. Nichols, the health economist, said, “it would be a fair fight.”

Watch out, Hillary and Obama. There's a new sheriff in town.

Hulu Or Bust!

2007-11-12T19:38:00.000-06:00

What is Hulu?

I'm not quite sure yet, but this much I do know: I've been invited to be a beta tester! Maybe they're giving these out like free candy -- I don't know. But it sure does feel special to be testing products for absolutely free so that I can save Corporate American some of their hard-earned money!

For those of you who think the interwebs are still just for email and geocities, Hulu is a new video venture between NBC/Universal and FOX News Corp. There's been quite a bit of buzz over the last couple of months about just what Hulu would be. A corporate YouTube for user-generated content? Or perhaps a new video downloading site to rival iTunes or Unbox?

Well the answer is here....Sort of. I'll let you know as soon as I know. All I can right now is, there's not a whole lot of content yet. And I'm tired. Give me 24 hours, then we'll talk. Until then, I remain everybody's favorite corporate lackey. Good day, sir!

Time To Get Paid

2007-11-05T12:38:00.000-06:00

Picketing as Infotainment (In the Days of Web 2.0)

As of 12 hours ago (give or take) the Writer's Guild of America has been on strike. But what the hell does that mean? TV Squad gives a nice overview of how it might affect your television viewing habits. First, say goodbye to new episodes of Late Night television this week. Scripted shows, on the other hand, have enough scripts stockpiled to last until January. However, if the last WGA strike is any indication (it lasted 22 weeks), that might not be enough of a head start for your favorite shows.

The film industry is safe for the time being, with most of the summer blockbusters in either production or post. However, as Cinematical points out, even with the stockpile of scripts in Hollywood, the writers won't be available for rewrites. For X-Men XVII, or whatever the hell is coming out this summer, that's not such a big deal. But it could hurt the Oscar candidates considerably. Should the strike last for a while, who knows what we'll see in theaters come next fall/winter.

The big difference between this strike and the last one in 1988 is, of course, the internet. Even the impetus of this strike, writing residuals for DVD sales and internet downloads, are very Brave New World. And unlike in '88, there is a real and immediate way for fans to keep in constant contact and interaction with fellow fans and even writers. So far, Blog City looks to be overwhelmingly in the corner of writers. 20 years ago, there wasn't this connection between creative types and viewers. But in a Web 2.0 era full of Joss Whedons and Kevin Smiths, consumers of television and film are more apt to side with content creators (especially those with a visible web presense) rather than content distributors (like NBC or Universal).

Just as the web has revolutionized how we consume our content, it's also transforming (albeit, quite slowly) the political process behind how these shows are made. It's one thing for the Writer's Guild to stand up to the "big, bad studios" for their creative rights. But it's another thing entirely for studios to take on both writers and viewers, creators and consumers. Remember, for many viewers, these Studio Suits are the same guys who canceled Freaks and Geeks, Firefly and Jericho. There's no lost love there. If the studios can't bargain quietly (and in good faith), expect things to get real ugly, real soon.

When Brands Collide

2007-11-04T00:21:00.001-05:00

Brady and Manning Meet in Battle of the Brands (NY Times)

Just hours away from the big Colts-Patriots game, and with all the hoopla surrounding these teams, it keeps coming down to two players -- Manning vs. Brady. Which is just how their respective sponsors would have it.

So are you a Peyton Man or a Brady Man? MasterCard and Sprint? Or Stetson cologne and ridiculously expensive watches? The last watch I bought was $8.97 at Wal-Mart, so you probably already know whose camp I fall into.

For as good as Brady is, he just seems a little too good. A little too rugged. A little too pretty. And, at least in his advertising persona, a little too devoid of anything resembling a sense of humor.

Honestly, how can you even begin to like him when he does this shit? Either he's a complete tool-bag, or one of the most ironically hilarious guys on the planet. And I get the feeling this cowboy doesn't do irony.

Manning, on the other hand, has got funny coming out the wazoo. In that old test of a presidential candidate's relatability, he's the guy you'd rather have a beer with. And, unlike Mr. Stetson up there, he refuses to take himself seriously.

Come on. It's not even a contest. So I guess it's no coincidence that the closest thing I have to a watch nowadays is my phone, courtesy of Sprint mobile. Thanks, Peyton. And thank you, Corporate America, for targeting my humor and my wallet so deliberately. Your check is in the mail.

Hello and Good Riddance

2007-10-30T20:29:00.000-05:00

Further Thoughts on Baseball.

Was that really a World Series? Four straight years of boring baseball to wrap things up. Three sweeps and a five game series. And to rub salt in the wound, it was the Sawks. I rooted for them last time, just to get rid of the damned curse. But they seemed like lovable underdogs then. Now, they're just as Evil as the Yankees -- minus the warm fuzzies I get from being a Yankees fan since the days of my youth. And without those childhood fuzzies....they really just make me want to throw up real bad.
So Joe Girardi is in, and Don Mattingly is out. As much as it pains me to admit it (I'd follow Donnie Baseball to the ends of the earth), Girardi is the right guy, both for the immediate future and for the long term prospects of the Yankees. Joe Torre was never a baseball genius, he just knew how to manage a ballclub full of New York-sized egos. And he knew how to do it well. However, he never quite got the hang of how to handle a bullpen (Rivera was a gimme); And he's had difficulty plugging younger players into the All-Star Yankee teams of the past few seasons. (Though the blame in that respect also weighs heavily on the Yankee front office.) Girardi's past experience as a big league catcher, and as the manager of a young Florida Marlins club, ought to serve him well.
As rumors fly about Torre accepting a job in Dodger-land (he's from Brooklyn originally, as are the Boys in Blue), Grady Little quits and Mattingly muses about following Torre wherever he ends up next. I like this scenario: For one, there's not much to root for the in NL right now, and the Dodgers have been my No. 2 team in the Senior Circuit (after the Brewers) since the first meeting of The Society of Young Gentlemen for a Yankees-Dodgers World Series. In fact, a Torre-led Dodger club would only serve to further public support for S.Y.G.Y.D.W.S. In addition, Mattingly eventually deserves a shot at managing a team, and having him coach for a club not named the New York Yankees can only help his chances in the future. Let's see this happen.
A-Rod is a douche. I defended this guy last year, when all of New York was eating him alive, but the timing of his announcement and his failure to even entertain an offer from the Yankees before he hit the free agent market is an all-time low for a Yankee ~~great~~. (At least, as far as free-agency is concerned. Guys like Bernie and Donnie retired rather than play for another organization. Caveat though -- A-Rod can still hit.) And considering Mike Lowell's performance in the post-season this year, maybe we'd be better off with him at the hot corner anyway.
Speaking of....Yes, Mike Lowell is a free agent. Yes, he's a product of the Yankees farm system. Yes, the Yankees need a third baseman. No, he will not replace A-Rod's bat over the course of 162 games next year. Yes, he can actually hit in October. This (and a boatload of pitching) is just what the Yanks need.
Geoff Jenkins is done as a Brewer. It makes sense -- you don't pick up a $9 mil option on a guy who hits 21 HRs and bats .255 -- but it's still hard to see a Brewer vet like Jenkins go. Yet with guys like Tony Gywnn, Jr. waiting in the wings....2008 ought to be an exciting year for the Brew Crew.
And finally, Dusty Baker just might kill the Reds pitching staff....and any chance they have a returning to the post-season. Note to Aaron Harang and Homer Bailey: learn to say "no" to this guy before he ruins your respective careers.

Stephen Colbert and Nacho Cheese Goodness

2007-10-26T00:16:00.000-05:00

Did you hear? Stephen Colbert is running for President...but only in South Carolina. However, his campaign is already running afoul of the law and the dirty dirty lawyers who have no sense of humor whatsoever. What downers!

Watch Colbert parse the legalese, all the while telling funny jokes. Warning! Possible Blackberry commercials ahead! This ain't YouTube, folks.

Just in time for Halloween!

2007-10-25T21:02:00.001-05:00

It's all over Blog City! Harry Potter is Jesus and Dumbledoor likes dudes!

Blog City was abuzz this week with news from J.K. Rowling's world book tour. Firstly, she finally came clean about how the Potter Boy was basically a Christ-figure, and that she'd been hesitant to point out the parallels for fear of giving away the end to Book 7. Oops, spoiler alert! Harry dies! Harry comes back to life! Harry marries the Weasley girl! Just like Jesus!

And secondly (also, apparently just like Jesus), Albus Dumbledore is very much gay. Just when she might finally have the evangelicals on her side, Rowling springs this on 'em. I don't know how much Dumbledore's sexual preference really matters, other than to say that his character was terribly miscast in the films now. Yes, Sir Ian McKellen, you were robbed.

You were robbed!

The End

21 of 22

2007-10-16T10:09:00.000-05:00

They might have the worst color scheme in Major League Baseball, but by-God, the Colorado Rockies are going to the World Series. And to think: there was mid-season talk of trading this guy.

Now let's go Tribe!

Compromise and moderation are like lima beans....

2007-10-13T22:19:00.000-05:00

On why the far Left (and the far Right, for that matter) doesn't understand how a representative democracy actually works:

Liberal Base Proves Trying to Democrats (NY Times)

“There is a tendency in American politics for the people who feel most passionately about an issue, particularly ones that focus on a single issue, to be unrealistic in what a democratic political system can deliver,” Mr. Frank said, “and that can be self-defeating.”

Permanent change is nearly always incremental. If the 2oth Century has taught us anything, it's that revolutions don't always have staying power. Instead, take an inch, take an inch, take an inch. Though the inches might be few and far between, pretty soon, you'll get to where you're going.

Maybe it's not perfect, but what would you rather have? Guillotines?

It's like that plane ride back home from Seattle...

2007-10-08T23:23:00.000-05:00

12 Years

That's a long time for a ball club to stick with one manager. Especially if you're the manager of the New York Yankees. It's hard to believe it was 12 years ago that Buck Showalter lost his job when Randy Johnson pitched three scoreless innings in relief on two days rest, allowing the Mariners to beat the Yanks in 11. Tonight was a completely different situation, but still, everyone realizes that it's the end of an era, just like they did 12 years ago on that plane ride back from Seattle. 1995 was the end of the Mattingly era for the Yanks. And now 2007 looks to be the end of the Torre era.

It's a big deal that the Yankees clawed back from a terrible first half. They were the only playoff team this year who made also made the playoffs last season. Seven new playoff teams. A different World Series winner every year for the last seven. And we're guaranteed an 8th this year, too. In light of that, the fact that the Bombers made the playoffs every year under Torre's 12 year term -- playing in 6 World Series, and winning 4 of them -- is an amazing run. But after being bounced from the first round in three straight series, and without a Worlds Series win since 2000, Steinbrenner's new-found patience has finally worn thin. Averaging 98 wins a season over 12 years just doesn't cut it in New York.

Changes come.

"This has been a great 12 years, whatever the hell happens from here on out," Torre said after the loss. "I'll look back on these 12 years with great pleasures based on the fact I'm a kid who had never been to the World Series ... to have been in six World Series, I can tell you it never gets old."

"The 12 years just felt like they were 10 minutes long, to be honest with you."

Sweeney Todd

2007-10-07T01:37:00.000-05:00

Have you seen this?

Tim Burton is basically teh hotness, and not just because he's married to Helena Bonham Carter.

Though that definitely helps.

Chicago: "Saul Bellow is a rascist!"

2007-10-06T13:49:00.000-05:00

Bellow's remarks on race haunt legacy in Hyde Park (Chicago Tribune)

Alderman Toni Preckwinkle refuses to name a city-something after the very much dead Pulitzer Prize winning Chicago author, and declines to tell the Trib why.

Somewhere on Lake Michigan, Sufjan Stevens is crying himself to sleep.

The Future Is Now

2007-10-04T12:58:00.000-05:00

ABC News Expands Foreign Bureaus (Washington Post)

Due to an explosion in hand-held digital technology, ABC News is opening seven new news bureaus overseas, to be staffed by only a single person equipped with a DV camera and laptop. The reporter/producers will shoot and edit their own pieces, with long-distance help from ABC News offices, sending in their work via broadband or satellite connections from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

While this type of reporting has become a staple of blogs and independent journalists, it's the first I've heard of one of the major American news-broadcasters joining the fray. And it's good news, too. It used to be a given that a network's news division wasn't going to make much money -- the Big Three (ABC, NBC and CBS) reported anyway because of a strange marriage of journalistic integrity and network branding. The thought was that if people tuned into your nightly news program, they might stick around for Prime Time, too. In recent years, though, this model has been scrapped for a new one emphasizing cost cutting and increased national coverage (at the expense of foreign news bureaus). These seven new bureaus, while tiny in comparison to the old models, are exactly the shot in the arm that Network News needs. Foreign correspondence shouldn't be sacrificed to the bottom line; it needs be streamlined and brought into the 21st Century. Digital technology allows just that.

And it's better than the alternative: Reporting only in the "hot spots" where there is a sizable American interest (i.e., Europe, Israel, Iraq, etc.) while virtually ignoring the rest of the world -- if, for nothing else, to know something about other nations before we invade them.

Just kidding. Sort of.

Cognitive Dissonance

2007-10-01T01:11:00.000-05:00

From General George Washington's orders bringing about the Cessation of Hostilities between the United States of America and the King of Great Britain -- Friday, April 18, 1783:

Happy, thrice happy shall they be pronounced hereafter, who have contributed any thing, who have performed the meanest office in erecting this steubendous fabrick of Freedom and Empire on the broad basis of Indipendency; who have assisted in protecting the rights of humane nature and establishing an Asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions.

The United States of America, that great Asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions, except if you really are poor and oppressed (and from Mexico):

INS raids hit home for Northern Nevada families
Immigration debate revives over local raids
"This land belongs to God and not to the United States." -- Gilbert Cortez, president of Casa Latina Centro de Informacion

Vermont Public Radio Is Getting Better Every Day

2007-09-30T22:28:00.001-05:00

Meets Requirements Satisfactorily

After something of a rant last winter about how much I hated Vermont Public Radio, I've been slowly getting acclimated to an NPR that plays loads and loads of classical music every day. I wasn't very happy making the transition from Chicago Public Radio to VPR, but after a while you just sort of get used it. And Walter Parker is the man, so that helps.

Yet little by little, VPR has been adding programs (or sometimes programmes!) that I enjoy. One night last June I noticed that the World was broadcast every night after Marketplace. O Joy!* Then came news that VPR would be splitting its Classical Network into a separate entity. Starting tomorrow VPR will feature news programs from 9am-3pm -- and that's not all! They've also added American Routes on Saturday nights!**

I'd like to think they saw my blog and took my advice and that I'm pretty much all powerful and awesome to behold in my glory and strength and wisdom and honor forever and ever until the Day of the LORD or Ragnarok or whichever comes first. But let's face it, I'm not and they didn't. Or at least I don't think so from their press release.

VPR didn't follow all my instructions, however. Day to Day is on the new schedule (O Alex Chadwick! How I love you so!) As is BBC Newshour. (Damn fine journalists, those Lobsterbacks!) But no To the Point. (Warren Olney, I'll tie a yellow ribbon for you!) Instead, we've got WBUR's On Point, which I'm not exactly wild about. But when the latter program is from Boston and the former is from California, it makes sense, East Coast Bias and all. KCWR gets no love from the Green Mountain State. Sorry, Nic Harcourt.

Furthermore, This American Life is still not airing in its natural Friday night home, which is just plain immoral. And still no Tavis Smiley Show on the weekends. The Rutland Herald is reporting that all 17 Afro-Americans in Vermont are up in arms. Just kidding. They don't care, either.

All in all, it's a nice improvement, though somewhat sad. For the near future I won't have access to VPR Classical in Rutland unless I purchase a digital receiver (fat chance of that on an AmeriCorps budget), which means no more Peter Fox Smith and Saturday Afternoon at the Opera. And like I said, Walter Parker is the man. Though apparently, he loves music more than journalism. Some days, though, I don't blame him.

*Though now that summer hours are over, and I'm back to Noon-7:30 hours at work, it hasn't been quite so joyous.
**Though maybe they did that ages ago. I'm usually out doing something at that time; though that something is usually no more anti-social and boring and unproductive as listening to the radio all by myself on a Saturday night, so don't think I'm Joe Camel or Marty McFly.

Take That Villainy!

2007-09-26T23:32:00.000-05:00

Sticking with the P-Fork theme:

Kim Gordon: Starbucks "Less Evil Than Universal"

Sure, why not.

Jokey McJokepants

2007-09-11T20:11:00.000-05:00

From the Onion, Pitchfork Gives Music 6.8

Probably the funniest line comes from the (fake) mouth of EIC Ryan Schreiber: "In the end, though music can be brilliant at times, the whole medium comes off as derivative of Pavement."

Chasing 61

2007-09-09T13:04:00.001-05:00

With Alex Rodriguez on a tear lately, it looks as though he's got his sights set on the Yankee's club HR record of 61 set by Roger Maris. And it brings up an interesting question: with all the unknowns surrounding Bonds, McGwire, Sosa and steroids, would A-Rod hitting 62 home runs this season mean something as far as the record books are concerned?

As far as the official MLB records go, no it won't. Until Major League baseball can prove that Bonds and Co. were juicing, those records still stand. But in the hearts and minds of some fans, A-Rod reaching 61 in a post-steroids era does mean something. To a lot of people, should he pass Maris, it would be the first "clean" break of the single season home run record. And in a way, that's fitting, because Maris was chasing another Yankee in that magical 1961 season, as was Mickey Mantle. We forget that Mantle was battling Maris all season long, and ended up with just six dingers shy of 60 himself.

New York Yankees Single Season Home Run Records

Roger Maris 61 - 1961
Babe Ruth 60 - 1927
Babe Ruth 59 - 1921
Babe Ruth 54 - 1920
Babe Ruth 54 - 1928
Mickey Mantle 54 - 1961
Mickey Mantle 52 -1956
Alex Rodriguez 52 - 2007 (as of 9/10)
Babe Ruth 49 -1930
Lou Gehrig 49 -1936
Lou Gehrig 49 -1934

That's rare company for A-Rod; and maybe how it should be. If anyone's going to hit 61+ in the Post-Steroids Era, it might as well be a Yankee.

Kimmel Breaks It Down

2007-09-03T16:15:00.000-05:00

Via TVSquad, Jimmy Kimmel explains what Miss Teen South Carolina actually meant.

Like such as.

A New Look!

2007-09-02T18:12:00.000-05:00

Well, it's not exactly a new template, but it was just as time consuming. There is more to be done, for sure. But I need a break. Knowing next to nothing about HTML and Photoshop makes for fun afternoons, let me tell you!

I want a new template.

2007-08-05T21:55:00.001-05:00

And how.

I'm thinking of switching to Wordpress as well. Blogger's templates are a little tired. Also, I need a new computer, too. Maybe that should be my first priority.

Essays that are in the works, but that I haven't had the time or inclination to get them out of my head and/or off loose sheets of notebook paper and into the blogosphere:

1. Real-time thoughts on Deathly Hallows, or Potter-Notes taken on the fly.
2. A full-scale review of my last blog post after reading Deathly Hallows.
3. A short essay on how Ron Weasley is a totally worthless fictional character, and ought to be a Muggle, which he pretty much is anyways.
4. Thoughts on how rooting for the Milwaukee Brewers brings far less guilt then rooting for the Chicago Cubs.
5. Thoughts on the Bourne movies and how kick-ass they are, especially in comparison to any number of James Bond flicks.
6. All sorts of thoughts on good/recent albums by Spoon, Los Campesinos!, St. Vincent, Casey Dienel, Frontier Folk Nebraska, James Yorkston and the Atheletes, Bowerbirds, Bunky, Uncle Earl, The National, The Innocence Mission, Smoosh and The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players. Maybe I'll save those for the Bag Blog.
7. Even more thoughts, this time on how the House of Representatives is lame -- way lamer than the Senate.
8. Tons of YouTube clips that I've bookmarked since like, forever.

Until then, I'm just going to keep surfing people's music profiles on Last.Fm. Which is the new YouTube these days, in my awesome opinion; and if you can't handle that, then find another blog. One with a much better template.

They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhhh!

2007-08-05T18:07:00.000-05:00

Do you like turtles? This kid does.

Exit Stage Left

2007-07-30T00:14:00.000-05:00

Things still aren't going well in Iraq. While I still believe that we have an obligation to the people of Iraq to clean up the mess we've made, it's time to start asking the hard questions about withdrawal. The NY Times has a piece today with five tough questions we have to answer before we can think of a staged exit. Leaving won't be pretty if things don't get better soon. A complete withdrawal will take months. Casualties will increase sharply as we fight our way out. Over 100,000 Iraqi contractors who having been working for the U.S. will either have to be evacuated and relocated, or left to fend for themselves. Billions of dollars of ammunition and fuel would have to be left behind in a quick withdrawal, further fodder for a broiling civil war. And finally, a massive withdrawal could be the greatest logistical problem the U.S. military has ever seen. No one knows how much it will cost shipping the rest of our personal and equipment back to the States in case of a swift exit. There's nothing easy about a decision to withdraw from Iraq. In fact, the President's "stay-the-course" strategy might be the easier short-term decision. Knowing him, I wouldn't expect President Bush to deal with any of these questions during the remainder of his term.

Our next president will have his/her work cut out for them.

Bronx Blogs

2007-07-25T23:16:00.000-05:00

My new favorite Yankee blog:

Nomaas.org

Vengeance and Harry Potter

2007-07-20T22:09:00.000-05:00

Its only a couple of hours before Deathly Hallows hits the stores...and I already have a beef. Actually, it's been stewing for about two years now. Alright, J.K., let's have at it.

Book 6 has been sitting on the floor next to my bed for about six weeks now, collecting dust. I figured I'd pop it open sometime before the 20th and get myself ready for book 7. But there it sits. Where's the excitement I had for books 5 and 6? Where's the animal rabidity I unearthed ripping through books 1-4? I've been wondering some about that and doing some thinking.

And this is what I thought. This series rests on one central fact -- Harry wants revenge. In the first three books, Harry and his clan were so enamored with wonder and discovery that the vengeance aspect of the series took a back seat. At their core, these Potter books are about exploration -- discovery of self and wonder of world. All throughout volumes 1-5 it was clear that these books were wonderful examples of sacrifice and love.

But somewhere along the line, things changed. Book 5 was the first in the series I read as it came out. I loved it. But Sirius Black's death near the end introduced a new tone to the series, or perhaps more accurately, brought to light a shadowy undercurrent that had been running through the books all along. For Harry to "win", he needed vengeance. He needed revenge against Voldemort for killing his parents, his uncle and many others. With the death of Dumbledoor in book 6, this need for vengeance only became more acute. By the end of Half-Blood Prince, the only avenue left for Harry was to leave school and focus his efforts on ending Voldemort once and for all.

And there's my worry. That the Potter books, such a miraculous example of sacrificial love, are going to degenerate into a simple quest for vengeance. Did Harry's parents die to give Harry life? Or did they sacrifice themselves simply because Harry was the only one who could defeat (and kill) Voldemort? And what's the distinction?

When using Harry's mother (and her sacrifice) as an example of Christ's sacrificial love, the answer leans towards the former. But if Harry's quest for redemption can only succeed through the application of vengeance, the whole "Christian defense" of the Potter books crumbles. Imagine if Christ died so that his followers would rise up in revenge against a hypocritical religious establishment and a secular political order. What if his death had nothing to do with forgiveness or remission, and was simply the first spark in a long war for retribution through the application of violence and war?

If that sounds absurd, then the potential for a violent book 7 should scare us. Some of Christ's followers no doubt would have wanted to return violence for violence in response to Christ's death, just as Harry wishes violence upon Voldemort. But the problem they struggled with is the problem we all deal with on a daily basis (and more acutely since 9/11). Namely, that vengeance is not Christian. The concept of revenge should be as foreign to the Christ-follower as greed or adultery. And the thirst for it is anathema to the spirit of the Christian faith.

Love your enemies. Pray for them. Turn the other cheek. Go the extra mile. Bust most importantly:

Vengeance is mine, thus saith the LORD.

That's not to say that old Voldey deserves a pat on the back and a big bowl of ice cream. While vengeance is God's, justice is something the Christian should be supremely concerned with. Not only justice for the poor and oppressed, but justice upon those who abuse their wealth and power. Justice is to be served on both the oppressors and the oppressed. Thieves, warmongers and murderers deserve justice, too.

And that's where the arguments start. That's where the trouble lies. Can violence be used as a means towards justice? Unjust states have been violently overthrown with both great and terrible results. But as Christ-followers we have to ask if it's ever worth it? Can the ends justify the means?

But now we're way off topic. Because justice is not vengeance. These are two very different concepts, with very different outcomes. Is justice served if Harry kills Voldemort? Perhaps. Most certainly, vengeance is served. Yet there's this inescapable idea that we can't have both. In dispensing justice, it's difficult for the aggrieved party to accurately mete out a suitable punishment, because in most cases, it's difficult for them to be rational adjudicators of justice. Ideally, judges are meant to be impartial arbiters of confiscation, correction and reparation. Maybe that's not entirely possible, but it's important to strive for it, and the aggrieved will have the hardest of times doing so.

Justice restores things to their proper order and balance. That's its purpose, and it's a righteous concept. Vengeance, while not its stark opposite, is still diametrically opposed to justice. It is the (irrational?) use of force in a state of rage to punish a wrong with an even greater wrong. It does not concern itself with restoration or recompense. Only revenge.

And that's the difference. The world of Harry Potter began in the last days of the roaring 90s. But it ends in a post-9/11 world, where we ask questions like "what is justice?" and "what is vengeance?" on a daily basis.

I hope book 7 has Harry deal with these issues in a frank and startling way. I hope he wrestles with what it means to kill or be killed in his final confrontation with Voldemort. War is hell. There's death and blood and guts and vomit. When you move from restorative justice to singular vengeance, you have to deal with the consequences in all their muddy glory.

And in my heart of hearts, I hope there's way for Harry to restore things to their rightful place without resorting to vengeance. It's the difference between a Mel Gibson war movie and Terrence Malik one. There ought to be a struggle in Harry Potter, as he grows from an adolescent into a young man, and deals with how far he's willing to go in his quest to restore the right things to their proper places.

But I fear that won't happen. Miss Rowling has been leading us down this vengeful path for two books now (maybe more), and I fear it's simply too late to turn back. There were signs in books 4 and 5, but we had invested so much in the character by that time, that it was hard to recognize the warning signs. It wasn't until halfway through book 6 that I finally realized where this was going. It all ends in revenge. It all ends in a final confrontation, where Harry will have the opportunity to seek vengeance upon those who have wronged him. And most likely, he will succeed.

But what then? In reality, life doesn't end after book 7. It doesn't end at age 18. In reality, killing killers doesn't bring resolution, it just eliminates the danger of them killing again. In reality, bombs dropped in Afghanistan fail to bring closure to a grieving nation. Instead, they bring even greater violence, leaving oppression and corruption and unrelenting guilt in their wake.

But Harry (most likely) will never have to deal with that. Because his life ends, whether he dies or not, on July 21st. He'll never have to come to grips with the fact that he's ended the lives of other human people, actual human beings, and that their deaths will never bring back his parents, or his friends, or his mentor. No one will have to deal with the aftermath, six years later, because that portion of his life will never be written.

What kind of message is that? Mission Accomplished? Not one of self-sacrifice and unfailing love, but one of hatred and rage and ignorance. Because in Harry's world, there are no long-term consequences for his actions. There's no long term anythings.

And the sad thing is, we know that's bullshit. It's just simply not true. We see it for the lie it is every night we watch the news, or open the paper, or surf the internet. There are always consequences. There is rarely closure.

And there is always more violence.

Tardy Report Cards

2007-07-18T22:03:00.000-05:00

On thinking about television without actually writing about it until its too late.

Sure, May Sweeps were ages ago. And those Spring Finales can hardly be remembered. But I've got something to say dammit, and it'll be said. Because this is a blog. And it's been anything but topical lately. So why mess with success?

1. CBS -- I watched nothing on this network during prime time, yet since it and PBS are the only channels I can actually get at home on my bunny ears, I have developed something of an embittered affinity for Craig Ferguson. While his interviewing style needs loads of polish, and his musical guests are way too West Coast, his monologue is probably the tightest in all of late-nite TV. And he has all those funny noises. Man, I love funny noises.

Letter Grade: C- / Ferguson carries this network.

2. FOX -- I miss the X-Files. I tried getting through season 3 of 24 on DVD for a second time this past winter. I failed again. Miserably, too. Plus, they black out all the good baseball games on Saturday afternoon when I try watching them on MLB.com. Bastards.

Grade: F / Someone reunite Bob Costas with baseball.

3. CW -- Someday, I'll catch up on season 3 of Veronica Mars. I can't say I was too sad to hear it was canned, though. Buffy was all downhill after 3 seasons, so at least VM won't have to go through that. And they finally canceled Seventh Heaven, too!

Grade: D+ / I give it two more years, tops.

4. NBC -- Who would have though that NBC could have stolen my heart so madly and deeply this past year. Friday Night Lights literally blew me away. I can't say enough about this show. It's damn good TV; most likely the best drama on television, cable or no. Heroes, however, sort of limped to an inauspicious ending. Sylar is still alive? Who cares? If it weren't for Hiro and Super-Jess, I don't think I'd be interested in season 2. Studio 60, on the other hand, finished up its run (during June, no less) on the upswing. Kind of. I got the feeling Aaron Sorkin just kind of threw caution to the wind and pulled out every TV cliche possible for the last four eps. In spite of all the ridiculous melodrama, this cast really acted their asses off, and Sorkin tied things up quite nicely in the end, giving his lame-duck series the kind of farewell that he couldn't with the West Wing. On top of all that, NBC threw a bunch of really good "quirky" series onto the wall to see what stuck: 30 Rock? Success! Andy Barker, P.I. and Raines? No one watched but me! Brilliant!

Grade: B+ / Friday Night Lights moves to Friday nights! It was nice knowing you.

5. ABC -- More shows that didn't make it regardless of how quality they were -- Knights of Prosperity and Day Break just couldn't take the network heat. Day Break because no one who loved Lost gave it a chance (even though it blew 2/3 of Lost season 3 out of the water); and Knights because ABC doesn't know how to market half-hour comedies. Good job, suits! Then there was Lost. Some good, some bad. After a terrible start, my faith was nearly restored in this series -- until the last couple of episodes. If Locke had actually died, I would have given up on this show completely. More on that tomorrow, because this post is long enough already.

Grade: B- / Let's Rob Ray Romano. Wouldn't you have watched that show?

Overall Grade: C+ / Too many good shows got buried.

My Life's Overall Pathetic-ness Grade: A- / Only because I don't watch CSI Miami.

Cat Chases Bear Up Tree: A One-Act Play

2007-07-02T14:12:00.000-05:00

This pic may be a year old, but if you ain't seen it, it's new to you.

O Griff! O Junior! O Fleeting Youth! Run not softly back to my warm-waiting bosom!

2007-06-25T21:33:00.000-05:00

Barry Bonds is at 749, just six shy of Hank Aaron's mark, and once again most Americans don't really care. (Though you wouldn't know it from watching Sports Center.) Aaron has repeated that he's not going to bother attending any games once Bonds nears his mark. And Bud Selig has repeated an many occasions that he's unsure whether he'll be in the park when Bonds breaks the record. On one hand, it almost sounds like Aaron is a little bitter that Bonds is going to break his 755. But in light of the BALCO affair and the black cloud that hovers over Bonds because of it, it's hard to blame Aaron. Selig doesn't have a good excuse, however. If he's not going to actively prosecute Bonds for breaking any rules, he has no reason to stay away as Bonds nears the record. Bonds is either a cheater or he isn't. Selig, especially as commissioner, can't have it both ways. (It might be a moot point 15 years from now, however, as both Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols could pass Bonds if they stay healthy for their careers, but that's a big IF for a major league ballplayer.)

In the shadow of Bonds' feat, though, a few other ball players have been lost in the home run shuffle. Sammy Sosa, embroiled in his own steroids controversy, just passed the 600 mark, becoming only the fifth player to do so, and drastically improving his Hall of Fame chances. Ken Griffey Jr., in yet another resurgent year, is nearing 600. And Frank Thomas, who fell off the face of the planet for a number of years, is just one short of 500.

As these guys near the end of their careers, something else nears its end in the baseball world, at least according to me. These are the players I came up with as a baseball fan. I'm nearing my 20th year as more than a casual fan of baseball, something that began with the 1988 NLCS which pitted the Mets against the Dodgers. My first clear baseball memory was Kirk Gibson's pinch hit home run in Game 1 of that series, as the underdog Dodgers upset a powerful Mets ball-club. From there on I gravitated towards New York clubs like the Mets and the Yankees, and even a former NY team in the Giants. Guys like Will Clark, Howard Johnson and Don Mattingly quickly became my favorite ball players. And the Yankees, lovable losers at the time, somehow become my favorite team.

Those guys have long since retired, so it's Thomas and Griffey and Sosa whom I remember best, seeing as how their careers have coincided with my love for the game. And it's sad to see these guys nearing the end. I wouldn't be surprised if Sosa called it quits after this year, now that he's reached 600. Thomas may have another year left in him, but that's yet to be seen. Griffey, who still looks 20-something, seems to have a couple more years to go, especially now that he's ready to leave Cincinnati for a playoff contender. Guy wants a ring, and who can blame him for that?

But when they leave the game, I feel like I become, by default, one of the "old-timers," a weird thought for a 27 year old. Glavine, Biggio, Clemens, Franco...it's hard to say how many games these guys have left. And when they're gone, a year or two from now, I will have been a fan of this game for a complete generation -- 20 years. The guys I grew up watching have been almost completely replaced by a new crop of players. That's not to say I don't like A-Rod and Jeter and company -- they're great ball players. But I distinctly remember when they came up into the the league. I can't say that about Sosa or Clemens. And it's different because of that, even though I can't really explain it. I remember being all of 16 years old, and calling guys like Jeter and Posada "kids." That takes an old soul. But now, when those "kids" are nearing the end of their careers, what do you call young guys like Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun?

I guess what I'm getting at is that all loves eventually mellow out at some point. There was a time there, near the end of the steroids era and in the midst of the Yankees dynasty, when I stopped caring about baseball. Luckily, that didn't last. But this renewed love for the game is different than it used to be. It's more grounded in history and poetry, economics and and a willingness to lose three hours to a game in which very little, and everything in the world, happens. It's not quite as passionate, but it doesn't need to be. I'm committed to this game now. I'm committed to it in the same way I'm committed to other great American inventions like Bluegrass, Walk Whitman and Wisconsin Cheddar. It's part of me. And I'm happier for it.

It's alot of fun to be a fan once again, an old-timer now, who sneers at the young pups who prefer the NFL or the NBA (or, God forbid, NASCAR). Basbeall is as much America as Harry Truman or Mark Twain. No matter who it is out there on the diamond, I'm always going to have a piece of my heart out there.

It's honestly about as romantic a game as you'll ever see. And the older I get, the more I realize just how perfect it really is.

We Are All Sufjan Stevens

2007-06-02T23:58:00.000-05:00

Thanks to the Internets, it's alot easier to hear about new tunes. And to actually hear them, too. Case in point, the music of Mr. Sufjan Stevens. He's been awful quiet since The Avalanche was released last summer, yet slowly but surely, new songs are trickling out -- even if they aren't necessarily from a new Sufjan album, states related or non.

First, a song from A Tribute to Joni Mitchell, which was released in April. Mr. Stevens covers Ms. Mitchell's "A Free Man in Paris," of which I have no prior knowledge, seeing as my infatuation with her began and ended very quickly, over a matter of days, and never recovered. Pitchfork has been streaming it for weeks now, but in case you missed it, here it is:

It's classic, big-band Sufjan, or at least recently classic, big-band Sufjan, which is how most people know him anyways.

However, not-so-classic Sufjan is right around the corner, on an upcoming compilation from McSweeney's The Believer. Stevens has flashed rock cred in the past, but this new track, "In The Words Of The Governor," really gets the blood pumping unlike anything else in his back catalog. Be prepared for a surprise if you like the pretty Sufjan best, courtesy of Stereogum (follow the link for a stream of the cut).

And finally, back to pretty Sufjan, and a video (from blogotheque and dailymotiom) of the man himself covering The Innocence Mission's gorgeous "Lakes of Canada" from their album Birds Of My Neighborhood. Banjo? Check. Shyness? Check. Rooftop performance? Check. Ah, who cares which Sufjan you like best. The man is just plain good at what he does, however it is he does it.

So there you go, true believers. Maybe one of these days we'll see another 50 States album. Or maybe a Seven Swans-ish rock-your-face-off fest. I couldn't care less what it is, as long as it's sooner rather than later. Much sooner.

I seen her, ages ago, and lived to tell the tale.

2007-05-28T14:59:00.001-05:00

Last month I took a little trip to Northampton, Mass to see little a singer-songwriter named Patty Griffin. And behold, everything that I saw was good.

So Patty was basically her bad self all night long. I've got to say (this being the first time I'd seen her in concert) I had built this show up in my mind more than a person ought to. But Miss Griffin hit one out of the park that night. Except for the first two songs (a French lullaby and a guitarless "torch" tune that I was unfamiliar with), it was a night of day dreams come true.

Patty without her guitar at the beginning was a bit disconcerting, for both the audience and Miss Griffin. She was doing some uncomfortable hand gesturing/dancing that you see women twice her age trying during that concert by The Tokens that PBS kept showing during Pledge Week. But once she strapped on that guitar....good Lord. Songs from all over the place came out -- Living with Ghosts, Flaming Red, 1000 Kisses, Impossible Dream, Children Running Through -- even some love from Silver Bell. My stomach nearly flew out my mouth when she started playing the chords to Truth #2, I kid you not.

The only drawback was how much the damn show actually cost. $30 bucks for a ticket? This is the reason I liked Chicago so much. $14 for Joanna Newsom and The Handsome Family. $12 for Sufjan Stevens. $8 (yeah, $8!) for Damien Jurado. But I guess you can get away with that when most of your audience are Baby-Boomers. And oh how those Boomers showed up that night! I was surprised by how few people my age were there. Except for the nice lesbian couple I sat by, there was no one in my section who was within 10 years of me. Good golly, Miss Griffin. But what can you do?

All in all, a very good night of music. Even if it looked more like a Simon & Garfunkel show that it ought to have. But those tunes! O my those tunes!

Photo courtesy of Rick Harris' photostream. Don't be mad, Rick. I'm real poor. Pity me.

I'll Take Korean Ghost Stories Over Sawyer In A Cage Any Day Of The Week

2007-04-24T21:45:00.000-05:00

So I finally got around to watching last week's Lost this evening, and I have to say how impressed I am with the episodes that have aired since the show came back from hiatus. Last Wednesday's ep was no exception. Not only did we get a meaty Desmond flashback, we also had our first glimpse at a Brian K. Vaughan (co)-penned episode on Lost. From the cold open's argument over the coolness of Flash vs. Superman, I had a suspicion, later confirmed during the credits, that BKV had a hand in writing this gem -- the offhanded jokes about "who's your favorite Other" and having to play ping-pong every 108 minutes were especially funny.

Whether BKV wrote them or not, it's nice to know that the writers of Lost don't take their jobs too seriously; it's a treat for fans that the characters on the show seem recognize the absurdity that is their life on the island. Jin's ghost story on the beach and Sawyer stealing one of Bernard's tapes (he is alive!) were fun digressions, too. I think I can say, without any reservations, that Lost is back on track after a disastrous fall kick-off. I'm hooked again. And not out of some begrudged, misplaced loyalty. This show is good once more. Hear, ye. Hear, ye. Rejoice. Rejoice.

Blusic II: Friday Night Lights

2007-04-08T00:59:00.000-05:00

This show has got the goods. Last fall, when I was in full TV overload, Friday Night Lights was just one of a number of impressive pilots offered by NBC. These days, however, it's one of only two or three shows I've stuck with through the entire 06-07 season. Studio 60 sort of fizzled and imploded on its way to a slow, painful death. Heroes got bogged down by a lack of zip and interesting characterization. Kidnapped....well, I'm not sure what the hell happened there. How long did it even last -- three episodes? But FNL. It just kept getting better and better.

One of my favorite parts of the show -- besides the acting and the writing and the camera-work and the attention to small detail and the acting (again) -- is the music. I try to forget how often craptastic music has laid low some of my favorite shows (J.J. Abrams choice of 75% absolute shite in the background and foreground and montages of Alias quickly springs to mind). But Friday Night Lights must have some smart people in their music licensing department. Over the course of 20 episodes so far, we've heard music from Explosions in the Sky, Iron & Wine, Spoon, Jose Gonzalez, TV on the Radio, Heartless Bastards, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, the Old 97s, the Go! Team, Whiskeytown, a Daniel Johnston cover, Camera Obscura, Beulah, Broken Social Scene and the Stooges. Even appearances by Justin Timberlake and TobyMac (yes, that TobyMac) seemed to fit seamlessly into the fabric of the show. And I'll say it again, yes that TobyMac.

It helps, that a show this good doesn't distract by employing a terrible soundtrack. It makes the acting and the writing and the camera-work and the attention to small detail and the acting (again) all the more powerful and moving. That I enjoy this show, and that I enjoy Iron & Wine, and that this show enjoys Iron & Wine, sort of brings everything to a harmonious full circle. Yes, that's cheesy. But it's also transcendent. And it's what elevates Friday Night Lights head and shoulders above most of the schlock on TV these days.

And it's just one of the elements that make Friday Night Lights the best hour of television you'll find, this week, last week, and all season long. Keep your fingers crossed for a second season, because if any freshmen show deserves a year two, it's FNL.

*Screencap courtesy of Friday Night Lights Online.

Blusic

2007-03-27T14:06:00.000-05:00

The talk of the town.

Oh music, my music. I basically love your friggin' guts. Nuts and guts. Gutters, too. Music is best that can be listened to in gutters, or by gutters, or behind shutters, or in closets.

I used to have this really great closet in Michigan. I kept all kinds of stuff in it. Baseball cards. Comic books. Hats. Old G.I. Joes. Free pens and pencils. Milk crates. Lots of other stuff, too.

But not music. That went on the dresser. All of it on the dresser. I don't have a dresser anymore. I lost that dresser. I lost my computer, too, and all 20,000 songs along with it. Except I have the computer in a box in my apartment. I can't say the same for the dresser. But at least with the computer-in-a-box, I can set things to rest on it. My dresser is firewood now. Or maybe worse. Maybe it's still sitting in my old room in Wisconsin, empty and sad and lonely and confused why it didn't move with me or David or my parents. I'm sorry dresser. I'm sorry computer. If it makes you feel any better, you have not been replaced.

What was I talking about? Oh, yes. Music. Andy tagged me. Music-tagged me. Web-tagged me. Blog-bagged me. On this fake computer (not the Potter boy, mind you, but a PC) I use at work, there are some 2381 songs from which to choose from. Here are the rules:

1. scan through your itunes or cd library. refamiliarize yourself with the nooks and crannies of your musical options.
2. identify five categories — genres, if you will — of music. these should be as obscure and finely-articulated as you’d like. feel free to use modifiers liberally.
3. nominate — select, really — a “perfect song” for each category. include a link for each song to something (the amazon page for the CD, or the artist’s website, or whatever).
4. ideally, some of the songs will be nominally obscure, or, at least, not completely mainstream and overplayed. no need to tell us all about songs we all know!

So here are five, five songs I like, five songs I lurve. Five songs for campfires and fireflies and flying with wings as eagles. Take that Chris Tomlin! I would kill you at writing worship songs! I know some Coldplay! I know some U2! I owned the first Delirious LP before any of the others! I knew Hungry back when it was a Vineyard secret! I have not only built a treehouse, but the Holy Ghost parties there with John Wimber all the time!

Note: Like Andy, I will use my terribly-tagged iTunes genres. Which is exactly how I like my genre tags in the first place.

1. Taken from Alt.Pop, Long Lost Brother from Over the Rhine's Ohio. (How else do you categorize Karen and Linford?) This song literally got me through my Montana year like hell on hind's feet. Thought you'd be further along by now? Believe brother, down to the letter. OtR stripped down to their post-Good-Dog-Bad-Dog-era basics, all piano and slide guitar glory. Glory! Someone get me a puddin' pop!

2. Taken from Folk, We All Know from Devendra Banhart's Nino Rojo. Smiles to faces, faces to arses, arses to animals, dancing so. Like I said, this is why DB brings smiles to my faces, and makes my clavicles shakeses. He is like smiling. He is smiling. Issa, Queen of the snake people couldn't have said it better. Play that ticker-tape-guitar! It's a parade at the end of the world! It's the earth's end and time is like nothing! It's only track 3! Error! Error! Cannot compute!

3. Taken from Hip-Hop, The Only One from Ghetto Pop Life by Danger Mouse & Jemini. Boom-di-yada! Up in the facility! The faculty can't take it! My faculties can't task it! Multitask? Like a miracle! Break this down. Take this down. Jemini and his friend D-A-N-G-E-R-M-O-U-S-E! Check yourself before you wreck yourself. Wreck yourself before you let yourself never hear this towering tune. Leave this page right now. Install Soulseek. Download this song. Checkmate.

4. Taken from Indie, Bros by Panda Bear from Person Pitch. Like OtR, I don't know what to call this. Better than blood pumping through my veins seemed a bit much. So many repetitions! So many sweet harmonies! So many sallow sounds! Sounds Familiar? Like family? Biking across Europe? Hiking across Sudan? Su-don't! Listen to this instead! Bristle with thistle! Shamrock with Panda Bamrock! Again and again and again and again. Do not forget. Again and again and again and again. Rinse. Repeat. Again and again and again and again. Twice daily, after flossing, and before bed. Or always. The eternal flame of the Seven Wood Club shines for really long periods of time!

5. Taken from Young God (because I believe it really is a genre unto itself) Dylan, Pt. 2 by Akron/Family & The Angels of Light, from their self-titled sort-of split cd. Lots of freaky guitar! Lot of creaky vocals! Lots of ru-ru-rillie-a-ru! I found what I'm looking for boys! This freaking song! This reeking song! Blonde on blonde on blonde on blonde! Bound for Singapore! Round the ring once more! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! I hear Jesus and the Angels calling me home! Pedro just swore! Now that's more like it!

End.

p.s. I tag Jake and Paco. Jake because he downloaded alot of new music and needs to share his opinions. And Paco because he never writes full blogs on the Haven.

Dr. Evil Now Corporate CEO of Viacom, Daily Show Fights Back

2007-03-24T13:42:00.000-05:00

And now for some funniness. I caught a web clip of comedian Demetri Martin on the Daily Show the other day, in which he attempts to explain the Viacom/Google row over the proliferation of Viacom's media content on Google-owned YouTube. In short, YouTube has a policy of removing copy-written material when asked. However, for Viacom, that's not enough. They want Google to head off Viacom's material before it's even posted. And now Viacom is suing Google for a billion dollars for failure to do that. That's right, one billion dollars.

Of course, this will probably never make it to court. Viacom knows that. But by upping the ante so quickly, they force Google into a defensive position should an out-of-court legal settlement take place. No doubt YouTube profits from the web traffic brought to its site due to Viacom-owned shows on Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon. But Viacom profits, too, as it brings increased consumer awareness for its brands and products. However, Viacom wants a slice of the advertising pie that Google brings in via YouTube. Ergo, sue their pants off.

Now back to the funny. This last week on the Daily Show, Demetri Martin attempted to explain the Viacom/Google suit for Viacom's Daily Show customers. The video is below and it's pretty funny. At one point, Martin even addresses those viewers who are watching him on YouTube. What's even funnier, though, is that I first caught this video via TV Squad courtesy of YouTube. A day later, the video has been removed. The vid below is courtesy of Comedy Central, which is the way Viacom wants it.

Well, in addition to that one billion dollars.

On War

2007-03-19T22:25:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow marks the 4th anniversary of the U.S. led invasion of Iraq. Four years and two days ago, I was in Haiti of all places, taking part in service project over spring break. I sat huddled around a radio in Phil and Lonnie Murphy's house, with a dozen other students, listening to President Bush address the nation (and in our case, the world). In that address he made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that the United States was ready to invade Iraq in 48 hours unless Saddam Hussein left the country. He didn't. And three days later, while I was tagging along on a medical clinic somewhere in the Plaine de l'Artibonite east of Port-au-Prince, my nation attacked another nation. I missed the whole thing, until the very next day when we stumbled into the Hotel Montana (not kidding, it really exists) and caught the first images via CNN. We were at war.

It was surreal. I remember Phil being very concerned that Muslims worldwide would view the invasion as a holy war -- Christianity against Islam. I remember our group being divided, between our evangelical love of George W. Bush and our reticence to see America at war. Listening to the president on a transistor radio hundreds of miles from home, it almost felt like we were watching the whole thing from the outside. Viewing those first pictures of war four days later didn't do much to bridge the divide. While we were hanging out with orphans and missionary kids and AIDS patients, our country was blowing people up half a world away. On the flight back, we had to adjust to the fact that we were returning to a campus and a nation where we'd be completely out of the loop. We had to adjust to the fact that when we left, Iraq was just another pesky player in the Axis of Evil, but when we returned, we were bombing the shit out of 'em, throttles wide open, all the way to Baghdad.

I remember two conversations in particular between coming home and Bush's speech from the USS Abraham Lincoln in which he declared an "end of major combat." One with a friend of mine who was initially opposed to the invasion, but who couldn't help cheering along with the Iraqis as the tore down big fucking statues of Saddam Hussein. In those moments, he could see the good we were doing, even though he disagreed with the means whereby which we were doing it. And another conversation in the RichLynn library, with another friend who asked me what I thought of it all. And I, choosing my words oh-so-carefully, trying to express how even though I thought our eagerness to invade before all other avenues were exhausted was hubris in the first degree, I couldn't help feeling that the Iraqi people were better off with Saddam out of the way, ready to start a new life and a new country with freedoms they had only dreamed of.

Four years later I'm driving to Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers in Rutland, Vermont when I see a crowd of 30 or 40 people lined up along the highway, protesting that very same war. And it's so confusing. And maddening. Not to mention disheartening. And infuriating. At this point, I don't think most people even understand what the hell is going on in Iraq. The first war we fought was over by the end of 2003. Then the Insurgency -- but since the 2005 elections, even that has become overshadowed by something more insidious. No longer do terrorists, foreign or domestic, account for the majority of violence in Iraq. A recent Pentagon report puts most of the bloodshed firmly in the hands of sectarian violence, that is to say, acts of violence between the Shia majority and the Sunni minority who held power under Saddam. And all that stands between these two groups and all out civil war, the scale of which could lead to genocide not seen since Rwanda, is the U.S. military.

The fact of the matter is, we're no longer fighting for democracy or liberty or oil or freedom from the terrorists. We're holding back a torrent of violence that certain Sunnis and certain Shiites wish to unleash upon each other, regardless of our presence or non-presence. That's not to say that all Iraqis are ready for civil war. Many just want to provide for their families and live in peace. But I'm sure there were plenty of people who felt like that in Virginia and Illinois and Kansas come 1861.

However, once that kind of war starts, it's impossible to avoid picking sides.

So that's that. I have no great love for our current president or his administration. I have no respect for men who lead our nation to war based on fudged data, half-truths and outright lies. But this so-called "surge" is really our last hope. If it doesn't work, expect this country (Democrat and Republican) to resign itself to its fate, and leave the Iraqis to their own devices. But do not, under any circumstances, expect peace to follow. Expect the violence to continue. Expect the death-toll to rise. And expect us to watch in shame and horror, followed by a number of years of second-guessing and misplaced guilt.

What kind of peace is that?

This war was no Vietnam. But expect the aftermath, should we withdraw now, to be just as devastating.

I don't like this war. I don't like how we were mislead in March of 2003. I don't like how it's been handled ever since. I don't like having my high school friends fight it while I hang out with elementary kids in Vermont. I don't like how a generation of our best and brightest are sacrificing their lives for aims that are about as clear as mud. But we're the bull. And we leveled the china shop. And if don't pick up the pieces, who the hell will?

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Hates Frank Miller

2007-03-14T18:44:00.000-05:00

Iran condemns Hollywood war epic (BBC)

So Iran is upset over the portrayal of Persians in Frank Miller' s 300, claiming that after the Iranian revolution in 1979, "Hollywood and cultural authorities in the US initiated studies to figure out how to attack Iranian culture."

If Ahmadinejad knew who Miller was at all, he'd understand that the purpose of this film isn't to "plunder" and "insult" Iran, but to show lots of well-oiled bodies killing and being killed in as graphic and stylish a way as possible. With some T&A thrown in for good measure. This is a film for 14-year-old boys of all ages. Plain and simple.

Cap

2007-03-08T21:47:00.000-06:00

If NPR and the New York Times are reporting it, it's gotta be news.

Captain America is dead. Of course, we cynics know that comic book death is a fleeting death, but still, for the time being, Steve Rogers is one very dead super hero. The NY Times gives us a genuine obituary, while Morning Edition's report brings interviews with Ed Brubaker (the current writer of Captain America), Joe Simon (the co-creator of the character), and Stan Lee, who revitalized the character in the 1960s. Naturally, there's buzz just about everywhere else, but those two reports cut to the heart of the Steve Rogers/Captain America mythos, and do it pretty classy, too.

Joe Simon's quote, that we need Cap now more than ever, sort of sums up my feelings on the matter. And I think Marvel Comics realizes that, too. So it gives you hope, that when yet another super hero comes back from the dead, maybe this time, it'll actually mean something.

Starbucks Hates Africans!

2007-03-01T20:34:00.000-06:00

Okay, that's not really true. I just like typing scandalous headlines. But it is true that Starbucks make millions, perhaps billions, exploiting coffee growers across our fair blue-green planet, and must be stopped at all costs, up to, and including, dumping coffee from the cup into the trash because even when you ask for "room for cream" they still give you way too much coffee and not enough room for cream. Oh yeah, I'm a damn-hell-ass rebel.

But seriously, if we can, Starbucks is making truckloads of money off of Ethiopian beans, using the nation of Ethiopia as a selling point, and Ethiopia, naturally, wants a piece of the action. Starbucks would probably acquiesce, were Ethiopia not asking for such a huge chunk of said action. Country vs. Company! Oh yeah!

To be fair, Starbucks is a huge buyer of Fair Trade coffee, and that's dandy. But Fair Trade growers are still at the mercy of the buyer. They don't demand a price. They get the "fair" value only if they can find someone nice enough to buy it. Were Ethiopian farmers (or more accurately, the nation) allowed to trademark coffee exports that specifically come from their nation, they could set the price for buyers to use their trademarked beans.

Of course, Starbucks' lawyers don't see it that way. And that's what this'll come down to. The lawyers of the Starbucktopia vs. Ethiopia, which placed 170th out of 177 countries in a recent UN ranking of human development. That doesn't necessarily mean Ethiopians can't afford a good lawyer for themselves, it just means that their farmers need a leg up in the market. Fair Trade? That's nice. But owning the name of the coffee you sweat and toil over? That's fair.

p.s. FYI, those are coffee cherries above, what the coffee bean looks like before being dried and roasted. You learn something new every day! Go tell your friends! Start a revolution!

I knew there was a reason I let my subscription to Spin Magazine run out!

2007-02-24T16:46:00.000-06:00

And it wasn't just the departure of Chuck Klosterman.

Sometime last year Spin gussied herself up with a new format, one that looked more like a hipster version of the those supermarket celeb rags than an entertaining music mag. I only had an issue or two left, and the new format change made it much easier to just let my 5 year subscription expire. It was the first time I stopped reading a magazine because I got too old for it since Jr. High, when my parents stopped getting Focus on the Family's Breakaway for me every year for Christmas. In regards to Spin, I was only 26, yet I suddenly realized this magazine wasn't geared towards me any longer.*

Enter an article I found on MusicSnobbery.com today while looking for record reviews on the net. The format change was part of a larger target demographic shift** for the magazine spearheaded by their new editor, Andy Pemberton, formerly of Blender Magazine -- one of the few music magazines whose birth was used to herald the beginning of the end times. While Spin hadn't resorted to centerfold spreads of the Pussycat Dolls, it had dumbed down much of its content, choosing to spend more time reviewing hot party scenes and rock star sitings than actual music journalism. I have no idea if the format shift has helped the bottom line in recent months, but one can only hope that its sales volume has gone down the crapper -- and left Chuck Klosterman laughing at his good luck to get the hell out with his dignity intact.

...At least as much dignity as one could hope to have after having written for the Entertainment Weekly of music magazines.

*Contrast that to two years ago when I stopped subscribing to Paste Magazine after realizing I was too young for its format. There were some great interviews and it sure looked pretty, but I couldn't stand the lack of emphasis on anything outside of the Triple-A genre.

**And prior ownership change

Carson Daly Wants Conan's Job

2007-02-17T17:00:00.000-06:00

I knew it was coming. Carson Daly has announced his candidacy for the 12:30 timeslot in 2009 when Conan moves to Burbank (Burbank!) to take over the Tonight Show. While an 11:30 Conan brings joy to my heart, a promotion for Daly makes me want to throw up for hours and hours and hours, then give my eyeballs papercuts while drinking a lawn fertilizer/buttermilk cocktail. This has disaster written all over it.

Please, NBC. Don't do this to America. If nothing else, consider you're old pal Andy Richter. Now wouldn't that be a latenite one-two punch in the face! Come on, feel the Conannoise!

Note To Ted Haggard: Sack Up, Already

2007-02-13T17:35:00.000-06:00

First off, I have to get this out of the way. I love Ted Haggard. It wasn't always this way. But since the whole brouhaha in November, I have had serious feelings of love and affection for this man. He loves God. He struggles. He messes things up. What's not to love, exactly?

That being said, I am seriously disappointed with this man I love -- in Christian love, both the agape and philial varieties -- because of his supposed three week turnaround from confused sexual being to raging heterosexual. You heard me right: Ted Haggard says he's completely hetero after three weeks of counseling. Restoration, indeed! Hallelujah!

Except not. Another disclaimer: in this post I will not argue the point that counseling a body/mind from homosexuality to heterosexuality is/is not possible. Instead I'll defer to the Kinsey scale and chalk up Haggard's behavior to the distinct probability that he lies within the 80% of the population that is neither exclusively straight or exclusively gay. Using that logic, it's absurd to force the man to pick a side and draw up battle lines. Let Haggard be Haggard. And not either Will Truman or Magnum P.I. There's some middle ground here that we ought not to ignore.

The Haggard camp doesn't see it that way. And that's a sad fact. One of the pastors who oversaw Haggard "recovery" had this to say: "He is completely heterosexual. That is something he discovered. It was the acting-out situations where things took place. It wasn't a constant thing."

So according to Haggard's boys, his dalliance with Mike Jones was "acting-out." In other words, his gay-ness wasn't 24/7; it was a outlet he pursued to deal with certain problems. No word on what those problems were -- the drug habit is a good guess (though Haggard never admitted to using), and marital problems could be implied from the statement, too. But in the end it doesn't matter. Because it's not true.

Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic Online points out the tragedy of it all -- that Haggard, in denying his bisexual tendencies, is only making himself sicker. Talk about hitting the nail on the head. This doesn't mean that Ted has to have sex with guys to fulfill himself as a human being. No. What it does mean is this: Haggard needs to admit to himself that he likes guys on occasion, and that it's part of him that won't ever go away. But because of his beliefs, he will deny that urge and focus his energies elsewhere. It's the same thing millions of Christians do every year during the season of Lent. It's the same thing priests (well, most of them) and nuns have done for centuries. It's the same thing a married man does when he sees a good-looking woman that isn't his wife. It's done every day. That doesn't make it easy. But it does make it possible.

By refusing to accept the truth, and claiming he's 100% all woman-lovin', Haggard only makes it harder on himself to move on and minister to others. Hopefully, he comes to his senses and realizes that no amount of calling an oak tree a fire hydrant makes it a fire hydrant. Yet no matter what, I'll keep on loving him. Because my love for Haggard is agape, and my affection is hesed. And it doesn't go away because he's a toolbag.

Lucky him.

Caught Up

2007-02-09T00:09:00.000-06:00

Musings on sticking around for the main event

I was thinking some about the Rapture today; not the band but the eschatological event, and I was kind of hoping that if there is an actual Rapture, maybe I could skip it.

It's not that I don't want to meet Jesus in the clouds, that does sound fairly awesome, but moreso that it would be interesting to live in a world where there were no Christians or Christian bookstores or Christian bracelets or even Christian ocelots. Think of all the things you could do if you were the last Christian on earth:

You could have a Christian band, and you'd be the only Christian band on earth. You could cover every song by DC Talk and the Newsboys and Phillips, Craig and Dean and Zao and no would could tell you not to because they'd all be in heaven and you could tell them to shut the hell and they'd have to obey because they couldn't talk back.
You could be on all the talk shows and talking heads shows as the last living expert on Christianity. You could probably run for governor of Alabama or North Dakota on the Christian ticket and still stand a good chance of winning. You could run for president and most likely lose but still garner enough votes to find yourself in a cabinet position. Mostly, politics would be a hoot, at least for those first three-and-a-half years.
Then there's the Tribulation. Okay, that might suck. But, if I played my cards right, I might be able to land myself a spot on the Tribulation Force, and get to shoot rocket-propelled grenades at the Anti-Christ, who would be my good buddy from the old cabinet days. He's most likely a dick anyways, so the whole rocket thing might not be so bad.
Two words: Bible Smuggler. I could be the next Brother Andrew!
That's all I got. Except maybe I would push for Armageddon to happen on the moon, because that does sound pretty sweet. Moon Wars!

The End

Snickers Bars Not Gay Friendly. Cheetos Next Snackbrand To Bash Alternative Lifestyles.

2007-02-07T20:19:00.000-06:00

If you watched the Super Bowl, you most likely watched the commercials, too. And if you most likely watched the the commercials, too, then you probably remember the Snickers Kiss. Two manly men eating a Snickers bar accidentally kiss in the process, followed by the ripping of chest hair in order to prove their said manliness. Funny commercial, right? WRONG!

After a number of organizations representing the gay community doth protested, Snickers promised to never run the ad again. Yet according to this USA Today story, the gay community is divided on whether or not the ad was offensive. Cyd Zeigler, who founded Outsports.com, a sports website that caters to the gay community, thought nothing of it. On the other hand, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation was outraged, saying "Mars needs to apologize for the deplorable actions of its Snickers brand." Which, incidentally, is my favorite quote of the year thus far.*

Fortunately, in the Web 2.0 Age, we have dozens of video websites where this commercial will live on and on and on, doing what Snickers would have had to pay millions for were they to air the spot on their own. So if anything, this kind of publicity only serves to heighten my cravings for Snickers brand candy bars, deplorable though their actions may be. America seems to agree, with web site visits to Snickers.com up 1478% (though to be fair, a good number of those hits were redirects from afterthekiss.com, the website Snickers pulled that was to continue the saga of the Kiss online).

Snickers has yet to apologize for the ad, and many people aren't happy with their decision. But if all else fails, and Snickers sticks to their guns, at least they'll have frat boys, mechanics and the Christian Right. Not bad for market share if you ask me.

*'Deplorable' used in reference to the actions of a candy bar? Now that's great rhetoric.

President Bush Wants To Kill The Muppets, Then Drink Their Blood And Sacrifice Their Flesh To His All-Seeing Sky-God...

2007-02-05T22:30:00.000-06:00

...Then Piss In Their Smoldering Eye-Sockets, Then Laugh Maniacally While Outlawing Gay Marriage, So Please Give Us Money (...was that too much?)

President Bush has a budget. A $2.9 trillion budget to keep this country running for another year. And in his budget this year he's made his disdain known for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, asking for Congress to cut its annual budget by almost 25%. But don't worry about Grover and Company (wait a tic, is Grover still on Sesame Street anymore? all I see is Elmo when I flip by); it's not going to happen for two reasons.

One, we've got a Democratic Congress. And they looooooove PBS. No dice, Mr. President. Those nasty Checks and Balances win again.

And two, no one takes this budget seriously. Not even in the good old days when the Republicans ran the Capital Rotunda.

Actually, when I said this budget was for the next year, I kind of lied. This proposed budget will keep the country running for 365 days from October 2007, when the fiscal year for the federal government actually begins. Basically, the president presents a budget every year on the first Monday of February. The Senate and the House kick it around for a couple of months, add things, delete things, add things, rewrite things, argue loudly, then quietly add a few more things and pass it. The end result looks very different from what the president proposed, but that's just the way things go -- no matter who's in control of Congress.

This president has run up quite the tab since he took office, turning an annual budget surplus (taking in more money than the government could spend) into a sizable annual deficit (spending more money than the government collected). It's all over those books you see propped up in Borders or Barnes and Noble -- you know the ones: Spend That Money, You Big-Government Jackass!; Lies, Lies, Lies and Where the Hell Did Our Surplus Go?; and my personal favorite, Our President is a Great, Big Douchebag Who Spent All Our Children's Money, Right After He Stole the Election and Invaded Iraq to Liberate Their Oil....Douchebag.*

What my point is, is this: Our president is trying to make up for all that spending by presenting a paper-tiger budget with a bunch of cuts that he knows and Congress knows and really everyone in Washington knows will never be passed. With a Republican Congress, maybe you get a few. With a Democratic one, fat chance. But the president has promised to cut the annual budget deficit by the time he leaves office, which in Washington lingo means, "Pretend to try to cut the annual budget deficit, then blame Congress when your pretense fails, thus cementing your legacy as a 'trier' who couldn't get his way, but was basically a good guy with a good heart so please vote for Condi. Please."

And everyone comes out happy. President Bush looks like a tough, fiscal conservative (excuse while I laugh for a few minutes, uncontrollably, until I pass out....okay, I'm back). Democrats in Congress get a fun punching bag to punch to rally the troops 'round. And progressive groups get a few punches in too, raising millions of dollars with which to fight the Evil Empire in the process (the president is taking away Sesame Street and NOVA! give Concerned Citizens against Abstinence and Coal Power craploads of your money!). See, smiles all around.

Cause it's this game. A game that both sides have been playing for a long time. And the funny things is, after all the blustering about killing Grover or Elmo or John McLaughlin, nothing actually changes, except for the hundreds of millions of dollars that change hands during that whole punching process I mentioned above. If we were smart, we'd just ignore this budget, try not to get so pissy, and write a new budget, a better budget, a budget with little hearts and smiley faces drawn in the margins.

But who can resist scaring the crap out of America? They're taking away Elmo for Godsakes! For the actual sake of Christ-crucified, don't you see what we must do! Don't you see why this man in so terrible and evil and wants to rape your country! Don't you see the monstrous overhead it takes to run this non-profit organization that protects you from this evil man, who is wanting to rape your country!

See? Now isn't screaming that so much more satisfying than reason and compromise? I'll say.

*I'm pretty sure those books don't actually exist. They might. I just haven't been inside a Borders for while to either confirm nor deny their physical existence.

Vermont Public Radio Sucks

2007-02-03T17:14:00.000-06:00

Leaves Room for Improvement

I did a Google search for that title phrase above the pic and nothing came up. I guess I'm a little frustrated with Vermont's Public Radio Network, and wanted to see if anyone else was. Alas, no takers, at least in the blogosphere. So let's write a post about it that no one will ever read! Come on!

Here Is Why:

1. We have a couple of days in January with 60 degree weather, and suddenly you go crazy with how it's always going to be this way because global warming is going to change our way of life and it'll be like Connecticut weather for the rest of our lives. Geez, never heard of a warm front?

2. You call yourself an independent radio station but I don't buy it. You're not some 100 watt station pumping out the jams free form to Vermont residents. Sure, you're not corporate, either. But indy? With all the power of NPR, PRI and BBC Radio (if so desired) behind you? Not hardly. Be yourself, VPR. Don't worry, you can still stick it to the man.

3. Where's the beef? We got Morning Edition and All Things Considered, but what about Day to Day and the World and To the Point and BBC Newshour and etc., etc., etc. Now, don't get me wrong, classical music makes really great morning tunes, but from 9am-3pm every weekday? And don't even get me started on how much Music from the Hearts of Space sucks ass. I want my WBEZ back. But the old one, not the one they switched to after I left.

4. Tavis Smiley, bitches. Where the hell is Tavis Smiley's weekend show?

In Conclusion

You could do better. Make some room for more talk after the noon hour. Bring the Beef. Find Tavis Smiley. Drop Hearts of Space for American Routes or Whad' Ya Know? or quite literally anything else ever recorded. And keep on stickin' it to the man.

BringingBloggingBack

2007-02-02T00:12:00.000-06:00

Holy shit! Hot shit! New posts! Re-posts! Rebar! Fubar! Fubu! Where the hell did all these posts come from you ask? Hither and thither, of course! Where did this new hell template come from? Well, it's like the second template, only opposite! The days just keep getting better and better! Be on the look out! Cause guess who's hell comin' to dinner? Look out!

I watch TV by 1's and 0's (that's on the computer, dummy).

2007-02-01T23:57:00.000-06:00

Day Break is back! Well, sort of. ABC has finally resumed their streaming of new episodes on their website, after some bullshit about how they couldn't because of music clearance issues. Of course, you have no idea what I'm talking about because I was one of fourteen people who actually watched Day Break before it was cancelled by ABC a few weeks ago. But it was a fun show; more fun than shit-faced Lost season 3. And I missed it. And now I get to see the how the series concludes, so myself and the 13 others who are fans of the show are very happy campers now. Camp fire!

My favorite movies of 2006, some of which are of 2005, because DVDs really mess things up, and most of which are in English, because I speak it good.

2007-01-03T23:59:00.000-06:00

This is by no means a definitive list, mostly due to the fact that I find it hard to remember what movies I've seen over the course of the past year, but also partly due to the fact that these are my favorite movies right this second, which could change next second real easy-like, because I'm capricious like that. But who cares? Let's dig in!

The List! The List!

1. Thank You For Smoking - Was this my favorite film of the year? I'm not sure. It was a top 10 movie though, and probably a top 5 flick, too. Aron Eckhart is balls-out in the lead role, and ought to have his pick of just about any part he wants from now on. Sadly, the film loses its way near the end, trying hard to have Eckhart's character learn some bullshit lesson to make the whole exercise a little more palatable. And did anyone else notice that no one actually smoked during the film? Maybe I'm wrong and need to watch it again, but come on. Grow some gonads, you producer types.

2. A Prairie Home Companion - Holy-hellavu good time, folks! Altman might be dead and buried, but he gets to live on and on with this one. A nice note for Garrison Keillor to begin his conquest of the world, too. Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin are fantastically funny, as are John C. Reilly and Woody from Cheers. Additionally, it was nice to see Sue Scott, Tim Russell, Tom Keith and Guy's All-Star Shoe band all on the big-screen. Next, Altman's ghost directs that Moody Radio show Unshackled! I can't wait!

3. The Devil and Daniel Johnston - Saddest. Doc. Ever. Okay, maybe not. But still, major bummer/awesome-town music party all at the same time. Some people might call it a tragic tale. I call it way better than most other things you could ever watch ever....ever.

4. United 93 - It wasn't my favorite film of the year, but it was probably the best. Paul Greengrass' real-time account of the morning of you-know-when is so freaking punch-you-in-the-face amazing I want to put it into a confetti bomb and explode it over the universe. *What the hell am I talking about?* Who knows? But this film is the most powerful 90 minutes of the year, and I don't say that lightly. I say it heavily, and with ass-loads of gusto. Whatever. Just go watch it.

5. Brick - This might have been my favorite film of 2006 now that I think about it. Rian Johnson executes a nearly pitch-perfect noir set in the halls of a tripped-out high school where people talk like the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s never happened. It's weird. It's fun. People get killed. Then there's a reveal at the end. Watch it with subtitles though. Even though it's in English, you'll miss half the fun without them.

6. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - Another crime film, this one all "stylish" and stuff, whatever the hell that means. R. Downey, Jr. and Val Kilmer aren't my favorite actors, but they do bring the funny in this whodunnit action/thriller/buddy comedy. What the crap is this movie about anyway? I couldn't tell you. Some weird coincidences happen and happen and happen or something. But I laughed and I laughed and I laughed. So it's here on the list. Kilmer is especially hilarious as a deadpan, queer private investigator. I even watched the commentary I liked it so much. And even that was mildly entertaining.

7. Little Miss Sunshine - Okay. Yeah. Everyone and their freaking tranny grandma looooooved this movie. But hey, it was good. And funny. And heart-warming. Except for that second-to-last- scene where they all danced to the stripper song. That was just ridiculous. Like the scene in About a Boy where Hugh Grant played guitar. Just ridiculous. It felt like it had been written by a focus group in Orange County. Other than that, I loved it. Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris and Michael Arndt made this little gem for you and me and everyone we know and we should all just say "thank you" and enjoy it and shut the hell up.

8. Inside Man - Spike Lee lights up another joint and we end up with this bank-heist thriller with grad school smarts and a weird tries-to-be-sexy ending that just ends up creepy. But until the creepiness kicks in, good luck not going crazy trying to figure this one out.

9. Dave Chappelle's Block Party - So many jokes! So many good tunes! Road trips to Ohio! I want a block party of my very own so very badly. Michel Gondry is basically my new hero. (sorry, Hiro)

10. Who Killed the Electric Car? - My favorite documentary of the year, WKTEC flies by night and flies by day and flies just about anywhere it wants. They break it down, see, piece by piece, telling you personal stories and public stories about how these normal people with these e-cars that they absolutely loved had them recalled even though there was nothing wrong with them and even though they loved them bad. Hardcore bad. And now there's one left and it's in a museum with its guts ripped out so that no one gets to drive it ever again. Sure, maybe the cars would only work in cities and for errands like to the grocery store and back, and not for trips across half the county so that I can see my friends and family, but still, let these normal people have their cars, GM. Don't be a dick.

Four that could have been awesome:

The Squid and the Whale - Great cast. Great tone. Flimsy script. Too much existential angst.

Superman Returns - So-so cast. Kevon Smith's script was better. Too many Jesus poses. Not enough Superman punching people through walls.

V for Vendetta - Great performances. So-so visuals. Natalie Portman is hot, bald or not. Too dumbed down from the novel.

Everything Is Illuminated - Real good music. Real good pictures. Everything else just doesn't quite gel. Nice to see the hobbit in something else, though.

And 12 more I want to see bad:

Jesus Camp
Children of Men
Stranger than Fiction
Little Children
Babel
The Last King of Scotland
The Fountain
Inland Empire
Volver
Three Times
The Science of Sleep
Pan's Labyrinth

So there you go. It'll change in 10 minutes, anyways, so big whoop if you hate it. But we both know had Superman punched a few people outside of earth's atmosphere and straight into the heart of the sun, this list would be irrelevant, because Superman Returns would have been ranked numbers 1-10 based on that and that alone.

Oh, well. There's always the sequel.

Old/New Music I Rocked To In 2006, A Top Whatever List

2007-01-02T10:58:00.000-06:00

2006 was basically a year I used to catch up on things I should have listened to a long time ago. A few things were new/new, but not enough for their own list. Other things were partial new/old, meaning I finally got around to listening to an album I had downloaded months before. Here are some of those things, in some sort of order:

1. Alan Lomax recordings - Southern Journey series, Vols. 1-13 - All of my favorite albums of the year. I went through this awesome folk phase last summer, culminating in these recordings from 50 years ago: Volumes 9 & 10 / 11 & 12 blew me away, the former with hours of shape-note singing, the latter with the Georgia Sea Island singers. I wish the contemporary worship scene would ingest this somehow, giving it untold strength and power, and less Coldplay riffs. Get these albums at any cost.

2. Rachel's - systems/layers - Oi, this is good stuff. Mostly modern classical, quasi-orchestral stuff, with sort of a post-rock-ish and something-I-can't-quite-put-my-finger-on vibe. Whatever it's called, it's real pretty.

3. Danielson - Ships - Boom yeah! Danielson sails fast, Danielson sails sure!

4. Sufjan Stevens - Songs for Christmas - The CDs that broke my 5-month downloading fast. Gooodness gracious that man/boy can write, sing and play.

5. Damien Jurado - Where Shall You Take Me? - An album I missed when it came out, my friend Portia burnt me a copy before I saw him in Chicago. It may be his best since Rehearsals for Departure. If not, it's still damn good.

6. Vaughan Williams - Riders to the Sea / Fantasia on Greensleeves - Basically I love this guy, dead though he may be.

7. Jackie Wilson - Reet Petite: The Very Best of Jackie Wilson - Ditto. Only more like wild love.

8. Eric B. & Rakim - Paid In Full - Rakim, now RAKIM, pretty much lives in awesometown 24/7.

9. Yann Tiersen - Basically alot: La Valse des Monstres / Rue Des Cascades / Le Phare / L' Absente / Tout Est Calme / Les Retrouvailles / Black Session - One of my binges this year, downloading all the Yann Tiersen I could get my hands on. Unfortunately, I had burned none of it to CD before my computer died. But so many good listens while I had it.

10. Buddy & Julie Miller - Love Snuck Up - I like country music sometimes. Buddy Miller is why.

11. The Stanley Brothers - Angel Band: The Classic Mercury Recordings / The Complete Columbia Recordings - The Stanley Brothers are why, too.

12. Over the Rhine - Snow Angels - More Christmas goodies from OtR. This time with less depression.

13. Snowglobe - Our Land Brains - Oh mans, Manserly, I want to be a Elephant 6er.

14. The Apples in Stereo - Fun Trick Noisemaker - Me, too.

15. Clem Snide - Your Favorite Music - I had a little Clem Snide ep that I've been listening to for a couple of years now, but I didn't go out of my way to hear anything else from them until this year. I badly-loved Your Favorite Music for weeks beginning with my trip to Montana last April. Good frontier music.

16. King Geedorah - Take Me To Your Leader - Quirky rap. Hot rap. This deserves a cartoon special.

17. The Concretes - The Concretes in Color - Summer pop done real good. Been awaiting May 07 since September 06.

18. Mi and L'au - Mi and L'au - Jake downloaded this and good thing, too, because basically it was the best album for listens after 2:00am for all summer long. Where are they from? I forget. Somewhere better than America, though.

19. Danger Mouse and Jemini - Ghetto Pop Life - Catching up on an album I had had for a couple years now, but didn't sit down with head phones until last spring. Spring is nice. So is this.

20. Half-Handed Cloud - Thy Is A Word & Feet Need Lamps - Discovered while searching for the new Danielson album, I think. Maybe not. But this one-man band is pretty much the best one-man band I know, sir.

21. DAT Politics - Wow Twist - Good pick, Paco. Thanks for getting the words out of your mouth.

22. Amadou et Mariam - Tje ni mousso - Africa, my Africa! Amadou & Mariam make me want to run and jump very high. And love animals real bad, too.

23. Sam Cooke - Night Beat - My favorite soul singer lights it up -- on a studio album!

24. Frank Sinatra - In the Wee Small Hours - I'm taking back Frank Sinatra.

25. Common - One Day It'll All Make Sense - Good for Chicago driving. Another album lost in the computer crash of aught-six.

26. The Clutters - The Clutters - Some rock and roll band I came across. With farfisa hooks.

27. Public Enemy - Yo! Bum Rush the Show / Fear of a Black Planet - Chuck D drops bombs like a fierce sumbitch.

28. The Breeders - Pod - Way better than Bossanova. Frank Black should be ashamed.

29. Elizabeth Cotten - Freight Train And Other North Carolina Folk Songs - Part of the folk and blues phase I mentioned. Miss Cotten plays meaner than your mom.

30. The Beatles - Please Please Me to A Hard Day's Night - Speaking of moms, my mom used to have all these on vinyl. She saw them live in 1964. I'm very jealous.

31. Method Man - Tical - My first forray outside of 36 Chambers. Bad-love it.

32. Suburban Kids With Biblical Names Â- #3 - Cutesy, indie pop for the kids who were 7 when Belle & Sebastian dropped Tigermilk. Still, surprisingly yummy.

33. Charles Aznavour - Sus Mas Grandes Exitos - In the Yann Tiersen binge, I came across some more Frenchies, like this guy. Would be sexier were I female.

34. Giacomo Puccini - La Boheme - Trying to learn to like opera. Puccini makes it easier.

35. Quasi - When the Going Gets Dark - These guys have been around forever and now I just hear them for the first time and now I just like them for the first time. And forever. Like Over the Rhine, but with knives.

36. Defiance, OH - The Great Depression - Socialist, possibly anarchist, Woody Guthrie inspired folk-punk. Much better than Toledo, OH, as well.

37. Alan Lomax recordings - Southern Journey series, Vols. 1-13 - I'm not kidding. Go get these songs, right now, dammit!

my year in review: onward and upward

2007-01-01T18:47:00.000-06:00

It's getting late. Quietly, quietly late. We had our first real snowfall in the valley just the day before yesterday. A few inches in the morning, another inch after noon, and pretty soon we are all covered, all blanketed, now waiting for the warmth of spring, now waiting contently, content to enjoy old mother winter for as long she takes. She ain't snowbird.

This year has taken us to new places (again). This year has brought alot of new faces (again). This year just might have been the best year ever, hard as it was at times, because we are alive and enjoying every second of it. Every damn second of it.

We're waiting for things to happen these days. All sorts of things. Not grasping for newness just for the hell of it every chance we get, but sitting back on our haunches and letting newness happen in its season, in its own time, flowering by night. The early bird gets the worm, yes. But the patient bird looks to the west, and after the storm rolls through, she feasts.

Dark as things seem sometimes, there is a feast ahead. And all creation groins for that day.

I've been reading bits of Isaiah lately, partly because it's poetry, but mostly because it's good poetry:

Man is humbled, and each one brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are brought low. But the LORD of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness. Then shall the lambs graze as in pasture, and nomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich.

We're making things happen these days. All sorts of things. Piece by piece we're building bridges and laying down roads, plowing fields and sowing seeds. It's tough work, to be sure. And sometimes, hardly rewarding. But pressing on is all we know to do. Pressing on and resting in the shadow of his wings. Press and rest. Press and rest. Festival, sabbath, press and rest. One day we will graze as lambs in pasture. But for now we press. One day we shall feast among the ruins of the rich. But for now we press.

It's tough business this pressing. But that's what his wings are for. That's what his temple is for. That's what you my brother, and you my sister, are for. This pressing is tough business, but we press for a goal.

Not that I have already obtained this or have become perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Straining forward to what lies ahead, pressing on toward the goal of the upward call, holding true to what we have attained.

Learning to remember. Remembering to be content.