Ramblings From the Ragged Crumbling Edge Of The Reality-Based Community

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Tramps Like Us At Teh Kennedy Center 

...back in the mid-1970's, there was a constant anthem providing the musical background to all those smoky Friday and Saturday nights that I and some of my friends were living in a couple of local college hangout bars in Moscow, Idaho. It was Bruce Springsteen - The Boss - along with the E Street Band that at one point or another during the night would be blaring out of the corner speakers, inviting us to draw a parallel between Asbury Park, NJ, and the relatively remote PacNW wheat-farmer/cowtown lives we were trying to escape.

Tonight, Springsteen and four other Giants (including Dave Brubeck, who informs another part of my musical life) will be honored at the Kennedy Center. I and my buddies are all mid-fifties curmudgeonly old farts now, but - even without calling them to verify their opinions - I can guarantee that this is what we would have wished those nights would have looked like:



(edited to make the obvious title change)
(and Clarence Clemons is still a God)
Posted by: Jack K. / 8:27 PM |

Friday, December 04, 2009

What The Start Of A Bad Day Looks Like 

...an on-call Portland, Orygun, police officer who lives in the somewhat far-flung suburb of Damascus walked out of his house yesterday morning and started his unmarked Portland Police Bureau (PPB) Chevy Impala to warm it up, went back inside to get his child, and came back out to find a warm spot on the driveway where his official police vehicle used to be...

The "good news" for the as-yet unnamed PPB officer is that the vehicle has been recovered elsewhere in Clackamas County (condition as yet unknown). The "BAD NEWS" for said unnamed PPB officer comes from the tenth page of this PPB document issued earlier this year under the signature of his boss, Portland Chief of Police Rosanne S. Sizer:
Never leave your car running or the keys in the ignition when you’re away from it, even for “just a minute.”

As a general rule, you can suspect right up front that any morning during which your car disappears from your driveway has all the makings for the start of a bad day. That particular fact aside, walking out the door to find an empty rectangle of melted frost on the driveway tracing out the spot where the city-owned vehicle that your boss says shouldn't ever be left idling unattended was left sitting idling unattended pretty much sends the message that you are about to have a Bad Day...

This is pretty much what "sucks to be you, man" looks like...
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:44 PM |

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

The New War Between The States 

...if the Evergreen State shared a border with Arkansas, there would be a border fence going up right now, complete with armed guard towers having interlocking fields of fire and crossing points staffed with National Guard rifle platoons. Thankfully for the beleaguered Washington taxpayers, they are separated from A Place Called Hope and all the rest by a couple of time zones and a good portion of fly-over country, so Washington Governor Christine Gregoire simply saw fit today to instruct the Dept. of Corrections to deny acceptance of any Arkansan parolee...

Arkansan corrections authorities, of course, are honoring the memory of former Governor Mike Huckabee by noting that they did nothing wrong in the instance of formerly alive alleged cop-killer Maurice Clemmons. They certainly understand how folks in Washington might be a bit miffed at that former governor's claim that a needless tragedy was cause in part by a failure of the Washington legal system, but as far as they are concerned they did everything by the book so none of this is their fault. The folks in Washington feel the same way, too, and I'm just enough of a parochial little PacNW hayseed to suspect that the Left Coasters may have prior claim to that particular high ground, because my admittedly biased reading of the various stories about Gregoire's order suggests that Washington state was facing a somewhat limited series of options because of the failure of Arkansas officials to take specific actions...

Having said that, there is clearly enough blame to go around regarding the question of why this guy was even walking the streets to begin with. None of it should detract from the plain fact that Mike Huckabee has once again proven that he is a dark, dangerous gift that keeps on giving in more ways than could ever be imagined...
Posted by: Jack K. / 8:18 PM |

Monday, November 30, 2009

When Which Critics Matter 

...for all it's many, many faults as a supposed journalistic enterprise, Politico can probably be forgiven today's effort regarding Mike Huckabee's prominent role in the killing of four police officers just down the road from Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base on Sunday. As a generally right wing mouthpiece that once every great long while is the blind pig finding an acorn, it is probably understandable that the Politico editors would focus on the spittle-flected outrage of Malkin and the RedState gang whose readers are its natural constituency. The reporting misses the point that a great many commentators on the left have expressed similar sentiments over the last 24 hours, but it tells the important story...

If you were hoping that there would come a moment where you didn't run the risk of stumbling across the Right Rev. Michael Huckabee pontificating all over your 46" 1080p screen in the unfortunate event that you stumbled across his FAUXNews program, that hope was dashed somewhere between his commuting the sentence of accused shooter Maurice Clemmons in 2000 and yesterday's tragedy. The fact that he created his own second "Willie Horton" moment (Wayne DuMond being the first) with his Clemmons clemency decision virtually guarantees that you will have Mike Huckabee to 'kick around' on the multimedia display screen of your choice for many years to come. And that is why the Politico focus on the winger outrage can be given a pass in this instance...

Mike Huckabee is done - seriously "stick a fork in him" done - as far as national, regional, or local political campaigning is concerned. Aside from the fact that not even the most ardent Pharisee winger conservatives in Spokane or Deer Park or Dayton or Ellensburg or any other conservative stronghold in Washington state would ever vote for him after that lame 'failure of the Washington judicial system' he trotted out today, the simple fact is that Mikey is toast with the Republican base. Those previously mentioned winger mouthpiece outlets are doing the work that lefties fearful of Huckabee's comfortable glibness could never hope to get done: they are tearing down whatever credibility Huckabee could ever hope to have as a serious candidate for national office as a clear result of his failure as the sort of 'law and order' kind of guy that the Republican base could get behind. These critics - and Politico - are showing a moment when which critics matter...
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:51 PM |

Monday, November 23, 2009

Wither Goest A Secular Nation? 

...there a plenty enough fascinating aspects to the current dispute between Congressman Patrick Kennedy and his Rhode Island diocese Bishop Thomas Tobin over Kennedy's support of abortion rights, but there are even more outside questions that are just as fascinating. As the story documents, public figures such as John Kerry and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius have run afoul of various segments of the Roman Catholic hierarchy over their support for a woman's right to control what happens to her body...

Clearly, the biggest immediate issue is the effort of a religious entity to to control the actions of public officials who have roles to play in the conduct of a secular government established by a secular Constitution. While there are any number of Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Southern Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Mormons, Unitarians, Brethren, and others who are in one way or another involved in one or another of the three branches of Federal governance, none of them have any claim to the steering wheel, especially given that the Constitution of the United States doesn't grant any one or all of them any particular priority of importance. In fact, that guiding document specifically proscribes the involvement of any of these sects in governance, and there was a particular wisdom in that decision by the Founding Fathers transcending the somewhat more limited span of religious perspectives of the day than what we know in these times...

We live in a complex society, and the fact that the Roman Catholic leadership can find congress with Southern Baptists on any subject at all is a perfect example of how crazy religious alliances can be and why governance should rightfully be secular. It's all well and good that the supposedly celibate Catholic leadership can come together with the wingnut Pharisee Republican base (where "Pope" = "Antichrist") to oppose the right for a woman to have a say over her reproductive choices to the point that The Church will deny the Eucharist to those public officials who fall short of its expectations, but somewhere down the road the issues of "just war" and the death penalty are going to mess up this comfy alliance and somebody is going to get poked in the eye and THEN where are you gonna be, Mr. Smartypants [/everymom]...

A more interesting set of questions in the face of this effort by The Church to influence secular public policy is that set of questions involving the composition of the Supreme Court of the United States. Six of the nine Justices are adherents to the Roman Catholic Church. Will any one or all of them be denied the Eucharist if they are to find that the US Constitution supports the idea of abortion? How does the Church-constructed threat to one's eternal soul at the risk of a Church-disapproved decision influence members of the judiciary who are obliged to render judgments in a secular setting? OK, so this is a pretty theoretical venue because we know how Scalia and those two Bushco backbenchers are going to vote - and Clarence Thomas is going to do whatever Fat Tony says in any case, but the Kennedy/Kerry/Sebelius experience raises some interesting issues regarding adherence to the First Amendment and the protections of the rights of those of us who don't want to be subject to the specific teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. My man Martin Luther started the Reformation over the selling of indulgences by Catholic leaders; the risk we run as a secular nation now is the specter of the Roman Catholic Church turning from the the retail sale of salvation to a more reliable act of extortion. What the Bishop in this Kennedy case is doing is nothing less than threatening a public official responsible for nonreligious crafting and administration of public law with eternal separation from his spiritual foundation because of actions taken on behalf of a population that in large part - if pure evidence is any judge - doesn't want to live in a Roman Catholic theocracy...

This all certainly does raise questions about how - or even if - we can live as a secular nation free from the influence of any particular religious sect...
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:21 PM |

Friday, November 20, 2009

And Yet Another Example Of Wingnut Craziness 

...it probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but the suggestion offered by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver to have November 25 - the day before Thanksgiving - commemorated by Congressional Resolution as "Complaint Free Wednesday" demonstrated that A) it is a fool's errand to underestimate the fervor with which the winger right will cling to the only strategy that it has these days and, II) some members of the Pharisee component of the wingnut Right should either abandon their pretense of connection to Christianity or start reading their Bibles a little more closely to at least make a show of trying to catch up with the rest of us...but more on that in a moment...

Rep. Cleaver's resolution would seem, on the one hand, to be just a little bit of overkill. After all, the very next day is generally designated by cultural fiat to be intended to serve a similar purpose. Aside from the grim reality of a Cleveland Browns/Detroit Lions game being this year's pre-feast football entertainment, we all are supposed to understand that this is the day where we assess those temporal blessings that we do have, however few they may be, and be thankful for them. On the other hand, it is arguable that a separate day set aside to just simply not complain and instead take stock of the ledger of one's life in preparation for a celebration of thanks (aside from that Browns/Lions matchup, of course) is a moment unto itself that is worthy of consideration. The two events that anchor the Christian calender - Christmas and Easter - have precursor days that set up the theme of those events (Christmas Eve and Maundy Thursday/Good Friday). Why can't a secular holiday like Thanksgiving have a precursor day, too?

The apparent answer from the right wing, if the response to Rep. Cleaver's suggestion is an accurate reflection (and there's no history to argue that it isn't), is a resounding "NO". The 'outraged response' quotes in the story are instructive in their own right, demonstrating beyond any question that an otherwise unobservant public might have that the whining is a strategy rather than a response. What is even more instructive, however, is this sort of comment:
"I want you to show me where in the Bible it says I shouldn't complain. I haven't seen anything where Jesus asked us not to complain."

It's actually a little disappointing to see the failure of a Methodist minister to offer a more robust rebuttal of this misguided wingnut argument. "The Bible" actually has a couple of examples of situations where Jesus by word or parable told those around him (and presumably us, by inference) to not complain:

The parable of the vineyard workers recorded in Matthew 20: 1-16

Jesus dining with "the sinner" Zacchaeus the tax collector in Luke 19: 1-9

The parable of the lost son in Luke 15: 11 - 32

And, of course, various parts of the Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew , such as Matt. 5: 5 and 5: 9, along with Matt 7: 1-6

If you claim that you can't find anywhere in the Bible where Jesus in one way or another told you not to complain, you might want to consider going out and buying a Bible so you can actually read it...
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:20 PM |

Friday, November 13, 2009

Playing The Rubes 

...there has been a lot of commentary today about the revelation that the Republican National Committee has, for the better part of the last two decades, offered its employees a health care plan that included coverage for elective abortions, even though the RNC has opposed this particular concept since just after God made dirt. What all of the winger outrage and the wild flailing of RNC Chairman Michael Steele's efforts at damage control, one fact simply refuses to disappear...

The Republican National Committee knew - or should have known - what was covered by the insurance plan that it contracted with CIGNA to provide. It is simply impossible to believe that the RNC has been such a slipshod organization over the last two decades that it wasn't capable of engaging in the simplest act of actually reading up on the terms and conditions of the employee health care plan that it was paying for. The last eight Bushco years clearly demonstrated that the people who had their hands on the wheel of the Republican party weren't interested in doing much more than paying lip service to the concerns of the Republican "base", and it may even go deeper than that. What we know is that this elective abortion coverage goes as far back as the administration of George H. W. Bush; what we don't know is how much farther back the coverage extends...


For any social conservative who understands the presentation of health care plans and who can do the math, this has to be a really bad day. At the very least, today's revelation says that the Republican leadership is insufficiently sophisticated and informed about health care issues to be trusted with making the big decisions that actually matter; at the worst, today's revelation demonstrates that the RNC has been playing its base for rubes for the last 18 years by making all sorts of anti-choice noise while at the same time offering its own employees the sort of health benefit that only liberals - and the majority of Americans - could love....

Based on the rhetorical history alone, it is impossible to contemplate a Republican party leadership that doesn't know exactly what is in the health care plan for its National Committee employees. That's what makes this such a great story; they knew. They've always known, even back in 1991. From then until now, the reality-based branch of the Republican party has been reflected in the health care plan offered to RNC employees and it is only now that the wingnut Tea-Bagger branch that has recently decided that it is destined to be the salvation of the Grand Old Party has discovered the truth about the national committee...

They're all rubes....
Posted by: Jack K. / 9:27 PM |

DARN That Librul Media! 

...any whining you may have heard in the past from Moose Hunt Barbie about the vicious partisan attacks launched against her by that left wing harpy Katie Couric or the supercilious dismissiveness of the well-known Commie fellow traveler Charlie "In What Way" Gibson is about to be joined by a new round of whining about this mean-spirited partisan hatchet job just administered by those Socialist lackey fact-checkers at the Associated Press...

The notion that Palin might take the opportunity in her new ghost-written autobiography (or manifesto or fantasy tome or quasi-historical novel or whatever it is) to stretch, twist, and hammer previously recognizable facts into some dark one-off doppelgänger of the truth shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone who has been more than a casual observer to this strange trailer trash soap opera to which we've been subjected over the last 15 months. Mishandling facts has been an occupational disease afflicting politicians of all stripes on this continent that may well date back to the first efforts of the Clovis people to elect clan leaders, but it has seemed to pass from avocation to vocation for politicians like Palin and others in this generation of Fox News Republicans who have come to understand that "The Message" is the 'truth' for The Base, regardless of what the truth actually is. Even beyond that, this right wing Fox News generation has had a pretty good run on the national media stage, where every absurd commentary and insane statement has been reported by the MSM in a straightforward fashion as if any of these ramblings actually had traction with a meaningful percentage of the population - which, in almost every case - they didn't...

It's actually a bit of a surprise that the AP has engaged in this bit of fact-checking, given the fact that its own Washington bureau has struggled mightily over the last 18 months (and has far too often failed) to stand up straight enough for the top of its collective head to hit the "You Must Be This Tall" line on the sign next to the entrance to the Edward R. Murrow Memorial Room Of Big Boy Fourth Estate Journalism. For whatever reason, though, the AP did actually slap on that Groucho Marx false nose and eyeglass disguise to trick the book distributor into giving it a pre-release copy of Palin's book, saving you and me from the grim prospect of actually having to sacrifice a good 45 minutes of our remaining time on earth sitting in a quiet corner of our local Big Box Book Store paging through this book before slipping it back onto the "New Release" display, only slightly worse for wear (after all, somebody has to do that whole 'book break-in' thing for all those wingers unfamiliar with the concept). For that effort, I'm grateful to the AP, even though I suspect that the effort is little more than snatching at low-hanging fruit rather than some sort of sea change in how the AP views its responsibility as a journalistic endeavor. After all, how do the Powers That Be at the Associated Press explain their general failure to so publicly fact-check the works of Ann Coulter back in the day when she actually seemed to matter?

The AP is going to find itself flung into the Flaming Pits Of Hell into which all liberals - especially including all members of the media who don't have right wing talk show cred, despite a history of uncritical reporting of right wing swill - will be sent when the True Believers finally gain ascendency. The AP certainly doesn't deserve such a horrible fate - based on the overall body of its faithful work - but this particular fact-checking moment challenges the Sarah Palin story line in which the crazy side of winger world is so strongly invested, so the AP will have to live with the ignomny of being part of that ugly hateful librul media...at least for now...
Posted by: Jack K. / 6:08 PM |

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