[Abraham] looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God... All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. ...They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God. (Hebrews 11)
Grace Paley: The Collected Stories I'm currently reading these wonderful short stories by a heroically engaged human being intermittently between other books.
Annie Dillard: An American Childhood A slight but engaging memoir of growing up in an eccentric upper class family in Pittsburgh in the 1950's. Dillard traces the growth of her habit of observation of nature and her meditative turn that in time made her the author of one of my all-time favorite books, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.
Carl Hiaasen: Skinny Dip I love Carl Hiassen. When I need a book that will go down like a good burger, fries and milkshake I turn to him and he never disappoints. Completely entertaining from the first page to the last, hilarious but with serious moral concerns at its center about our use of the environment and each other.
Ernest Hemingway: Green Hills of Africa Hemingway's complete control of his deceptively simple, direct style is always a marvel, but 295 pages about the slaughter of animals that are now endangered and simplistic, paternalistic views of the African people made me uncomfortable.
Martin Amis: The Information As I read this day after day on the bus going to and from work I began to wonder what others on the bus thought about me as I laughed out loud again and again. What a sharp, wicked sense of humor and an amazing skill with words Amis has. In the last fifteen pages, though, either he didn't know how to wrap it up and lost his way or he just went so fast that I couldn't keep up. Either way, I wound up a little disappointed.
Lucero: 1372 Overton Park Lucero rocks as always, although the songs are a little less outstanding, I thought. Still, RIYL Bruce Springsteen or The Hold Steady. (***)
Xx: XX This young London band's dream pop makes me think of Angelo Badalamenti, but with intriguing interplay between sleek, airy male and female voices. (****)
Bell X1: Blue Lights on the Runway I've seen this Irish band compared to Coldplay and early Radiohead. It also makes me think of The National, Elbow, and at some points of the Talking Heads. Not innovative, I guess, but every song is a good listen. (****)
The Crying Light Antony and the Johnsons: The Crying Light No, this won't be to everyone's taste. Rock, it doesn't. Its chief strength is Antony Hegarty's astonishing voice (think of both Buckleys). He looks clearly and mournfully, with dignity and calm, at the century of ecological catastrophes we're plunging into. I think this may be the only release this year that people years from now will look back at and say that it mattered. (*****)
Andrew Bird: Noble Beast So far, this is my most listened to 2009 release. It sort of reminds me of Paul Simon at his peak in that it's melodic, thoughtful and literate. Bird doesn't have Simon's knack for captivating hooks, but he has greater musical intricacy and subtlety. (****)
It's surprising to thing that it's been fifteen years since REM released Automatic for the People, but it has. When I think back, though, that album came out before I met my wife and before we had our daughter. She's about to turn 14, so I guess it has been that long.
The folks at Stereogum have marked that anniversary by putting together an album of covers of all the songs in the original. Some of the cover artists whose names are most familiar to me are Rogue Wave, Blitzen Trapper, the Shout Out Louds, and the Wrens. All the tracks are available as free downloads, but here is the player through which you can stream them.
Last night I was watching CNN and the reporter was saying (my paraphrase) that there is not a natural affinity between Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Al Qaeda is driven by an ideology of Islamic fundamentalism, but the Taliban is more concerned with Pashtun nationalism. Because they have different agendas, he said, if the Taliban were to control Afghanistan again they might not really provide a safe haven for Al Qaeda, since that would draw international opposition down on them.
Now, I spoke out to people I know about the evil of the Taliban a long time ago. In 2000 and 2001, before 9/11, I alienated some people by urging them to supportRAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. I still don't think the Taliban are a bunch of nice guys. However, the idea of U.S. troops being sent to quell an indigenous movement for national self-determination makes me uneasy, even if the nationalists would blow up ancient statues of the Buddha or take an allegedly adulterous woman out to the soccer stadium and shoot her in the head. It's a little too reminiscent, for me, of the rationale used to send troops to Vietnam.
Then, this morning, I was watching the 2005 documentary Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train on Link TV. Howard Zinn is a true American hero. The movie had a clip of Hubert Humphrey speaking in defense of the conduct of the war in Vietnam. He was (my paraphrase again) explaining the inevitability of collateral damage because the enemy would surround itself with innocent people. He said, "Your government does not bomb women and children." Once again I heard echoes of Vietnam. Isn't that exactly what our government says now when a drone takes out a few militants but also kills innocent people around them? How well did that turn out 40 years ago? How will it turn out now?
There may be substantive differences that I'm ignoring, and if so I would welcome anyone who wants to point them out to me and convince me of them. I really would. I am committed to supporting this president, and he was very clear throughout last year's campaign that he would step up the war in Afghanistan. Still, I'm getting uneasy about this war.
Newssourcesandblogsareafire with reaction to South Carolina representative Joe Wilson's disgraceful heckling during President Obama's speech tonight. Amazingly, to me anyway, there's already a paragraph about the incident on the Wikipedia page for Wilson. There have been nearly 200 revisions to the page in the last few hours and it "is currently disabled due to vandalism."
What makes this even stranger is that today Wilson's son Alan launched a campaign for South Carolina Attorney General, a position that may call for even more propriety than the office of U.S. representative does.
This has certainly been a busy day for SC pols. Earlier, in a move that Wilson must also have known about when he went to the Capitol to hear Obama's speech, the SC GOP caucus delivered a letter signed by 60 of its 73 members asking Mark Sanford to resign. Since that chamber only has 124 members and all 51 Democrats will most likely agree, that makes it nearly unanimous.
Between that Wikipedia page and this CNN story
I think I can see why Wilson did this. He may claim, "This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the President's remarks," but I suspect it was a calculated political tactic. Rob Miller, the Democrat who pared Wilson's share of the vote in 2008 down to 54% (it was 84% in 2002) is running against Wilson again in 2010. Wilson is worried, and he needs to do something to energize his base, which must be demoralized after Sanford's debacle made a mockery of the religious right's so-called "family values."
I propose that we not just get mad, though. Let's get even. The way to let Joe Wilson know that his behavior is totally unacceptable is to help Rob Miller. We can
donate to his campaign at http://robmillerforcongress.com/ or on his ActBlue page.
I got the ActBlue link from Suburban Guerilla, who had the exact same idea I had. I promise you, though, that I came up with it before I saw her post. She found a good video clip of this incident from TPM, too. Later I saw the same general idea on Daily Kos.
A friend tells me she has seen commercials for Senator Michael Bennet on Channel 7 in which he comes out, at last, against the public option for healthcare. This isn't even single payer; it's only public option, and a Democrat can't support it? He's not going to get behind the one of the key items in the President's agenda? I'm going to look for verification before I decide, but if she's right, a lot of people, including me, will be very unhappy.
Here's is one person who clearly will be upset, based on his actions at the Metro Organization for People session with Bennet on July 2nd:
The video is a little chaotic, but in that it probably does a good job of reflecting what it's reporting.
Yesterday I got a letter in the mail from Bennet (a form letter with my name inserted, of course) in which he thanked me for writing to him in support of the Employee Free Choice Act. I wrote him a couple of months ago, IIRC. He went on to do a lot of waffling back and forth over the line between supporting or not supporting the EFCA. He never took an unequivocal stand one way or the other, but I think he made it clear that at the end of the day he will have waffled himself into alignment with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the GOP.
All this from someone ColoradoPols.com still considers a strong favorite in 2010?
When Governor Ritter (no progressive, either, it's now completely clear) appointed Bennet to take Ken Salazar's place in the Senate when Salazar became Secretary of the Interior, I was wary and uncertain about Bennet, but inclined to give him the benefit of my uncertainty. Gradually, though, I'm becoming less and less uncertain, and it isn't resolving itself in Bennet's favor. It makes me begin to wonder if there's someone out there who will stand up for Democratic values and who would be willing and able to take him on in the primary next year.
I've griped about Dave Schultheis a couple of times before. Now he'sgarneringbroaderattention by saying more and more outlandish things. Who would have thought, without ol' Dave to point it out, that AIDS in infants is a good thing?
That doesn't mean the bill he was opposing was necessarily a good one. This blog post makes a strong argument that it's not. It's just that Dave was opposing it for all the wrong reasons.
If you can't believe anyone would say such things and you have another six minutes to waste on this scurrilous garbage, here are Renfroe's actual remarks as recorded on the Senate floor. I have to warn you, though, that he makes even George W. seem eloquent, so it's sort of painful to listen to.
Colorado Democrats have been gleefully pointing out how, with the Governor, the Secretary of State, the Treasurer, both U.S. Senators, most of the U.S. representatives, and majorities in both chambers of the general assembly all in our corner, Colorado has gone blue. We've come a long way, it's true, but let's not get too sanguine. Those who would take away our freedom and establish a reactionary theocracy have not given up or gone away.
Wednesday night my wife and I watched Cinderella Man, Ron Howard's 2005 biography of boxer James J. Braddock starring Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweger. Howard will never have an reputation as an avant garde pioneer, but it was a well made and entertaining movie and I'd recommend it if you haven't seen it yet.
I don't think that anyone involved with the movie or anyone watching it in 2005 could have anticipated how resonant its themes of suffering, perseverance and solidarity in the face of economic crisis would seem in 2009. I really made that connection now, though. One of the scenes that took the troubles of the time beyond one family's struggle was Braddock's visit to Central Park's Hooverville. While I don't have a clip of that segment, the following brief video gives some idea of what Hoovervilles must have been like. (It also shows, by the way, that Bing Crosby wasn't always the sentimental, avuncular type people today think of him as. Both his attitude and his voice are a little sharp and bluesy here.)
Of course there were homeless people when Cinderella Man was made, but I don't think it was as bad then as it is now. When I'm at work and I want to go out for lunch I go to the pedestrian mall a block away. Years ago it had a lot of homeless people, but they mainly fell into two categories, the long-term homeless who seemed to have substance abuse problems and teenagers who often seemed to have skateboards. Then Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper introduced a 10 Year Master Plan to reduce homelessness, and it seemed to be working. Lately, though, as you might expect, it's been getting worse again. What was just the occasional person looking for help now feels like a gauntlet to be run. The demographics have changed, too. There seem to be a lot of adults in their prime years who are new to the streets.
Across the country tent cities have been springing up. The one that has had the most publicity in in Sacramento, as seen on Oprah and in this clip from MSNBC:
These tent cities and these panhandlers on the streets are just the visible edge of a much larger problem, too. According to a recent report (web sitesummary pdffull report pdf) by the National Center on Family Homelessness that has receiveda lotof attention 1 in 50 children faces homelessness. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean in the streets or in a shelter. It appears to include situations like having to stay with someone else.Still, It is shameful that things have come to such a pass in a country that has been so richly blessed. They are likely to get even worse, too, before they get better.
Today's Daily Office, the Bible readings appointed for today, includes this from Psalm 76: "From the heavens you uttered judgement; the earth feared and was still
when God rose up to establish judgement, to save all the oppressed of the earth," and this jeremiad from Jeremiah 5: "For scoundrels are found among my people... they have become great and rich,
they have grown fat and sleek... and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord, and shall I not bring retribution on a nation such as this?" This Lent, I need to focus more on what my role is in creating homelessness and what more I can do to help to end it.
