Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness (DW).

Remember...

As family and friends gather and picnic, the grills run hot in the heat wave, neighbors threaten to burn down our houses with wild fires started by their fireworks, and we conveniently forget about our fellow citizens without power or serving in faraway lands and seas, it is hard to think about those who toiled to create this nation. Having recently seen The Patriot on TV, we'll probably bring out the DVD of 1776 and marvel at how close it was that America wasn't, and the seeds sowed in Philadelphia 236 years ago which spawned the action in the same colony/state of 149 years and a couple of days ago in Gettysburg -- and not the vampire battle.

A little reflective reading. First SF writer Elizabeth Moon on the disgraceful treatment of an amputee veteran for the sake of politics. Second an interview including Jim Wright, whose blog at Stonekettle Station is must-read material. You don't have to agree with Jim, but he writes reasoned, thoughtful and damned profoundly funny thoughts for adults about where we are and where we're going.

Finally you can click on the link at the top of this post and contemplate all the words I quoted two years ago, not just the sound bite top ten.

There'll be a quiz on this reading in a couple of months. (grin)

Dr. Phil

Across The Lake Over The Weekend

We had to go to Milwaukee for a wedding over the weekend. The weather was incredibly gorgeous with highs in the upper 70s and low 80s, breezes and blue skies. Meanwhile, when we were at the hotel, we watched a lot of The Weather Channel and MSNBC going All Hurricane Irene All The Time -- several times I thought about the injustice of the contrasts in the weather, but no one at the wedding seemed inclined to talk about Irene.

The discussions on TV got silly when they debated whether it mattered if Irene was still a Category 1 hurricane or just a tropical storm when it hit New York City -- silly in the sense that (a) some people can't stand not being hit by a non-hurricane, while (b) mere TS Irene managed to dump a flood on Vermont alone without the h-word.

Words. People use them and abuse them and sometimes argue about the wrong thing.

Which brings me to today's topic:

Four Postings

This was in our Sunday 28 August 2011 GRPress: King fought for the poor and labor unions — today many Americans scorn both... columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. talking about the (now delayed by Irene) dedication of the Martin Luther King memorial in Washington DC. If you haven't seen a picture yet, it is an awesome work and I for one of proud of its addition to America's lawn. Will have to see it in person the next time I'm on DC.

But for me the money quote in this piece was...

Even if you put morality aside, there is still the question of enlightened self interest. If you are white, you may scorn black people and be reasonably certain you will never become one. If you are straight, you may scorn gay people and be reasonably certain you will never become one.

But any of us can become poor. Ann Coulter could become poor. How do you scorn what you might someday be?

Then friend Jim C. Hines wrote today on The Luxury of “Reasonable”, which I see more and more of -- the call of Do Not Call Me Names Because We Disagree Because I Am Being Reasonable Here About Our Disagreements.

In other words, be reasonable. Be calm. Be understanding and patient with those you disagree with. It’s a demand I’ve seen repeated elsewhere many times.

But there’s a reason Sanderson can be so reasonable. He’s not the one being spat on and beaten and burned (In front of a church, no less) and killed because of who he loves. He’s not being told he can’t bring his boyfriend to his own prom. Agents/editors aren’t rejecting his work because he wrote about LGBT characters. He’s not being denied basic rights, like the ability to visit his partner at the hospital. He’s not being told he can’t adopt a child he loves, a child who instead gets returned to an abusive home because the court feels that’s better than letting the child grow up with gay or lesbian parents.

...

But it’s easy to demand calm, “safe” discussion when you’re the one who’s safe and comfortable … it doesn’t strike me as a terribly reasonable demand.

In the comments thread was a link to a piece on being mean to "nice" people after they've posted something bigoted. Uh, right,

This "lovely person" just said they shouldn't get to worship as they please. This "generous, wonderful" human being just compared their relationships with other consenting adults to bestiality. This "great guy, really, when you know him" just said that they really wanted to be raped because look how they dress, or they deserve to go without medical coverage because they can't get a job.

Yeah.

And you think that me saying "boy howdy, that guy's a dick" is *me* being mean, or unnecessarily vitriolic, or whatever? I mean, I *am* mean, and I am vitriolic, and I wear those badges with a certain amount of pride, but...you're comparing "Hey, you're being a dipshit" with "Those people aren't fully human."

Finally in this political climate, friend Jim wright's Stonekettle Station trio of posts on America continue to go viral -- he's over a million hits. If you haven't read Jim before, have a stiff drink first -- but never have any food or beverage in your mouth while you're reading him. Because either humor or rage will decorate your screen and keyboard.

I Am Not A Perfect Human Being

But even I know that beating on people over who or what they are, and couching it in moral terms and God's love -- is neither moral nor very loving. Somehow wishing people of color or gayity or poverty would just disappear isn't going to happen. And politically, trying to paint 300 million Americans into your little corner of your choosing goes against the Declaration Of Independence and Constitution these people claim to love -- and cannot see that these were documents of compromise.

Meanwhile, soldiers of the Old Guard kept vigil at the Tomb of the Unknown throughout the storm of Irene, forsaking the nearby shelter as they always do. See, there are some people who still understand what honor and duty mean.

Somehow that means more to me than some asshat's ginned up attempt to use religion to justify their hatred and condone mistreatment based on race, language, sexual orientation, economic status, gender, country of origin, religion or any other flavor bigotry.

Dr. Phil

Mmm... Pizza

As regular readers and friends of Dr. Phil know, I am a huge fan of Chicago stuffed pizza. This is lovely stuff and a whole meal and food group unto itself. This is not to say that there are not other kinds of lovely pizza out there. In particular, we spent five years in White Plains NY, just north of New York City, so I know what real New York pizza is.

And how to eat it.

While using a fork may be required for Chicago stuffed, there is a proper technique for eating a lava hot New York slice. And here Jon Stewart manages to expertly show it. While, as he is wont to do, skewering some people involved in politics.



Ah. Wish I had a slice of New York pizza on a piece of waxed paper right now.

Dr. Phil

Election Results...

... are never quite what the media pundits think they are. Consider that in the 2008 election, that the overwhelming victories by the Democrats for the White House, Senate and House at the federal level had people scratching their heads, wondering what will happen to the Republicans -- some even talked openly of the end of the Republican party in the not so distant future.

An interesting concept. I was born in 1958 and it's been a two-party system my entire life. Go back through U.S. history and there's been, more or less, a two-party system almost from the beginning. In fact, there's something known as Duverger's Law which suggests that when votes cast a single vote for a candidate in their district, the results not only favor a two-party system, it makes it very difficult for third parties to emerge. And yet, go back in history and you discover that in the U.S., it's not always the same two parties. (grin) Consider this quote from the Wikipedia article and see if you recognize the major players based on where they are today:

A third party can only enter the arena if it can exploit the mistakes of a pre-existing major party, ultimately at that party's expense. For example, the political chaos in the United States immediately preceding the Civil War allowed the Republican Party to replace the Whig Party as the progressive half of the American political landscape. Loosely united on a platform of country-wide economic reform and federally funded industrialization, the decentralized Whig leadership failed to take a decisive stance on the slavery issue, effectively splitting the party along the Mason-Dixon Line. Southern rural planters, initially lured by the prospect of federal infrastructure and schools, quickly aligned themselves with the pro-slavery Democrats, while urban laborers and professionals in the northern states, threatened by the sudden shift in political and economic power and losing faith in the failing Whig candidates, flocked to the increasingly vocal anti-slavery Republican Party.

Republicans In A Landslide!

At least some in the Republican leadership aren't trying to swing their victories in the U.S. House as a mandate. Winning one house, while not winning the Senate or the White House isn't decisive. And just having the White House and both sides of Congress isn't sufficient either -- ask the Democrats who didn't have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate the last two years.

Years ago I might've applauded this year's results. To some extent I was a fan of divided government -- having different bums in charge in the House and the Senate was a way to feed in new ideas and compromise. Alas, the politics of the last ten to twenty years has turned ever more divisive and destructive. The Republicans in the past two years have acted as the 'Party of No' and threatened filibuster in the Senate at every turn -- while the Democrats didn't want to take them up on their threat and too often didn't act like a party in charge. This isn't my opinion. There have been plenty of Republicans who have openly stated their opposition to any and all things Obama. And all this while the President made enemies with his own party by trying to add compromise elements to his legislative agenda in the hope of getting some Republican votes. I'm not sure I yet see how the Republicans will be moved to compromise in this new environment.

And holding only the House for sure, if they can keep their voting bloc together, doesn't give them a way to pass legislation by themselves. So the Republicans can talk all they want about repealing Obamacare and cutting taxes, etc., but none of that will happen without Democratic agreement. Of course not holding the House pretty much means some of the same thing for the Democrats and their surviving agenda. As a result, either nothing will happen for the next two years -- in which case the voters may well savage ALL the incumbents as fiddling while Rome burn or we might see a return to "real" politics and discussions and deals.

Which Republican Party?

But the Republican leadership has a new problem. The Tea Party movement, which isn't an actual party, encompasses some of those who won in these 2010 mid-term elections. But not all. And some high profile Tea Party candidates were defeated, as happens in elections. So who will lead the Republicans? Who will negotiate? Or will we see a fractured Republican party, where one side will create a new majority by working with some/all of the Democrats? What will be the rhetoric for such 'betrayals'? The new Speaker of the House will surely have to walk a fine line, lest his name be used as a swear word as much as Pelosi and Obama have been.

Just Say NO! To The CEOs!

For all the talk about jobs and the economy, being a former CEO of a major corporation, rather than The Usual Politician, might have seemed the right thing to do. But in two of the highest profile races, this didn't work out. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) keeps her Senate seat and, surprise-surprise, Jerry Brown (D-CA) returns as governor. NPR made the point that in his two different stints, the former 'Governor Moonbeam' will have been both the youngest and the oldest person elected to head California. An interesting duck to be sure, perhaps he will be a worthy successor to the equally interesting 'Govenator' Arnold Schwarzeneggar (R-CA).

Of course not all the CEO candidates were defeated. Rick Snyder (R-MI) takes the governorship in Michigan. The former CEO of Gateway Computers ran a campaign as the 'nerd' outsider candidate. All the top positions in Michigan went Republican, as this formerly Very Purple State has become Very Red State in Lansing. We'll have to see what actual real legislative plans will emerge from Our New Red Overlord Masters here in the Great Lakes State. Michigan has been losing jobs since back in the Engler (R-MI) administration. Granholm (D-MI) inherited a suddenly discovered budget deficit -- and the governor and state legislature have been cutting and cutting the budgets for eight years.

One wonders what budget cuts AND tax cuts will be enacted by the new team that will also attract new businesses and new jobs. Can't possibly increase the gas tax, despite the desperate condition of Michigan's roads and the simple facts that with (a) higher m.p.g. cars, (b) a gas tax based on a flat rate per gallon and (c) fewer drivers and less driving as the jobs go away, there is simply less gas tax revenue. Michigan is getting some visibility as a new Midwest center of film making -- but the state's high subsidies are roundly criticized in some circles -- with similar complaints for subsidies to bring in high tech medical, lithium car battery technology and alternative energy industries.

Throw The Bums Out -- Or At Least Throw Them Sideways

In Michigan, the elections for statewide offices might look to an outsider as a 'throw the bums out' affair. But it's complicated -- or at least mitigated -- by an aggressive set of term limits laws. As a result, Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-MI) could not run again, even if she had a snowball's chance in hell of winning again in this tough economy. And many of the state legislature and state senate positions were also term limited. This results in a complicated game of musical chairs, as state legislators tried to muscle into a smaller number of state senate positions. Retirements of some venerable U.S. House members provided escape paths for term limited others. In West Michigan, the near sweep of these positions by Republicans was hardly news -- they were nearly all Republican seats to begin with.

"What Are You Against?" "Whatya Got?"

In the just concluded elections, there has been a great deal of rhetoric on many subjects. Some of it has been simply not true, others merely spinning the truth and twisting it to serve an agenda. In other words, an election -- sometimes feeling like an election on steroids. After the campaigns end and the new officeholders take their oaths, then the rubber meets the road. Only time will tell about how well this election works in getting things done. Either we'll dissolve into more rhetoric and blame gaming, or we'll get the proverbial sleeves rolled up and get down to work.

I have my own ideas, but I've not spent a lot of time/space in this blog espousing them over the years. This entry is much more a commentary on the realities creeping into what has just happened, then either a Hooray For My Side! or OMG We're All Going To Die! I have seen great things accomplished in my lifetime in areas which can be labeled both liberal and conservative. I think that much can be done to shore up our economy and prevent meltdowns such as we've endured these past couple of years from occurring again by a serious blending of liberal and conservative ideas. If, on the other hand, we only get name calling and demonizing of the other side, then it is going to be a long two years.

Methinks in any event we shall only get a short respite from campaigning -- as Election 2012 begins to wind up in earnest before the Class of 2010 even gets to do anything. (sigh)

Dr. Phil

When Did You Choose To Be Straight?

Copied this from maryrobinette:


Sometimes the best commentary on the human condition requires very little comment.

Dr. Phil

Memorial Day 2010

Of course, to those in the know, Memorial Day in the U.S. is May 30th. The first such nationwide observance as Decoration Day was in 1868 to commemorate the Union Civil War dead -- now it commemorates much more. It only became a Federal three-day weekend Monday holiday effective in 1971 when I was in 7th grade. So we've ended up with Memorial Day on Monday, but some of the parades and events were on Saturday -- it's all confusing.

Frankly, since 1971, I think we've gone downhill with making Memorial Day a commercial event, one which doesn't have anything to do with honoring the service and sacrifice of those who've worn the uniform of the U.S. As someone recently pointed out, Memorial Day really isn't about selling furniture.

Dealing With It

We are not traveling on vacation or to visit relatives. We aren't crowd people and I don't handle heat very well, so we didn't go out to any of the parades or what not. Nothing at the cineplexes we were dying to see this weekend, so we left the malls and those crowds to others. It will be a quiet weekend here.

On television, since Friday, we've been flooded with war movies and major sporting events. The Indianapolis 500 is churning and wrecking even as I type. Friday night, though, there was nothing we wanted nattering on in the background or to watch, so I cracked open the set of Firefly DVDs I bought a couple of years ago. It'd been a while since we borrowed the series from a friend, so it was time to be amazed at how much fun that show was. FOX-TV's execs were idiots. And then there's History Channel's new series The Story of Us (U.S.) -- Saturday night they were showing the lead up to and including the Civil War.

I did not know that blacks served as equals on whaling ships. They had trouble enough getting crews that they welcomed anyone who would sign up. The Runaway Slave Act could catch free blacks, if someone lied, and without chance of a proper hearing, get sent South to "their owners". Shades of the Arizona immigration law, methinks?

And the telegraph "is like Twitter today". A point well made in the excellent little book The Victorian Internet.

Don't Get Me Started

The frothy side of politics wants to make a big smear about President Obama's decision to go to the Chicago area Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery, rather than Arlington, tomorrow. Now don't get me wrong -- Arlington National Cemetery is an important place. And Vice-President Biden will lay the Nation's wreath there to represent us all. But there are America's honored dead buried all across the country. And Obama came out of Illinois for political purposes. He went to Arlington last year. And, though I've not verified the claims, this is the sort of thing I'm hearing which points to the lie of the frothies:

Before we get to the actual story, let’s take a quick trivia quiz. Who was the only President in the past 30 years to visit Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day every year of his presidency? It wasn’t Ronald Reagan, who spent one year in Normandy and at least one other at his ranch in California. It wasn’t George W. Bush, either, although he was also at Normandy the one year he missed. George H. W. Bush, a veteran himself, never attended ceremonies at Arlington, sending Dan Quayle in his stead. In fact, it was Bill Clinton who made eight Memorial Day appearances at Arlington National Cemetery.

Let us NOT make this a political statement, wringing our hands about our disappointment at not going to Arlington, but instead recognize that our nation's first black president is going to the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery to recognize our honored dead.

I can't speak for veterans, as I am not one myself, but nothing gets me annoyed more than someone's false sense of hurt in the name of their special snowflake brand of patriotism. Sorry, I had to say that.

Meanwhile, I will most post more on Memorial Day tomorrow, on the Memorial Day (Observed).

Dr. Phil

Both Funny And Full Of Good Points

After Sunday's post on revisionist fairy tales, I note that Jay Lake was going on about politics in fantasy on his blog and managed to gather a response which reanalyses Hansel and Gretel.

It's really quite good.

Dr. Phil