"As a public school system, our calling is to educate all kids no matter where they come from, what their background is, beliefs, values, it doesn't matter," said Whei Wong, Douglas County Schools spokesperson....
Wong says teachers are planning to address the student by name instead of using he or she. The child will not use the regular boys or girls bathroom. Instead, two unisex bathrooms in the building will be made available.
February 7, 2008
Third-grade boy wants to go to school dressed and treated as a girl.
The school — in Colorado — will accommodate him:
Sources say Romney will quit.
Time.com reports.
ADDED: They removed the "Sources" intro to the headline, which now says outright: "Romney to Quit Race."
UPDATE: The speech:
ADDED: They removed the "Sources" intro to the headline, which now says outright: "Romney to Quit Race."
UPDATE: The speech:
I disagree with Senator McCain on a number of issues, as you know. But I agree with him on doing whatever it takes to be successful in Iraq, on finding and executing Osama bin Laden, and on eliminating Al Qaeda and terror. If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.
This is not an easy decision for me. I hate to lose. My family, my friends and our supporters… many of you right here in this room… have given a great deal to get me where I have a shot at becoming President. If this were only about me, I would go on. But I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America, I feel I must now stand aside, for our party and for our country.
"It's like a man is in a car and the car is old and the man gets out of the car and rolls the car into the water into a lake."
The filmmaker David Lynch talks about death on the occasion of the death of his guru, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi:
Do you hope they got a new car, or do you — like Harrison, apparently — hope they took to walking from then on?
What does it mean to you that Maharishi is dead?Did that car image come from the Maharishi himself? It made me think of this song lyric (audio) from George Harrison, another devotee of the Maharishi:
Well, Maharishi dropped his body. It's like a man is in a car and the car is old and the man gets out of the car and rolls the car into the water into a lake. Do we feel sorry for the man? The car is gone but the man is there. No problems for Maharishi. People are sad because that voice of wisdom is gone.
I got born into the material worldDo you think of your body as a car that you're driving, and death as a matter of getting out of that car? When you see a dead body, do you think of it as a car wreck or an abandoned car from which the driver emerged unscathed?
Getting worn out in the material world
Use my body like a car,
Taking me both near and far
Met my friends all in the material world...
I’m living in the material world
Living in the material world
I hope to get out of this place
By the lord Sri Krishna’s grace
My salvation from the material world
Do you hope they got a new car, or do you — like Harrison, apparently — hope they took to walking from then on?
"Is the job of Vice President to a Clinton worth having?"
Michael Duffy asks.
And would Hillary Clinton agree to run for VP under Obama?
Al Gore learned that being No. 2 to Bill was really more like being No. 3 after you factored in Hillary, who had an office in the West Wing and a larger suite of rooms down the hall from the Veep in the Old Executive Office Building. Gore watched his priorities often take a backseat to hers in the first term—and his future run aground as they fought successfully to avoid impeachment and conviction. While she joked with David Letterman on his show that there is no doubt "who wears the pantsuits" in her house, there is little doubt that the Clintons intend to work as a team if Hillary is elected. "I'll be there, talking her through everything," Bill said in Napa Valley, Calif., last month, "like she did with me." One unaligned party wise man said, "Obama may look at the Clintons, at both of them—at that whole thing they have—and say, 'Jeez, that's just way too [messed] up to be a part of. That's just no place I want to be.'"It's clear that Obama should not subordinate himself to the Clintons. He doesn't need it to set up his next run for the presidency. Vice Presidents haven't been doing too well running for President these past few decades. Obama will have already distinguished himself as the frontrunner. It would be a comedown for him, and he'd be saddled with whatever goes wrong in the Clinton presidency — or her failed campaign for it. And Obama's distinctiveness is that he offers a clean break from the politics of the past. Why on earth would he want to connect himself to an icon of the politics of the past?
And would Hillary Clinton agree to run for VP under Obama?
Obama and McCain "exemplify 'post-partisan' politics."
Perhaps. And if so, it's clear — isn't it? — that Obama is the stronger opponent for the Republican's presumptive nominee. George Will lays out this theory well:
Forewarned, Democrats now are forearmed -- not that they will necessarily make sensible use of the gift.... Will their purblind party now nominate the most polarizing person in contemporary politics, knowing that Republicans will nominate the person who tries to compensate for his weakness among conservatives with his strength among independent voters who are crucial to winning the White House?Will briefly alludes to something else, which is going to be important when the 2 party nominees appear side-by-side. McCain is quite old. He admits it and laughs about it, but it's a fact and it affects perceptions on a deep psychic level. Can a President be that old? Will voters have doubts? Hillary Clinton is old enough to neutralize the age issue or at least reduce our anxiety about it. Barack Obama will make us to think about it constantly.
"The man of the moment is an urchin, a wraith or an underfed runt."
Fashion designers design for the ultra-skinny man. Fascinating pictures at the link of very thin male models.
Pity the poor fashion designer! It is not his business to make ordinary people — have you seen these horrible ordinary people? — happy and comfortable and reasonably good-looking in their clothes. He must realize a vision. Yet he is continually hitting up against the limits of human anatomy. He must put a human being inside his beautiful work, and these human beings are so hard to reshape into what looks new. It's not as if you can rip them apart at the seams and resew. So maddeningly frustrating.
[E]ven those inured to the new look were flabbergasted at the sheer quantity of guys who looked chicken-chested, hollow-cheeked and undernourished....It wasn't that long ago that male models were expected to be well-muscled. But somehow, as one designer put it: "The eye has changed." A well-built man can't fit into the clothes the designers want to make. He only fits in clothes that look "boxy," and boxy looks so wrong right now. So, the designers must design not only the clothes that look right, they must design the person inside the clothes.
[M]odels like Stas Svetlichnyy of Russia typified the new norm. Mr. Svetlichnyy’s top weight, he said last week, is about 145 pounds. He is 6 feet tall with a 28-inch waist.
“Designers like the skinny guy,” [model agency director Dave Fothergill said.] “It looks good in the clothes and that’s the main thing. That’s just the way it is now.”
Pity the poor fashion designer! It is not his business to make ordinary people — have you seen these horrible ordinary people? — happy and comfortable and reasonably good-looking in their clothes. He must realize a vision. Yet he is continually hitting up against the limits of human anatomy. He must put a human being inside his beautiful work, and these human beings are so hard to reshape into what looks new. It's not as if you can rip them apart at the seams and resew. So maddeningly frustrating.
February 6, 2008
Just as Hillary reveals that she's loaned her campaign $5,000,000 of her own money...
Obama lets it slip that he's raised $4,252,184 in the last day. And here they are facing the coming weeks needing to fight for every delegate all over the country.
ADDED: But the money is flowing into the Clinton campaign too.
ADDED: But the money is flowing into the Clinton campaign too.
Area man believes inane theory.
Local newspaper defends inane letter publishing policy.
IN THE COMMENTS: Pogo summarizes:
MORE IN THE COMMENTS: Quoting the letter at the link from the Capital Times opinion editor Judie Kleinmaier — "Are you suggesting that we should believe everything our government — the government of George Bush and Dick Cheney — tells us?" — Tibore writes:
Palladian writes:
Henry responds:
ADDED: Area Woman Rips Area Opinion Editor.
IN THE COMMENTS: Pogo summarizes:
So the Capital Times is concerned that Ann Althouse - who is "from their area"- ripped on (huh? What are they at CT, high schoolers?) Kevin Barrett who is also "from their area", so they "let people have their say"?
Baloney.
They are nutters, and support a fellow loon.
MORE IN THE COMMENTS: Quoting the letter at the link from the Capital Times opinion editor Judie Kleinmaier — "Are you suggesting that we should believe everything our government — the government of George Bush and Dick Cheney — tells us?" — Tibore writes:
(*Sigh*)... Judie, instead of making it all about "what the government tells us", how about you consider "what the evidence, science, and engineering" tells us? Then maybe you'd see why 9/11 conspiracy fantasy is so baseless.
Yet another person who'd probably say to me "Put aside the physics for a minute, consider what Bush..." yadda yadda... sheesh...
Palladian writes:
What will these people do when Bush and Cheney aren't running the government anymore, yet the "official" version of 9/11/01 doesn't change?
Henry responds:
That's spot on. The fact that Judie Kleinmaier thinks her argument is enhanced by qualifying who the "government" is reveals a profound level of ignorance about science and actual, unbiased, journalism...
ADDED: Area Woman Rips Area Opinion Editor.
"There's an edgy attitude. Not toughness. Not meanness."
It's Betsey Johnson, talking about fashion.
Several points:
1. I used to buy Betsey Johnson clothes when they were at Paraphernalia (which she left in 1969). Does anyone else remember shopping for clothes at Paraphernalia in the Betsey Johnson days? I loved that stuff.
2. I love the version of "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" that plays at the end of the video.
3. Betsey has worked out a really nice image for herself as an aging woman. It's almost clownish, but it suits her. I could get my hair cut like that. What stops me?
4. "She lived in the Chelsea Hotel in the late '60s. Edie Sedgwick was her house model. She became a friend-of-Andy. She designed the costumes for 'Ciao, Manhattan.' She made velvet suits for the Velvet Underground. She made Lou Reed's pants too big in the crotch, provoking his anger. She married John Cale, making matters worse. She shocked the fashion establishment. She hung out at Max's Kansas City. She shocked the fashion establishment at Max's Kansas City. She played Yoko Ono to Lou Reed's Paul. She broke up the Velvet Underground."
5. She reminds me a little of Susan Estrich.
Several points:
1. I used to buy Betsey Johnson clothes when they were at Paraphernalia (which she left in 1969). Does anyone else remember shopping for clothes at Paraphernalia in the Betsey Johnson days? I loved that stuff.
2. I love the version of "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" that plays at the end of the video.
3. Betsey has worked out a really nice image for herself as an aging woman. It's almost clownish, but it suits her. I could get my hair cut like that. What stops me?
4. "She lived in the Chelsea Hotel in the late '60s. Edie Sedgwick was her house model. She became a friend-of-Andy. She designed the costumes for 'Ciao, Manhattan.' She made velvet suits for the Velvet Underground. She made Lou Reed's pants too big in the crotch, provoking his anger. She married John Cale, making matters worse. She shocked the fashion establishment. She hung out at Max's Kansas City. She shocked the fashion establishment at Max's Kansas City. She played Yoko Ono to Lou Reed's Paul. She broke up the Velvet Underground."
5. She reminds me a little of Susan Estrich.
"The Republican presidential candidates explain their judicial philosophies."
That is, they try to tip us off on who'd they'd put on the Supreme Court.
I'll analyze the language later this evening, but I thought you'd enjoy chewing over it.
ADDED: As I expected, these statements are pretty much the same, but there are some subtle differences. McCain goes first, so I'll list the 4 basic things he does, and then we can see how the others deviate from the McCain model:
1. Assert a strong belief that judges should only interpret the law as written and not usurp the role of the legislature by declaring that the law is what they want it to be.
2. Imply that you nevertheless expect them to reach outcomes that you like by pointing to the outcomes you expect the judge to reach.
3. Refer to separation of powers and federalism.
4. Invoke the name "John Roberts" and one other Justice who represent the judicial ideal.
Romney omits #2 (the most dubious point), but lest conservatives think he's not going to give them what they want, on #4, he invokes John Roberts and adds not just Samuel Alito (McCain's other Justice) but also Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
Huckabee omits #2 and 3, and, like Romney, he names all 4 conservative Justices.
(I'm ignoring Ron Paul, who seems as though he might want to repeal the 14th Amendment.)
I'll analyze the language later this evening, but I thought you'd enjoy chewing over it.
ADDED: As I expected, these statements are pretty much the same, but there are some subtle differences. McCain goes first, so I'll list the 4 basic things he does, and then we can see how the others deviate from the McCain model:
1. Assert a strong belief that judges should only interpret the law as written and not usurp the role of the legislature by declaring that the law is what they want it to be.
2. Imply that you nevertheless expect them to reach outcomes that you like by pointing to the outcomes you expect the judge to reach.
3. Refer to separation of powers and federalism.
4. Invoke the name "John Roberts" and one other Justice who represent the judicial ideal.
Romney omits #2 (the most dubious point), but lest conservatives think he's not going to give them what they want, on #4, he invokes John Roberts and adds not just Samuel Alito (McCain's other Justice) but also Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
Huckabee omits #2 and 3, and, like Romney, he names all 4 conservative Justices.
(I'm ignoring Ron Paul, who seems as though he might want to repeal the 14th Amendment.)
Come on, everybody, pay attention to Wisconsin.
Ours — on the 19th — is the next big primary. The Cap Times marshals the historical evidence of the importance of the Wisconsin primary:
ADDED: A test to see if you know your blogger: Is Althouse voting in the Wisconsin primary? If so, will she choose to vote in the Republican or the Democratic primary? If she votes in the Republican primary, who will she vote for? If she votes in the Democratic primary, who will she vote for?
AND: Another question. Assume you're a filmmaker, making a documentary about one of the candidates in the 2008 election season. Which one do you wish you'd picked? That is, knowing what you know now, which campaign would have yielded up the footage for your idea of the best documentary?
- As upstart contender Franklin Roosevelt did when he beat previous party nominee Al Smith in the 1932 Wisconsin Democratic primary.
- As Willkie did with his audacious but failed 1944 bid.
- As backers of Gen. Douglas MacArthur did when they tried unsuccessfully to build a boomlet for the Milwaukee native with an unsuccessful Republican primary bid in 1948.
- As backers of Dwight Eisenhower did when they upset the campaign of conservative Robert Taft in the state and created an opening for the general to enter the contest for the Republican nomination of 1952.
- As Massachusetts Sen. John Kennedy did when the state put him on track for the party nod in 1960.
- As Minnesota Sen. Eugene McCarthy did when his anti-Vietnam War challenge to President Lyndon Johnson forced the incumbent to quit on the eve of Wisconsin's 1968 Democratic primary.
- As South Dakota Sen. George McGovern did when the state gave him a critical Democratic primary win in 1972.
- As liberal Mo Udall did when he narrowly failed to derail Jimmy Carter's bandwagon in the Wisconsin Democratic primary of 1976.
- As liberal John Anderson and moderate George H.W. Bush did when they tried to block conservative Ronald Reagan's candidacy in the intense Republican primary of 1980.
- As Mike Dukakis and Jesse Jackson did when they fought the essential battle of the 1988 Democratic nomination race in Wisconsin.
- As Bill Clinton did when he used a slim win in the state to prevent challenger Jerry Brown from threatening his "comeback kid" status in the campaign for the 1992 Democratic nomination.
ADDED: A test to see if you know your blogger: Is Althouse voting in the Wisconsin primary? If so, will she choose to vote in the Republican or the Democratic primary? If she votes in the Republican primary, who will she vote for? If she votes in the Democratic primary, who will she vote for?
AND: Another question. Assume you're a filmmaker, making a documentary about one of the candidates in the 2008 election season. Which one do you wish you'd picked? That is, knowing what you know now, which campaign would have yielded up the footage for your idea of the best documentary?
Who are the best actors to have won the best actor Oscar?
Answers here. And the worst to have won? Here. (Via Throwing Things.)
I agree that Al Pacino was a terrible ham in "Scent of a Woman." (And I love Al Pacino. "Dog Day Afternoon" Al Pacino.) Was Dustin Hoffman really terrible in "Rain Man"? He was certainly annoying, but wasn't that the point? You know who was even more annoying in "Rain Man" than Dustin Hoffman? (I ran across it on TV the other day, so this is fresh in my mind.) Valeria Golino. I was going to watch that movie again, but she drove me up the wall. Sorry, that's off the topic of actors, but I just wanted to nail down that one little point of personal opinion, and I get to do things like that because I'm blllllogggggggingggg.
I agree that Al Pacino was a terrible ham in "Scent of a Woman." (And I love Al Pacino. "Dog Day Afternoon" Al Pacino.) Was Dustin Hoffman really terrible in "Rain Man"? He was certainly annoying, but wasn't that the point? You know who was even more annoying in "Rain Man" than Dustin Hoffman? (I ran across it on TV the other day, so this is fresh in my mind.) Valeria Golino. I was going to watch that movie again, but she drove me up the wall. Sorry, that's off the topic of actors, but I just wanted to nail down that one little point of personal opinion, and I get to do things like that because I'm blllllogggggggingggg.
"After his week of immigration-based Hispandering, Obama didn't even mention those issues (or Latinos) in his laundry-listish Election Night speech."
Mickey Kaus seems pleased that Obama's tactics didn't work too well in California.
"We're still on our feet, and much to the amazement of many, we're getting there, folks, we're getting there."
Huckabee reemerges.
He won the South. Did he win it because of something about the South, or because he has so little money that he had to concentrate it somewhere?
He won the South. Did he win it because of something about the South, or because he has so little money that he had to concentrate it somewhere?
Ed Rollins, Huckabee's chief political strategist, said he would be astonished if Huckabee has spent more than $10 million on his candidacy....So McCain is handling this gracefully. Meanwhile, Romney has been a clod about Huckabee:
But Huckabee focused his limited resources almost exclusively on the Southeast, with old-fashioned, retail politicking. He presented himself as the only true social conservative in the race, jabbing at Romney as a flip-flopper as he pulled conservatives disenchanted with McCain into his orbit.
"Conservatives had the opportunity to pick a real conservative in the South," Rollins said. "And they did."
Even as McCain was claiming the mantle of front-runner in his victory speech last night, he was compelled to congratulate Huckabee on his sweep of the South. "Not for the first time, he surprised the rest of us," McCain said.
Over the past weeks, Romney has said repeatedly that Huckabee was more a nuisance than a threat, a candidate who should drop out of the race and leave it to the only two Republicans who could reasonably claim to be contenders for the nomination. Huckabee complained during last week's California debate that he was being treated as a third wheel....Coming from a campaign that isn't doing very well, that haughtiness is ridiculous. "We've all enjoyed him"? That's so patronizing. It's got to push the religious conservatives even more strongly toward Huckabee. And it gives Huckabee more material for his folksy jokiness:
Romney supporters and aides continued to show Huckabee little respect despite the Super Tuesday victories....
"He deserves credit for hanging in there and being the winsome personality he's been. We've all enjoyed him," said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a Romney backer. "But everybody knows Mike is not going to be in the final two. That hasn't changed."
"I've got to say that Mitt Romney was right about one thing — this is a two-man race. He was just wrong about who the other man in the race was. It's me, not him."
"This is the nuttiest thing in the freaking world. It's not propaganda. It's not part of a campaign."
"There's no corporation behind it — the record company couldn't get involved. I did it on my own. The only thing behind it is the people. And that's like, wow!" Will.i.am exclaims about all the love for his Obama song, "Yes We Can."
Do you have a "work spouse"?
23% of employees in some poll said they did — they had someone at work who plays something like a spousal role, someone who's a source of "mental and emotional support" and even "bickering." And sex? Well, according to the article, they know where to draw the line, and they keep it "platonic." If you've got one of those relationships, here's the test:
Surely, we can think of some better questions.
Does everyone in the office think you're having an affair?
Do you find yourself thinking: Thank God, it's Monday?
ADDED: Another question I thought of for the test:
• Would you behave the same way if your romantic partner were standing next to you?Those questions are from Heidi Reeder, associate professor of communication at Boise State University in Idaho, who thinks it's good to have a work spouse (who doesn't cross the line): "It's an esteem booster for both men and women to have a little flirtation in their day -- it makes them feel a little better, gives them a little more energy."
• Are your flirtations consistent with the way you normally behave?
• Are you thinking about your "work spouse" while not at work?
• Do you compare your "work spouse" to your real romantic partner?
Surely, we can think of some better questions.
Does everyone in the office think you're having an affair?
Do you find yourself thinking: Thank God, it's Monday?
ADDED: Another question I thought of for the test:
- Does this person look like someone you'd date if you were free?
The White House belongs in Smith Center, Kansas.
So thought the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi:
He called for the demolition of all toxic buildings and unhealthy urban environments, even the demolition of historic landmarks if they were not built according to “Vedic architecture in harmony with Natural Law.”There are so many interesting things you can think up and purvey when you're a self-styled spiritual leader. A guru. There was a time when we Americans didn't use — hadn't heard — the word "guru." That was before the Maharishi, who had to be some kind of genius to have figured out how to use that most sensational vehicle for reaching the minds of everyone in the world: The Beatles:
Maharishi, what have you done?And so, Maharishi finally has got his. Dead in Vlodrop, Netherlands, at an age somewhere beyond 90.
You made a fool of everyone.
Maharishi, ooh, what have you done?...
Maharishi, how did you know?
The world was waiting just for you...
Maharish, oooh, how did you know?
Maharishi, you'll get yours yet
However big you think you are...
Maharishi, ooh, you'll get yours yet.
Super Super Tuesday Tuesday Fat Bowl.
I abandoned you, dear readers, last night. It was Super Tuesday, yet also Fat Tuesday, and for many here in New York it was still the Super Bowl — or Super Bowl afterglow. So: Super Super Tuesday Tuesday Fat Bowl.
Where was I when you were driving up the comments number in last night's post?
I'd love to say that I was out carousing with fans who lined the Canyon of Heroes for the big parade yesterday. Or that I was fabulously costumed and celebrating Mardi Gras. But I was calmly re-ensconced in my Brooklyn Heights apartment, eating 2 bowls of Golean Crunch cereal and drinking C-Boost.
It seemed, after all this blogging about the 2008 Campaign, that I should be supremely excited about watching the election returns, but my attention wandered, and I found myself talking on the telephone and watching "American Idol." (I don't care much about "American Idol." It's just cozily familiar.) After agreeing to do some TV commentary, I was glad it got canceled.
I think there's something about me and voting returns. I tend to lose interest. I like following the campaign, but why?
I'm really not very interested in politics. I'd be moderately satisfied having any of the major candidates as President. I write about politics because I'm absorbed by the dynamics of the fight and the rhetoric. (I feel much the same way about Supreme Court cases.) I'm not actually rooting for anyone, and so the news of who has actually won bores me a little. I can read it in a second on-line at any point. I don't really need to see Wolf Blitzer dramatize it for hours on end.
And yet, somehow, I feel that it's my role to dramatize the election returns for you (or — God help me — for some TV audience). This morning, it's staring me in the face that I'm not that kind of person at all. I'm not going to rise to this occasion. It was obvious — why do I keep denying it? — that I'm this way back in November 2004 when I was watching the election returns. All I wrote here that evening was one post:
I need to remember myself and not create the impression that I'm another one of these political bloggers. I'm really not like them. My C-Span appearance got canceled because the blogger on the other side — I was told, late in the day — backed out. Side? I hadn't even been informed that I was booked to take a side. But — I protested, after it didn't matter anymore — I'm not on a side. I'm not able — I'm not willing — to hold up a side. My stress about going on the show was retroactively intensified. I had no business agreeing to do that.
So my relief felt like even more of a crash. Have I had a migraine headache for days? Or am I allergic to something in that Golean Crunch? What the hell is in that anyway? Chicory root! Should that be in cereal? I took a hot shower and curled up in bed. I was thinking maybe I'll analyze the rhetoric of the various speeches in the morning blogging but I don't need to know the results now. Why stay up, when all the news will be there to read in 1 minute when I get up? I fell asleep.
This morning, looking for that old 2004 election night post, I also found this, written the next day:
Am I giving up politics or just Golean Crunch? I'm giving up my forgetting the true nature of my interest in politics. I need to be careful to do only what I want to do, to write what I want.
UPDATE: I've rethought my suspicions. I don't think it's the Golean Crunch with its chicory root that is making me feel poisoned. I think it's the C-Boost, with its Echinacea, Astragalus and Maitake Mushrooms — ingredients that seem vaguely medicinal — and with its camu camu fruit, acerola cherries, and — not least of all — mango. Mango, you know, contains urushiol, which is the poison in poison ivy.
ADDED, 6/10/08: I was just writing this post and I gave it the tag "Albert Camus," and so then, following my usual practice, I did a search in Blogger for all the old posts with "camus" and added the "Albert Camus" tag to all of them. I clicked the tag to see all the Camus posts on one page and read this post again. It's interesting, but what on earth has it got to do with Camus? Ah! It's the camu camu fruit! Blogger helps you out by grouping plurals and singulars together. I find it charming to put the old French writer together with the fruit I was so suspicious of, so I'll leave the tag here.
Where was I when you were driving up the comments number in last night's post?
I'd love to say that I was out carousing with fans who lined the Canyon of Heroes for the big parade yesterday. Or that I was fabulously costumed and celebrating Mardi Gras. But I was calmly re-ensconced in my Brooklyn Heights apartment, eating 2 bowls of Golean Crunch cereal and drinking C-Boost.
It seemed, after all this blogging about the 2008 Campaign, that I should be supremely excited about watching the election returns, but my attention wandered, and I found myself talking on the telephone and watching "American Idol." (I don't care much about "American Idol." It's just cozily familiar.) After agreeing to do some TV commentary, I was glad it got canceled.
I think there's something about me and voting returns. I tend to lose interest. I like following the campaign, but why?
I'm really not very interested in politics. I'd be moderately satisfied having any of the major candidates as President. I write about politics because I'm absorbed by the dynamics of the fight and the rhetoric. (I feel much the same way about Supreme Court cases.) I'm not actually rooting for anyone, and so the news of who has actually won bores me a little. I can read it in a second on-line at any point. I don't really need to see Wolf Blitzer dramatize it for hours on end.
And yet, somehow, I feel that it's my role to dramatize the election returns for you (or — God help me — for some TV audience). This morning, it's staring me in the face that I'm not that kind of person at all. I'm not going to rise to this occasion. It was obvious — why do I keep denying it? — that I'm this way back in November 2004 when I was watching the election returns. All I wrote here that evening was one post:
Yes, I care a lot about the outcome of the election, and I'm sitting here waiting for the news to come in, sampling the dribbled out exit polls, and fretting. But at the same time, I feel complete assurance that as soon as the outcome is known, I'll fully accept it. Either man will make a decent enough President. I think Bush deserves to continue in office, but if it is to be Kerry, Kerry can handle the job too. Both of my sons support Kerry, and shouldn't I want them to be happy? Despite all this political blogging, I'm not really all that political. Note the subheading above. ["Feeling a strange, nervous equanimity."] It will be nice to break loose from the grip of politics that has held us for so long. As I blogged long ago, I've had preferences in presidential elections going all the way back to 1960, and only one man I've supported has been President. (In case you've forgotten or are not a long-time reader, that man was Bill Clinton.) I'm accustomed to spending election night seeing my man lose. I've even had the experience before of supporting an incumbent who loses when I did not support him the time that he won. (For new or forgetful readers, that would be Jimmy Carter.) Basically, I am a grand supporter of losers. My support is the kiss of death. Oh, no! Have I gone all pessimistic? No, no. It is equanimity that flows through me. Time for a nice glass of win, a plate of pasta with Bolognese sauce, and a calm absorption of reality.So there you have it, the Althousian viewpoint. I keep forgetting this is the way I am. There I was doing it again last night.
UPDATE: "A nice glass of win" -- ah, so hope does live on! Time for a nice glass of wine and toast to hope! A glass to be refilled later, perhaps, in a quenching of sorrow!
ANOTHER UPDATE: 10:53 p.m. Maybe I am going to get that nice glass of win after all. I'm really surprised. I let those exit polls affect me. Then I called up my sister in Florida and ended up talking with her for a long time, just watching the numbers on the TV screen with the sound off, so I wasn't getting any punditizing and wasn't drawing conclusions about much of anything. I got off the phone, and it took a while for me to absorb it, but eventually I got the message that everything was trending toward Bush.
I need to remember myself and not create the impression that I'm another one of these political bloggers. I'm really not like them. My C-Span appearance got canceled because the blogger on the other side — I was told, late in the day — backed out. Side? I hadn't even been informed that I was booked to take a side. But — I protested, after it didn't matter anymore — I'm not on a side. I'm not able — I'm not willing — to hold up a side. My stress about going on the show was retroactively intensified. I had no business agreeing to do that.
So my relief felt like even more of a crash. Have I had a migraine headache for days? Or am I allergic to something in that Golean Crunch? What the hell is in that anyway? Chicory root! Should that be in cereal? I took a hot shower and curled up in bed. I was thinking maybe I'll analyze the rhetoric of the various speeches in the morning blogging but I don't need to know the results now. Why stay up, when all the news will be there to read in 1 minute when I get up? I fell asleep.
This morning, looking for that old 2004 election night post, I also found this, written the next day:
I know they can't help it, those people who are gearing up for '08. I got into my car to drive to work this morning, clicked on the radio, and the first thing I heard was some talk radio guy raving against Hillary Clinton in '08. How absurd! And then there are those pro-Kerry websites that want to keep fighting out the futile battle of the Ohio provisional ballots. Ugh! I'm not going to tell you dyed-in-the-wool politicos to give it a rest. For you, it is like breathing. You must go on. But many of us are glad to have a chance to return to normal life. Politics is part of life, but the election fight is over now. It's already taken too much time.Ah, I need to get my bearings and keep them. It's Lent now, and a good time for reflection.
Am I giving up politics or just Golean Crunch? I'm giving up my forgetting the true nature of my interest in politics. I need to be careful to do only what I want to do, to write what I want.
UPDATE: I've rethought my suspicions. I don't think it's the Golean Crunch with its chicory root that is making me feel poisoned. I think it's the C-Boost, with its Echinacea, Astragalus and Maitake Mushrooms — ingredients that seem vaguely medicinal — and with its camu camu fruit, acerola cherries, and — not least of all — mango. Mango, you know, contains urushiol, which is the poison in poison ivy.
ADDED, 6/10/08: I was just writing this post and I gave it the tag "Albert Camus," and so then, following my usual practice, I did a search in Blogger for all the old posts with "camus" and added the "Albert Camus" tag to all of them. I clicked the tag to see all the Camus posts on one page and read this post again. It's interesting, but what on earth has it got to do with Camus? Ah! It's the camu camu fruit! Blogger helps you out by grouping plurals and singulars together. I find it charming to put the old French writer together with the fruit I was so suspicious of, so I'll leave the tag here.
February 5, 2008
Watching the Super Tuesday results.
We're about to hear a lot of news as the polls close in 5 minutes in many states. Stay tuned.
ADDED: Oh? Am I underblogging today? Sorry. I'm tired. I was up at 4 to catch a flight from Madison to New York. Our plane had a near miss coming into LaGuardia, but I was napping and didn't notice the slowing and speeding and slowing maneuver. I woke up to hear the pilot describe it after the fact, and at that point, it's no scarier than something that happens to someone else. Aptly, class today was the right to die. And there was all that stress over the TV show that I didn't do. I was relieved to get off the hook. I've hit the wall. To tell you the truth, I'm watching "American Idol" — and just checking the primary news on line as I go. That Lushington girl was pretty cool. Love the name.
ADDED: Oh? Am I underblogging today? Sorry. I'm tired. I was up at 4 to catch a flight from Madison to New York. Our plane had a near miss coming into LaGuardia, but I was napping and didn't notice the slowing and speeding and slowing maneuver. I woke up to hear the pilot describe it after the fact, and at that point, it's no scarier than something that happens to someone else. Aptly, class today was the right to die. And there was all that stress over the TV show that I didn't do. I was relieved to get off the hook. I've hit the wall. To tell you the truth, I'm watching "American Idol" — and just checking the primary news on line as I go. That Lushington girl was pretty cool. Love the name.
TV alert. UPDATE: Cancelled.
I'm going to do some Super Tuesday commentary tonight on C-Span, some time between 8 and 9 ET. Help me think up some things to say.
UPDATE: Well, now, I can settle back and luxuriate in the flow of results and commentary, because we aren't going to do it, for various reasons.
UPDATE: Well, now, I can settle back and luxuriate in the flow of results and commentary, because we aren't going to do it, for various reasons.
"Hence we shave our beards that we may seem purified by innocence and humility..."
"... and that we may be like the angels who remain always in the bloom of youth."
The history of shaving and religion.
"I'm giving up giving a rat's ass about the Presidential race, for Lent."
It's not just Super Tuesday. It's Mardi Gras. Last night, the subject of what to give up for Lent came up. That is, one commenter started a digression with: "Hey Althouse: What will you be giving up for Lent?" (I've asked to be called "Althouse," so that's not as rude as it looks.) I said "Give me some ideas. I won't give up blogging. Maybe food." Anyway, the title line is what Revenant said.
February 4, 2008
"I blog for the hell of it, to express myself, and to figure out the world as I go along, the best I can."
Andrew Sullivan explains his motivation for blogging. He gets paid too (a lot, I've heard), which he also notes. I like that description of the motivation for blogging, though I don't quite buy Sullivan's denial that he's trying to affect real-world policy.
Do you give a damn who Maria Shriver endorses?
I consider this the most boring news in the world. Because first ladies are insubstantial figureheads.
Hmmmmm.....
Hmmmmm.....
Super Tuesday is tomorrow.
What will you be looking for?
IN THE COMMENTS: Beth answers my question from New Orleans: "Zulu coconuts. Marching bands. Hip hop brass bands. My friends in outlandish costumes. A clean public bathroom."
IN THE COMMENTS: Beth answers my question from New Orleans: "Zulu coconuts. Marching bands. Hip hop brass bands. My friends in outlandish costumes. A clean public bathroom."
February 3, 2008
"The only time I feel all right is by your side."
Hanne Hukkelberg... Norwegian... doing Kinks.
ADDED: Is YouTube down?
AND: It was. It's back up, and so is the embedded video.
"You may rest assured that I, and hundreds of supporters, will continue to contact you, by email, phone, and perhaps in-person requests...."
An excerpt from the most recent email received from a 9/11 conspiracy theorist.
UPDATE: Comments from a 9/11 conspiracy website (which I won't link to). They're reacting to my statement ("I don't know why the University of Wisconsin has not rehired 9/11 conspiracy believer Kevin Barrett to teach a course on the history of Islam. But if we know a person believes something truly nutty, are we not entitled to use that as evidence of his intelligence, judgment, and trustworthiness?") and to my rejection of a proposal that I debate Barrett (to which I responded, by email, that I would no more debate a 9/11 truther than I would a Nazi or a Klansman).
MORE:
UPDATE: Comments from a 9/11 conspiracy website (which I won't link to). They're reacting to my statement ("I don't know why the University of Wisconsin has not rehired 9/11 conspiracy believer Kevin Barrett to teach a course on the history of Islam. But if we know a person believes something truly nutty, are we not entitled to use that as evidence of his intelligence, judgment, and trustworthiness?") and to my rejection of a proposal that I debate Barrett (to which I responded, by email, that I would no more debate a 9/11 truther than I would a Nazi or a Klansman).
It appears that Ann Althouse is deranged. How can UW employee her? She insults Kevin Barrett's position on 9/11, but refuses to debate him. This is not rational behavior....Most recent email from a 9/11 "truther" —
Why does UW continue to employee the increasingly incoherent Ann Althouse? She obviously has some type of mental disorder. The evidence of 9/11 as an inside job by people high in this administration is overwhelming. It only takes a modicum of research to understand that.....
Anyone as incoherent as Ann Althouse has no business teaching at a state university.
***
As a Wisconsite [sic] who is proud of our tradition of fair playing regarding all points of view, I questioned her conduct and told her I thought we had left Joe McCarthy's way in the world in our past.
I invited her to consider moving to another state where this kind of conduct in someone in her position would be seen as appropriate.
Maybe if she...and her boss...get a few more of these from those who pay their salaries, they will think twice about this.
***
Personally, I feel, it's time to push back--well past time!
Ms. Altman [sic] is a one-sided narrow-minded hippocrit [sic].
...and don't believe her!
You are the one defending the Fascist Nazi like regime we unfortunately call America these days. Turning a blind eye to the truth and calling people looking for the truth Nazis is truly the most deplorable position I know of. For those you defend will not a rats ass about you in the end. May you forever rot in the hell you have earned and rightly deserve.AND: Another email:
I can't wait for you to debate the 'official' bullshit 9/11 lies, ass! I hope this gets you fired, you're obviously stupid. Do you read, books? There's plenty of proof 9/11 was an inside job. Try reading, if you know how.....lololol.
MORE:
there are only three choices for you girly..
1) You suffer from a severe case of cognizant dissonance (I hope);
2) you are an evil troll-shill for the perps who carried out the evil plan (most likely);
3) or you are just plain stupid(higly probabable), and you know absolutely nothing about controlled demolition, conservation of momentum(and the laws of physics in general), the effects of the transfer of heat though metal structures, load bearing, avionics, flight data recording interpretation....AND who really runs this world.
In any event you should not be permitted to teach anything to anyone...
those that carried out 9-11 will eventully be brought to the harshest form of acceptable legal justice, including their punk-ass neo-con supporters (like you). You think you know "law" now???...just wait. It will take a while to get to you lower level operatives but they will get to you. People like you are only ten minutes between this world and a better one.
YOU SUCK!
I'm not watching the Superbowl.
Sorry, I just don't care. Except I heard that one team cheated. So I hope the other team wins. I did just hear Arlen Specter on C-Span radio talking about how Congress ought to investigate that cheating team because football is so important to America. My tax money is supposed to go into making sure some people playing a game don't cheat? Why doesn't he check out whether people playing Scrabulous on Facebook are using Scrabble Helper? God forbid he should confirm some judges or something more tediously congressional.
UPDATE: Actually, I'm watching now. Checking out the HD camerawork and the commercials — which are strangely appealing to women and look terrific in HD. Hey, Charlie Brown got the Coke. That's nice! Anyway, I was amused to see the lineup on the other channels. It's so obviously things they think will appeal to people who don't want to watch the Super Bowl. Like "Music of Seal on Ice." That is not a joke. UHD is showing "Music of Seal on Ice." Hilarious! Let's see. What else? "Auntie Mame," "Sense and Sensibility," "Legally Blonde,""The Parent Trap," "Indigo Girls: Live at the Roxy"...
Ooh! Touchdown Giants! I approve.
ADDED: Hey, I'm enjoying this.
AND: That was pretty cool. Love the 1 second thing....
+: NY!
UPDATE: Actually, I'm watching now. Checking out the HD camerawork and the commercials — which are strangely appealing to women and look terrific in HD. Hey, Charlie Brown got the Coke. That's nice! Anyway, I was amused to see the lineup on the other channels. It's so obviously things they think will appeal to people who don't want to watch the Super Bowl. Like "Music of Seal on Ice." That is not a joke. UHD is showing "Music of Seal on Ice." Hilarious! Let's see. What else? "Auntie Mame," "Sense and Sensibility," "Legally Blonde,""The Parent Trap," "Indigo Girls: Live at the Roxy"...
Ooh! Touchdown Giants! I approve.
ADDED: Hey, I'm enjoying this.
AND: That was pretty cool. Love the 1 second thing....
+: NY!
"Not only will I won’t quit, I can’t.”
Not only will I won't make fun of Huckabee talk, I don't want to. I think it's cool... and probably Southern, and I'm guessing Southerners will won't appreciate it.
"You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any clear question."
Obama's appeal to Republicans.
The "charm" quote is from Albert Camus. (Does Camus warrant his own tag here on the Althouse blog? Click on it and see!)
Anyway, getting beyond the "charm" point, there's more (from this WaPo column by Peter Wehner): Republicans don't like the Clintons. (Let's ignore Ann Coulter's latest stunt to get FoxNews to aim cameras at her.) And why shouldn't Republicans want the President, if he/she is to be a Democrat, to be someone who offers to bring us together?
His biggest problem winning over conservatives and moderates is that he's a big liberal. Is that going to change? Wehner thinks it could, especially if Obama learns from... Bill Clinton.
The "charm" quote is from Albert Camus. (Does Camus warrant his own tag here on the Althouse blog? Click on it and see!)
Anyway, getting beyond the "charm" point, there's more (from this WaPo column by Peter Wehner): Republicans don't like the Clintons. (Let's ignore Ann Coulter's latest stunt to get FoxNews to aim cameras at her.) And why shouldn't Republicans want the President, if he/she is to be a Democrat, to be someone who offers to bring us together?
His biggest problem winning over conservatives and moderates is that he's a big liberal. Is that going to change? Wehner thinks it could, especially if Obama learns from... Bill Clinton.
If Romney won a caucus in the extreme northeast...
... and nobody noticed, would it mean a damned thing?
Mitt Romney never wins, because every time he does, it doesn't seem to count. What a loser!
ADDED: You know, the new Zogby poll has Romney ahead in California. That's after Schwarzenegger endorsed McCain. The McCain campaign has been good at creating the impression that McCain is inevitable. Would that tend to make Romney holdouts get in line in the name of party unity? There are a lot of Republicans that hate McCain so much they don't even want the party that he would lead. But quite aside from that, I think it's awfully strange for McCain to be perceived as the clear favorite when his polling and vote count numbers are only in the low 30s. They are much lower than the second-place candidate on the Democratic side. Speaking of the Democratic side, the inevitability theme didn't work too well for Hillary Clinton. The trend in the primaries this year is for the people in each new state to make their decision without looking back to the states that have gone before.
AND: The NYT has no story of any kind on the Maine caucus. Not even a squib.
Mitt Romney never wins, because every time he does, it doesn't seem to count. What a loser!
ADDED: You know, the new Zogby poll has Romney ahead in California. That's after Schwarzenegger endorsed McCain. The McCain campaign has been good at creating the impression that McCain is inevitable. Would that tend to make Romney holdouts get in line in the name of party unity? There are a lot of Republicans that hate McCain so much they don't even want the party that he would lead. But quite aside from that, I think it's awfully strange for McCain to be perceived as the clear favorite when his polling and vote count numbers are only in the low 30s. They are much lower than the second-place candidate on the Democratic side. Speaking of the Democratic side, the inevitability theme didn't work too well for Hillary Clinton. The trend in the primaries this year is for the people in each new state to make their decision without looking back to the states that have gone before.
AND: The NYT has no story of any kind on the Maine caucus. Not even a squib.
"They stopped what they were doing and stood... like frozen."
This is very cool. I have a low tolerance for performance art. I'm old enough to clearly remember when these things were called "happenings." I also remember be-ins and love-ins. So don't get cute, don't get in my face with your art. I think you are annoying... most of you. But this one charms me.
(Via The Anchoress.)
(Via The Anchoress.)
Hillary Clinton copies Barack Obama's chants.
Yesterday, I was listening to the radio — XM's "POTUS" channel — and I heard Hillary Clinton giving a speech at a rally. I was surprised to hear the crowd start chanting "yes we can." "Yes we can" is a chant that Barack Obama very conspicuously got started the night of the New Hampshire primary. I couldn't imagine why Clinton or her supporters would think it is to their advantage to evoke Barack Obama like that.
And the weird thing is, she's ripped off his slogan before:
An emailer tells me that the Clinton chanters aren't saying "yes we can," but "yes she can." A news report confirms it:
And the weird thing is, she's ripped off his slogan before:
An emailer tells me that the Clinton chanters aren't saying "yes we can," but "yes she can." A news report confirms it:
Throughout the rally, supporters waved Hillary signs, wore shirts with logos such as, "Got experience?," and chanted, "Yes she can."My emailer snarks:
[It] kind of sums up the difference between their two candidacies (hers is about her, his is about us).That's funny, but in fact we are electing a President. "We" are not going to be doing the job, that one individual is. The only thing we are going to do is pick the person who will take over the immense job of running the country. So Hillary's phrase really is more apt. It's just lame to copy Barack. And she's done it (at least) twice. As we make our choice, it's true that experience counts, but so does judgment, and on this small point of copying chants, Hillary's judgment was poor.
February 2, 2008
Rock paper scissors.
McCain beats Clinton.
Clinton beats Romney.
Romney beats Obama.
Obama beats McCain.
Clinton beats Romney.
Romney beats Obama.
Obama beats McCain.
I've caught this viral video and must convey it to you.
YouTube is doing something to us. I'm not endorsing any candidate, but I've got to say this production is some amazing, low-key brilliance. It's lovely in so many ways, one of which is that it makes Barack Obama seem to be a man whose mere speech is singing.
ADDED: I've rewatched this video and am just stunned by it — especially the way will.i.am sings along with Obama's speechifying. I've never seen speech and singing combined like that. It's very cool. I love the way it is so grand, yet simultaneously seems perfectly casual and offhanded. And they've packed a tremendous amount of feminine beauty into it without it seeming forced — like Scarlett Johannson just happened to drop by and some unplanned thing made her smile like that.
Some folks in the comments are saying "yes we can... what?" And this, of course, is the usual criticism of Obama, which is not undeserved. But the video doesn't try to do everything. It creates a mood and reaches us emotionally. Now, the most evil political movement in the world could operate that way too, so it's our responsibility to put some analysis into our choices. But that doesn't take anything away from this historically great video.
By the way, I heard a bit of a Hillary rally today on the car radio. She seemed to be rousing the crowd rather well, talking about health care for everyone, to be achieved by fighting the drug companies and insurance companies. (Why must they be fought?) Then the crowd began chanting. The chant: "Yes we can."
"Can a psychotropic jungle potion cure the existential angst of the McMansion set?"
You remember hoasca (or ayahuasca), the psychedelic plant at issue in the Supreme Court case Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao Do Vegetal. Here's the post I wrote at the time about this most ironic case. The Supreme Court had narrowed the Free Exercise of Religion clause of the Constitution, saying generally applicable laws are fine even if they substantially burden religion. Congress reacted with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act forcing judges back into the task of giving religion-practitioners exceptions from general laws. And that ended up meaning that the Controlled Substances Act didn't apply to the importation of a powerful psychedelic drug when it is used for religious purposes.
So can anybody join this religion and use the otherwise-illegal drug?
So can anybody join this religion and use the otherwise-illegal drug?
For ayahuasqueros such as [the young medicine man named Lobo Siete] Truenos and the eclectic mix of button-down professionals and New Age acolytes joining him on this night, the potion may be a conduit to higher consciousness. Who exactly are these psychotropic explorers? Truenos won’t reveal much about them, except to say that the owners of the home in which they are meeting are retirees (young ones, it appears) and that participants typically include doctors, lawyers, celebrities, New Age healers and academics....
Truenos took the court decision as a green light. He and his wife, Gabriella, have been leading ceremonies for several years. They haven’t consulted attorneys; instead they take their orders from the “Creator,” he says....
Truenos mentions a recent private ayahuasca session in which a participant experienced “a trust crisis,” refusing to believe Truenos could heal him. Mother Ayahuasca admonished the man for such self-delusion, leaving him writhing on the floor, wracked with emotion.
Despite this harrowing episode, Truenos believes ayahuasca’s dark reputation is exaggerated. It is transformative and healing, he says, a cure for the “cancer of indifference,” a remedy for our “failures in integrity.” But it’s even more than that. “Some people,” he says, “need to be frightened by the way they live their lives.”
"I don't think there is a person of color in this country that doesn't struggle with what it means to be a part of your race..."
"... versus what the majority thinks is right."
Michelle Obama, commenting on what she calls the "silly" question of whether her husband is "black enough."
Michelle Obama, commenting on what she calls the "silly" question of whether her husband is "black enough."
So you've paid $6 million for a vanity license plate, and there's one you'd pay $20 million for?
There's one? Which one?
Yes, right, there's one.
Which one?
There's one. I'm trying to tell you.
Well, go ahead and tell me.
Yes, right, there's one.
Which one?
There's one. I'm trying to tell you.
Well, go ahead and tell me.
Not chopsticks.
Bread sticks:
Mmmm. That's just the first plateload at last Sunday's brunch at the Four Seasons in Austin, Texas. I'm concentrating on the raw fish here but there is much, much more at this all-you-can-eat extravaganza. The waiters will whisk away plates of uneaten food without the slightest trace of disapproval. Personally, I think if you take it, you'd better eat it, but you get the impression they want you to be wasteful. Go get something else. Take one bite and move on. Waste away. You won't waste away.
Mmmm. That's just the first plateload at last Sunday's brunch at the Four Seasons in Austin, Texas. I'm concentrating on the raw fish here but there is much, much more at this all-you-can-eat extravaganza. The waiters will whisk away plates of uneaten food without the slightest trace of disapproval. Personally, I think if you take it, you'd better eat it, but you get the impression they want you to be wasteful. Go get something else. Take one bite and move on. Waste away. You won't waste away.
Is the "Angry Left" dying?
Dan Gerstein says so:
Gerstein worked on Joe Lieberman's last Senate campaign, so he's definitely got a point of view on all this. Kos worked on getting Ned Lamont to beat Lieberman for the Democratic Party nomination. As Gerstein puts it now, the "hope" candidate — Lieberman — won. You can see how this idea applies to the 2008 race for President:
You know, I missed the part where Gerstein established that Kos is a "hatemonger." I don't like Kos too much, but calling him a "hatemonger" sounds at little... hatemongerish.
The Kossacks and their activist allies -- who skew toward the Boomers -- believe that Republicans are venal bordering on evil, and that the way Democrats will win elections and hold power is to one-up Karl Rove's divisive, bare-knuckled tactics. Their opponents within the party -- who skew younger and freer of culture war wounds -- believe that the way to win is offer voters a break from this poisonous tribal warfare and a compelling, inclusive vision for where we want to take the country.You mean "Kos kids" aren't kids? They are Boomers?
Gerstein worked on Joe Lieberman's last Senate campaign, so he's definitely got a point of view on all this. Kos worked on getting Ned Lamont to beat Lieberman for the Democratic Party nomination. As Gerstein puts it now, the "hope" candidate — Lieberman — won. You can see how this idea applies to the 2008 race for President:
Mr. Edwards, after running as the sunny son of a mill worker in 2004, returned last year as the angry spear carrier of the hard-line left, running on a dark, conspiratorial form of populism and swapping in corporations for Republicans as the villain in his us-versus-them construct. Mr. Obama, on the other hand, has not just been selling possibilities and opportunities, but reconciliation and unity -- and, god forbid, promising to work with Republicans to meet the country's challenges. (Not surprisingly, throughout 2007, Mr. Edwards was the runaway favorite in the regular Kos reader straw poll -- besting Mr. Obama by 21 points as late as Jan. 2, 2008.)Gerstein is pleased, not just because hope is good, but because his enemy Kos is crushed:
Now that Mr. Edwards has formally dropped out of the race, we can say it's official -- hope and unity crushed resentment and division.
The best evidence that Kos-ism is about kaput, though, comes from Kos's mouth himself. Yes, the most delicious irony of this campaign is that the supposed hatemonger is supporting the hopemonger.Markos Moulitsas will — after "a process of elimination" — have to vote for Barack Obama.
You know, I missed the part where Gerstein established that Kos is a "hatemonger." I don't like Kos too much, but calling him a "hatemonger" sounds at little... hatemongerish.
"Congratulations to all same-sex couples validly married outside of New York State: You are now husband and husband, wife and wife."
It's not the highest court in New York but:
Even though gay couples may not legally marry in New York, the appellate court in Rochester held that a gay couple’s 2004 marriage in Canada must be respected under the state’s longstanding “marriage recognition rule,” and that an employer’s denial of health benefits had discriminated against the couple on the basis of their sexual orientation.
“The Legislature may decide to prohibit the recognition of same-sex marriages solemnized abroad,” a five-judge panel of the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court ruled unanimously in rejecting a 2006 lower court decision. “Until it does so, however, such marriages are entitled to recognition in New York.”
For more than a century, the court noted, New York State has recognized valid out-of-state marriages. Moreover, it said that the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest judicial body, has said the Legislature may enact laws recognizing same-sex marriages. “In our view, the Court of Appeals thereby indicated that the recognition of plaintiff’s marriage is not against the public policy of New York,” the court held.
"Trying to wake up a teenager before 7 o’clock is like trying to awake an adult before 4 a.m."
Studies show that "youngsters — beginning around age 12 until they reach their mid-20s — only start producing melatonin, the sleep-inducing hormone, around 11 p.m. and that production peaks until about 7 a.m. In adults, melatonin peaks until around 4 a.m." So shouldn't middle and high school start much later than they do?
Obviously, yes, but the adults don't want to change things. You'd have to let the parents go to work later too — because even if those teens can sleep until 9, you can't trust them to get up on their own even at 9, can you? If you let teenagers sleep on their natural schedule — perhaps you do in the summer — they may sleep into the afternoon. Left to my own devices as a teenager in the summertime, I would sleep until 5 p.m. — and then stay up until dawn. (Admittedly, that had something to do with avoiding my parents.)
But why not help teens by changing the school schedules and promote flex-time for adults at their places of employment? Maybe not enough adults want to work from 10 to 6 or 11 to 7. We start winding down in the afternoon. As an adult, I've long found 4 p.m. to be the rock-bottom energy point of the day. (This academic year, I accepted the offered class time of 4 p.m. and found that I like it very much. If I have to do something at 4, I'm up for it. If I'm reading and writing at 4, I'm not too efficient. So, I've learned something new about scheduling.)
So, will adults rearrange their lives and subordinate their preferences to help teenagers? Unlikely! No one really wants to help teenagers. We already think they have it too easy. They look like adults, but they aren't self-supporting. Meanwhile, we adults struggle. Are we to struggle more so they can stay up past midnight and sleep late? Say what you will about melatonin, as long as adults are making the decisions,the answer is obvious.
Obviously, yes, but the adults don't want to change things. You'd have to let the parents go to work later too — because even if those teens can sleep until 9, you can't trust them to get up on their own even at 9, can you? If you let teenagers sleep on their natural schedule — perhaps you do in the summer — they may sleep into the afternoon. Left to my own devices as a teenager in the summertime, I would sleep until 5 p.m. — and then stay up until dawn. (Admittedly, that had something to do with avoiding my parents.)
But why not help teens by changing the school schedules and promote flex-time for adults at their places of employment? Maybe not enough adults want to work from 10 to 6 or 11 to 7. We start winding down in the afternoon. As an adult, I've long found 4 p.m. to be the rock-bottom energy point of the day. (This academic year, I accepted the offered class time of 4 p.m. and found that I like it very much. If I have to do something at 4, I'm up for it. If I'm reading and writing at 4, I'm not too efficient. So, I've learned something new about scheduling.)
So, will adults rearrange their lives and subordinate their preferences to help teenagers? Unlikely! No one really wants to help teenagers. We already think they have it too easy. They look like adults, but they aren't self-supporting. Meanwhile, we adults struggle. Are we to struggle more so they can stay up past midnight and sleep late? Say what you will about melatonin, as long as adults are making the decisions,the answer is obvious.
"Two Amtrak trains carrying 400 people got stuck in the mountains of Northern California near Donner Pass..."
"No injuries were reported."
Oh, my! What did they eat?
ADDED: Pop culture bonus. Cannibalism, the comedy topic:
Oh, my! What did they eat?
ADDED: Pop culture bonus. Cannibalism, the comedy topic:
Hunger will make people do amazing things. I mean, the proof of that is cannibalism. Cannibalism, what do they say, I mean, they're eating and, you know, "This is good, who is this? I like this person." You know, I mean, I would think the hardest thing about being a cannibal is trying to get some very deep sleep, you know what I mean? I would think, you'd be like, (pretending to wake up) "Who is that? Who's there? Who's there? Is somebody there? What do you want? What do you want? You look hungry, are you hungry? Get out of here!"Cannibalism, the horror topic:
Wendy: Hey! Wasn't it around here that the Donner Party got snowbound?
Jack: I think that was farther west in the Sierras.
Wendy: Oh.
Danny: What was the Donner Party?
Jack: They were a party of settlers in covered-wagon times. They got snowbound one winter in the mountains. They had to resort to cannibalism in order to stay alive.
Danny: You mean they ate each other up?
Jack: They had to, in order to survive.
Wendy: Jack...
Danny: Don't worry, Mom. I know all about cannibalism. I saw it on TV.
Jack: See, it's OK. He saw it on the television.
February 1, 2008
"Miss Spears, who reportedly had not slept for five days before being committed...."
I feel sorry for Britney Spears, and don't want to set up a post to talk about her. But this news of not sleeping upsets me. News reports had talk of Heath Ledger not sleeping for days before his untimely death. Have you ever gone even 2 days without sleeping? I haven't. I can't imagine having this problem. Some drug is involved, no?
IN THE COMMENTS: Gary Carson writes:
IN THE COMMENTS: Gary Carson writes:
I've gone for weeks with no more than 2 hours sleep per day (mania) and was constantly drinking beer during my waking hours.
I probably would have really gone nuts without the beer to keep me calmed down.
I don't think it's at all weird that two entertainers have recently died [sic] after a period of sleep disorder.
It would be my guess that bipolar disorder has a higher incidence among entertainers than among the general population and it's certianly the case that risky behavior tends to go hand in hand with manic episodes.
Ice quake!
Does anybody know about the quake? We do!
ADDED: "The Pond in Winter."
Thursday afternoon the staff from the University of Wisconsin-Madison near Lake Mendota felt a shake and heard a noise like a boom which was triggered by an ice quake.
According to the University of Wisconsin-Madison geologists, even though they didn’t feel the quake on West Dayton Street the tremor was recorded around 12:50 p.m. and lasted two or three seconds. At the time quake the temperature in Madison was of 16 degrees.
Patrick Brenzel, from the department of sociology situated at the eighth-floor, 1180 Observatory Drive, said: “It actually sounded like a bus drove into the building. The whole building shook.”
The ice quakes are triggered by large shifts in lake ice when temperature changes dramatically thus making a loud noise when it cracks, according to Cliff Thurber, a professor of geophysics....
Several people called police when they’ve heard the noise....
[P]eople coming out of the offices were looking at each other almost like saying “Do you think it was a bomb?”
ADDED: "The Pond in Winter."
Do you think maybe the problem people are having with Mitt Romney is that he's too...
Massachusettsy?
Think about it: John Kerry, Michael Dukakis.... Is there a Massachusetts demeanor that just doesn't feel natural and normal to Americans in other regions? Something that seems cold or haughty or insubstantial? I mean no disrespect to Massachusettans — what the hell is the word for people from Massachusetts? — I'm quite serious. Massachusetts seems to produce a lot of candidates or near-candidates, and then when Americans take a closer look at them, they experience a strange revulsion.
IN THE COMMENTS: Theo Boehm writes:
Think about it: John Kerry, Michael Dukakis.... Is there a Massachusetts demeanor that just doesn't feel natural and normal to Americans in other regions? Something that seems cold or haughty or insubstantial? I mean no disrespect to Massachusettans — what the hell is the word for people from Massachusetts? — I'm quite serious. Massachusetts seems to produce a lot of candidates or near-candidates, and then when Americans take a closer look at them, they experience a strange revulsion.
IN THE COMMENTS: Theo Boehm writes:
I'm originally from California, but I've lived most of my adult life in Massachusetts. I can tell you categorically that the problem with Mitt Romney is NOT that he is "from" Massachusetts. I've been here about as long as he has, and, believe me, you're never "from" Massachusetts until your people have been here...oh...five or six generations. The kittens may have been born in the oven; that doesn't make them muffins.
Mitt Romney doesn't sound like he's from anywhere in Massachusetts; he doesn't have the body language or manner of someone from Eastern Massachusetts; and his religion and Western origins are seriously weird around here.
No, if you find Mitt Romney offputting, it's not because of Massachusetts. It's because he's an uninspiring, stiff bore. They grow those anywhere.
Michael Dukakis was an echt Massachusetts type: a well-tamed little nerdy Brookline doctor's son. Dukakis is, to Massachusetts connoisseurs, from Central Casting. Romney is from Not Around Here. The differences may be subtle to outsiders, but to Massachustts people, they're glaring.
John Kerry is a special case. He's not so much distinctly from Massachusetts, as he is a generic New England preppie. Those types range all over the Northeast landscape, but tend to have been fledged in places like Andover, Exeter, Yale, Dartmouth, and Harvard. They may wind up in New York or Massachusetts, but they usually have little local affinity. Bill Weld was another one of this type—a vastly more amusing and decent human being than Kerry, but very much of Kerry's class.
Of course the Kennedys are from Massachusetts, but they are a weird and nearly extinct breed: Irish who aped the accents and manners of the old Yankee codfish aristocracy. There are no old Yankee aristocrats to ape any more, and the Kennedy accent is dead as a doornail. You'll notice the younger Kennedy generation doesn't sound at all like Uncle Ted or the late, sainted JFK.
Massachusetts is halfway to England: You can tell where someone is from within a small area, what their socioeconomic status is, and what their ethnicity is as soon as they open their mouths. It's fading a bit, but it's still here. And, believe me, if you're from anywhere else in the country, you'll never figure it out.
I remember being at a dinner party soon after I got here, where someone pointed to another guest and said, "Lynn!" The other guest reacted in mock horror and said, "Oh no! WEST Lynn!" All the other guests were laughing their heads off. If you don't know what that was about, well, you're not from around here, are you?
No, neither Mitt nor I are From Here, and we never will be. You can blame Massachusetts for a lot, but please, don't blame it for Mitt Romney.
This is a nice shiny happy picture of Hillary 'n' Barack.
Blogged by Andrew Sullivan.
But for people like me with an eye for negative space in a photograph, we're looking at that strange haloed shape on their merged shoulder. I think it's Pokemon!
ADDED: I mean Pikachu. I stand corrected. Pokemon, I'm told is the generic category, and the particular yellow guy who — in phantom form — came to rest on the Hillobama shoulder is a Pikachu:
But for people like me with an eye for negative space in a photograph, we're looking at that strange haloed shape on their merged shoulder. I think it's Pokemon!
ADDED: I mean Pikachu. I stand corrected. Pokemon, I'm told is the generic category, and the particular yellow guy who — in phantom form — came to rest on the Hillobama shoulder is a Pikachu:
They are said to store electricity in their cheeks, and by simply squeezing them they can discharge sparks, bolts or other forms of electricity.... Pikachu gather in areas with high amounts of thunderstorm activity such as power stations. When threatened, a group of Pikachu can generate an intense electrical offensive, and the electro-magnetic forces exerted by the resulting field can even produce a short-lived, localized thunderstorm.
Did John McCain consider leaving the Republican Party in 2001?
That's the rumor, and the McCain campaign is eager to squelch it. They sent me email linking to various blogs that debunk the rumor, e.g. Power Line:
Am I the only one who can realistically picture myself voting for Clinton, Obama, Romney, or McCain?
My guess is that after the 2000 election, McCain was understandably at odds with President Bush; like most Senators, he has friends on the other side of the aisle and probably did grumble to them about the Bush administration. In early 2001, the Democrats were desperate to convince a Republican to change parties, and McCain, as the loser to Bush in the 2000 primaries, was a natural choice.I really don't care if he considered changing parties or not. I like the people in the middle, like Joe Lieberman, who could fit — but only uncomfortably — into either party. I'm that way myself.
With hindsight, the thought of McCain in the Democratic Party is ludicrous. Imagine a pro-life Joe Lieberman, and you're still only part way there. Given the way the Democrats have abandoned the war effort both in Iraq and globally, whatever grievances McCain has had against the Bush administration over the years are relatiely insignificant.
Am I the only one who can realistically picture myself voting for Clinton, Obama, Romney, or McCain?
"I was tempted to call this encounter a draw but...."
So there was this debate last night. I'm not sure if I watched it or not... But... are we supposed to talk about it now?
I assume the memo went out: We need to stop fighting before they stop fighting. We need to look good before they start looking good. They're about to coalesce, so coalesce already. It's happy friendly time.
But Andrew Sullivan wasn't bored. Whatever happened — even if nothing happened — you know it had to make Barack Obama look great!
I assume the memo went out: We need to stop fighting before they stop fighting. We need to look good before they start looking good. They're about to coalesce, so coalesce already. It's happy friendly time.
But Andrew Sullivan wasn't bored. Whatever happened — even if nothing happened — you know it had to make Barack Obama look great!
The one-on-one format elevated him instantly and he commanded the stage and the occasion...To the extent that Hillary Clinton did just fine too, it only "made his mastery all the more impressive."
"People like this should be air-dropped into reality. I'll bet dollars to donuts that she voted for Bush. "
"Tens of thousands of kids killed by sanction-wielding, war-monging asswipes in the White House, but she's all upset because of simulated violence. Die of cancer, bitch."
Idiots respond to idiots. That's a typical — and "favorited" — comment on a Metafilter post about a terrific collection of stupid complaints to the FCC about various TV shows.
IN THE COMMENTS: Another visit from our favorite ghost, Sir Archy:
Idiots respond to idiots. That's a typical — and "favorited" — comment on a Metafilter post about a terrific collection of stupid complaints to the FCC about various TV shows.
IN THE COMMENTS: Another visit from our favorite ghost, Sir Archy:
To Professor Althouse.Sir, you may have whatever Status you like here in my Theatre of Topicks.
Madam,
As You know, in a recent Letter, I propos'd to take up the Office of Inspector of Lunaticks for this, your Theatre of Topicks (as I call it). Madam, I have not beg'd Preferment, but have only wish'd to place my occasional Hobby on a more regular Footing.
As the Ghost of someone dead these 250 years and more, I had, in my Day, seen many a Madman in Bedlam. I have made an especial Study of Madness and its Causes, and I have scour'd the Ends of the Earth for Physick with which to dose distemper'd Brains; yet I can honestly say, Madam, that nothing has prepar'd me for the Parade of Lunaticks display'd in this Topick.
That a Government Department, charg'd with licensing Television, should receive such Communications, opens a Field of Raillery that only a Dr. Swift could adequately traverse. In my Day, we had to go to the Expense & Bother of hiring a Coach, having a Pique-Nique prepar'd, and spending an entire Afternoon, in order to visit Bedlam on those Days when the Publick were admitted for a Penny, all so we might be entertain'd. Now, You may have more numerous and amusing Lunaticks before You by pushing a Button. Such are the Wonders of the Modern Age.
Madam, I hope you will not take it amiss if I tell you that I shall endeavor to make application to this Governmental Department for Employment. Altho' I was a Gentleman, honest Work was never beneath Me; and I might say that my Knighthood was occasion'd not by my Service in the Army, but my Labour at Administration.
That this Department should need an Inspector of Lunaticks is obvious, and seldom have I relish'd the Prospect of Employment more. As I have been assur'd that my Ghostly State and Foreign Origin are no Disbarments to becoming an American Elector, so I shall make bold to offer my Services to the American Government forthwith. If any of your Audience were able to offer Advice as to best Way to obtain Preferment in a Situation like this, I should be very Grateful.
Wishing always to retain my Amateur Status as Critick of Lunaticks here at Professor Althouse's fine Theatre,
I remain, Madam,
Your humble & obt. Servant,
Sir Archy
The Lolita Midsleeper Combi, an item of cute bedroom furniture for little girls, offered for sale by Woolworths.
For the annals of cluelessness:
ADDED: Here's an ad for the Lolita Midsleeper Combi: "This Lolita Midsleeper Combi is the perfect space-saving solution for your child's bedroom."
MORE IN THE COMMENTS: Omaha1 has more bad product names:
Whereas many mothers were familiar with Vladimir Nabokov and his famous novel, it seems that the Woolworths staff were not. At first they were baffled by the fuss. A spokesman for the company told The Times: “What seems to have happened is the staff who run the website had never heard of Lolita, and to be honest no one else here had either. We had to look it up on Wikipedia. But we certainly know who she is now.”Via Metafilter. Sample comment:
Makes me think of "Amelia Earhart luggage"...IN THE COMMENTS: Lots of imagined brand names, including — from Ruth Anne Adams — the Sylvia Plath oven range. Ouch!
ADDED: Here's an ad for the Lolita Midsleeper Combi: "This Lolita Midsleeper Combi is the perfect space-saving solution for your child's bedroom."
MORE IN THE COMMENTS: Omaha1 has more bad product names:
Jon-Benet kiddie cosmetics
Andrea Yates bathtub toys
Christopher Reeve rocking horse
OJ Simpson gloves
Lewinsky humidor
Bill O'Reilly loofah
David Koresh lighter fluid
Jim Jones fruit-flavored beverage
Michael Jackson underoos
John Denver model airplane kit
Lynn Spears' guide to successful parenting (oops that one's real!)
"I'd had a feeling for some time that there was something worth writing about coffee. My attachment to it. My desire to draw my children into it."
Good God! Would someone please have a cup of coffee with Judith Warner?
She seems to have immunized herself from ridicule by tying her bland coffee musings to mourning over dead family members. This post about coffee and dead loved ones is about her previous post — a week ago, in what counts as blogging on the NYT site — which was about coffee and dead loved ones. There's musing about musing about coffee and death:
She seems to have immunized herself from ridicule by tying her bland coffee musings to mourning over dead family members. This post about coffee and dead loved ones is about her previous post — a week ago, in what counts as blogging on the NYT site — which was about coffee and dead loved ones. There's musing about musing about coffee and death:
I wanted to capture a sense of lost worlds. I wanted to try to express what it felt like to have the time to be present. I wasn’t prepared for how much the piece would end up being for me about loss. About interruption and sadness and relationships ruptured by death or distance or estrangement or the indifferent cruelty of growing up and growing away.One would have to have a heart of stone to blog about that without snarking.
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