Maybe If We Think, and Wish, and Hope, and Pray It Might Come True...

Jon Stewart? Really. I literally said, "Now it's the Democrats turn to be perverted and corrupt." But what thanks do I get?- What payment do I get? Nothing. Even the knowledge that I came up with it first is like ashes in my mouth. Whatever. Like it's that clever of a joke anyway.

So I had someone come whooping into class yesterday saying how happy she was that Rumsfeld resigned and it looked like both Houses of Congress were going Democrat. That's cool. Being a hippy fag, I am happy to see this "thumpin,'" as MY PRESIDENT has put it. But, in the same vein, that is as a hippy fag, I am wary of the "election as climax" view.

I'm a liberal because I believe in the potential of the state to do good. I believe in cooperation, planning, a public, a common weal, responsibility to and for each other, and the real historic manifestation of these ideas. But I'm a Christian- so I see us individually as contingent, limited, prone to failure in our best efforts, selfish, easily seduced by power, and perfectly content to destroy everything, including ourselves, in our lust for that power. Though, also as a Christian, that's not the whole story; I am hopeful. I guess I'm a hippy Jesus fag.

I guess.

I don't buy into the fear. I'm not too worried about the Heterosexual Exclusion Act of 2007. I'm actually looking forward to some good old San Francisco values. I hope some good can be done. I hope the Feingolds, the Deans, the Kucinchs... Kuciniches... Kucinichen? will last longer and do more than the Clintons and Feinsteins. Expanding Medicare, raising the minimum wage, putting us back on the right side of the Geneva Conventions, grinding up old people and feeding them to the poor- there's some work to do I suppose. But won't it be nice if Congress actually does work, some function over dysfunction?

Eh...? Maybe? Fingers crossed?

Wait a Minute!

Dear Mr Jonas Koromah,

Who are you? I see you are using the same email address as Dr Nuhu, but I have not had any dealing with you before. What have you done with Dr. Nuhu and why are you contacting me instead of him? Explain yourself and this highly unusual interspersion into our business!

Demandingly yours,
skybalon

I Already Bought Calf Implants and a Hummer

Dear Mr skybalon,
Greetings and many thanks for your mail, 50650 was a mistake, I mean 50/50%.
 
Once again I assured to you that you have noting to worried about to comsummate this deal than to fill in the application and send it to the Bank.
 
This is my direct phone line 00226 7609 7028, so call me immediately you send the application to the Bank.
 
Mr Jonas Koromah.
 
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 
 
 
ATTN: MRS JAMILA AMINA ALI,
The Director of Operations
Foreign Remittance Division
Bank of Africa (BOA)
Ouagadougou Burkina-faso.
Tel:Fax: 00226-5042-0179.
Email: (boa_g_headquters@excite.com)
Dear Sir/madam
LETER OF ENQUIRY AS TO THE STATUS OF ACCOUNT NUMBER:$286-41732-55. WHICH BELONGS TO MY NEXT OF KIN DR. GEORGE BRUMLEY WHO DIED ON JUNE 15, 2001.
I Mr ..(your name), of....(address)..........humbly applies to this bank today the.......(date)........as next of kin to your deceased customer late Dr. George Brumley from America.
I humbly apply putting claim over his balance with this bank valued at M 25,600
000.00 USD, left in account number:$286-41732-55 .
I also wish my application will be given an urgent attention as I wish this balance be released and re-transfered into my account as stated below.
BANK NAME: ................................................
ADDRESS:.....................................................
ACCOUNT NUMBER: ......................................
ROUTING NUMBER: .........................(IFAVAILABLE)
SWIFT NUMBER: ...........................(IFAVAILABLE)
BENEFICIARY: ..................................................
MY PRIVATE TELL::FAX NUMBER:-....................................Email:............................
I would appreciate your recommendation for an accredited notary to assist me in all legal issues that may arise in this transaction,Please, accept my apologies for this late application as it was due to family logistic problems consequent upon his funeral rights which have just been settled.
I hope you will expedite action, thanks in anticipation for your coperation.
 
Yours faithfully,
...............................
Your name and signature.

To Be a True Player You Have to Know How to Play...

As products of the larger culture, our churches tend to not be places where we can be honest about our sins and hope to be transformed into better people... Well the honesty about sin tends to be abstract and the better people we hope to become seems oriented about finding what does and doesn't work. We are still obsessed with being successful as the broader culture describes it, we just give the barriers and goals different names. Sin keeps you from being successful and if you're a Christian, you're giving yourself the best opportunity to hit those success markers: more money, bigger boobs, better sex, smarter kids, more access, etc... Our sins are little hindrances toward self-fulfillment. "The church" is just another association that augments my personal growth, it only has a value insofar as it develops my human capital. Remembering that we are creatures in service of God and each other doesn't really have a place in a model that values the self so much it is willing to destroy it.

So, as long as that's the church, I don't think we can be honest with each other and confess that Jesus is anything more than the most recent manifestation of some fertility god and that there is an end for humanity apart from a more powerful, more universalized self. But I also see no reason to fret, or any reason why we can't continue in this vein. I mean, I see it as a horrible, deadly illusion, but we're nothing if not adaptable.

So here's some help.

I think I have something that Ted Haggard can use as long as he wants to remain in the Fourth Stage of Evangelical Denial ©. It might even help him get back to Stage 1 and back on top of his game.

It's all a case of mistaken identity.

"Neil Patrick Harris is gay – and wants to quell recent reports that he had denied it. The actor tells PEOPLE exclusively:

"The public eye has always been kind to me, and until recently I have been able to live a pretty normal life. Now it seems there is speculation and interest in my private life and relationships."

People


Problem solved.

Abortions for Some, Little American Flags for Everybody Else

How angry of a Simpsons writer do you have to be to end the Treehouse of Horror on that note last night? It was neither one of those subtle moments when you turn to another and knowingly say, "It's true." Nor was it the kind of laugh out loud but socially critical comedy of Citizen Kang. At its best, The Simpsons have been one of the more biting shows. Even as old people like me bemoan what we see as the general decline of the show, the hits of the current 1 hit for every 2 misses era are often as big a hit as ever. And the Halloween episodes have remained especially relevant- not in a youth-pastory, goateed, middle-aged mom in a thong, do I say "sick" or "dope" way- but in that good old "These are our sacred cows; let's eat them," way. But last night's "It's true- we're so lame" ending was a bit... a lot sour. And still, what a hit.
That they could do this without being preachy or heavy-handed is either a testament to the writers or a measure of how preachy and heavy-handed I am. I guess it could be both. But that it's a cartoon, rather or more than TV news, our churches, or the branch of our government purposed with oversight that offered this clearly stated critique is a testament to how pathetic we all are. Isn't that what we want animated comedies to do for us?

I Will Own You

Dear Dr Samailla Nuhu,

I was beginning to worry that I might not hear from you again, but I was glad to receive your email this week.

Now that I know this is part of your program for concrete evidence of achievement in the banking industry, you have all my attention and confidence. Even as I write this with Reading losing to Liverpool, I am neither distracted nor discouraged. Maybe I'll buy a part of the team with all the money I'll have- I guess I don't want them to finish in the top of the table their first year in the Premiership. Then they might be too expensive- ha ha ha.

Anyway, it may simply be a cultural misunderstanding, but I don't know what 50650 means. Could you explain that please?

And as far as a check goes, I suppose I can agree to a wire transfer and then make my own giant check. I just thought it would make all of this a lot more special if you presented me with a check; but since I now understand that this will be the crowning achievement of your banking career, I can forgo the giant novelty check. I am glad to help you.

You have my willingness to assist. Please send me the draft application of claim. Let's get this party started.

skybalon

I Was Beginning to Worry

From : SAMAILLA NUHU
Sent : Wednesday, November 1, 2006 7:47 AM
To : skybalon
Subject : Update
Dear Mr skybalon,
 
Greetings and many thanks for your mail.
 
1.) I am confused, am I really the next of kin or are we pretending I am the
next of kin (wink)?
I still want to inform you that, this transaction is considered as part of my prospective achievement in life as a banker haven worked for years without concrete evidence of my achievement in the banking industry and thus ,must be given all the vital attention that will make it to work for our corporate interest to be achieved,the request of the foreigner as a next of kin in this GOD Gift is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Burkinabe cannot stand as the next of kin to a foreigner.

2.) Do you agree to the 85-15 split I suggested?
50650.
3.) Can we arrange that I be paid with one of those big foam-core novelty
checks?
In cheks also Good but I prefer account wire transfer.
  
I shall provide you with all available information that can enable you claim the fund for two of us whenever the bank needs more information from you in relation of the deposited fund, finally, don't forget that I am here to back you up and as such, you should not be afraid but to bring good ideas that will help us to get this fund into your account successfully.
 
Upon the receipt of your willingenss to assits, I will send you by fax or e-mail a draft application of claim which you will send to the bank as the next of kin and the next step to take. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this business is hitch free and that you should not entertain any fear as the whole required arrangement as been perfected for the transfer.
 
To read you soon.
 
Dr Samailla Nuhu

You Bred Raptors?

Hey kids,
In a controversial study, researchers have resurrected a retrovirus that infected our ancestors millions of years ago and now sits frozen in the human genome...

The researchers showed that the newly crated virus could infect a variety of human cell lines and replicate. But its infectivity was extremely low, perhaps because human cells have evolved resistance against such viral invaders...

"I think it's pretty exciting," says John Coffin, who studies retroviruses at Tufts University in Boston.

ScienceNOW via BOING

Haven't TV and movies yet taught us that everything "scientists" do will somehow kill us all? The only way scientists can help us is if they are just one of a handful of castaways on an uncharted desert isle. Even then, their benefit is limited, but then so is their destructive power.

I'm not as worried as I might otherwise be though- I mean "ancestors millions of years ago..." and "evolved resistance-" These guys can't be that good of scientists if they're working from premises like that.

Am I right, or am I right?

I Know Who You Are and Where You Live

QweenBean says I need to do a better job of protecting people's anonymity in my interblog. I say most anyone that reads it already knows who's who. She says that's why I need to watch what I write and about whom I write it.

Screw that.

But I do like coming up with nicknames and so will do a better job of not using anyone's real name.

That being said:

Happy Birthday, Grandpa.

Also, Reading's struggling with the big boys these days.

Sex, Drugs, and Watered-Down Adult Contemporary Pop

Ted Haggard, gay! Or he maybe just had sex with another man. You may or may not know who Ted Haggard is, but he might be gay. If you're a Christian in America, it's likely he's your pope- or like your pope. If you're a Christian in America, he's probably also part of the cabal of pastors, politicians, the psychologist, and talking heads that not only says how you think you should read the Bible you carry around in a nylon case, but also which bubbles you should fill out on your voting ballot. They're why you think Jesus rode a dinosaur to church and why when America does it, it's okay. They're who your pastor probably first consults before anyone else for the weekly concert and personal affirmation we call a sermon these days; they're consulted before even the Holy Spirit. Ted's the head of that "they." He meets with MY PRESIDENT, or at least met with MY PRESIDENT, regularly- as his spiritual advisor. MY PRESIDENT said they agreed on everything except what kind of truck to drive.

And now... well I don't know about "right now" but as of late, Pastor Ted has resigned his positions as head pastor of his church and president of the NAE so that a full investigation into the allegations can occur.

What allegations? Well, a former prostitute has alleged that he and Pastor Ted have had sex and drugs. He alleges he has proof. Pastor Ted has begun the process of Evangelical Loss- it's a five step process that begins when status or position is threatened. He seems to be at step three right now- Well he was at stage 2 last night. According to Morning Edition- and I can never be too sure about what I hear on Morning Edition given the Snooze Button dream-like haze I hear it in- he may be at stage 3. Stage 1 is denial. Stage 2 is qualified denial pending an investigation. Stage 3 is admission of indiscretions. Stage 4 is blaming someone/thing else- perhaps the liberal media, alcoholism, a Catholic priest, or Bill Clinton. Stage 5 is the book tour.

Some people, for a number of reasons, will delight in this. The hypocrisy, the proof of sanctimony, the justice of the unicorn, the irony, are sometimes the only good things people know. Maybe people like to see Christians fail- a lot of the time it's because Christians give the impression that they can't, or don't. I don't know what all will motivate people. I do know, people who didn't know who Ted Haggard is, will know now and feel very satisfied.

It's sad. Pastor Ted's betrayed his family and this guy; he's sinned against God. It will be made all the more sad if Pastor Ted does in fact go down the road of Evangelical loss following in the fresh steps of the likes of Tom Delay, Ken Lay, and Ralph Reed. People who call themselves Evangelicals these days generally don't know what to do with something as strange as guilt. But then how could we/they if the whole foundation of our/their lives seems to be "I believe in Jesus so whatever I do is okay, unless it's not, in which case someone else made me do it."?

Wow, that's a really unfair caricature.

Anyway, as I said, Pastor Ted seems to have admitted some type of wrong-doing. I don't know what that means- maybe all he did was go see Wicked and had brunch, that might be bad enough for Colorado Springs. Or maybe he [redacted] a [redacted] while he [redacted] his [redacted] on a leather [redacted] in his mouth. Like I said, I don't know.

What I do know... think... struggle with... We (Evangelicals?) have done such a great job of making it clear gay people are not welcome in the church that it seems we're not really the church. We have such a reified picture of gay as some absolute other, that we have no need to deal with it or people we place into that conceptual category apart from some very bizarre and dangerous criteria. What's that worth? That's definitely not being the Body of Christ.

So he sinned against his family, this guy, and God... I guess allegedly. Well, not allegedly. I suppose whatever his specific acts may have been, whether it was smoking a slim cigarette or smoking a... no that's too blue... whether it was drinking an Appletini or... doing something else, he felt it was worth resigning his positions. But he possibly did his church a favor. Some chickens need to come home to roost. Maybe, it's providential... yeah "maybe."

Maybe, I guess I should say hopefully, the most influential Christian in America going through all this will help us see that gay people are (wackily enough) people. We're not the church if there is some scary evil "other" that we feel comfortable and confident excluding and by that confirm our own goodness or against whom we define down our own sin.

Or we can just take the next step down the road we're on- look harder for the gays, line them up and kick them out, then build our walls higher and thicker.

ed- derived apologies to SNL

No Complaints, But How About Some Variety iTunes?
Girl- Beck
Ed is Dead- The Pixies
So. Central Rain- REM
Lovesong- The Cure
Lord Only Knows- Beck
Hey- The Pixies
Jamming- Bob Marley
Don't Worry About the Government- Talking Heads
Hyper-Ballad- Bjork
Pretty Vacant- Sex Pistols
The Duke- Miles Davis

Sexy Comes Earlier and Earlier Every Year

I'm not the first to note that Halloween often carries the opportunity/challenge/oppressive requirement that women be a sexy/skanky/slutty whatever. A woman's not just a nurse for Halloween, she's a sexy/skanky/slutty nurse. This just means she's a nurse in a short skirt, push up bra, high heels, and low cut top. If she's a car, ghost, robot, grandma, table, maid, giraffe, amoeba... leaf... bucket... whatever- it's the same thing.

Other people have written Feminist critiques of this or just made the funny observation that it's the women who don't buy into the caricature of woman that don't do this.

Whatever.

I wanted there to be a caricature of hyper-masculinity that I could be for Halloween but anything I thought of seemed too Pride Parade. Plus, there isn't much that might be hyper-masculine that I can pull off. Unless it's hairy. I can do that.

I can also pull off sexy Vikram Ray. So I did.

The World's A Mess; It's In My Kiss

So thinking about my awesome Jack-o-Lantern, I thought something like this:
"... a symbol of generalized angst that accompanies the historical conditions of globalization can't beat a classical representation of the real horrors of starving Irish immigrants and their barely disguised pagan worship..."

And it made me think this:
"... Ha- another way Mexicans and Irish are similar- they hang on to their 'old ways' pretty tightly."

And then writing notes and looking up some images for class this week I thought:
"...the mining through tradition and the reformulation we do to make sense of who we are is wild- culture is a bit of an illusion."

There is no real "they," no Irish, no Mexican, except for the Irish and Mexican we create.

Of course there is a place called Ireland, a place called Mexico and people there and not there who identify themselves as Irish or Mexican. (Though even those labels suggest a continuity or stability of identity that is not real- ask if someone is Tarascan or Purepecha, Mexica, or Mexican- and they might say, "Yes"). So Halloween is an Irish holiday that would make no sense if it were transported, as we practice it here, back to Eire for their Samhain, but without that there would be no Halloween as we have it here. This isn't just to say that we (should) understand ourselves via inherited traditions or live in a particular context. That's just being alive- go ahead, try being outside of history and see what happens. The point is, we pick and choose and labor to craft an identity based on who we think we are or what we should be- and just as intensely labor to create an identity for those who are not us. It's good to understand that, in fact, it's a problem, a horrible problem when we don't. When we think that a culture can be a closed and stable body of phenomena that determine behavior, that is as dumb as saying "Ohh... Gemini and Virgo are ruled by Mercury, don't buy that house this year."

Irish aren't one way, Arabs another, Mexicans yet another and on. That is, there is no thing that is Irish, Arab, Mexican, French, German, Chinese because it is Irish, Arab, Mexican, French, German, Chinese. We can say that in particular historical conditions there are traditions and behaviors that are possible and observable, but it is neither a genuine appreciation of diversity nor a true understanding of what we are as human to say, "You're ___ because you're Irish."

There are at least three reasons why this matters to me (besides obliquely addressing it in class this week): Reason the 1st- I am part of a community/culture that wants to transform its identity into something that is neither consistent with its assumed tradition nor the understanding we have of what it means to be in Christ. It doesn't help to say, "That's not who we are," because very quickly it's who we could be. But that's a bad we to be. Calling ourselves EFCSW instead of a Yearly Meeting, Annual Conference instead of the same, murmurs that we may discard our Fervent Convictions, being so cozy with Biola, inviting Master's Seminarians to speak to our congregations all mean something- something bad.

These aren't just random happenings, but events in the ongoing formation of our community character and identity- none of which are appropriate to who we think we are as disciples, people who have been called to be transformed from slaves to friends of Christ. If they're a deliberate rejection of Quakerism, that's sad. If they are thoughtless or based on church growth-marketing strategies (same thing as thoughtless I guess) that's more than sad... sadder I guess.

Reason B. Many things in the air these days suggest we don't understand culture this way. There seems to be this talk of a conflict of civilizations, of essential attributes of culture being behind this so called defining war of the 21st century. Oh the conflict is really there, but the reasons attributed to it, the categories for thinking about it, and what we imagine can be done are facile and, well... wrong. The corollary aspects of this syndrome have us believing there is something unified and bound called "American" that is sustained by becoming more and more like our enemies but is somehow justified by some magical substance that is "America."

Nothing above suggests that differences and conflict aren't real. But, this reduction of conflict to an issue of culture or civilization justifies and exacerbates it.

Reason #3- I am thinking about Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos and how much fear there is surrounding these celebrations. I am wondering if this fear is of death, remembering we are spiritual, of some pagan "other," of Papists, or good old Christian in-fighting.

At least, in their refusing to give up their "pre-Christian" practices, autumn is made that much better for us... whoever that might be.

That's all- no big deal.

Who's Been Telling Lies?
So What- Miles Davis
Aquarius- The 5th Dimension
La Vie En Rose- Edith Piaf
Slow Country- Gorillaz
Join Together- The Who
Happiness is a Warm Gun- The Beatles
World's A Mess; It's In My Kiss- X

Jack-O-Editorials

I must be very tedious company; even our Jack-o-lanterns are politicized? See how we've incorporated the themes of the season into our creations- brilliant isn't it? 9/11 and sheer terror- what more could you ask for?

Here's what more I could ask for: in any pumpkin carving contest, blatantly maudlin entries should be tossed from our roof and onto our compost pile, judges should be thoroughly vetted, found familiar with classical jack-o-lantern forms, and be able to distinguish between generalized anxiety and real fear.

A Second Hand Emotion

Another Christian couple we know is divorcing. This one, "childed" three times, made it about seven years. Here's what they seemed to have going for them:
advanced degrees
financial security
church going
clearly designated and strictly enforced "gender roles"
"traditional values" oriented
'Eh, I'd say they had all that going against them too.

The husband is intensely misogynistic, more than just the way most American Christians are. He says some pretty stupid things about the way men are and the way women are, and how much better men are than women simply by virtue of their being men or women. As I said, most American Christians aren't too keen on the ladies so I don't know that this caused the divorce... then again I guess most Christian marriages end in divorce so... maybe. Still it seems many people are perfectly content to participate in their own devaluing. But maybe the intensity of the misogyny is suggestive. There's only so many places you can go when a man so vehemently declares how worthless women are and how much he prefers the company of men. We'll see if that shoe drops too.

They live in a state that is passionately pro-family. Of course by pro-family, I don't mean that they support a minimum living wage, universalizing health care, creating and supporting high-functioning successful schools or things like that. I mean they hate gay people and the idea of them getting married. I guess they didn't hate gay marriage hard enough to save their own. And they're smack dab in the middle of the Bible Belt, the state in the Bible Belt that has the nation's 6th highest divorce rate and doesn't consider it a hate crime to beat someone up because they're gay.

...sigh...

The same week the Mark Foley Sexually Predatory Alcoholic story broke there was another story in the San Francisco Chronicle that in another context might be called a human interest story, but here and now it has a very political content. It was about a couple who have been together for the past 26 years. Over these past 26 years they have raised five children. These children were abandoned by their parents, exposed in the womb to alcohol or drugs, had few options other than emergency residential or group home placement. After having worked as a social worker, I would guess it impossible to conceive of a hell for children worse than group homes or temporary emergency placement- temporary placements that more often turn out to be permanent. To be fair I suppose some people can't imagine a hell worse than their having two dads.

The narrative I'm supposed to buy along with the Foley story contains a few elements that make it impossible for the Chronicle story to exist in the same universe as the Foley story: that somehow his behavior was promoted by the permissive environment created by out of control political correctness, that he could creep around unafraid because no one wanted to be accused of gay-bashing, that the gay in a gay person makes them dangerous, less, scary, failed. I'm supposed to figure Foley stalked teenagers because he was gay, not because he was a jerk. I am supposed to believe that there is something integral to the being of a gay person that makes them not only sexual predators, but incapable of doing anything like raising children. These guys raising these kids are not supposed to be able to do anything other than pursue their own narcissistic sexual gratification. So in that sense, I suppose there really is a crime against nature here.

26 years. That beats my parents. That beats most divorcees I know. And five kids. Five adopted kids. That's seems pretty selfless- maybe pro-life even. Don't these guys know they're gay?

If Lady Skybalon ever decides to divorce me, I'm guessing it'll be because she got sick of hearing me complain about a messy bathroom. But I guess now you can say it's because of my weak stand against the gays.

So I switched to Beta- what am I supposed to do with that? I I preferred editing in HTML. And labels? Doesn't that impose some kind of method to this, now I have to think of things as connected and part of my oeuvre? Labels!? We'll see about that.

Meg White Has a Horrible Voice
Overjoyed- Stevie Wonder
No Way- Pearl Jam
Midnight Rambler- The Rolling Stones
Last Stop: This Town- Eels
Half a Person- The Smiths
Passive Manipulation- The White Stripes
Landslide- Fleetwood Mac

I Say We Hang Him... Then We Kill Him

Another Active Martyr Devotion- This Time Timely
Calvin: I hope that the sentence of death will at least be passed on him; but I desire that the severity of the punishment be mitigated.
Farel: Screw that, burn him.
On October 27 (that's today), 1553 Michael Servetus was burned at the stake in Switzerland for denying that the Trinity was a scriptural concept and rejecting infant baptism. John Calvin thought he should be executed by sword rather than fire. He testified against him and urged the death penalty, only a gentle death penalty.

In this moment of weakness, William Farel admonished his brother in Christ to be bold and demand that Servetus be burned for the preservation of Calvin's faith. Certainly if, as Calvin taught, adulterers, witches, and disobedient children should be executed, then heretics deserved the most painful death imaginable. Farel wouldn't let Calvin budge and so Servetus was burned.

Do you sometimes feel squeamish about what the Lord requires of you? Are you ever confused about how to act? Don't cringe from encouragement and correction in the Body of Christ. Calvin was confused too. Providentially, Farel was there to sharpen him.

Are we sometimes divided over the details of our faith? Make sure you reach out to your brothers and sisters in Christ in those areas where we find common ground. We may not know how to kill God's enemies, but by His grace we know that they deserve to die. Whether we are on the receiving or giving end of encouragement and correction we can be united in purpose.

Lord, we ask that wherever Your Body may be divided we find unity. We ask that you look not on our sin, but in your mercy find us faithful for being willing to kill at all.

Maybe You Ate a Clove

I had to brush my teeth after that last post.

Here's something much more pleasant:

Russ Feingold is the 2006 Person of the Year

Editor Brennan Nardi says she and editorial director Neil Heinen have had their eyes on Feingold for the honor since 2005, when he became the first senator of either party to call for troop withdrawal in Iraq. “It’s really a culmination of an exciting decision for Madison and Wisconsin on whether he’ll run for president, his independent stands on extremely important and often divisive issues, and his continued commitment to travel around the state to listen to what people have to say about them.”

WISPOLITICS.COM

Russ Feingold is so great, he can be named 2006's person of the year before the year is even over.

Holy Moly I love this guy.

(single tear)

Back to The Future

Farmers farming, small businesses growing, people going to the market all under a government that is sovereign, can sustain and defend itself, and is a US ally. That's why we invaded and now occupy Iraq. At least that's what MY PRESIDENT says. (No transcript link as the news conference is still under way).

Uh... isn't that a bit vague or a kind of low bar? I know he's not very specific when he talks about things like freedom and democracy, and when he's more specific, what he describes hardly sounds like the kind of freedom and democracy humans require. I mean, after all, isn't what he describes what existed under Saddam Hussein? That's sad.

Oh and here's a fun quote from the news conference:
"Look, I rea- uh I look at the newspapers around here."

Once Again

Look how many posts in one day; this is just like the old days.

This is barely a real post though. Still, this Saturday at 7PM, we are having our... I don't know 6th? annual Halloween Pumpkin Monster Fest... thing. If you can read this you are invited- especially you, Russ Feingold staffer forced to search through the series of tubes for mentions of your boss.

Anyway costumes are encouraged but not required.

Here's where I live.

It Works If You Work It

Rename The Policy Game That's Not a Game
My interblog contests don't work so I won't try to force a game out of it, though it would be a good one.

We know now that "Stay The Course" was never MY PRESIDENT'S Iraq war policy; only an idiot would think that's what he meant when he said it. But still, he probably won't be saying it as much. What will he say?

If it were a game I would say suggest your name for the policy and you could win something... something like... a Serrano Chile Plant. Yes!

Okay, I am so spineless. It's a game. If you come up with a new suggestion for the new Iraq War policy euphemism (that's probably going to become what has heretofore been characterized as "cut and run") and I pick it as the winner, you win a Serrano Chile plant. I also have some Habanero plants, I guess I could give one of those to a really great name. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself.

There it is, win a FREE chile plant by renaming the Iraq War Policy euphemism. Make salsa for your friends.

Your Future Lies Before You

So a big story for hippies this week is how MY PRESIDENT has said his policy has never been "stay the course." That anyone would make political hay of this is really a disservice to our country and reveals how little they know the man in the office. But perhaps worse, it misses the opportunity for personal growth that MY PRESIDENT offers whenever he speaks.

It's true MY PRESIDENT did say the US would "stay the course" in Iraq, over and over again. But to say that he meant we would "stay the course" in Iraq when he said we would "stay the course" really doesn't grasp the nuance of language and understanding, and how MY PRESIDENT, especially, is a master of variegated interpretations and layered meanings.

His words reach out to us and demand from us participation in understanding. That's what language generally requires, but MY PRESIDENT takes it further and cleverly uses the simplest expressions to address the most complex realities, and in that we are required to move beyond a facile awareness of life and into a deeper interrelatedness with each other and our real historic conditions.

When he says, "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists," the simple hearer might take those words at face value and imagine they represent some sort of actual reality or correspond to a clearly identified US policy. As if yes could mean yes and no, no.

"We do not torture" would mean we do not torture. "No war plans on my desk" would have a clear and direct meaning. But that understanding would merely be superficial. If that were the case, officially declaring Syria a sponsor of terrorism could mean something like we would not send a Canadian citizen making a stopover at JFK to Syria to be tortured. Is that what we want- to passively accept assumed meanings like some type of machine simply receiving input?

MY PRESIDENT is extending an invitation; he wants us to think deeply and grow beyond the convention of words and the limited conditions through which we perceive the world. He wants us to be more than cogs or processors and join him in creating meaning and crafting our reality. FREEDOM is definitely on the march, but not only from "Cairo to Kabul;" he invites us to free our minds as well.

If we accept his offer, not only are we freed from the prison of convention and imposed meaning, but we are suddenly bound to each other in new and exciting ways. We become members of a free and genuine community of our own making.

I'm An Alligator, I'm a Mama-Papa Coming For You
No Shuffle Play:
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust- David Bowie