plus ca change...

Came across this thought-provoking composite on Jesse's Cafe Americain today.

Also on the site was this timely piece:

"When in any country the small-farmer class is being squeezed off the land; when its labourers are slaves or serfs; when huge tracts are kept waste to minister to pleasure; when the shibboleth of art is on every man's lips, but ideas of true beauty in very few men's souls; when the business-sharper is the greatest man in the city, and lords it even in the law courts; when class-magistrates, bidding for high office, deal out justice according to the rank of the criminal; when exchanges are turned into great gambling-houses, and senators and men of title are the chief gamblers; when, in short, 'corruption is universal, when there is increasing audacity, increasing greed, increasing fraud, increasing impurity, and these are fed by increasing indulgence and ostentation; when a considerable number of trials in the courts of law bring out the fact that the country in general is now regarded as a prey, upon which any number of vultures, scenting it from afar, may safely light and securely gorge themselves; when the foul tribe is amply replenished by its congeners at home, and foreign invaders find any number of men, bearing good names, ready to assist them in robberies far more cruel and sweeping than those of the footpad or burglar'--when such is the tone of society, and such the idols before which it bends, a nation must be fast going down hill.

A more repulsive picture can hardly be imagined. A mob, a moneyed class, and an aristocracy almost equally worthless, hating each other, and hated by the rest of the world; Italians bitterly jealous of Romans, and only in better plight than the provinces beyond the sea;  more miserable than either, swarms of slaves beginning to brood over revenge as a solace to their sufferings; the land going out of cultivation; native industry swamped by slave-grown imports; the population decreasing; the army degenerating; wars waged as a speculation, but only against the weak; provinces subjected to organized pillage; in the metropolis childish superstition, whole sale luxury, and monstrous vice. 

The hour for reform was surely come. Who was to be the man?"

A.H. Beesley, The Gracchi Marius and Sulla, 1921


(Note the date.)  

Rodent Mendacity!

Spring in Maine is a reluctant cuss, but this year it's unbearable.

 Rain again today. This about sums it up:

Ding, Dong, the *itch is Dead

YOU GO, GIRL!




I've just finished reading Joan Didion's Political Fictions, and WOW, what a masterful collection of essays; the real story of the origins of what one writer has named as The Age Of Cruelty: 1980-2008, in the new Harper's. (pdf link, pass it on, svp)  For those who recall how destructive the Reagan-Thathcher menace really was, Didion's book is one of those Even Worse Than We Thought accounts, an excellent, factual, thoroughly researched history of what went on behind the scenes during the Reagan-Thatcher Show of Shows. I have to say I've never read a more disturbing account, and so superbly written, than Ms. Didion's, infuriating but refreshing in this age of limp Bob Woodward style panderering to the power elite. I couldn't put it down, yet I already knew how it ended (or didn't?) It's mindbending what they got away with selling the US and British population. I found the Grenada accounts particularly infuriating, but there's so much more. Joan's account clearly describes how they managed the whole show and alerts the reader to the continuing present practice of  the same Wag-The-Dog theatrics. Of course there have always been those voices in the wilderness who saw what was going on then and tried to speak out, but to little avail. Joan was one of them. I notice many of these journos have moved to Europe. And if you think Clinton and Obama are an improvement, well.... just read Ms. Didion's little book ...

And while we're on the subject of "leaders", all the hoopla about Hillary running for Pres in 2014? Well, unless she basically disavows every stupid thing her husband did, from signing Bush One's Nafta to deregulating the banks, she can kiss my ass. She hasn't "earned" anything, she's been well-paid for the jobs she sought. I'll never vote for a woman again just cause she's a woman. Learned that lesson with Susan Collins. I plan on writing in Senator Elizabeth Warren for President in 2014. Now there's change I can believe in. I can only hope all the disgusted Americans who feel the way I do will do the same.

Here's a bit (and video below) of what Senator Warren had to say to the "regulatory" folks at a recent Senate hearing on why HSBC hasn't been investigated for laundering drug cartel money. Folks, this is a gal who knows shyte from shinola and isn't afraid to say so.



You wanna see a real leader, a gal with real values and smarts, check these youtubes.  She's like a female Paul Wellstone, only better. That's right, you right wing nutjobs,  you can take 'em out, but they just keep coming back.

So, dearest Glenda, thanks for speaking up for those of us still able to see the forest.

And by the way, if, when you've finished Political Fictions, you need a gorgeous bit of Fresh, New literature to enliven your soul, I highly recommend Clay, a perfect first novel by one of the best writers I've ever read: a Brit named Melissa Harrison.

Thanks to Gil for the Glenda vid.

WARREN FOR PRESIDENT! F*CK HILLARY.

Wild and Crazy Pope

This is from a witty Facebook post someone sent me, and I could not resist reposting it.

The picture included the following commentary:

  "The Pope, wearing a fabulous vintage chiffon-lined Dior gold lame gown

over a silk Vera Wang empire waist tulle cocktail dress,

accessorized with a three-foot House of Whoville hat and

the ruby slippers Judy Garland wore in the Wizard of Oz, on his way to tell us it's Wrong to be Gay."

This guy could slide right into any Mummers' parade and no one would notice!

One cannot but wonder what Jesus would have to say about all this nonsense, given the opportunity. Oh, I forgot, he's already expressed an opinion on rich men and the eyes of needles. It was in no uncertain terms, as I recall. Quite definitive, yes....

Escaping the Cold

Last weekend, 
                                     before 

cooking when the power goes out

just no end to snow

    And after:     Quel weekend! "New York New York, a toddlin town, the Bronx is up and the Battery's down, the people ride in a hole in the ground..."

Yay! I'm finally have something "travelley" to write about again.  Not many travel posts lately, weather keeping me staying put. Enough with the mountains of snow that surround the house! Let us escape the mid-winter Maine blues and sloppyy igloos and travel (by car) to the Big Apple for a little, how you say, cultchah infusion. Specifically, the mindblowingly magic Matisse show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, (runs through next Sunday, 3/17, so hurry!) Mind you,  getting there was no picnic. What was predicted as "light rain and snow, no more than an inch" (pdp for New Englanders) developed into something of an unexpected whiteout from Portsmouth, NH all the way through Mass., beyond Boston all the way to the junction of 90 and 84. White knuckle driving, cars off the road, miles and hours of unplowed roadway.  Thank god P's an experienced snow driver, so there was that, but a few hairy moments for sure. We had one rather sketchy near miss that, unfortunately for the other guy, turned into a small spin of a disaster. (He failed to look before changing lanes.) But we made it to the wonderful Pod39 hotel by cocktail hour, but not before getting lost in Queens near La Guardia, finally managing to ooze our way onto the Queensboro bridge with the rest of the rush hour crowd (I'm a decent co pilot, after all) and land in Manhattan. It was actually kinda cool.

entrance to Grand central and what used to be PanAm bldg, now Snoopy's company

Note: they now have Euro style reloadable Metro tickets for the subway! no more tokens, so I guess I'll toss the ones I've been saving for years. Use them for I Ching maybe. Convenient, yes, but if you lose your card, you lose mo money. Still, it was a little taste of the days in Seville and Paris.

You ask me,  Matisse is The Man, his work gets me where I live, and I've seen bloody little of it up close, so Saturday morning as I walked up Fifth to the museum (tickets bought in advance online) my heart was afflutter. It felt like I was actually headed to a meeting with the man himself, truly. Off season midwinter tourist travel is great: crowds are limited, even on weekends. As I wandered through the exhibit, reading the info posts, all studious and everything, like you do, I unexpectedly found myself in Matisse's large paintings of "Nice" (as in Nice, France), sudden tears filled my eyes as I confronted that gorgeous work, the view from his hotel window, overlooking the Sea, the palm trees, the classic swirl of wrought iron French railing a la fenetre. And the light! The color! Hysteria loomed. I actually thought for a moment I might lose it entirely, no tissue handy, so moved was I by it all. By the passion, the sheer intensity, that shone in the work. What a treat.

It's completely insane to think you can see anything of what the Met really has to offer in a day, so we  breezed through of a few other galleries, some of our faves. I was briefly taken with some Faberge eggs, (and don't we all wish we had one of those cunning little babies to get us though difficult times? Clearly the czars were onto something there).

faberge eggs: oo la la

Later we both wished we could have walked through the Matisse again, to calmly set it in our minds, as it were. But instead took a diagonal wander through Central Park on a warm, sunny day (is there anything more enchanting in the middle of a big city?), pausing to rest on a bench to people and doggie watch. Then off to – surprise! – pick up tickets for the opera that night. The Metropolitan at Lincoln Center. P's first time and my, oh, fourth maybe? We were to see (thanks for the tickets, T!) a rarely performed opera written by what ended up being a Puccini wannabe (not just my opinion), Francesca da Rimini.  After the third act (of four, and, mind you, the three intermissions were nearly as long as the opera acts themselves) we went outside and fell into conversation with a couple of opera buffs from the UK from whom  I learned this opera is in the versimo style. Think the new season of Dallas and you've got it just about right. I'm talkin overdone melo-drama. Although hardly mellow. Lots of fire and flutter and useless dialog that moves the story – loosely based on a bit from Dante's Inferno – forward not one iota.

the Met: shades of Moonstruck?

According to my program Puccini (who can do no wrong in my book) didn't think much of the librettist who was at the time (a hundred or so years ago) the big kahuna of the "Decadent Movement". And decadent it was, grand music and ridiculous lyrics that related to the music not a bit. A good deal of the performance P and I were in stitches – doing our best to muffle our hilarity and maintain proper decorum as the Italians in the  row ahead of us were cheering the whole shebang and the man next to me prattled on authoritatively about... whatever.  I don't know when I've had so much fun.  A blast to laugh that hard. Naughty fun.

Sunny day, central park looking north

We made some sweet discoveries over the weekend. Breakfast at the Central Cafe just across from the south entrance to Grand central was really good. Service excellent. Our weekend was literally made by friend Kate, manager of the wonderful Salvation Taco in the Pod 39 hotel. Don't let anyone tell you the rooms are tiny. They're super cool, clean, and comfortable. We stayed in swanky places in Rome that were smaller... altho pretty cool. It was a great time, meeting family and friends that feel like family, and a million thanks to Kate for the VIP treatment and gracious treats.

interior central cafe

upstairs @ Pod hotel, charmante!

Sunday we decided to hit the MOMA, haven't been there in decades, and an amazing show (sixth floor) depicting the birth and rise of Abstraction as it developed simultaneously in all the arts from 1905 or so to 1925. I thought I was fairly art knowledgeable until I saw that. We take abstraction for granted today, but where did it really begin? MOMA has it wired for you. It was one of the most thought provoking exhibits I've ever seen. And the free phones they give you to accompany your tour are most helpful.  The synergy amongst various creative types worldwide during that period was astounding, and it's documented brilliantly at the MOMA show in a giant world map of "like minds". Show runs through April 15 of this year. If you are near NY, don't miss it. It occurred to me later that period had a lot to do with the evolution of the 60s. Connected...

@ MOMA a work of hand-collected pollen

Lively eateries worthy of mention: The Breslin (best Caesar salad I've ever had) and the John Dory Oyster bar (I finally got to sample urchin roe, and fermet). And once more thanks to Kate and her buddies for making those evenings so special for us.

I didn't get to pick up my cheesecake on 8th ave. : ( Probably best since I got the first (in months) full length glimpse of my derriere in our hotel room.   Nothing walking the city all day wouldn't cure in time .. that is until I got the pastry shops wired.

New York New York,  so nice they named it twice!

a bientot

East River view from the excellent POD39 roof

til next time, up on the roof

post script: back home, it's rainy and cold out . No doubt one of those Fabere-zhay eggs would warm me up a bit....

The Boob Crusader

A saint: this woman: her mission – to save our breasts.. and our lives. Do NOT miss this one, please, and be sure and pass it on to everyone, I mean everyone, you know. We need a groundswell of national indignation to put this at the top of women's health agenda – to lobby the insurance companies, congress, and probably our own medical providers.



So, what's your breast density? If you don't know, someone should have told you along the way, even if you've never had a mammo. It really pisses me off they don't just tell us this shit without our having to go looking for it under rocks, in this case the boulders of the medical-industrial complex.

Are the medical men and their corporate buddies (insurance companies, medical equipment manufacturers, Big Pharma, for-profit hospitals, and the politicians they elect) just bitter that we live longer than they do? It's not like we don't try (and try and try) to get men to eat a friggin carrot now and then, to include them in the 'health building- disease prevention' scheme.  Read some of the blogs associated with this issue. They'll balow your mind. I called my (female) gyno examiner immediately to ask her about this. She'd never heard of it. And it's been around for years now. I sent her this link, we'll talk.

And then there's

 Fracking

And for those of you who still think fracking (short for hydrolic fracturing, and since when is a fracture a good thing?) is the way to 'clean cheap energy independence', cheap natural gas, ("Yes, You don't have to change your greedy energy sucking lifestyle one iota!") and all that hooey, read this astonishing article from a recent Harper's on the Baaken project.

This baloney on TV ads from oil companies touting "new sources of clean energy" would be pathetic if it wasn't such a blatant dangerous lie. (Smacks of that same PR crap that had folks believing Saddam and Osama were pals, like we're that dumb) Yet I hear intelligent people pontificate about fracking like it was the Second Coming. They know better. Things in this country are getting so bad folks are beginning to sense that Ben Franklin's skepticism that we could "keep" our Republic had merit. Everyone's playing duck and cover, no one wants to hear that we must put a stop to the corruption that has infected the nation or die tryin. It's the 'die tryin' no one wants to hear, apathy has infected us and we know it. It's why we overdo "honoring the solders". We know damn well the only thing left we might lay our lives on the line for is our own little piece o heaven, our kids, our home, (equipped with the appropriate weapon of course). I often wonder what workers of the thirties who fought for fair treatment and a liveable wage would think of us today, all leaning back on the couch, developing our pre-diabetic bellies, too lazy and discouraged to even reach for the remote, much less do anything to change things. We "sigh and settle", as one friend put it.

 Consider this, by 2023 when the oil frackers have mastered sucking the oil from North Dakota, we will have surpassed Saudi Arabia as the world's foremost oil supplier. We'll be the new Saudi Arabia of oil.  That is the plan, the oil corporations' plan. But, you argue,  I thought ya'll were about cutting pollution now! I thought the energy companies were going green! Silly me. And, oh, btw, they'll need to drain those already imperiled acquifers dry to get that oil out, to process it, and then that oil's gonna get used, sold somewhere, and that means, well, let's just say our concept of seasons might be changing drastically by then what with everyone, those BRICS and all, owning cars and SUVs trying to look like American success stories. This state of affairs is projected to be a mere ten years away, that is the plan, the oil companies' plan. There's no "go green, move into green technology" save the planet agenda. There is money to be made, externalities notwithstanding and unpaid for, except by you. Fracking is the devil..  An extreme statement? Read the article and decide for yourself.

Cui bono? – not me, that's for sure, and likely not you or your descendants either.

It's enough to make me wanna get a gun.

(like that's a solution...)

God bless Jimmy Carter, and you know she will.

Losing my religion for equality

Jimmy Carter July 15, 2009

Illustration: Dyson

Women and girls have been discriminated against for too long in a twisted interpretation of the word of God.

I HAVE been a practising Christian all my life and a deacon and Bible teacher for many years. My faith is a source of strength and comfort to me, as religious beliefs are to hundreds of millions of people around the world. So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention's leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be "subservient" to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.

This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths. Nor, tragically, does its influence stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue or temple. This discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women's equal rights across the world for centuries.

At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.

The impact of these religious beliefs touches every aspect of our lives. They help explain why in many countries boys are educated before girls; why girls are told when and whom they must marry; and why many face enormous and unacceptable risks in pregnancy and childbirth because their basic health needs are not met.

In some Islamic nations, women are restricted in their movements, punished for permitting the exposure of an arm or ankle, deprived of education, prohibited from driving a car or competing with men for a job. If a woman is raped, she is often most severely punished as the guilty party in the crime.

The same discriminatory thinking lies behind the continuing gender gap in pay and why there are still so few women in office in the West. The root of this prejudice lies deep in our histories, but its impact is felt every day. It is not women and girls alone who suffer. It damages all of us. The evidence shows that investing in women and girls delivers major benefits for society. An educated woman has healthier children. She is more likely to send them to school. She earns more and invests what she earns in her family.

It is simply self-defeating for any community to discriminate against half its population. We need to challenge these self-serving and outdated attitudes and practices - as we are seeing in Iran where women are at the forefront of the battle for democracy and freedom.

I understand, however, why many political leaders can be reluctant about stepping into this minefield. Religion, and tradition, are powerful and sensitive areas to challenge. But my fellow Elders and I, who come from many faiths and backgrounds, no longer need to worry about winning votes or avoiding controversy - and we are deeply committed to challenging injustice wherever we see it.

The Elders are an independent group of eminent global leaders, brought together by former South African president Nelson Mandela, who offer their influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity. We have decided to draw particular attention to the responsibility of religious and traditional leaders in ensuring equality and human rights and have recently published a statement that declares: "The justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a Higher Authority, is unacceptable."

We are calling on all leaders to challenge and change the harmful teachings and practices, no matter how ingrained, which justify discrimination against women. We ask, in particular, that leaders of all religions have the courage to acknowledge and emphasise the positive messages of dignity and equality that all the world's major faiths share.

The carefully selected verses found in the Holy Scriptures to justify the superiority of men owe more to time and place - and the determination of male leaders to hold onto their influence - than eternal truths. Similar biblical excerpts could be found to support the approval of slavery and the timid acquiescence to oppressive rulers.

I am also familiar with vivid descriptions in the same Scriptures in which women are revered as pre-eminent leaders. During the years of the early Christian church women served as deacons, priests, bishops, apostles, teachers and prophets. It wasn't until the fourth century that dominant Christian leaders, all men, twisted and distorted Holy Scriptures to perpetuate their ascendant positions within the religious hierarchy.

The truth is that male religious leaders have had - and still have - an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter. Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world. This is in clear violation not just of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, Moses and the prophets, Muhammad, and founders of other great religions - all of whom have called for proper and equitable treatment of all the children of God. It is time we had the courage to challenge these views.

OBSERVER

Jimmy Carter was president of the United States from 1977 to 1981.