Re-examiination time -- again

Among today's version of the Republican Party, there is not much support for any of the programs that helped the United States, particularly after the end of the Second World War, become the world's economic super power. These include FDR's New Deal which was in place but became a stable part of American life when there was enough money to fund its programs; Medicare and Medical, without which I would be dead; student tuition programs like the GI bill that gave us the largest well educated work force in history; and more particularly the huge infusion of money into infrastructure, e.g. the huge interstate highways system that Ike sold as essential for national defense.

Republican attacks on the bailout rely on an underclass handout image for these programs. Wall Street tycoons are the new welfare mothers in Cadillac’s. I liked this article because it helped me see that the way I personally view both the programs themselves and the way that we view them as skewed.

Read it. I think Mr. Wolff has a point, or even several!

Does Welfare Work? If social welfare programs work, then countries with more extensive programs should report a smaller percent of their population living in poverty. And that is exactly what we find. According to UNICEF, the percentage of children living in poverty in 2005 was: Denmark, 2.4%; France, 7.5%, Norway, 13.4%; Canada, 14.9%; United Kingdom, 15.4%; United States, 21.9%. (Thank goodness for Mexico — 27.7%.) The Human Development Index (HDI) measures general well-being, with special emphasis on child welfare. Ratings released in 2009, covering the period up to 2007, reveal the following: the U.S. ranks 13th, in a virtual tie with Austria, Spain, and Denmark, surpassed by some countries noted for extensive welfare programs: Norway, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, and Finland.

Hey Harry, your sentences are a total mess!

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada said in ”remarks prepared for delivery” to note the passing Senator Edward Kennedy:

"The impact he etched into our history will long endure. The liberal lion's mighty roar may now fall on deaf ears, but his dream shall never die."

 

Hey Harry, these sentences are a total mess! I think I am beginning to see why health care reform is getting so jumbled in the Senate debate. You guys can’t think straight.

I hate to be a nitpicker—no that’s a lie—I enjoy it more than you can imagine. I have a pet theory, hatched in the Geo W Bush years: totally mashed up semantics, weird modifiers and misdirected metaphors that paint a dreadful picture reflect mashed up, weird, misdirected and dreadful thinking. QED.

Here we go. Not to leave poor Geo way ahead in the war of malapropisms, the Democrats, with Harry at bat, have scored some whopping points!

"The impact he etched into our history will long endure.” Harry gets off to a slow start. Though “etching an impact” is a bit hard for me to get visually, “to etch in memory” is a common way to say “unforgettable.” Etching is a process in the visual arts that requires the application of acid, mordant or abrasive of some sort to the unprotected areas on a metal to create the negative of an image for reproduction. Doesn’t he just mean that it will be hard to forget Teddy and that his legacy will be equally hard to erase. The use of the word “history” might be trying to sound the sad note that Teddy is no longer with us, but his body is barely cold. But I will give “etched impact” 4 points, but take 2 away for the introduction of Teddy’s death with an weak nuance for “history”–if that is even his meaning.

“The liberal lion's mighty roar may now fall on deaf ears, but his dream shall never die." But here’s where the real fun begins, and Harry racks up real points. These are two great images, the roaring lion and the “I have a dream” rhetoric of any visionary. But in the same sentence? Both images are diminished plus it makes no sense. Minus 10 points for each infraction. The middle phrase, “deaf ears,” must mean that the Republicans in the Senate, those in power, those in the opposition, are so stupid that they cannot hear or understand his strong cogent, articulate arguments. But did this just happen now that Teddy is dead—now that he is no longer around to twist arms in the Senate cloakroom? Hardly. They were deaf long before. So I am going to deduct 40 points for nonsense. I have also heard that one can dream with all the organs, but the ears are not usually regarded as the instrument of dreams in ordinary speech, but then again, people who dream do hear voices, usually ominous warnings of danger. But if this is the meaning, it is very obtuse. I will deduct another 30 points. That leaves Harry with a score of 8 out of a possible 100. George scored 0 on multiple occasions. Keep it up Harry, you can still give him a run for his money.

Political Cartoon by Michael Ramirez

"Give up. The War is lost!"

Down in the Dumps about your 401 K? Read this.

Myth or something other?

I am not an apostle of Ayn Rand or Milton Friedman or the forever chair of the Fed, Alan Greenspan, but this is worth reading and thinking about.

"The choice--the dedication to one's highest potential--is made by accepting the fact that the noblest act you have ever performed is the act of your mind in the process of grasping that two and two make four." AR. How did this effect Mr. Greenspan's rhetoric? Here she is pretty close to showing what an idiot she was, or am I being too harsh?

Are Books Next?

Liberal education as we know it might also be a thing of the past. I wonder if anyone really cares or realizes the cost?

Here is a comment from a reader, Andrew Davis, of The New Republic:

In other news, American Airlines announces they will no longer fly airplanes.

For more of my collages go to Application of the Senses

"After careful analysis, we discovered that we make most of our profit selling tickets, not flying planes, so we are canceling all flights henceforth. Tickets, however, are still available on-line, over the phone, or from an agent. Our customers will also be glad to know that we are also reducing our fuel surcharge fifty percent."

clipped from blogs.tnr.com Why Book Reviews Matter Rumors surfaced last Friday that Book World, the Washington Post's highly-respected weekly stand-alone on all things literary, might be closing. Politico's Michael Calderone quickly confirmed that, while no decision has been made, it's under high-level discussion as a cost-cutting measure. This would leave the New York Times' Book Review as the last stand-alone book section in American dailies. In recent years, in-house book reviewing has been eliminated, abridged, or downgraded by the Atlanta Journal- Constitution, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Cleveland's Plain Dealer, The San Diego Union-Tribune--the list goes on.

What HBO didn't want you to hear

Today, Sunday, the 18th of January, at the Lincoln Memorial, openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson called on God to "bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people." However, his prayer was cut from the HBO broadcast!

Here is the full text of his prayer:

The Most Rev. Gene Robinson
Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire
Invocation, Inaugural Concert
Lincoln Memorial
Washington, D.C.
Jan. 18, 2009 2:20 p.m. EST


Oh, God of our many understandings, we pray that you will bless us with tears, tears for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women in many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria and AIDS.

Bless this nation with anger – anger at discrimination at home and abroad against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Bless us with discomfort at the easy, simplistic answers we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians instead of the truth about ourselves and our world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.


Bless us with patience and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be fixed anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a Messiah.


Bless us with humility, open to understanding that our own needs as a nation must always be balanced with those of the world.


Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance, replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences.


And bless us with compassion and generosity, remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable.


And God, we give you thanks for your child, Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States. Give him wisdom beyond his years. Inspire him with President Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style; President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for all people.


Give him a quiet heart, for our ship of state needs a steady, calm captain.


Give him stirring words. We will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.


Make him color blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership there will be "neither red nor blue states, but the United States."


Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.


Give him strength to find family time and privacy and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.


And, please God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our Presidents and we are asking far too much of this one. We implore You, O good and great God, to keep him safe; hold him in the palm of Your hand, that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace. Amen.

15 Days and Counting

Notes on paintings chosen for display at the Inaugural Luncheon in the Capitol.

View of the Yosemite Valley by Thomas Hill, Oil on canvas, 1865.
New-York Historical Society, Gift of Charles T. Harbeck

A few thoughts about the office of POTUS, looking back on the first three years of Barack Obama's administration. I wrote this 15 days before he was sworn in. I will continue to stand up for him, and work to get him re-elected.

The sense of the oldest version of the word “inauguration,” the Latin inaugurātus, is more than a just formal ceremony in which the person chosen for an office accepts its responsibilities and promises to fulfill its requirements. It was a blessing, augur. We humans try to coax the pantheon of the gods help move all the forces of the universe into alignment to create the most favorable circumstances possible for the office-holder to fulfill of his or her responsibilities.


Although I prefer a more secular interpretation of the word, there is something to that older, more sacred meaning. We humans, in our role as citizens, make a pact with the powers of the universe, that they will guide and protect Barack Obama to fight for the freedom of all people, to nurture all life, and to take care for humans in need—“to provide for the common good.” It is not one-sided. The humans have their role to play as well as the unseen powers. That is certainly what lead me to support Barack’s bid for the presidency, and I will be there, either in person or in spirit, to pledge my support as he sets out to make good on his promises.



The portrait, dated 1821, is of course Thomas Jefferson, by the 19th century portrait artist Thomas Sully. Bill Clinton displayed it at the Inaugural Luncheon in the Capitol for his 1st Inauguration.

I had imagined that Barack Obama would choose one of Lincoln. Instead he chose one that was painted the year that Lincoln was assassinated, View of the Yosemite Valley by Thomas Hill. The breath of Hill vision has room for many, many possibilities. I say that those possibilities still exist if we honor our part in the bargain.

 

Where are the protests and boycotts by the international community?

Ashin Mettacara is a Buddhist monk who escaped Burma after the brutal end of the Saffron Revolution. Currently, from an undisclosed location, he is blogging whatever news he gets from this isolated country.

The military thugs who control the country are not being held accountable by the rest of the world, but they could not survive without China stonewalling for them. And we in the West, yes even us cool, level headed focused, bright and committed Buddhists seem to have put the issue aside after the unbelievable pictures of thousands of saffron robed monks marching in the streets, followed by the horrific scenes of death and destruction that were caused by the cyclone, disappeared from out TV's.

Just yesterday I was reminded again of what we can still do, even in small ways. I was with a college buddy, showing him around San Francisco. We went into a very upscale shop on Maiden Lane, actually a building that Frank Lloyd Wright designed. On the desk was a jar and an appeal to continue to help the victims in Myanmar.

Wake up. It's still going on. Please do not let up the pressure. Speak up!

clipped from www.ashinmettacara.org Burma, Myanmar: Popular Burmese Hip-Hop Singer Gets 6 Years; Leader Monk Gets Another 15 years More than 20 activists were sentenced in Burma on Thursday. A popular Burmese Hip-Hop singer Zay Yar Thaw was also included in the list of the detainenes sentenced. Zay Yar Thaw is a 27-year-old singer from the popular music band known as ACID. ACID a hip-hop band from Yangon, Burma. Zaw Yar Thaw organised and led the Generation Wave group with the young activists during the Saffron Revolution led by the Buddhist monks in 2007. He was arrested in March with his four other members of Generation Wave. He was sentenced today to 6 years imprisonment for possessing foreign currency and organising illegal group. His four other members of Generation Wave were sentenced to 5 years imprisoment each. The leader and spokesmonk for the Saffron Revolution Ashin Gambira gets another 15 years. Last Tuesday he has already been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. But his case is not closed yet. By Ashin Mettacara

A very, very Happy Merry to All

A very, very Happy Merry to All
12/23/07

 

Congratulations, Al

Congratulations Al, and, thanks from all of us earthlings.

Whether or not we are generous in our thoughts about you, you have made a difference. And we thank those who are working so hard to look at the science required to track and, ultimately, change the downward spiral, including the men and women with whom you share this Nobel prize, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The World's Best (local) Coffee House

What are the ingredients for a good, perhaps superlative coffee house? Coffee? Eats? Service? Fast WiFi? Folks? Music? Comfortable seats? Location?


Most every coffee drinker I know protests Starbucks trying to romance us away with their coffee-flavored drinks. But how many will step off their normal path to support a really great place, run by wonderful people, with great coffee, fine eats, cool music, and comfortable seats where no one will bother you if you want to sit and fiddle on your laptop?


In the hope that a great place with these essential ingredients in abundance is rewarded, I am going to recommend my favorite coffee house, even if it might become crowded once the word gets out.

The Nervous Dog at 3438 Mission (between 30th and Courtland) in San Francisco deserves your business. As I write, it is still early on Sunday morning, and I just watched the owner go outside with a bowl of water for a customer's dog, obliged by the health code to wait outside. He, the owner that is, not the dog, is unflaggingly bright spirited and courteous, and I have the impression that this is who he really is - that he genuinely likes people and enjoys serving them. I had a perfectly made (free trade) cafe americano plus wonderful lox and bagel, all for a very reasonable price. We are listening to country gospel music. I would not be able to sit through 2 crossover country "hits," but this music has the A flat that distinguishes the genuine article, and I am enjoying it much more than I might have thought possible. It seems that I am not alone either. I see more than one of the two dozen or so diverse feet around me moving rhythmically .

At the bottom of Bernal Heights, the Hill, a few souls have wandered down to refresh their souls. It is not in a great Starbucks location, as you can see by the picture, no fancy shopping mall, or convenient kiosk in a supermarket, but the parking looks reasonably available for San Francisco if you are a driver. I came on foot, lucky to have The Nervous Dog in my neighborhood.

I am not alone in my evaluation either. I will link to Urbanspoon that posts reviews by ordinary folks like me. As of today, June 3rd, 17 out of 25 reviews give it the highest rating, 5 stars.

If you can't join me at The Nervous Dog, support your local coffee house.