A Country Funeral

The old vet has been in a semi-private room since he came to his current facility back in July, but the other week he finally got a room-mate. The “room” is actually a suite with two small bed-rooms and a shared sitting room and bath room. The room-mate moved into the other bed room, but his general condition worsened in a few days and before I'd even met him he was back in the hospital. He died there. Libby and I went to his funeral mid-week. He was 87, had lived all his life out here in the western side of Chatham County. He did maintenance work, mostly painting, until he retired. He loved old cowboy movies. He helped his neighbors. His daughter, who had coincidentally worked with Libby decades back, loved him.

The funeral was in a little Methodist church about 5 miles from our house. I grew up in a Methodist church, so I knew they were going to say "trespasses," not "debts." It was a beautiful sunny January day. The preacher was a youngish lean man in a brown suit. The music was provided by an older guy who played piano and sang a couple of country hymns. I thought he might be wearing a toup. A few people got up and said a few things about the deceased. Then the preacher took the podium. He talked for a good while about God's mercy and unstinting perseverance. Then he said that it was a great relief that, only a week before his death, the deceased had at last taken Jesus as his personal savior. The preacher had, as you might expect, been right there, toiling in the task, Jesus' corporal helpmate. There was a cowboy movie on the the background. This must have been only a few days before the deceased moved into the old vet's digs.

So the deal was, had this kind, hardworking elderly man not said some magical words a week before he died, well he would have gone straight into the burning lake of fire, where he would live in anguish forever after. The old man used to tell folks, including the preacher, that he had painting jobs so big that he never really finished them. By the time he'd get to the end, the first part was due again. This sounded to me like something Dante might have thought up. Make it through the paint job and you get the lake of fire. WTF, as the kids say nowadays.

It kind of makes you wonder. Who would think, at the funeral of an old man beloved by his family and little scattering of friends, to suggest that except for this so-called conversion, he should be remembered as someone who was bound for hell. Someone afterwards told me that he had driven the school bus when he was a kid—this man was twenty years younger than the deceased. They all trudged in a line down to the old country church cemetery, the preacher leading the way. We drove on home. We didn't want to know what the preacher might say at the graveside. We wondered what they teach these country preachers anyways, or if they do any reading, or even go to seminary.

That's the Portsmouth Island, NC church in the photo. No one lives on Portsmouth Island any more.

Knightdale News

A remarkable obituary appeared briefly in the Raleigh News and Observer, then disappeared. But nothing disappears in the world we now live in. You can find it these days in Minnesota, and I would imagine there's some chance of the story moving eventually to Lake Wobegon, assuming copyrights can be sorted out.

http://blogs.mprnews.org/newscut/2016/01/how-not-to-write-an-obituary/

Some burn with a bitterness so rank that in the end their hearts are reduced to cinders. When they're not driving dignified silent witnesses from the Trump halls, they're writing obituaries like this one, or sneering at Mr. Obama's "eloquence," which has become somehow a defect in the eyes of the GOP. Meanwhile, show your love and send tampons to the Burns, OR occupiers as they're run out according to Ma Bundy.

Movies (Birdman)

Last week we watched Birdman. I certainly found it "worth watching," in the sense that I was captured by the events as they unfolded. The acting was excellent. I was particularly happy to enjoy Naomi Watts' work. She was the one flaw in the Bill Murray movie last year, St. Vincent. If you are drawn to stories about the drama and tragedy of the theatre, Gina Rowlands' Opening Night is similar and, qua "story," (to be downhome about it), better. So is All That Jazz, for that matter. There might have been ways for Birdman to go which didn't lead us to the grim back alley where the film in fact lands. And not all roads to that grim dumpster in the 3 AM dark are as objectionable as Birdman's. Hana-bi, Kitano's outstanding 1997 noir, is one of the best movies I've ever seen. It ends just like Birdman. But what bothers me--a lot--about Birdman's final solution is the shot of Keaton's daughter, looking skyward, a blissful expression on her face, as though her discombobulated father has actually taken wing as he keeps imagining he can throughout the film. I do realize that the director is actually God where his movie is concerned, and the laws of the planet and the universe do not necessarily apply. I also understand that if one takes the path of "realism," a film I'm going to praise in a moment will be pilloried in a certain sense. Still. Still. Critics have argued that the ending "makes sense" because it carries on the magical realism quality of the whole film, start to finish. That is, we remain, start to finish, in the universe of the film, where frequently "impossible" things happen. These include Riggan Thomson's ability to move objects at a distance, to levitate, and to actually fly. See, e.g.,

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Birdman-Ending-Why-Obscure-Final-Shot-Makes-Total-Sense-69883.html

for this sort of "argument." Certainly the practitioner of magical realism, of which Alejandro González Iñárritu must be in the first rank, is free to claim that his form is his universe. In the solitary confinement of One Hundred Years of Solitude, whole galaxies may well burst forth, generate whole civilizations, and even burn out to dark cinders whilst the old man is merely sleeping under the banyan tree in the back yard, his chain rusting from the tropic squalls which daily pass across the forest from the Yucatan. All is "possible."

But you have to use those scare quotes. If you don't you are watching a summer blockbuster. Birdman, Mad Max, Iron Man III. It's all the same deal. When the show's over it'll be 90 outside, and your shirt will smell of stale theater butter, or the streets will still be wet from a storm that came and went, and you'll go home, or go have a beer or a pizza.

Last night I watched Mrs. Miniver again. It's saved on the dish box, and I scroll down through the list and see it, and almost every time I do that I think of watching it again. As usual it made me cry in a few spots. It evokes several lost worlds, Mrs. Miniver. The first lost world is the world of the late 1930s, just before I was born. My dad lived in that world, teaching at NC State in Raleigh, with his first wife. Just about the time the Germans started World War II by invading Poland, his first wife came down with pneumonia and died from it. Then he met my mother, they married, and I was born in early 1943. My mother talked a good deal about the drama of Dunkirk, which Mrs. Miniver depicts without any particular realism beyond the basic facts, that hundreds of little boats from England went across the channel and helped rescue the British Army before it was entirely overrun and destroyed by the Blitzkrieg at its most powerful. My parents both spoke little to me, a child, of the truth Mrs. Miniver presents front and center, that brave young men such as the Minivers' son, when they achieve the success of becoming Spitfire pilots in those days of the German air war on Britain, are achieving almost a certain death sentence. Everyone in the film knows this truth--Vin Miniver is most likely going to be burned to death in a Spitfire crash. All of them, including Vin, face this and deal with life on these dreadful terms. And of course one irony is that Carol, Vin's new wife, dies from wounds delivered probably by a British fighter pursuing a German bomber, an accidental casualty. And yes, a nice plot reversal if you must know but that technical fact is so much not the point that I doubt it's ever much remarked on. I might also mention the interesting doubling Wyler exhibits--the most vivid scene in the film is probably Mrs. Miniver's discovery of the German flier in her garden, and her subsequent interaction with him. He might be her son's older brother, even if he is the opposite in temperment, refusing succor, snarling about the coming German "masters" until she finally slaps him once in rebuke. But what viewer savors the technical artifice? We are too engaged with the unfolding events.

Oh I do think, like surely everyone who watches Mrs Miniver today, that the final scene, with the squadrons of British fighter planes passing overhead through the bombed out church's roof, is a bit rah-rah for today's real world. We see this same scene every weekend at the opening of a NASCAR race. We are bludgeoned by this scene. If Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch have their way we will all eventually march forward each blessed day with the chant on our lips, "We Are. Fox Sports."

But dammit, when Vin walks up the stairs to see his wife's corpse, and the door discretely shuts, and Mr. and Mrs. Miniver stand at the bottom of the stairs and watch the closing of the door as a shadow on the wall, there is no cute mystery about what's going on. William Wyler doesn't assert his godly powers as Director. He's telling the truth. And so, for that matter, is Kitano, in Hana-bi. Iñárritu's victory is ultimately technical. I'm glad he won the Oscar, and the cast was great. But silly Mr. Riggan Tompson's muddled life is what it is, and evokes only the mystery of Tony Scott's last moments. The Japanese detectives who hear the final shots in Hana-bi have a more profound reaction than does Riggan's daughter. "How can he live like that?" one asks the other. Granted, she's already said exactly that some time earlier, in the middle of the movie.

Anniversaries

Here's some weekend reading, with footnotes no less:

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/26086-remembering-hiroshima-in-an-age-of-neoliberal-barbarism#a10

We've got a lot of these anniversaries piling up right now: there's Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and also 9/11. Just this week Mr. Obama seems to have capitulated to the din of howling which has plagued his presidency from day one. Much like the NFL scandal, which mirrors in microcosm the same decision-making process, the purely sensational has been allowed to drive major foreign policy decisions. Mr. Obama, who provided an antidote to the Bush administration's devotion to theatre, has finally been beaten down. Theatre it will be. And just as in the Ray Rice story, the facts were already there and quite unable to drive policy, until a spectacular and ghastly event was televised for everyone to see.

On the one hand, the two American journalists were victimized in brutal view. On the other, ISIL had executed thousands of "ordinary" people for months on end. While the American public didn't see these anonymous murders, surely the West's intelligence apparatus did. And yes, the Americans were utterly victimized. And, yes, they had of their own free will inserted themselves into a complex war zone and surely knew exactly these dangers and many others lurked around every corner. Are we then to move entire Armies (so to speak) at every such atrocity? Compare the coming campaign against ISIL, not to mention the coming political furor, with the events just this spring, where another radical "islamic" group, Boko Harem, kidnapped hundreds of anonymous children. Or for that matter, compare our anemic response to a ghastly epidemic of the ebola virus, which may in the next year prove to be the true danger to our most exceptional heimat. According to NPR we've decided to contribute a 25 bed field hospital, which will give succor to medical professionals who've been infected. As someone pointed out last Sunday on the Melissa Harris Perry show, when the tsunami destroyed parts of Indonesia, we engaged the entire US Navy, at a cost of billions. Of course in those lands our coffee supply was endangered.

One might even wonder just why it is brown people in distant lands have grown so enraged at the West that they embark on these campaigns of terror and destruction: beheadings, murders, suicide bombings. Can a West so enamored of its exceptionalism have anything at all to do with the reactions of whole peoples who are essentially beneath our notice? Even after the 9/11 events, the people in power at the time scoffed at a response to Afganistan with the shrug that there's nothing to bomb there.

Yet in that very moment of contempt and derision the ISIL was conceived.

Blood Frenzy

Before Fox Sports decides to crucify Tony Stewart for driving a race car that hit and killed an angry driver who had walked out onto the track, in the midst of moving traffic, and was walking into Stewart's path and gesturing at him, let's read a paragraph from Wikipedia about the great and tragic fighter Emile Griffith:

In the sixth round Paret came close to stopping Griffith with a multi punch combination but Griffith was saved by the bell.[2] After the sixth round Griffith's trainer, Gil Clancy, later said he told him, "when you go inside I want you to keep punching until Paret holds you or the referee breaks you! But you keep punching until he does that!".[1] In round 12 Griffith trapped Paret in a corner. Stunned after taking hard blows to the head, Paret stopped punching back and slumped to the side against the ropes although his upper body was through them and partly out of the ring. Griffith held his opponent's shoulder keeping him in position while using his free hand to hit Paret, who was no longer trying to protect himself by head movement or an arm guard. Griffith repeatedly landed right uppercuts on Paret's head. Many watching were shocked, and there were calls from ringside for the referee to halt the bout; Norman Mailer said it was the hardest he had ever seen one man hit by another. Paret then lolled back and was hit with a combination. At this point Ruby Goldstein stepped in, thereby awarding Griffith a win by technical knockout. Immediately after the referee intervened, Paret, who had remained on his feet throughout, slowly slid to the floor. He was carried from the ring on a stretcher and died ten days later in hospital without regaining consciousness. Goldstein had a reputation as a tender-minded referee who stopped bouts at an early stage; admirers said he may have been suffering after-effects from a heart attack. He never refereed again.[citation needed] Paret's manager was also criticised for not retiring his boxer with a timely throwing in of the towel during the beating.

Emile Griffith was not charged with any crime, and indeed went on fighting for many years. There's a terrific documentary about his life, which was shadowed and altered by this sad event.

What racing ought to do is outlaw this macho displaying which has been occurring more and more frequently of late, of an angry driver walking out into traffic to point a finger or yell or punch or whatever the driver who spun him or blocked him or whatever. It looks great and the fans love it. Mr. Stewart himself is featured in frequent NASCAR ads during his walk into traffic a year or two ago, when he throws his helmet at (I think it was) Matt Kenseth's windshield, hitting it dead on. This sort of posturing is dumb and dangerous. It might even be, who knows, that Kevin Ward was emulating Mr. Stewart when he got all huffy about a very normal event in his racing Saturday and decided to walk into traffic and point and gesture at Stewart. Then, of course, he got snagged by Stewart's rear tire, run over, and killed.

The sheriff of the county where the race happened got it right. It was an incident on the track, just like the death of Benny Paret. Racing, like boxing, is a blood sport. But racing has worked pretty hard to try to stop the blood. Yesterday there were two wrecks at Watkins Glen that in earlier years could well have resulted in fatalities. Neither did, probably in large part because of interior safety design in the cars.

NASCAR ought to outright ban the behavior of walking out into traffic. It would be fairly easy to do, with fines and suspensions. That would seep down to the "minor leagues," which could and should also ban the practice. As for Stewart--he'll carry this tragedy in his heart for ever. This is very sad.

[That's Kid Paret after the ref finally stopped the fight.]

Pathetic

These are the four major Republican contenders for the North Carolina Senate seat now held by Senator Kay Hagan. Mrs. Hagan has done a fine job. She's smart, sensible, and hard-working, with a long career in the NC Legislature behind her before winning her seat in the last election. She thankfully voted for the Affordable Care Act.

North Carolina used to have a pretty high reputation in the world of science and technology. Students from around the world attend NC State in Raleigh and take home technical and scientific skills. We have the Research Triangle Park, founded by former Governor Luther Hodges in the late 1950s. That our state could generate such a panel of candidates is embarassing and pathetic. One of these people is a medical doctor, although he sure won't get any business from me.

With such a moment, the argument for Mrs. Hagan becomes, at least she's not one of those idiots. And they all seem to think their responses, and even the simple question, are funny.

Update: the youtube video of the four GOP hopefuls gigglingly denying climate change maybe have been taken down from youtube by WRAL, its source. If it doesn't appear for you, here's another place to watch it. It's very short so click over:

http://thehill.com/video/in-the-news/204169-north-carolinas-gop-senate-crop-says-climate-change-isnt-real

Trey and Rand's Excellent Proposition

There has been much comment on the proposal by Trey Gowdy (R, SC) and Rand Paul (R, KY) and other like to pass a law holding that Mr. Obama is proceeding "lawlessly" by not cracking down with his sequestered (you know they are) jackbooted storm troops on the brazen anarchy being perpetrated in Colorado and Washington State by passing in those states legalization of marijuana laws, which of course fly in the fact of our Federal statutes. Many commenters have haw-hawed at the plain fact that such an Excellent Proposition is flatly contradicted by the general position of the Far Right that in this great land of ours, States Rights ought to have the position it had back at the origin of the Republic, when white men of property (and a few Native Americans, truth be told) could own black men and women and bid them do the work at the bite of the lash. In those glory days before the ragged Lincoln took up arms against his own countrymen for simply begging to exit the voluntary agreement, white men of property all agreed on a few things. One of them was that each State was in truth a country, with the right to do things as its men of authority sought fit. (In some way this was little more than an extension of the status quo in the days before the Revolution. The King was far, far away. Colonies would on occasion have little skirmishes to determine by arms what was otherwise a loggerhead. On November 22, 1718, for example, Edward Teach, known as Blackbeard, was killed on the Pamlico Sound off Ocracoke, NC, by a naval force sent by Virginia's governor. It is generally understood that Teach was operating under the employ of North Carolina's Governor at Bath, NC.

The War Between the States, it is understood, pretty much ended the originalist framework of the United States with regards to "states rights." The Federal Government had proved by force of arms that individual states could not just do whatever they wished. Slavery was abolished. As time went on, women were allowed to vote at long last. Alcohol was prohibited and then re-allowed. Presidents were limited to two terms. In the mid-1960s black people were at least legally given the rights of white people which the Civil War had already established to them 100 years earlier. In 1973 the Supreme Court ruled that women have equal medical rights to men, including the right to control the outcome of their own pregnancy with the assistance of medical personnel. There were no caveats set on this basic political truth--women and men were equally citizens, period, which followed from Women's Suffrage itself.

Mr. Gowdy and Mr. Paul have of course toiled diligently to return to the days of yore, when States had far more power. Along with many of their cohort, they have supported laws which undermine the fundamental premise of Roe V Wade. They have both supported various efforts by the states to reduce the ability of people of color to vote. For Gowdy and Paul, the only fundamental law of the land is the Second Amendment. This law was fundamental in the days of Edward Teach, and in the deepest sense it is only by voluntary agreement that brute force is ever kept from holding full sway. This, indeed, is the story of the history of mankind.

While commentators have tended to shake their heads at the quixotic effort to hold the President to task for not enforcing Federal drug laws in states which are experimenting with alternatives, noting that Mr. Obama will surely veto the Gowdy/Paul measure--it's just another example of empty posturing by the Republicans, one move amongst far too many to invigorate the low information voters that keep Republicans in power--I'd hope Mr. Obama will instead take them up on this.

We're about to experience an influx of trained military veterans, men and women who have learned their hard skills in the toughest place on the globe, Afganistan. Let's deputize them if they care to pursue a career in law enforcement. Certainly one of their tasks would be to enforce Federal drug laws. Fine with me. I've smoked some grass of course (I'm a musician; nuff said). It's a subtly evil drug, as pernicious in its long term effects as alcohol or any other. Short of an expensive effort at serious education (who wants to pay for that?), legal pot will ensnare more of our kids. But while these fresh new cops are on the job, let's use them to enforce our constitutional rights to women's health care as well. Far too many states have used defacto procedures to limit women's health care. It's a subterfuge and everyone knows it. Let's stop it with Federal Marshals now that we have a coalition of Left and Right on the issue. Same with voting rights--all the little amendments to voting rules patently aimed at discouraging voter participation are clearly unconstitutional. Send in the Marshals. Rand Paul and Trey Gowdy are on board.

While Mr. Obama is hard at work directing the Marshals in their extensive "clean up" of this rotting faux states-right cesspool, maybe Congress could move on to the next point of agreement. That would be impeaching Supreme Court Justices for blatant activist over-reach. I'd start with those still on the bench who voted to seat George W. Bush in the face of a popular election in which he was obviously defeated. I'd continue with the Justices who have overturned the expansion of Medicaid as part of the Affordable Care Act, and those who have voted to allow a tiny handful of oligarchs (such as the Koch brothers and Art Pope) to achieve political power in a direct relationship to their financial power (see, e.g., Citizens United). I'd add those Justices who gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Mr. Obama can quickly appoint fresh new Justices with more competent resumes.

We now, at last, have a governing coalition. Mr. Obama, strike while the iron is hot. Once the Right Wing returns to power it will be pretty much too late.

Note: After Blackbeard was killed, his head was hung to the bowsprit of Capt. Maynard's ship, Maynard sailing back to Norfolk, Va with his prize, and presenting it to the Governor. Legend has it that in the centuries since, the head was fashioned into a chalice, and, ironically, that it now resides in the inner recesses of Gimghoul Castle, a mysterious structure situated on the bluffs at the east end of Chapel Hill, NC, where it is said to be taken out on secret occasions for use in dark ceremonies. While I have been to the grounds of the Castle, and enjoyed the beautiful view extending on clear days to the spires of Raleigh itself, some 20 miles to the east, I have no personal knowledge of the Order of the Gimghoul or its various rites and passages, and I recount this legend only in the interest of Truth and Knowledge.

__________________________________

For further reading: http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2014/03/whos-your-daddy.html

The Pit of Hell

The magazine "Commentary" is probably more or less what "National Review" used to be with Mr. Buckley at the helm. Here is a comment on a recent piece by the conservative Max Boot, who argues that Mr. Snowden is not a hero:

Here, a parable. In Chile, in 1973, a man on a white horse came riding up to the Presidential Palace, killed the Marxist living there (Salvador Allende, who was Chile's Barack Obama!) and moved in. For the next 18 years, Augusto Pinochet murdered, imprisoned, sent into exile, tortured, persecuted and in general "did away with" the Left in his country. What emerged was a democratic republic that today is the freest and least corrupt nation in Latin America. That's where we're heading---if we're lucky.

This is the stark reality of right wing American politics today. This is pretty much what Beck and Limbaugh and Boortz and Hannity and the rest of the ranters and Fox Network people believe and assert and argue every day.

Let's hope they keep the price of gas at affordable levels.

[Hat tip to Edroso for the quote: http://alicublog.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-torturers-apprentice.html ]

Meanwhile, in the reality based universe, here's two things you might want to peruse:

http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/06/10/if-wanting-to-reveal-that-all-americans-metadata-gets-swept-up-is-treason-edward-snowden-is-in-distinguished-custody/

And note Mr. Simon's well grounded views, quoted in the Driftglass piece:

http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-difference-between-lightening-bug.html

What if La Palin had Sam Ervin's eyebrows? Just sayin'.

Wednesday Update: As any number of folks have commented on the Snowden leaks, it's pretty hard these days not to have already known, at least in a general way, that something like what Snowden revealed was going on. Surely enemies of the United States would have presumed, as would our friends. Espionage is not a fresh concept after the last century. It strikes me that perhaps the biggest "leak" Snowden is responsible for is revelation of the fact (if it's true and not just fantasy on his part) that people like him--people subcontracting and without particularly good security clearance, are much too close to far too much. Snowden is an example of the problems that come with the privatization cult which our right wing true believers have brought with them into government whenever they manage to gain power. Possibly the Snowdens are cheaper (though not necessarily), but they come more unattached to authority. (For other examples, see, e.g., "Blackwater; Iraq, New Orleans). Do we really want people like this confused libertarian dweeb actually holding such power? It is policy that puts him in this position. Thus, his fairly absurd activities raise deep questions about how we want to run our intelligence services. There's an "in short" in this even: after all, Snowden has fled to China, imagining he'll find safety there.

Thursday Update: The conversation on MSNBC last night, concerning Snowden and surveillance was instructive. The most interesting moments, in my book, occurred on Lawrence O'Donnell's hour. He approaches the story like a lawyer, and had quizzed a dangerously unprepared lawyer-friend of Snowden's, who realized after the first question or two that she was "on the stand," and began to remind me of Miss Teen South Carolina in her answering style. O'Donnell felt he'd found a fulcrum in Snowden's remark that the surveillance system in place amounted to an "architecture of oppression." That's his finely wrought phrase. O'Donnell objected, and tried to push his character witness into the corner of judging Snowden overwrought in his analysis.

This seems to be one of the tacks used by our various pundit observers to try to make sense of Snowden. I more or less took the same line yesterday. This guy may have good intentions, but is he seeing the world "aright." There was quite a lot of talk in this regard about Snowden's credentials. His character witness pointed out that often IT people teach themselves. She offered the example of Bill Gates. O'Donnell felt that nontheless this was Snowden's problem--a too quick leap from "overreach" to "oppression." After the character witness left the stand, Howard Dean arrived. Gov. Dean made an excellent point concerning Snowden's phrase. An "architecture of oppression," he opined, was not the same as actual oppression, but a precurser, a necessary framework. Possibly that was Snowden's point and concern, the underpinning of his current self and otherwise destructive actions.

O'Donnell would have none of it, and dismissed Gov. Dean. That's a lawyer for you. Understood as Dean parsed the phrase, Snowden becomes at the least a person to be taken seriously. This might be a better stance, for all of us, as we try to understand what's going on. There's a mighty vested interest in stuffing Mr. Snowden back in some box or other. It doesn't make him a hero or a superman to see his point. There's nothing at all new about good intentions going awry. Possibly Mr. Snowden's intentions are an example. So, possibly, are the intentions of our intelligence institutions.

In the Meantime

I watched "Winter's Bone" last night. I might work up a review on it, as it is a very fine film, plus it has appearances by the wonderful musicians Jim and Kim Lansford, who live more or less where the story happens. However, this morning I ran into this piece, via Digby. I thought I should put this link up--it should be as available as possible:

http://gregmitchellwriter.blogspot.com/2013/03/double-failure.html

It has been a good thing, this 10th Anniversary of our Iraq Adventure. I've put up some excellent links in pieces below. We should all read the Juan Cole link, and more than once. All of Charles Pierce's commentary last week was wonderful to read. Perhaps the most worrisome thing to contemplate in the long, terrible string of decisions which led the United States to attack another country for essentially reasons of propaganda and possibly private venality, is this: the United States is quite obviously vulnerable to being "flipped" like a tiddlywink by actions which should never have such a capability.

An asteroid did not hit New York City on 9/11/01. The power did not go off. A gigantic blizzard did not freeze the oceans. But 19 guys with box cutters and improvised weapons at hand did manage to get two wars started, one of which still continues. The whole path of the United States was altered. People said, seriously, that the world had changed fundamentally. Because they were powerful people, it did, even if not in the way they imagined at the time.

If the press is going to rethink what its role was and is in such events, it really ought to start with the in-depth questions. The reason why response to 9/11 should have been a police action was fundamentally that such a response is what is appropriate to a vandalism. Our actual response elevated everything. 9/11 became Pearl Harbor II. But in fact, 9/11 exposed our vulnerabilities, and our response exposed them even further, and our current political insanities, yet again and further still.

If there are any serious geopolitical dangers at the moment, we should be very concerned indeed for the fate of our country and our democracy.

Saturday Update. This is how "news" comes to all of us sometimes. Day after Libby and I watched "Winter's Bone," and before I'd gotten a chance to drop Jim and Kin Lansford an email about how happy I was for them to have gotten that bit of recognition in a celebrated movie, the "Old Time Herald" magazine arrives in my mail box and informs me that Jim passed away last October, from cancer. In the rooms the women come and go, talking of Michelangelo. Spring arrives, and the beeches, which dot my woods, still grip their last years leaves, now a pale tan-gold, and the last reminder of the old year. Next week there will be green shoots, and red bud, and the maples will bring forth their buds high in the canopy.

Quite a long time back now, I wrote a dumb review in the Herald of Jim and Kim's first CD. He wrote me a very gracious letter about it, and I apologized, and later we became friends sharing a week at the Augusta Workshops up in Elkins, WV. Jim and Kim made a number of very strong CDs, which feature excellent pickin' and real good harmony singing. Kim's got a great voice. Jim could play all the traditional instruments, and well. Here they are, just two years ago:



The two of them ran a farm in southwest Missouri, near Galena. They raised sheep I think it was. They made the hard effort to live by their lights, and succeeded, as I hope Kim is continuing to do, dealing with her grief. They made a sweet couple, and Libby and I will always be sorry we didn't get out there to their farm for a visit. If you want to buy some of their excellent music, here's a good way to do it:

http://www.kimandjim.com/music.htm

You might want to go find Gary Snyder's "Dodger Point Lookout" and give it a read too.

My Senior Class President

(Where Jim and I went to high school--I was the editor of the "Latipac", which is "Capital" spelled backwards, and a stroke of '30s genius no doubt by some callow youth of the depression era. Jim was class president, and the late Bill Weems was President of the Student Body.)

I've written here:

http://fiddlerbill.blogspot.com/2012/12/dix-hill-jesse-helms-zombie.html

about the efforts to turn an ancient insane asylum's grounds in Raleigh to new use, as in part a city park in an area rapidly losing the possibility of such an entity. Our last governor, Beverly Perdue, actually set up a lease with the City of Raleigh to develop this property as a park, over the next several decades. The lease was viewed as public spirited and having a long view--something which is usually a complement.

As soon as Governor McCrory arrived, along with an all Republican majority legislature, the new "public servants" set about doing what they could to change things. Much like developments in Wisconsin over the past few years, every day here in NC brings a new surprise. Most of them appalling.

More recently the Republican majority has chosen to bring to the general assembly a vote to void the lease signed by North Carolina and various Raleigh entities only a few months ago. My Senior Class President, Needham Broughton High School, '61, Mr. Jim Goodmon, appeared before the appropriate Senate body yesterday to have a say. I should say, by the way, that Mr. Goodmon is president of WRAL-TV (Capital Broadcasting), which was Jesse Helms' home base back in the '60s, before he became a national figure. Generally, Mr. Goodmon has spent his life supporting very sensible projects which reflect well on the Research Triangle area. But he is I'm pretty sure a life-long Republican, and holds views about capitalism and business which are far to the right of this writer's.

Whatever. His remarks yesterday are absolutely correct, and should be a wake up call to any remaining Republicans who are not in the thrall of the anarchist nonsense which has mostly taken over the GOP and threatens to wreck the United States. I offer you the account, as I found it, on the WRAL website:

http://www.wral.com/dix-bill-debate-angers-apodaca/12252260/

Mr. Apodaca's immediate resort to faux victimhood is a tell of the depths to which Republicanism has lately fallen. I really don't know who the hell elects these people. Cudos to Mr. Goodmon. Onwards and upwards. Dare I suggest that your Grand Old Party has left you and intelligent people of any persuasion quite far, far behind.

Here's the idea behind the proposed park:

http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/12/22/2560084/the-way-they-lived-on-dix-hill.html

Shocking, simply shocking I know. The implication is, there is such a thing as "general good." These Randians say "balderdash" to such notions. After they quash the Dix Hill Park, it's on to drilling for oil and gas off the Outer Banks. I'm actually surprised that they don't cut to the chase and sell off the National Seashore--most of the Outer Banks is a National Park, and another shining example of what, for Republicans these days, is a chimera--"a public good." No doubt Mr. Romney and others of his "class" can afford to build impermeable mansions out along the banks, and who more deserving than the "job creators" to enjoy the cavalcade of seasons as expressed in one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

Meanwhile, as Mr. Goodmom correctly pointed out to Mr. Apodaca, it used to be that Republicans valued the principle of standing by one's word, as in a contract. It was the radicals, the Hugo Chavezes, the Castros, the Lenins, who tore up signed agreements with magnates, corporations, and other governments when the mood suited. North Carolina signed a lease. Now, under "new management," they tear it up. Why then, would any business choose to work again with North Carolina? If this isn't a Republican principle, what is? Mr. Apodaca's response,"Hey look, pants on fire," speaks legion.

I guess here in NC, as in Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida and other places, we'll soon find out what the new regime intends. Maybe they'll work on a principle of odd/even days.

Accomplishment

"Wheels," by Maria McKee; some serious music for a Sunday morning:



And a photograph by Garry Winogrand from 1954:

Within the Margin of Theft

It's been obvious to anyone who cares to think about it that elections in the US can be affected, and results even altered, by a strategic manipulation of various mundane factors which are rarely of newsworthy interest, and so rarely get covered by the media. Nonetheless, last night on MSNBC this story was briefly noted:

http://firedoglake.com/2012/10/20/come-saturday-morning-republican-voter-id-laws-dont-stop-republican-voting-crimes-just-ask-nathan-sproul/

This fine piece of reportage by FireDogLake does much more justice to the facts than the brief MSNBC mention. Here in NC, the local media reports that the Romney people have stopped spending money on ads here. The implication is, they think NC is now in their bag. Possibly it went into the dumpster first? Who knows.

I voted on Thursday. Libby voted Friday. Here in NC, judges are on the ballot as "nonpartisan." (Why this is true given the obvious partisan character of even the Supreme Court is beyond me. I'd much rather know who I'm voting for--maybe that's exactly the point.) Anyways, there was a little tent set up across the street from the voting station with a big banner that read "get your conservative and Republican slate here," and so I went over to it and got a nice list of the judges to vote AGAINST.

I'm still hopeful that the nation will not find itself, in early November, with a cipher who seems to have no ability to empathize with anyone who's not a millionaire, who is advised by the Bush foreign policy team that brought us the wars in Iraq and Afganistan, and the economic team that brought on the financial collapse of 2008. A guy who's Party has worked tireless since January, '09, to defeat every policy the Administration has attempted to employ to bring the economy back, no matter what the consequences for the actual citizenry--this is our next President if Obama loses.

At the same time, I will not be at all surprised if Obama does lose. He's tired. I can see it. Another four years might wear him plumb out, and it might be his personal blessing to be defeated by our appalling national ignorance. And, too, it's pretty much what we all deserve, a Romney Presidency. The US has gotten away with murder for longer than O.J. Simpson. Charles Pierce might be right:

http://www.esquire.com/features/cynic-president-obama-1112

I used to tell friends to always keep in mind that we're in the belly of the beast. In here it's pretty easy, the food's good, the gasoline remains plentiful and relatively cheap, and this fall it still hasn't come a frost. My famous cats are as sanguine as I. One of 'em even opened the bag of cat food on his own yesterday. And I know which one, too, even if he doesn't know that I know.

It concerns me, however, that with Romney we get five sons. A party with no interest in democracy beyond how to thwart it, with a titular head who brings with him heirs and more, and a queenly wife who already talks frequently about "you people."

It was a great relief to get voting out of the way.

______________________________

Sunday Update. Maybe I should have said I "voted." There's this in the news:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/10/20/romney-family-investment-ties-to-voting-machine-company-that-could-decide-the-election-causes-concern/

WTF! Here's the money quote from the Ungar piece at Forbes, rather unfortunately buried three clicks in:

Numerous media sources, including Truthout, are reporting that Solamere Capital—the investment firm run by Mitt Romney’s son, Tagg, and the home of money put into the closely held firm by Tagg’s uncle Scott, mother Anne and, of course, the dad who might just be the next President of the United States—depending upon how the vote count turns out, in our little tale, in the State of Ohio—have shared business interests with H.I.G. including a reported investment in H.I.G. by Solamere.

So Tagg, the son who wanted to take a sock at Obama at the end of the last debate, own's a chunk of the company that builds voting machines for a chunk of Ohio and some other crucial swing states, as does Tagg's mother Anne. Ain't that a coinkedink. Nothing to see here, move along.

You'd think maybe these Romney folks would at least realize that this connection doesn't look right. Maybe it depends on who's looking though. In the room full of millionaires to whom Mr. Romney is willing to bare his soul, it probably looks just fine.

Preaching to the Choir

Our little gig went very nicely yesterday. The rain that always accompanies Shakori Hills, The Festival, came much later, in the late evening. I was at home watching NC State break Florida State's heart sixteen seconds before the end of the game. We had one little glitch--my fiddle pickup didn't work. This was disconcerting as it is really brand new, but fortunately there was a microphone to play into, as well as sing into. It all worked out. We had fun. If you're in the vacinity, try to make it to Shakori next year. It's like a little Wheatlands. That's high praise.

____________________________

I saw this fine post this morning:


http://www.theygaveusarepublic.com/diary/11264/with-all-due-respect-governor-im-not-one-of-your-boys


Wouldn't that have been nice! I told a friend of mine yesterday, as we sat watching the Unknown Tongues (before I mounted the podium for my small bit), I wished Mr. Obama would come out for the next "debate" and after about ten minutes, shake his head, causing an afro the size of Ben Wallace's to suddenly pop out. Simultaneously, heavy gold bling would spring out from his collar and pendulate down across his chest. After which, Mr. Obama would announce, imperiously, that Mr. Romney and his minions, most particularly Messers Ryan, Gingrich, McConnell, Cantor, Hannity, Colter, and Limbaugh, are taking a long night train to Guantanamo. Oh I know, how dreadfully undemocratic. Next he'll be arresting people for making tapes containing "The theatre's on fire" in shout mode and distributing them to unsuspecting theatre sound systems around the country. Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech. And while you're at it, all those folks in those theatres need Glocks in their pockets to deal with the turmoil of the 47% who'd snuck in anyways. It would be like all the insane racist predictions of the past four years actually come true. But gawd wouldn't it feel so damn good. It would be a moment up there with "Look ahere, Lon, warn't no bullets."

Well, we'll have to be satisfied with the sensible and leave the insanity to the insane. Romney's glittering "triumph" the other night is tarnishing before our eyes. Even a lot of the uninformed are starting to say, at least to themselves, "Hey. This here is pot metal." Voting starts sorta early here in NC, and I plan to get 'er done as soon as I can. Yesterday on NPR some pundit presented an "argument" for waiting until actual Election Day to vote. "For one thing," he said, the "evidence" won't be all in till Election Day. Also, Election Day is like a national celebration of our democracy. It's something we should all participate in and savor, like Christmas, on the actual day it occurs. Early voters, he said, miss out on that.

I get tired of discovering more "balance" on NPR. It's bad enough every where else. This argument against early voting is, at best, romantic drivel. It ignores the plain reality that many people simply do not have the time to spare for long lines that will be the certain result of limiting voting to one day. In Florida the ballot is six pages long. And if this argument were sound, wouldn't folks voting early on the Day be making the same mistake, of not waiting till all the evidence is in? Perhaps at least Democrats should wait till, oh, 4:45 pm or so. Just in case. Rethugs and other known quantities, not so much.

It would be nice if NPR wouldn't leave it as a balanced report. I mean, when one side is driving the scale to the floor while the other side is a small pile of feathers.

The Serious Part

I found this piece via Lance Mannion. Mr. Klein gets to the serious heart of why Mr. Romney is so wrong, and why he would be such a dangerous person if he were President.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-18/what-mitt-romney-doesn-t-get-about-responsibility.html

The Republicans seem to live in a world of stereotype and cliche. Maybe most of us are guilty of this in some ways. But most of us don't get it as wrong as Mr. Romney does--and we're not wanting to be President, most of us. Another example--Scott Brown said night, in his debate with Elizabeth Warren, "just look at her, she's no native American." (I paraphrase). He said this several times. That's Archie Bunker land. Archie Bunker was, supposedly, a comic character written for our amusement. I mean as opposed to a real person aspiring to be a Senator. Or a President.

RNC Avoidance

I've watched about 5 minutes total of the big rally to take our country back to 1953, which is probably on the whole the perfect moment as far as "they're" concerned, all features considered: you have a new Republican President who's a war hero, you have Joe McCarthy and John Foster Dulles, and a raging cold war, and atomic testing, including the H-bomb, and Mickey Mantle smoking Camels in the outfield, and Miss Monroe on the silver screen, schools are well segregated, women are mostly quiet visual objects if they're young and pretty, or hard at work cooking and cleaning otherwise, gay people are secrets, and abortions are illegal or go by other medical names when necessary for those with money and in need.

Every speech I've seen or heard snippets of is laced with lies. There's no point in even bothering to counter them. (Edroso went and got married, and he's busy.) There is one speech, though, that really bothered me beyond all the rest. That was Mr. McCain's, last night. McCain decided to even bring our day to day foreign policy into the conversation. Here's what he said last night, in part (as transcribed by Fox News):

....When Iranians rose up by the millions against their oppressive rulers, when they beseached our president, chanting in English, “Are you with us, or are you with them?”, when the entire world watched as a brave young woman named Neda was shot and bled to death in a street in Tehran.

The president missed a historic opportunity to throw America’s full moral support behind an Iranian revolution that shared one of our highest interests: ridding Iran of a brutal dictatorship that terrorizes the Middle East and threatens the world.
The situation is far worse in Syria. What began as peaceful protests has now become, 18 months later, a savage and unfair fight.

With the full backing of Iran, and Hezbollah, and Russia-with tanks, and helicopters, and fighter jets, Bashir Assad is murdering men, women and children.
More than 20,000 people have perished. Extremists are gaining ground. And the conflict is becoming more dangerous by the day for our allies, and for us. In other times, when other courageous people fought for their freedom against sworn enemies of the United States, American presidents – both Republicans and Democrats – have acted to help them prevail.

Sadly, for the lonely voices of dissent in Syria, and Iran, and elsewhere, who feel forgotten in their darkness, and sadly for us, as well, our president is not being true to our values.

For the sake of the cause of freedom, for the sake of people who are willing to give their lives so their fellow citizens can determine their own futures and for the sake of our nation – the nation founded on the idea that all people, everywhere, have the right to freedom and justice – we must return to our best traditions of American leadership and support those who face down the brutal tyranny of their oppressors and our enemies....

Mr. McCain does a grave disservice to our State and Defense Departments to bring such a blanket indictment into the political conversation. He knows full well that President Obama is engaged in these global matters, and that he makes decisions (as will a President Romney, or any rational President) with the considered advice of diplomatic and military professionals. McCain knows full well that setting out on some quest to save a country from itself is dangerous and almost guaranteed to be an act with an even worse outcome than doing nothing--unless all the many details that have to be considered are considered.

It's not like we don't have the adventures of the last Republican administration to take note of, not to mention the various adventures of earlier times. It's not like we don't have Vietnam in our past.

Maybe that's the trouble with being the party of 1953. In 1953 there was only Korea to measure against the wonder of World War II, which had by then been mythologized into a glorious and nearly bloodless victory for the forces of Light, lead of course by Ike, McArthur, and George Patton. In 1953 there was really nothing much to learn, and the gaping wound that was the American Civil War had been plastered over so effectively that only a few articulate black folks had anything to say about anything. In 1953 America still lynched people.

Maybe we're going to have to live the whole of McCain's lifetime again. How stupid is that?

[photo (c) Eugene Smith]

Friday Update: As I've just said, trying to counter the literally hundreds of lies with which the GOP is building this campaign is beyond my interest and time. But here's something to consider. One can, with historical detatchment, view this whole process as the meltdown of the mainstream media, and the failure of the media to do it's fundamental job--namely inform voters of the truth. If we do end up with a government run by deluded Christo-fascists aiming to bring on armageddon while making their fortunes in the military war market,we will have the media to thank as well as our own slothfulness. Because the information is indeed out there to find, even if it's not on CNN, Fox, ABC, CBS, PBS, or even MSNBC, who's coverage of the convention has been over all as appalling as the rest.

And it's possible that Mr. Eastwood, last night, has saved us from ourselves. He's been aptly compared to Andy Kaufman, and it's possible. There are many commentaries to be found easily. I think Sadly No's might be the best one I've seen. On the other hand, my take on his speech is simpler. He was just massaging the base, and doing a little P.R. work for the industry he represents, to folks who pretty much think "Hollywood" is synonymous with "faggot communist," and who would gladly close the whole place down. Come to think of it, 1953 was pretty much a black and white world, not that they weren't making outstanding films back then too, and with a lot more guts and subtlety than the films that allowed Eastwood to become a Director. Watching Eastwood confronts another mystery. But it's not really new. It's just the mystery of unselfawareness, played out for everyone in the world to watch. And it's not like Mr. Romney doesn't trump Mr. Eastwood in that, now is it?

What If Science

There was a great amount of solid analysis of the Akin/Ryan position on Roe V. Wade last night on the teevee--if you were watching MSNBC anyways. Over on Fox they were covering other "stories," and of course there was an infinite amount of other things to occupy your mind, i.e., direct it away from a pretty interesting bit of intellectual fencing with significant implications for all our futures, should the Republicans gain full control of the United States.

As many analysts pointed out--correctly--there is no difference between the Paul Ryan position on legal abortion and the Akin position, and they have cosponsored several bills just in the past year aimed at outlawing all legal abortion via the route of defining "personhood" as beginning with conception. This legal tack has been presented, as well, to several states for constitutional ratification, while even Mr. Obama currently concedes that states may well have the "right" to make such alterations in the constitutional landscape if they can pass such state constitutional amendments. So far, fortunately, the people have not gone along.

No one has really looked at exactly why that is. But in the insular circles of conservative thinking, an assertion of fact has been making the rounds for at least twenty-five years, and surfacing occasionally (as in Akin's off the cuff remarks this past Sunday). It's almost always couched in the exact same language, this medical claim. Akin must have learned it by rote: "Doctors tell me," he says, "that the female anatomy simply shuts down when a 'real' rape happens, thus subverting the possibility of pregnancy."

This is positively Shakespearean. Storms come up when the royals are roiled. Chimney pots are blown down. Comets portend. Yorick moans from the back garden. A rape is just so wrong that a woman can't get pregnant. Or--conversely--if she's pregnant, she must have enjoyed the process just a tad, or something.

Where does this claptrap come from? Certainly not from legitimate science, or from the real world either. Rapes are fairly commonplace, and so are pregnancies occuring from rape. According to medical statistic keepers cited on Rachel Maddow last night, there were over 32 thousand pregnancies occurring after a rape last year. Rachel, Ed, Chris, Lawrence--all of them demolished the "facts" asserted by Mr. Akin, and all of them explained clearly that Akin and Paul Ryan are in total agreement that there should be no abortion allowed, not even in the case of rape.

Oh yes, of course Mr. Romney has now said that abortion in the circumstance of rape will remain legal in his administration. This is exactly as believable as Mr. Akin's rediculous "apology" of "misspeaking" on the subject of female anatomy. Both of them are simply offering ad hoc lies in the circumstance of total exposure. This situation is no different than Mr. Clinton's "depends on what 'is' means."

But as I said, no one (at least that I listened to last night) has really got at the motivation for the Right's return, over and over again, to the assertion of this patently false science, this Shakespearean world of mystical congruence, where the physical world simple cooperates with our presumed "morality" and "immorality."

So here's the deal. For most regular folks, when they are forced by politicians to actually think about banning all abortions as a legal procedure, they mostly realize that such a course is a terrible solution to a gorgon's knot of a problem. Because the fact is, almost no one would be willing to force a rape victim to have the child of her rapist. Such an idea is patently abhorrent, obviously evil, lacking entirely in any empathy for the victim of the event. And of course one can spend a whole lot of time to further develop why such an idea is abhorrent, including much that might be said about why even the potential offspring of such a situation could well face a tragic life path from the outset. Again--Shakespeare spends some time on this, as do the Greek playrights. This is old old stuff.

But. What if there were a scientific truth that was little known until, oh, about 1981, when the Reagan revolution took hold and a sitting President actually took the position that a settled constitutional matter, e.g., Roe V. Wade, was in fact not settled. What if the Akin science were true. Well then, if that were the case, then Mr. Romney could still say that in his administration there would be legal abortion in the circumstance of rape--while holding another quiet thought--that there can be, as a matter of science, no pregnancy as an outcome of "real" rape, because--well, because the gods just wouldn't allow it.

And, moreover, if such science were to gain a "foothold" amongst the majority of folks who actually never really think much about what's scientifically true or false, and why, why then it might be that one of these days a constitutional amendment which defines personhood as starting upon conception or possibly even slightly before, even when sperm and egg are in close enough proximity to possibly meet and unite, such an amendment might finally pass. And then, the foolish people having voted themselves into the old hell of back-alley abortions, of girls bleeding to death in punishment for their sinful ways, we will have returned ourselves to 1950 again. Our country will have been, as it were, "taken back."

For Mr. Ryan and Mr. Romney as much as Mr. Akin, their moral certainty is enough to ground their lies. And this is how much they value honesty and truth, and respect democracy. Which, of course, assuming you've been paying some attention, is no surprise at all.

Care to delve deeper? Here's a good start:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/does-rape-prevent-pregnancy-views_20.html

Symptoms (I Could Do a List of These)

From Tbogg yesterday we find the following bit of news--and make no mistake, this is news, not opinion:

http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2012/06/25/the-italian-job/

Mr. Gingrich was a top-tier Presidential contender only months ago, in the primary season of one of the United States' two major political parties. He was once Speaker of the House, which is the 3rd highest position in the Federal government in the sense that the Speaker is 3rd in line to be President should something unforeseen happen to both the President and Vice-President. Mr. Gingrich continues to be a top guest on the various Sunday news programs on the various major teevee networks.

Yet, the plain fact is that Mr. Gingrich is a self-aggrandizing grifter, with no shame and no honor, who is fine with retiring for the moment to Tuscany, or where ever else he cares to, even with enormous debts hanging over him. Did the people who worked for him during that campaign season just past even expect to get paid?

Meanwhile, the winning Republican candidate turns out to have been one of the originators of the gigantic outsourcing of jobs phenomenon which has, after eroding our middle class financial foundation for thirty years, left the country in the straits it now finds itself.

So what's the deal with the American Voter anyways? How can this election be close?

How Cynical Can You Get

As most of us will probably recall, only two years ago there was an election. In North Carolina, the Republican party gain a majority in the Legislature for the first time in a long time (perhaps forever?). These legislators were all voted in. They were part of an elective process. Without the process they would be sitting at home or doing whatever they were doing before the election. The current legislature of North Carolina, just like previous legislatures before it, depends on an election process. The process happens in the real world, and although we don't really think about it much, the process is not free. Yes, there are volunteers engaged in it here and there--but there's also a real expense to it. This is actually true of many things we don't usually think about, including the unremarkable drive to the store for some groceries, or even the simple act of turning on the lights, or pouring a glass of water. Somewhere, there's a cost.

Very near where I work is a railroad track. Now and then a coal train goes past. I counted the boxcars of coal one day. In that particular train on that particular day there were 89 hopper cars full of coal. Every bit of that coal has gone, I would expect, towards keeping the lights on and the power flowing to all the households in North Carolina which are connected to that particular part of the electric grid where that particular coal-fired electric generating plant is located. Just sayin'.

I have a post-card from the 1930s which shows a guy in over-alls holding a sign saying that the air is free. Used to be you could get you some free air if your tire was low at any gas station. Have you noticed--ain't that-a-ways no mo. Now it costs about a dollar to check your tire pressure and add air. And are the stations being money-grubbing to charge this fee? Well no, not really. They have to run generators to provide that air to you, and generators cost money in electricity.

So, anyways, our NC Legislature is going home for a while, having passed a final budget. And, how bout that! They've omitted to put some $600 K into the budget to release some $4 M in matching federal monies (already being held in an NC banking account by the way) to facilitate our coming election process in NC. Here's the story:

http://democracy-nc.org/releases/HAVAFunds2012.html

It barely made the news, by the way. Here's a detail from the story I've linked to:

The $4 million from the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) is already in a North Carolina bank account, frozen until matching State money is appropriated. The federal funds could be used to pay for voting machine maintenance, software and upgrades, poll workers training, and Early Voting locations. But apparently the legislative leaders decided they would rather starve local election boards than free up money that could open more Early Voting sites for the 2012 election!

The cynicism of the NC Legislature isn't entirely new of course. Back when I was but a lad we had here in NC something called the Piersall Plan. It was a nasty, crafty piece of lawyerly work aimed at making school integration take some 20 years to be accomplished. It more or less worked too. This meant that generations more of black children who should have received a better education as a matter of constitutional right were nontheless denied that education, at the instigation of some slick legislative lawyers. And let it be said, most of them Democrats, who back in the '50s entirely ruled the roost around here, and who maintained and supported the "institution" of segregation as fiercely as our Republican legislators today defend the so-called "institution" of marriage.

Still, the cynicism and moral corruptness of this year's batch of legislators is pretty grand, ain't it now. Because what they're doing is consciously damaging the very process that got them into the Legislature. And they're doing this (though of course they'd never say so except in very closed rooms, amongst only their supporters), because they believe that damaging the process will cause likely Democratic voters to be less likely to vote in greater numbers than likely Republican voters.

It's all pretty sickening. My whole life I keep opening the paper to see the same stupid stuff I thought might have been done with, and long ago. But here it comes again. And again. This same Legislature has decreed that no legal authority may use long term data concerning sea level rise (e.g., relating to global warming) to make any rules concerning coastal development in North Carolina. This same Legislature has refused to appropriate any monies to compensate actual victims of a North Carolina "medical" program which actually sterilized actual people who were teens in the 1960s, and are still living. This same Legislature of course supported and managed to aid in the passage of a draconian "Defense of Marriage" constitutional amendment which not only stops gay folks from marrying each other in NC, but actually damages already existing families to a degree that has already caused suits to be undertaken by the victims. The list, here in NC, goes on.

But it seems special, in a logical sense, for these small-minded, bigoted, craven, power-mad liars to go here--to actually consciously damage the process itself. Yet here they've gone.

Sad, sad, sad. I feel like it won't be long till they put the signs back up in Raleigh, over the water fountains. That's exactly what they want.

Note: the sign in the photo comes from Alabama. I remember exactly the same such signs at the North Carolina Court House building in Raleigh in the '50s, as well as at train and bus stations in Raleigh. This is how it was. It is what--apparently--the Republican Party dreams of restoring. It is what they mean by "taking our country back." It is the consequence of Mr. Nixon's "Southern Strategy," which embraced all the bigots and haters the Democratic Party had rid itself of when it passed the land-mark Civil Rights laws of the mid-'60s. This is where we are headed, and we're in 5th gear with the pedal to the metal.

Gifts

This lovely creature appeared in our yard Saturday a week ago, the day before we went off to Martinsville and the races. Her eyes were gold, and she stared through the window at me once, briefly. When we got back Sunday we discovered three kittens in the little outbuilding where you see the cat. She's leaping off the steps at the sound of the camera shutter, by the way, and I had the cam on zoom. Tame she isn't. We put a cat carrier without the door out there near where she had the kittens, and the next morning she'd moved them inside, where it's warmer. Of course there's been a cold snap since early last week--I even had a wood fire last night, the first in a couple of weeks at least. We've been encouraging the mother to stay with the babies, and she is nursing them. We've brought them inside for brief moments when she's gone to get them a little used to us humans--which as you know have fairly recently lost our kitty to old age. Not that we want three cats. Bridges to cross I guess.

I check on the kittens by talking gently and slowly entering the building. If momma's there there's a very fierce low growl, and I retreat, gently and quietly. I've been leaving her some food when she's gone, near the kittens. Today--Easter--I decided to leave food out on that step, after hearing the growl. Before long she was eating, and I was writing this and watching her from the kitchen window. Then she stopped eating and started loping this way, looking up into the woods. Damn if two dogs didn't appear. Damn. Such is the woodsy life we live. The dogs trotted past, apparently not noticing either her or the food. Momma seemed somewhat to be planning a diversion, and I expect she'd have been willing to even fight one of the dogs if necessary. I went out and shooed them on, and she vanished somewhere--hopefully not too spooked to return to the babies in a bit. The food still sits on the steps where she was eating. Do I remove it to keep dogs from noticing, or leave it there for her.

Such is the problem of interfacing with wild things. Or rather an endless series of what ifs. Shut the door at night to keep them safe, or does that lock out momma, or lock her in when she wants out. Bring the kittens in and try to feed them up ourselves. We tried a bit of that yesterday with little bottles from the vet. The milk wouldn't come out, the kittens were mewling and mystified, and pretty much a barrel of monkeys. One did eat some kitten canned food we had--a good sign unless it is too early and causes her problems we won't know about. Arrrgh!

I wasn't even going to write this particular story--the dogs diverted me as much as they did her, having her nice magical Easter Sunday meal. We'll see. It's as pretty a day as it gets, and the last one before work starts again. I'll stack some wood after a while, and pull for Mickelson. There's also trash to take to the dump, and a mountain of laundry. It was in some ways sorta nice to not worry about getting home to feed the cat(s). Just sayin'.

Monday Update: still dark. I'll go out and open the door to the shed and leave some food on the step for Momma, before I go off to work. I ended up watching most of the Masters, and I'm sure like most I was treated to a wonderful afternoon of, well, racing in a way. First there was the amazing double-eagle. First one in the tourney since 1935. That's pretty Haley's comet if you ask me. There were also two holes-in-one. And the winner, Bubba Watson, now there's a story in itself, a man who has taken no golf lessons, who simply gets how to play, who does his best to play within himself, who'd rather shoot a curve than a straight (one of his press-conference remarks after the win). It was slow-motion NASCAR, without the pettiness, and almost a green-white-checker, the tie at the end of regulation play forcing a playoff that came close to running out of light. All in all, a very nice Easter. Watson may have more wins up his sleeve. If so, we'll get to hear more comments as disarming as his answer to "what were you thinking when you were putting on the Green Jacket?" To paraphrase: "well, I was wondering what kind of helicopter that was taking off over there, and I wanted to ask my caddy about that cause I know he flies the things." That's honesty for ya.

Evidence

Compare the video in the first link:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/honest-rape-because-lying-women-cant-be.html

With that in the second link:

http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2012/02/02/women-arent-funny/

QED