Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

People speaking out for peace came peacefully together yesterday–Dave Winer’s pix show the scene in Harvard Yard. Elsewhere, war protestors trying to shut down “business as usual” riled commuters and scared police trying to control them.

That was yesterday, this is today. Demonstrators, encouraged by their success, will be going for bigger effects. Police around the country will be getting out their mace, tear gas, and stun guns. And, as my friend Manny Krasner once pointed out, those little black objects on their belts can propel lead pellets over large distances.

An orderly protest shows support for peace. A mob makes your cause look ugly–and mobs are dangerous. When police are angry and scared, bad things can happen. Being arrested by an angry cop, in company with a lot of other people who are excited and scared, is much more scary than exciting. OTOH, nasty as it is, it is more fun than being crushed or trampled by a mob running away from tear gas. If you go to a protest, stay far from the “center” of action.

Better yet, stay home and sign up to work for Howard Dean. That would bring us closer to sane government than we are now.

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Democratic candidate round-up

Pro-war: John Edwards, Joe Lieberman, Dick Gephardt
Voted last fall to authorize Bush but says he’s against *this* war: John Kerry
Anti-war: Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich, Al Sharpton, Carol Mosely Braun

American Prospect on California convention:

“HOWARD DEAN….Delivering the most tumultuously received speech in several years at a California convention, Dean, who said he is “running to represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party,” repeatedly brought the delegates to their feet. Excoriating every aspect of the Bush agenda, Dean thundered to an explosive finish, denouncing the Iraq war and shouting, “I want my country back!” as the delegates screamed. Afterward, Dean’s literature table was rushed by delegates who took every one of his buttons and signs.”

DENNIS KUCINICH. The House Progressive Caucus chairman has taken to opening speeches with snippets from patriotic hymns such as “America the Beautiful” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” This most militantly anti-war of candidates uses his singing both to startle the audience — it does — and to juxtapose his sense of patriotism with what he sees as a sinister right-wing takeover of America….What will he do when the Iraq war starts? Not what other ranking Democratic war critics say they’ll do. “I will keep on speaking out and protesting,” Kucinich said before his speech. Even with troops in harm’s way? “Yes.”

So why did I just send $100 to Dean rather than Kucinich? This AP story yesterday:

Response to Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s anti-war speech to editors of the National Newspaper Association Thursday in Washington does not bode well for his presidential aspirations. Members of the association, who represent small community newspapers, were then polled on his performance by secret electronic ballot. The moderator asked them to chose how likely Kucinich is to win the Democratic nomination, with one being very likely and five being very unlikely. “Can you vote six or seven?” an audience member yelled. Next they were asked how likely their publications are to endorse his candidacy, and the room erupted in laughter.

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Blogger alert–here come the right-wing think-tanks! That’s the word from Gary Farber, a clueful libertarian and one of my favorite sources for interesting links. The Heritage Foundation wants Gary (and probably other bloggers) to opt-in for a barrage on right-wing-policy email. I love the smarmy opening:

“Gary, You’ve been discovered! Tim Rutten’s Media column in today’s edition of The Los Angeles Times is the latest example of the traditional media’s newfound appreciation of the growing influence of bloggers on America’s public policy debates. “

Checking out the press releases online at Heritage.org, I’m not sure they rise much above “President Bush is demonstrating genuine leadership.” The tone of the praise for Bush sounds like Smithers raving about Montgomery Burns. Consider this rosy “analysis” of the Bush tax cut:

“We’ve been scoring tax proposals for years, and I’ve never before seen one that would give the economy such a boost,” he [Heritage economist William Beach] said. “The main reason—and it’s ironic, when you consider how the plan is criticized—is the dividend tax cut…
“This isn’t a tax cut for the wealthy,” he said. “It’s a job-creation machine.”

No word on how many of those predicted new jobs go to India or Korea–or how many just pay as if you were living there.

Who is the Heritage Foundation? According to a recent article in The Economist (the article is premium content there, but online with permission over at Heritage.org):

At their most organized, the right-wing think-tanks often seem more like businesses than universities. Heritage, for instance, has a carefully defined mission: influencing Capitol Hill. Mr. Feulner ruthlessly sets objectives and measures performance. Heritage is as passionate about selling conservative ideas as Coca-Cola is about selling gaseous drinks.

Bloggers, watch out for gaseous drinks ahead–Coca-Cola or Raging Cow–and now Heritage Foundation wants you to drink their Kool-Aid.

Urrrrrrrpp.

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Robert Wright has a good article in Slate: “What you should and shouldn’t worry about as we go to war.” Says Wright, “Brace yourself for a round of I-told-you-so’s from Iraq hawks. And blame it partly on Iraq doves. In trying to head off war, some doves have warned of nightmarish consequences that are in fact not all that likely, thus setting the stage for a postwar public relations triumph by hawks.”

He’s right. Yeah. I’ll feel smarter next week for reading his piece. But tonight I don’t care that much about feeling smart. I just feel sad. The war has started. No, I don’t even want to talk about it.

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Reading this morning’s New York Times, I feel as bleak as the weather. From the Editorial, “War in the Ruins of Diplomacy“:

“Once the fighting begins, every American will be thinking primarily of the safety of our troops, the success of their mission and the minimization of Iraqi civilian casualties. It will not feel like the right time for complaints about how America got to this point. Today is the right time.”

The editorial goes on, powerfully and well, and you think they’ve said it all, until you check out Paul Krugman’s “Things to Come” and discover there’s more:

“So now the administration knows that it can make unsubstantiated claims, without paying a price when those claims prove false, and that saber rattling gains it votes and silences opposition. Maybe it will honorably refuse to act on this dangerous knowledge. But I can’t help worrying that in domestic politics, as in foreign policy, this war will turn out to have been the shape of things to come.”

Yesterday was such a beautiful day for walking around in Boston–sunny, balmy, full of the promise of spring. Today, a chill wind is moving across the melting heaps of disappearing snow, and the sky is gray. Dave Winer claimed he was bringing warm weather across the country from California. Yo, Dave, if yesterday’s weather meant you got here at last–did you decide to leave again sometime after Bush’s speech?

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A rant worth raving about–and very funny–from Steve at OnePotMeal, starting with:

“Blogs are like fanfiction we write about ourselves.

Wars are like fanfiction politicians write about themselves.

If only politicians all got blogs they could show each other how cool and great they are instead of bombing the fuck out of the people who happen to be standing between their palaces.”

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Betsy’s quote of the day:
“…with nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties, and history bears witness to the fact that a just nation is trusted on its word when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others.”
Thomas Jefferson, Second Inaugural Address

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I last quit smoking in 1995 or so–and it worked. (unlike all the billion other times I quit.) My doctor got me into a free-trial study with a nicotine patch.

“My blog is my email to the universe. I write what I want, when I want. People read when they want, what they want.”

I’ve just been filling out a questionnaire for a grad student studying blogging and gender. Did you ever notice that other people’s questions help you find out the answers to questions of your own?

“What would it take for you to become an A-list blogger?” she asked. Here’s what I said:

“I would love to have more people read my blog and send me comments. I think if I keep doing what I’m doing–writing about stuff I care about and know about–that people who are interested in my stuff will find me. I don’t aspire to be an “A-list blogger.” Metaphorically–a real concert pianist plays 6+ hours per day. Great, we all love to listen to that pianist, and I love to read those glorious A-list bloggers. But…by practicing an hour or two a day, I can play pieces I enjoy, please all my friends, and have a good time. That’s the kind of blogging I aspire to.”

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Betsy’s quote of the day: “I am not so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven.” (Samuel Johnson, 1709–1784)

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Some of my favorites among the sons of heaven: Roadside America Hall of Fame.

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Halley: Halley’s father

Ohhhhh, those sick kid blues. I remember, although for me it was way back when. We did a lot of reading aloud to pass the time away, and even listening to recorded books together. (With my older daughter, born 1974, we’re talking pre-history–wonderful 33 1/3 rpm records of Tammy Grimes oh-so-naughtily reading the Frances books.) Years later, those sick days stand out in everyone’s memory as some of the best days there were.

Rainer Brockerhoff blogging about what other people said about World of Ends.

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Did you see the recent Inquirer article–Joy of Blogging: Like the Joy of Sex but Not Really? Darn good, considering the author is (whispering) not a blogger!

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“Alice at once fell in love….In that flash of ecstasy she suddenly knew what all poetry, all music, all sculpture, except things like winged Assyrian bulls, or the very broken pieces in the British Museum, meant.”
Angela Thirkell, Pomfret Towers

Both like and unlike young Alice, I get flashes of ecstacy from other people’s words. Some of my favorite quotes are basically funny–dear Angela Thirkell, god bless her. But that quote of hers stayed with me, and gave new meaning when many years later I got to see winged Assyrian bulls in Chicago’s Oriental Institute, or when, on another occasion, I had to smile (discreetly) at the reverential assembly of rubbishy bits of once-grand marbles, their ears and noses and dongs all lost to history, at LA’s Getty Museum.

What is it about the quotes that live in our memories–like pebbles rubbed almost smooth by a New England glacier, and carried thousands of miles from the place they started? (Or like a sweater handed down by your mother.) Their previous lives make them precious, weighty, authentic.

I plan to share some of my favorite quotes in this blog.

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This morning I got up and put on my mithril sweater. It isn’t metallic or even colored silver–it’s a big, blue, Irish woolly thing, cable knit. My mother wore it for warmth and comfort on winter days like today. And when I put it on, I feel completely safe.

Could scientists study the magic of favorite clothes? Clothes magic is private magic, quirky and secret.

When I was little I needed two kinds of magic. I had rough-tough-roaming magic shoes and shirts that made me strong in the world of tree-climbing and mudfights. I also had pretty-party-magic dresses that made me feel light and lovely and ready for fun surprises. Even today, when I see white polka-dots on pale sky-blue, I think of my favorite silk sixth-grade party dress.

Grown up now, my fears and ambitions need different magic. I do have a couple of pairs of far-walking shoes for ambitiously long days of exploration. But my most magical garment now, my elven cloak, is an old London Fog black silky raincoat. It was almost free because I bought it in the wrong season for raincoats (how can there be a wrong season for raincoats?) and it was on “deep remainder.” The hood keeps off rain, the pockets are huge, and the cut is so simple I feel deliciously invisible when I wear it.

Now, warmly girded in my mithril sweater, I’m off to struggle with my book again.

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Thursday was a three-ring circus of good things–
but today, Friday, has been a two-ring anti-circus–
my dog, with a bladder infection, is puddling everywhere, and
the right side of my face is still sulking from an hour of dentist drilling.
And for a third bad thing, one of my favorite bloggers Dave Winer is driving through the wild, wild, wireless-less west and hardly posting anything these days.
Hmmmmph.
But Thursday was great.

First, I had a chance to meet the actual Elaine of Kalilily, who was visiting her grandson. For me, one of the newest bloggers on the block, it was an incredible learning experience–and yet so much more fun than most real-life learning experiences. (Benjamin Franklin said, “Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.”) Hope you had a safe and peaceful trip home, Elaine, and come back to Boston soon.

Second, I raced from my lunch with Elaine to see two old friends (compared to me, two very young friends) bringing home their first baby. In NH, where I come from, people show up with soup or a cake or a casserole wrapped in tinfoil if neighbors have babies or broken toes or whatever. But I’m not in NH any more–I’m in thrilling Cambridge, the first big city I ever have lived in. So instead of slaving over a kettle, I had lots of fun options to find good things for a care package, including a tiny $4 bottle of champagne and a lemon meringue pie just big enough for two people.

The baby is named Jonas, and he is very beautiful and tiny, swaddled in pale soft blankets much more expertly than my babies ever were. (At dinner last night, another young husband told me the secret–husbands now learn how to swaddle babies in childbirth classes–he practiced on a doll to refine his technique. Wow.)

And the third cool thing yesterday was the lecture on Escher I blogged about Feb. 20–wonderful, you really should check out the incredible animations online of Escher’s tricks.

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