She's Back (Christine, the Teenage Witch, that is)

See link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/08/christine-odonnell-christinepac-gop-george-soros_n_820381.html

She has set up ChristinePAC, to help her fight "establishment" Repubs, and George Soros too. Maybe also to help her pay her rent?

She who must not be named

So. Sarah Pain has trade-marked herself. While that might make sense for Bristol Palin, it is un-democratic and possibly (hopefully) self-defeating for Sarah Palin.

It is un-democratic because she will try to restrict who, when, and how people talk and write about her. Imagine Tina Fey getting sued for damaging the Palin "brand."

It is self-defeating because, well, why would any pol want to generate questions about when it is appropriate to use her name?

Here is a modest suggestion: stop using her name, period. If she wants to restrict how her "trade mark" is used in a free society that she aspires to lead, let's go her one better and stop using the name all together.

SWMNBN (She Who Must Not Be Named) is a good handle. We could even pronounce it "swim nubbin." That has a folksy feel to it.

What a Speech Evokes

In last night's State of the Union Speech, President Obama evoked the American spirit with the words "We do big things." It was poignant because it was true -- and it may be true again.

The President hit the nail on the head last night. We do big things. It is our legacy, our birthright. But, we have had a national case of the grumps that seems as much the result of constipated imaginations as any financial or spiritual failings.

I'd ask you to think big again, dream big and do big if you can. And remember and honor those whose big things are today known as the United States of America.

In 1943, Stephen Vincent Benet published the first volume of what he meant to be an epic poem of the nation's founding and settling, Western Star. Benet died before he could finish the work. He was warded a Pulitzer Prize posthumously for the first volume.

From the Invocation to Western Star, he offers these lines, an elegy for those who came here--and were here.

You shall remember them. You shall not see

Water or wheat or axe-mark on the tree

And not remember them.

You shall not win without remembering them,

For they won every shadow of the moon,

All the vast shadows, and you shall not lose

Without a dark remembrance of their loss

For they lost all and none remembered them.

Hear the wind

Blow through the buffalo-grass,

Blow over the wild-grape and brier.

This was frontier, and this,

And this, your house, was frontier.

There were footprints on the hill

And men lie buried under,

Tamers of earth and river.

They died at the end of labor,

Forgotten is the name.

Now, in full summer, by the Eastern shore,

Between the seamark and the roads going west,

I call two oceans to remember them.

I fill the hollow darkness with their names.

There is much, much more. The poem is well worth a trip to the library. And, as we are called back to our destinies, it is worth remembering those who answered their calls long -- and not so long -- ago.

Sunday morning musings

One of my favorite books in Only Yesterday by Frederick Lewis Allen, who was the editor of Harper's and The Atlantic. Allen wrote a contemporaneous account of the 1920s, and an excellent analysis of the Big Bull Market of 1928 and 1929, and its crash on September 3rd, 1929.

I have known for years that Allen wrote a volume on the 1930s, titled Since Yesterday, and thanks to the magic of e-reading and the Internet, I down-loaded it yesterday and started reading.

In the book, Allen takes another look at the Big Bull market and the crash, and with hindsight not available to him in Only Yesterday, he analyzes the Little Bull Market that followed in the winter of 1929 and 1930 , President Hoover's performance, Congress's behavior, and the attitudes of the well-to-do. It is, in a word, fascinating -- and scary.

Economists and historians of the crash often assure us that the parallels between the crash of 1929 and what is happening now are more imagined than real. Perhaps. But there are similarities that should give anyone caution. Great caution.

In 1929, unregulated financiers rigged a system that was guaranteed to collapse. They allowed -- encouraged -- margin buying in the stock market and extended credit to anyone who could ask for it. When the stock market hit snags - -as any market will -- the margin calls wiped out the overextended buyers, sent prices crashing and set off waves of other calls and sales. In the years leading up to the collapse of 2008 and 2009, people who had no business purchasing houses and real-estate valued far above their means to pay, were encouraged to line up for the asset that "never loses value" -- until it does.

Starting in 1980 and really taking off after the Repubs took control of the House and Senate in 1994, American finance has been characterized by the dialectic of privatizing profit and socializing risk. As taxpayers, Americans are on the hook to make up for wreckage caused by out of control and unaccountable financiers. The financiers, on the other hand, have insisted that anything that curtails their greed, such as paying taxes, is bad for America.

Actually, tax policy for the last two decades has worked against Americans investing in their own businesses in their own country. But the financiers -- and their Repub partners -- push on, insisting that tax cuts (particularly capital gains tax cuts) are just the thing for stimulating a slow economy, moderating an over-heating economy, jump-starting a stalled economy, or sustaining a booming economy. To listen to them tax-cuts will also cure the common cold.

What we know now -- after fighting two wars for 10 years, and giving out huge tax-cuts -- is that we are broke, in hock to other countries, and have the greatest income disparity we have seen in over 100 years. In 2000, much was made of Karl Rove's appreciation of William McKinley's policies and William McKinley's America. Rove has just about gotten us back there.

And what of the current President? When Barack Obama appeared on the national stage in 2004, I liked him. I liked him through the next 4 years and supported him whole-heartedly for President in 2008. All the while however, I had a nagging concern that he could be a Jimmy Carter; intelligent, far-sighted, and far better equipped to manage than lead. As I read Since Yesterday, it occurs to me that that description also applied to Herbert Hoover -- and in this economic instance, that is not an encouraging thought.

Hoover did his best after the crash and as the economy sludged to a stop in 1930 and 1931. Some of his programs to resolve the savagery of the depression became features of the New Deal. But Hoover did too little, too late. And I find the parallels with Obama frightening.

Hoover offered platitudes and reassurance that all would be well. Roosevelt offered assurance that we could overcome our troubles if we were willing to take the chances and make the changes needed.

Roosevelt had a Congress that was ready to do whatever it took, at first. In the later years of his administrations, the Congresses were more fractious. Obama had a more cautious Congress, but has missed multiple opportunities to call the Repub's bluffs. He has tried to hard to be be bi-partisan -- as if that were an end unto itself -- when he should have called Repub tactics for what they are; holding a gun to the head of the American people.

President Obama finally called the tactics for what they were when he called them "hostage-taking" -- as he pushed Democrats to accept the compromise he had just struck with the hostage-takers.

It may be that the tax compromise is a good thing. I suspect it is a trap. If Obama is to avoid the trap, and Hoover-dom, he will have to come out of the corner in this next round as the FDR we hoped he might be on a January morning in 2009.

Inconceivable!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/17/house-republicans-block-child-marriage-prevention-act_n_798382.html

The House Repubs -- perhaps in a show of things to come -- defeated in a near party-line vote, a measure meant to combat child marriages. The measure passed unanimously in the Senate, but the House Repubs were having none of it. They cited cost as the reason, until one of their own (and one of the few who supported the measure) noted that there would be no additional costs, the money would be redirected from other expenditures. Then it was about "abortion," because the bill might result in some NGOs who support abortions getting funds. Again, the Republican supporter and sponsor scoffed (see link above).

Here is an explanation for consideration: The House Repubs pride themselves on being close to "the people" -- unlike their out of touch, hoity-toity Senate colleagues. Do some of the the people they are in touch with include folks who think they have a right to rape children? Do they vote in primaries? Do the House Repubs know shame?

Whose "Derangement Syndrome" is worse

I started this post in July of this year. I'm not sure why I didn't finish it then. But in the cold dawn (or early morning) after the mid-terms, it is time to wrap it up.

I am told that Bush Derangement Syndrome has given way to Obama Derangement Syndrome -- and they they are equally bad -- or equally meaningless. Or, that the Obama Derangement Syndrome is just payback for Bush Derangement Syndrome; which was really payback for Clinton Derangement Syndrome, and it doesn't really matter because "they all do it."

For the record, I think it does matter, I think the various syndromes are not the same, and I think "They all do it" is one of the worst lies perpetuated on the American people in many a year.

One of the worst problems we have in this country is that most voters have abdicated their responsibilities as voters. When less than 20 percent of registered party voters participate in primaries, they surrender their parties to the extremists and wing-nuts. Then they complain about the candidates they are stuck with, and about political polarization, and bemoan the value of participating in the process at all.

Who benefits from such cynicism? The extremists, or the special interests that manipulate the special interests? You decide.

Are the folks that hate Obama just paying the Democrats back for the way the Democrats treated Bush? And didn't the Democrats make Bush's life miserable as payback for the way Republicans treated Clinton? I think not.

A lot of Democrats were upset at how the 2000 election turned out, and a lot of them intended to use the ambiguity of Bush's election to their favor in 2004. But I don't remember many of them expressing a desire that Bush fail in his duties as President; certainly not in the manner that Mitch McConnell or John Boehner have done in Obama's case -- leave aside the "patriots" of Fox news who are paid bomb-throwers.

I also remember that Democrats rallied to President Bush's side after 9/11, and stayed there until the 2002 election when Rove and company used fear and loathing as synonyms for patriotism. (where I left off...)

Since 1968 the Republicans have demonized their opponents as un-American, treasonous, god-less, etcetera, as a staple campaign strategy. The Democrats have challenged Republicans' view of America, and what a "City on the hill" should look like to its followers, but they have not -- as a matter of routine -- challenged their fitness to live amongst us.

It isn't the same and they don't all do it. One party has chosen to divide the country. The other tries, however ineffectually, to make the country work. Or to put it another way, the Democratic Party wants to govern, the Republican party wants to win.

It isn't hard to choose which one is better for the country -- if you happen to love America.

Denis Pictures

This rather lonely and abandoned house in Martinsburg, WV just seemed to be calling out to have its picture taken.

Colorado October 2010

Flatirons, from Chautauqua Park, Boulder, CO

One view of the Flatirons...

Halltown Memorial Chapel, Halltown, WV

This is a tiny private chapel between Charlestown and Harper's Ferry, WV

St Barnabas Episcopal Church, Leetown WV

St John's Lutheran Church, Davis WV

More in a series of country church photos....

Ballooning, near Boulder, CO

St Malo Chapel, near Estes Park, CO

St Malo Chapel, near Estes Park, CO

St Malo Chapel, near Estes Park, CO

St Malo Visitor Center, near Estes Park, CO

10 Things You Must Believe to Oppose Health Care

A friend sent me the following in an email. It is a great example of the cognitive dissonance that has taken over the Republican Party and is too good not to pass on:

In order to oppose Universal Health Care (UHC) and support Corporate Profit Based Health Care (CPBHC), you have to believe the following statements to be true:

1. With my private insurer, I can select any doctor I want and there is no one between my doctor and me when it comes to decisions My doctor does not have to consult with my insurance provider to see what medications or procedures are allowed. I can get whatever my doctor and I want, whenever I want it and where ever I want it. It is only with UHC that someone is in between me and my doctor. It is only with UHC that I am limited to my selection of doctors.

2. The poor citizens of Appalachia who stood in the rain for hours to receive limited health care from compassionate doctors and nurses who examined them in animal stalls because there were no suitable medical locations nearby, were receiving "The Best Health Care in The World".

3. The family that goes into bankruptcy because one of their members is gravely ill and their insurer denies payment because of a technically in the fine print, are also getting the "Best Health Care in the World".

4. Hospitals spend millions of dollars a year advertising their services to us because they want us to know where to go when we get sick. These millions of dollars are not added to the cost of our hospital visit. We ought to do the same with our police and fire departments.

5. Drug companies also spend billions of dollars a year in marketing (more than they do in research) because they want us to remember what medication we should take when we are ill and these billions of dollars are not figured into the cost of the medication.

6. The citizens of Germany, France, Canada, Belgium, The UK, Norway, Portugal, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Austria, and others with UHC have awfulmedical care but they are not allowed to protest it and their systems of democracy forbid these people from electing representatives in government to overturn UHC and switch to CPBHC.

7. The medical and insurance corporations in the USA are spending a million dollars a day to lobby against UHC because they really care about our health and they know their system is better for us. It has nothing to do with protecting their massive corporate profits.

8. Medical and insurance corporations care about their customers first and their investors second. Every medical and insurance corporation in America puts a patient's health ahead of the interests of the shareholders. All of them. They are saints. Money means nothing to them.

9. We need to end Medicare and Medicaid and VA hospitals immediately.

10. All of the studies from all of the research of all of the nations with UHC that prove that they spend less and live longer, are lies. All of them. It's a conspiracy.

I have been a fan of John Stewart. Not the Jon Stewart of Comedy Central, but the John Stewart of Signals Through the Glass, California Bloodlines, The Lonesome Picker Rides Again, Wingless Angels, etc. I have just finished listening to the last album he recorded before his death in January 2008, The Day the River Sang.

As with all his albums, John Stewart reminded us of an America that we remember faintly in the past and dearly hope still exists. His songs often had contemporary themes, but he presented them through eyes, voice, and values that have grown rare.

His look backward was wistful, never revanchist. John loved Bobby Kennedy, campaigned with him up and down the valleys and coasts of California, and was with him that night in the Ambassador hotel. He never lost the hope for and love of America that he shared with Bobby--and so many of us--that summer. Even when he sang of contemporary tragedy--as in the amazing "New Orleans"--which mourns the city's loss after Katrina, he knows we will come back. And we know it too, as a result.

I am writing this tonight because, until a couple of weeks ago, I did not know we had lost his voice. We have his songs still, but that most American voice is gone. I used to follow him around the Denver area in the early 70s, catching his performances whenever I could. Somewhere along the line I got too busy to look up his concert schedule. Even when he regularly appeared at the Birchmere, a mere 90 minutes from my house. Then he was gone.

I remember John in his 40s, tough, rowdy. In his last appearances (I looked them up on YouTube) he was an old man in failing health but still writing, recording and performing. His voice was still real, if not so strong. I feel older and America is poorer for his absence.

Paynes Chapel

One of my hobbies is photographing litttle country churches. Where I live--in West Virginia's eastern panhandle--means I have a lot of photo opportunities.

This is Paynes Chapel, near Ridgeway, West Virginia.