So How Do We Tell If She's Made of Wood?

I get it.

I just want to put that out there at the beginning so that if, when reading this, you think, "You just don't get it," you will know that I, in fact, do get it.

The McCain-Palin campaign can't possibly believe that the intense fear and white resentment they are stoking will not hit a ceiling. Granted, Republicanism of the past 40 years or so has been very successful in its adroit use of fear and racism, but everything has a shelf-life, no? No. Maybe?

Who knows?

Anyway, this intense push to identify Obama as the embodiment of terrorism, a different America, the scary "other" we don't know, could work, but if it does, it won't work in the way it has in the past.

Background please- Okay, when Bush I used racial fear and resentment against Michael Dukakis, the people you feared remained a faceless swarthy mass. Scary to be sure, but scary without a body or name. Scary because it was without a body and name. It wasn't the black kid behind the counter at McDonald's. You like him. And it wasn't the Mexicans mowing your lawn (probably Guatemalan, actually, but brown south of the border is all Mexican, right? ). Those guys are okay. Quiet, unassuming, hard-working, deferent. You weren't scared of them, but that wasn't the object of your fear. You were scared of the composite sketch, the unidentified welfare queen, the Latino male 17-23 y.o. with a slight build. Eesh, that is scary. That's the Southern strategy and it worked, especially as a form of white on white violence.

It got all kinds of people to forget about politics as it actually affects their lives as humans and worry about matters of identity wrapped up in things like Flags, Gods, and Sex, so they became perfectly willing to wage war against themselves.

Whatever.

But Barack Obama has a face. His face. He's got a name. Sure it's a weird name, but you see him and you're not actually afraid. You realize he's not so bad. Sure you still hate BLACK PEOPLE, but Barack isn't BLACK PEOPLE. He's Barack. He's like the Mexican that married your daughter versus the ILLEGAL ALIENS that are stealing your country. The faceless other can't be faceless when it actually has a face.

So it won't work like that, but like I said, it could work.

Intensifying the fear and anger will do just that- intensify the fear and anger. And even though it won't break through the lunatic 20-30% that you can see on the YouTubes, it will give that minority a momentum disproportionate to its mass.

Only lunatics were calling Bill Clinton a terrorist or radical leftist, but the fear and resentment of that era sprung up in a federal building in Oklahoma City. Now, our mainstream candidates are only steps away from calling the opposition a terrorist. (That's mainstream, folks... Volks.)

If McCain and Palin were not the Republican ticket, they could probably still fill beer halls by offering the rhetoric that they have resorted to. It wouldn't be hard to find plenty of people "mad as hell" or a bunch of frustrated white guys who are desperate for someone to affirm their belief that Obama is a secret Muslim terrorist. We would probably be able to see it for what it is though- crazy.

But maybe that crazy will strike fear into enough people that they don't want to risk an Obama presidency, not because of Obama, but because of the crazies who could not accept their secret Muslim, radical Christian, gangster elitist, terrorist president.

It is perhaps a much more brilliant ploy than it appears on the surface. Or maybe it's the only thing McCain has left since he's faced with the unsavory prospect of running as a Republican in a post Atwater-Rovian context.

Whatever the case, 30% could sometimes be enough. Historically, 40% has been*.

It may actually be a fear of white people that keeps Obama from the presidency. Ironic, no?

*This line is a cray historical allusion. You can disregard it.

Irony Can Be So Ironic
Wishlist- Pearl Jam
Come as You Are- Nirvana
86- Green Day
Soozy- The Briefs
America Is- Violent Femmes
Lover Man- Sarah Vaughan
The Function- Talib Kweli
3 Speed- Eels

Laugh Now Cry Later

skybalon- Hey look what finally came-
Qweenbean- What?
skybalon- My Obama buttons
Qweenbean- Ooohhhh, those are gonna be worth a lot of money when he's assassinated.


Too soon?

Jesus, In Your Heart You Know He's Right

We, like many other congregations, have a sign on our church property that offers passersby some clever church saying or other. Right now it says something like "Real Change Comes From Jesus". Although on one side of it there is a "typo". A couple of character tiles were left up so it says "Real Change Comes From Jesus N,?"

Really.

I think to demonstrate how well tapped into the zeitgeist Glendora Friends is, our next sign ought to say: "Jesus; The Real Maverick".

I'm avoiding grading papers.

Wait a Second!

I just realized something. If Barack Obama becomes president, then that means we've opened the door to all kinds of people being president.

Now I get what people are so worried about.

See, The System Works

For the first time, a federal judge has ordered the Bush administration to release prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, ordering 17 Chinese Muslims to be brought to his courtroom on Friday.

LA Times

Take that, hippies.

Six years later, four years after being cleared of any wrong-doing, these 17 prisoners have been ordered released. Of course they haven't been released yet, and if the DOJ has its way, they won't be, but that misses the point- the The System works.
They have been ordered freed. We can breathe a collective sigh of relief and go about our business, get things back to normal, as if nothing ever happened because they are free.

Well, Now I'm Convinced

Space Rock Found on Collision Course With Earth
ABC News

There you go.

Alien invasion, an asteroid hitting the earth, zombies, or some other apocalyptic scenario requires we have a black president.

True Dat

This is presently my favorite line in the world...

The Republican Party used to specialize in gimlet-eyed, steel-rim, crepe-soled common sense and then it was taken over by crooked preachers who demand Americans trust them because they're packing a Bible and God sent them on a mission to enact lower taxes, less government. Except when things crash, and then government has to pick up the pieces.

I hear it as a sermon.

ed.- I forgot this. It's Garrison Keillor.

And a Pony

So The Blonde Buddha feels pretty confident that Obama is going to be the next president. Polls are putting him in the 50% neighborhood right now but to my mind that's evidence of why he could very well not be. That anywhere around 40% of polled voters could have been paying any kind of attention, I mean any kind, even the most accidental glance at a local news teaser, and still support the intemperate, erratic, incoherent McCain (let alone McCain-Palin) speaks volumes. If it's not closer to 70-30 in the next week, I will remain unconvinced about Obama's prospects.

Call me cynical, or aware of the intense racial bigotry, fear, and political machinations that rule, I just don't think such a small margin indicates a victory for Obama. Oh sure, if all you white devils want to surprise me, I'll take it. But it will be a surprise.

That said, if Obama is the next president it will symbolize quite a victory and milestone for the US but that should in no way let anyone feel like they are off the hook. Especially don't feel that Obama is a liberal in any significant sense of the term, or that his election will be the dawn of the worker's paradise. He seems a good, willing to listen to smart people, judicious, and fair-minded guy but he's no leftist and the people that got him here (and maybe there) will have to push for at least five things in an Obama presidency. (Five possible things- not like "everyone gets jetpants!" or"nationalize the oil companies"). In no particular order:
With the bailout passing, the next administration will have its economic work cut out for it to address the mortgage issues this bill (and administration) doesn't.
Take advantage of the opening in a health care discussion to push hard to bypass insurance companies and stop employers from being responsible for providing coverage,
Withdraw from Iraq without a stopover in Afghanistan (this really should be number 1, but I said in no particular order, didn't I?)
Stop torture. Plain as that. (and kudos to McCain for being willing to utter the word at the debate).
Get a Federal energy plan with thresholds and goals at least as good as California's (at least)

That's not that tall an order. And it is an order.

The Difference Between A Pitbull and a Hackey Mom

Okay I'm a big lame so more debate stuff.

Watching the DNC, I was taken by Joe Biden's biography.* So again, last night, when Biden peeled back a layer of sexism and retold how his experience and concerns as someone who has lost loved ones and as a single parent are no less real because he has a penis, I was again struck by the story and moved by his connecting it to matters of policy.

Of course it could be boiler plate. Maybe it is a go-to line for him and people who know him better see right through it. It's not like I don't know people who make up for any lack of substance by pretending to tear up when speaking. But it seemed relevant and sincere last night and not at all like a canned line to mention his wife and child's deaths.

G'uh, I guess 'cos my wife and baby make me a baby- just thinking about his experience makes me all babified again. But maybe with time, if it turns out Joe Biden mentions his dead wife and kid as a catchall response- "Hey, Joe, how many houses do you have?" "However many it is, my dead wife doesn't get to share any of them with me"- something like that- it'll make me angry rather than empathize.

So, that said, I believed his hesitation and emotion in the answer was real, it seemed like one of those deep moments wherein personal experience/pathos is confronted with the broader world and makes one feel with and for other people. It's good that there are politicians who can do that. But it was an awful moment on the C-Span split screen, just awful. Ronald McDonald couldn't respond at all like a human. That's the "real" people are attracted to? Your wife died, but John McCain's a maverick.

At least she didn't say John McCain was a POW.

Okay, so maybe she was overcoached and couldn't get over the need to stay on message. Maybe her journalistic background took over- just look at the camera and smile. Maybe she didn't hear anything anyone said all night, she just knew to go to the cards. Those may be good excuses for seeming cold and uncaring. They don't bode well for arguing that she's a competent leader.

* Please note- That doesn't mean I think he is a Regular Joe. No one in the Senate is. (Except for Russ Feingold, PBUH.) It simply means I'm human- not "the boy who couldn't cry".

ed.- I couldn't find the split-screen version... but I guess I didn't look too hard for a C-Span take on the moment. Trust me, it's worse when you see her grinning through the whole thing and then jumping right into her Maverick notes.

When Students Do It It's Called Cheating

Did you know that Augustine's thoughts on sexuality were nuts? No? That's okay, a lot of people don't know what Augustine wrote about matters of sex. Even a lot of Christians, who assume certain things about the history of their tradition don't know what Augustine wrote about matters of sex. That's not a big deal, why should they know?

I mean I could think of good reasons to know what Augustine wrote- actual good theological reasons to be familiar with his writings. Even though he said stuff like an erection "rises up against the soul's decision in disorderly and ugly movements," and that men and women cannot have sex without lust (therefore sin) entering the picture, stuff that just doesn't make sense, his work as a testimony of the transformative power of God in a person's actual existence is amazing. The submission of his intellect to the Word (not word) of God is humbling and inspiring. His intense personal struggle to conform his life to what he understood as a divine measure is beyond... Well it's just beyond.

His disregard for women and sex is a problem but whatever, he was a 4th century Western man, give him a break.

You know what doesn't deserve a break? Our misappropriating his work. How dare we take what he said and use it as an ideological club? Who do we think we are? I mean pretending we can universally apply his historically localized and specific thoughts, that's absurd.

Ah- I'm just kidding, that's what his work is for. I mean what else would we do with it? And so it's perfect that we don't familiarize ourselves with what he actually wrote. It's easier to misapply what was never said in the first place.

It's easier to misapply what was never said in the first place... ?

I just blew my mind man.

Of course it doesn't really make sense to take some 4th century North African Latin dude's thoughts and pretend that they exist as a matter of fact or universal application. I mean that would be like finding the rules to Hungry Hungry Hippos and imagining you could use them to understand and play some other game you came across.

It doesn't make sense but let's do it anyway. And again, when we do it, let's not do it in a well-informed manner. Let's try to be mostly ignorant of what he, and others, let's include others too, let's be mostly ignorant of what they all said and wrote, but pretend it's all part of some cohesive whole, so that when we try to craft some statement about this or that, we can invoke their names, and since their real old, it'll carry their weight.

Maybe.

During my Recording process I suggested that our Faith & Practice's counsel on the issue of sexuality left a lot to be desired. It is generally unclear and buys into some categories and concepts that I think we ought not buy into if we are the people we like to say we are- namely the church.

I still think it is problematic, but at least, it was our statement. I mean, as unclear as it is, one can make the case that it came from our Yearly Meeting, so even if it is unclear and mistaken- it is our lack of clarity and mistake to own. I'm only being a little silly with that last bit. It really is a good thing to make your own mistakes.

But, now we might as well be a subsidiary of the Family Research Council or Exodus International. I mean, judging by the information that keeps finding its way to my inbox and the Gay Panic I've seen, I'd put money on the next F&P counsel on sexuality ('cos I'm sure we'll insist it be there) being a copy and paste job from some Focus on the Family pamphlets.

Is there a "World of At Leasts" part of this? No, or it's hard to see it right now if there is. I mean, I've recently had people try to toss Augustine in my face as a demonstration of the church's consistent teaching on the Dos and Do Not Dos of sex, and I've been told Exodus International is a ministerial resource we ought to use... like it's all one big pile of proof or authority.

I guess I'd just like us to be faithful enough to make our own mistakes.

Or Sometimes Pretending To Be Prepared
Myxomatosis- Radiohead
Gigantic- Pixies
Army of Me- Bjork
All I Ever Wanted- POE Soundtrack
La Danza De Los Viejitos- Mariachi Folklorico
Pure Denizen of the Citizens Band- Frank Black
La Costilla Michoacana- Mariachi Nuevo de Mexico
Won't Get Fooled Again- The Who
Mean Mr. Mustard- The Beatles
This Is The New Shit- Marilyn Manson

M'eh

Fine, everyone gets to be middle class.

Government is the problem so we'll address it with more oversight... so Main Street doesn't hurt Wall Street... and we're a team of mavericks

It would be four more years of "nukular", folks. Just saying.

And Great. Because it wasn't a repeat of her Couric performance, I'm going to have to listen to people who suddenly feel justified in their still irrational adoration of Ronald McDonald. Ah who am I kidding? Her irrational supporters didn't watch this.

But in all, here's what matters: I got something in my eye and I had a burrito.

Duty Indeed

Oh except for that last one, okay, that can't stand. Paying taxes isn't a matter of duty or patriotism? Going for the ownership society, this time with healthcare? The present financing crisis is a result of that "ownership society".

She's essentially saying we're a bunch of rubes and morons that can't run a country, remember how we screw things up? Doncha' hate the Federal government? But vote for us so you can keep yer money 'cos we don't ask anything of you- except to send your children to kill and die in the Middle East.

Lay it out- your benefits will be taxed so you can pay for your health insurance, though there's no guarantee that you can get coverage, and there's no cap as to how much insurance will cost, and if you were John McCain with all those health conditions, you could not get coverage in your own plan (you should've added that last one)

Oh Bridge to Nowhere- zing-

Ugh

So John Mccain meant the fundamentals of the economy are the American workers... Hmmm do we address the high unemployment or the high worker productivity rewarded with lower wages and income disparity. That's strong?

Hey... Don't live outside your means. That actually is good advice- any time, not just tough times. That's the advice Carter gave the country and Reagan said "Screw That, we're America, no one tells us there's a limit to our freedom to have stuff." And we said "USA USA USA"

I wonder how it'll play coming from Ronald McDonald.

Hey mean man, don't challenge her with facts or "actual events in history."

All right. This is enough hipness for me.

I'm going to listen to the debate like a boring old adult. No more Live-Blogging! for me.

You Betcha!

So it makes sense that Joe would be able to talk about regulation... (Big Government Demeecrat that he is)

Ah shucks... Golly...

She's looking down and blinking a lot isn't she?

Well I'm glad somebody explained what John McCain meant about the fundamentals of the economy being strong.

Hi, Gwen

What would an untoward outburst be?
"Sarah, tell me about dinosaurs and cave men."

She asked, "Can I call you Joe?" That sounds like some sort of vooddoo secret. Don't let her do it Joe, she knows spiritual warfare techniques.

Democracy

Did you know that the debate is in St. Louis because Aunheiser-Busch (sp) are/is a huge donor to the Commisison on Presidential Debates? True.
And they decide with the candidates in secret the format of the debates.

LiveBlogging Rulz!!!

The back of Gwen Ifill's head...

That's funny. When I picture Gwen Ifill in my head, she's wearing blue.

C-Span it's like you exist to make our government lame.

Yo, Kidz This is Straight Up Sick

So I listened to the presidential debate on the radio, to fully swing the pendulum, and make voting and a type of politcal awareness hip, I will be watching the vice-presidential debate on the computer through C-span.

Hmm... Maybe I shouldn't have written C-Span if I want to be hip...

Seriously? 90 second answers? This should be great

I am totally liveblogging, dudes.

The Invisible Hand is Strangling You

How do you determine the value of something for which there is no market?

What are you, some kind of jerk? Why would you even think a question like that in this day and age?

Stop thinking like that and think like this:
There could be anything in this envelope- winning scratch-off lottery tickets, a lovely bit of string, the pink slip to a broken car, art work, keys to a safe deposit box, cash, an IOU for a large sum of money, RAM, cigarettes, the deed to a house, nothing. Who knows?

I know, but other than me who knows? Point is, you don't know, but that shouldn't stop you from offering me money for it. Offer me something reasonable. $100. And don't think of your offer as a purchase, rather think of it as an investment. Invest $100 in this mystery envelope. Now it doesn't matter what is in the envelope because it is worth at least $100 once you give me $100 for it- but wait, in that instant that you gave me $100, you took the first step in this envelope's potentially infinite increase in value. If you're willing to give me $100, how much more would the next person be willing to give you? We don't know. So you just got this envelope for a steal. This envelope could go for $10,000, $100,000, $1,000,000,000- whatever. You got it for $100?! You're a financial genius.

Now I feel a little bad for letting it go for $100, but I am a man of my word. It's yours for $100.

Hey, Kool-Aid

As pathetic and difficult to watch as Sarah Palin's public performances have been since the convention (since she's had to rely on her own words rather than read someone else's crafted zingers), I think she's doing exactly what she's supposed to do.

I was reading an article that is essentially a collection of quotes from Sarah Palin supporters explaining why they are Sarah Palin supporters.

"'She's real. Everyone can identify with her,' said Karen Rinehart, from Pinkerton, a suburb of Columbus, who praised her clarity. 'She has five kids. I have six.'"

"'She came from a middle-class family. She did it with conviction and grit,' Plessinger concluded. 'God's in charge. I'm voting for God first.'"

"'It's her integrity,' Smalley said, 'what she has done for her state, and yet she is able to have a family, a career, a husband. It just gives woman hope that we can do it. She is sassy and we like sassy.'"

Seriously?

Yes.

Whatever.

I really can see why people like her.
She's a bit of a hole. People can project whatever they want on to her and support her for that.
She is the perfect American candidate, she feeds our narcissism that requires our leaders be some type of "just like us" though there is no single "us" and the "us" that Palin is is actually a small minority of the country. It's the next manifestation of "who would you rather have a beer with?" That is completely irrelevant, but that's how enough of us think.
She's a religious nut of the type that thinks there is an essential value to being that type of religious nut that overrides any other concern. Believing the Flinstones is plausible history is a good thing. Trying to find out how to ban books with the word "Gay" in the title is exactly what she should be doing.

In fact, I think the worse she does in the public eye, the more REAL AMERICANS will support her. She's that perfect naught or place holder for a people terrified of the necessary difference and messiness of democracy.* Whatever you feel you are up against, Sarah's going to overcome it, and since she's just like you, you are going to overcome it. Take that Elitists, and that Liberal Media, here's a poke in the eye Evolutionists, knee to the groin for you Secular Humanism, Economic Insecurity, Swarthy Masses, Condoms in School...

But that's for our imbecilic selves. I think she also has a very important ideological role. I mean she doesn't just exist because of our insipid narcissism, she also serves the destroyer.

She's Ronald McDonald.

She is a mascot, a clown meant to make it easier for us to swallow poison, to want the poison. That's exactly what she was at the RNC, a good-looking package communicating someone else's words to make venom palatable. Read about what she's done to Wasilla. Don't think of how little experience she has or what she hasn't done. Think of what she did do, what she would want to do. Imagine her ideology writ large in the US.

If you're not scared of that... Well... I'd say turn off the TV and go read a book but you'd probably pick your Bible (Oh snap!)

*Isn't it ironic how the idea of REAL AMERICANS is incredibly Anti-American, if America is an ongoing democratic experiment that is. Don't ya' think?