FEMA 300,000 - New Orleans 1: "In a David versus Goliath turn of events, this city appears to have won a major victory in its fight against proposed FEMA flood elevation maps that officials said would severely limit continued recovery from Hurricane Katrina..."
This guy is one sorry s.o.b. As a public servant, he melds the productivity of Nero with the ethics of Caligula. He leaves a legacy of two failed wars, torture, and 14% unemployment, and the best he can come up with is "don't blame us." Wyoming can have him, but he deserves of a Siberian gulag. Too bad we can't send him to Gitmo, where he join the prisoners there in not being tortured...
This morning, Fox News ran a trumped up "story" about atheists "fighting" to remove the words "so help me God" from the end of the Presidential Oath of Office. Citizen K. doubts whether the presence or absence of four words -- be they "so help me God" or "I love you too" -- will much effect whether a president successfully preserves, protects, and defends the Constitution. Citizen K. points out that George Bush said these four words not once but twice, and still did his best to destroy, neglect, and offend the Constitution. Citizen K. also reminds Fox News that these four words do not appear in the oath of office as prescribed by the Constitution...
You want answers, we got answers: The first line above is from the Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, which I have just begun reading. New First Line soon...
Amy Goodman writes that many Israelis vociferously oppose their country's invasion of Gaza: "If you look at what's been going on in the Gaza strip in the past three years and you see what Israel has been doing to the Palestinians, you would think that the Palestinian resistance is rational..."
BREAKING NEWS: "The Seattle P-I newspaper is being put up for sale. Steve Swartz, president of Hearst Newspaper Division, told the newsroom that Hearst Corp. is starting a 60-day process to find a buyer. If a buyer is not found, Swartz said, Hearst will pursue other options. The options include moving to a digital-only operation with a greatly reduced staff, or completely shutting down operations. In no case will Hearst continue to publish the P-I in printed form, Swartz said."
Late last year, the P-I consolidated a number of sections and became noticeably smaller. It's probable demise represents a genuine loss to the Puget Sound community. Like any MSM outlet, the P-I has its limitations, but it has been a reliably liberal voice in contrast to the predictably establishment and often shrill Seattle Times. That Seattle could no longer support two newspapers (it's not even clear that it can support one) has been evident for some time, now, and the P-I's situation comes as no surprise. It's still a shame, though...
Friday's Choice: Speaking the Battle of New Orleans, check out Johnny Horton's surreal reenactment:
We can all relate to Sarah [Palin] and the difficulties of raising kids. It's only the liberals - the very same people that don't even believe that there is any such thing as sexual immorality - that will make mockery of it.
So closes a lengthy comment on a Palinista blog that I monitor. The commenter wrote about her efforts to shelter her daughter from sexual immorality, including residing on a "Christian campus" for a number of years. She carefully controlled her daughter's television and movie input, and exposed her to "Christian courtship teachings...again and again and again." And yet, as teen, her daughter wound up in a "questionable" relationship and became pregnant. She concluded that
...as hard as we all try to raise our kids a certain way, we are up against a monster in society...Our culture is just full of garbage and we parents are fighting against Goliath.
I'm not writing to criticize someone else's parenting techniques. Left, center, or right, we try our best against difficult odds. No matter how many good choices a parent makes, we inevitably make bad ones, whether out of inexperience, exhaustion, or ignorance. Every child who has a happy and productive life has two things in common: Loving parents and luck.
I take exception, of course, to the allegation that liberals deny the existence of sexual immorality. I suspect that we tend to have a narrower definition of it than conservatives, one based on notions of personal respect and informed decision-making. We may also be less willing to pass judgment on the choices of others. And of course, liberals view homosexuality as a function of genetics, a state of being that had no inherent moral component -- a stance at great odds with the Christian Right.
That that this Christian conservative wrings her hands and blames our society is the height of irony, since for years conservatives ridiculed liberals for supposedly excusing poor individual choices as the result of the pressures of "society." In some ways, there's common ground here in that neither liberals or conservatives see the world as a picnic. But, I don't know of any liberals who see solutions in sheltering their children from perceived evils to the extent that they can't engage in popular culture.
Nor do I know of no parent of any persuasion who wants their children to be teenaged parents. And, I know of no parent who hasn't at one time or another expressed dismay over the early sexualization of girls or the promotion of consequence-free sexual behavior in films and on television. But if the Christian conservative response is to shield their children from all of this, the liberal response is to realize that it isn't going away any time soon, and to prepare and ultimately trust their children to deal with it. The liberal response also includes the recognition that humans are imperfect, that teenagers will make questionable decisions, and that it doesn't make sense for them to bring children that they are unprepared to raise into the world simply because of an absence or unawareness of contraception.
No matter how one views themselves politically, engaging with culture and society is a quintessential liberal value, whatever its risks. Conversely, disengaging, whatever its appeal comes at too high a price in personal growth and development. At the end of the day, the liberal embraces social and cultural diversity, trusting in his or her intelligence, education, discernment, and skepticism to make mostly correct decisions. But we don't expect anyone to bat 1.000; because one can't be perfect, it's hard for us to hold it against people -- all of us, in other words -- who are not.
This conservative Christian view of society and culture as a "monster...full of garbage" drives them to both seal themselves off from society and to oppose as immoral anything that does not conform to their world view. It gave rise to a conservative religious movement to change the very nature of culture and society. The movement helped elect two presidents and control Congress for much of a 28-year period. During that time, it accomplished very little of what it set out to do.
Despite the defeat of Proposition 8 in California, there is no better indicator of this than the outcome that the increasing rejection of the Christian right's war on the so-called "homosexual agenda." Not only have champions of the right like Larry Craig and Rev. Ted Haggard been exposed as self-loathing homosexuals, it has become plain that fewer and fewer people care whether someone is gay or not. This refreshing attitude is especially prevalent among young people, the very population that the Focus on the Family types most seek to "protect."
Other examples of the defeat of the Christian right abound: We do not have prayer in public schools; nor do they teach Creationism or Intelligent Design. Roe v. Wade has not been repealed. Despite strenuous efforts, Christian pharmacists have not succeeded in gaining the "right" to refuse to dispense contraceptives and morning-after pills. Not only that, more businesses and governments offer domestic partner benefits.
This is not to say that the culture war is won, and liberals can't relax because time is on our side. For example, it remains difficult for women in rural states to obtain abortions, and the gag rule tying foreign aid in the Third World to abstinence-only pregnancy counseling will stay in effect for at least another 11 days. But there is, I think, a gathering recognition of the value, the necessity, of that rich melange of creativity, expression, temptation, and struggle called culture. We can embrace it, debate it, cope with it, contribute to it, change it. But we can't destroy something so essential to the revelation of our humanity in all its greatness, despair, success, failure, and mediocrity. I'll stand behind the liberal view of culture, especially compared to the alternative:
I try to forget this is happening. I ignore every news story about Obama. I pulled my head out of the covers the other day just long enough for it to occur to me that this is really going to happen - he's going to be sworn in. Then I put my head back under the covers.
Like most liberals, I see morality as a confluence of personal (including religious) and societal values, a matter at times private and at other times public. It is a mystery to me how a conservative can rail against a "culture of death" that accommodates Roe v. Wade while at the same time supporting capital punishment and the preemptive invasion of another country.
But, then, those are my liberal values talking: Whatever my personal feelings about abortion, I oppose the state making a decision better left to a woman, her conscience, and -- if it comes to it -- her doctor. Whatever my personal feelings about the justice of capital punishment, I oppose the state sanctioning and carrying out the premeditated murder of another human being, regardless of what heinous crime may be involved. And I don't see how a nation can retain its moral standing by crying for freedom and liberty to justify acts that displace millions and kill and maim thousands.
Not that I think liberals have a corner on moral thought and action. We don't. When it comes to liberals and the Christian right, the awareness of that is the biggest distinction of all...
The Battle of Rebuilding New Orleans: June Cross writes that the Gettridge family rebuilt their 9th Ward home at great personal cost and with little help. Former Tulane professor Kera Mosely wasn't so fortunate...
Stone Soup Musings points out that while congressional conservatives are quite willing to drive down the wages of American workers, they don't mind giving themselves a raise...
Larry Flynt sez the porn "industry" needs a bailout, too. Nihil Obstat shares his thoughts here...
Crabby Old Lady thinks that all of the carping about Caroline Kennedy's qualifications for the Senate is nonsense:
Ms. Kennedy is an attorney, writer and advocate for public education. She has co-authored two books on civil liberties including The Right to Privacy which Crabby found useful during her internet career. Kennedy is also a member of the boards of directors of the Commission on Presidential Debates and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund – all of which entails a great deal more day-to-day involvement in public issues than a lot of congressional legislators have.
Citizen K. tends to agree, and believes that this is the business of the people of New York anyway...
Gallier Hall (St. Charles St., New Orleans), dedicated in 1853...
Report from Gaza: "The Israeli army issued a video of the bombing of the Hamas-run government compound, which it posted on YouTube. In it, I also can see my home being destroyed, and I watch it obsessively..." Note: I searched for the video and found this:
Saturday afternoon, I sat down in a minister's office with four other people to provide input to Barack Obama's still-under-development health plan. The advantage of a small meeting soon became apparent: No long-winded one or two people can dominate, as often happens in a larger meeting (especially with Democrats). The Obama strategy must prefer it this way: Anyone who had commented on health care at change.gov was asked to assemble a meeting. Although provided with a cheat sheet and few questions as a basic structure, we were all able to get any points across. One person took notes, wrote up the results and circulated them for approval, then passed them along to the Obama team.
The attendees made for a fairly diverse lot, considering the small size: A retiree dependent on Medicare, a disabled veteran dependent on the VA, an uninsured activist, a minister, and me (self-insured). All had an impressive familiarity with the issue, down to some detail. And we are all impressed and hopeful that our opinion had actually been solicited.
Although we filled out forms and provided (excruciating, in some cases) detail, the group spoke loud and clear on two matters that the Obama paperwork avoided or danced around. First, we urged Obama, in all of his communications, to treat health care as a basic human right. This, combined with a general mistrust of private insurers, led us to prefer either an goverment-funded and administered plan, which doesn't appear to be on the table as yet.
Everyone there was open to persuasion regarding the argument that the most efficient approach is to take advantage of the existing infrastructure, i.e., employer-based health coverage administered by private insurers. However, none of us is convinced of that now, and all agreed that going in that direction requires much heavier regulation than is currently the case. IMHO, this would entail as big a battle with insurance companies as dumping them altogether. And none of us at the meeting will ever sign for the idea that the guarantee of a basic human right can be left up to employers and insurers.
It's actually beyond me why a business of any size would want the current system to continue. The costs are crippling and coverage has shrunk. By the Obama team's own estimate, one in five Americans with employer-based coverage have needs that exceed their benefits. That's 60 million people, which when added to the 50 million uninsured adds up to more than a third of the country left behind by their own system. To me, that's an infrastructure broken beyond repair...
U. S. Senate to turn away 71-year old Negro man as "unqualified"? That's what the Roland Burris story has started to sound like. I'm no big fan of Rod Blagojevich, but let's face it: He pulled a neat trick by appointing Burris to Obama's Senate seat. It's time to seat him and move on. Luckily, it sounds like cooler heads are prevailing...
Thanks to Robert Frost's Banjo, I've been exposed to a whole blogging culture dedicated to the love and promotion of something dear to Citizen K.'s middle-aged heart: Old movies. I grew up watching them on television with my father, and came to appreciate the talents of now-forgotten actors like Ed Begley (Sr.), Van Heflin, and Katie Jurado. In one of my first blog entries, I wrote about what makes an old movie an old movie. One time at Office Depot, my eyes lit up at the sight of Odds Against Tomorrow, a 1959 film that I hadn't even heard of. Well, Asleep In New York, Another Old Movie Blog, and The Classic Maiden all understand why no one in their right mind would walk away from a bargain-bin video of a movie starring Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Shelley Winters, Ed Begley, and Gloria Grahame...
BeauSoleil has a new album out. J. Poet of Crawdaddy! reviews it here...
Every year, the Oxford American publishes a special southern music edition that includes a compilation CD. It's always worth getting because of the sweep of the music: The CD crosses decades and genres with ease, successfully mixing the work of regional performers, one-hit wonders, and international stars. This year's 10th Anniversary edition features two CDs. Order from their web site or look for it at your friendly neighborhood news stand...
Past OA compilations have dug have some wonderful obscurities. A few years ago, they wangled a license for the audio of Robert Mitchum and Lillian Gish singing "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" in The Night of the Hunter. Check it out:
Journey Into Fear(1943). D: Norman Foster. Joseph Cotton, Delores Del Rio, Everett Sloane, Ruth Warrick, Orson Welles. Watch for this one on TCM. Cotton is at his dithering best in this tale of a WW II arms salesman pursued by Nazis for some obscure reason. Del Rio attempts a French accent, Welles plays a bemused Turkish secret police official, Warrick (Cotten's wife) acts unconcerned about it all, and Sloane -- as an eccentric businessman of indeterminate nationality -- heads a posse of character actors who join the fun with great relish. Although Welles didn't direct Journey, Wellesian touches abound and the suspense builds to an exciting finale. And only 69 minutes long!
Seven Pounds (2008). D: Gabriele Muccino. Will Smith, Rosario Dawson. Weak, slow, and dull, notable mainly for one of the most excruciatingly bad opening scenes in the history of cinema. Essentially, Seven Pounds is macabre take on the old story of a dying rich man spreading the wealth among deserving strangers. It's also yet another unconvincing case of an appealing but limited actor (Will Smith, in this case) giving a so-called "performance of a lifetime" by looking sensitive and misty-eyed for two hours. Rosario Dawson is good as a heart-transplant candidate.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button(2008). D: David Fincher. Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, Jared Harris, Tilda Swinton, Julia Ormond. Based on a Fitzgerald short story about a man who becomes younger as he ages, Benjamin Button is well done and engaging. Pitt shows unexpectedly range, and ever-capable Blanchett is ravishing. But in the end, the movie is essentially themeless. Fitzgerald's trifle of a short story guesses at what life might be like if we really did know then what we know now (we're better off as things are, it turns out), but the movie ignores all that. Moreover, there's no context from which to play off the central conceit: Except for an interlude set during WW II, Benjamin misses out on Vietnam, the counterculture, the Civil Rights movement (he lives in a remarkably tolerant New Orleans), the Fifties, and the Depression. Nonetheless, the story of two intersecting lives that "meet in the middle" never fails to hold interest and is surprisingly convincing. A date movie if there ever was one.
Frost/Nixon(2008). D: Ron Howard. Frank Langella, Michael Sheen. Another 3-star Ron Howard movie, this based on the Peter Morgan play purporting to show the back story to David Frost's 1977 televised interviews of former President Richard Nixon. Frost hoped that the interviews would enhance his prestige; the disgraced Nixon wanted to vindicate himself. It's a good movie -- swiftly paced and effectively acted by both stars. The interview sequences come off especially well. But in an odd way, the film unintentionally vindicates Nixon: Frost comes across as an unprepared dilettante, a lightweight who takes a pounding from his intellectual superior until a lucky punch sends the heavyweight crashing to the deck. In the meantime, Langella's Nixon studiously prepares for the interviews, taking the whole enterprise seriously while regarding it -- as he tells Frost -- as a duel. Is the best way to prepare for a final exam to party all week, then cram at the last minute? Frost/Nixon suggests that this will work every time...
Quote of the Day: "But a defeat of Hamas in Gaza -- following on the heels of our success in Iraq -- would be a real setback for Iran." William Kristol actually wrote that here. That's like saying that if Cornwallis had had a few more successes like Yorktown, we'd all be pledging allegiance to the Union Jack...
On the other hand, David Frost successfully elicited riveting moments like the following. Watch the palpable increase of Nixon's discomfort and embarrassment when confronted with his own words:
To honor the memory of Megan Kinsella, there are no funnies this week. Our family knew Megan well, and all of our thoughts and prayers go out to her family in the hope of easing their terrible pain, however slightly.
Wow! Here's an idea whose time has more than come: Jazz on the Tube, "the internet's jazz video juke box." Click here to watch Bud Powell, the greatest jazzman to ever tickle the ivories. You will not believe Bud's hands. Thanks to the New Orleans New Ladder for this one!...
I don't think it's quite fair to condemn the whole program because of a few holes. There's only so much a Corps of Engineers can do...
A tired poet spends the night in the car park at ThoorBallylee, the gaunt Clare tower where Yeats made his home from 1916-1928. "Then just the noise of a windy western night, the body of the car being buffetted by the gusts, and, briefly, the sneeze of a fox. I also heard a loud crack, as if a branch had broken in the wind ('a pear tree broken')..."
I lay no claim to understanding the tortured politics and history of the Middle East. But I find this sort of obvious propaganda to be racist, offensive, and insulting to anyone's intelligence. It's a mystery to me why the Washington Post continues to give a forum to this guy...
A couple of new Citizen K. features: The quote at the top is the first line of a notable book, essay, poem, play, or screenplay. You are welcome to submit your guess as a comment. (Foxessa, no fair guessing this one!) At some random time, I'll put the answer on a sidebar and change the quote. Also, I've changed the NOLA links to reflect a month-by-month calendar of the festivals, parties, and happenings in the Crescent City. It promises to be a long list...
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