RelentlesslyOptimistic

10 Ideas for 2008: The Concepts Progressives Need to Be Promoting

Daily Kos :: 10 Ideas for 2008.
Great essay and discussion on ten points to begin spreading so candidates can run on them in 2008. There's some recognition of Lakoff's principles, and lots of ideas about what will move people. Read it, leave comments, etc. Here are mine:
Are we creating the kind of community (world, country, people) we want?

I think the commons, and the community, are one of the points with the most resonance. As a central point, it allows us to ask whether we are building the kind of society that we want, which can be used to question any particular policy, from cutting taxes to allowing discrimination against gays. We can also tie social problems to existing policies - lack of police, pollution, etc. to the idea that Republican and conservative policies are hurting our communities.

People respond to what they see in their daily lives, and what strikes their emotions. We need a strategy that makes the Democrats the party of our homes and our neighborhoods, and the Republicans the party of the corporations and the rich.

Having said that, I can't resist sharing my alarm at the "trust the people" point. As an environmental activist, I see that argument used constantly by the Republicans to justify cutting regulation and oversight. What we really need is for people to trust the government, or at least recognize that it does play an important role in the communities we create. The most damaging thing Reagan did was to effectively de-legitimize government, and we'll be fighting from behind until we can re-legitimize it.

Joi Ito: Please Stop Bouncing Spam and Virus Messages

YES! YES, PLEASE!
Joi Ito's Web: Bouncing spam and virus messages.

Please please stop setting up scripts that bounce virus and spam email back to the sender. You're doubling the spam. Usually the sender or the "from:" is forged. My mailbox is getting filed with people bouncing email back to me that did not originate from me.

W.'s Iran and Australia's Christians

Fundamentalism is popping up all over. Maybe we're undergoing a worldwide version of the early-mid 1700's Great Awakening. That could be a positive thing if it were a tolerant awakening, but I don't see any signs of that.

Both from The Revealer:

W.'s Iran.
A religiously conservative leader whose intellectual qualifications are questioned by even some among his own party presses ahead nonetheless with a radical right agenda, undoing nearly a decade of progressive reforms to take his country back to where it was doing the Reagan years. W.? No. Well, yeah, him, too. But The Washington Post's Robin Wright is talking about Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Jesus Down Under
Conservative Christianity roared back into political fashion at last month's federal election... in Australia.

The Revealer: Gilead and Housekeeping

Link: The Revealer: A Melvillean Note.
"[U]nless you are a believing Christian with strong fundamentalist leanings," writes Lee Siegel in New York, "you cannot truly understand Gilead," the second novel by Marilynne Robinson, author of Housekeeping, one of the great novels of the 20th century.

Making Legislation Accessible and Accountable

Public Access to Legislation: Talking Points Memo by Joshua Micah Marshall

 "[I]n the hundreds or often thousands of emails that come in every week there are many suggestions which can't but seem naive or unrealistic to a jaded Washington eye. Sometimes they're infected with blog triumphalism, an unrestrained belief that blogs or similarly-situated sites can and should revolutionize all politics and media (an attitude with which I have little patience.)

Last week, when news of the Istook Amendment first surfaced, I received several emails that seemed clearly to fall into this category … a number of TPM readers suggested that blogs and their readers be harnessed to comb through future bills…At first…I wasn't particularly impressed by this idea. But over a few days, as I considered it further, it occurred to me that maybe I was the one who wasn't being realistic or rather was too stuck in conventional ways of thinking."

What a terrific idea! Yes, it would result in delays sometimes. Yes, conservative and liberal groups would sometimes create a tsunami of emails and letter for or against some provision. Yes, it would create some fundamental shifts in how business is conducted in the legislature. But it's still worth doing.

We've seen the blogger communities that formed around the elections, and how people with expertise on particular aspects of certain issues weighed in, and created communities of informed people who could provide perspective on what was going on that was broader than what was offered in the traditional media.

This would (hopefully - I am an optimist, after all) result in similar opportunities for on-line groups to have truly engaged discussions about provisions of different bills and proposals. Right now, there's not much opportunity for anyone who isn't a staffer, a large donor, or a lobbyist to have such informed input. This would empower citizens to do so (and would provide another boost to blogging and on-line communities), and could revitalize the legislative process.

It might be fairly simple to test. It could begin with a few progressive legislators opening up the process for their committees, and helping to allow the communities of thoughtful conservatives and liberals to form around the discussions of their committees.

Let's do it!

The Rise of the Bottomless Hot Water Heaters

NYTimes: The Rise of the Bottomless Hot Water Heaters.

In-line water heaters have reached a point where they are economical and practical. Not addressed in the article though, is the incredible potential for commercial buildings, where hot water use is less, and the cost of keeping water hot higher.

What "They" Say

Link: USATODAY.com - Missouri man legally changes his name to 'They'.
Missouri man legally changes his name to 'They'

BRANSON, Mo. (AP) — A Branson man has put a face to the anonymous references people often make to "they" by changing his name to just that: "They."

The former Andrew Wilson, a 43-year-old self-employed inventor, was granted legal permission last week by a circuit judge to change his name.

It's just They, no surname.

He also has changed his driver's license to reflect his new name.

They said he did it for humor to address the common reference to "they."

'"They do this,' or 'They're to blame for that.' Who is this 'they' everyone talks about? 'They' accomplish such great things. Somebody had to take responsibility," he said.

Now, his friends are getting used to his new name.

"They call up and say, 'Is They there?'"

He acknowledged the name could drive grammarians crazy.

"Not only is he making a statement about his name, but he's messing with the entire English language," friend Craig Erickson said.

They holds 14 patents including Ground-Effect lighting, used to create a neon glow beneath vehicles and patented in 1987.

His newest product is "Shades Eyewear," which have a built-in visor over each sunglass lens. The visors protect the eyes from glare without having to wear a hat, he said.

Via GROWABRAIN

ADHD - NeuroImaging Used to Understand Syndrome

ADHD - NeuroImaging Used to Understand $77B problem: Corante > Brain Waves
A new study will use imaging to study the effect of stimulants on ADD and non-ADD brains.

mimi smartypants: BEST THING SAID IN BED LAST NIGHT

BEST THING SAID IN BED LAST NIGHT.

Me: (referencing the Young MC song "Bust A Move")
LT: Is that the song that gives a shout-out to Samoans?
Me: No, that's The Humpty Dance.
LT: Nice to see Samoans get their due in art and literature.
Me: I think the world's most famous semi-fictional Samoan would have to be that guy who went with Hunter S. Thompson in the "Fear and Loathing" book.
LT: The winner of World's Most Famous Semi-Fictional Samoan is...the envelope please!

I don't know why this struck me as funny, but it did. Not all of mimi smartypants is as surreal as it must seem from the few tiny excerpts I've included.

"Declaration Of Independence Banned" - Christian Group Lies, Media Buys

As Majikthise says, isn't bearing false witness a sin?

Seeing The Forest - a Weblog of Politics.
"news" story Declaration of Independence Banned at Calif School:

A California teacher has been barred by his school from giving students documents from American history that refer to God -- including the Declaration of Independence.

Steven Williams, a fifth-grade teacher at Stevens Creek School in the San Francisco Bay area suburb of Cupertino, sued for discrimination on Monday, claiming he had been singled out for censorship by principal Patricia Vidmar because he is a Christian.

Summary (inferred) - the teacher was forcing his students to listen to and read "Christian Nation" propaganda. The school asked him to stop. The teacher is suing the school with the help of a right-wing "Christian Law" organization, the Alliance Defense Fund.  (Also see this.) 

The school did not "ban the Declaration of Independence" -- that is just a lie. This story is like when you hear that a man was "arrested for praying" and you find out he was kneeling in the middle of a busy intersection at rush hour and refused to move.

This is the BIG STORY today, on Rush, and Drudge, and the rest of the Usual Suspects. And it is a carefully planned and carefully timed lie.

The story is timed for this afternoon so that it cannot be refuted until Monday.

It is timed to cause fights and hatred at family Thanksgiving dinners across the country.

It is part of a strategy to reinforce a "conventional wisdom" notion that "liberals" are "going too far" with their demands of separation of church and state.

I Can't Resist: This would piss off a lotta people!

Yahoo! News - Urine may lead to collapse of major bridge in Indonesia's Sumatra.

Public works officials have found that the Ampera bridge, the landmark of Palembang city, the capital of South Sumatra province, has begun to lean on an angle and rocks slightly when traffic is heavy, the Jakarta Post said.

An official at the public works department in Palembang, Azmi Lakoni, was quoted as saying the bridge had deteriorated because people often took a leak on one of its piers, corroding the structure.

Via Die Puny Humans

The Taliban Wing of the Republican Party Christian Coalition Speaks On Strategy

Courts first to go in right-wing revolution (Palm Beach Post).

Reportedly, such leaders as the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Republican Rep. John Hostettler of Indiana, flush with what they see as a successful right-wing revolution, believe they can make the federal courts virtually powerless.

Rep. Hostettler, addressing a special legislative briefing of the Christian Coalition last month in Washington, reportedly talked at length about a bill he plans to introduce. It would deny federal courts the right to hear cases challenging the Defense of Marriage Act, which bans same-sex marriage.

"Congress controls the federal judiciary," Rep. Hostettler was quoted as saying. "If Congress wants to, it can refer all cases to the state courts. Congress can say the federal courts have limited power to enforce their decision."

Apparently, the Hoosier congressman has not heard of the balance of power among the three arms of our government. He was quoted as telling the Christian Coalition members:

"When the courts make unconstitutional decisions, we should not enforce them. Federal courts have no army or navy... The court can opine, decide, talk about, sing, whatever it wants to do. We're not saying they can't do that. At the end of the day, we're saying the court can't enforce its opinions."

At the same event, the Reverend Jerry Fallwell weighed in:

"The Rev. Falwell spoke of what he called an evangelical awakening sweeping this nation, and boasted that the Religious Right now controls the Republican Party"

Via Daily Kos and It Affects You

Bob Harris: Art and Alienation

Link: Bob.

"I was struck by the degree to which much of the last 100+ years of what this culture calls "great art" is focused on deep alienation from that very same culture.  And I don't just mean Andy Warhol comments-on-commercialism, although that's what I was staring at when it dawned on me.  I mean, even big chunks of mainstream pop culture are all about alienation from... yes, everything the character or their ruling culture holds dear, with this alienation the defining attribute of the character's growth.  How many heroes have learn to break the rules?  How many outcasts have to reach the summit of a transformed world?  How many boys with no skin have to suddenly develop magic armor?

This could easily be ignorance, but I just don't see anything much like this in the art of other cultures.  I'm hard-pressed to find this level of constant self-alienation across multiple media in any culture in history I can think of.  Maybe this is because less developed societies create fewer works of art, or require them to be integral to survival for the works even to exist, or maybe a modern society just creates and preserves more of its own fringes.

Or... and here's what I'm wondering... it looks like (from my uninformed, sophomoric reading of things, I say with no false modesty) this meme kicks in bigtime shortly after the industrial revolution, which brought such dehumanization into everyday life.  Maybe the souls of our artists are collectively onto something we all already know...?

I don't know what I think, honestly.  Curious what you do."

This question sparks a series of (mostly) great comments, many with a kernel of truth to them. My response was shaped by the question and the other comments, so go read them before reading more.

Art school and art criticism often does go to absurd lengths to "explain" work in words that often can't be understood that way. Watch people as they view abstract art. There are some pieces that will make people smile. Some juxtaposition of abstract elements touches that part in us that responds with a smile. It's an emotional response, and when we talk about emotions, we turn to metaphor. We use metaphor to explain abstract art too, and it can be a different metaphor than the artist used, yet still describe the same feeling the artist was after. It can also be so off base that it doesn't connect with the artwork at all, too deep, or too shallow, or too based in the critic's bias.

I wonder if the alienation Bob perceives is that part of art that reflects society, or at least American society. We are divided, terribly alienated from one another. Our communities and institutions are weak, and we don't do a good job of teaching how to be a part of a community, or of how to create community. Instead we condemn and attack those who are different in viewpoint, lifestyle, whatever. Is it any wonder that our art is about alienation?

And yet....we are bombarded with messages that tell us that we can be unique in a group, and be accepted as part of a group, by consuming. At the same time, design and appearance are more valued by consumers (witness Target). Art does create new understanding, and it does reflect society, and to me the divisiveness, consumption of uniqueness, art criticism and teaching, and desire for community are all factors at play here, although I'm not sure exactly how they're all connected.

George Bush: "One gulp and we're out of here."

Hoffmania points out The Guardian's Sidney Blumenthal story behind this photo:

A few excerpts:

John Kerry arrived to defiant cheering from the crowd. Then, when the presidents were announced, Bush tried to push his way past Clinton at the library door to be first in line, against the already accepted protocol for the event, as though the walk to the platform was a contest for alpha male.
...
Clinton offered conciliation: "America has two great dominant strands of political thought; we're represented up here on this stage: conservatism, which at its very best draws lines that should not be crossed; and progressivism, which at its very best breaks down barriers that are no longer needed or should never have been erected in the first place."

In his effort to transcend the division of America into two nations, red and blue, Clinton was attempting to demonstrate his tradition - the absence of dogma, the belief that good ideas can come from anywhere, and that solutions cannot be imposed but must be worked out in democratic politics, involving the arts of building coalitions, compromises and experimentation, of which he was the leading practitioner and survivor.
...
Bush appeared distracted, and glanced repeatedly at his watch. When he stopped to gaze at the river, where secret service agents were stationed in boats, the guide said: "Usually, you might see some bass fishermen out there." Bush replied: "A submarine could take this place out."

Was the president warning of an al-Qaida submarine, sneaking undetected up the Mississippi, through the locks and dams of the Arkansas river, surfacing under the bridge to the 21st century to dispatch the Clinton library? Is that where Osama bin Laden is hiding?

I forget: which is worse? No class or low class?

Why it is acceptable to kill and eat turkeys

jwz - why it is acceptable to kill and eat turkeys.

They would destroy us all if they could: