I'll Be President When Pigs Fly
Newt Gingrich:*
I am not 'running' for president. I am seeking to create a movement to win the future by offering a series of solutions so compelling that if the American people say I have to be president, it will happen.
I'm thinking that this should best be read accompanied by "Torch Song #1 (Newt)" from "Howard Crabtree's When Pigs Fly", our favorite musical revue here at the Bearcastle Blog.
Anyway, is this the "New Way" in American politics? We know that W was put in office because Jesus said "make it so". Now it seems that one does not campaign any more; instead, one creates "moments to win the future". Perhaps it's a strategy I should try for Ars Hermeneutica.
Perhaps Gingrich & Kerry should form the dream team of "presidential candidates least likely ever to win their partys' nominations". Does anyone else feel it's not quite proper to have a president named for a lizard?
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* Quoted in: Shelley Lewis, "Gingrich: 'If the American people say I have to be President, it will happen' ", Huffington Post, 21 November 2006.
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
No Xmas Sales — We're Christian
With the sounds of the cannons of the War on Xmas# booming in the background, Pat Boone had this bit of praise* for Wal*Mart:
This year, instead of bowing and kowtowing to militant atheist and super liberal "political correctness," so-called, I'm thrilled to see that Wal-Mart has banished "the Grinch" that threatened to steal Christmas, and will be advertising Christmas sales and playing Christmas music – and not conforming to the total "Holiday" imagery and advertising of other milk-toast wimp marketers.
Is anyone else confused, or is it just I?
Perhaps it's a false recovered memory, but I'm certain that it was only a few years back that major retailers (like, say, Wal*Mart) were excoriated by Righteous Xian Soldiers for usurping the true meaning of Xmas (the wee bambino) and turning it into some horrible, secular, commercial festival in which the winner was the one who spent the most on gifts at finer stores everywhere.
And now what do we have? A leading white-shod Xian praising a major retailer (the major retailer) for — wait for it! — actually using the C-word in its holiday-sales advertising! Praise the Lord, they've actually put the commercialism back into Xmas!
Do we live in interesting times, or what?
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# I know, it's actually the "War on C*****mas" — I'm just trying to stick to my resolution to use "Xmas" for maximum tactical benefit as part of my effort in the secular-atheist War on you-know-what.
* I read this quotation at Pam's House Blend ("Pat Boone on Sam Walton"). She gives the link to the WorldNetDaily source; I really prefer not to get my links all messy with that wacko fringe religious paranoia stuff.
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Gore on 9/11 & Bush
The following bit of exchange is between one Lisa DePaulo, for GQ Magazine, and Al Gore, from an interview ("Al Gore: Movie Star") published online. I will admit that I was not overwhelmed by the depth of the questions asked by Ms. DePaulo, but I found this exchange illuminating:
Okay, on to 9-11. What were you really feeling? Was there a part of you that felt a sense of relief that you weren’t in charge that day?
You mean a sense of relief that I didn’t have to deal with it? Oh no. Not at all. Not for one second. Not for one second. Why would I? I mean, well first of all, it just didn’t occur to me to feel anything like that. What did occur to me was to feel what every American felt, the outrage and anger and righteous anger, and support for the President at a time of danger… And, honestly, I was focused on the reality of the situation. And I wasn’t president, so, you know, it wasn’t about me. Now, I do wish, now that we have some distance from the events, and we have all this knowledge about what this administration did do, I certainly feel that I wish that it had been handled differently, and I do wish that I had somehow been able to prevent some of the catastrophic mistakes that were made.
Do you feel that we would be safer today if you had been president on that day?
Well, no one can say that the 9-11 attack wouldn’t have occurred whoever was president.Really? How about all the warnings?
That’s a separate question. And it’s almost too easy to say, “I would have heeded the warnings.” In fact, I think I would have, I know I would have. We had several instances when the CIA’s alarm bells went off, and what we did when that happened was, we had emergency meetings and called everybody together and made sure that all systems were go and every agency was hitting on all cylinders, and we made them bring more information, and go into the second and third and fourth level of detail. And made suggestions on how we could respond in a more coordinated, more effective way. It is inconceivable to me that Bush would read a warning as stark and as clear [voice angry now] as the one he received on August 6th of 2001, and, according to some of the new histories, he turned to the briefer and said, “Well, you’ve covered your ass.” And never called a follow up meeting. Never made an inquiry. Never asked a single question. To this day, I don’t understand it. And, I think it’s fair to say that he personally does in fact bear a measure of blame for not doing his job at a time when we really needed him to do his job. And now the Woodward book has this episode that has been confirmed by the record that George Tenet, who was much abused by this administration, went over to the White House for the purpose of calling an emergency meeting and warning as clearly as possible about the extremely dangerous situation with Osama bin Laden, and was brushed off! And I don’t know why—honestly—I mean, I understand how horrible this Congressman Foley situation with the instant messaging is, okay? I understand that. But, why didn’t these kinds of things produce a similar outrage? And you know, I’m even reluctant to talk about it in these terms because it’s so easy for people to hear this or read this as sort of cheap political game-playing. I understand how it could sound that way. [Practically screaming now] But dammit, whatever happened to the concept of accountability for catastrophic failure? This administration has been by far the most incompetent, inept, and with more moral cowardice, and obsequiousness to their wealthy contributors, and obliviousness to the public interest of any administration in modern history, and probably in the entire history of the country!
South Africa Leads US on Marriage Equality
Not so long ago — within my living memory at least — it would have been the height of absurdity to suggest that South Africa, the home of apartheid, might take a more progressive position on human rights than the US.
But, times change, and South Africa takes its progressive stance on human rights quite seriously, one might argue rather more seriously than the US in this millennium so far. This past week the South African parliament made same-sex marriage legal. They are the first nation in Africa to do so. It has been described as another step in South Africa's post-apartheid attempt to make discrimination merely a dim memory. In fact, this is exactly what the founding fathers of constitutional South Africa had in mind — one can ask them, since they are still alive.
The new legislation on marriage equality brings the law in line with their constitutional prohibition against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, as required a year ago by their highest court. All this despite severe warnings about provoking God's wrath by allowing gays and lesbians to wed, and in a milieu where homosexuality is taboo and a crime in many neighboring countries.
The vote on the measure was 230 to 41; isn't that remarkable! According to the Associated Press:
The bill provides for the "voluntary union of two persons, which is solemnized and registered by either a marriage or civil union," without specifying whether they are heterosexual or homosexual partnerships.
Gosh, not terribly difficult, that wording, and it doesn't even have to mention dogs (pace Rick Santorum) or polygamy or anything unusual or odd. Merely the "voluntary union of two persons".
More from the AP piece:
"The roots of this bill lie in many years of struggle," said Defense Minister Mosuia Lekota, noting that many homosexuals went into exile and prison with ANC members during white racist rule.
"This country cannot afford to be a prison of timeworn prejudices which have no basis in modern society. Let us bequeath to future generations a society which is more democratic and tolerant than the one that was handed down to us," Lekota said.
Beard of the Week XXI: Renaissance Polyphony
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This time I'm in the mood for some Renaissance polyphony, brought to us tonight by one of its masters, Heinrich Schütz, whose rather stylish and stylized beard is featured in the two portraits at right. In fact, if it helps you get in the mood, we are listening to a recording of choral music by Schütz as I write this.
I've been a fan of "early music" — anything, say, before the Baroque period — since college, some 25 years ago, when I played with a small early-music group at my college.* The size varied, but the core was formed by me, playing my 'cello for continuo, a friend David who played recorders with sublime technique, and Bob Triplett, college organist who was our conductor and harpsichord player (we had recently received a fine, 2-manual Hubbard instrument as a gift to the college). One of our bigger events was a recreation of a banquet with music for Queen Elizabeth I, complete with dancing and boar's head.
Anyway, I had not performed much music for a number of years before I met Isaac who encouraged me to return to playing 'cello in public (mostly at his church), and who gave me some chances to sing,# usually with a small group (our Schola Cantorum) of 6 to 8 people who have sung early music occasionally as part of his church-music program. We've sung Schütz on more than one occasion.
Tonight was choir rehearsal night, and we are singing Schütz again. This time it is his celebrated setting of Psalm 100, Jauchzet dem Herrn alle Welt (SWV 36), known as "The Echo Psalm" because it calls for two choirs, a large choir and a "little" choir. The little choir — in this case 5 of us from the ad hoc Schola — is used as an echo choir, overlapping and repeating the ends of phrases sung by the large choir. It is antiphonal and we are performing it with the two choirs at opposite ends of the sanctuary. Despite the unfamiliarity of the musical idiom to many people, the echo effect with the two choirs is stunning.
Here is a biography of Heinrich Schütz (baptised October 9, 1585 – November 6, 1672) that Isaac pulled together for the cover of our printed copy of Jauchzet dem Herrn alle Welt
German composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and is often considered to be one of the most important composers of the 17th century along with Claudio Monteverdi. He wrote what is thought to be the first German opera, Dafne, performed at Torgau in 1627; however, the music has since been lost.
Schütz was born in Köstritz; his musical talents were discovered by Moritz von Hessen-Kassel in 1599. After being a choir-boy he went on to study law at Marburg before going to Venice from 1609-1613 to study music with Giovanni Gabrieli. He subsequently had a short stint as organist at Kassel before moving to Dresden in 1615 to work as court composer to the Elector of Saxony.
He held his Dresden post until the end of his life (sowing the seeds of what is now the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden while there), but left Dresden itself on several occasions; in 1628 he went to Venice again, most likely meeting Claudio Monteverdi there—he may have studied with him—and in 1633, after the Thirty Years' War had disrupted life at the court, he took a post at Copenhagen. He returned full time to Dresden in 1641, and remained there for the rest of his life. He died from a stroke in 1672 at the age of 87.Schütz's compositions show the influence of his two main teachers, Gabrieli (displayed most notably with Schütz's use of resplendent polychoral and concertato styles) and Monteverdi. Additionally, the influence of the Netherlandish composers of the 16th century is also prominent in his work. His best known works are in the field of sacred music, ranging from solo voice with instrumental accompaniment to a cappella choral music. Representative works include his three books of Symphoniae sacrae, the Psalms of David, the Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz (the Seven Last Words on the Cross) and his three Passion settings. Schütz's music, while starting off in the most progressive styles early in his career, eventually grows into a style that is simple and almost austere, culminating with his late Passion settings. Practical considerations were certainly responsible for part of this change: the Thirty Years' War had devastated the musical infrastructure of Germany, and it was no longer practical or even possible to put on the gigantic works in the Venetian style which marked his earlier period.
Schütz was one of the last composers to write in a modal style, with non-functional harmonies often resulting from the interplay of voices; contrastingly, much of his music shows a strong tonal pull when approaching cadences. His music makes extensive use of imitation, in which entries often come in irregular order and at varied intervals. Fairly characteristic of Schütz's writing are intense dissonances caused by two or more voices moving correctly through dissonances against the implied harmony. Above all, his music displays extreme sensitivity to the accents and meaning of the text, which is often conveyed using special technical figures drawn from musica poetica, themselves drawn from or created in analogy to the verbal figures of Classical Rhetoric.
Almost no secular music by Schütz has survived, save for a few domestic songs (arien) and no purely instrumental music at all (unless one counts the short instrumental movement entitled "sinfonia" that encloses the dialogue of Die sieben Worte), even though he had a reputation as one of the finest organists in Germany.
Schütz was of great importance in bringing new musical ideas to Germany from Italy, and as such had a large influence on the German music which was to follow. The style of the north German organ school derives largely from Schütz (as well as from Netherlander Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck); a century later this music was to culminate in the work of J.S. Bach.
In the current Lutheran calendar, he is commemorated on 28 July, along with Johann Sebastian Bach (21 March 1685 — 28 July 1750) and George Friderik Handel (23 February 1685 — 13 April 1759).
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* That would be Cornell College, in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, which I attended as an undergraduate from 1974 to 1978.
# Singing with our Musical Theatre Troupe is a whole 'nother story that we might talk about some other time.
In: All, Beard of the Week, Music & Art
The Nast-Cartoon Administration
This [election year, 2006] will be known as the year macho politics failed — mainly because it was macho politics by marshmallow men.
[…]
Republicans were oddly oblivious to the fact that they had turned into a Thomas Nast cartoon: an unappetizing tableau of bloated, corrupt, dissembling, feckless white hacks who were leaving kids unprotected. Tom DeLay and Bob Ney sneaking out of Congress with dollar bills flying out of their pockets. Denny Hastert playing Cardinal Bernard Law, shielding Mark Foley. Rummy, cocky and obtuse as he presided over an imploding Iraq, while failing to give young men and women in the military the armor, support and strategy they needed to come home safely. Dick Cheney, vowing bullheadedly to move “full speed ahead” on Iraq no matter what the voters decided. W. frantically yelling about how Democrats would let the terrorists win, when his lame-brained policies had spawned more terrorists.
[excerpt from Maureen Dowd, "Drapes of Wrath", New York Times, 11 November 2006; via Tennessee Guerilla Women.]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events
A Short Announcement
Since the local retailers seem convinced that the Holiday Season is upon us, I'm trying to decide which would irritate fundamentalists more as I fire my salvos in the war on you-know-what: calling it the "Holiday Season" or calling it "Xmas".
I might go with the latter since great numbers of otherwise sensible people (in addition to the wackos) seem rather perturbed by it, but one does get the satisfaction of then pointing out that the "X" is "Xmas" represents a Greek "chi", the ancient monogram of you-know-who, and that "Xmas" is a venerable, ancient form of the name for the part of the Holiday Season that doth need protecting.
Webb on Class Struggle
This is an unusually long excerpt (for me) from a piece in the Wall Street Journal by Jim Webb, "the Democratic senator-elect from Virginia." It's an op-ed called "Class Struggle" (15 November 2006).
This ever-widening divide [between the wealthiest in America and the less wealthy] is too often ignored or downplayed by its beneficiaries. A sense of entitlement has set in among elites, bordering on hubris. When I raised this issue with corporate leaders during the recent political campaign, I was met repeatedly with denials, and, from some, an overt lack of concern for those who are falling behind. A troubling arrogance is in the air among the nation's most fortunate. Some shrug off large-scale economic and social dislocations as the inevitable byproducts of the "rough road of capitalism." Others claim that it's the fault of the worker or the public education system, that the average American is simply not up to the international challenge, that our education system fails us, or that our workers have become spoiled by old notions of corporate paternalism.
Still others have gone so far as to argue that these divisions are the natural results of a competitive society. Furthermore, an unspoken insinuation seems to be inundating our national debate: Certain immigrant groups have the "right genetics" and thus are natural entrants to the "overclass," while others, as well as those who come from stock that has been here for 200 years and have not made it to the top, simply don't possess the necessary attributes.
Most Americans reject such notions. But the true challenge is for everyone to understand that the current economic divisions in society are harmful to our future. It should be the first order of business for the new Congress to begin addressing these divisions, and to work to bring true fairness back to economic life. Workers already understand this, as they see stagnant wages and disappearing jobs.
America's elites need to understand this reality in terms of their own self-interest. A recent survey in the Economist warned that globalization was affecting the U.S. differently than other "First World" nations, and that white-collar jobs were in as much danger as the blue-collar positions which have thus far been ravaged by outsourcing and illegal immigration. That survey then warned that "unless a solution is found to sluggish real wages and rising inequality, there is a serious risk of a protectionist backlash" in America that would take us away from what they view to be the "biggest economic stimulus in world history."
More troubling is this: If it remains unchecked, this bifurcation of opportunities and advantages along class lines has the potential to bring a period of political unrest. Up to now, most American workers have simply been worried about their job prospects. Once they understand that there are (and were) clear alternatives to the policies that have dislocated careers and altered futures, they will demand more accountability from the leaders who have failed to protect their interests. The "Wal-Marting" of cheap consumer products brought in from places like China, and the easy money from low-interest home mortgage refinancing, have softened the blows in recent years. But the balance point is tipping in both cases, away from the consumer and away from our national interest.
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events
Economic Equity & Social Tolerance
The Democrats who defeated them can be expected to hold these seats indefinitely. Historically Republican districts going back to the founding of the GOP in the Civil War are turning into Democratic bastions. After the failure of Reconstruction, the South became wholly Democratic, the Solid South, and the basis of a Democratic Party that was mostly out of power, unless the Republicans split, until the rise of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal during the Great Depression. The pre-FDR Republicans, after Reconstruction, gave up on ever building a two-party system in the South. Instead, in reaction to the Solid South, the Republicans consolidated national power in the Solid North.
This post-Civil War/pre-New Deal pattern is now turned on its head. Voting patterns today almost exactly resemble voting patterns of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but with the parties in reverse positions.
The Democratic Party that has advanced from the 2006 elections reasserts the Solid North, with inroads in the metropolitan states of the West, and, like the GOP of the past, challenges in the states of the peripheral South such as Arkansas, Tennessee and Virginia. This Democratic Party has never existed before. It is a center-left party with wings that can flap together. The party's opposition to the Republicans on economic equity and social tolerance are its defining characteristics.
[from Sidney Blumenthal, "The American revolution of 2006 and beyond", Comment is Free, 9 November 2006.]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events
Post-Election Miscellany
- Yesterday, no doubt in a heightened emotional state, I read some blog where the writer said: "It's official! The AP has called Virginia for Jim Webb!" Now, admittedly, I'm an unrepentant pedant at times, but what in the world makes him think that the Associated Press' opinion makes it "official"? I'm sure he realizes that congressional elections are made official by the congress itself, according to the Constitution.
- Liberals could use a bit of self-confidence. Already I read something by a Democrat starting to worry that perhaps their winning majorities in both House and Senate is too good to be true. Perhaps it's all some really, really devious plan concocted by Rove and Bush and the others, but to what end he couldn't yet divine.
- Republicans know it's coming, but none are telling us yet what date Democrats have set for surrendering to "the terrorists".
- Some keep proclaiming, at long last, the end of the "Republican revolution", but which one has been ended keeps getting pushed earlier with each repetition: the Gingrich Revolution, the Reagan Revolution, the Goldwater revolution…. I've seen something mentioned as far back as the late 19th century so far.
- I'm fascinated by all the analyses proclaiming that some few votes here or there won a race, or that a particular senate seat won the Senate, etc. It's an amusing rhetorical device, but it has no causal validity.
- So, did the election represent the "will of the people" because twice the usual number voted in this mid-term election, or not, because only 40% of the eligible electorate voted?
- Is Rumsfeld out of the picture simply so he can avoid answering awkward questions during the Congressional investigations one imagines are imminent? Will becoming a "private citizen" protect him? Will he be extradited to Germany to face war-crimes charges?
- Thirty-six hours and no mention yet of George Soros. What gives?
- Does Ken Mehlman have whiplash yet from being yanked in and out of his closet?
The Secret Liberal Agenda
Thanks to Boing Boing ("The Right was Right about the Left."), I now know that all the secrets of the hidden liberal agenda for the new congress have now been exposed (The Right was Right). Ah well, it's too late now, so let's get on with it!
There are twenty-five action items. I doubt that they can all be taken care of in the first 100 hours, but it seems worth a try. Sure, I won't list them all, but here are the ones (particularly number 23!) that caught my funny bone:
1. Mandatory homosexuality
4. Border fence replaced with free shuttle buses
7. English language banned from all Federal buildings
11. On-demand welfare
14. Pledge of Allegiance in schools replaced with morning flag-burning
23. Ban Christmas: replace with Celebrate our Monkey Ancestors Day
Beard of the Week XX: Election Day
In recognition of American democracy's return from a near-death experience with yesterday's election, this week's beard is presidential: it belongs to Ulysses Grant, the eighteenth president* of the United States (from 1869 to 1877). I have nothing to say politically about Grant. He's always been far down on anyone's list of greatest US presidents, but at least he'll never reach the bottom, thanks to the election of George W. Bush.
No, Mr. Grant is here today strictly on the strength of his beard, probably the finest beard among US presidents. Not that there are so many to choose from. John Quincy Adams and his huge muttonchops don't do much for me; Lincoln is almost too familiar; Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, and Benjamin Harrison put forward impressive contenders, but were far less interesting presidents than Grant. Chester A. Arthur's beard is not so impressive, although he does get credit from me for hosting the Meridian Conference of 1884, which ushered in time zones for the world. Had we been considering all manner of facial hair, however, my choice definitely would have been Theodore Roosevelt, undoubtedly my favorite president on criteria of looks.
There were several issues surrounding this election that were settled in ways that suited me. While I don't care that another half dozen states have adopted ridiculous "marriage protection" amendments to their constitutions, it is heartening that Arizonans voted not to follow the rest of the nation's knee-jerk homophobia. Not to be over optimistic, but I'm inclined to think that we gay people may no longer be the critical Republican wedge issue we once were, and American may finally have turned the corner on the long route to recognizing gay equality.
I've noted before the unabashed misogyny I once saw on display in the early Clinton years (c. 1994) when I saw Charlie Rose talking with a table full of angry white male conservatives about Clinton's universal health-care proposal; they couldn't seem to talk about the proposal because they were so busy vilifying Hillary Clinton for being a strong woman. I think my jaw dropped open at the spectacle.
The attitude persists with Republican's disparaging Nancy Pelosi, the presumptive speaker of the House. For at least this reason I'm pleased that Democrats won a majority so that she and her "San Francisco values" can be a daily reminder to Denny Hastert that feminism can be a force for good.
Yes, I do — occasionally — indulge in schadenfreude.
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*Remarkably, elected as a Republican — i.e., the "party of Lincoln".
Reading is Life
I've been catching up on some reading. Thanks to Annie ("Getting tired of fighting the good fight") at Maud Newton's I saw these fascinating paragraphs (from the LA Times) about the "life of Delta librarian Ronnie Wise":
People just don’t realize the stress of a Mississippi librarian’s life, he says. People don’t understand what it takes to keep those front doors open — or what’s at stake if you don’t. Reading, Wise believes, is life. Illiteracy, therefore, is death. He witnesses its stranglehold every day. Shopping at the grocery store, standing in line at the bank or post office, he’s constantly accosted by strangers trying to conceal their secret behind the same lie. "Excuse me," they say. "Forgot my glasses — could you tell me what this says?"
People call him a librarian, and he surely looks like a librarian, with his sedentary frame, thick eyeglasses, fastidiously trimmed hair and goatee. But, deep down, he feels like something else, something more. He feels like the Sisyphus of Mississippi. He feels like a superhero in one of his beloved comic books, even though he fights the forces of darkness with little more than night classes and meager grants, and he loses more than he wins; 30 years of that would make even Spiderman cranky.
Disease vs. Cure
Religion is the one area of our discourse in which people are systematically protected from the demand to give good evidence and valid arguments in defense of their strongly held beliefs. And yet these beliefs regularly determine what they live for, what they will die for and—all too often—what they will kill for. Consequently, we are living in a world in which millions of grown men and women can rationalize the violent sacrifice of their own children by recourse to fairy tales. We are living in a world in which millions of Muslims believe that there is nothing better than to be killed in defense of Islam. We are living in a world in which millions of Christians hope to soon be raptured into the stratosphere by Jesus so that they can safely enjoy a sacred genocide that will inaugurate the end of human history. In a world brimming with increasingly destructive technology, our infatuation with religious myths now poses a tremendous danger. And it is not a danger for which more religious faith is a remedy.
[From Richard Harris, "A Dissent: The Case Against Faith", Newsweek, 13 November 2006.]
The Bully-in-Chief
At this point, nobody should have any illusions about Mr. Bush’s character. To put it bluntly, he’s an insecure bully who believes that owning up to a mistake, any mistake, would undermine his manhood — and who therefore lives in a dream world in which all of his policies are succeeding and all of his officials are doing a heckuva job. Just last week he declared himself “pleased with the progress we’re making” in Iraq.
In other words, he’s the sort of man who should never have been put in a position of authority, let alone been given the kind of unquestioned power, free from normal checks and balances, that he was granted after 9/11. But he was, alas, given that power, as well as a prolonged free ride from much of the news media.
The results have been predictably disastrous. The nightmare in Iraq is only part of the story. In time, the degradation of the federal government by rampant cronyism — almost every part of the executive branch I know anything about, from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been FEMAfied — may come to be seen as an equally serious blow to America’s future.
[from Paul Krugman, "Limiting the Damage", New York Times, 6 November 2006.]
No Republicans Fit to Endorse
The New York Times explains why it won't be endorsing a single Republican Congressional candidate this year — something they can't remember ever happening before:
To begin with, the Republican majority that has run the House — and for the most part, the Senate — during President Bush’s tenure has done a terrible job on the basics. Its tax-cutting-above-all-else has wrecked the budget, hobbled the middle class and endangered the long-term economy. It has refused to face up to global warming and done pathetically little about the country’s dependence on foreign oil.
Republican leaders, particularly in the House, have developed toxic symptoms of an overconfident majority that has been too long in power. They methodically shut the opposition — and even the more moderate members of their own party — out of any role in the legislative process. Their only mission seems to be self-perpetuation.
The current Republican majority managed to achieve that burned-out, brain-dead status in record time, and with a shocking disregard for the most minimal ethical standards. It was bad enough that a party that used to believe in fiscal austerity blew billions on pork-barrel projects. It is worse that many of the most expensive boondoggles were not even directed at their constituents, but at lobbyists who financed their campaigns and high-end lifestyles.
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events
Gay Prostitutes & Evangelical "Leaders"
This is a wholly gratuitous quotation:
Now that Haggard has been outed by a gay prostitute for having sex with him and buying meth, and has resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, I wonder what it will take for the good people in the pews to call ["]leaders["] like Haggard, Jerry Falwell, and James Dobson to account for their mean-spirited hypocrisy.
[Paul Loeb, "Is there meth in Ted Haggard's heaven?", Huffington Post, 4 November 2006.]
I quote it merely because the words and names
- gay prostitute,
- sex,
- meth,
- Haggard,
- Jerry Falwell, and
- James Dobson
all appear in the same sentence, and I think Google might like that while Falwell and Dobson won't.
In: All, Current Events, Laughing Matters
Wait! Wait! Stay the Course!
I am horrified all of a sudden. I am reading here and there how the Army Times, the Air Force Times, the Navy Times, and the Marine Corps Times are all publishing their editorials this next Monday — oh my goodness! it's the day before the election! it must be politically motivated! — calling for Don Rumsfeld's resignation. It all sounds like a good idea.
Then the terrifying, Rovian realization hits one: getting rid of Rumsfeld could be good for the Idiot-in-Chief. On no!
The obvious argument, which I'd as soon cut off at the knees right here, goes like this. All W has to do is fire Rumsfeld, then withdraw troops from Iraq and claim defeat, explaining that we were winning, we were staying the course — as Don had pointed out over and over — until those nasty old hate-America-first liberals forced W to fire Don and thus lose the war in Iraq.
Oh dear. On the one hand, W would win by losing; on the other hand, we might actually hasten the end to Bush's War of Vanity* and save some lives. Now it's all so confusing.
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*I could, I suppose, call it W's War of Vanity, but Republicans got us into this mess largely through throwing a hard-on at the idea of creating their own political dynasty with the Bush family — a manifestly stupid idea, and I'm peevish enough a person — that it seems suitable to use the Bush name whenever mentioning the debacle in Iraq. (I'm almost inclined to write "the Debacle in Iraqle" just for the Ogden-Nash-like poetry of it.)
Haggard's Gay Ministry
Speaking of leading evangelical Ted Haggard, who this afternoon admits to buying meth — only once! — from his long-time friend the gay hooker, here's a tidbit from last year that may be enlightening:
[Ted Haggard] was always on the lookout for spies. At the time [c. 1984, early in the founding of his New Life "church"], Colorado Springs was a small city split between the Air Force and the New Age, and the latter, Pastor Ted believed, worked for the devil. Pastor Ted soon began upsetting the devil's plans. He staked out gay bars, inviting men to come to his church; his whole congregation pitched itself into invisible battles with demonic forces, sometimes in front of public buildings.
[from Jeff Sharlet, "Soldiers of Christ", Harper's, 2 November 2006 (originally from May, 2005).]
It's a tough gig, saving gay souls. Have you ever noticed how the straight priests tend to minister to prostitutes, or pedophile priests tend to prefer to work with children? What is the story, then, on Pastor Ted and his gay ministry, or high-profile ex-gays who go to gay baths for "research"? Does anyone understand why all these men of the cloth are obsessed with gay sex?
Perhaps we're starting to get some insight.
Evangelical Hypocrite Confesses
What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, noted evangelical "pastor" Ted Haggard claimed
I've never had a gay relationship with anybody. … I am steady with my wife. I'm faithful to my wife. I don't know if this is election-year politics or if this has to do with the marriage amendment or what it is.
[quoted at Pam Spaulding, "Pastor Ted admits to some of the escort's allegations", Pam's House Blend, 3 November 2006.]
In a very Tom Foley-esque move, Haggard instantly stepped aside from all of his pastoral duties while claiming total innocence. Will he be as quickly whisked away to an emergency substance-abuse clinic so he, too, can avoid answering any and all questions?
Then, in today's news (via KRDO television, Pike's Peak, Colorado):
Pastor Ted Haggard is now admitting that some of the allegations by former gay escort, Mike Jones are true.
In an e-mail obtained by NEWSCHANNEL 13, Acting Senior Pastor Ross Parsley says Haggard confessed to the board of overseers.
There is some thought, perhaps even some hope, that this might dampen people's enthusiasm in Colorado for the nasty anti-gay "protect-marriage" amendment that they have on the ballot in Colorado this election. Perhaps. Perhaps it will have some more national import, another nail in the Republican coffin in which they are burying their "traditional values".
No doubt there are some firm believers — those who believe fervently as a way to deny reality and rational thought — who are convinced that this makes such constitutional amendments ever more necessary. Tsk. The only way to avoid these sad, sad affairs — yes, and avoid the pain for Haggard's wife and kids — is to get over the hysteria, erase the stigma, and recognize fundamental equality for gays and lesbians. The closet is a dangerous and damaging place to be.
Besides, it's such an obvious last-gasp reaction these homophobes exhibit. When their facades crack, even they reveal that deep down they realize that someday soon gays and lesbians will have the equality we seek. And yet they fight on, determined to be noted in history for their determination to deny good sense in the face of inevitability.