Thursday, November 13, 2008

What He Said



I don't understand either.

Labels: , , ,

Friday, November 07, 2008

Holy Mackerel

Look what the President-Elect's team had waiting in the wings...

Change.gov

Labels: , ,

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Yes We Can!

Wow, someone I voted for actually got elected! It's been a long time since that happened, and in general it's been rare.

Our President-Elect has huge challenges ahead of him, as do we as a nation. But I am cheered and optimistic, and more proud than ever to be an American.

I wish to hell California had defeated Prop 8, though.

Labels:

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Because it's better to laugh...

Okay, maybe a tad silly and mean-spirited, but I couldn't resist this:

Sarah Palin Baby-Name Generator

Yours sincerely,
Tarp Lazer Palin

Labels: , ,

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Suspense

Last night I was at the Uptown Tavern, where a horde was gathered to watch the Bears game. Just before the game started, Barack Obama appeared on the television screen, speaking in solemn cadences. The entire bar fell silent as everyone turned their attention to what Obama had to say.

Of course it was a promo for the game. Psych!

But I'm here to tell you that anyone who can make an entire barfull of drunk and rowdy football fans shut up and pay reverential attention to his every word has a fabulous political future ahead of him. Okay, we're in DC, where everyone is interested in politics. But still: you could have heard a PIN drop.

Labels:

Friday, November 17, 2006

The Oppression will Be Televised

The bad news is that police do stuff like this.

The good news is that, when it happens in public, technology gives eyewitnesses an opportunity to record what happens and try to get accountability.

I have no idea what happened before this video started: the tazed student did seem very disturbed already and his reaction was clearly politicized (one report says that he thought he was being profiled). Nonetheless, I can conceive of no excuse for the repeated tazering of a handcuffed person, or for the threat to taze bystanders who susbsequently asked for the cops' identification.

I think criminal prosecution of the campus police involved is possible and a civil suit is a 100% certainty.

On some level, I find the comments appended to the YouTube version of this video even more disturbing than the video itself. I am deeply distressed by the number of people who seem to find it a) funny (wtf?!?) because of the way the guy screams in pain or b) an example of just deserts because of failure to immediately and silently comply with authority.

And for those commenters who complain that the students didn't do more to intervene... when was the last time YOU jumped in between bullies and their victim (extra points for cases when the bullies were armed with disabling weapons and you were unarmed; extra super bonus points for occasions when the bullies were legal authorities). No? Okay then: stfu.

Labels: ,

Monday, September 11, 2006

Make it stop! MAKE THE RINGING STOP!!!

Tomorrow is election day in DC.

Apparently every politician in the city wants to be my friend. I've received (no exageration) at least 15 phone calls in the last couple of days featuring chirpy politicians or politician's shills, urging me to vote for them.

A plague on all their houses: they are SPAMMING MY PHONE. Now I say hello, and when I hear that tell-tale blank silence, I just hang up immediately.

Several people have asked me for whom I'm voting for mayor. Gah. I'm not thrilled with any of my choices. Linda Cropp put the nail in her own coffin as far as I'm concerned with her heavily negative campaign ads, and utter ineffectuality on the school board. Fenty is handsome and energetic, but unexperienced: who knows if he has the managerial chops required. I kind of like what I hear about Marie Johns, but I don't think she's got a chance in hell.

I just wish to God they'd all quit calling me. And it would be nice to hear an unrecorded voice at the other end of the line.

Labels: ,

Monday, December 05, 2005

This Year's Zinn Celebrity Dinner Companion

Howard Zinn and Nina Tovish

(Howard was in town presenting readings from his new book, a collection of primary source voices to supplement his People's History of the United States. Andy Shallal, restauranteur and supporter of worthy causes, hosted the event at Busboys & Poets, a beautiful new space with a socially-responsible bookstore, good food, and free wifi at 14th and V NW.)

This year: Julian Bond. I am not worthy.

I also found out that, in addition to Matt Damon, Howard's been doing gigs with Viggo Mortenson. Holy moly. I pointed out how much the Vigster and I have in common, what with the photography and the age compatibility, and requested an immediate introduction. I also argued with him vigorously (hah!) about the message and meaning of A History of Violence, which I rank as one of the most thought-provoking and well-made movies I've seen in a long time.

On much less flippant note: Julian Bond pointed out to me another person in attendance at the event ~ Ruby Sales. In 1965, during the civil rights movement, she and thirteen other people were arrested for registering African-American voters. Upon release from prison on a scorching August day, they went around the corner to get a cold drink from a local store. The proprietor, Tom Coleman, aiming a shotgun at Ruby, ordered them off his property with foul language. An Episcopalian seminarian, a young white man named Jonathan Myrick Daniels, pushed Ruby Sales down and out of harm's way, and sustained the full force of the shotgun blast. He died immediately.

(Coleman was later acquitted by an all-white jury.)

Julian Bond said that he'd heard the Episcopal church wanted to make a saint out of Daniels. I said I didn't think the Episcopal church had an official saint-designating practice. A modicum of searching leads me to believe that at General Convention, names are proposed to be added to the Calendar of Saints and voted on by the House of Bishops. So apparently I was wrong. (That'll teach me to argue with an icon.) I'll have to apologize next time I see Julian.

But just imagine being present at the moment, when one person sacrificed his life for another, without hesitation. We are indeed surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, and some live among us to this day.

Labels: ,

Friday, September 02, 2005

What, then, must be done?

I've seen a lot of anger in blogs about Katrina. I think a lot of it stems from frustration and feelings of powerlessness.

"Why won't/didn't they listen?" (Insert the they of your choice.)

It is horrible to witness things getting a whole lot worse for many, many hundreds of thousands of people. All at once. And to realize that there's little we can do about it.

A century ago, we would have read about it a week later in a newspaper (depending on where we lived). Two centuries ago, we would have read about it in a broadside, a month or two later, if we could read. A thousand years ago, we might never have heard about it, except as a rumor about an exotic land. Three thousand years ago, it would have been the subject of myth: the drowned city.

We know more than we know what to do with.

I had a long chat with Amy. What are we do with our strong feelings in response to this, or any overwhelming perception of human suffering?

It seem to me we must feel what we feel, acknowledge it and ~ perhaps ~ express it. And then, and this is the hard part, we must either do something motivated by those feelings or we must let them go. Or both. To marinate in anger, sorrow, rage, resentment, outrage, despair, or pity is to contribute exactly: nothing.

It does not make us better people. It does not make the world a better place.

Pray for the stricken, write your congressman, make a donation, volunteer your time, take in a refugee, give away all your possessions and serve the poor. Decide what you are actually willing to do with your pain or your anguish or your rage. Then do that and let the rest go.

Easy to say, hard to practice.

Labels:

Thursday, December 23, 2004

I get all my marching orders from my tie.

Damn, this is weird. Remember the "bulge" in Bush's jacket at the Presidential debates?

How about this little video clip (warning: wmp format) for bizarre... now our fearless leader is mumbling into his tie. I bet somebody with decent editing equipment and access to the audio source could figure out what it is he says. IF he's getting cued, what's impressive is how quickly he returns to the flow of his remarks ~ although the big smile when talking about bomb casualties is creepy as hell.

I must say, I'm no fan of conspiracy theories, but this is just one more data point on the curve suggesting a puppet presidency.

Labels:

Thursday, November 18, 2004

"We Had to Destroy the Village to Save It"

Ruins in Falluja

I remember when our government said that about hamlets we destroyed in Vietnam (we weren't welcomed as liberators there, either). Now we're applying the doctrine to whole cities. Imagine how the Fallujans will feel when they are finally allowed to return home...

I've used a picture from Kevin Site's Blog, the personal site of the freelance photographer who took the video of the Marine shooting the prone Iraqi in that mosque. I apologize in advance for posting it without permission, and will remove it immediately upon request from Mr. Sites, the copyright holder.

Labels: ,

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

A Tale of Two Cities

Why is it that the two cities that actually suffered terrorist attacks on September 11 voted overwhelmingly for John Kerry?

All the rest of those places in red on the map... they didn't get struck by planes or dusted with anthrax (OK, Florida did) and yet, quivering with terror, they voted out of fear. In that sense, you might say the terrorists won, by causing one issue to dominate over so many other important ones.

Three thousand people died on September 11, and it was a horrible evil thing. But our response to that evil has distorted out worldview and warped our internal sense of priorities all out of proportion to the actual damage done. As a result we have eroded civil liberties, a war quagmire in a country unrelated to the attacks, a huge and growing deficit, and a distrusted and disrespected place in the world polity. And Osama bin Laden is still out there patting himself on the back.

Once again I find myself living in a place that surrounds me with the like-minded. DC went 91% for Kerry. That's why I make a point of reading the blogs of people with whom I disagree vehemently about politics. It's too easy to live in an echo-chamber.

I'm disappointed, though I know the world won't come to end. But probably it means that things will have to get a lot worse before they get better.

Labels:

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

With Tears in My Eyes

I've never seen my polling place so crowded. I went at about 10:30 am, figuring all the good productive citizens would long since be at work, and it would be quiet.

Well, I was one of about a dozen people under fifty in line, but the line was loooong. Everyone was very patient and good-natured about the process, waiting cheerfully to pick up their ballots and cast their votes.

On the way to work afterwards, I brushed away tears of patriotic joy ~ happy to have been able to participate, happy that so many of my fellow citizens had too, and moved by the mechanics of democracy, however flawed.

While I really, really want John Kerry to emerge as the winner tonight, if he doesn't I will nevertheless take some solace in the appearance of a re-energized electorate. (Although I will wonder how it's possible that so many of them have INCREDIBLY BAD JUDGMENT.)

Andrew and I are going to Lynn & David's tonight for a birds-of-a-feather election night party. Wouldn't it be nice if this time we truly had something to celebrate?

Labels:

Monday, November 01, 2004

Vote

If you live in the United States, and you're registered to vote, vote!

If you don't vote, you don't get to complain about our government. Period. If you can't be bothered to register your opinion when it matters, I don't want to hear you flapping your gums about it when it's just hot air.

So, get out and get to the polls tomorrow and ensure yourself another four years' license to bitch and moan. Cheap at half the price (which, by the way, you didn't have to pay).

Labels:

Friday, October 29, 2004

"Let me finish!"...

...said Bush to the voice in his ear.

More on the 'debate bulge' from Salon.

Labels:

Monday, October 18, 2004

AIDS Protestors at the Bush/Cheney Campaign Headquarters

NAMI has the third floor of a building largely occupied by Republican zombies, otherwise known as the Bush/Cheney Re-election Campaign.

Today there was a bit of excitement as a protester infiltrated into their "secure" area, several more chained themselves to the front door, and a whole bunch shouted, chanted, and blew whistles in the plaza area.

Check out the pictures here.

Labels: ,

Friday, October 08, 2004

This would explain a lot...

Oh Lord, let it be true, and let it be proven. Can you say: "Election Over!"?

Labels: