mikal in philly

Not ready to make nice either

2007-02-12T12:04:00.000-08:00

Huzzahs to the Dixie Chicks for sweeping the Grammys. Do they hold grudges? “Without going through what we did, we wouldn’t have been able to make this album” one of them said.

I spent the weekend with family in Indianapolis, and got into an argument with my brother-in-law about the war in Iraq while I was helping him wash the dishes. He broke a crystal bowl in the sink. I felt sad as I carried the shards out to the trash. This war has broken families apart just as much as it has Iraq. We should’ve been laughing and talking about the Colts Superbowl win, not trying to make each other right or wrong. Reflecting on it, I feel such certainty that the war is wrong. Even though I love my brother-in-law, I'm not ready to make nice either. Fucking George Bush.

~

Walkin' in Memphis

2007-02-19T07:26:00.000-08:00

We spend most of our time at home in the country or our small university town, so E. and I were in need of an urban fix. Chicago is usually our first choice, but it’s been unusually cold lately, and we knew it would be worse if we went 250 miles further north. Why not head south?

That took us to Memphis, where we stayed at an artsy/lofty/quaint guesthouse called Talbot Heirs, just across the street from the famous Peabody Hotel—the place with the ducks in the fountain. It was a perfect location for an immersion into the city’s Downtown.

Friday night we had the requisite barbecue (and now I proclaim, Memphis reigns!) After that, we wandered in to the Blues Hall on Beale Street, a funky club dripping with history, where The Dr. Feel Good Potts Band played some of the best blues I’ve heard. We lingered there into what I thought were the wee hours. I was shocked when got back to our room and found it was only 10:45—but then it had been a long drive.

On Saturday we took the trolley to the National Civil Rights Museum. Walking up Mulberry Street, I kind of choked as I glimpsed the facade of the Lorraine Motel, an image that was seared into my brain in 1968 when Martin Luther King was gunned down there. The exhibits included a bus like the one Rosa Parks rode, a reconstructed Woolworth lunch counter and KKK robes. The displays tell such a troubling—yet inspiring—story.

I didn’t expect a great meal in a small city, but we both agreed Saturday’s dinner at Automatic Slim’s Tonga Club was among the best we’d ever had—anywhere.

I think my favorite experience of the weekend was buying a sweater and two shirts at Lanskys in the lobby of the Peabody. There are pictures on the wall of Mr. Lansky fitting Elvis in 1952. I asked the 80-year old guy waiting on me if that was him in the picture. “Yes,” he said. Then he went on to tell me he’d lived in Memphis all his life, and how much he loved his hometown. I told him that after just a couple of days there, I agreed it was a pretty great place.

On Sunday we had brunch with old friends Jeanne and Bill Goodrich who have retired back to their hometown. The experience was kind of “Old South” because men are required to wear jackets on Sunday at their place. Jeanne and Bill’s sunny, southern dispositions brightened our family’s lives when they were our next-door neighbors in Indianapolis in the 1960s and it was great to reconnect with them.

~

In the eye of the beholder

2007-02-27T13:15:00.000-08:00

You may have read about Delta Zeta sorority at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana kicking out all their black and overweight members. This is one of the most sickening stories I’ve come across lately, in a world full of sickening stories. These babes need to be humiliated and spurned.

Still, I remember how much I disliked fraternities and sororities when I was in college. To me it was evident they chose members based on looks, money, and other qualities that I couldn’t measure up to. My friends and I in Willkie Quad proudly self-identified as “GDIs” or god-damned independents.

Though there are certain parts of college I wish I could go back and do differently, joining a fraternity is not one of them.

~

Soldiers with cameras

2007-03-05T07:09:00.000-08:00

Like most Americans, I know I have only a shadowy impression of what the war in Iraq is really like. You don’t see much footage on the TV newscasts because they’re more concerned with Anna Nicole Smith or the astronaut who wore the diaper. “But it’s OK not to know what’s going on there,” I tell myself; “I don’t support the war so the details are irrelevant.” So much for ignorant bliss; now I can no longer ignore what’s taking place in my name.

On Saturday night I attended a showing of The War Tapes as part of our local Big Muddy Film Festival. This isn’t mainstream media’s take on the war. It is the first war movie ever made by soldiers filming all the war footage themselves. An unvarnished picture, you might say.

One of the most striking themes of this movie is the Americans’ contempt for the Iraqi people. One memorable scene shows a tanker truck filled with urine and feces being emptied by spraying the waste into a ditch along the side of a busy road. There are scenes of humvees barreling down city streets at 60 miles an hour, escorting convoys of Halliburton trucks. Caution: I’m going to give away a “climactic” scene in the next sentence. When one of those speeding humvees runs over a little girl who tries to dash across the highway in front of it, all the carnage and confusion is captured on videotape. The soldiers more or less scrape her severed body parts over to the side of the road while they search for her head. Iraqis come and shovel the parts into a body bag.

This is what’s being done in our name. If you want to see for yourself, buy this movie (only $19.95) and ask your friends and family to watch it.

~

Going offline

2007-03-13T11:02:00.000-07:00

Here I am, sitting in a hotel lobby in Austin, doing my best to wrap up all my online chores like email and bill paying before taking off for a week in Costa Rica in a couple of hours. I’ve been here at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival for the last few days. My brain hurts from all the trends, innovations and opportunities I learned about at the event. (And also, it hurts from a little too much partying four evenings in a row. Austin’s bars and music venues are the scene of parties staged by everyone from Google to Blogger to Adobe. The booze flows freely, and the patios are jammed shoulder to shoulder with the technorati. The conversations are so compelling, I end up getting back to the hotel way too late.)

Before I process all that took place here in an effort to get some new killer books into the pipeline, I'm taking a week off in a place where Internet connectivity is sketchy if available at all. I’ll post when I return and share some of what I discover in Central America.

~

Up close and personal in the third world

2007-03-26T14:38:00.000-07:00

The thing about travel to somewhere you’ve never been is that your preconceptions get smashed. Until I went there last week, I had a mental picture of Costa Rica as this well-ordered resort area that probably looked something like a cross between Puerto Vallarta and Miami Beach. In my mind, it was predominantly English-speaking and prosperous.

So imagine my surprise when I saw the concertina wire on top of fences surrounding most houses in San Jose, and the capital’s smoggy, diesel-clogged air. We came down out of the mountains in a jam-packed minibus driven by a macho maniac who more than once came close to knocking off a gaggle of schoolkids coming around a curve too fast. The roads quickly deteriorated to little more than rutted tracks of mud and rocks by the time I got to my destination on the Caribbean coast. I also found my pathetic college Spanish needed to be called into action, and decided it would be wise to be on constant lookout for scorpions on the bathroom floor.

The first night after my five hour bus ride (replete with Latino rap songs on a tinny sound system) neighbors nearby started partying with similar music, and kept it up well past dawn. My friend refers to said neighbors as “the crack whores,” and I surprised myself by staggering through the jungle and showing up at their front door demanding peace and quiet. When one of them became aggressive and pushed me away, I ran back to my “compound” and scrambled up the vines next to the locked gate.

We spent the next few days hanging out with a series of American and European expatriates who have made their home on this pleasant coast over the last couple of decades. It was harder, but not impossible, to meet the Costa Ricans themselves. When I did, they were sweet and open and helpful. Their lives seemed appealing, but it’s clear that a precarious balance is being threatened by the rapid and unsettling development.

One day we went to a little river landing at the end of a gravel road, where a man in a dugout canoe would take you across to a dusty little strip mall in Panama. There some Palestinians own stores and sell everything from digital cameras to Gucci knockoffs. I bought some underwear and smuggled it across, just to say I did.

I came home stimulated, confused, amused, educated and enfused with of a sense of adventure. I also came home tired as hell.

~

The 30% lie

2007-04-04T06:19:00.000-07:00

In most of the polls about our Commander in Cheep, a recurring number of reported Bu$hco supporters baffles me. I keep asking myself, “how could even 30% of Americans support this idiot?”, followed by “What would have to happen to erode that number?”

I read an article about Chimpy’s vacation on the ABC News site this morning. I always like to read the comments following any article almost as much as the article itself. As I read through the comments on this one, I was struck by the fact that almost all of them were critical of Chimpy. In fact, when I counted, there was one positive comment, out of 46 total. That’s something like 2.1% approval—and this on a very mainstream site. I feel better about the discernment of my fellow Americans now.

30% indeed.

~

Rebuilding Bucky’s dome home

2007-04-11T16:06:00.000-07:00

Back in 1959 Buckminster Fuller came to Carbondale to begin teaching at Southern Illinois University. He and his wife Anne Hewlett Fuller built a small house on a corner lot near campus, a dome. They surrounded it with an ingenious redwood fence that allowed for privacy and air passage at the same time.

The years haven’t been kind to Bucky’s home. At one point it was even rented out as student housing, with a shabby new kitchen and an “upgraded” bathroom. All the angles and joins in the 2 X 4 superstructure were subject to leaks, and rot set in. The skylights fell through the roof. It was a mess.

A foundation was established to raise money and volunteers to restore the dome and one of their first interventions was to construct a protective dome around the original building. This afternoon I spent an hour there helping to shovel away ground up roots, from a tree that had uprooted the once-splendid redwood fence and was cut down last week.

Though I had seen the dome from the outside many times, this was the first time I got to go inside. What appears tiny from without is actually quite a spacious and liveable interior. Even in its current decrepit condition, it felt like a spiritual place. You could almost feel the history these rooms have seen. Bringing it back to life feels like a worthy cause. I’ll enjoy volunteering on this project over the next couple of years.

~

Babs weighs in (again)

2007-04-23T19:42:00.000-07:00

One of my “favorite” politicos, the inimitable Barbara Bush (Sr.) had this to say recently when asked about Romney and Mormonism:

"I mean it was in 1897 that bigamy was outlawed in that church. You know we have a lot of Christian wild people too, and a lot of Jewish wild people and a lot of Muslim wild people. The Mormon religion takes care of its own, they don't have people on welfare.”

Heaven save us from them people on welfare!

~

Happy Mission Accomplished Day

2007-05-01T07:12:00.000-07:00

Some time has passed since chimp-in-chief pranced around on the deck of an aircraft carrier, barely able to keep his hands off his tingling codpiece, his vaunted leadership on display for all to cheer. He declared that hostilities were over in Iraq. Four years ago, that is.

In honor of his foresight and good judgment, Mikal in Philly is pleased to offer this tidbit (thanks to Dick Polman’s American Debate blog) from Chimpy’s beloved mom, the always-delightful Babs Bush. She who raised him appeared on ABC, March 19, 2003:

“Why should we hear about body bags and deaths and how many, what day it’s gonna happen? It’s not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?”

After all, a beautiful mind is a terrible thing to waste.

~

The best thing I’ve ever built

2007-05-07T18:07:00.000-07:00

We started planning our dock back in February, when being down on the lake was hardly very appealing. But we knew summer would come and what’s the use of having a house on water if you don’t have a dock.

This is where internet research pays off. “Floating dock kits” on Google eventually led me to the Follansbee Dock Company of Follansbee, West Virginia. I told them how big I wanted the dock to be, and they told me what parts to order. They also gave me a list of lumber to acquire locally.

About a week after I placed the order for the floats and other hardware, the UPS lady arrived, very peeved because her whole truck was filled to the brim. A couple of days later, the lumber company left a pallet of yellow pine 2 x 6s nearly obstructing our driveway.

Over the next few weeks I carried the boards down to the lake one by one, and began to plan my assault. A circular saw, several drills, socket wrenches, levels, floats, ropes, chains and other tools helped me beat it into shape. My son came and spent a Saturday afternoon measuring and drilling and assembling.

Finally the day came to push it into the lake and anchor it down to the shore. Now all that’s left is to sit on it and enjoy summer mornings and afternoons and evenings. I haven’t tested yet, but I’m sure hoping the wireless works down there. Then I can spend part of my summer workdays on my new dock, listening to the water lapping up against the shore. Sometimes life is very, very good.

~

Protect us from ourselves

2007-05-21T08:18:00.000-07:00

God, I wish I could keep writing about docks, but there’s so much craven corruption, so much in which to find outrage, so little time...

The story of Dragon Skin took hold late last week and its implications make me sick. NBC News reported there’s a body armor that’s (possibly) superior to the standard issue Interceptor armor the Army supplies its infantry. (The Army inexplicably cancelled tests). Dragon Skin is so much better that three-star Generals and CIA/FBI special ops wear it. Over the last couple of years parents began buying it at $650 or more as a Christmas present for their children shipping off to Iraq. Suddenly the Army banned its use. Seems their body-armor testing Colonel retired and got a lucrative job with the supplier who makes Interceptor, and that company has a $360 million contract.

Over the weekend, the artillery range in Maryland where the Army began—and then halted—testing on Dragon Skin blew up. Not clear yet whether the testing records that led to the Army’s decision were lost. This sounds like something out of 24. I wish I could change the channel.

I used to think 1/20/09—the day Bu$hco ends—would bring relief from the madness, but the more I learn, the more hopeless I become about how deep the corruption goes. That these bastards would risk one soldier’s life to protect a military contract is unconscionable. Imagine buying your child the best protection (as a Christmas present, no less), and him or her not being able to use it.

~

The antics of dogs

2007-06-05T06:06:00.001-07:00

No, this isn’t a post about how the people running our country are blowing it. It’s just a little story about how I escaped into a simpler, childlike state of mind evening before last.

It was dusk and after a complex work day I went down to sit on the dock and watch the evening settle. The dogs followed me, as they always do. Sam and Rory are at odds over swimming. Sam has always been afraid of water, whereas the newcomer Rory is a natural swimmer. He plunges into the lake without a thought and it infuriates Sam, who always barks and threatens as Rory tries to emerge from the water. It used to be annoying, but now I know it’s just a game for them.

This night, they found a turtle along the shore and began to harass it as dogs will do. I rescued the turtle and threw it way out into the lake. They both sprung into action and dived in after it, oblivious to the fact that it was six feet below the surface already. Their comical and futile splashing around and searching made me laugh out loud.

A little later, the second scene played out when a beaver from the nearby lodge began to swim towards the dock, in what I thought was a very nonchalant way. By this time the dogs had given up on finding the turtle and had come on to the dock to shake off their coats and get me all wet. When Rory saw the beaver, he valiantly plunged back off the side and swam after it. The beaver, who had been stealthy and slow before, did some kind of a flip with its tail and was out of there at the speed of light. Again, I laughed until my sides hurt—something I don’t do enough these days.

Spending an hour like this put me in a better mood than watching any sit-com. But then I realize you’d have had to have been there for it to sound funny.

~

The power of art

2007-06-05T12:57:00.000-07:00

My friend Mark Meadows is an artist and a writer. He’s written a couple of technology books, and in 2003 he traveled to Iraq to observe the country around the time of our invasion.

In Basra he came across a gallery in a building whose upper floors had been bombed out. Inside the gallery he found this painting. When I saw it my heart nearly skipped a beat. Its eloquence is profound. It shows the power of art.

Why are we killing children in Iraq?

~

Watching America devolve

2007-06-12T13:40:00.001-07:00

There’s no question that our civil liberties have been eroded over the last six years. That’s a given.

But what I think is killing America more is the ever-widening gap between rich and poor in the country. Every economic study I’ve seen shows undeniably that this has happened. I see evidence all around me in small Illinois towns, jobs gone and people living a hardscrabble existence. Whole families living in motel rooms. Old cars spewing blue smoke from the tailpipes.

To speak out against this social change subjects one to being called a socialist, or even communist, as if somehow you’re automatically against people making a profit and living well. But can any thinking person believe it’s a good thing that since 1979 the income of the top one percent bracket has risen 7 percent, while that of the bottom 20% has fallen by the same amount? Is it good for our country that more people are falling behind?

Look at how crime rates have already soared across the nation. Are images of tent cities on the edges of our suburbs with ill-clothed children warming their hands over fires in rusted oil drums that hard to envison? Our landscape will increasingly look more like that of third world countries.

Beyond the devastation of the poor, what of the impact of the super-rich themselves? Besides the toll their profligate use of airplanes and mega-mansions and Humvees takes on the environment, what does their extravagance teach us about what really matters in life? And how do they drive up the cost of living for the rest of us? Barbara Erenreich has an interesting article in The Nation that offers some insight. I don’t have a lot of hope this can change because I don’t know how the powerless can get the powerful to turn it around. Maybe just by those of us in the middle saying it’s unacceptable to us.

~

A lot like Disneyland

2007-06-14T14:33:00.000-07:00

The New York Times reports on a broughaha brewing in Murfreesboro, Tennesee. Seems there’s a wealth of opposition from the mostly conservative Christian community to a proposed million-visitor-a-year theme park called Bible Land USA.

“Ronen Paldi, the chief executive officer of the proposed park who is also a tour operator who organizes pilgrimages to the Holy Land, said he wanted Americans who were afraid to travel to the Middle East...to be able to visualize scenes from the Bible. Comparing the park to Disneyland, he said it would be a tremendous benefit to the area.”

That’s right, a lot like Disneyland.

~

Independence day, please

2007-07-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

I wish I could declare Independence from the country that the United States has become.

Traits of our people like the greedy, self-centered splurge of wasteful acquisition, mostly of plastic junk.

Or the willingness to overlook truths staring us in the face, convincing ourselves that the USA can do no wrong.

The guns and violence and crack and death in cities like Philadelphia and Indianapolis—and whoa—even little Carbondale, Illinois.

The hateful political rhetoric fostered by a corporate media that has led to angry, knee-jerk reactions and too many tense Thanksgiving dinners.

The willingness to keep electing leaders who take their marching orders from big Oil and big Pharma while ignoring the needs of the citizens. (Hillary Clinton?)

The ever-widening gap between the have mores and the have nots.

Farm bills that hand out subsidies to millionaires and encourage an unhealthy diet that leads to obseity and diabetes (and drugs from Lilly.)

The wars we wage on people we consider our inferiors.

~

A satisfying read

2007-07-16T14:35:00.000-07:00

One of the most puzzling questions about modern-day America for me is why the lower classes—those just barely scraping by—have come to identify themselves as Republicans, voting time and again against their own interests. Why are they convinced it’s noble to send their children off to a war to defend oil companies, do without access to healthcare, give tax breaks to billionaires and watch their meager jobs be outsourced by big corporations? It’s self-destruction, plain and simple, but why?

Yesterday while at my local Barnes & Noble, a book practically jumped off the shelf into my hands. Deer Hunting With Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War is so good I started reading it the minute I got home, and finished it up by this morning. (Most books I don’t even finish.)

This book offers some of the clearest insights into the way these people think and behave I’ve ever come across. (What’s the Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America was a good start, but this book is eminently more readable and insightful.)

Most importantly, the book shows how the Democratic party has alienated its natural constituency, and offers some ideas for how the party might reclaim it. If I didn’t think the Democratic party had already thrown in with the corporate interests, I’d be doing my part to reach out to my Scotch-Irish bretheren to educate them. I’d put on a plaid shirt and go to a fundamentalist church next Sunday and ask some uncomfortable questions.

But it’s probably too late anyway; America is too far down the drain.

~

Too much Mitch

2007-07-23T09:22:00.000-07:00

One of the politicians I most love to hate is the governor of my (former) home state of Indiana, Mitch Daniels. Or “my man, Mitch” as he’s known by our deranged Decider, G.W. Bush.

Mitch has gone on a rampage of selling off state assets such as the Indiana Toll Road to his corporate cronies. (Excuse me: if a road is lucrative enough to be bought, why must its potential be siphoned off to private interests?)

But now Mitch and his henchmen at the Indiana Department of Environmental (mis)Management have done something that amazes even me. They’ve given permission for a BP refinery in Whiting to increase the amount of sludge and ammonia they dump into Lake Michigan by nearly 2000 pounds a day. This in return for 80 promised new jobs.

I’ve often wondered about the priorities of Hoosiers. The state has a mere 30 miles of shoreline on Lake Michigan, and at one time it was a pristine ecosystem of dunes with unparalleled biodiversity. Today it’s a sprawl of oil refineries, steel mills and power plants surrounding a state park. And now they intend to dump a ton of shit into the lake every day for eighty jobs.

This undoes years worth of progress in cleaning up the Great Lakes.

~

Up to my old tricks

2007-07-31T10:06:00.000-07:00

Back when I lived in Indianapolis, I found the formula for getting my letters to the editor published in the Indianapolis Star fairly regularly. It was rewarding as hell to see my liberal views on the printed page and know my words were poking the noses of the redneck brigade over their morning coffee.

Lately, I’ve been fired up about the BP refinery expansion that will increase ammonia and sludge in Lake Michigan. I called the governor’s office and left a snarky comment, and so did some friends who read my blog post about it, in the best crashing the gate fashion. I finally fired off a letter to the editor expressing my embarrassment to be from Indiana where the governor permits this backsliding in cleaning up the Great Lakes. I was pleased—but not surprised—they printed it.

The best thing about newspapers these days is their Web component, and it satisfies my inner sociologist to sift through the comments people make about stories and letters. So far in the comments about my letter I’ve been called a “liberal sissy” and someone suggests I consider moving to California. (God, I consider that all the time!)

~

My kind of Republican

2007-07-31T14:10:00.000-07:00

I don’t usually post twice in the same day, but lately I get excited when something sane happens.

I was reading the Howey Political Report and enjoyed Brian’s article about Senator Richard Lugar’s reaction to the latest government scam-o-rama. As you read this clip, savor Lugar’s comments and remember what sane Republicans used to sound like:

“The U.S. House passed the 2007 Farm Bill Friday, with U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar calling it ... ‘a severe blow to taxpayers, most farmers, rural communities, the environment, and U.S. prospects to export products. The House bill fails to reform an expensive and broken farm subsidy system. It will send more money to a few select farmers, while continuing to ignore the vast majority of American farmers. The President is justified in stating that he would veto this legislation. When the U.S. Senate considers farm policy later this year, I’m hopeful to build a coalition to advance legislation which allows ALL farmers to assure up to 85 percent of their net farm income through a government backed whole farm insurance program. In addition, ALL farmers would have IRA-type savings accounts to cover the balance of any losses. These reforms would also substantially increase rural development, research and deployment of energy from diverse biomass sources, conservation, and nutrition programs, while saving all taxpayers billions of dollars.’ Lugar said that a broad coalition of humanitarian assistance advocates including Bono, Bread for the World and Oxfam; conservationists such as the Environmental Defense; and obviously taxpayer advocate groups all support ending 70 years of inequitable farm subsidies.”

Bono? Bread for the World and Oxfam? 70 years of inequitable farm subsidies? Richard Lugar, you are my hero.

This makes me proud to be from Indiana.

~

Newt? Making sense?

2007-08-03T07:25:00.000-07:00

As I read through stories on the Web about the Minneapolis bridge collapse this morning, a tiring and predictable thread emerged in the comments following the articles: Democrats and Republicans bickering about whose fault it was. There were posts about how Republicans just want tax breaks and how Bush has spent the money we need for infrastructure improvement to line Halliburton’s pockets. These were followed up by Republicans saying all liberals want to do is blame everything on GWB and how liberals never met a tax they didn’t like and are Al Qaeda sympathizers, yadda, yadda, yadda. So tiresome, so unproductive, so ugly.

Then I encounter a post on Salon’s War Room about Newt Gingrich’s address to a gathering of young conservatives. “My God,” I thought, ”another Republican starting to make sense!” Why is Newt making sense to me now? Because he told his audience to stop thinking like Republicans. Read what follows and be amazed:

He began benignly enough, using an anecdote about going to Disney World with his grandchildren to explain an epiphany he'd had about the value of not "thinking like a Republican." From there Gingrich moved into waters the students surely did not expect. He cited the Detroit school system, where a black male is more likely to go to prison than graduate from high school.

"How can we tolerate systems more likely to send young Americans to prison than college?" asked Gingrich. "Republicans have this maniacally dumb idea of red versus blue. They say Detroit is a blue place, so we're not going to go there."

And he was just getting started.

"Republican political doctrine has been a failure," Gingrich said. "Look at New Orleans. How can you say that was a success? Look at Baghdad ... We've been in charge for six years and I don't think you can look around and say that was a great success.

"We have got to get beyond this political bologna. I'm not allowed to say anything positive about Hillary Clinton because then I'm not a loyal Republican, and she's not allowed to say anything positive about me because then she's not a loyal Democrat. What a stupid way to run a country." This last line he nearly spat out, expressing what seemed like genuine outrage.

The post goes on to say that the audience response was lukewarm. Too bad.

~

Six years ago today

2007-08-06T14:41:00.000-07:00

Yes, it’s been six years and I guess he figures we’ve forgotten he received a certain memo. Blue Girl in Red State observes,

This stupid, stupid, quintessentially moronic madman ignored this warning, (dismissing it with a flippant "Okay, you've covered your ass now.")

We all know what happened thirty-six days later.

~

Bush’s brain free from Rove

2007-08-13T13:46:00.000-07:00

I picked up this quote from Dick Polman’s American Debate blog:

“Because the - all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be - or closer delivered to what has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the - like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate - the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those - if that growth is affected, it will help on the red. Okay, better? I'll keep working on it.”

The Decider was attempting to convince a skeptical retiree in Tampa about why privatizing Social Security was a good idea.

~

Delicious coast-to-coastness

2007-10-29T15:24:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about my job is that it involves a lot of travel. October took me to Charleston, SC, then Denver, and finally San Francisco. I’m back home in Southernmost Illinois now, and it’s good to be home and watch the leaves turn in all these acres of woods around me.

Some thoughts from my travels...

Charleston was all I expected it to be. I was captivated by its beauty and refinement. Its early architecture was so much more elegant than even Boston’s or Philadelphia’s. My son pointed out wryly, “yeah dad...they had slaves.”

Denver sure has grown up since my last visit about seven years ago. There’s actual vibrant street life downtown, and the arts have exploded. It goes to show what arts can do for a city. It’s also becoming very green, with innovative programs in recycling, reforestation and energy-efficient street lighting. I couldn’t help compare all that to Indiana, where they’re still trying to legally increase the amount of pollution they dump into Lake Michigan.

And of course, San Francisco. More of a gem than ever. Finally, they’ve lifted the constraints on downtown development and skyscrapers are starting to rise higher than the Transamerica pyramid for the first time since the 1970s. They’re dazzling, glassy, ephemeral, just like the city itself. Every time I go there I find myself wishing we had never left. The fourteen years we lived there made it seem like home. But whenever I confront the cost, the hassle, the weather, the frenetic pace of life, I’m glad to get back to Southern Illinois.