Sunday Funnies and Arts

As always, click to enlarge...

I didn't read the entire book, but what I did read of Christopher Hedges The Death of the Liberal Class was a tedious disappointment. The author of the excellent War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning has a good idea: How the decay of liberal institutions such as the press and the Democratic party has opened the door to a corporate assault on the middle-class way of life. But the sections I read were just another tired left-wing assault on liberalism, the kind of thing I've been reading and hearing since high school.

Hedges can't understand, for example, why liberals detest Ralph Nader. Nader is a saint, after all. And his candidacy had nothing to do with Bush's win in 2000. Bush cheated, Gore ran a poor campaign, and anyway there is really was no difference between the two. Hedges doesn't consider why liberals found this claim wrong in 2000 and ludicrous by 2008. He merely shakes his head sorrowfully when Eric Alterman explodes at Nader in the film An Unreasonable Man.


The problem with liberalism, Hedges argues, is that it never heeds the left. But that's a two-way street: The left never listens, either. It issues policy pronouncements and then accuses liberals of selling out on imagined commitments that could have been met had they only believed more.

Progressive systemic change in this country has typically been driven by mass movements. Hedges' liberal establishment cannot by definition produce movements, but historically it has (eventually) heeded them. Despite a disappearing middle class, the left has failed -- if it's even tried -- to organize. What is needed is not yet another left wing critique of liberalism, but a left wing critique of the left...

Extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy is anathema to me. But I have to ask myself: If my choice is to extend the cuts and extend unemployment benefits or let the cuts expire at the price of the Republicans killing unemployment benefits, what do I do? Do I call their bluff? But what if it's not a bluff? Do I put people in danger of losing food and shelter when I can take on the tax cuts next year when when the economy may have improved?...

PWALLY takes on the red wombat eyes of the older sister...

PHOTO GALLERY
I wish were lions...that would be nice...

Babylon Cafe, NOLA...

Song sparrow in Russian olive...

To Echo Mountain via Castle Canyon...

Stone...

Volatile soup...

Sunday Funnies and Arts

Cartoonists appear to have taken the holiday week off! As always click to enlarge...

In this valuable blog entry, political theorist Benjamin Barber not only explains why President Obama is not a socialist, he shows how loose use of words like "socialism" and "communism" can cripple politics. Don't miss it...

School beckons, so no links today. They'll be back next week. In the meantime, here's the pride of Quincy, MA singing "The Fields of Athenry:"


The Fields of Athenry
By a lonely prison wall,
I heard a young girl calling
Michael, they have taken you away,
For you stole Trevelyan's corn,
So the young might see the morn.
Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay.

Low lie the fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly
Our love was on the wing, we had dreams and songs to sing
It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry.

By a lonely prison wall,
I heard a young man calling
Nothing matters, Mary, when you're free
Against the famine and the Crown,
I rebelled, they cut me down.
Now you must raise our child with dignity.

Low lie the fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly
Our love was on the wing, we had dreams and songs to sing
It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry.

By a lonely harbor wall,
she watched the last star falling
As that prison ship sailed out against the sky
Sure she'll wait and hope and pray,
for her love in Botany Bay
It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry.

It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry.

Low lie the fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly
Our love was on the wing, we had dreams and songs to sing
It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry.

Sunday Funnies and Arts

As always, click to enlarge...

Louisiana State Museum opens Katrina exhibit. If you're in New Orleans, you don't want to miss this one. The museum is in Jackson Square, so you won't have to go out of your way...

PHOTO GALLERY

Have You Got Yourself An Occupation Dept: Children of the Maslakh refugee camp in Afghanistan...

NOLA street signs...

Joyce Requiem...

The one-day surgery unit...

Hidden hooch flask, 1922...

Premium T. visits a premium P. Patcb...

Roy at Ballard Park...

Postcard form Hot Springs...

FROM THE JUKE BOX

Peter Tibbles on the Kings of the blues...

Emmylou Harris nails "For No One"...

Judy, once more:

Sunday Funnies & Arts

As always, click to enlarge...




















NEWS OF THE WEAK

"Our message to the federal government is lead or get out of the way." Thus spaketh Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, whose lack of foresight and preparedness was exposed last week by the New York Times. If the federal government withdrew the Coast Guard and the dozen agencies working on the spill, Jindal would shit his britches, and I don't mean figuratively. The stench emanating from the Lousiana governor's office would permeate the walls of Fort Knox with the pungency of a thousand rotting nutrias. Jindal would crawl to Washington on his hands and knees to beg Barack Obama for help and publicly declare that any way the president wanted to handle the BP/Halliburton Catastrophe was fine by Bobby Jindal. Just to make sure that the message had gotten through, Jindal would call an international press conference to beg for cap-and-trade legislation, then go to New Orleans and kiss Al Gore's butt on Canal Street at high noon and swear on the Holy Bible that it smelled like roses. Talk is really, really cheap...

Although the headline allegation of "BP, feds too cozy for some in assessing damage," the actual story tells a different tale and shows yet again that, when it comes to the BP/H Catastrophe, there are a lot hard questions with no easy answers. It turns out that the administration's approach aligns with the the Oil Pollution Action of 1990, which requires that the government and the oil company involved work in tandem to evaluate damage. And it further turns out that there are good reasons for that. Which isn't to say that the concern isn't real or that Congress shouldn't monitor the process. (After eight years of Bush-Cheney, the country needs the legislative branch to reassert its independence.) But cozy? The headline misleads to the point of dissembling. And that's all that many people will read...

Charles Krauthammer, the Likud's Minister of Truth, writes that...oh, never mind...

THE WILD WORLD OF SPORTS
The Washington Nationals have signed 78-year old Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez to a minor league contract. "We're really happy for him to come back and pitch again," said brother and possible teammate 68-year old Livan Hernandez. The younger Hernandez claimed that his brother is throwing in the low-to-mid 90s, then revealed that Fidel Castro has been a CIA mole for more than fifty years...

What Could Be More American? Dept: Always on the lookout for a quick buck, Major League Baseball observed America's birthday by outfitting several teams in moronic tricolor beanies, complete with star-spangled logos, available to patriotic fans for $36.99. Ever generous, MLB is contributing a whopping dollar of each sale a veteran's organization. I'm happy to say that the Red Sox did not sully Fenway Park with this homage to avarice...

The New York Daily News reports that the Knicks expect to acquire three-time All Star PG Tony Parker (aka Eva Longoria's husband) for what amounts to a week's takeout from Mott Street and a beer at McSorley's. I've been wondering what fantasy hoops is all about, and now I know...

PHOTO ALBUM
There is a cure for the summertime blues after all...

Drivin' down the road I get a feelin' that I should have been home yesterday...

Mandina's...

Old Glory overwhelmed...

I [heart] Vermont...

Jack Johnson and the girl with the man behind the gun...

Kraaaaaakk!...

The urban art of Sandrine Estrade Boulet...

FOR YOUR BURNING DESIRE
Indigo Girls, Staring Down the Brilliant Dream: Proficiency and precision elevate -- rather than lessen -- the passion and emotional thrust of these 31 live tracks from the Indigos 2009 tour. A fan's album if there ever was one, the singalong choruses add a warm feeling of community no matter what your gender or sexuality. And in soulrock singer Trina Meade, "Kid Fears" finally has worthy substitute for Michael Stipe...Steve Poltz, Dreamhouse: The kinder, gentler side of the veteran singer-songwriter emerges on this beguiling album compromised (mostly) of ballads and a winsome cover of "The Way We Were." Poltz fans will clamor for "I Love What You've Done With This Place" (video below) from now until the day he dies. It wouldn't make for a bad epitaph at that...Happy Talk Band, Starve a Fever: A rueful, dry morning-after of an album summons its inner Lou Reed with blues, country, and indie stylings that conjure the night before. HTB pleads for a jerk to see himself for what he is and leave the woman the singer loves; wryly recognizes that the guy who mugged you on the way home is only human himself, with bills to pay and a family support; reminds a barfly to take care of herself via a rowdy Irish singalong; and tells the tale of an insomniac anesthesiologist who mercifully falls asleep at a bar. Fun, observant, and shot on location in NOLA...

NOLA musicians speak out in the best way they know how (thanks, Foxessa)...

Second line with the To Be Continued Brass Band...

FROM THE DESK OF CITIZEN K.
As some of you know, I start graduate school this fall at the ripe young age of 55. Last week, I received a long list of summer readings and on-line tutorials for completion before class begins in September. These must be my first priority, so I won't be able to blog as often as I have been. The Sunday Funnies and Arts won't go away, and I hope to write 1-2 entries a week. And, you'll no doubt be relieved to hear, I'll still leave profound observations on your blogs while exploring the wonderful worlds of statistics and hospital finance...



Happy Fourth of July!