Archive for the ‘All’ Category
"True" Marriage
Yvonne Stone Slonake, a retired schoolteacher of Roanoke, in her opinion piece at roanoke.com: Conservatives call these 'values'? wrote: Gay marriage? I do not think that there can truly be a marriage between two people of the same sex, but I do believe that those people who are in a longtime committed relationship are entitled […]
Frank & Kenneth
It was morning. Frank and Ken were up early enough to enjoy a leisurely continental breakfast before heading off to work, since this was at a time when they were both gainfully employed. Sunlight streamed into the kitchen and poured across the breakfast nook, where Ken was reading the newspaper's headlines to Frank. "It quotes […]
Talking While Musicians Perform
This quotation from Al Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them is for Isaac. Franken's talking about being at a big White House Correspondents Dinner, at which Ray Charles was performing. This is what he reports happening (p. 210): The man [Charles] may be a national treasure, but three thousand Beltway biggies were […]
The Top 1%
Indulge me in just a couple more quotations from Al Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. First, for later use in writing about epidemic innumeracy and its threat to the public, this alarming but illustrative statistic (p. 302): Are you in the top 1% of earners? 19% of Americans say "yes"! (This […]
In: All, It's Only Rocket Science, Splenetics
Presidential Destiny
I am reading Al Franken's book Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. It's worth reading: informative and even funny at times (or, perhaps, riotously funny for those more in tune with Mr. Franken's sense of humor). In the chapter called "The Blame-America's-Ex-President-First-Crowd", he writes several […]
Building a Majority
In her said-to-be-last essay at Democratic Underground before taking a hiatus, The Fat Lady Sings, the Plaid Adder says: I have never been part of the majority. I don't really know how you go about building one. I claim here to know the answer: strong leadership. The rest is discussion about just what I might […]
Election-Fraud Skepticism
Eric Partridge, in his 2004 election-fraud essay Don't Get Over It, writes some very good things about the possibilities of fraud in the 2004 election. It's worth reading. I distrust the current administration almost as much as any other right-thinking individual, but–perhaps because I'm a scientist–I have a healthy aversion to conspiracy theories about election […]
Secretary of Smaller Government
The big headline on the radio today is the resignation of Tom Ridge, Secretary of Homeland Security. References are made to his memorable association with a useless hierarchy of colors, suggesting that this might be how his tenure will be remembered. I make my own modest suggestion: perhaps he should be remembered as an icon. […]
Ashcroft's "Mission Accomplished"
From a BBC news report (10 November 2004), Attorney general quits US cabinet: Mr Ashcroft, who has been a lightning-rod for criticism in the administration, wrote in a five-page handwritten letter to Mr Bush that "the objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved". I regret that I failed […]
They're Both Gay?
Years ago, a friend in graduate school explained to me a curious personal discovery of hers. As a child, she had frequently eaten chicken; also, she knew live chickens from visiting her grandparents' farm. Some years later, she was horrified to discover that they were the same chicken. Yikes! All that time, she'd been eating […]
Robert Reich's Reason
I just finished reading Reason: Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America, by Robert B. Reich, and I loved it. His thoughts are stimulating and his writing is clear and straightforward. The book is a good pick-me-up, too, for those suffering post-election blues. There were several passages that I marked as I read, that […]
God Made us Gay?
David Hawpe, columnist for The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), in an essay called Gay-bashing worked and will be back if those who oppose it stay quiet, wrote: It's one thing to oppose gay marriage, but it's not really in the American characer to impose broad, encompassing government rules that isolate and punish people for God-given attributes […]
Reactionary Logic
I'd been puzzling for several days about something. I had read some reactionary whining in a newspaper editorial to the effect that he was distressed that so many people couldn't seem to recognize an honest man [i.e., the President] when they saw one. Obviously, the implied assertion made no sense to me, until a brainstorm […]
What's to Explain?
Kim Kendrick, a staff writer at The South End (the student newspaper of Wayne State University, in Detroit, MI), in yesterday's supportive piece Gay, straight: Who cares?, said this: And in all honesty, no, I don’t look forward to explaining to my 9-year-old daughter why those two men are holding hands, or why Aunt Rose […]
Prowed to be A Merkin
When I first moved to the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, the mayor of DC was Marion Barry. He was not a very good mayor–he was too corupt, inept, and apt to be too casual about his illegal drug use–but he was routinely re-elected. He was black and very popular among the black majority in […]
Election Day
I always turn thoughtful and philosophical on election day. Today, here in Maryland, is a very pretty election day this time, too. The weather is just perfect for this time of year. I voted earlier. Late morning is my usual time to vote, well after the morning yuppie rush-hour. I always seem to show up […]
Whose Petard Hoists Whom?
The dissembling in this year's presidential campaign–and politics in general–would be much more entertaining if it didn't seem to matter quite so much. Nevertheless, one occasionally has to laugh. Today had Bush accusing Kerry: my opponent voted for the invasion of Iraq, and now he says it was the wrong war. Kerry says: My support […]
Instrumental vs. Choral Musicians
In addition to being an organist, Isaac is a choral conductor. I am fundamentally an instrumental musician ('cello), although I do some singing, too. Frequently I complain to Isaac about singers who seem to have no rhythmic sense and, in particular, no sense of rhythmic pulse, the feeling that there is an uninterruptable flow to […]
In: All, Notes to Richard
The Value of Stocks
I've been toying lately with the idea of becoming an economist. It doesn't seem all that hard from what I can tell, and it seems the easiest route to winning a Nobel prize–much easier than, say, physics–since they seem to give them to economists who do the best job of pretending to be a scientist. […]
In: All, It's Only Rocket Science, Notes to Richard
Being a Wedge Issue
When I think of it, I like to read things at Democratic Underground. I particularly enjoy the column written by "The Plaid Adder". (Do you suppose Dick Cheney will call me up in high dudgeon if I mention that The Adder is herself an out lesbian?) Anyway, she concluded her column called October Surprise by […]