litbrit

More teabagging goodness: the I'm so glad irony didn't live to see this* edition

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:44:00 +0000

When it comes to the epic (and terribly comic) ongoing disaster known as the Teabagging Express, this Thursday's tiny tantrum in St. Petersburg represented but the tip of the iceburg, it seems. At the Main Event in Washington, DC, a much larger pro-freedom-agenda gang managed to topple Old Glory; meanwhile, their erstwhile leaders botched the Pledge of Allegiance, and confused the Constitution with the Declaration of Independence. A semi-sane person, had one been present, might have assessed the damage to cause and reputation alike and decided to call things off in the interests of cutting losses, etcetera, etcetera.

Had one been present, being the operative phrase. Because--surprise!--one wasn't. OH no, no sanity allowed, sorry--no no no (hey, we're the party of it!)--that evil, science-based "sanity" stuff is much too centrist and traitorous, too popular with the liberal elite, and too anti-pro-freedom for that particular crowd.

So yes, to get to the point here, the show rolled on, and there was, as you'd expect, more. So much more (emphasis mine):

More ominously, a man standing just beyond the TV cameras apparently suffered a heart attack 20 minutes after event began. Medical personnel from the Capitol physician's office -- an entity that could, quite accurately, be labeled government-run health care -- rushed over, attaching electrodes to his chest and giving him oxygen and an IV drip.

This turned into an unwanted visual for the speakers, as a D.C. ambulance and firetruck, lights flashing, pulled in just behind the lawmakers. A path was made through the media section, and the patient, attended to by about 10 government medical personnel, was being wheeled away on a stretcher just as House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) stepped to the microphone. "Join us in defeating Pelosi care!" he exhorted. A few members stole a glance at the stretcher. Boehner may have been distracted as well. He told the crowd he would read from the Constitution, then read the "we hold these truths" bit from the Declaration of Independence.

[...]

By the time it was over, medics had administered government-run health care to at least five people in the crowd who were stricken as they denounced government-run health care. But Bachmann overlooked this irony as she said farewell to her recruits.

"You," she said, "are the most beautiful sight any of us freedom fighters have seen for a long time."

(H/T Shadowfax)

* this line belongs to the awesome Doghouse Riley (if memory serves.)

The view (and racket) outside my window: St. Petersburg teabaggers attend party of NO class

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:11:00 +0000

A couple of hours ago, a chorus of beeping horns and argumentative shouting emanating from the street below penetrated my apartment building's 80+ -year-old concrete-and-steel walls and made it difficult to concentrate on the letter I was trying to write.

Hmm...strange.

There were no emergency vehicle sirens (as there are right now).

Probably someone standing in the middle of Central, holding up traffic and ranting about the latest alien sighting or something, I thought.

Fifteen minutes passed; the noise only intensified. Boy, this guy's stubborn.

Eventually, my curiosity got the better of me and I went to the window, opened the blinds, and looked across the street. This is what I saw:

And as if the din of car horns and shouts--both supportive and oppositional--wasn't loud enough, the modest-sized St. Petersburg chapter of The Michelle Bachmann Invitational Teabagging FreedomChantFest put on their best off-key tavern voices and howled God Bless America, threatening the integrity of nearby glass curtain walls, traumatizing poor Marley the Cat, and leading this writer to wish that God would indeed bless at least this part of America and call forth one of those wonderfully sudden cloudbursts for which Florida is famous.

No such luck.

The sky couldn't have been bluer, and the teabaggers seemed happily oblivious to the anti-pro-freedom people of the Socialist Fascist Republic of Democrat Healthcare, responding to the odd appreciative beep with a wave of the flag or a flutter of the sign.

They're clearly ignorant about matters sociopolitical, but at least the St. Pete Teabaggers can spell. (Assuming these folks actually live in St. Pete, of course.)

Unsurprisingly, the teabaggers didn't offer any solutions--or even an idea for a solution or a brainstormed theory that might, given enough debate, turn into an idea for a solution--for the healthcare crisis and runaway costs that currently account for nearly two-thirds of the nation's bankruptcy filings. They sure were fond of one monosyllabic word, though:

~~воспрещаться~~ ~~Kein~~ NOOOOOOOOOOOO! We are the party of it!

And then there were these senior citizens, and theirs were the signs I found to be most confusing of all: they're simultaneously insisting--nay, demanding--that government not take over their healthcare, even as government, insofar as I'm aware, continues to run (and fund) Medicare, the very, very popular health insurance program for American senior citizens that was signed into law by President Johnson in 1965; the social insurance program these gentlefolk apparently want preserved as hands off.

Okay, then.

I suppose I could've done the right thing, saved them from any further embarrassment, and, er, corrected them--after all, I can do Liberal Fortissimo Con Brio pretty impressively when the spirit moves me, and hell, they were just across the street, six floors down. But I started having visions of the old country, with Pythonesque peasant-wives screeching from upstairs windows as the cart clattered along the cobblestones, its driver repeatedly droning, Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!

Not wanting to assume a position in that disturbing (and perhaps comic) mise en scène, I closed my window and opened my laptop instead.

Also at Cogitamus.

Five Wild Things on Where the Wild Things Are

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:39:00 +0000

Litbrit and Son One*, at age five, in 1997.

"There are different ways to read the Wild Things, through a Freudian or colonialist prism, and probably as many ways to ruin this delicate story of a solitary child liberated by his imagination."--Manola Darghis, NYT

Son Three, (age 10):

One part made me embarrassed: when they threw dirt clods at each other. Because I thought that was fun...wait, maybe I was too old for this movie. I shouldn't think that was funny, but I did.

My favorite part was when Max was running and rolling around with his dog, at the beginning.

No, wait, I also liked when Carol showed Max the beautiful village that he made, with all the little people and the mountains. It reminded me of Max's Lego village. Oh, and also, that snow village I made for you, Mama. And the saddest part was when Carol destroyed all of that. I felt the saddest of all at the end of the movie, because I wanted Max's adventure to go on more and more. I wanted to stay with Max and the monsters forever.

Son Two (age 13):

My favorite part was when they built that massive fort. And how they made a system of underground tunnels that showed there was more going on than just what you saw on the surface. To me, the monsters represented Max's friends--he had no friends at home; his sister was a total jerk to him and told him to go play with friends when she knew he didn't have any friends; and here were these monsters who loved him and made him king. I thought two of the monsters were most important to Max. Carol felt like Max was a lot like him, in a way at least, and they trusted each other right away. The other one was KW, who was always nice to him, and seemed to understand him, but Carol did not seem to like KW, which was really about him not being able to express his feelings to her, so it was easier to just act as though he didn't like her and to shut her out.

I thought KW's owls were like yin and yang, wisdom and doubt. They were two sides of the same person, really--isn't that how yin and yang work, Mama? [Yes, my darling.]

I thought it was really sad how Max's mother and sister treated him. Claire [Max's sister] let her friends hurt him and when they completely destroyed his igloo, she didn't do anything about it and went off with them as though nothing bad had happened. She didn't seem to care, well, maybe for a moment, but she went off with them anyway. I found it really sad when Max left at the end and they were all howling together as his boat sailed off--well, not sad, but moving, definitely. He knew he had the monsters as friends now, that they were there, but that he also had his mother and his sister waiting for him.

I loved how the bond between Max and the monsters grew as the movie went on. At first, they were afraid of each other and suspicious, but by the end, they all loved each other even though they fought. They loved and also accepted each other.

I think Max felt completely different at the end of the movie than he did at the beginning. The monsters eventually loved him for who he was, not for his attitude or him pretending to be a king or anything. It didn't really make sense at first, because the monsters were destroying everything randomly and Max was destroying stuff too, but then they went from destroying to creating, and everyone pitched in and came together.

The image that sticks with me the most is that scene where they're walking through the meadow with the floating pink flowers [apple blossoms] and Carol was telling Max that the world was his, but okay, not that twig. And not that rock. Not everything.

Son One* (age 17):

This is the kind of movie that you just can't talk about. Okay? If you talk about it, you've missed the whole point of the movie.

Mr. litbrit aka Roberto (age 54):

My favorite image was...hmm...it would have to be the pile where they [Max and the various monsters] all sleep together. Because they were all looking for a sense of security and belonging and they found it with each other, even if it was temporary. That moment you can feel complete trust for another, and togetherness, that's when you can sleep like that, in a pile.

In fact, that's something I really appreciated about the film, how Max's dream--his subconscious journeys--reflected elements from his real life. Max sleeping with his monsters--himself--in a pile recalled the piles of stuffed animals he slept with in real life, back at his house. The tiny, intricate worlds that Carol built and was so proud to show Max--those were pretty similar to the little worlds Max built for himself in his room and outside, in the snowy yard.

Early on, I liked the "Let the wild rumpus start!" part, because that was such a typical moment for boys, when we let go and release energy and have fun. The thunderous sound effects, the balls-to-the-wall brawling and physical contact, the way the monsters flew through the air like missiles, and the way things crunched and thudded and slammed--those were so real to anyone who's ever been a boy, you know? That's how we guys behave when you women aren't looking, and sometimes when you are.

I loved the look on Max's face when Carol showed him his special village, with the flowing water and the tiny creatures, and I completely related to that sense of wonder at making a whole world, just for yourself.

I also related to the moment where KW threw the rocks at the owls, and you thought they were dead but no, they were fine; that's something hard to explain but little boys do feel that, the impulse to do something unexplainable without realizing you might hurt someone or something. The lack of awareness that there are consequences. I also related to, but at the same time regretted, those impulses in the mud-clod fight scene. The glee on the faces of Max as the Bad Guys flew into the air; the way everyone turned on the goat monster when he said he'd had enough--okay, here was the weak guy: let's get him! Boys understand this--it doesn't make it right, but it's something we can understand really well.

Deborah (aka litbrit, age 49):

First and foremost, I am compelled to say that Where the Wild Things Are, which I watched through a membrane of memory and tears, is a masterpiece. That much is certain, as well as this: Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers** are geniuses. Now, I'm not at all sure that this intense movie would have resonated with the six-year-olds to whom, at various points in my journey as a mother to three, I read Maurice Sendak's masterpiece in book form. Nonetheless, Wild Things has unquestionably and deservedly earned a position on my Top-Ten Movies of All Time list. Oh my goodness, readers, go and see this lovely and affecting film. Please. Please go and see it.

As in Sendak's book, the movie Max is an imaginative, creative, and deeply lonely boy. He is an outsider, a solitary figure who finds affinity and thrill in the tunnels, forts, and hideaways he creates from his frozen surroundings and mountains of stuffed animals. And people don't get him. No, Max isn't physically hurt when his sister's friends destroy his igloo-fort--he's devastated; he's enraged. And his tears are less a momentary show or tantrum than a moving, troubling firestorm of anger, indignation, humiliation, and loss.

It was at this point that my tears began flowing with gusto, and I simply gave up trying to contain them. Son Three, who sat next to me as he is wont to do, quietly pushed up the armrest that separated us, leaned into me, and clasped my hand for the following hour.

As book-Max does, movie-Max runs away from his pain and anger. His dark and gorgeous imagination takes him on a journey wherein we, the lucky viewers, are brought face-to-face with the embodiments of Max's various demons--his monsters. And oh, what wondrous and inspiring monsters they are.

I don't want to say too much more, other than this: please see this lovely, lyrical film. If you've ever been--or loved--a creative child, it will resonate with you like no other movie in recent memory.

* Son One is now seventeen. He still won't talk about this film, and it has been a week now.

** Full disclosure: I have met Dave Eggers and his brilliant wife Vendela on a couple of occasions. Had I not met and conversed with him, my opinion of his writing would be no different--he's a genius.

Also at Cogitamus.

Relatively speaking, Baby Einstein DVD's are full of dull FAIL

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:46:00 +0000

Forgive me, but it's hard for me to understand these parents who apparently believed a DVD could make their babies smarter and now want refunds from Disney (and are getting them) because, lo and behold, their babies didn't turn out to be Einsteins after all. Good grief.

Do I think all teevee is always bad, all the time? Of course not. I'm a committed Mad Men and Dexter fangirl; as such, on Sunday nights, you can have my cable remote when you can pry it from my cold, dead...well, you know. And as for children's video, if it weren't for the Sesame Street tapes we had piled high in the playroom ca. early-1990's, I'd never have been able to take a shower or get ready to go out. Indeed, brightly-hued bits of programming like Elmo's ABC's would entertain Son One, in particular, for about 20 minutes--tops--as he bounced around in his playpen. And that gave me just enough time to wash my hair and race back out before he started smashing things and hurling his Junior Legos across the room and beaning the cat. Now, this boy was able to recite the alphabet at 18 months (his favorite letter, God help me, was "da-do-ooo": W). He knew several words in Spanish, too.

Years later, when Son Three was born, someone gave me a Baby Einstein video. He pretty much ignored it then; in fact, none of the boys liked it and it sat on the shelf unwatched, but we did wind up using it when Son Three was four, as an adjunct to his thrice-weekly speech therapy (my youngest son didn't begin to speak until he was five; now, at age 10, he gets straight-A's and has a flawless 100% average in spelling, of all things.)

I guess what I'm getting at is this: Every child is different; there are different "brands" of intelligence; and every child develops at a unique pace. And most importantly, none of these different kinds of intelligence can reasonably be expected to benefit in any meaningful and measurable way from something as easily-packaged and mass-marketed as a series of dull, condescendingly simplistic videos, which, after all, are just slide-show-style image displays of familiar objects accompanied by single-word statements set to various commercially-accepted and (considerably) less-challenging classical pieces.

Hey, here's a bold idea: Why not just play the damned Mozart in the car? That way, you'll be pleasantly surprised when your four-year-old hums things like Eine Kleine Nachtmusik in the checkout line and can tell people exactly what it is he's singing (okay, so they didn't always get the Köchel numbers right, but still). Who knows--you might then find yourself and your progeny moving on to Schubert, Shostakovitch, Glass, and Zappa. (Be still, my beating heart.)

But back to these videos. For the most part, I think the vast majority of child-friendly teevee is dead boring and might even be a depressing experience for bright, creative babies (grownups, too); moreover, plunking children in front of the tube every day for extended periods of time seems counterintuitive, if not lazy. Instead, why not just read little books to your babies? Dance with the wee buggers and speak to them in different languages! Buy some old-fashioned globes for your house--yeah, I know, The World is Yours, Tony Montana, but they do look cool--and show them where they are, relative to everyone else on this Big Blue Marble (ahem). Cook with them and measure stuff out--one, two, three..okay, stop! Let them build towers out of your Tupperware (trust me, by five or six months, they'll have figured out how to pick the baby locks on your cabinets anyway). Get a telescope and look at the stars together.

Hell's bells, none of this is rocket science, so to speak.

The public option: Next year, we'll remember who did the right thing.

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:53:00 +0000

El Gato Negro has a message for our dear friends, the Blue ~~Cross~~ Dog ConservaDems: Remember all those people who worked so hard to get you elected? We want to see real health care reform, with a robust public option, become reality.

Next year, we'll remember who did the right thing.

There's a rep for that

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:48:00 +0000

I dedicate this terrific bit of parody to Stephen, iPhone newbie and fellow pointer-outer of Republican ~~homophobia~~ ~~sexism~~ ~~racism~~ ~~fanatic Christianism~~ ~~hypocrisy~~ ah...let's say all of the above, plus abject Republican insanity. We are, all of us, compelled to point it out to you on an ongoing basis, since they keep topping themselves.

Via Shadowfax, the awesomest ER doc in the northeast.

Spare the spork and don't spoil the childhood

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:10:00 +0000

Coming soon to a school near you: legally-mandated padding that reduces schools' exposure during those increasingly frequent incidents wherein children are told not to let the door hit them in their expelled, camping-tool-toting asses.

As you'd imagine, I'm completely in favor of banning weapons in schools per se (though I would note that such bans weren't terribly effective at getting kids to not bring knives and loaded guns to my high school--some kids got caught and suspended, yes, but many more souls in that crowd of 4,500 just walked around with their protection devices well-concealed, and that was that). Having one's stuff stolen or one's ass groped--sometimes by teachers, counselors, and even administrators, I'd add--or contracting food poisoning via the cafeteria's liberal use of Magical Mystery Meat®, were far more common (not to mention clear and present) threats to one's health and well-being than getting stabbed, sliced, or blown to bits by a fellow student ever were.

This incident, however, involved a six-year-old boy and the Cub Scouts' camping tool that he received as a gift and was excited about showing to his class. And for his trouble (or, actually, the lack thereof), his school's officials suspended him and want to sentence him to 45 days of reform school because they have a "zero-tolerance weapon policy" in place. I'm dead serious (read the linked article).

So, I'm curious: what's next? No more baseball bats or tennis rackets? No more ropes in the gym? A ban on ballpoint pens and scissors and compasses and Exacto knives? No chopsticks in girls' hairdos and no popsicle sticks in art class, because someone might put an eye out?

They've already done away with Bunsen burners and most of the interesting chemicals in, um, chemistry, which in turn begs the question, What is the bloody point of having chemistry lab in the first place, then? They've already cut shop class and home-ec from the curricula in most Florida public schools, resulting in legions of kids who have no freaking idea how to repair a broken chair leg or turn on a stove and make a simple, healthy, affordable dinner, which idiotic policy in turn has rendered the current generation overly reliant on fatty, cholesterol-packed fast food that's full of unrecognizable ingredients and is expensive, to boot. Few teens these days (and God, how I cringed as I typed that) have the foggiest notion of how to shorten a pair of trousers or sew on a button or cut a slab of drywall or hang a picture on the wall. Forget doing any electrical wiring, plumbing, carpentry, shoe repairing, or furniture refinishing--all things that I not only know how to do myself without playing the damsel-in-distress card and calling Robert, but for which I actually have in my possession the necessary tools and chemicals. And I suspect I'm not terribly different from most of the women in my graduating class, ca. late-1970's, at the aforementioned High School of Peril.

Whatever happened to identifying the truly violent children and counseling, punishing, and--yes--re-assigning those individuals as needed? Whatever happened to affording our teachers a little respect for their intellect and good judgment and allowing them to, you know, exercise discretion, to be free to judge each unique incident on its face and instead of treating every child as a potential terrorist, to simply say, in cases like the one linked above, something to the effect of: That's wonderful, Timmy, but please hand that over to me for safekeeping for now, and we'll return it to your Mum at the end of the day.

Are we such a terrified, litigious, scapegoat-seeking nation that it's no longer possible to have a well-supervised environment--in art, in shop class, in home-ec, in chemistry lab--wherein our little ones can learn how to properly use all those Evil Sharp, Pointy, and Explode-y Things so they can grow up and face the world, in which, it must be said, there is no shortage of Evil Sharp, Pointy, and Explode-y Things?

And if we're going to bring up rare but horrific incidents like the Columbine school shootings in order to state the bleeding obvious--that we need to reduce violence in our culture--then why can't we start at the source and heavily regulate the sales and ownership of guns, and see if that doesn't do it for us?

Jesus wept.

Also at Cogitamus.

And still it chills: Billie Holiday sings Strange Fruit

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:26:00 +0000

Strange Fruit

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

Lyrics by Lewis Allan

Alan Grayson talks healthcare reform to Republicans: If you're against it, then get out of the way. Just get out of the way.

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:28:00 +0000

"You can lead, you can follow, or you can get out of the way.
And I'm telling you now to get out of the way."

Between Congressman Grayson's address today, and Keith Olbermann's heartfelt and highly personal hour-long comment last night, I'm thinking there might be enough passion and fire in the air this week to fuel some actual, well, honest-to-goodness change. And wouldn't that be nice?

We can't go on like this, Republicans and Blue Dogs and industry-sponsored trolls who show up in comment threads at some of our friends' blogs and newspaper columns and try their utmost to derail, defame, and delay. Let me repeat that: We cannot go on like this.

(If you missed it, here's the link to the MSNBC video of the outstanding hour of television that was Keith Olbermann's Special Comment on Healthcare Reform; there's a full written transcript provided, too.)

(H/T David aka TRex)

Afternoon Nocturne: Maurizio Pollini plays Chopin

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:26:00 +0000

Ah, what I wouldn't give to hear Maurizio Pollini in concert. He's my absolute favorite Chopin Man, possibly of all time (and I fully expect to be flamed by legions of Horowitz fans for saying that, but there you go.)

This is the Nocturne no. 8, opus 27 no. 2, one of my go-to pieces for those times when I need to escape the brash and visceral here-and-now and instead poke around in the tender bits of my soul. It's such achingly beautiful music, truly it is. In fact, if you can listen to this and not weep a little, or at the very least get a lump in your throat, you're obviously walking about with a heaving great clot of ice where your heart's supposed to be--you might want to get that looked at.

Enjoy.

XXX
D.

Michaelangelo's Artistic License Bible Project

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:12:00 +0000

I kept thinking about this Python sketch while I was reading Stephen's great post about the uncompromisingly stupid--not to mention patently blasphemous--Conservative Bible Project. Which risible undertaking, if you haven't yet heard, represents an effort to re-write the Bible in a way that removes and/or reworks those elements conservatives say unfairly imbue the Holy Book with a bias that's simultaneously liberal, feminist, and unflattering-to-Masters-of-the-Universe (other than the actual Master of the Universe, one presumes, since let's face it, He tends to be cast in a rather nice light across all the biblical versions).

At the End of the Times, though, any God who saw fit to grace this sorry world with the likes of John Cleese--ah, all the Pythons, really--is fine by me.

Oh, and wingnuts? Jesus said to love your neighbor, care for the sick, and help out the poor. So you might want to work on slimming down those camel-fat portfolios--from what I hear, your science-denying ways have led to warming effects extending far beyond this mortal globe. In other words, the Alternative Afterlife Destination to which you're clearly heading has been posting some record high temperatures lately.

More Grayson goodness

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:38:00 +0000

Because I'm guessing we could all use some encouragement and inspiration as we head into the weekend, here's Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL) on CNN's The Situation Room, standing a head and shoulders--literally and figuratively--above Repbulican healthcare-naysayers and the Villagers who love them.

Via Driftglass, who notes:

Thirty years ago, there were Seven Words you could never say on teevee.

Now there are five.

They are:
Conservatives.
Are.
Worse.
Than.
Liberals.
[...]

And there they are in all their glory; a clown-car full of Serious Journalists reacting in absolute incredulity-bordering-on-horror at the sight of some guy telling the truth about Republicans.

Villagers: Isn't saying mean things about Republicans exactly as bad as Joe Wilson screaming "Liar" at the President in front of 40 million people?

No.

Villagers: Why? Why why why why?!

Because I am telling the truth and can back it up, and Joe Wilson was lying.

Again, Bravissimo! More like this, please. And more Congressmen like this one would be a wonderful thing, too.

Also at Cogitamus.

What a spine looks like

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:09:00 +0000

Meet Alan Grayson (D-FL) (yes, Florida!) aka Deborah's New Favorite Person on the Planet.

Yesterday, Grayson pointed out that the Republican solution to the health-care crisis faced by increasing numbers of Americans unable to afford care was this: Don't get sick. And if you do happen to get sick, he said, their next solution was: Die quickly.

House Republicans were not amused; many said that Speaker Pelosi should "rein him in" and others demanded that Grayson apologize. Watch today's video of Grayson on the floor and see him do just that. Apologize. Ha!

As you may remember, just last week, Grayson declared that as long as Congress was busily defunding ACORN following allegations of wrongdoing, matters of Constitutionality required that it also defund all the other organizations currently receiving tax dollars who were not only suspected of wrongdoing, but who were actually found guilty of, ahem, significant fraud. And, quelle surprise, a preliminary probe alone found that some of those organizations included the defense industry's heaviest hitters, including Lockheed Martin and Northrop Gumman, with 20 fraud cases between them.

Bravo, Congressman Grayson. Make that, BRAVISSIMO!

(H/T David aka TRex)

Today in Things that make me feel sick

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:54:00 +0000

It must be said, and I will be the one to say it: rape is not a case of morals. Rape is a crime of violence and domination, and it is illegal--punishable by imprisonment for varying lengths of time (and even, potentially and technically, prior to the Supreme Court's decision last year in Louisiana vs. Kennedy, by death*)--in every one of our United States.

Yet the language of the unforgivable rape-apologia screed, aka the now-famous Leave Roman Polanski Alooooone! Petition--signed, you'll note, by score after score of utterly idiotic Hollywood types--reads thus:

We have learned the astonishing news of Roman Polanski's arrest by the Swiss police on September 26th, upon arrival in Zurich (Switzerland) while on his way to a film festival where he was due to receive an award for his career in filmmaking.

His arrest follows an American arrest warrant dating from 1978 against the filmmaker, in a case of morals.

A case of morals. Not a case in which a wealthy, powerful forty-something director forced himself onto and into the body of a thirteen-year-old girl, both vaginally and anally, and refused to cease his raping of her despite her cries of No and Stop. Which action, by the way, is textbook and prima facie rape right there and then--forcible penetration without consent--and that's before you consider that Polanski first plied the girl with illegal drugs (Quaaludes) and alcohol, and ah yes, before you factor in the detail of the girl's minor status: she was thirteen years old.

And not a criminal case which wound up with Polanski's attorneys pleading it down to statutory rape--itself a felony--and then, with Polanski fleeing the country before fully serving even that slap-on-the-wrist punishment. (Remember: he forcibly raped and sodomized a child after giving her illegal drugs and alcohol.)

No, no. According to some actors, filmmakers, and others in The Business, this was merely a case of morals.

As friends, family, and long-time readers will recall, I am a serious Martin Amis fan--have been for many, many years. Amis interviewed Polanski back in 1979, shortly after Polanski fled the States and just as he was to embark on a life of luxury living and prolific art-making while in exile. Lo and behold, a friend reminded me of said interview, originally published in Amis' interview anthology Visiting Mrs. Nabokov and now revisited by the Telegraph yesterday; this Polanski quote leaps horrifically and unrepentantly from the page:

“If I had killed somebody, it wouldn’t have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But… fucking, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to fuck young girls. Juries want to fuck young girls. Everyone wants to fuck young girls!”

A case of morals. In response to the aforementioned petition by the artistes, then, I'd like to use my small (but earnest and well-intentioned) virtual soapbox to make the following statement of my own:

To all actors, directors, and filmmaking sorts who felt compelled to sign on to the pathetic rape apologia in re: the Roman Polanski case, and who, in so doing, have given liberals like me a bad name: You have done immeasurable harm to the shared causes of women, children, liberalism, actual artists, and truly moral human beings. You stupid, vacuous, morally bereft morons.

Also at Cogitamus.

*Edited to reflect the 2008 Supreme Court decision ruling as unconstitutional the use of the death penalty in non-homicide aggravated rape cases.

Yes, it's racist

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:49:00 +0000

Our national discussion these days would seem to focus, to a large (and, I'd argue, important) degree, on racism and the scope to which it is undermining the debate over President Obama's policy proposals. Most salient among these--of late--is the president's ambitious and Herculean effort to reform America's healthcare system.

At both the national and local levels, and among left-leaning bloggers, even, we're seeing an awful lot of denial. In the Tampa area, for example, we have Creative Loafing blogger Catherine positing that that Not everyone who disagrees with President Obama is “racist”.

Now, on its face, this statement is true. In fact, you could expand that to an even broader observation: Not everyone who disagrees with Person X (where X="whichever sex, color, faith, or sexual orientation is pertinent to the discussion") is prejudiced against X. For example, I disagree with my own husband on a number of issues, but the last thing of which anyone could or would accuse me is being anti-Italian (and regular readers know this to be true, ahem).

But Catherine's next point--in the form of a question--indicates that she, like so many on the left (including President Clinton), is leaving the all-important issue of historical context out of the equation. Catherine writes:

What if white, country-boy Kanye West had interrupted African-American, R&B singer Taylor Swift? Would this switcheroo have changed public sentiment after their now-infamous interaction at the VMAs?

Switching the race of the interruptor and interruptee--without also noting the very different histories of the behavior of each race toward the other--renders this point kind of, well, pointless. For the sake of argument, let's simplify the comparison thus: as it actually transpired, a member of a historically oppressed class interrupted, and thus upstaged, a member of the oppressor class. If the scenario had instead involved a member of the oppressor class interrupting, and thus upstaging, a member of the oppressed class, could it have been interpreted as a racially-motivated act?

And the answer to that question is, yes. And it would be a justifiable yes. Not because of any knee-jerk reaction by people who, as Catherine puts it, "...cry racism, anti-Semitism, or some other form of hate-ism, take our ball, and go home", but rather, because it is impossible to disentangle hundreds of years of oppression from the equation, simply because we're all so damned open-minded and egalitarian these days, we white folks.

Listen, I disagree--vigorously--with President Obama about several policy matters, including his ongoing stance on upholding telecom immunity, for one thing. About not going after the war criminals responsible for, firstly, lying the nation into a war of choice and secondly, engaging in violation after violation of international law, particularly those conventions governing the treatment of prisoners of war. But I am not a racist by dint of my disagreeing with him, even if, given the chance, I would politely express my sentiments to the President himself (although I'd never, ever--not in a million years!--shout them out while he was speaking, much less while he was addressing a joint session of Congress in front of the world's cameras, for Heaven's sake, which restraint and good manners are all part of growing up and being British, and, as I've witnessed, generally considered part of being a good American citizen, too.)

But so much of the vitriol aimed at President Obama is laced through and through with the toxic sap of racism. And saying we "have come a long way" is little more than patting ourselves on the back. Because we haven't. Not really.

Not when a Congressman shouts You lie...! (with the unspoken suffix "...boy" implied; otherwise, he'd have simply said "You're lying" or "That's a lie"), and that Congressman happens to be a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group which, in the last decade, has been led by radical neo-Confederate secessionists who defend slavery as "a benign institution"; and further, when that Congressman happens to have been one of only seven Republicans to go against his own party and vote to keep the Dixie Rebel flag flying over the South Carolina capitol.

Not when a conservative activist--someone who of course disagrees with President Obama, but is also a Florida neurosurgeon serving as a member of the American Medical Association's House of Delegates; an energetic opponent of health-care reform; and the founder of the anti-reform group Doctors For Patient Freedom--sends out an e-mail, to an entire mailing list, which contains a photoshopped picture of the President as a tribal witch doctor (complete with horns through the nostrils), along with the comment "Funny stuff".

And no, we haven't actually come very far at all in this whole getting-beyond-racism effort when a Republican mayor in California created, this spring, a similarly widely-disseminated e-mail in which there is a picture of the White House lawn covered with watermelons and vines and bearing the legend "No Easter egg hunt this year."

History--ancient and recent alike. Context. They matter.

But as is so often the case, the darling Stephen Colbert says it best:

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

The Word - Blackwashing

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Health Care Protests

Also at Cogitamus.

Florida Congressman's action may defund fraud-besieged defense contractors; now how about child-molesting faith-based groups? Also.

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:40:00 +0000

I daresay you'll be as happy as I am to learn that when it comes to Congress defunding organizations who've broken laws, the ACORN won't have fallen far from the artillery (emphasis mine):

Going after ACORN may be like shooting fish in a barrel lately -- but jumpy lawmakers used a bazooka to do it last week and may have blown up some of their longtime allies in the process.

The congressional legislation intended to defund ACORN, passed with broad bipartisan support, is written so broadly that it applies to "any organization" that has been charged with breaking federal or state election laws, lobbying disclosure laws, campaign finance laws or filing fraudulent paperwork with any federal or state agency. It also applies to any of the employees, contractors or other folks affiliated with a group charged with any of those things.

In other words, the bill could plausibly defund the entire military-industrial complex. Whoops.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) picked up on the legislative overreach and asked the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) to sift through its database to find which contractors might be caught in the ACORN net.

Lockheed Martin and Northrop Gumman both popped up quickly, with 20 fraud cases between them, and the longer list is a Who's Who of weapons manufacturers and defense contractors.

Awesome.

But wait--there is more, so much more. Who else has received tax dollars and broken laws? Well, as The Rude Pundit pointed out recently:

Some things are easy to put in perspective: We have a case in Albany, NY, where Catholic Charities funds were used as part of a settlement on a case of molestation by clergy. In Cleveland in 2002, at a Catholic Charities-supported child care center, five workers were arrested on charges of sexual abuse of children. The number of cases of molestation by workers, of the cloth or not, at Catholic Charities-run or -owned facilities could go on and on and on, as the abuse did for years.

In August of this year, Catholic Charities received a federal government contract for $100 million over five years to work with victims of natural disasters.

And the outrage is...where exactly?

Think about the poor, reviled insurance executives, people!

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:17:00 +0000

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Fantastic. Please feel free to circulate.

(And yes, that's Mad Men's Jon Hamm--*swoon*--along with Olivia Wilde, Will Ferrell, and friends, all making the important point that if healthcare reform includes a public option, the poor insurance corporations will have to actually compete, which will, in turn, affect all those executives who currently enjoy such perks as owning five luxury homes apiece, having private zoos in their back gardens, going on lavish vacations, raking in enormous bonuses, getting doughnuts and prostitutes on demand, etcetera, etcetera.)

Friday Saturday Frank: Guitar Solo from Hotplate Heaven at the Green Hotel; Vienna, Austria; 1988

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 13:56:00 +0000

Dedicated to Roberto, who regularly redeems himself by bringing me armloads of orchids and lilies and whose marinara sauce gives new meaning to the phrase hotplate heaven.

Bon Weekend, everyone.

Lifestyles of the White & Suggestible

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:59:00 +0000

By the brilliant Max Blumenthal, whose book Republican Gomorrah just debuted at number #15 on the New York Times Bestsellers list.

As for this video of the 9/12 Teabaggers' Extravaganza, aka ~~The 2-Million Loon March~~ The Unintentionally Hilarious But Nonetheless Scary Tantrum of the Seventy-thousand Seriously Deranged, well, there's a phrase in Spanish that sums it up neatly: sin palabras. No words.

Well, there are a few words on display here, but as you'll see, most of them are risibly misspelled.

I'mma let you finish

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:03:00 +0000

I'm going to file this site under Sweet Jeebus, I love the Intertubes. You can click on the archive to see them all, or choose the random generator. Either way, you simply must hear the audio (on the Home page) wherein our president refers to stage-crashing Kanye as a "jackass".

(Yes, I am fourteen years old. Sometimes.)

More like this pls., President O--now how about letting loose on the far-more-significant-and-worrisome Blue Jackasses who are buggering up healthcare reform?

What's inside the mind of Mark Foley?

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 22:20:00 +0000

Why, only sugar and spice and all things nice--I'm sure of it.

Chew on this: disgraced ex-congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) is getting his own radio talk show. Yes, that Mark Foley. A radio talk show, on Palm Beach-area AM station WSVU, which also features programming from CBS radio, "adult standards" tunes, and the thoughtful musings of Don Imus, among others.

According to ABC News, WSVU spokesman Joseph Raineri is looking forward to ~~having Foley on board~~ ~~having Foley join his team~~ hearing what's on Foley's mind. In fact, the show is actually entitled Inside the mind of Mark Foley. Said Ranieri:

"With everything that's going on with healthcare and everybody questioning what's happening in Washington, DC, we thought who better to explain what's going on than Mark Foley."

Well, speaking as a Florida resident, I'll happily admit that when I find myself feeling, you know, confused about what's happening in Washington DC and wishing with all my questioning little heart that there was someone I could turn to for explanations about healthcare reform and the like, the first person who comes to mind is almost always a hypocritical wingnut predator whose primary claim to fame is having propositioned teenage boys the same age as my son before being quietly disappeared to a rehab clinic somewhere.

WSVU's spokesman:

"You're going to be amazed!"

We already are, Mr. Ranieri. We already are.

(H/T Michael at Pushing Rope)

Town hall meetings in the time of King Arthur

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 13:40:00 +0000

Ah, plus ça change...

Higher Life Forms for Rob Miller (aka the Dem. opponent of the guy who yelled You Lie during President Obama's address)

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:30:00 +0000

Readers, I've created an ActBlue account for those who, like me, wish to support Rob Miller, the gentleman who'll run against Joe Wilson (R-SC), that rude, miserable, badly-raised creature who's now famous for shouting out You Lie! during President Obama's address last night.

The fundraising page is called Higher Life Forms for Rob Miller.

Click here if you're interested in throwing a few bucks his way--your donation will go into the larger overall fund for Mr. Miller, which, as of this writing, has grown has grown to over ~~$100,000~~ $260,000 since last night!

Thanks, everyone.

UPDATE: a late-night e-mail from Rob Miller's office confirms the ActBlue 1-day effort has raised more than $600,000. This means the ex-Marine Democratic contender is well on his way to running a fantastic campaign and taking over yet another House seat next November.

What Dr. Krugman said

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:59:00 +0000

With all due respect to the estimable Blogfather of our Cogitamus gang, I have to agree with Paul Krugman on this (emphasis mine):

But what is one to make of the practical, political argument from the likes of Ezra Klein, who argue that any public plan actually included in legislation probably wouldn’t make that much difference, and that reform is worth having even without such a plan?

There are three reasons to be suspicious of that argument.

The first is that I suspect that Ezra and others understate the extent to which even a public plan with limited bargaining power will help hold down overall costs. Private insurers do pay providers more than Medicare does — but that’s only part of the reason Medicare has lower costs. There’s also the huge overhead of the private insurers, much of which involves marketing and attempts to cherry-pick clients — and even with community rating, some of that will still go on. A public plan would probably be able to attract clients with much less of that.

Second, a public plan would probably provide the only real competition in many markets.

Third — and this is where I am getting a very bad feeling about the idea of throwing in the towel on the public option — is the politics. Remember, to make reform work we have to have an individual mandate. And everything I see says that there will be a major backlash against the idea of forcing people to buy insurance from the existing companies. That backlash was part of what got Obama the nomination! Having the public option offers a defense against that backlash.

What worries me is not so much that the backlash would stop reform from passing, as that it would store up trouble for the not-too-distant future. Imagine that reform passes, but that premiums shoot up (or even keep rising at the rates of the past decade.) Then you could all too easily have many people blaming Obama et al for forcing them into this increasingly unaffordable system. A trigger might fix this — but the funny thing about such triggers is that they almost never get pulled.

UPDATE:

Simon Owens of Bloggasm writes to alert us to a group effort--on the part of numerous progressive blogs and Firedoglake--to raise money for their campaign to demand a strong public option. Go here for more information and to donate, if you possibly can; they're aiming for $50,000 and have already passed the $21,000 mark.

If housepets were libertarians

noreply@blogger.com (litbrit) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Perfection.

Click to (slightly) embiggen.

Published with permission from Lefty Cartoons (thanks, Barry!)

And if Alas, a blog isn't already one of your regular stops, what are you waiting for? There's comedy gold in them thar posts.