Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Test. To read the rest go to home page Once a year motorcycle magazines  treat us to a retrospective on the six, or eight, or ten best motorcycles of the year. This is all very specialized hardware: Crotch rockets, moto-cross dirt bashers, enduros, motorcycles to ride from Cleveland to Brazil, bikes to cruise to the local saloon, and luxo-tourers like two wheeled cars for America’s endless superslabs. 5:37:55 PM    comment []

Thursday, August 12, 2004

Charley Reese, Conservative A friend recently sent me a copy of one of Charley Reese’s columns. Reese is billed by the King Features folks who syndicate his pieces as a conservative. If all conservatives wrote as well, and as reasonably, we might raise the level of political discourse. I have searched for a link to this column but failed to find it so copyright be damned just this once: Vote For A Man, Not A Puppet by Charley Reese Americans should realize that if they vote for President Bush's re-election, they are really voting for the architects of war, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and the rest of that cabal of neoconservative ideologues and their corporate backers. I have sadly come to the conclusion that President Bush is merely a front man, an empty suit, who is manipulated by the people in his administration. Bush has the most dangerously simplistic view of the world of any president in my memory. It's no wonder the president avoids press conferences like the plague. Take away his cue cards and he can barely talk. Americans should be embarrassed that an Arab king (Abdullah of Jordan) spoke more fluently and articulately in English than our own president at their joint press conference recently. John Kerry is at least an educated man, well-read, who knows how to think and who knows that the world is a great deal more complex than Bush's comic-book world of American heroes and foreign evildoers. It's unfortunate that in our poorly educated country, Kerry's very intelligence and refusal to adopt simplistic slogans might doom his presidential election efforts. But Thomas Jefferson said it well, as he did so often, when he observed that people who expect to be ignorant and free expect what never was and never will be. People who think of themselves as conservatives will really display their stupidity, as I did in the last election, by voting for Bush. Bush fooled me once, but he won't fool me twice. It is not at all conservative to balloon government spending, to vastly increase the power of government, to show contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law, or to tell people that foreign outsourcing of American jobs is good for them, that giant fiscal and trade deficits don't matter, and that people should not know what their government is doing. Bush is the most prone-to-classify, the most secretive president in the 20th century. His administration leans dangerously toward the authoritarian. It's no wonder that the Justice Department has convicted a few Arab-Americans of supporting terrorism. What would you do if you found yourself arrested and a federal prosecutor whispers in your ear that either you can plea-bargain this or the president will designate you an enemy combatant and you'll be held incommunicado for the duration? This election really is important, not only for domestic reasons, but because Bush's foreign policy has been a dangerous disaster. He's almost restarted the Cold War with Russia and the nuclear arms race. America is not only hated in the Middle East, but it has few friends anywhere in the world, thanks to the arrogance and ineptness of the Bush administration. Don't forget, a scientific poll of Europeans found us, Israel, North Korea and Iran as the greatest threats to world peace. I will swallow a lot of petty policy differences with Kerry to get a man in the White House with brains enough not to blow up the world and us with it. Go to Kerry's Web site www.johnkerry.com/ and read some of the magazine profiles on him. You'll find that there is a great deal more to Kerry than the GOP attack dogs would have you believe. Besides, it would be fun to have a president who plays hockey, windsurfs, ride motorcycles, plays the guitar, writes poetry and speaks French. It would be good to have a man in the White House who has killed people face to face. Killing people has a sobering effect on a man and dispels all illusions about war. For a more extensive sampling of what this conservative has to say visit here, and here.   6:24:26 AM    comment []

Friday, August 06, 2004

Poet Phyllis McGinley… …lived just a "short walk from the station" in 1950. Her poems, many of which appeared in The New Yorker, are as good a social history of the American suburbs as your are likely to find on a bedside table. Together they are not a sociological tome but rather a generous, if skeptical, nod in the direction of a society that is now as dead as a coffin nail. I was reminded of her poetry by my memory of Jack Armstrong, the All American Boy Here, in part, is what she says of that bygone world in the introduction to her 1951, Viking Press collection, "A Short Walk from the Station" "…it is a commuter’s town, the living center of a web that unrolls each morning as the men swing aboard the locals, and contracts again in the evening when they return. By day, with even the children pent in schools, it is a village of women. They trundle mobile baskets at the A&P, they sit under driers at the hairdressers, they sweep their porches and set out bulbs and stitch up slip-covers. " "The town has become a symbol of all that is middle class in the worst sense…to condemn suburbia has long been a literary cliché…I’ve lived in the country and I have lived in the city but for the best eleven years of my life I have lived in suburbia and I like it… " Still, she could write this about the Executive’s Wife: Her health is good. She owns to forty-one,    Keeps her hair bright by vegetable rinses, Has two well-nourished children—daughter and son—    Just now away at school. Her House, with chintzes Expensively curtained, animates the caller.    And she is fond of Early American glass Stacked in an English breakfront somewhat taller    Than her best friend’s. Last year she took a class In modern drama at the County Center.    Twice, on Good Friday, she’s heard Parsifal sung. She often says she might have been a painter,    Or maybe a writer; but she married young. She diets. And with Contract she delays    The encroaching desolation of her days. 1:13:13 PM    comment []

I Forgot To Mention… …that I went to a Democracy For America (Dean) Meetup on Wednesday. There were at least thirty people in attendance and all of them were actively working in some way or other to get John Kerry elected. A good sign. Also a good sign was the fact there was general agreement that after the election we were not, as Progressives, going to go away. Feet were going to be held to the fire. I thought it was most interesting that seven or eight of the folks there on Wednesday were new Precinct Committeemen. In other words, they were Progressives who were actually part of the Democratic Party structure. It’s a beginning. 6:57:02 AM    comment []

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Grizzly Bears Just outside of Salmon, Idaho a roadside sign said: No Grizzly Bear Re-Introduction! It seems that when ol’ Griz becomes a problem in Yellowstone he’s anesthetized and bundled off to the mountainous camping areas just west of the Salmon River. This practice annoys the locals, who don’t much fancy camping in territory where they are not at the top of the food chain. I was reminded of a suggestion floated by the Alaska Fish and Game Department.   Warning In light of the rising frequency of human-grizzly bear conflicts, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is advising bikers, hunters, and fishermen to take extra precautions and keep alert for bears while in the field. We advise that outdoorsmen wear noisy little bells on their clothing so as not to startle bears that aren't expecting them. We also advise outdoorsmen to carry pepper spray with them in case of an encounter with a bear. Outdoorsmen should recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear dung. Black bear dung is smaller and contains lots of berries and squirrel fur. Grizzly bear dung has little bells in it and smells like pepper spray. 7:22:59 AM    comment []

Tuesday, August 03, 2004

Arizona Republicans Caught in Electoral Fraud. It may not mean much to folks living elsewhere, but here in Baja Arizona Democrats are pleased to learn that what they have always believed is true: Our ultra conservative Republicans are simply sanctimonious fakers. The ‘Pubs are forever complaining about voter fraud committed by non-citizens. As a matter of fact no election has ever been put in question by evidence that non-documented immigrants have voted, attempted to vote, or otherwise stuffed a ballot box. Our state Republicans recently ‘voted’ to decide who would be a national committeeman. Tucsonan moderate Mike Hellon was up against a conservative Phoenician, Randy Pullen. Pullen squeaked out a five vote win in an election that party officials later investigated and determined was fraudulent. It seems that delegates to the ‘Pub’s state convention used other delegates’ credentials to vote more than once for Pullen. Hellon has not challenged and the party has decided to sweep the whole fiasco under a handy rug. What is interesting to me is that no moderate member of the Republican party has seen fit to challenge the election in the interest of simple justice. Watch out, gang, there’s no living with these people. Read the Arizona Daily Star story, by columnist Ernesto Portillo, here: link 9:24:01 AM    comment []

Monday, August 02, 2004

The Language of Cats I seem to have been thinking about language and linguistic philosophy lately, probably sparked by something I read at "What happens when you tell a lie?" At any rate, I remember hearing or reading that cats have a surprisingly large repertory of "vocalizations." Something like fifty grumbles, rumbles, chatterings, yowls chirps and meows. My cat, Mr. Squeak, is seldom quiet. He is a sixteen-pound lumbering vocalizer. Even walking around the house he seems to be commenting to himself about whatever undertaking he is concerned with. He has learned (or have I?) that a certain very distinct sound announces a desire to be let outside. If he makes this sound and I stand up, or make a move in the direction of the door, he will streak there and wait to be let out. I came in today from running errands and sat down at the laptop to do some work. I did not want to go outside in the heat and keep an eye on him while he prowled around grazing on plants and hunting for lizards, but he began to circle my chair legs and talking to me. He put his front paws on my leg and gently scratched at them with his claws sheathed. I looked down at him. He looked up at me and said, "Meow?" I reached down and scratched his ears and assuming, as most cat owners will, that he understood perfectly I explained to him we would go out later. This routine of circle, scratch, Meow went on for a minute or two, getting louder and more insistent each time untill it began to sound less like "cat talk" and more like English: Meow…meoowt…MeOUT. Finally he jumped up on the desk and put his nose right at my ear. His breath tickled. Then he let out one deafening howl: MEOUT!! And jumped down. It seemed unfair under the circumstances, when he had learned what seemed very much like a linguistic trick, not to let him out. I had coffee in the patio while he browsed and nosed out lizards under the flower pots. Language? Linguistic behaviour? Wittgenstein once commented that if a lion could speak English you wouldn’t be able to understand it. 9:20:43 PM    comment []

The Meaning of Life There are people whose lives are tormented by the question, "What is the meaning of Life?" If only they could answer that question! Then, they believe, they would be freed of the sense that their lives were soul-crushingly dull and aimless. We probably all ask this question of ourselves sometime…a time when we scream out in frustration, "What the fuck is the point?" Some few of us finally decide that there is no point and bid a fond farewell to the emptiness. I have always suspected that the question is meaningless, and that to obsess about it is to make some sort of weird linguistic mistake. But let’s suppose it makes sense. Why, then does no one ever ask, "What is the meaning of Death?" We have rung the changes on the Life question until it's pretty well wrung out. (sic) Perhaps we would discover something about the meaning of Life if we started at the enquiry from the back end. What is the meaning of Death? 11:05:01 AM    comment []

Defense of Marriage The people of Missouri are about to go to the polls to vote on whether to amend their constitution to define marriage as existing only between a man and a woman. Kent Ostrander of the Family Foundation in Kentucky is reported to be watching the results of this vote very carefully. Ostrander argues that (are you ready for this?) passing this amendment is crucial if we are to save children from being raised in motherless or fatherless families! Two comments. First, this is clearly an attack on Muslims and Mormans around the world who either do now, or have in the past, sanctioned and practiced polygamy. Second, if you want to protect the sanctity of mariage and prevent children from being raised in "motherless or fatherless" families you had better ban divorce. Listen to an NPR report. link 8:20:46 AM    comment []

Friday, July 30, 2004

Keynote Address I seem to be the only Democrat in my immediate circle of Democratic activists who was less than overwhelmed by the Kerry acceptance speech. Frankly, I was puzzled by my own reaction, which was absent any urge to leap to my feet, shout "Right On!," and wave a banner. I have to be honest and say I don’t think I can say what it is I wanted to hear, or tell you what I would have said had I been Kerry’s speechwriter; perhaps some idea of what dream for America we should be dreaming, rather than simply fixing the mistakes of the Bush administratation. The speech was essentially defensive, saying "Hey, we’re a faith based party, too." Or, "Hey, we’ll go to war if necessary." Or, "Hey, we’re not about to rescind middle class tax cuts." Or, "Hey, we’re going to have a different Attorney General." (But leave unsaid any commitment to radical reform of the Patriot Act) The Republican propaganda machine actually dictated much of the content of Kerry’s speech. Not one word was spoken by anyone at the convention about that concrete and razor-wire abomination…the "free speech" stalag. At the very least someone should have said, "We may recognize that the threat of terrorism can require extra ‘precautions’ but Democrats want to guarantee the safety of Americans so we can quickly return to a condition of full and free protest rights.   Some Comments From Elsewhere Naomi Smith, in an article that originally appeared in The Nation, and available at the Guardian web site, argues that progressives are distracted from the real issues by their scorn for Bush: "…. there is something about George Bush's combination of ignorance, piety and swagger that triggers a condition in progressives I've come to think of as Bush Blindness. When it strikes, it causes us to lose sight of everything we know about politics, economics and history and to focus exclusively on the admittedly odd personalities of the people in the White House. Other side-effects include delighting in psychologists' diagnoses of Bush's warped relationship with his father and brisk sales of Bush "dum gum" - $1.25. "This madness has to stop, and the fastest way of doing that is to elect John Kerry, not because he will be different but because in most key areas - Iraq, the "war on drugs", Israel/Palestine, free trade, corporate taxes - he will be just as bad. The main difference will be that as Kerry pursues these brutal policies, he will come off as intelligent, sane and blissfully dull. That's why I've joined the Anybody But Bush camp: only with a bore such as Kerry at the helm will we finally be able to put an end to the presidential pathologising and focus on the issues again." "I have no illusions that the left will have "access" to a Kerry/Edwards White House. But it's worth remembering that it was under Bill Clinton that the progressive movements in the west began to turn our attention to systems again: corporate globalisation, even - gasp - capitalism and colonialism. We began to understand modern empire not as the purview of a single nation, no matter how powerful, but a global system of interlocking states, international institutions and corporations, an understanding that allowed us to build global networks in response, from the World Social Forum to Indymedia. Innocuous leaders who spout liberal platitudes while slashing welfare and privatising the planet push us to better identify those systems and to build movements agile and intelligent enough to confront them. With Mr Dum Gum out of the White House, progressives will have to get smart again, and that can only be good. " Read the whole commentary. Link   Michael Moore in Boston If you haven’t read a transcript of Michael Moore’s Cambridge speech during the convention week you can read it, or watch it, at the Democracy Now site. Link  10:36:27 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2004 Arthur Jacobson.