We Are In Agreement

Subtle

The cover of Meghan McCain's new book, Dirty Sexy Politics

 

Good to see that the ad guys for the defunct Texas International Airlines are still getting work.

That's so Palin

At yesterday's rally:

Palin told the crowd she wasn't speaking as a politician. "No, something more, something much more. I've been asked to speak as the mother of a soldier and I am proud of that distinction. Say what you want to say about me, but I raised a combat vet and you can't take that away from me." It was a reference to her son, Track, 20, who served a yearlong deployment in Iraq.

Fox News

I like that even as she is, in her words, humbled, and speaking of someone else (her son in Iraq), it's still all about her.

"No, something more, something much more. I've been asked to speak as the mother of a soldier and I am proud of that distinction. Say what you want to say about me, but I raised a combat vet and you can't take that away from me."

And she was so vague as to whom she was referring that Fox had to clarify:

"It was a reference to her son, Track, 20, who served a yearlong deployment in Iraq."

The woman is amazing.

George Will and the Decline of the African American Family

I didn't have to read beyond the title of George Will's column "For black children, daunting divides in achievement and family life" to know where I'd end up: lamenting the decline the black family is second only to baseball on George Will's list of favorite subjects.

This is generally how it goes: he identifies the origins of the decline (implying relationships between the Civil Rights amendments and the Great Society), tosses out some ugly numbers (60% of black high school drop-outs will go to prison), and then says that the problem and solution are found in the family, the one area in which government is powerless (and should remain so).

His remedies: education and bootstraps (one's own).

In my experience, many people who prescribe personal responsibility as a social panacea are either callous, or willfully ignorant of history and the discriminatory constructs that impede black social-elevation. George Will is, of course, undeniably brilliant [education], so I'll brand him callous and over-eager to ignore certain facts.

He writes:

Now, from the Educational Testing Service, comes a report about "The Black-White Achievement Gap: When Progress Stopped," written by Paul E. Barton and Richard J. Coley. It examines the "startling" fact that most of the progress in closing the gap in reading and mathematics occurred in the 1970s and '80s.This means "progress generally halted for those born around the mid-1960s, a time when landmark legislative victories heralded an end to racial discrimination.”

Startling indeed, though it’s also worth noting that the halting to which he refers coincided with the huge decline in low and medium-skilled industrial jobs; union activity; and government spending on social programs.

Decline in industrial employment:

[The past 40 years have seen a] massive reduction in the percent of the labor force engaged in industry (from over 35% in the late 1960s to under 20% today). [cite]

Decline in both participation and public support for organized labor [cite]: 

And a reduction in social spending [cite]:

The Civil Rights amendment passed, and blacks’ 14th Amendment rights finally enforceable, but ignoring the social and industrial changes occurring simultaneously is suspicious (at best). Blacks could compete for medium-skill union jobs (good, high-wage jobs with benefits) while at the same time the existence of those very jobs would enter a 40+ year period of decline. Furthermore, due to the decline of union strength and collective bargaining power, the benefits of those jobs suffered a corresponding deterioration.

This also coincides with the racist (or if not racist, certainly classist) drug laws that incarcerated hundreds of thousands of non-violent drug offenders, a disproportionate percentage of whom are African American [cite]; the gutting of social programs (see above); and the over-all decline of real wages [cite].

The new black middle class, theoretically strengthened by the Civil Rights amendment, were cut off at the knees by coincidental economic realities.

It obviously does blacks a tremendous disservice to say that their ills are caused by external forces, and that they aren’t fully empowered to write their own destinies. At the same time it’s unfair to study this in a vacuum, ignoring centuries of slavery and subsequent decades of disenfranchisement and discriminatory policies.

"It's Friday, Thank God!"

I find that sentiment so depressing. A number of the people I work with start pining for Friday by mid-afternoon Wednesday. It's like they're wishing their lives away.

 If your life is so vapid, and your job so horrible, fucking quit; you're not an indentured servant.

Maybe I'll start responding with "Oh my God, I know! One day closer to death!"

Anyway, here's Pearl Jam and Sleater-Kinney doing a live Neil Young cover.

15 Rocking in the Free World

I'm off to go to school or fall in love. Probably not going to get cool.

The Cure: Disintegration reissue

I read this review and it inspired me to listen to the record, haven't done so in years.

It's like entering a cathedral. The chimes open Plainsong, you walk in, and the expanse just...explodes.

 

Light and bells and glory.

I like that they call her a "woman banker"

Forgive me, says woman bank worker seen on CCTV shoving tabby cat in wheelie bin

The woman who received death threats for throwing a cat in a wheelie bin today made a 'profuse' public apology for the upset she caused.

The unmarried bank worker was caught on video picking up four-year-old tabby cat Lola before throwing her into the bin and closing the lid. 

The Telegraph

This is another reason why Britain sounds so much nicer than the US, not because they're intolerant of cat-violence, but because "wheelie bin" is so much cuter than "rolling garbage can"

Creepy, exhilerating

It makes pancakes, pancakes, and did we mention pancakes?

My grandpa told me to find one thing and do it well*

ChefStack takes this to a new level:

Next up for ChefStack: The omelet folder (folds omelets into 2s or 3s, you can also select the "do not fold" option which makes, in effect, fritattas)

*Not technically true, but it sounds like something a grandpa ought to say, eh?

Versus: Into Blue

From the album On the Ones and Threes, which I'm very much enjoying.

03 Into Blue

Gingrich, Palin, Geller thoughtfully prepare script treatment for OBL

There are many reasons for supporting the Muslim community's right to build a cultural center and mosque on private property, not least of all the First Amendment of the Constitution guaranteeing freedom of religion. But from a national security perspective, our leaders need to understand that no one is likely to be happier with the opposition to building a mosque than Osama Bin Laden. His next video script has just written itself.

The potential damage to our national security is not only to our work abroad, but at home too. Today in America we are facing an increased threat of homegrown terrorism. While Bin Laden couldn't find a single American-Muslim to be part of the 9/11 plot, today, thanks to mixture of poor (and even harmful) leadership within the American-Muslim community and failed strategies from our government in dealing with the threat, some young Muslims are finding themselves increasingly isolated and marginalized--and are becoming easy prey for radicals.

Ali Soufan in Forbes. Soufan is a counter-terrorism expert and former FBI agent.