Poem O' Teh Day

Another good one. Looks like they've got enough money to send one a day forever.

Across a Great Wilderness without You by Keetje Kuipers The deer come out in the evening. God bless them for not judging me, I'm drunk. I stand on the porch in my bathrobe and make strange noises at them—                                                   language, if language can be a kind of crying. The tin cans scattered in the meadow glow, each bullet hole suffused with moon, like the platinum thread beyond them where the river runs the length of the valley. That's where the fish are.                                    Tomorrow I'll scoop them from the pockets of graveled stone beneath the bank, their bodies desperately alive when I hold them in my hands, the way prayers become more hopeless when uttered aloud.                             The phone's disconnected. Just as well, I've got nothing to tell you: I won't go inside where the bats dip and swarm over my bed. It's the sound of them shouldering against each other that terrifies me, as if it might hurt to brush across another being's living flesh.                 But I carry a gun now. I've cut down a tree. You wouldn't recognize me in town— my hands lost in my pockets, two disabused tools I've retired from their life of touching you.

© 2010, Academy of American Poets. All Rights Reserved.

Long Way, Baby Dept.

A little summary of the last 50 years.

When Schroeder's class graduated, fewer than 3 percent of women and all law students nationwide were women, three federal judges were women, there were few women teachers of law or law school administrators in the whole country and none at Harvard. In 2009, 47% of the Harvard Law graduating class were women. And soon, a former dean of Harvard Law will probably become the fourth female associate justice to serve on the Supreme Court, its second female graduate of Harvard Law.  

Question O' Teh Day

Q. Why is Meg Whitman, former CEO of Ebay, going to lose the Republican gubernatorial primary in California?
A. Because Meg Whitman looks like Lou Dobbs everyone hates Goldman Sachs.

This is why I love politics.

I Love America

Semi-Literate Former Gold Prospector Given Own Cable News Show

You Know Things Are Tough

when "Paul Allen Puts 10-Bedroom Mega Yacht Up For Sale."

Elena Kagan: Day Two

Josh Marshall Andrew Pincus describes today's politics in fewer than 1,000 very spot-on words. C'mon, people write books about this stuff. But I don't have time to read that much.

The scenes on television and cable yesterday were as civilized, and as choreographed, as the steps in a seventeenth century minuet: the announcement in the East Room...The trench warfare now underway is the laboratory in which lines of attack and defense are tested and refined. The attackers are trying to identify arguments that will "stick"--that are not batted down quickly enough by the nominee's defenders, and therefore begin to migrate into more mainstream media and, ultimately, into the Senate hearing. Think of it as a very specialized form of test marketing...In many ways, Supreme Court confirmations are the ultimate "dog whistle" issue--very important to the base, but virtually ignored by ordinary voters. That is why every Democratic Senator who aspired to be President voted against confirming Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito. And it is why every Republican Senator with the same aspirations for 2012, or later, will almost certainly vote against Elena Kagan.

Judge Kagan

Elena Kagan has never worn the judicial robes. As an adult.

NEW YORK — There were a lot of smart girls at Hunter College High School, but only one of them posed for the yearbook in a judge's robes, quoted a Supreme Court justice and is remembered for playing a tough attorney in an eighth-grade trial.

Yes, but is she a lesbian? The world wants to know.

Kagan: Myths And Facts

From Media Matters. A new feature, I guess. I may have to start visiting them more often.

R.I.P. Lena

"I wouldn't trade my life for anything," she said, "because being black made me understand."

Lena Horne

I always loved this.

And The Nomination Goes To...Shorty!

Thurgood Marshall's nickname for her when she was his clerk. I mean, how many times will I get to write that?

'She Will Get The Fifth Vote'

Says Spitzer. Which is the best reason for nominating Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, among a whole long list of excellent reasons.
Andrew has a compendium of back-and-forth for your selection pleasure. I like this from Ed Morrissey:

Obama wants a stealth candidate, someone who can win a relatively quick confirmation battle.  Of the names floated by the White House after Stevens’ retirement, Kagan attracted the least amount of public opposition.

Did I mention that Contrarienne's earlier posts about Kagan were viewed by the White House and ... some other official sources I can't remember? Cool.

The Big One

My old colleague updates the earthquake situation.

A bright-red splotch on a map of earthquake hazards marks the Kitsap Peninsula as one of the hottest danger zones in the United States.

I live 50 miles north.

Quote O' Teh Day

The UK election turned out to be perhaps the only election I can think of where all three parties managed to lose at the same time. Each in a different way.

Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
British Election Couverage - Andrew Sullivan
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Fox News

Contrariennes, Sign Up Your Daughters

for this great new fitness program (only available in SoCal).
You're too old, probably would make your heart fail or something.

White Women's Workout - watch more funny videos

Christian products for women. You ain't saved without a rhinestone tee.

It's Agreed, There Are 954 Colors

and they include poop, poo brown, and shit.
That makes complete sense.
My favorite? Cyan (reaches for dictionary.)
I wish my poop was cyan and smelled like the sea. Or maybe peppermint.

What Exactly Is Decadence Anyway?

Two summers ago I had a delightful lunch at an Oregon winery. The foie gras on the hamburger was a touch so special I couldn't let it go to waste and removed it, shared and ate it separately.
The dessert was black pepper ice cream with a lavender meringue and raspberry sauce.
Neither the sort of thing I'll ever likely eat again, nor anything like them.
I didn't feel decadent though, just lucky.
But if I had to do that 200 times a year, I think I'd just rather stick to my hummus and naan and the occasional grapefruit, maybe some meatloaf for dinner.

The waiter arrived and placed before Maxime a large white plate. At the center was her foie gras, a short pillar of puréed duck liver on a piece of crisp toast with a lacy web of caramelized sugar on top; the sides were studded with cherries and sprinkled with pistachios, and a transparent sauce, made of white port gelée, surrounded the entire creation like a moat. She considered the dish for a few moments, as if trying to determine the best angle of attack. With the side of her fork, she broke off a piece of the complicated construction, and tasted it. The dish, which I later tried, activated every sense with which humans are equipped: the foie gras was smooth and as rich as butter, its silky texture contrasting with the caramelized sugar, which shattered like a pane of microscopically thin glass against the teeth and tongue, its sweetness offset by the sour cherries, the rounded aromatic flavor of the toasted nuts, and the texture and taste of the port gelée.

Who Pays For Cleanup

TPM has the skinny. Thank you, Talking Points Memo.

Looks Like A Brit

I remember showing a picture of the Frenchman my daughter married to an acquaintance and he said, "He looks French." Sure enough, he did, although I can't say specifically what facial characteristics mean one looks French, and there are plenty of French people who do not look French.
So, too, when I opened up TPM this morning and saw the CEO of BP. Tony Hayward looks like a Brit. He just does. Just like Harry Potter looks like a Brit. I would never mistake him for an American, even if he turned out to be an American. There's a look.
Some commenters say it's the hair, but it's more than that. It's bone structure, it's eyes, it's peaches-and-cream complexion. Or something. Guess I'm a racist in these matters. Nationist?
Oh, and the pinstriped suit. Americans try, but they don't really wear that suit.
See for yourself.
Oh, and it wasn't their fault. Righto, Tone. May you sleep with the sea birds.

Just Nice To Know, Or Have

The solar system as music box.

Is Evil black in every culture?

In Summary: It's Monday

and so far, the news from TPM alone makes me laugh and cry at the same time.
A bit late to the party, blustery here and the electricity just came back about an hour ago.
So far, here's what I know:
1. Pelosi says Bush White House muzzled Treasury and other economic officials, who weren't allowed to tell Congress how bad things were in 2008 until the week of the Lehman emergency. Paulson not commenting, which says a lot, actually. Remember, it was an election season.
Also, nice to be reminded that Republicans blocked TARP until we were about to fall off the cliff.
2. The Idiot wing of the Republican Party, many of whom live in Minnesota, have nominated a gubernatorial candidate who believes states should only obey the federal laws that their own legislures have approved. So much for the Civil War, eh?
3. BP is offering Alabama residents $5,000 to promise never to sue them over that little oil spill thingie.

Poem O' Teh Day

I'm still getting one a day, so they must have got a grant or something.
This one's very good.

A Book Said Dream and I Do

by Barbara Ras

There were feathers and the light that passed through feathers.
There were birds that made the feathers and the sun that made the light.
The feathers of the birds made the air soft, softer
than the quiet in a cocoon waiting for wings,
stiller than the stare of a hooded falcon.
But no falcons in this green made by the passage of parents.
No, not parents, parrots flying through slow sleep
casting green rays to light the long dream.
If skin, dew would have drenched it, but dust
hung in space like the stoppage of
time itself, which, after dancing with parrots,
had said, Thank you. I'll rest now.
It's not too late to say the parrot light was thick
enough to part with a hand, and the feathers softening
the path, fallen after so much touching of cheeks,
were red, hibiscus red split by veins of flight
now at the end of flying.
Despite the halt of time, the feathers trusted red
and believed indolence would fill the long dream,
until the book shut and time began again to hurt.

The Pope, NYC Style

Although I think creator Tim Minchin is a Brit.
For Friviality Friday.
Oh, did I mention NSFW?

Question O' Teh Day

Should we send every Republican politician to prison?
Alex Pareene, who used to be a shining star at Wonkette before he took his shiny ass over to Salon, answers that question. But no others. It's enough.

When There's Nothing Left To Say

because you're afraid to say anything with any meaning, significance or just plain accuracy, you can always do what Time Magazine does, print a bunch of lists.
I like the Most Uninfluential because I always had sort of a soft spot for Joel Stein who gets paid handsomely, I'm sure, for being sort of amusing.

Poem O' Teh Day

Probably the best I've received so far this month, and the month is almost over tomorrow.

Sharks in the Rivers
 by Ada Limón

        We'll say unbelievable things
to each other in the early morning—
 
our blue coming up from our roots,
our water rising in our extraordinary limbs.
 
All night I dreamt of bonfires and burn piles
and ghosts of men, and spirits
behind those birds of flame.
 
I cannot tell anymore when a door opens or closes,
I can only hear the frame saying, Walk through.
 
It is a short walkway—
into another bedroom.
 
Consider the handle. Consider the key.
 
I say to a friend, how scared I am of sharks.
 
How I thought I saw them in the creek
across from my street.
 
I once watched for them, holding a bundle
of rattlesnake grass in my hand,
shaking like a weak-leaf girl.
 
She sends me an article from a recent National Geographic that says,
 
Sharks bite fewer people each year than
New Yorkers do, according to Health Department records.
 
Then she sends me on my way. Into the City of Sharks.
 
Through another doorway, I walk to the East River saying,
 
Sharks are people too.
Sharks are people too.
Sharks are people too.
 
I write all the things I need on the bottom
of my tennis shoes. I say, Let's walk together.
 
The sun behind me is like a fire.
Tiny flames in the river's ripples.
 
I say something to God, but he's not a living thing,
so I say it to the river, I say,
 
I want to walk through this doorway
But without all those ghosts on the edge,
I want them to stay here.
I want them to go on without me.
 

Headline O' Teh Day

This just in from New Guinea
Police Barred From Penis Enlargement

I'll Never Eat

at any of the world's 50 best restaurants, but never mind, I have the French Laundry cookbook, and actually prepared something from it once. Can't remember what.

Britain's Got Talent

I Know Knot-Ing

Today I open up Google as usual and what to my wondering eyes should appear but instructions for a Sheepshank Knot. It looks really useful.
I don't know from knots. I didn't learn to tie my shoes properly until my frustrated husband taught me early in our marriage. And I distinctly remember faking it on the way home from kindergarten, stopping in the middle of the road and pretending to tie my shoes because I knew a girl walking behind me, who I didn't like, hadn't yet learned. And neither had I.
All of which brings us to the Tankerman's Tangle Knot, which I'm going to teach you right here, right now. I've been using it my whole life, but I didn't know until recently what it was called. Or that it was called anything.
Ready?
Okay, the Tankerman's Tangle Knot:If you can't tie it right, tie it a lot.
There.

Headline O' Teh Day

"Swastikas Made of Refried Beans Smeared on Arizona Capitol"

No, wait, I was wrong. It's "Gay Dog Refused Entry to Australian Restaurant"

There would be no category without Huffpo.

It's Not So Much That They Tell You What To Think

it's that they tell you what to think about.
Break free here. And here.
Jack Shafer at Slate explains.http://www.slate.com/id/2251794/

Wal-Mart, Discrimination Against 1.5 Million Women

and a dissenting woman judge. We've come a long way, baby.
Sometimes I forget that.
Anyhoo, after almost 10 years, they'll go to trial.

Warren Buffett:The Other Senator From Nebraska

Am I surprised? Naw, just disgusted. So much for Mr. Good-Guy Billionaire.

Telling Truth To The Powerless

My man, Chris Hedges.
"It is not our role to take power, it is our role to make the powerful afraid of us."
Only the first 27 minutes, so not all that long.

Project Runway

A fun, catty rehash for those who can't get enough.
I'm one of those who can't get enough. I think Project Runway and Mad Men should be on 52/12.
No, wait, did I mean 365/52?
How about every night? There, fixed.

Defense Budget

Barney goes there.

"There's a big debate right now about where 3,000 Marines in Okinawa should go. My suggestion is Nebraska," he said.

Website O' Teh Day

The Lowden Chicken Calculator.
Nothing on heart transplants, though. Looks like a lotta Republicans are outta luck.

Obama 'Dramatically Effective'

Of course, Sully's been in love with him from Day 1. But I tend to agree. He lists the reasons why. Now counter it. Give me your reasons why not, you curmudgeon.

Obama's Supreme Court List

is beginning to look like a proposed Honorary Contrariennes List. America is a wonderful country.

Before she became a lawyer, Williams was a music and third-grade teacher in the Detroit public schools. She spent nine years as an assistant U.S attorney in Chicago, trying major felony cases and ultimately becoming chief of the Organized Drug Enforcement Task Force for a five-state region. President Reagan first appointed her to the federal bench in 1985, making her the first African American woman to serve as a district judge in the 7th Circuit. President Clinton elevated her to the appellate court.

Satire O' Teh Day

You begin to get it when she says Eyjafjallajokull.

It's Not Easy Being Green

I guess you have to use math to figure embodied energy, but on the other hand, I hardly ever fly.

You Know New York

You know you know New York. You've been seeing parts of The City since you started watching TV and movies. You may even have read a little about it. Like every day, or at least every week if you're any kind of reader.
But the thing about The City is that you can never know enough.
The local public TV station is trying to change that with some Web-only short sketches about the people and the places in The City you may not know about.
I love New York.

Supreme Court: And Then There's Diane Wood

Greenwald — and his links — tell you what you need to know.
Still, I kinda like a woman nicknamed Shorty. What's Wood's nickname?

How To Survive The Apocalypse:An Entertainment

Don't want to grow radishes and ride a bicycle?
The always wicked Jason Linkins has some better ideas than the Tea Party crowd.
Hint: You'll need lots of pockets, of course.

Open Invitation To Esperanza Spalding

There is a place reserved for you among the honored Contrariennes Emerita.

Hunter S. Thompson Lives

It just dawned on me that Matt Taibbi, who's been lashing Goldman Sachs for months in Rolling Stone, writes things like "“The great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity” all the time.
I kinda like that. Especially today. GS goin' down? Who can say.

The Fun Begins

"Ms. Kagan, are you now or have you ever been a member of the Lesbianist Party?"

Just In Case You Hadn't Noticed

Commenter Hussein over at TPM sums up:

wow - what a couple of weeks - Obama negotiates a nuclear agreement with Russia, gets China to join sanctions on Iran, and the Justice Dept. indicts BOTH Goldman Sachs and Blackwater!

Word O' Teh Day: Phallophanies

Say it with me — phallophanies!

Guess What?

According to Stat Counter, the Rethinking Elena Kagan got a visit from the Executive Office of the President. I am stunned. Administrator of the Courts, too. Of course, they're searching for anything with Kagan's name and probably nobody read Contrarienne, but still. I love the intertubes.

Friviality Friday

The iPad is just a very pricey cat toy. Who knew? Dogs know.

Dog Sledding

River and Trout in Sugarbush, Vermont

Eww O' Teh Day

Oh goody, a new leech.

The creature lives in the remote parts of the Upper Amazon and has a "particularly unpleasant habit of infesting humans", the scientists say.
Studies also revealed that it had "a preference for living up noses".

FOX News: Go Directly To Jail

Bet You Didn't Know

John Quincy Adams (to whom I am said to be related) is Tweeting. Follow here.http://twitter.com/JQAdams_MHS

No Comment Necessary

YouTube found this for me. Thank you, YouTube.

Is America A Great Country or What?

Apparently you can buy a false penis that pisses clean urine for those with that particularly weird sexual practice in mind, or fool a drug test, whichever comes first. Refills available.

The Whizzinator retails for $139.95. And the strangest thing about the marketing here? It is available in white, brown, black, tan and “Latino.”

Rethinking Elena Kagan

From The Economist, this.

If You Haven't Seen Mad Men

this should tell you all you need to know. If you have, this should see you through until the new season.


Word is Sara Benincasa does a mean Sarah Palin, too. Check her out here. Who says comedy is dead?

Damn!

The porn star isn't going to run for office after all.

Last week, for example, she officially declared herself to be a Republican -- saying that the party had swayed her with the RNC's spending of $2,000 at a bondage-themed night club in West Hollywood.

Zsa Zsa Gabor Is Still Alive?

Yes, but expected to die this year, along with 49 others on the official Death List, which contains a lot of Brits you never heard of and don't care about. Still, it's something. Or not.

Laughed Til I Cried

Quote O' Teh Day

From Taplin:

The Republicans have decided that their strategy on health care reform was so successful, they are going to double-down on Financial reform

Kagan For Supreme Court

I want this to happen, especially after reading this excellent profile.
Tidbit:

Two weeks ago, Solicitor General Elena Kaganm a leading contender for appointment to the Supreme Court, presented her sixth argument there. She bantered easily with the justices, and she seemed to have a special rapport with Justice Antonin Scalia, at one point responding to a question from him with one of her own.
Justice Scalia’s reply suggested she had crossed a line. “Well, I’m not making the argument,” he said, declining to answer her question.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who has had some testy exchanges with Ms. Kagan over the last seven months, made the point more sharply.
“Usually we have the questions the other way,” he said.
“I apologize,” Ms. Kagan replied.

Well, also, Thurgood Marshall used to call her Shorty. There's that.

Nastiest Restaurant Review I've Ever Read

So nasty, in fact, it sounds truthful.
Nello (I've actually heard of it, though not that the food is terrible), from the NYT.
Tidbit:

During the day, the crowd is women who shop and women who dress like their daughters and men who meet them for lunch. There are air kisses and the tinkle of tennis bracelets against wine glasses.

Tax Advice For The Tardy

Health Care Reform Summary

A pretty good one recommended by a Kos diarist is available here from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Done Your Taxes Yet?

Heed this timely warning.

Kissinger: Still A War Criminal

or is it, again a war criminal?

Bob Dylan on NOLA

"There are a lot of places I like, but I like New Orleans better...Everything in New Orleans is a good idea...In a lot of places you have to change with the times, it's not necessary here."

Bob Dylan, Chronicles (written pre-Katrina)

You Know It's A Good Day...

When while cleaning out the secondary silverware drawer, you find your 40-plus-year-old cream cheese pastry recipe. I swear to goddess, it's the best. Like buttah, only bettah, Sweetie.

Uh, okay, all the little tidbits to make with it, but no basic recipe. So I found what looks right on Cooks.com.

My recall is that this pastry needs to be chilled at least two hours before working with it, then the more folding and rolling you do, the more flaky layers there are, unlike regular pie crust, which becomes tough with too much handling.

Anyhoo, Sugar

Cream Cheese Pastry

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
□   1 c. butter, softened
□   2 c. flour
□   3/4 tsp. salt

Combine cream cheese and butter. Mix until well blended. Add flour and salt; mix well. Form into a ball; chill. Divide dough in half. On lightly floured surface, roll out each half to a 12" circle. Place in 2 (9") pie plates, trim and flute edges. Prick bottom and sides with fork. Bake at 450 degrees for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Sausage Rollups

Make and chill pastry dough.

Simmer 2 doz. small link sausages in a few tablespoons cold water 4-5 min.
Drain, brown lightly.
Cool and cut into bite-sized pieces, about 1 1/2 ".
Divide chilled pastry in four pieces, roll each 1/8 inch thick. Cut in small rectangles just big enough to wratp sausage pieces (2" X 2 1/2" is about right).
Moisten one edge, roll up pastry around sausage, press edge to seal and pinch dough at ends. Place seam side down, on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in moderate oven (375F) 15-20 min. Makes about two doz.

And just because I love ya, I also looked up the other long-lost favorite, Dill-Cottage Cheese Batter Bread.

DILLY CASSEROLE BREAD

Printed from COOKS.COM

---

□   2 - 2 1/4 c. unsifted flour
□   2 tbsp. sugar
□   1 tsp. salt
□   1 tbsp. instant minced onion (optional)
□   2 tsp. dill seed
□   1 tbsp. dill weed
□   1/4 tsp. baking soda
□   1 pkg. active dry yeast
□   1 tbsp. softened butter
□   1/4 c. very hot tap water
□   1 c. creamed cottage cheese, room temperature
□   1 egg, room temperature

In a large bowl thoroughly mix 1/4 cup flour, sugar, salt, instant onion, dill seed, dill weed, baking soda and undissolved yeast. Add butter.Gradually add very hot tap water to dry ingredients and beat 2 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally. Add cottage cheese, egg and 1/2 cup of flour or enough flour to make a thick batter.
Beat at high speed for 2 minutes. Stir in enough additional flour to make a stiff batter.
Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Stir batter down, turn into a greased 1 1/2 quart casserole. Cover and let rise until double in bulk, about 50 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until top is golden brown. Turn out of pan immediately and cool on wire rack.
Note early. Easy and great!

--------
P.S. I love the intertubes.

Who Knew What, When?

There was not only no evidence against most Guantanomo detainees, we didn't even know why most of them were there.
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld. Hang 'em high. And give Lawrence Wilkerson a medal.

Quote O' Teh Day

The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed.
—Novelist William Gibson, quoted in The Economist, December 4, 2003

So Many Contrarrienes, So Little Time

Just when I thought I'd come to terms with death global warming, something new to worry about.

In 19 countries, from Singapore to Iceland, people have a life expectancy of about 80 years. Of all the people in human history who ever reached the age of 65, half are alive now.

It's all Otto's fault:

The idea of a retirement age was invented by Otto von Bismarck in the 1880s, when as chancellor of Germany he needed a starting age for paying war pensions. He chose the age of 65 because that was typically when ex-soldiers died. But today in developed countries, and soon in poorer ones, women can expect nearly 30 years of retirement, and men 20 years.

Lord, Let It Rain

And rain some more. Thunder, too.

Play 'em both at once, way cool.

Jump!

No, you first.

NSFW Dept.: Semi-Productive Procrastination

Don't say I never gave ya nothin'.
Here's 30 nothins.

Question O' Teh Day

If you had a pony, would you ride him on your boat?

An Insurance Company With An Army

Krugman explains what the U.S. government really is in one sentence:

The basic picture of the federal government you should have in mind is that it’s essentially a huge insurance company with an army; Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid — all of which spend the great bulk of their funds on making payments, not on administration — plus defense are the big items.

I would have laughed out loud if my mouth hadn't been full of half-chewed carrot. Don't even want to think what that would look like on the keyboard. Okay, I forced the image on you. So sue me.

Google Tricks

The NYT offers 10 things to make your search life easier.

Comment O' Teh Day

The Republican governor of Virginia, Claghorn Leghorn, today amended his declaration of Confederacy Month to add in the recognition that slavery was very, very wrong.
"Wrong, I tells ya! Jes wrong!"
Can't figure out how it got overlooked, heh-heh.

TPM commenter DaveJ proposes his state do something similar:

WHEREAS the institution of slavery is an abomination upon the face of the earth, and
WHEREAS the southern American states seemed disinclined to end said practice, and
WHEREAS the aforementioned southern American states were in fact acting in a belligerent manner to secede from the Union, and
WHEREAS they continued to act in such a manner as to provoke an armed response,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the citizens of Massachusetts commend their ancestors for crushing the rebellious spirit of the southern states, and commend them for restoring order to the Union, and commend them for defeating the South in battle, and commend them for ending the institution of slavery, and also for defeating the South, and finally did we mention that we defeated the South? Like, really, really defeated them. Crushed them, in fact. Wasn't even close. I mean, for a bit there it was kind of tight. Be we really throttled them once we got going.

Catholic Church: The Dowd Verdict

I don't read Mo very much anymore and have to wince when she describes herself as "adversarial." Yeah, and so is my puppy.
And I really hate it when she cites her brother Kevin.
Still, in this case, she's got a voice with some weight behind it.
In all the column, though, it's the following tidbit that gets to me the most, especially in light of the D.C. diocese's decision to pull out of social programs in that beleaguered city after the council legalized gay marriage and mandated health coverage for all spouses.

The church is dying from a thousand cuts. Its cover-up has cost a fortune and been a betrayal worthy of Judas. The money spent came from social programs, Catholic schools and the poor.

Poem A Day

It's National Poetry Month, which to journalists is somewhere up there with National Pickle Week, but nevertheless, I am signed up to receive a poem a day until the end of the month or they run out, whichever comes last.
Today's poem is the best I've received so far. It's so good that I will quote it.

 Note that the word "mute" (from Latin mutus and Greek σίγαση) is reported by linguists as an onomatopoeic formation referring not to silence but to a certain fundamental opacity of human being, which likes to show the truth by allowing it to be seen hiding.

And I caution you that you must be patient, make a physical and mental effort,  and pay attention to receive this poem. And then, I tell you, it is worth it.

I should write a poem titled "I Can Never Be Anne Carson, But I Can Dream, Can't I?".

Anne Carson was born in 1950. She received her bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees from the University of Toronto. Her books of poetry include The Beauty of the Husband: A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos (2001), winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry; Economy of the Unlost (1999); Autobiography of Red (1998), shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the T.S. Eliot Prize; Plainwater: Essays and Poetry (1996); Glass, Irony and God (1995), shortlisted for the Forward Prize; and Goddesses And Wise Women (1992). Carson is also a classics scholar, the translator of If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho (2002), and the author of Eros the Bittersweet (1998).
Her awards and honors include the Lannan Award, the Pushcart Prize, the Griffin Trust Award for Excellence in Poetry, a Guggenheim fellowship, and the MacArthur "Genius" Award. Carson is was the Director of Graduate Studies in Classics at McGill University and now teaches Classics, Comparative Literature, and English at the University of Michigan.

And I wonder idly if Carolyn Heilbrun had encountered Anne Carson before she (Heilbrun, not Carson) took her own life. And if she did, how she could not be filled with the desire for more, not less, certainly not nothing.
Idly, then, suicide is the failure of desire.
Forgive me, dear reader, patience.

Yours,

Mutus

Elena Kagan: Next Supreme Court Justice?

That's the current wisdom. I like it. I especially like three contrariennes on the court at once (Ginsberg would presumably wait to resign until later).
I'm currently reading Carolyn Heilbrun's book about life after 60. She was a willful woman who decided to take her own life at 70 because that made sense, but ended up writing the book instead. She took her own life in 2003 at 78, same basic reasoning — I will decide when I go — and it strikes me that she missed a helluva lot of of excitement.
Heilbrun struggled on the English faculty at Columbia and was bitter about it. She so far does not seem to have the perspective of the long view, so far making no mention of how far things have come. Elena Kagan, Carolyn, Sonia Sotomayer. Hillary is Secretary of State. We elected a black president and he's damned impressive.
Carolyn opted out the same year we invaded Iraq. Stopped in time. Forever.
I am heartened, though, that she gave up wearing skirts and panty hose at about the same age I did, and for the same reasons.

American War Crimes Dept.

All the blogs I read daily are passing this Wikileaks video along, but it doesn't seem to have gone viral.
It's a little hard to take, because the conversation among the helicopter crew doing the apparent murders is so casual, so matter-of-fact. They don't sound particularly excited, certainly not overexcited. Just ho-hum, another day over Baghdad.
That said, it's 17 minutes and difficult to watch.

Oh, And Afghanistan

Taplin used this today. Wonder why?

When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains. And the women come out to cut up what remains. Just roll to your rifle and blow out your brains. An’go to your Gawd like a soldier.

        Rudyard Kipling

Quote O' Teh Day

or any day, for that matter, at Wikiquote
It's my Web site find for today and I have no idea why I didn't know about it before.

The point of quotations is that one can use another's words to be insulting.

        Carolyn Heilbrun

Is The Pope Catholic?

And other compelling questions o' teh day. For instance, who created the Vatican "state."
Ans.: Benito Mussolini
Q: How legitimate is the Pope's claimed immunity from prosecution as a head of state?
A.: Not very bloody likely sweet cheeks.

Nugget:

If acts of sexual abuse by priests are not isolated or sporadic events but part of a wide practice both known to and unpunished by their de facto authority—i.e. the Catholic Church—then under the command responsibility principle of international law (laid down by the U.S. Supreme Court) the commander can be held criminally liable. He falls within the temporal jurisdiction of the ICC so long as that abusive practice and the policy to tolerate it continued after July 2002, when the court was established.

Happy Easter

Friviality Wednesday

via my friend J.G.

Quote O' Teh Day

From TPM:
The University of Washington tried to organize a debate on whether the health-care reform bill is constitutional. But it couldn't find a law professor to argue that it isn't.

Buddy And Theen: A Love Story

Oh, Yeah, And Then There's Afghanistan

Taplin just can't let it go.

The incongruity of the U.S. spending billions on Afghan security so that China can safely mine all of their copper, is not lost on those of us who think the American Empire is Exhibit A as evidence of the Free Rider system for our Asian Frenemies. We pay all the security costs for oil or copper and Asia gets all the benefit.

The Cult Of Catholicism

I am always quick to point out that I am the satisfied product of a vigorous, generous and valuable Catholic education. I have no bitter stories, I harbor no bitterness, and I defend Catholicism against ignorant critics as vigorously as I stand up against racial intolerance. I have alienated people because of it.
On the other hand, it is not possible to stand up against valid criticism, and to call it criticism is and understatement. The Church is in crisis. It may not last as anything more than a rich, bizarre and exotic cult.

Torture The Terrorists?

All nine white, male Americans.

Comment O' Teh Day:
"Teahadist members of the Tealaban."

Geeks, Nerds, Dorks, Dweebs

Did I leave anybody out? Normally, I disdain Venn diagrams, but this one is just about perfect.

Baby, baby, baby

Sunday Eye Candy

Stunning insect pictures from the Daily Mail.

The Big One

is overdue. And it appears we're not ready.

Cascadia’s last mega-quake, in January 1700, was approximately as large as Chile’s; it caused a tsunami that pummeled Japan. Many seismologists believe the Pacific Northwest is overdue for another mega-quake. Yet in cities like Seattle, Vancouver and Portland, Ore., hardly any building is designed to withstand such a huge jolt.