Zebra Sounds

Entries categorized as ‘politics and news’

The Ridiculous and The Sublime

September 9, 2009 · 12 Comments

I just finished watching President Obama’s address on health care. Don’t worry, I won’t go on and on about it; hopefully you watched it yourself, and if not, here’s the transcript. There are just two things I want to say.

The first is this: While I tuned in to hear what the president had to say, I was more than a little distracted (and entertained) by congressional Republicans. To be fair, the Democrats had it easy. Their job was to stand up and applaud every single time the president inhaled, and they did it well, but it was predictable. A little boring, to be honest, and I say that as a respectful member of the team.

All the fun stuff happened on the Republican side. Some Republicans brought props (the Baucus plan?) which they waved in the air periodically like Bic lighters at a rock concert. Representative Eric Cantor never looked up from his Blackberry. (Tweeting? Chatting? Playing Blackberry games?) And of course, for the Republicans, the whole clapping thing was more difficult. For those not furiously typing on their Blackberries, decisions had to be made. It’s not so bad when there’s just one statement to evaluate, but what about those pesky compound sentences? Clearly there were moments of confusion. I watched one Republican start to clap and then switch gears, rubbing his palms together and glancing about nonchalantly. (Damn those television cameras!)

I could talk about Representative Joe Wilson’s terrible behavior, but I won’t. He wasn’t amusing; let someone else blog about him.

The second thing I want to say is that there were parts of Obama’s speech that moved me, parts that made me feel I was hearing it – the answer to the question in yesterday’s post, what does it mean to be an American. And my favorite passage speaks to the ugliness I blogged about Tuesday - the danger of not listening, of not being able to engage in civil discourse…

… our predecessors understood that government could not, and should not, solve every problem.  They understood that there are instances when the gains in security from government action are not worth the added constraints on our freedom.  But they also understood that the danger of too much government is matched by the perils of too little; that without the leavening hand of wise policy, markets can crash, monopolies can stifle competition, the vulnerable can be exploited.  And they knew that when any government measure, no matter how carefully crafted or beneficial, is subject to scorn; when any efforts to help people in need are attacked as un-American; when facts and reason are thrown overboard and only timidity passes for wisdom, and we can no longer even engage in a civil conversation with each other over the things that truly matter — that at that point we don’t merely lose our capacity to solve big challenges.  We lose something essential about ourselves.

If you watched the speech, tell me your thoughts. If you didn’t, tell me your thoughts anyway! (We’re nothing if not amazing conversationalists on Zebra Sounds.)

Categories: philosophy · politics and news
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Hanging With The Sane Crowd

September 7, 2009 · 17 Comments

Okay so I’ve been avoiding this topic for a while, but I feel like it’s time to ask. Seriously, what’s with all the ugly?

Right off the bat, in the spirit of full disclosure, let me just say I voted for Barack Obama. I voted for hope and change, as corny as that might sound. And I’m still hopeful things will change, despite all evidence to the contrary.

I understand that I don’t see the world the same way that many of my conservative friends do, and I’m mostly okay with that. We agree to disagree. In the debate over health care reform (about which I feel VERY strongly), so far none of my friends have called me names, or shouted me down when I tried to express an opinion, or, to my knowledge, drawn Hitler mustaches on my picture while calling me a socialist. (They laugh at me sometimes, when I jump up and down and stomp my feet, but I don’t hold that against them.)

So I can say with great certainty that not all conservatives have lost their ability to engage in honest discourse, but it seems an awful lot of them have. And, worse, they are ugly – shouting down the disabled and wearing guns to town hall meetings, making up death panels, scaring the elderly, and comparing Obama’s health care reform to Hitler’s “final solution.”

And beyond health care, there is the absolute ludicrousness around President Obama’s address to school children. He will be telling them “to work hard, wash their hands and remember that J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected 12 times before it was published.” And of course, we all know where talk like that leads. First our children are staying in school, then they’re washing their hands, then they’re card-carrying socialists.

It’s that simple. C’mon people, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out. Hide your children now!

Yes, I have my tongue firmly planted in my cheek – it keeps me from saying things I might regret later. I wish a few more people would plant their tongues if you want to know the truth.

So what do you think? What’s with all the people spewing ugly these days? I really am curious.

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And now for something completely different… Holy cow, I LOVE this blog. Joe is making a paper toy a day for a year. The designs are downloadable so you can make them yourself. (Yeah, I’m going to, because check out what’s on Day 108!)

Categories: politics and news
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Irresistible To Me

July 14, 2009 · 14 Comments

I can’t resist.

I tried. I came in here to write about something else. But as I logged into my blog, I heard the story of Senator Brownback and I had to stop EVERYTHING. It’s Tuesday already, and not once this week have I been more riveted to a news story, nor have I been more awed by senatorial  jackassery heroism. Finally, someone is willing to stand up to all those crazy mad scientists out there and say, “Enough is enough. No more human-animal hybrids, you whacky evil geniuses, you!”

WTF? At last!

Wildly amused intrepid blogger that I am, I checked Senator Brownback’s blog multi-media news portal, and this is what it says about the Senator’s bill:

The Human-Animal Hybrid Prohibition Act would ban the creation of human-animal hybrids. Human-animal hybrids are defined as those part-human, part-animal creatures, which are created in laboratories, and blur the line between species…

This legislation is both philosophical and practical as it has a direct bearing upon the very essence of what it means to be human, and it draws a bright line with respect to how far we can go in attempting to create new creatures made with genes from both humans and animals.

I am so tickled relieved by this legislation and think it is a collosal waste of time long overdue.

I saw “The Fly.” It scared me to death. That man head on that fly body, his little tiny fly-man voice, “Help me! Help me!” Seriously, that terrified me as a child. (Until my brother and I stayed up one night to watch “Night of the The Living Dead,” and I realized that people rising up from the dead to eat me would be far more terrifying than a tiny, ultimately swattable, fly-man.)

Which brings me to my point. It’s not a law yet. It’s still just a bill. It has to go through committee and if it doesn’t die there, then it goes to the House of Representatives, and then to the Senate, and then to the President to sign. (I know this because I was paying attention during School House Rock.) What I’m hoping is that someone as goofy wise as Senator Brownback will tack on a much needed Zombie ban, turning a good law into a great one.

The Human-Animal Hybrid and Zombie Prohibition Act of 2009… sounds awesome, right?

We will all sleep better soon.

Categories: politics and news
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Vying for my place in the lawsuit…

July 7, 2009 · 15 Comments

I’ve been silent on Sarah Palin since the election. She didn’t win. I don’t live in Alaska. No need to beat a dead moose, as they say. (I’m not sure Sarah says that, by the way, but let me be perfectly clear that I don’t support the beating of moose, dead or alive. Even when they misbehave, as moose are prone to do.)

But now Palin’s lawyer has posted a notice of intent to “investigate any legal options she may have against anyone who republishes allegations that have been circulating about the reason for her resignation.” The release, which isn’t addressed to anyone in particular, does mention a few “unscrupulous” culprits, namely Alaskan blogger Shannyn Moore, The New York Post, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post and MSNBC.

I think I want in on this. Think of the traffic she will drive to my blog if her lawyer trashes me on national television. Or, better, she Tweets about my unscrupulousness. (Sarah Palin tweets. I will soon be doing a post of the five things I like best about Twitter. That probably won’t make the list, but I am amused nonetheless.)

Okay, so here it is, a j-list of possible reasons Sarah might be resigning before she’s finished her term. (Which is not to be confused with quitting. She’s not quitting. I know that because I listened to her speech. She made it perfectly clear that she is not quitting because that would be the easy way out. She’s not a quitter, she’s a fighter, and by fighter, I mean she’s a point guard in a metaphorical basketball game, driving through a full court press. She’s protecting the ball, watching the basket. The ball, of course, represents sound priorities, like smaller government, energy independence, victory. She didn’t tell me what the basket represents, but I’m thinking it works like a decoder ring. Throw the ball in, and – swoosh – the whole speech makes sense.)

Until then though, here are my wild guesses about what’s up with Sarah Palin.

  1. Todd was once Tanya. ‘Nuff said.
  2. Sarah and David Letterman SERIOUSLY made up. (Rumor has it there’s a You Tube video.)
  3. She’s negotiating for a spot on the next season of “I’m a Rising Star in the Republican Party, Get Me Out Of Here.”
  4. Turns out plotting revenge on Katie Couric is a full-time job. (How do you get a cute-as-a-button NBC Today Show co-host to spontaneously run under your helicopter?)
  5. There is no Sarah Palin. There is only Tina Fey. You betcha.

Got some wild speculation? Please share! You can say I made you do it, thus increasing my chances of being sued.

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And now for something completely different… When you’re a social media Jet, you’re a jet all the way, from your first Twitter Tweet till your last dying day… Or something like that. Watch Westside Website Story. It’s fun, musical, silly… what more could you want?

Categories: politics and news
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Hypocrisy and the toilet-flushing cat… seriously.

June 16, 2009 · 10 Comments

There’s something I don’t get. Maybe you can help me. I’m wondering at the raging hypocrisy of stupid politicians. And right off the bat, let me just say that stupid politicians sit on both sides of the aisle, and while the example I’m about to use is a Republican, I don’t think they have the corner on hypocrisy or stupid.

That said, Senator John Ensign, from Nevada, has publicly admitted to having an extramarital affair. For the purposes of this post, I’m not going to discuss the morality of that, or the degree to which a politician’s personal life should or should not be of concern to us. I am going to talk about the kind of senator John Ensign has been. Here are some facts:

  • Last year Senator Ensign, was rated the most conservative US senator by the national Journal magazine.
  • He and his wife, Darlene, were active for a time in Promise Keepers, a Christian evangelical ministry that promotes strong families and marriages.
  • He called for President Clinton’s resignation after the Monica Lewinsky affair.
  • He led the unsuccessful charge in 2007 to force Idaho Senator Larry Craig to resign from office after Craig was caught in a gay sex sting operation.
  • In 2004, in support of the Federal Marriage Amendment, Senator Ensign published a release titled “ENSIGN DEFENDS SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE ON SENATE FLOOR.

Right.

So here’s the thing. I’m starting to become doubtful. I think the louder a politician decries a thing, the more we should wonder about motive. And maybe, the more interested we should be in his/her personal life.

Oops. I forgot. I wasn’t going to get into that.

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And now for something completely different (or maybe not so different, actually)… A friend posted this recently on Facebook, and I think it’s funny and kind of amazing. Watch this cat totally missing the point of water conservation! http://bit.ly/vrFRr

Categories: politics and news
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Beyond ratings, there’s real (scary) life

June 11, 2009 · 20 Comments

In October, during the presidential election, when my blog was an infant, I wrote about being afraid. At that time, John McCain’s already negative campaign had begun to turn really nasty, and it was stirring up some very scary people. People who stood in the crowds at his rallies shouting “Kill him!” and “Terrorist!” I worried then that these people, riled up and spewing hate, might become violent, and McCain might not be able to stop what he had started.

In the past several days, two high-profile murders have been committed. Dr. George Tiller was killed at his church in Wichita by a man with ties to extremist anti-abortion groups, and Security Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns was shot in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum by a neo-Nazis, white supremist author of a 200-page book denying the Holocaust and praising Hitler. Its title?  Kill the Best Gentiles.

I’ve had such a strong, creepy sense of deja vu watching the coverage of these two events. It’s not McCain stirring up the crazies now, it’s the economy making people restless and afraid, and then the likes of Rush Limbaugh and everyone at Fox News praying on those fears.

Actually, not everyone at Fox news. Once again Shepard Smith (who impressed me before with his stance on terrorism) is the voice of reason on Fox. Watch him here talking about how email from viewers is getting more and more frightening.

In an attempt to seem relevant, the rhetoric on the right has been ratcheted up, and tragedy is ensuing. (Here is an excellent article by Joan Walsh of Salon.com about how extreme the right’s talking heads have become.) As was the case last October for John McCain (who finally did attempt to douse the fires he’d started), the time has come for people like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and Sean Hannity to think about the fringe groups who are listening to them. It’s time to stop worrying about ratings and start worrying about whether they can stop the lunatics they’ve stirred into action.

Categories: politics and news
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Just The Facts

June 3, 2009 · 8 Comments

So here’s how it usually works for me. Something will come up in the news, and for whatever reason, I’ll feel strongly. (I don’t need much of a reason to feel strongly. That’s how I’m made.) So, provoked, I’ll read about it voraciously, and then I’ll post about it here with all manner of links so you can check my sources and see that I am clearly right. I am nothing if not well cited.

I have been on that path with Sonia Sotomayor. At first it was just Obama’s introduction of her on the day he announced her nomination. His words (and then hers) so touched me that I started looking for more information about a woman who sounded remarkable to me. Then, Rush and O’Reilley and G. Gordon Liddy started talking and, well, outrage is a powerful motivator. In the file where I hold onto sources I intend to cite in a post, I have six articles and at least that many blog posts about Sonia Sotomayor.

Then yesterday, I read “Five Facts America Needs To Know About Sonia Sotomayor,” and I realized I had nothing to add. The post is by Katie Halper (co-founder of Laughing Liberally, a political comedy group) and though I’ve included the link, I am actually going to print her whole piece right here because it expresses my opinion precisely. And it’s short. And she does all the proper citing for me.

Ready? Here we go…

Meticulously anal pundits, like Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh, intellectual heavy weights Tom Tancredo, and ex-convict/current actor/ radio personality G. Gordon Liddy have exposed Judge Sotomayor for what she really is: a KKK-supporting, racist, menstruator/pre-menstruator who hates white people and speaks to aliens.

Sotomayors’ own beliefs confirm she is a Racist, Sexist, Elitist, Class-Warfare-Inciting Nazi. You be the judge!

  1. FACT: Sotomayor believes that Latinos’ Spanish is better than non-Latinos’.
  2. FACT: Sotomayor believes that women have more estrogen than men.
  3. FACT: Sotomayor believes that poor people have less money than rich people.
  4. FACT: Sotomayor is such a liberal elitist, she doesn’t just live in the North East of the country. The neighborhood she was born and raised in is on the East side of the Bronx. The Bronx is to the North of Manhattan. I’ll let you do the math.
  5. FACT: “Sotomayor” means “Hitler in Spanish.

There you have it. Just the facts.

My work here is done.

Categories: politics and news
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In Which J Plants a Vegetable Garden…

May 26, 2009 · 17 Comments

Part 1: A Digression

A digression before we even start! It must be Tuesday!

Every weekday morning, I wake up to NPR. Sometimes that’s a bad thing, filling my head, right off the bat, with images of fluish swine and economic boogie men, but today, Obama was introducing his Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor. If you missed it, here’s the video and here’s the transcript. I don’t know if she’ll make it through the confirmation process (though the analysts are saying it looks good, so I’m hopeful), but I do know that hearing Sonia Sotomayor’s story first thing this morning inspired me, made  me want to get up, start my day, grab hold of my life and my laptop and write something daring, something maybe just beyond my reach. How can that not be the best possible start for my day?

Part 2: The real reason we’re here… yard work!

Okay, so this weekend I was out in the yard, playing in the dirt. I never thought I’d be a gardener, and I guess it’s a stretch to call me a gardener now. I can’t name most of what I’ve planted, and let’s be honest. Most of what’s growing in my backyard, I didn’t put there. My backyard is a brilliant example of “life finds a way,” stuff popping up everywhere, unnamed and fierce. I let most of it stay. It’s survival of the fittest out there, the ivy (which I didn’t plant) battling it out with the jasmine (which I did), no holds barred.

I like that – the unexpected taking root. And there’s something else. I’ve discovered that when I’m out in the yard, pulling weeds or planting things, I’m as close to Zen as I can be. My mind empties; it’s just me and my movements and nothing else. I don’t write stories or contemplate characters. I don’t worry about the finances or whether my boys will think kindly of me when they look back on their childhoods. My mind doesn’t skip from one thing to the next in its usual frenetic way, it just gets quiet. Smooth. I watch my hands in the dirt and I think about nothing. It’s a tiny miracle in j-land.

And so, I’m planting a vegetable garden, something I never thought I’d do because gardening is boring and sedentary and something that old people do when they can no longer leap tall buildings in a single bound. I said to Chad recently, “I may have to admit that I like gardening.”

He said, “Why is that a hard thing to admit?”

I said, “I don’t know. It’s like admitting I like knitting or something.”

“You’re a funny girl,” he said.

So, now that I’m outed, the work has begun. Our garden has to be fenced off because Lexi is big and curious and clumsy. And she digs. Chad asked me what kind of fence I wanted and I rambled. “You know something cool. Not too cute. Not a picket fence. Something rustic. Not too country. Strong but not too imposing…” I guess my instructions were perfect because Chad built this.

backyard (3)

backyard (25)

Now, according to my research, ALL we have to do is pull everything that’s in there out (except for the tree and any of the plants that insist upon staying), break out the rototiller, put a bunch of organic supplements in our clay soil, sketch the area with dimensions and shade-to-sun ratio calculations, set up a calendar of planting and harvest dates, read entire books on our climate zone, note our ambient temperatures, wind patterns and the rate of arctic meltage, and conduct experiments (j-science!) in organic pest control. (Note: Did you know that  decollate snails don’t eat your plants but do eat plant-eating snails? Cool right? Just like the ivy and the  jasmine, the vegetable garden will be a battlefield, a dog-eat-dog, or snail-eat-snail, slow-motion eco-war waged while I sleep.)

Oh, yeah. And we’ll plant some stuff too. (Gardening thoughts, advice, condolences welcome!)

Categories: on my mind - NOW · politics and news
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Douchebags and Dreams

April 29, 2009 · 11 Comments

My friend sent me a link to a Huffpo article by David Roberts, Quit arguing with douchebags that everyone hates. So besides giving it the award for the best blog post title ever, I have to say that I absolutely loved this piece. It’s about how progressives keep arguing with crazy windbags like Rush and Newt rather than realizing, hey, WE won the election; THEY are largely irrelevant. (And crazy, too. Did I mention that?)

Roberts is smart, funny and reassuring, and I encourage you to read the piece, but it was his last paragraph that really got me thinking. He is talking about power – in this case, political, but it applies to all aspects of life. Here’s what he wrote:

Think back to when you were a marginalized nerd in high school. Yeah, you. Did the “popular kids” spend a lot of time arguing with you? Explaining why you were goofy and wrong? Getting upset when you said nerdy things? No. They paid no attention to you. Such are social hierarchies built and enforced. If you think public life is not just a larger version of the same thing — if you think it’s some kind of salon where the best facts and arguments win out — well, good luck.

Speaking in non-political terms now, I feel so empowered by this. It’s not like I haven’t heard it before. Ignoring bullies is age-old advice, but to have it put in context like this blew me away. They paid no attention to you. That is exactly right and in so doing, they had all the power. What if we simply refused to pay attention to the naysayers in our life? What if we refused to justify our passions, our dreams? What if we did what makes us happy or fulfilled or excited, and didn’t worry at all about what they say… better yet, didn’t even bother to hear it?

When I first started blogging, I worried whether anyone would read me. Then when people started reading me, I worried about how to hold onto them. I felt sort of apologetic and explanatory all the time (which takes the fun right out of a blog). Then finally, someone (two someones, actually) who love me said, “Just write. Honestly. In your voice. Don’t worry about anything, or anyone, else.” Every time I get nervous about a post, I tell myself those words. It’s made all the difference in the world. It’s like having an internal north-pointing compass.

It’s not the focus of David Roberts’s article, but it is an awesome take-away. I think when we stop arguing with the douchebags that everyone hates (or in kinder, broader terms) stop worrying so much what everyone else thinks, we become braver, more certain, less apologetic and explanatory. We shift the balance of power – back to ourselves.

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And now for something completely different… This is totally silly, but I thought it was funny. Find out what hairstyle you are. (ARE, not have.) I was pigtails (“fun loving, sweet, and cute; you radiate happiness and pure joy”). I was hoping for something a little more ironic, but the internet has spoken.

Categories: j'epiphanies · philosophy · politics and news
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If You Read My Post Backwards

April 8, 2009 · 10 Comments

I feel a little like Michael Corleone here – every time I try to get out, I get dragged back in. It’s been fun NOT blogging about politics. But I need one post to clear my head (and unclench my fists). Please bear with me.

A few days ago I commented on The Bread Line, a blog I really like that focuses mostly on Chicago politics. I said that even though Chicago had a reputation for rough and tumble, wild west style politics, it did produce our decidedly non-cowboy president. Someone commenting after me wrote a long piece about how Obama’s corruption may be less obvious but is more dangerous. The commenter concluded, “Anyway, I look forward to the day Obama is no longer in office. Bush was a much better president.”

A few weeks ago I received an email all about how Obama is leading us down a socialist path to Armageddon. It did not mention that his “socialist” policies were made necessary by an economy ruined under another administration’s (un)watchful eye. Instead, the email spoke of giant, evil conspiracies; God and guns; and a crazy, Mad-Max, post-apocalyptic future that would have been easier to dismiss if I wasn’t a little afraid of the people who believe it.

And now, this. Obama is the Anti-Christ. Rachel Maddow laughs at it, and I guess that’s what I should do too because, to me, it is laughable. (Not the part where faithful Christians are truly trying to interpret Revelations; I just disagree with them. But the part where scripture apparently says you’ll be able to identify the Anti-Christ by listening to what he says backwards.) I just can’t help feeling a little stunned that the man who led us into Iraq under false pretenses, sanctioned torture, and drove our economy off a cliff gets a free pass, while the man who is working tirelessly to bring the economy back, repair our international relationships, and refocus our attention on green technology, education and healthcare is somehow, in some crazy alternate reality, the bad guy.

Watch and weep laugh.

Categories: politics and news
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