Bill Bennett

Bill Bennett, America's self-proclaimed paragon of virtue (and of course large gambling debts) made this comment on a radio show:

''But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.''

The Bush administration said the remarks were "not appropriate." You think? How about making a real statement such as, "We are disassociating ourselves with Bennett, his money, and his advice." But then again, when you agree with such statements, I guess you wouldn't do that.

As for Bennett, he claimed that his comments were meant to make the point that using abortion to reduce crime was "morally reprehensible." Which would be true if this were Opposite Day.

SEC Football=Class

This story of LSU fans pelting the Tennessee bus with beer bottles before the Monday night game reminded me of the classiness of SEC football fans. When I lived in Knoxville, the week before the Florida game, people would be driving around with paint on their back windows reading "Spurrier Swallows." Then there are the Florida fans pouring cups of urine on members of the Georgia band.

Class all the way around.

The New Yorker

I love The New Yorker. However, I've noticed that everytime they do a fashion or style issue, the number of advertisements rises significantly. And I'm wondering, is there someone over there who has this dream that The New Yorker could become the next Vanity Fair where some really good stories are enveloped in a sea of advertisements.

I know the profit margins for these kind of journals are smaller than ever these days. But I like The New Yorker as it is and I think that most of its readers do to. I can deal with the ton of ads every now and again for a special issue. I just hope that it stays every now and again.

Or maybe I'm just a crabby old man before my time.

Martin Dies

My wife is presently working out of Houston for hurricane relief. She was telling me last night that they may have to visit the area around Martin Dies State Park. No one knew who he was so she asked me. That made me realize that very few people know who Martin Dies is anymore.

Martin Dies was one of the worst people to ever be a powerful member of the House. On this day when Tom DeLay steps down from Majority Leader, I thought it would be a good time to discuss a fellow Texan.

Dies founded the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1937 and served as its chairman from 1937-44. This of course was the committee that Richard Nixon used to prop up his career as a red-baiter. Dies, who didn't see much value in the New Deal, used his chairmanship to destroy the Federal Writers Project and other New Deal programs that employed artists and other commies. He claimed that the CIO was full of communists and came out against them and labor as a whole. A staunch segregationist, he was a supporter of the Ku Klux Klan and spoke at several of their rallies. He hated the liberalism of Franklin D. Roosevelt and supported a group called the Texas Regulars in 1944 that wanted to deny FDR a majority in the electoral college. They were not successful but were a precursor to the Dixiecrats in 1948.

Dies is almost forgotten about today. He is an example of America's dark side that needs to be brought into the light. A truly evil man.

On the other hand, his state park is right next to Jasper, Texas, where James Byrd was lynched in 1998 by white supremacists who tied him up and dragged him behind their pickup. A very fitting locale for a man like Dies.

Quotes from a few critics of Dies:

Dorothy Parker: "The people want democracy - real democracy, Mr. Dies, and they look toward Hollywood to give it to them because they don't get it any more in their newspapers. And that's why you're out here, Mr. Dies - that's why you want to destroy the Hollywood progressive organizations - because you've got to control this medium if you want to bring fascism to this country."

Emanuel Celler: "Bluntly then, the present committee can make its choice. It can either adopt the Dies course of unfounded character assassinations, lynch-law, prosecutor-jury and executioner all in one - or it can proceed in a manner consonant with the American tradition of the right to be heard, the right of counsel and the right of confrontation of witnesses, placing emphasis on investigation of all foreignisms with honest judicious objectivity."

Bye Tom

It's not so sad to see Tom DeLay give up his duties as House Majority Leader. One of the most evil politicans of our generation, I will be surprised if this is not the end "Hot Tub" Tom DeLay's political career. I suppose it is possible that he will completely exonerated of all charges. But somehow, I don't think that is going to happen. I think that even the voters of DeLay's home district in Texas are likely to vote in another right-winger rather than reelect DeLay if he is convicted.

I have little reason to believe that David Dreier is much better than DeLay. But it's hard to imagine him being any worse.

Crystal Meth, The Currency of Life

OK, I cannot help but be amused that the Atlanta woman whose "faith" got her captor to surrender in fact survived through sharing her supply of crystal meth with him. Why do I find this amusing? Because I love it when the right takes up the case of someone as an example of what Jesus or morals or traditional values can do for you and then facts come to light that show the person dealing with life in other, more human ways.

The real lesson of this story is to have a supply of crystal meth on hand. You never know when it is going to save your life. Better go find some today!

The Giant Squid

So the giant squid has now been observed in the wild and photographed.

I am amazed that John Lurie and Dennis Hopper weren't the first to accomplish this.

He's A Good Fella All Right

I couldn't help but find the conviction of Henry Hill, whose experiences formed the basis of Goodfellas, for meth slightly amusing in a troubling sort of way. Not for the meth itself, but because he showed up for a pre-sentencing meeting with a parole office with a blood alcohol level of a mere 0.34%

You Don't Need To Be A Superhero. But Being Competent Would Be Nice

I find Michael Brown's defense of his response to the New Orleans disaster laughable at best and infuriating at worst.

No one's asking you to be a superhero you self-centered bastard. But you could have at least made some sort of plans to get people out there when everyone knew the hurricane could destroy New Orleans, you could have gotten involved immediately in rescue operations, and you could have informed the president of what was going to be necessary here.

But you know, Michael Brown is the real victim of Katrina.

Depressing Statistic of the Day

Percentage of homes on the Navajo reservation that have electricity:

61.

Jose Saramago

I received this comment on a post I put up some time ago from artdectective, someone who had not read the blog before. It read:

I wandered onto your blog after noticing that you are one of four (myself included) who count Baltasar and Blimunda among their favorite books. I appreciate your cynicism and intelligent posts.

People, read your Jose Saramago. There is no greater living author. If you want to argue for Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Naguib Mahfouz, maybe. But in my mind, he is number 1. His method of storytelling is unmatched by anyone. His tales of irony and compassion, showing both the best and the worst in human nature move me like no other. He is in the magical realism tradition but takes it to levels very different from Garcia Marquez. If you want to read a story about what would happen to a group of people if Iberia split off from Europe and floated out to sea, he's your guy. If you want to know what would happen to a medieval couple in love if a priest they knew invented a flying machine, pick him up.

To me, Baltasar and Blimunda is his best work. But read any and all of them. I would also highly recommend The Stone Raft, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, and The History of the Siege of Lisbon. These are wonderful pieces of literature. You will be totally blown away.

And if this helps, the Vatican was furious when Saramago won the Nobel Prize in 1998, calling him an "inveterate communist of anti-religious views." Saramago really seems to care.

Here's a great discussion of Saramago's work.

Enjoy.

Something I Don't Understand

Every now and I then I like to click on the "Next Blog" link on the upper right corner of my blog page. Sometimes you run across something interesting. I stopped doing this at work however when I came to a Brazilian blog that featuring topless women on the beach. I figured I would have trouble explaining that one away.

Anyway, every 4 or 5 blogs that come up are these absurd corporate blogs for this or that product. Are these actually effective? Do people actually go to these blogs for some reason or another? Maybe I am not so adept at understanding new forms of advertising but this makes very little sense to me.

Wife and New Orleans Update

As I mentioned in a post the other day, my wife has been assigned to help in the New Orleans relief effort. Interestingly, she's been assigned to Austin.

Now I have to say, if you are going to be assigned to something like this, could you beat Austin? I know she's working long days but she's received strict orders to go see Dale Watson play while she's down there and James McMurtry as well.

She's working out of Austin assessing places to put up temporary housing for refugees. It's a month since the hurricane and FEMA has still not even started this process. Government during the W era at its worst right there.

USC

Wow, USC is kind of good. I was excited at the beginning of the USC-Oregon game and more so when Oregon went up 13-0. Then USC woke up. That is a professional offense. Oregon has good athletes and has never been known for a lack of speed. But Reggie Bush was just running circles around them. Leinart is great. Dwayne Jarrett is a top-notch receiver. The offensive line didn't allow any pressure all day. Wow, Wow, Wow.

Could they be the best college team of my lifetime? No doubt some of those Nebraska teams were truly great, as was the Florida national championship team, the Miami team of a couple of years ago with Willis McGahee, and the 1994 Penn St. team which has Kerry Collins, Ki-Jana Carter, and Kyle Brady among others. But I think I'd take this USC team over all of them.

A Comeback for Woody?

I know that everytime a new Woody Allen movie comes out, his fans, or at least me, hope that it will be the comeback film. Each one seems irrelevant and just not worth watching. Could his new film, Match Point, be the exception? Early reviews sound promising. We can always hope. This should have very little meaning, but it's viewer rating on imdb.com is higher right now than any Woody movie since Sweet and Lowdown. And let's face it. At this point, if he can still make movies as good as Sweet and Lowdown, I'll take it.

I'm Glad Our Leaders Have Their Priorities Straight

Thanks to my friend Scott, the Largo Housepainter, for sending me this story of Montana Senators Max Baucus and Conrad Burns refusing to even consider returning $4 million in federal funds designated for building a parking garage in Bozeman so that money can be used to fund Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

So many points to make, so little time.

1. It's good to know that pork barrel politics will always be the top priority of Americans, regardless of the circumstances. And I thought giving a bunch of homeland security money to Wyoming and South Dakota was ridiculous.

2. Why in the hell are our tax dollars going to fund parking garages in Bozeman anyway? Shouldn't that be a locally funded project?

3. While I think Baucus and Burns are laughable as real leaders, I do have to say one thing that is sort of in their defense. While we should not be using our tax dollars to pay for parking garages, we also should not have to eviscerate what's left of the government's role in helping Americans on an everyday basis in order to take care of this tragedy. We could have all the parking garages we wanted if we would just repeal the Bush tax cuts. But ultimately, Americans care more about their tax rates than any single other thing in the world. Does anyone think that a national referendum asking Americans to raise their taxes, even temporarily, to fund reconstruction efforts, would have a shot in hell of passing? No way. As a nation, we still have no understanding of what it takes to have a functioning government and to provide the services demanded by the American people. Thus record deficits.

So Sad

Wouldn't it just be tragic if this derailed Bill Frist's presidential campaign?

Honestly, what would do him more damage, a SEC investigation into his stock dealings or his refusal to say that AIDS can't be spread by tears? I have no idea what the answer is.

No Great Loss

I am hardly saddened by the resignation of FDA chief Lester Crawford, one of so many examples of unqualified ideologues to receive Bush appointments. For background, see this letter from Planned Parenthood on Crawford and the choice he made to deny over the counter status to emergency contraception to women.

Too bad there's no reason to believe Crawford's replacement will be no better.

If You Don't Hear From Me For Awhile

If I disappear for awhile, it could be because Oregon is playing USC tomorrow. I am actually going to go to a sports bar in Albuquerque to watch the game. I may need to disappear into a drunken stupor to deal with what is going to happen. That stupor could end up with me in a coma, or I may just need to continue with the spree for awhile.

Prediction, USC 55, Oregon 30.

An extra drink is needed because the Yankees are now in first place. Sigh.

Why All The Posts All Of A Sudden?

Why, the answer is clear. Because I have lectures and powerpoint presentations to do for my class next week, response papers to grade, and 2 conference papers due on October 15, one of which I need to pull out of thin air.

It's all about avoidance.