Where are you NOW?

Tell me, where is the National Organisation For Women today as a woman in Buffalo, New York lies dead, BEHEADED, by her husband?

Silence, utter silence.

Not a word to condemn this most brutal act of violence against a woman's person -- perhaps the most unforgiveable moment of cowardice I have ever seen by feminist groups and leaders in my entire life in the West.

Look closely at this woman, standing next to her husband in "better times", who eventually killed her (I wonder just good the times were under the surface). Her name was Aasiya Hassan.



This is the face of your friend next door: an intelligent, well-dressed, modern woman like any other. Her death should be covered and spoken about with as much alacrity as Nicole Brown Simpson, another victim of a senseless slaughter with overtones of domestic violence.

I suppose NOW's front page at the time of writing says it all:



Singer Rihanna's assault consisted of a despicable battering by her boyfriend, leaving her with a swollen face, and she gets first mention. Aasiya Hassan's HEAD was severed off her ENTIRE body by her husband for daring to request a divorce, and is this worthy of comment by NOW? No.

My God, what is wrong with these people?

I'm sick and tired of these organisations and groups who adhere to a purely liberal ideological line, using women as their fulcrum, championing and ignoring women according to their whims.

All because they are scared witless that if they wade into anything Islamic, the violence meted out to the late Mrs. Hassan will somehow be visited on their person.

This is America. You have freedom of speech, and your political credo commands you to defend the most vulnerable amongst us, which most certainly includes women who are victims of oppressive husbands.

Speak up. Speak loudly. Make sure it doesn't happen to another woman again in America!

(...crickets)

Aren't You Happy You Live In SoFla?

Pity these poor Portland, Oregon drivers who have to nagivate through a phenomenon known as Black Ice.



"Heads up!".

Kwazy...I wonder what their insurance is like up there.

78F on Monday in South Florida, my friends, after an absolutely gorgeous weekend. Just grinding the shards of glass slowly into your hands.

Jindal Declines

To run in 2012. Maybe.

(Commenter Peggy Gero DaValt coincidentally emailed me about this story, which I just found out now. Hat tip to her, then)

Tobin Harshaw of the New York Times' Opinionator quotes Kevin Drum over at Commie Jones.

Because it’s never too early to not run: “Bobby Jindal — the Indian-American Louisiana governor who is widely viewed as one of the front-runners for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination — flatly said Tuesday he’s not interested in seeking the White House,” CNN tells us. ” ‘No,’ Jindal said definitively when asked if he was interested in being president.”

“I’d say this confirms that Jindal isn’t an idiot,” writes Kevin Drum at Mother Jones:

Sure, it’s possible that Barack Obama is going to crash and burn and turn 2012 into a Republican year. But what are the odds? Far more likely is that Obama is a shoo-in for a second term, and whoever runs against him will suffer the same fate as George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Bob Dole, and Bob Kerry. The GOP will find someone to embark on this suicide run, but it will have to be someone both dumber and with a lot more jejune self-regard than Jindal. Palin 2012!

(Love the little anti-Palin dig at the end. New Commandment N°1 in Progressive Political Blogging: No story left untouched without a spitball bullseye towards Palin)

You know, I'm in the uncomfortable position of hoping that the PEOTUS, Barack Obama, is an unfathomable success as our next President. I hope he goes down in history as a man who inherited an economic meltdown, and turned this nation around in 2 years like no other President has in US history.

Because that is what he has -- 2 years.

Then the bad memories of a painful recession, which hasn't even hit bedrock I think it is safe to say (you lookin' forward to 2009? Me neither), will have been a distant memory in the remaining two years leading up to 2012. However, if we're still hurting in 2011, with 2012 offering a glimmer of hope, then Barack Obama is defeatable. Very. Mucho. Ask Jimmah.

We're not even taking into consideration a nuclearised Iran, offering the world a possible nightmare showdown with Israel in the next few years, as well as any amount of international woes like Russia feeling her oats again, and getting frisky in the Caucauses or Eastern Europe.

See, when economies are bad, politicians who normally wouldn't stand a chance of election are suddenly seen as saviours. This has happened innumerable times in world history, so do not think I am referring to the Fascist or Communist eras of the Great Depression.

I am especially fearful of the BNP/Vlaams Belang/Marxist type of politicians which seem to be laughingstocks to most people reading this, but one cataclysmic economic downturn can make their numbers swell, giving them a more mainstream base of support.

This was the case with the National Front in the UK when I was a wee girl, who haunted football stadia recruiting members to get rid of the "darkies" who were taking their jobs. You can see and hear shades of it in an Europe today which seems paralysed at knowing how to handle demographics which have grown into men and women, without a national identity. There is a lot of low hanging fruit in the world today, just ready to be plucked.

It seems everything is a tinderbox as we near the end of the decade, and I fear that someone like President Obama, so inexperienced, so frankly scared (did you see his very first press conference a few weeks back? He looked absolutely spooked, having just been given his first National Security briefing, hours before), doesn't have time on his side.

His on-the-job training is one I do not relish watching, for one.

I am not altogether disatisfied with his appointments thus far, showing a pragmatism that his progressive supporters must be staring at in horror. Those Hopium Dens are sad places today.

But this is very little piece of mind for a man with zero executive experience.

Which, of course, brings us back to Jindal. Louisiana is a political swamp. We all know that. What he is trying to do in that State is almost unimaginable. If he succeeds, it'll be as amazing a turnaround as Obama promises to do with the nation.

And there's the rub: promises are a lot like hope. They're empty unless you can back them up with solid achievements.

You know I am 100% a Palin supporter, but if it looks even remotely like she would lose in 2012, I wouldn't want her to run (I think her political instincts are extremely sharp, and she obviously knows that already). It seems Jindal is on the same wavelength, though his clarification later seemed to backpedal on his refusal to run in 2012.

I want a safe and prosperous America. I want her to continue to be a world power. I only wish the best for this country, always.

That's never really a question of politics, except to those so ossified by them, that they cannot think without their ideology creaking around them. I never want to be that person.

Do you?

ADDED: I was reading a Pajamas Media blogpost about Melanie Phillips' continued belief (based on ex-Weathermen's ideas about Obama, incredibly) that the PEOTUS is secretly fooling everyone with his centrist administration picks. The very first reply is written by a fellow expat named Hugh.

The writing is a bit staccato and the conclusions are forced, but I have highlighted the coincidental bits.

Ron: speaking as an immigrant( educated in the US ) who probably values our national experiment more sincerely than the host of native-born who are so very sloppy and louche in their approach to “thinking”( whenever they actually DO ) about our precepts and thinning values …remember where Melanie is writing/living from/in. If you have not been in England (lovely land of my birth& home of my family)or Eurabia , recently- I “go back” at least twice/annum….well, you would be stunned at the denial and equivocation.Anti-Americanism is simply self-recognition of their rising impotence, btw. The tribes of Europe and GB are terrified of overt expressions of their culture and values-golly, they might have to stand up for something or other-when they have convinced themselves that they don’t really believe in anything other than coupon clipping and working ’til 50 to retire to a warm place (akin to a Russian peasant sleeping over his stove)…to wit: Yob culture in England ; as such they are having their countries hijacked by not just Arab Islamofascists , but Russian mafiosi and black African post-colonial grievance mongers…”look I am a visible minority , you owe me you white devil/rascist” - the whole scenario is disgrace-full and strangely shot- through with schadenfreund(aimed@ each other)- they are actually grotesquely divided and yet, united by their self-absorbtion and base material greed. The dearth of genuine pride and the understanding that ALL great cultures rise and fall like tectonic plates , has escaped them…what worries me intensely for my children , and now grandchildren is this…this will create a vacuum and I believe we may witness the resurrection of the Far firebreathing Right and with that will come blowback. Weimar , anyone?Read your history boys & girls and stay armed Anglosphere.

Exit Question: If we can see it, why can't others?

Glamour's Women Of The Year 2008

Carnegie Hall in New York City was a sight Monday night, as it hosted the honourees in this year's Glamour magazine "Women of the Year". The full list of women honoured, and the reasons why, are directly below.

-- Nujood Ali and Shada Nasser -- With the help of human rights lawyer Shada Nasser, 10-year old Yemeni child bride Nujood Ali took the stand against her husband in court, and was granted a historic divorce. Together Nasser and Ali are committed to saving other little girls from early marriage.

-- Tyra Banks -- One of television's fiercest female-power icons, Banks promotes diverse beauty and realistic body images on her shows. Her charity, the TZONE Foundation, funds organizations that encourage and support young women.

-- Hillary Clinton -- This year the New York Senator, already the first First Lady of the United States elected to major public office and the first woman elected independently statewide in New York State, became one of the first female candidates for President of the United States, earning 18-million votes. In addition to inspiring generations of women and girls with her presidential run, she continues to advocate for improved health care and opportunities for women and children.

-- Maureen Chiquet -- As global CEO of the Chanel brand--and one of the few female CEO's of a major international corporation--Chiquet has pushed the company to new heights by extending the Chanel legacy.

-- Jane Goodall (Lifetime Achievement) -- Revolutionary primatologist, Goodall has devoted her life to bridging the human and animal worlds starting with the groundbreaking chimpanzee behavioral research she began nearly 50 years ago, which continues today. Through the global Institute that bears her name, she has established community-centered conservation and development programs in Africa. A UN Messenger of Peace, Goodall also created Roots & Shoots, an international humanitarian and environmental youth program.

-- Nicole Kidman -- The Oscar-winning actress is using her star power as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNIFEM, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, where she is dedicated to raising awareness about violence against women, a human rights issue that affects as many as one in three women and girls worldwide.

-- Kara Walker -- A world-renowned artist, Walker wrestles with this country's legacy of slavery in her provocative black paper silhouettes that have been seen in museums around the world.

-- Nobel Women's Initiative -- The NWI is made up of six of the seven living female Nobel Peace Prize laureates: Shirin Ebadi, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Wangari Maathai, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Betty Williams and Jody Williams. Since 2006 these women have been using their clout with world leaders to get them to take a stand against violence and to work for peace and human rights for all people -- especially women and children.

-- Condoleezza Rice -- As U.S. Secretary of State, Rice has championed the rights and health of women around the world, and put women's issues on the front burner of U.S. foreign policy. In 2008 she announced The One Woman Initiative, a $100 million effort to empower women in Muslim countries.

[ed. vbspurs: Had you heard about this? Because I hadn't...]

-- Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh -- These women have game. The beach volleyball duo have dominated the sport as the only beach volleyball players in history to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals--which they did without losing a single set.

What a list, eh? Where else can one see Nicole Kidman, Condi Rice, Rigoberta Menchu, Jane Goodall being honoured alongside Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh (!).

Here is Senator Clinton, looking every day more and more like Martha Stewart, don't you think? I think it's the eye area that does it.



But Condi, wow! Spectacular dress and short-short hairstyle. She either wears a wig, or this is a brand-new look for her (as in she cut her hair today).



ADDED: One more, showing Condi with the other gliteratti.



(Via Rap Up) L to R: Glamour editor-in-chief Cindi Leive, actress Mary Steenburgen, news anchor Katie Couric, Fergie, and Condoleezza Rice.

Hug A Veteran Today

Whatever it is that you call today, whether it's Veteran's Day, Remembrance Day, Armistice Day, Poppy Day, please join me in honouring those who served their country.

Here in this blog, we have Ruth Anne Adams, former JAG officer, and total Sundries heroine. I also honour my father's service, as well as my two male cousins, one of whom is currently deployed abroad in Afghanistan.

I, for one, am forever in their debt.

Please check back later, as I update this blogpost with photos of the commemorations around the world.



In case you wonder why some call it Poppy Day, or why poppies are associated with 11 November (the date which ended World War I), the answer lies on Flanders Field:

In England, Wales, and Northern Ireland the poppies are paper representatives of the flat Earl Haig variety with a leaf, mounted on a plastic stem. Wearers require a separate pin to attach the poppy to their clothing. In Scotland the poppies are curled at the petals with no leaf. In Northern Ireland, because the poppy honours soldiers of the British Armed Forces and due to The Troubles, it is worn primarily by members of the Unionist and the Irish Protestant community.

President Woodrow Wilson had these words to say on November 11, 1919 when the first commemoration of Armistice Day was proclaimed:

"To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…"

1) AUSTRALIA



IN THE COMMENTS: Please join me in honouring Chickenlittle's late father. He writes:

My father (RIP) was a Korean War Vet (19 year-old inductee). He served in the 141st tank battalion. I'll be flying the colors for him especially tomorrow.

Joe Goes Rogue

Vice-President-Elect Joe Biden seen attending the New York Giants v. Philadelphia Eagles game, overnight in Philly.

Nice sweater.

Let Us Never Hear The Word "Racism" Again

Not in the United States of America. Never again. Racism as a societal curse and cultural impediment is dead. Do you doubt it? Don't -- it was buried today.

From now on, we are a post-racial society with all that that means, good bad and imperfect.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream has at last come true.

Bring Down Slanderous Jack Murtha

Contribute to his opponent's campaign, as I did just now -- to the tune of $25.

Here is the link (PayPal accepted)

Senator Ted Stevens has been convicted and good riddance to bad rubbish, I say. But Representative Murtha is equally as scummy, in almost every public pronouncement for three decades.

Become a Russell Brigade member for the good of Pennyslvania and for our Congress. They deserve better, and so do the rest of us.

Media And Pop Culture's Forthcoming Implosion

I have been thinking about this for quite some time: what with legacy media's declining revenues, and subsequent downsizing, and sites like Jossip, Newsweek, New York Times and so many others devoted to a particularly nasty strain of anti-conservatism, not to mention the insistence Hollywood film makers like Brian De Palma, Paul Haggis, Oliver Stone have for making films which make their co-ideologues feel better, but which tank at the box office...I have a question.

If Senator McCain and Governor Palin are elected this November 4, will media and pop culture survive?

How will they retool themselves, so that their absolutely skewed vision of America, which allows them to denigrate and sometimes openly deride their fellow Americans, is not as evident?

Will they ever make a blockbuster film about the Iraq War, or President Bush, which isn't insulting, and is actually supporting of the roles played by our military or leaders?

I think the answer at this moment hangs in abeyance, but I have to say that the prognosis for the sickly patient looks grim. They know they are bleeding, but still they keep imbibing that which makes them rupture another hole in the lining.

They could quit, recoup a while, and allow themselves to heal, giving everyone around them a breather from their maniacal behaviour, but no -- they don't seem to want to.

I was always informed that the first step that you have a problem, is admitting you have that problem.

The difficulty with media, and pop culture today, is that they would rather slowly fade away than admit the other side has a viable voice in today's society, as much as they do, and with the same respect that should be accorded to them.

I am not exactly sure when this extreme bifurcation happened. Perhaps it is true what someone once said, that we won the Cold War abroad, but lost the cultural cold war at home.

A country's mindset is not static, nor can culture be.

But there is a disconnect between those who run media and pop culture, and the majority of Americans. They treat us with a complete lack of respect, they insult our intelligence, and belittle our values. It seems they think they know better than we do, despite often coming from the same background. Perhaps they feel once they had escaped the plantation, that it was their duty to enlighten those "left behind".

I do not relish any kind of implosion on their part. I only hope they have the courage to step back and realise that what they are doing, isn't working.

It's time for a cultural reboot.

Bill Ayers' Blog

Can this be "unrepetant domestic terrorist" William Ayers' website? The archives date to March 2006, so it would seem it's legit.

Surprise, surprise, it's filled with the same anti-American bile that has characterised this son of a rich man's life since forever. The entry for September 10, 2008 (one day away from the seventh year anniversary of that September 11, 2001 interview he gave to the New York Times saying that he wished he had bombed more):

The End of An Empire is messy at best...

and this one is ending like all the rest.” Randy Newman

If you thought that was oblique, perhaps you'd rather read this open letter to one of his "comrades".

A Letter to a Young Comrade in Latin America

Here is a response to a friend and her collective who saw the Green/Siegel film, The Weather Underground, and wrote with some questions….

Hey Elizabeth—

I’m weak at e-mail and would love to come down for a conversation sometime—so much better. Also do you have Fugitive Days? It’s a deeper account than the film. But I’ll give a try at some response to your questions:
1) We started off as anti-war and civil rights activists in the early and middle 1960s’. We were created by those struggles, shaped by a belief that you learn to act by acting, that you must grow and learn from practice rather than any received ideas, and that the optimal place to be—from which to learn the most—is to ally with the most oppressed, Blacks in the South, for example, the victims of America’s wars, and to cast your fate with them. The wisdom on the ground, we thought, will change you. And it did—those early years were when we saw for the fist time the connections between racism at home, war abroad, chauvanism, sexism, environmental degradation, apathy and cynicism, and on and on. Once things were connected, we saw a system at work, we were radicalized, we named that system—imperialism—and forged an idea of how to overthrow it. We were influenced by Marx, but we were formed more closely and precisely by Che, Ho, Malcolm X, Amlilcar Cabral, Mandela—the Third World revolutionaries—and we called ourselves small “c” communists to indicate our rejection of what had become of Marx in the Soviet Block and the other doctrinaire, authoritarian state socialisms. We were anti-authoritarian, anti-orthodoxy, communist street fighters.
3) What we need to do—all of us—is to recognize our huge responsibility to act on what the known demands—to become subjects of history—but also to acknowledge that in a vast and expanding universe, each of us is a finite and flawed being. This should not paralyze us. We must act; we must doubt. In other words, we act in order to teach, and also in order to learn. A firm and unshakable structure of ideas is not a learning agenda, it’s a prison. So the problem—complex, full of anguish—is to open your eyes to the suffering world, to act knowing that you, too, and your group, has blind spots. We act to change things, but also to change ourselves, to grow, to develop, to become more effective, to get beyond some of our blind spots and to encounter others. Those not busy being born are busy dying. And there simply is no recipe or script to follow toward heaven. If there were, we’d already be there. So: act, question, learn, act again.
4) In a world so profoundly out of balance there’s so much to do—I think having a single standard of action is a mistake. Everyone who opposed the war against Viet Nam was on the right side. I want to embrace Diana, yes, but also draft resisters, deserters, tax avoiders, demonstrators, letter writers. Let’s help them all make the necessary links. The more you know, the more you see, the more is demanded of you.
6) The details and dimensions have to be worked out by millions over the life of the struggle. But we have to make a stab at articulating the alternative if only to provide some guidance and standards for our actions in the present. If we know we hope to achieve a democratic and socialist world, a culture of life and love, our strategy and tactics are informed by filling that vision out on the ground, in the real conditions we find. In South Africa, the ANC opposed the hideous practice of “necklacing”, for example, and the NLF in Viet Nam condemned the random killing of civilians as terror worthy of the US.
7) Yes, we built organizational links—Bernardine was the Interorganizational (International) Secretary of SDS. The World Social Forum, Seattle and Genoa, the international movements for human rights, environmental sanity, justice for women, against racism, and more—this is the most hopeful time there ever was for a progressive globalism to oppose neo-liberalism and empire, the globalism of reaction and death and greed.
8) It’s hard, it’s hard, it’s hard… To me the key is just like any important relationship—partners, parents and kids, teachers and students, whatever: be committed to the relationship and to the deep humanity of each person; figure out through practice when to push and when to support; be patient; be generous; aim high; hold on. Forgive each other and still invite the best in each other. Appear before each other as the best you can be. Avoid self-righteousness. Ask the most of yourself… Clearly it’s not a formula, but a practice.
10) It’s so much worse now… It’s breath-taking. And we need to live against those things and embody an alternative.
12) I won’t make any lofty claims for myself, but I’ve been being told to grow up from the time I was ten until this morning. Bullsh*t. Anyone who salutes your “youthful idealism” is a patronizing reactionary. Resist! Don’t grow up! I went to Camp Casey in August precisely because I’m an agnostic about how and where the rebellion will break out, but I know I want to be there and I know it will break out—we are not living at the end of history, this is not a point of arrival, and another world is possible. But nothing will follow what we already know, so be alive, awake, ready… use your art, your brain, your body to try to resist the dehumanizing in society now, and to live an alternative.



14) Opposing aggressive war is always urgent, but for revolutionaries we need to both be fully activated in the opposition, fully supportive of mass democratic formations, and at the same time trying to make connections and deepen our and others’ analysis: Iraq, Guantanamo, Kyoto, New Orleans, Chavez, SUV’s, the death penalty… It’s part of one thing.
15) Yes, but it’s big. Look to the Interventionist movement in art, Chiapas, the new documentary films and radio, commix, and anything else bubbling from below.
16) People who think they’re “fighting from the inside” are often deluding themselves. Of course, we do live inside the empire, inside a city, inside certain institutions. But the indispensable element is always an independent movement pushing from below, from the margins, from outside. What ended the war? The Movement—we created the peace wing of the democratic party, but not by joining it. What created civil rights law? The Movement, not LBJ. What made the New Deal reforms possible? The Labor Movement, not FDR. Organize.

XXX
Bill"

I'm not sure what is more disconcerting.

To hear that he went to "Camp Casey" and his presence was completely ignored by national media during Cindy Sheehan's summer "visits" to President Bush's Crawford ranch. This despite the fact that many notorious figures' presence were often reported.



Or to find out that he ends noxious missives with exed-kisses like a teeny-bopper girl? This is like reading a Karl Marx manifesto which ends, "I'm Marx, peace out".

Read this blog before it goes down the memory hole.

86 Countries In 5 Minutes

No, my dear Sundries readers, I am not announcing a forthcoming travel book: I am not giving Fodor's a run for their money.

But after checking my blog rating, I took this quiz.

86

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Dating Site

I'm not happy. First of all, I led off with "Canada" (!), then "United Kingdom", but I didn't get to "United States of America" until 2 minutes into the marathon quiz, and I got in "Germany" only as time was expiring. For some reason, it wouldn't accept "Philippines" no matter how I spelt it.

Sure I named 86 countries, but I left 184 on the board.

These were the ones I typed, and believe me, I got head cramp by minute 3:50.

Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Austria, Belarus, Belize, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chad, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Namibia, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sudan, Switzerland, Syria, Togo, Tonga, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam,

I missed most of the Commonwealth, like Australia, South Africa, and Trinidad and Tobago! Good God. What a travesty.

You Take That Flag

I read a reply in one of the threads that inspired me to look at the perfect photo showing the US flag. It wasn't intended to be about Sarah Palin, but lo-and-behold, there she popped up anyway.

Here is my paen to Old Glory, my country's flag.

YOU TAKE THAT FLAG



You take that flag. Honour it and cherish it.

Your country's history shows in every stripe, in every star. The sacrifice is visible in the fields of red; the blood of men who fought for her, and the sweat of women who toiled in their absence. The white inbetwixt and inbetween is for every person who fell through a void, but found there was light at the end of the tunnel when other countries offered darkness. The blue straddles the stars, and cannot be separated from each other. It's a play of light and sky, sea and land, this country of our birth or of our welcome.

You take that flag, and hold it close to you.

It means too much to let go of it casually. Our ancestors' muscles are etched onto it, and they handed it over trusting we would know the right time to pass it on to the right person.

So you take that flag, and you fight for its life. You cherish it for no special reason, and for reasons which men cannot utter out loud, because you either feel it or you don't.

If you don't pass that flag to the person next to you, they'll never feel what you feel when you hold it. This is not a test of being an American. There are no rules to make you love it this way.

But if you don't cry at least once in your life when you see it waving, if you're not willing to defend it when others stomp on it, you are no American. You might never be.

So I'll keep this flag, and hold it closer. Because I know when someone asks me if they can hold it, that I have found the right person to give it to.

"You take that flag."

The Joy Of Sarah Palin

Oh, Sarah. Sigh.

I don't know if this election will turn out well for you and Senator McCain, mostly due to his campaign's tactics, but it's been inspiring to see you bound up those platforms, and give those speeches.

You transmit an unadulterated joy at being Sarah Palin, which transforms itself into a throat-catching love of being American. This country needs an Army of Sarahs to make it well again.

What a shame that so many people take you for granted and refuse to see the starburst before them.

Never mind. Tomorrow is another day, and if you haven't given up, why should we?

Visiting The In-Laws

Just thought you might be interested in seeing Jenna and Henry Hager in one of the first newlywed photographs since their wedding. The happy couple on the White House lawn on Saturday.

I am struck by just how wonderful that girl has turned out, and actually, how much she looks like her father. It's uncanny.



(Love how she went the traditional route, and took her husband's name -- just like I will)

Clash Of American Civilisations

Let me pause from my usual Your Daily Sarah routine of the last weeks. I want to discuss a weightier topic today with the readership.

When you are a foreigner, like I still am in many respects despite my flag-waving, you are actually "taught" certain things about Americans:

- People in the street, who are barely literate themselves, will scoff at Americans for their lack of culture and geographical knowledge

- Academics in our schools and Universities will present American history in as predatory a light as possible

- News media and famous intellectuals of the day will, with infinite Schadenfreude, rail about the downhill nature of the American state

Do they want America to fail? Yes, some foreigners do. But many, many more do not.

Even the ones who do, wish little actual harm to the American people -- they just want America the nation to be more "like others". In short, they wish to end American exceptionalism, built they believe on religion, military power and above all, capitalism. As they see it, this triumverate is hopelessly out of date, barely past the Industrial Revolution. The modern response for any clear-thinking country should be securalism, peace, and socialism, but America just doesn't "listen".

But it's more than that. Their unease is almost animistic in scope -- I believe that for some people, good comes in measured doses. Call it the Gold Standard of Karma.

To some people, it's as if America has hoarded most of the goodness available in the world. It "prevents" others from advancing. That is an affront to many people, some of whom consider themselves to be far better, as a nation and as a people, to be beneficiaries of Fate's bounty.

Consider these facts.

Few nation-states have access to two oceans. No nation was able to carve an inland empire and populate it not just coastally, but inside the interior, like America has since 1620. Brazil doesn't even come close. Even States which would be uninhabitable in other countries, due to extremes in weather, function at 100% normalcy (such as Alaska and Arizona, coincidentally enough...). The 50 States are all solvent, at that, contributing to the common weal. Lastly, despite very real structural problems, like slavery, segregation, and runaway markets, the American state sails on 232 years after its birth whereas other republics are in their fifth or more incarnations.

Why? Why?

The American way of life is the reason.

When I came to this country, no one had to tell me to love it. I did that on my own. I embraced this country knowing the realities I had seen elsewhere were exponentially worse than anything existing in America, even in crime and drug-use.

I did it despite having come from a vibrant, successful country, where I had a wonderful road paved ahead of me due to my academic accomplishments and social background. I chose uncertainty, but the choice wasn't fraught with nervousness. I was coming to America, after all. If bad things have to happen, it's better that they happen here. Recovery is quicker.

Part of the reason recovery is quicker is that most Americans know that their country "works". How exactly, why exactly, by what miracle exactly, no one really seems to know. But it does.

So knowing this, they do small things that help it along. They love their flag. They revere their Constitution. They have a strong sense of civic duty and volunteerism. They join up to fight for her in droves, out of conviction, not because they have a mandatory military call-up when they turn 18. Yes, they are willing to risk their lives, even in times of war.

And, above all, they hold this truth to be self-evident: that America is a good country.

It's a self-judgement from a hyper-critical people.

They arrived at that conclusion at the knees of their grandparents, who taught them about pogroms, vainglorious absolute monarchs and arbitrary Martial Law. That isn't America. That was never America. That cannot be America.

This American ethos to make things work acts as self-fulfilling prophecy. They go out and find a solution, and then execute it, each generation adding its own twist to the solution.

They do this because whatever faults lie endemic in this nation, America was conceived as an oasis of reason and even today, acts as a springboard to greater freedom for millions of people who still wish to come here. The stakes couldn't be any higher, not just for Americans, but for the world, if only they'd be honest about it.

A really odd thing happened in the 1970s: some Americans were able to insinuate themselves into the country's narrative of itself. These people have a different view of America. For them, the cracks are craters, and the fissures are chasms. The intensity of their feeling was met full on by a cultural pushback, and we are seeing these two collide real-time in 2008.

This is the political part of his essay, that I'm sure you knew was coming.

Because it is my contention that, at the same time, the economic system, political system, and social system of America is undergoing cataclysmic stress.

If the Revolution was Act 1, the Civil War was Act 2, the Gilded Age was Act 3, the Great Depression Act 4, and World War II ushered in Act 5, then we are witnessing Act 6, not in 2001, as many people thought, but in 2008. It is our own mini clash of American civilisations.

On one side, you have traditionalists, people who believe in the free-market and in the strong world leadership America has projected since 1945. They embody that in their own life choices, too.

On the other, you have those who have suffered from both the social and economic side of this America, and though they may personally have overcome them, they believe America leaves too many people behind. If they believe in the free-market system, they also see other systems which are far more equitable, and wish to emulate them.

There is no "give" in either of these mindsets. One is as resolute as the other, each imbued in thinking its way is right. The first because it continues the spirit of America, the second because it believes it will better America.

The people who represent these two modalities will alter the future of America forever. Make no mistake about that. America has reached a point in its history where the choices they make today will define the way it looks in the next 50 years.

Let us, Americans and non-Americans alike, stop pretending with each other that we do not know all of this is at stake.

Let's stop using racism, agism, snobbism as excuses for pin-pricks to our egos.

Face the matter squarely -- there is no middle way in 2008. It's either The Old or The New, and THIS is why the election today is still so close.

America is still deciding.

Related

Roger L. Simon's Article On Why Bill Clinton Is Not On Board
America Will Lose Superpower Status Says German Minister
Deep-Seated Racism To Blame
It's The Second Amendment, Stupid

Tzipi Doodah

The United Kingdom has had one. Germany recently got one. Japan might get one. India and Pakistan, those male preserves, long ago got one. And now Israel is on the verge of laying claim to two. TWO!!

That's Tzipi Livni, the presumptive Prime Minister of Israel.



(Via My Right Word)

Meanwhile, the US of A, that world leader in well, just pick the topic, any topic -- it leads the world in it...has never had one. Pathetic.

Get with the programme, America.

In Honour, In Memory, With Respect

7 years today, September 11 2008.

Running Mate? No. Checkmate!

Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska electrifying the crowd at Dayton, Ohio. She graciously mentions the lady politicians who came before her.



(Via P. Rich)

Simon's and Ruth Anne's Bogglefied "Calm in Panic" video now looks visionary.



I will have many more comments about this historical day in American political history, later.

Allow yourself to be amused by this BBC News poster's views, for now:

She's female; what else is there to say? Oh and she has added FIVE new carbon producers to the western world so just the right person to tackle the world population and global warming problem! -Mike

Before McCain Hit That Grand Slam

A relatively underreported quasi-debate between the two presumed candidates for the Presidency took place on Saturday.

That it took place at Saddleback Church, an evangelical megachurch in the heart of Orange County, was surprising to a lot of us, but even more surprising was that the format included:

1- The reverend, Rick Warren, asking identical questions of each candidate

2- Each candidate received a full hour of scrutiny, and a chance to answer each question at length

3- No journalist asking "gotcha" questions, in a constant rehash of bullet points on Iraq, the economy, America's deteriorating this-that-or-the other

It was so refreshing to see this forum, that one almost forgot this was an important political stop in a campaign that has stalled nationally since Senator Clinton declared defeat.

For almost 3 months afterwards, we've only had national ads as our lone chance to compare candidates directly, plus a foreign tour where one candidate decided he'd rather court plaudits in Berlin than in America.

Frankly, I was wondering when the campaign would begin in earnest, and I'm happy to say, it finally began on Saturday.

Those of you who watched this forum already know that Senator John McCain impressed. He is not a religious man, nor is he particularly an evangelical-approved Conservative Republican.

But in his rapid-fire responses, Americans once again heard what a relaxed Commander-in-Chief would sound like -- and not an embattled, defensive man always thinking two steps ahead to the inevitable gotcha question like President Bush has sounded for, oh, about 7 years now.

Actually, as I was composing this post about the Saddleback forum, I was suddenly reminded I had seen a very similar performance from President Bush, and it wasn't dated sometime in early 2001.

Moreover, it was a performance which showed him earnest, affable, answering questions without a single hesitation or mangled sentence, and further, had been full of probing questions -- but lacking in the usual tense animosity towards him.

Do you recall it?

It was none other than at the NBC studios with Bob Costas, sports geek extraordinare, having a 3 minute chat with President Bush during the a break in the Beijing Olympics coverage.

Don't take my word for it. Here it is below.



If McCain hit a grand slam at Saddleback, it can be said that Bush got on base, and even stole 2nd when they least expected him to.

I can't recall when there was such a fantastic week for Republicans, as this mid-week boon in August '08.

It may be the most significant moment before the Democratic Convention, which promises to be more controversial than anything the Olympics have coughed up so far.

I can't wait.

Just How Loud Did You Shout

When the US men won the 4x100m relay swimming race? My condo has very thick walls, but I could hear whoops from all my neighbours for over 1 minute after. *

And I kept screaming my fool head off as I watched Michael Phelps celebrate Jason Lezak's stunning victory over the arrogant France team, with every fibre of his body.



Have you also noted that wherever this guy has gone to meet US Olympic athletes, he's brought them luck? Maybe he should be like President Chirac, and be made the unofficial mascot.



*Please note that my condo's President is French, and the building is FULL of his countrymen. Seriously, on my floor alone, we have 3 French couples including a very nasty one which left a taunting note pinned on our door, after England crashed out of World Cup 2006.

Don't worry. I won't return the favour tonight. I may be as arrogant as they are, but I for one, am bien elevée.

UPDATE: The surprising medal count so far, as of time of posting.

NATION TOTAL MEDALS GOLD SILVER BRONZE

United States 11 Medals 3 4 4
China 9 Medals 6 3 0
South Korea 5 Medals 3 2 0
Australia 5 Medals 2 0 3
France 5 Medals 0 3 2
Japan 4 Medals 2 0 2
Italy 4 Medals 1 2 1
Russia 4 Medals 0 3 1
Great Britain 3 Medals 2 0 1
North Korea 3 Medals 0 1 2