So you thought it was all about freedom of religion, government out of our lives, and the virtue of women, didn't you?
Right.
In fact, it's all about putting us women right back in our places. In the 19th century.
Oh, to be back in those halcyon days, when men were men and women were HOME.
'Rick Santorum...in his 2005 book, “It Takes a Family,”...disparaged “radical feminists” for giving women the idea that they might find greater fulfillment outside the home.'
And dare they venture as far as to join the military, well, they'll get just what they deserve: raped.
'In response to...a new Pentagon report on sexual abuse in the military [that states that since 2006, there's been a 64% increase in violent sexual assaults]', Fox News contributor Liz Trotta says, 'Now, what did they expect?'
And now, audaciously! '...feminists...[are directing the Pentagon] to spend a lot of money. They have sexual counselors all over the place, victims’ advocates, sexual response coordinators. … So, you have this whole bureaucracy upon bureaucracy being built up with all kinds of levels of people to support women in the military who are now being raped too much.'
Oh, if they'd just stayed HOME! Where women are cherished, treasured, pedastaled. And beaten.
'Current [domestic violence] law in New Hampshire states...that an officer “has the discretion to decide when an arrest is warranted with or without corroborating evidence.” This means that if an officer shows up to a house, he or she takes a look at the scene to assess the situation and makes a decision about whether the alleged assault took place.
But a piece of legislation proposed by state Republicans would require police to get a judge or justice of the peace to issue a warrant for the alleged perpetrator’s arrest...So even if a cop shows up, the victim is covered in bruises, the neighbors say they heard screaming, and there is a hole punched in the wall...it is not too difficult to figure out what happens next: “The officer leaves [to get a warrant], and the abuser renews his attack with even more ferocity, punishing his victim for having called for help.”
And should those cherished women wish to choose when and how many children they'd like to have and raise....think again, 21st/19th century fairer sex...
'Republican legislators are trying to extend the exemption (extended to Catholic charities, hospitals, and universities...which would allow religious groups to opt out of the mandate [to provide free contraceptive care] and require insurers to provide birth control directly to consumers) to any employer opposed to birth control, not just the Catholic church.'
Dear women! Beware of conservative outrage—and the laws that follow—cloaked in the dictates of religion, the 'veneration' of women, and the demonization of government.
The real target is you.
14 February 2012
04 February 2012
Spending in the Twilight Zone
Two statements submitted for your approval:
'Overall spending by all candidates in 2012 is predicted to eclipse an astounding $8 billion.'
And,
'As part of the drive to cut spending, the Obama administration and Congress have trimmed the energy-assistance program that helps the poor — 65,000 households in Maine alone — to pay their heating bills.'
Let's try two more...
'[Obama attended] a $35,000-per-person [campaign fundraising] event at MK Restaurant, where he [ate] dinner...including...Maine salmon with asparagus and shaved fennel, seared Maine sea scallops, rosemary braised short ribs, and parsnip puree.'
And,
'The average amount [of energy assistance] given [in Maine] is $483, down from $804 last year, all at a time when the price of oil has risen more than 40 cents in a year, to $3.71 a gallon...Mainers try to make do. They warm up in idling cars, then dash inside and dive under the covers. They pour a few gallons of kerosene into their oil tank and hope it lasts.'
Two final statements submitted for your approval:
'The Romney plan “would throw 10 million low-income people off the benefit rolls, cut benefits by thousands of dollars a year, or some combination of the two. These cuts would primarily affect very-low-income families with children, seniors and people with disabilities.”
And,
[Mainer] Mr. Hartford, 68, has a bad shoulder, Mrs. Hartford, 71, needs a wheelchair, and the two survive on $1,200 a month. So far this year they have received $360 in heating assistance...about a quarter of last year’s allocation. There is no oil to burn, so the cold takes up residence, beside the dog and the four cats, under the velvet painting of Jesus. The couple has no choice but to run up their electric bill. They turn on the stove’s burners and circulate the heat with a small fan. They run the dryer’s hose back into the basement to keep pipes from freezing, even when there were no clothes to dry.'
The Twilight Zone? No...this is our present reality...
'And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone...'
'Mr. Hartford drove up to Hometown Energy’s small office in his weathered gray Lincoln, walked inside, and made his desperate offer: the title to his car for some oil.'
'Overall spending by all candidates in 2012 is predicted to eclipse an astounding $8 billion.'
And,
'As part of the drive to cut spending, the Obama administration and Congress have trimmed the energy-assistance program that helps the poor — 65,000 households in Maine alone — to pay their heating bills.'
Let's try two more...
'[Obama attended] a $35,000-per-person [campaign fundraising] event at MK Restaurant, where he [ate] dinner...including...Maine salmon with asparagus and shaved fennel, seared Maine sea scallops, rosemary braised short ribs, and parsnip puree.'
And,
'The average amount [of energy assistance] given [in Maine] is $483, down from $804 last year, all at a time when the price of oil has risen more than 40 cents in a year, to $3.71 a gallon...Mainers try to make do. They warm up in idling cars, then dash inside and dive under the covers. They pour a few gallons of kerosene into their oil tank and hope it lasts.'
Two final statements submitted for your approval:
'The Romney plan “would throw 10 million low-income people off the benefit rolls, cut benefits by thousands of dollars a year, or some combination of the two. These cuts would primarily affect very-low-income families with children, seniors and people with disabilities.”
And,
[Mainer] Mr. Hartford, 68, has a bad shoulder, Mrs. Hartford, 71, needs a wheelchair, and the two survive on $1,200 a month. So far this year they have received $360 in heating assistance...about a quarter of last year’s allocation. There is no oil to burn, so the cold takes up residence, beside the dog and the four cats, under the velvet painting of Jesus. The couple has no choice but to run up their electric bill. They turn on the stove’s burners and circulate the heat with a small fan. They run the dryer’s hose back into the basement to keep pipes from freezing, even when there were no clothes to dry.'
The Twilight Zone? No...this is our present reality...
'And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone...'
'Mr. Hartford drove up to Hometown Energy’s small office in his weathered gray Lincoln, walked inside, and made his desperate offer: the title to his car for some oil.'
24 April 2009
Policy Differences?!?!
I have now, officially and certifiably, heard it all.
Torture is nothing more than a policy difference.
Omigosh.
I thought the eight long years of Bush Hell had visited the most wretchedly ludicrous palaver possible on a vulnerable world. Guess not. Guess they had to crown their execrable efforts with the most contemptible canard of all:
Torturing human beings is not wrong, criminal, nor even morally heinous--it's just POLICY.
It defies imagination.
Or even coherent thought.
Torture is nothing more than a policy difference.
Omigosh.
I thought the eight long years of Bush Hell had visited the most wretchedly ludicrous palaver possible on a vulnerable world. Guess not. Guess they had to crown their execrable efforts with the most contemptible canard of all:
Torturing human beings is not wrong, criminal, nor even morally heinous--it's just POLICY.
It defies imagination.
Or even coherent thought.
09 January 2009
Gaza, Sudan, Northern Ireland, Somalia, Nigeria...
Cry out, Americans! When hatred kills children, there is no justification. Ever.
GENEVA – The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights called Friday for an independent war crimes investigation in Gaza after reports that Israeli forces shelled a house full of Palestinian civilians, killing 30 people.
Navi Pillay...[said] an incident in Gaza City this week "appears to have all the elements of war crimes."
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israeli troops evacuated Palestinian civilians to a house in the Zeitoun neighborhood on Jan. 4, then shelled the building 24 hours later.
The U.N. agency said 110 people were in the house, according to testimony from four witnesses.
On Thursday, the international Red Cross said the Israeli army refused rescuers permission to reach wounded people in the neighborhood for four days. Israel said the delay was caused by fighting in the area.
GENEVA – The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights called Friday for an independent war crimes investigation in Gaza after reports that Israeli forces shelled a house full of Palestinian civilians, killing 30 people.
Navi Pillay...[said] an incident in Gaza City this week "appears to have all the elements of war crimes."
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israeli troops evacuated Palestinian civilians to a house in the Zeitoun neighborhood on Jan. 4, then shelled the building 24 hours later.
The U.N. agency said 110 people were in the house, according to testimony from four witnesses.
On Thursday, the international Red Cross said the Israeli army refused rescuers permission to reach wounded people in the neighborhood for four days. Israel said the delay was caused by fighting in the area.
Gaza, Addendum
I was talking with my kids yesterday about the fact that President-Elect Obama does not speak out about the Gaza massacre and they asked why Senator Clinton does not. I opened my mouth to answer as it dawned on me that she cannot now. She works for Obama.
What is that fine political axiom?...Hold your friends close; hold your enemies...
What is that fine political axiom?...Hold your friends close; hold your enemies...
08 January 2009
The True Horror That Is Gaza
699 and 11.
How do those numbers strike you?
They strike me as wildly disparate. Especially when each whole number represents a LIFE.
As our Congress and our president-elect are busy demurring 'weighing in' on these numbers, they're mounting--with the larger one on track to four digits probably before the president-elect can say again that there can only be 'one administration at a time'.
It's this complacency in the face of needless death--children, no less--that I find the most excruciatingly obscene in the dispositions of those who would conduct our country. I have, at last, faced the reality of our lame duck president's barren soul, and our representatives' spineless souls, but I was so hoping for some caring souls to take the helm.
In other words, anyone in a position to speak out against the wholesale slaughter of civilians and children who does not do so is a complete conundrum to me.
Well, I'm not in that position, but I'm going to speak out anyway.
The first part of the equation is that Hamas has been firing rockets into Israel for years. While in no way defensible, Hamas' actions have lacked lethality. No such lack can be found in the Israeli answer. As the most heavily-armed helicopters in the world rain death on Gaza, and equally ferocious armed vehicles snuff out any animate square meters of that strip of land, the purveyors of the firestorm claim victimhood and protest their right to protect their land.
Accordingly, 699 Palestinians have died in Gaza. 11 Israeli soldiers have died.
If I could employ an analogy, it might be this: a student gang comes to school each day and behaves badly, really badly. They kick the other students, slam lockers in other students' faces, trip other students, even wave guns in their faces---all with belligerent impunity. Well, the other students have had just about enough of the constant mistreatment. And rightly so.
So they BOMB every last house of this gang's families, plus every last house next to the gang's families' houses, plus every last place of business patronized by the gang's families' members, plus every last house belonging to the business owners. And everything else in between.
Sound about right?
699 and 11.
How do those numbers strike you?
They strike me as wildly disparate. Especially when each whole number represents a LIFE.
As our Congress and our president-elect are busy demurring 'weighing in' on these numbers, they're mounting--with the larger one on track to four digits probably before the president-elect can say again that there can only be 'one administration at a time'.
It's this complacency in the face of needless death--children, no less--that I find the most excruciatingly obscene in the dispositions of those who would conduct our country. I have, at last, faced the reality of our lame duck president's barren soul, and our representatives' spineless souls, but I was so hoping for some caring souls to take the helm.
In other words, anyone in a position to speak out against the wholesale slaughter of civilians and children who does not do so is a complete conundrum to me.
Well, I'm not in that position, but I'm going to speak out anyway.
The first part of the equation is that Hamas has been firing rockets into Israel for years. While in no way defensible, Hamas' actions have lacked lethality. No such lack can be found in the Israeli answer. As the most heavily-armed helicopters in the world rain death on Gaza, and equally ferocious armed vehicles snuff out any animate square meters of that strip of land, the purveyors of the firestorm claim victimhood and protest their right to protect their land.
Accordingly, 699 Palestinians have died in Gaza. 11 Israeli soldiers have died.
If I could employ an analogy, it might be this: a student gang comes to school each day and behaves badly, really badly. They kick the other students, slam lockers in other students' faces, trip other students, even wave guns in their faces---all with belligerent impunity. Well, the other students have had just about enough of the constant mistreatment. And rightly so.
So they BOMB every last house of this gang's families, plus every last house next to the gang's families' houses, plus every last place of business patronized by the gang's families' members, plus every last house belonging to the business owners. And everything else in between.
Sound about right?
699 and 11.
06 January 2009
Just Imagine a World Where....
...children being killed by bombs dropped by Apache helicopters is more important than stopping a duly-appointed senator from sitting down in Congress...
...soldiers dying endlessly in an endless conflict of obscene origin is more important than fighting to appoint someone wholly ill-equipped but well-named to Congress...
...keeping families in their homes is more important than voting billions of dollars to the evictors...
...teaching civics in schools is more important than omitting its existence because we aren't supposed to know the laws and rules that are being stomped upon...
...the right to one's civil liberties is more important than a daily diet of fearing terrorists...
...respecting the earth is more important than filling the coffers...
...helping people is more important than helping corporations...
...[I invite you to add your own wish for the world we all deserve]...
...soldiers dying endlessly in an endless conflict of obscene origin is more important than fighting to appoint someone wholly ill-equipped but well-named to Congress...
...keeping families in their homes is more important than voting billions of dollars to the evictors...
...teaching civics in schools is more important than omitting its existence because we aren't supposed to know the laws and rules that are being stomped upon...
...the right to one's civil liberties is more important than a daily diet of fearing terrorists...
...respecting the earth is more important than filling the coffers...
...helping people is more important than helping corporations...
...[I invite you to add your own wish for the world we all deserve]...
04 January 2009
Of Blogs, Blogging and Blogojevich...Oh, and I'M BACK!
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a task left long undone becomes next to impossible to tackle! I've left my blog for so long I'm beyond rusty. And Dorothy with her oilcan is nowhere in sight. So I'll just have to crank back into gear on my own power here. If you hear a whack, whir, wheeze, whine, sputter, splat, squirt, scrape, clink, clank, clunk, clatter, crash, bang, beep, buzz, ring, rip, roar, retch, twang, toot, tinkle, thud, pop, plop, plunk, pow, snort, snuk, sniff, smack, screech, splash, squish, squeek, jingle, rattle, squeel, boing, honk, hoot, hack, belch...it's just me, stretching my blog limbs again.*
*With thanks to Jane Austin and Todd Rundgren, from whom I stole the opening and closing of the paragraph.
So how are you all in blogville nowadays? Nowadays filled with Gaza, Iraq and Mumbai; cool ash, foreclosures and inaugurations; Warrens, Blagojeviches and Kennedys? Hmmm. Maybe I shouldn't have taken up the blog reins again quite so fast...
Naw. I'll jump in. But just in the shallow end.
I understand the democrats are planning to unceremoniously oust the honorable Mr. Roland Burris from the Senate before he gets to put a crease in his trousers.
Right.
And so we're off and running into 2009 with the exact same attitude toward THE LAW that defined 2008. Just what is the difficulty the dems have with following laws, rules and directives? Here are a few that come to mind:
*The presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This is covered by the 5th, 6th, and 14th Amendments to the Constitution. And it should cover Blogojevich in his present pickle, if I'm not mistaken.
*When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of each State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. This is from the 17th Amendment to the Constitution. And it should speak to Blagojevich's duties, again, if I'm not mistaken.
*Did I mention 'Everyone is supposed innocent until having been declared guilty'? This is broached in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and the legal codes of untold numbers of the nations of the world.
But it's evidently not included in our majority leader's vocabulary. Just this morn I listened to him declare Blagojevich guilty of contemptuous crimes, thereby nullifying that governor's rights and duties of office.
Right.
I guess we can just dispense with that whole indictment, plea and jury business.
*With thanks to Jane Austin and Todd Rundgren, from whom I stole the opening and closing of the paragraph.
So how are you all in blogville nowadays? Nowadays filled with Gaza, Iraq and Mumbai; cool ash, foreclosures and inaugurations; Warrens, Blagojeviches and Kennedys? Hmmm. Maybe I shouldn't have taken up the blog reins again quite so fast...
Naw. I'll jump in. But just in the shallow end.
I understand the democrats are planning to unceremoniously oust the honorable Mr. Roland Burris from the Senate before he gets to put a crease in his trousers.
Right.
And so we're off and running into 2009 with the exact same attitude toward THE LAW that defined 2008. Just what is the difficulty the dems have with following laws, rules and directives? Here are a few that come to mind:
*The presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This is covered by the 5th, 6th, and 14th Amendments to the Constitution. And it should cover Blogojevich in his present pickle, if I'm not mistaken.
*When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of each State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. This is from the 17th Amendment to the Constitution. And it should speak to Blagojevich's duties, again, if I'm not mistaken.
*Did I mention 'Everyone is supposed innocent until having been declared guilty'? This is broached in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and the legal codes of untold numbers of the nations of the world.
But it's evidently not included in our majority leader's vocabulary. Just this morn I listened to him declare Blagojevich guilty of contemptuous crimes, thereby nullifying that governor's rights and duties of office.
Right.
I guess we can just dispense with that whole indictment, plea and jury business.
21 October 2008
The Company We Keep
'I believe demolishing Hussein's military power and liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk.'
The author of this lethally nonsensical statement was assistant to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld from 1975-77, and arms control director under President Reagan.
AND, he is also now another...wait for it...ENDORSER of Senator Obama!
With friends like these...
The author of this lethally nonsensical statement was assistant to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld from 1975-77, and arms control director under President Reagan.
AND, he is also now another...wait for it...ENDORSER of Senator Obama!
With friends like these...
20 October 2008
Regarding the Vastly Vaunted Endorsement of Senator Obama by Colin Powell...
The media is rewriting history and I find that terrifying.
When I worked in intelligence, I became very familiar with the compelling insidiousness of propaganda, all the while I was clothed in the lofty knowledge that our country was largely above such devious and deceitful methods of dealing with its populace.
We've come a long way, Citizens.
Now I'm not so naïve as to think our media is free of proselytism, or ever has been, but we have now arrived at a place where the majority of facts are not just being parsed, or slanted, or omitted, or ignored—ALL of which describe what the Fourth Estate has done in this last shocking decade--but rather, invented. Our national media is taking it upon themselves to rewrite history.
As Blue Lyon cogently says on her blog, the Colin Powell of yesterday's endorsement bears little resemblance to the Colin Powell we all know and love. She also discusses the hypocrisy of the left in their embrace of a sometimes-reviled Republican, but as the left barrels remorselessly down its path of no-return, I'm learning to step out of the way rather than be mown down.
I've no such compunction with our national media. It continues to be an outrage of the highest order that our sources of information—FACTS—can be wholly controlled by an increasingly powerful corporatocracy with everything but Americans' interests at heart.
For reasons that I still cannot thoroughly refine in my mind, it serves our media best to elect Senator Obama to the presidency. For this, it will pervert and scorn any and every 'fact' that comes its way. The latest incarnation of this is the glow that surrounds Colin Powell. To listen to the media, he is the most respected voice in America, the voice of reason, the final say.
So let's go back a lot of years. I liked him. He seemed fine, upstanding, honest, honorable. That was until he joined the Bush team and then Colin 'Macbeth' Powell went over to the dark side. And in the worst way possible. He used the esteem of the military and his laudatory service in it to dupe the countries of the world. If smarmy Cheney had made that same presentation at a plenary session of the UN, postulating the lethality of Iraq's intentions, there might have been some hesitancy to sign on. But Powell is a soldier, endowed with all the dignity, honor, and respect of his military career and years. When C.L. Powell speaks, people listen.
And with his help, the Iraq slaughter was born. He betrayed the troops who would die for years to come by using the honor of his uniform and all that entails. I find that insupportable.
Disgraceful too, is the betrayal of his oath. It is incumbent on every officer to desist from obeying an unlawful order. The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) says,
'An order which is unlawful not only does not need to be obeyed, but obeying such an order can result in criminal prosecution of the one who obeys it. Military courts have long held that military members are accountable for their actions even while following orders -- if the order was illegal.'
The last I heard, the order to lie is illegal. He knew what he was doing when he lied straight into the eyes and ears of the world, watching and trusting what he would say.
And this is the man who has now endorsed Obama, the man whose endorsement is the final jewel in the crowning of the media candidate, the man who holds all sway over our voting choice because he and his honorable career are unimpeachable.
Nice invention, media. I marvel that you think you may rewrite a history that is still ongoing.
Our kids are still dying in Iraq and Powell's words helped put them there.
Rewriting history only works if we let it.
When I worked in intelligence, I became very familiar with the compelling insidiousness of propaganda, all the while I was clothed in the lofty knowledge that our country was largely above such devious and deceitful methods of dealing with its populace.
We've come a long way, Citizens.
Now I'm not so naïve as to think our media is free of proselytism, or ever has been, but we have now arrived at a place where the majority of facts are not just being parsed, or slanted, or omitted, or ignored—ALL of which describe what the Fourth Estate has done in this last shocking decade--but rather, invented. Our national media is taking it upon themselves to rewrite history.
As Blue Lyon cogently says on her blog, the Colin Powell of yesterday's endorsement bears little resemblance to the Colin Powell we all know and love. She also discusses the hypocrisy of the left in their embrace of a sometimes-reviled Republican, but as the left barrels remorselessly down its path of no-return, I'm learning to step out of the way rather than be mown down.
I've no such compunction with our national media. It continues to be an outrage of the highest order that our sources of information—FACTS—can be wholly controlled by an increasingly powerful corporatocracy with everything but Americans' interests at heart.
For reasons that I still cannot thoroughly refine in my mind, it serves our media best to elect Senator Obama to the presidency. For this, it will pervert and scorn any and every 'fact' that comes its way. The latest incarnation of this is the glow that surrounds Colin Powell. To listen to the media, he is the most respected voice in America, the voice of reason, the final say.
So let's go back a lot of years. I liked him. He seemed fine, upstanding, honest, honorable. That was until he joined the Bush team and then Colin 'Macbeth' Powell went over to the dark side. And in the worst way possible. He used the esteem of the military and his laudatory service in it to dupe the countries of the world. If smarmy Cheney had made that same presentation at a plenary session of the UN, postulating the lethality of Iraq's intentions, there might have been some hesitancy to sign on. But Powell is a soldier, endowed with all the dignity, honor, and respect of his military career and years. When C.L. Powell speaks, people listen.
And with his help, the Iraq slaughter was born. He betrayed the troops who would die for years to come by using the honor of his uniform and all that entails. I find that insupportable.
Disgraceful too, is the betrayal of his oath. It is incumbent on every officer to desist from obeying an unlawful order. The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) says,
'An order which is unlawful not only does not need to be obeyed, but obeying such an order can result in criminal prosecution of the one who obeys it. Military courts have long held that military members are accountable for their actions even while following orders -- if the order was illegal.'
The last I heard, the order to lie is illegal. He knew what he was doing when he lied straight into the eyes and ears of the world, watching and trusting what he would say.
And this is the man who has now endorsed Obama, the man whose endorsement is the final jewel in the crowning of the media candidate, the man who holds all sway over our voting choice because he and his honorable career are unimpeachable.
Nice invention, media. I marvel that you think you may rewrite a history that is still ongoing.
Our kids are still dying in Iraq and Powell's words helped put them there.
Rewriting history only works if we let it.
16 October 2008
Kindergarten Promises
Do you ever feel like you're back in grammar school and the candidates for school president are promising you hot and cold running chocolate in the water fountains if you'll vote for them?
'Hot and cold running tax cuts in a globally tanking economy. Just vote for me.'
Yeppirs.
'Hot and cold running tax cuts in a globally tanking economy. Just vote for me.'
Yeppirs.
15 October 2008
The World According to Hard Facts, or Thank You Again, Senator Clinton
Surprise, surprise...
'[Hillary] Clinton dropped out of the race four months ago, but her presence looms large at tonight’s final McCain-Obama debate being held, appropriately enough, in her adopted state of New York.
Clinton was arguably the first candidate in either party to grasp the transformative political effect of the economic crisis, and her onetime rivals have been borrowing — liberally — from her policy and rhetorical playbooks.'
Here's a quote from a pollster...
“Everything in this election is being washed away by this stock market and economic stuff ... and she was the one who came out first with specific policies to deal with this, so she’s clearly having an influence on both of them.”
...from a Clinton aide...
”She was the first one to really pay attention to people’s anxieties, and both Obama and McCain have been playing catch-up ever since.”
...from a McCain aide...
“McCain said he had been motivated by [her proposal to have the federal government buy up bad mortgages and renegotiate terms more favorable to homeowners on verge of default]...he was very complimentary about what she had proposed and wanted to know more.”
...from an Obama aide...
...oops...
An Obama spokesman had no comment.
That may be because he's already chewing on his comments and they're not at all tasty.
On Monday, Obama told a crowd in hard-hit Toledo, Ohio, that he wanted to impose a 90-day freeze on foreclosures by banks that partake in the $700 billion rescue plan.
When Clinton proposed a package that contained a similar measure in January, Obama nixed it. At the time, his staff posted news stories denouncing the freeze on his campaign Web site, including a Fortune magazine story that tagged it “perhaps the dumbest solution to the current mortgage mess.”
And that's all I have to say about that.
'[Hillary] Clinton dropped out of the race four months ago, but her presence looms large at tonight’s final McCain-Obama debate being held, appropriately enough, in her adopted state of New York.
Clinton was arguably the first candidate in either party to grasp the transformative political effect of the economic crisis, and her onetime rivals have been borrowing — liberally — from her policy and rhetorical playbooks.'
Here's a quote from a pollster...
“Everything in this election is being washed away by this stock market and economic stuff ... and she was the one who came out first with specific policies to deal with this, so she’s clearly having an influence on both of them.”
...from a Clinton aide...
”She was the first one to really pay attention to people’s anxieties, and both Obama and McCain have been playing catch-up ever since.”
...from a McCain aide...
“McCain said he had been motivated by [her proposal to have the federal government buy up bad mortgages and renegotiate terms more favorable to homeowners on verge of default]...he was very complimentary about what she had proposed and wanted to know more.”
...from an Obama aide...
...oops...
An Obama spokesman had no comment.
That may be because he's already chewing on his comments and they're not at all tasty.
On Monday, Obama told a crowd in hard-hit Toledo, Ohio, that he wanted to impose a 90-day freeze on foreclosures by banks that partake in the $700 billion rescue plan.
When Clinton proposed a package that contained a similar measure in January, Obama nixed it. At the time, his staff posted news stories denouncing the freeze on his campaign Web site, including a Fortune magazine story that tagged it “perhaps the dumbest solution to the current mortgage mess.”
And that's all I have to say about that.
03 October 2008
An Intimidating Woman, Part II
I just started writing this little blog with a laudatory sentence about Governor Sarah Palin. Then, almost without thinking, I backspaced right over it. Why, I immediately asked myself, did I do that?
The answer is frightening.
I have been so barraged by vituperative attacks on this Alaskan--both in person and by email--that my own self-defense mechanism shot unbidden from my brain to my fingers before I had a conscious chance to weigh in on its advisability.
Well, pardon me, brain. I'm short-circuiting that little foray right here and now. And I'm going to say it loud and clear.
Last night, Governor Palin was a credit to herself, her family, her state, her country.
She conducted herself with dignity, wit, intelligence, humor, and grit. We could have expected all those admirable qualities in Senator Clinton, had she not been unfairly deprived of the chance to be behind the presidential candidate podium. Instead, we have another woman--one with whom Hillary Clinton has little in common. In fact, only one major thing: gender.
And that's enough to link them inextricably. You see, they're just TOO. Senator Clinton was too hard, too experienced, too loud, too connected, too intelligent, and how dare she tear up...! Governor Palin is too folksy, too inexperienced, too friendly, too conservative, too likable, too family-y, and how dare she smile engagingly and say something witty and pithy...!
Are you getting my sad parallel here? In the space of less than a year, we've been treated to two of the most riveting individuals the feminine gender has to offer in the world of American politics. And, let me put it bluntly:
There is nothing they can do right.
Today I read that the most touching moment last night was when Senator Biden teared up. Senator Clinton was crucified for the same thing.
And Governor Palin? She hasn't had the temerity to show her emotions. All she's done is speak, act, and behave like herself. This is how a 44-year-old woman democrat describes the governor's debate performance: “I still don’t like that pandering to the folksiness: the winking, the dropping the Gs, the shout-outs to third graders. She didn’t completely bomb, but politically, I’m so opposite of what she stands for.”
And the way she talks, of course, is what she stands for.
Right.
Funny thing. I can't recall the particulars of Biden's, McCain's, Obama's, Bush's, Carter's, Reagan's, ad nauseum, cadence of speech, indulgence in winks, or their propensity to mention anyone they knew during debates...a shout-out sort of thing. I wonder how we ever figured out what they stood for.
So here's a shout-out to you, Governor Palin, and you, Senator Clinton, and you, women of America...
Fight on. Lead with your intelligence. Stick to who you are and what you believe. And always remember what one of Jane Austen's heroines said...I live by it....
'My courage always rises with every attempt to intimidate me.'
The answer is frightening.
I have been so barraged by vituperative attacks on this Alaskan--both in person and by email--that my own self-defense mechanism shot unbidden from my brain to my fingers before I had a conscious chance to weigh in on its advisability.
Well, pardon me, brain. I'm short-circuiting that little foray right here and now. And I'm going to say it loud and clear.
Last night, Governor Palin was a credit to herself, her family, her state, her country.
She conducted herself with dignity, wit, intelligence, humor, and grit. We could have expected all those admirable qualities in Senator Clinton, had she not been unfairly deprived of the chance to be behind the presidential candidate podium. Instead, we have another woman--one with whom Hillary Clinton has little in common. In fact, only one major thing: gender.
And that's enough to link them inextricably. You see, they're just TOO. Senator Clinton was too hard, too experienced, too loud, too connected, too intelligent, and how dare she tear up...! Governor Palin is too folksy, too inexperienced, too friendly, too conservative, too likable, too family-y, and how dare she smile engagingly and say something witty and pithy...!
Are you getting my sad parallel here? In the space of less than a year, we've been treated to two of the most riveting individuals the feminine gender has to offer in the world of American politics. And, let me put it bluntly:
There is nothing they can do right.
Today I read that the most touching moment last night was when Senator Biden teared up. Senator Clinton was crucified for the same thing.
And Governor Palin? She hasn't had the temerity to show her emotions. All she's done is speak, act, and behave like herself. This is how a 44-year-old woman democrat describes the governor's debate performance: “I still don’t like that pandering to the folksiness: the winking, the dropping the Gs, the shout-outs to third graders. She didn’t completely bomb, but politically, I’m so opposite of what she stands for.”
And the way she talks, of course, is what she stands for.
Right.
Funny thing. I can't recall the particulars of Biden's, McCain's, Obama's, Bush's, Carter's, Reagan's, ad nauseum, cadence of speech, indulgence in winks, or their propensity to mention anyone they knew during debates...a shout-out sort of thing. I wonder how we ever figured out what they stood for.
So here's a shout-out to you, Governor Palin, and you, Senator Clinton, and you, women of America...
Fight on. Lead with your intelligence. Stick to who you are and what you believe. And always remember what one of Jane Austen's heroines said...I live by it....
'My courage always rises with every attempt to intimidate me.'
23 September 2008
For a World Weary of Worries...MUSIC!
Shakespeare wrote, 'Sleep, that knits up the raveled sleeve of care...'
Perhaps, but music is surely the reason that careworn sleeve doesn't ravel irretrievably before one can sleep...
And so, my daughter has added music to my blog. She set it so it plays on, heedless of whether the reader wishes it to, but I hope you'll turn it down--or UP!--according to your wont. There's an eclectic choice in this inaugural lot:
From John Lennon's anthem to Linkin Park's anguish, I'm heavily influenced by my kids these days--but not in the choice of These Days! My daughter grimaced at that one. She added the Goo Goo Dolls and Matchbox 20, both of which I love. Serj Tankian is my son's ante--a striking singer who's often over the top, but right on the mark with these anti-war songs. And as for 100 Years...I send this beautiful song out to all of you from where it sits next to Pachelbel's Canon in my soul.
May you dance.
Perhaps, but music is surely the reason that careworn sleeve doesn't ravel irretrievably before one can sleep...
And so, my daughter has added music to my blog. She set it so it plays on, heedless of whether the reader wishes it to, but I hope you'll turn it down--or UP!--according to your wont. There's an eclectic choice in this inaugural lot:
From John Lennon's anthem to Linkin Park's anguish, I'm heavily influenced by my kids these days--but not in the choice of These Days! My daughter grimaced at that one. She added the Goo Goo Dolls and Matchbox 20, both of which I love. Serj Tankian is my son's ante--a striking singer who's often over the top, but right on the mark with these anti-war songs. And as for 100 Years...I send this beautiful song out to all of you from where it sits next to Pachelbel's Canon in my soul.
May you dance.
22 September 2008
Letters of Hope and Futility
Dear readers,
Please check out another excellent post about our economic woes at Blue Lyon, http://bluelyon.wordpress.com/
Signed,
Fiery Side
Dear neighbor,
Take heart. I'm writing to some people who can still help you.
Signed,
Cathylee
Dear democrats in power,
After all the betrayal you--Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and all the rest of the congressional democrats--have inflicted on us, I'm sitting here, willing you to do the right thing. Climbing on board one last time to hope there's a shred of decency in our REPRESENTATIVES.
Finally, at long last, prove me right, democrats. Convince me that I haven't been a proud Democrat all these years of my life for nothing. After validating the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, the bankruptcy bill, the Supreme Court justices, THE IRAQ OCCUPATION--just to name a few--give us something to believe in again.
Don't let Paulson put the CEOs and Wall Street in the lifeboats.
Put Americans back in their homes, instead.
Start with my neighbor, could you please? He's about 60, disabled, and spends his days drinking in order to forget he's got only a short time left to spend in the house he bought a couple of decades ago. Maybe you could just save his garage for him. It's filled with a lifetime of tools, machines, and stuff he's collected. It's all that really matters to him.
Try this, democrats: put a face on your actions. Make them real. Think of my neighbor.
For once, after all these years of rolling over, backing off, and, in the case of the democratic nomination, lying and cheating--for once and finally, DO THE RIGHT THING.
Now. Please.
Signed,
The Woman Who Lives Next Door To Another Soon-To-Be-Homeless-Person
Please check out another excellent post about our economic woes at Blue Lyon, http://bluelyon.wordpress.com/
Signed,
Fiery Side
Dear neighbor,
Take heart. I'm writing to some people who can still help you.
Signed,
Cathylee
Dear democrats in power,
After all the betrayal you--Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and all the rest of the congressional democrats--have inflicted on us, I'm sitting here, willing you to do the right thing. Climbing on board one last time to hope there's a shred of decency in our REPRESENTATIVES.
Finally, at long last, prove me right, democrats. Convince me that I haven't been a proud Democrat all these years of my life for nothing. After validating the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, the bankruptcy bill, the Supreme Court justices, THE IRAQ OCCUPATION--just to name a few--give us something to believe in again.
Don't let Paulson put the CEOs and Wall Street in the lifeboats.
Put Americans back in their homes, instead.
Start with my neighbor, could you please? He's about 60, disabled, and spends his days drinking in order to forget he's got only a short time left to spend in the house he bought a couple of decades ago. Maybe you could just save his garage for him. It's filled with a lifetime of tools, machines, and stuff he's collected. It's all that really matters to him.
Try this, democrats: put a face on your actions. Make them real. Think of my neighbor.
For once, after all these years of rolling over, backing off, and, in the case of the democratic nomination, lying and cheating--for once and finally, DO THE RIGHT THING.
Now. Please.
Signed,
The Woman Who Lives Next Door To Another Soon-To-Be-Homeless-Person
18 September 2008
Get Thee Behind Us, Woman!
This one's for you, Gram.
When I was a little girl, I got to sit at my first real desk, stamping and sealing envelopes. I was proudly introduced to all who passed, and I was even more proud to claim the tall, red-haired business woman beside me as my gram.
Her name was Opal Else Free Kotson. She was an executive at Montgomery Ward. She worked her way up from the bottom with acumen, tenacity and smarts. She did it all on an eighth grade education and sheer determination. Because you see, even with all those names after her given name, she lived a single life caring for two children without help. If she couldn't cut it, they didn't eat.
It wasn't until I was in my twenties and she'd retired that I learned the cold, hard facts about her career. She had made it to the top echelon of management in Montgomery Ward. There were three positions higher than hers. I asked why she hadn't tried for those.
She had.
That was when she was told there would be no further movement in her career. Women were not allowed in the top three management slots.
I remember looking aghast at my gram. And I remember to a tee what I felt...ineffable sorrow that this vital, intelligent woman had spent so many years of her life gazing through that glass ceiling while giving that company every iota of her effort and allegiance...and heartfelt relief that society was past that horrible hurdle—it wasn't going to cripple me, nor any daughters I would have.
Well, I did have a daughter, and when she was eight months old, my gram had just about finished her walk through this world. I raced home with my son and my daughter from where we were living in Germany, but to no avail. She departed our grasp while we were somewhere over the North Atlantic.
So my daughter never got to know her great-gram, though I'd like to think she carries a bit of Opal Else's spirit within her. But certainly, my daughter would travel an equal road with her male counterparts, thanks to the painful trails my gram, and so many like her, blazed.
Au contraire.
Just like my gram, women have reached the plateau of top management in politics. And just like her, so woefully many decades ago, women are being told, unequivocally, that's quite far enough...
'Uh, uh, uh! Not so fast! You can hang with us up here, but don't be thinking you get to be our boss. No way, no how, not gonna happen. And if you persist in your efforts to run the show, we'll send you packing. And it ain't gonna be pretty. So be nice, back off, and
...get thee behind us, woman.'
When I was a little girl, I got to sit at my first real desk, stamping and sealing envelopes. I was proudly introduced to all who passed, and I was even more proud to claim the tall, red-haired business woman beside me as my gram.
Her name was Opal Else Free Kotson. She was an executive at Montgomery Ward. She worked her way up from the bottom with acumen, tenacity and smarts. She did it all on an eighth grade education and sheer determination. Because you see, even with all those names after her given name, she lived a single life caring for two children without help. If she couldn't cut it, they didn't eat.
It wasn't until I was in my twenties and she'd retired that I learned the cold, hard facts about her career. She had made it to the top echelon of management in Montgomery Ward. There were three positions higher than hers. I asked why she hadn't tried for those.
She had.
That was when she was told there would be no further movement in her career. Women were not allowed in the top three management slots.
I remember looking aghast at my gram. And I remember to a tee what I felt...ineffable sorrow that this vital, intelligent woman had spent so many years of her life gazing through that glass ceiling while giving that company every iota of her effort and allegiance...and heartfelt relief that society was past that horrible hurdle—it wasn't going to cripple me, nor any daughters I would have.
Well, I did have a daughter, and when she was eight months old, my gram had just about finished her walk through this world. I raced home with my son and my daughter from where we were living in Germany, but to no avail. She departed our grasp while we were somewhere over the North Atlantic.
So my daughter never got to know her great-gram, though I'd like to think she carries a bit of Opal Else's spirit within her. But certainly, my daughter would travel an equal road with her male counterparts, thanks to the painful trails my gram, and so many like her, blazed.
Au contraire.
Just like my gram, women have reached the plateau of top management in politics. And just like her, so woefully many decades ago, women are being told, unequivocally, that's quite far enough...
'Uh, uh, uh! Not so fast! You can hang with us up here, but don't be thinking you get to be our boss. No way, no how, not gonna happen. And if you persist in your efforts to run the show, we'll send you packing. And it ain't gonna be pretty. So be nice, back off, and
...get thee behind us, woman.'
14 September 2008
Palin, Preludes, and Priorities
I've now received no less than 15 anti-Palin emails.
They deride her qualifications, plead with the reader to send out a global alarm, and urge all women to protest the governor's appearances.
Imagine if the same energy had been put into stopping the slaughter in Iraq.
They deride her qualifications, plead with the reader to send out a global alarm, and urge all women to protest the governor's appearances.
Imagine if the same energy had been put into stopping the slaughter in Iraq.
11 September 2008
In No WoMan's Land
I've come to a fascinating, tragic place.
'Fascinating' because I'm seeing things so crisply clearly as to be a wonderment.
'Tragic' because I never wanted to be here and wish I wasn't.
And where I am is in that 'neutral' area between opposing trenches. No WoMan's Land. Having been on the Left Trench since forever, I find it sad to report on my new digs, but there you are. Couldn't say whether I was evicted from the Left Trench or whether I vacated it of my own volition—I just know I left it kicking, screaming, and desperately clinging to any fair outcropping I could find...till there were simply none left.
I want to stress that I am not intending to, and avowedly never will, move to the Right Trench. The terrain from No WoMan's Land up to the Right Trench is forbidding indeed, being devoid of outstretched arms to help one up if one slips and falls. In addition, the embankment is dangerously covered with gun emplacements for each new war, as well as hidden mines from all the wars that are not yet finished. Also, choice here seems to lie principally with the men, being doled out only incrementally to the women.
So, while I know real estate is going cheap on the Right Trench and it's a buyer's market, I'm certain it's like those inexpensive printers that voraciously eat ink that corporate America got us all to buy—you don't pay much up front but you'll pay through the nose for years and years to come.
Thus, I'm in a dilemma. I am smarter than to fall for the 'printer ruse' and buy on the Right Trench, but I refuse to go back to the Left Trench, where every day, from sunrise to weary sunset, one must march in lock-step with everyone else there. If one does not, one endures ostracism, hostility, and eventually, eviction. This is particularly true for the strong, free-thinking women on the Left Trench.
So here I sit in No WoMan's Land, watching the tracers from the Right and Left Trenches fly over my head. This is where the fascinating clarity of vision comes in...I'm certain those tracers were always tracking across this sad, isolated land, but darned if I ever saw them leave the Left Trench. All we would yell from there was, 'Incoming!' Now, I'm not saying there was no outgoing, but I'd always proudly lived there because our outgoing was in the form of intelligent answers, reasoned responses, and a world order that believed in helping the world keep order. For every last one of us.
Alas and alack. I regret to say, with crystal clear acuity of vision, that the slugs and pellets zipping overhead are indistinguishable from each other. Those from the Left Trench match—and lately surpass—the Right Trench in nastiness and hate. In fact, of late, the ammo sent right-ward are sexist-tipped bullets, incredibly narrow and heedless of collateral damage.
I don't like it here. But hell if I'm going to climb back into the Right Trench, whatever pretty intentions they offer up. And as each day passes, with the volleys of anti-distaff shot in anger and desperation from the Left Trench, hell if I'm going back there.
Not without a mass exodus of present leaders and lots of the lock-steppers.
I guess we here in No WoMan's Land can just keep relating our individual books about the good old days on the Left Trench. Until we're all allowed to remember them again.
'Fascinating' because I'm seeing things so crisply clearly as to be a wonderment.
'Tragic' because I never wanted to be here and wish I wasn't.
And where I am is in that 'neutral' area between opposing trenches. No WoMan's Land. Having been on the Left Trench since forever, I find it sad to report on my new digs, but there you are. Couldn't say whether I was evicted from the Left Trench or whether I vacated it of my own volition—I just know I left it kicking, screaming, and desperately clinging to any fair outcropping I could find...till there were simply none left.
I want to stress that I am not intending to, and avowedly never will, move to the Right Trench. The terrain from No WoMan's Land up to the Right Trench is forbidding indeed, being devoid of outstretched arms to help one up if one slips and falls. In addition, the embankment is dangerously covered with gun emplacements for each new war, as well as hidden mines from all the wars that are not yet finished. Also, choice here seems to lie principally with the men, being doled out only incrementally to the women.
So, while I know real estate is going cheap on the Right Trench and it's a buyer's market, I'm certain it's like those inexpensive printers that voraciously eat ink that corporate America got us all to buy—you don't pay much up front but you'll pay through the nose for years and years to come.
Thus, I'm in a dilemma. I am smarter than to fall for the 'printer ruse' and buy on the Right Trench, but I refuse to go back to the Left Trench, where every day, from sunrise to weary sunset, one must march in lock-step with everyone else there. If one does not, one endures ostracism, hostility, and eventually, eviction. This is particularly true for the strong, free-thinking women on the Left Trench.
So here I sit in No WoMan's Land, watching the tracers from the Right and Left Trenches fly over my head. This is where the fascinating clarity of vision comes in...I'm certain those tracers were always tracking across this sad, isolated land, but darned if I ever saw them leave the Left Trench. All we would yell from there was, 'Incoming!' Now, I'm not saying there was no outgoing, but I'd always proudly lived there because our outgoing was in the form of intelligent answers, reasoned responses, and a world order that believed in helping the world keep order. For every last one of us.
Alas and alack. I regret to say, with crystal clear acuity of vision, that the slugs and pellets zipping overhead are indistinguishable from each other. Those from the Left Trench match—and lately surpass—the Right Trench in nastiness and hate. In fact, of late, the ammo sent right-ward are sexist-tipped bullets, incredibly narrow and heedless of collateral damage.
I don't like it here. But hell if I'm going to climb back into the Right Trench, whatever pretty intentions they offer up. And as each day passes, with the volleys of anti-distaff shot in anger and desperation from the Left Trench, hell if I'm going back there.
Not without a mass exodus of present leaders and lots of the lock-steppers.
I guess we here in No WoMan's Land can just keep relating our individual books about the good old days on the Left Trench. Until we're all allowed to remember them again.
07 September 2008
An Intimidating Woman
A good friend of mine recently sent me a link to an opinion piece in the New York Times. It was by a Judith Warner and it was titled, 'The Mirrored Ceiling'. I'll quote from the very first paragraph of the essay, to give you an idea about it:
“It turns out there was something more nauseating than the nomination of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate this past week. It was the tone of the acclaim that followed her acceptance speech.”
So that's the lay of the land on what follows. I invite you to go to the link and read it in its entirety, http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/04/the-mirrored-ceiling/?em but I'll confine myself to just one aspect of it here, with a good faith effort to agree with someone who is as rudely incendiary as the media can offer.
If we turn to the contempt-soaked paragraphs that deal with a woman as an 'intimidating presence'...
“....I think, they find her acceptably “real,” because Palin’s not intimidating, and makes it clear that she’s subordinate to a great man.
That’s the worst thing a woman can be in this world, isn’t it? Intimidating, which appears to be synonymous with competent. It’s the kiss of death, personally and politically.
But shouldn’t a woman who is prepared to be commander in chief be intimidating? Because of the intelligence, experience, talent and drive that got her there? If she isn’t, at least on some level, off-putting, if her presence inspires national commentary on breast-pumping and babysitting rather than health care reform and social security, then something is seriously wrong. If she doesn’t elicit at least some degree of awe, then something is missing.
Absolutely. Couldn't agree more. In fact, this—shouldn't a woman who is prepared to be commander in chief be intimidating? Because of the intelligence, experience, talent and drive that got her there?--most perfectly describes Hillary Clinton.
And just look what they did to her song.
“It turns out there was something more nauseating than the nomination of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate this past week. It was the tone of the acclaim that followed her acceptance speech.”
So that's the lay of the land on what follows. I invite you to go to the link and read it in its entirety, http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/04/the-mirrored-ceiling/?em but I'll confine myself to just one aspect of it here, with a good faith effort to agree with someone who is as rudely incendiary as the media can offer.
If we turn to the contempt-soaked paragraphs that deal with a woman as an 'intimidating presence'...
“....I think, they find her acceptably “real,” because Palin’s not intimidating, and makes it clear that she’s subordinate to a great man.
That’s the worst thing a woman can be in this world, isn’t it? Intimidating, which appears to be synonymous with competent. It’s the kiss of death, personally and politically.
But shouldn’t a woman who is prepared to be commander in chief be intimidating? Because of the intelligence, experience, talent and drive that got her there? If she isn’t, at least on some level, off-putting, if her presence inspires national commentary on breast-pumping and babysitting rather than health care reform and social security, then something is seriously wrong. If she doesn’t elicit at least some degree of awe, then something is missing.
Absolutely. Couldn't agree more. In fact, this—shouldn't a woman who is prepared to be commander in chief be intimidating? Because of the intelligence, experience, talent and drive that got her there?--most perfectly describes Hillary Clinton.
And just look what they did to her song.
06 September 2008
Before You Cut Governor Palin Off At The Mukluks, At Least Take An Instant To Understand Whence She Comes
I'm a Nevadan. Now. But I grew up in Colorado, Oregon, Massachusetts, California, Washington, Illinois, Texas, Arizona, Hawaii...and I learned that each state has its own personality and its own slate of residents that adore it.
Well, my son was born in Alaska. I spent two years there. Up in North Pole, Alaska, just outside of Fairbanks. And I learned a lot about that unique state and how one comes to feel about it. Let me illuminate my readers...which is more than what the sun does for Fairbanks for a good chunk of the year.
In a nutshell, Alaska is as beautiful as it is harsh and those that stay there like the trade-offs just fine, thank you very much.
Let me give you a glimpse of the harsh: my son was born in October (under a midnighty sky at 3PM) so he accompanied me as an infant on my trips to the store throughout the winter. No big deal, you might think. Uh, uh. Here's the routine...I'd pull up to the store and strap on my baby carrier, then pull on my coat (warm down to -60 degrees). Thus armed, I'd get out of my door, plug in my car, then climb into the back door where my son was in his car seat. After strapping him into the baby carrier on my chest and zipping up my coat so that he was concealed inside it, I got out of the car again and headed for the store. Once inside, I'd shed the coat and let my son surface. Then, when we'd finished shopping it was time to do it all again in reverse. Sounds like a process, but in truth, it got to be routine with my only constant worry being whether I'd blocked every square inch of cold from my son's head, which was silly because that head was always sporting a cozy cap.
Of course, you don't want to stay too long in the store in the particularly cold weather because, while plugging in the engine block saves your car, the tires can actually square themselves to the ground if they are immobile for hours. I always had a perverse curiosity to actually see that happen but, happily, never got the chance to test it.
On the flipside of the year, an Alaskan deals with critters. And I'm not talking about the moose that walk up driveways or the bears that pad by. I mean the little critters that suck the fun out of the sunshine as well as the blood from your veins. I once wrote an article comparing them to Air Force jets: first come the big, slow-moving skeeters—the ones that over-winter as adults. They're the B-52's. They never get ya since you can swat 'em like flies. But watch out, next come the F-15's...with their targets locked on, they seldom miss. But the Fairbanksian isn't through yet. After the Eagles soar past, in come the Stealth Fighters. These you don't see. But you sure hear 'em, usually right in your ear just as you're about to drop off to sleep.
Yep, just when you've had enough of wearing six layers of clothing and want to welcome that almost 24-hour sun and 80 degree days...you have to wear jeans and a jeans shirt because I found Levi's to be the only thing that effectively thwarted the Skeeter Armies.
And try to shop the catalogs or online in Alaska. I dare ya. Do you ever notice the fine print in advertisements, speaking to shipping terms? Along the lines of '...except for Alaska and Hawaii' or '...offer not valid in Alaska and Hawaii'. These clauses translate to 'You're going to pay almost as much in shipping as you are for the product you want, my prettys....!'
For those who think the windfall of the permanent fund (my son received his first cheque before he was four months old) is a tidy little operation—it's not. It doesn't even hint at offsetting the daily costs of living in the American version of the Outback.
But what you get from all this is not frustration or misery, but a sort of strength that only heightens with each new challenge that nature presents. And as well, you connect with the elements in an armed detente sorta way.
Most importantly though, is the camaraderie that comes from sharing a land that never makes things very easy. More so than most states in which I've resided, the denizens of the 49th feel more like a vast family. You can hear it when an Alaskan takes a vacation beyond the state's borders: he or she is 'going outside'. If you're relatively new to the state, you're a 'cheechako' until you earn the respected moniker of 'sourdough'.
Governor Palin is a sourdough. And her husband, a native son, is even sourer. And, as in Nevada, a real burr in a sourdough Alaskan's side is the fact that most of the state is owned and operated by the federal government. (In point of fact, the government has its teeth in almost 85% of Nevada while almost 70% of the Land of the Midnight Sun is public land. To all you states without this widespread infusion of federal intrusion, please do not sit in judgment.) Well, Alaska, like Nevada, chafes constantly at the federal bit and is unrelenting in its determination to run its own state, without government interference. When that government interference comes in the form of aid, though, Alaskans are no different than any other state's residents.
So now come the accusations that Governor Palin was for the 'bridge to nowhere' before she was against it. Of course she was for it. (Until it became the poster child for excess earmarks, at which time she wisely tossed it back.) As an example: here in Nevada we have the wonderful and unique V & T Railroad. As is the case with so many historical things, the rails were torn up many decades ago and now we're busily trying to put them back, for so much more money than it cost to put them down originally it's not even funny (though it's certainly ironic). Now do you think if the federal government, the same one that runs 85% of our state, offers us many millions to restore our V & T...do you think our lawmakers would decline the funds? (If you do, I got a bridge to sell ya...)
And the governor of Alaska wants to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. No duh. It's in their state, they figure, and why shouldn't they benefit from it? Funny thing—I spent a short time in Juneau lobbying to keep ANWR pristine and untouched and now I look back on it, man, was I a cheechako. And a hypocrite. Nowadays, I have very little patience with out-of-staters that come to Nevada and tell us we must accept the country's nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.
So it's all in how you look at things, I guess. But it helps if you paint a landscape behind the subject.
Well, my son was born in Alaska. I spent two years there. Up in North Pole, Alaska, just outside of Fairbanks. And I learned a lot about that unique state and how one comes to feel about it. Let me illuminate my readers...which is more than what the sun does for Fairbanks for a good chunk of the year.
In a nutshell, Alaska is as beautiful as it is harsh and those that stay there like the trade-offs just fine, thank you very much.
Let me give you a glimpse of the harsh: my son was born in October (under a midnighty sky at 3PM) so he accompanied me as an infant on my trips to the store throughout the winter. No big deal, you might think. Uh, uh. Here's the routine...I'd pull up to the store and strap on my baby carrier, then pull on my coat (warm down to -60 degrees). Thus armed, I'd get out of my door, plug in my car, then climb into the back door where my son was in his car seat. After strapping him into the baby carrier on my chest and zipping up my coat so that he was concealed inside it, I got out of the car again and headed for the store. Once inside, I'd shed the coat and let my son surface. Then, when we'd finished shopping it was time to do it all again in reverse. Sounds like a process, but in truth, it got to be routine with my only constant worry being whether I'd blocked every square inch of cold from my son's head, which was silly because that head was always sporting a cozy cap.
Of course, you don't want to stay too long in the store in the particularly cold weather because, while plugging in the engine block saves your car, the tires can actually square themselves to the ground if they are immobile for hours. I always had a perverse curiosity to actually see that happen but, happily, never got the chance to test it.
On the flipside of the year, an Alaskan deals with critters. And I'm not talking about the moose that walk up driveways or the bears that pad by. I mean the little critters that suck the fun out of the sunshine as well as the blood from your veins. I once wrote an article comparing them to Air Force jets: first come the big, slow-moving skeeters—the ones that over-winter as adults. They're the B-52's. They never get ya since you can swat 'em like flies. But watch out, next come the F-15's...with their targets locked on, they seldom miss. But the Fairbanksian isn't through yet. After the Eagles soar past, in come the Stealth Fighters. These you don't see. But you sure hear 'em, usually right in your ear just as you're about to drop off to sleep.
Yep, just when you've had enough of wearing six layers of clothing and want to welcome that almost 24-hour sun and 80 degree days...you have to wear jeans and a jeans shirt because I found Levi's to be the only thing that effectively thwarted the Skeeter Armies.
And try to shop the catalogs or online in Alaska. I dare ya. Do you ever notice the fine print in advertisements, speaking to shipping terms? Along the lines of '...except for Alaska and Hawaii' or '...offer not valid in Alaska and Hawaii'. These clauses translate to 'You're going to pay almost as much in shipping as you are for the product you want, my prettys....!'
For those who think the windfall of the permanent fund (my son received his first cheque before he was four months old) is a tidy little operation—it's not. It doesn't even hint at offsetting the daily costs of living in the American version of the Outback.
But what you get from all this is not frustration or misery, but a sort of strength that only heightens with each new challenge that nature presents. And as well, you connect with the elements in an armed detente sorta way.
Most importantly though, is the camaraderie that comes from sharing a land that never makes things very easy. More so than most states in which I've resided, the denizens of the 49th feel more like a vast family. You can hear it when an Alaskan takes a vacation beyond the state's borders: he or she is 'going outside'. If you're relatively new to the state, you're a 'cheechako' until you earn the respected moniker of 'sourdough'.
Governor Palin is a sourdough. And her husband, a native son, is even sourer. And, as in Nevada, a real burr in a sourdough Alaskan's side is the fact that most of the state is owned and operated by the federal government. (In point of fact, the government has its teeth in almost 85% of Nevada while almost 70% of the Land of the Midnight Sun is public land. To all you states without this widespread infusion of federal intrusion, please do not sit in judgment.) Well, Alaska, like Nevada, chafes constantly at the federal bit and is unrelenting in its determination to run its own state, without government interference. When that government interference comes in the form of aid, though, Alaskans are no different than any other state's residents.
So now come the accusations that Governor Palin was for the 'bridge to nowhere' before she was against it. Of course she was for it. (Until it became the poster child for excess earmarks, at which time she wisely tossed it back.) As an example: here in Nevada we have the wonderful and unique V & T Railroad. As is the case with so many historical things, the rails were torn up many decades ago and now we're busily trying to put them back, for so much more money than it cost to put them down originally it's not even funny (though it's certainly ironic). Now do you think if the federal government, the same one that runs 85% of our state, offers us many millions to restore our V & T...do you think our lawmakers would decline the funds? (If you do, I got a bridge to sell ya...)
And the governor of Alaska wants to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. No duh. It's in their state, they figure, and why shouldn't they benefit from it? Funny thing—I spent a short time in Juneau lobbying to keep ANWR pristine and untouched and now I look back on it, man, was I a cheechako. And a hypocrite. Nowadays, I have very little patience with out-of-staters that come to Nevada and tell us we must accept the country's nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.
So it's all in how you look at things, I guess. But it helps if you paint a landscape behind the subject.
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