Lest We Forget

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.



It is altogether appropriate that we remember and honor *all* those who died to protect our freedom.

Kent State, OH 5/4/70

Friday Bird Blogging

I don't think this can be topped, really.



(Photograph of a pair of stuffed ivory billed woodpeckers at the LSU Natural History Museum.)

Congratulations to Cornell University, The Nature Conservancy, the Fish & Wildlife Service, and the yeoman efforts of all those who made the (re-)discovery of this bird possible.

I'd say welcome back to the land of the living, but that's a totally selfish and anthropocentric point of view, innit? Fact is, they've never left the world. They simply had the sense to find somewhere on the continent that we were not. The fact that they've managed to stay in self-obscurity for so long is a testament to their adaptation to human encroachment and their innate drive to survive.

Let's not screw this up for them a second time, 'k?

If you're looking for somewhere to cast a few dollars, you could do much worse than The Nature Conservancy.

My letter to the editors of Time "Magazine."

Editors:

I am deeply offended by Time Magazine's decision to run a cover story about Ann Coulter on the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.

As a major media outlet, I would like to think that your company had more sense than to write a puff piece on Ms. Coulter, especially given her animosity to mainstream media in general. She is a partisan demagogue devoted to destroying the great democratic tradition of this country by being a tireless advocate of single-party Republican rule. Her "humble" beginnings as one of "The Elves" -- a band of neo-conservative idealogues bent on the destruction of Bill Clinton's presidency -- should give anyone pause when assessing her journalistic credibility. Her role in the "new media" was to spread misinformation about the political positions of the American left as surrogate for the Republican Party in general, and Richard Mellon Scaife in particular.

Her vile invective against people with whom she does not agree has no place in the public discourse. Comments like "my only regret" about the people that perished in the Oklahoma City bombing "was that Tim McVeigh did not go to the New York Times building," even with the shoddy disclaimer that she only wished that reporters and editors had been killed, is simply beyond the pale. Not only does it dishonor the memory of the senseless murder of 168 innocent people, the fact that a bastion of American journalism would glorify the career of a woman who advocates the murder of journalists -- even in "jest" -- disgraces, debases, and dishonors the practice of journalism.

There is a long tradition in the journalistic craft within my family. My grandfather worked for the Chicago Daily News and the Chicago Sun-Times, my father worked for the Danville Commercial-News, and my step-father works for the Battle Creek Inquirer. I shudder to think that anyone would find her comments about murdering journalists "cute" or "part of the agitprop" were some terrorist bomb to have blown up one of these institutions of the Fourth Estate in lieu of destroying the Murrah Building.

And as far as the notion that she is merely being provocative? Please. Lenny Bruce, she is not. Bill Hicks, she is not. H.L. Mencken, she is not. Hunter S. Thompson, she is not. She is neither comedienne nor journalist, nor is she possessed of any special insight or genius. She is a sorry footnote to a sorry campaign to destroy American progress in the name of conservative hegemony.

Has Time Magazine sunk to such depths of self-loathing that it feels it must demonstrate kinship with one of the most disgusting practitioners of right-wing conservative advocacy, even at the expense of whatever shreds of journalistic integrity that your institution still might pretend to hold?

Sincerely,

[Andy Axel]
Nashville, TN

Live in Memphis

The new DVD of Elvis Costello & The Imposters, Live at the Hi Tone in Memphis, is outstanding.

The concert keeps the small-club feel of the show intact, and has several listening options (Dolby stereo, Dolby 5.1, and DTS). The set list is very much in keeping with the recent show at the Ryman, including a mini-set with Emmylou Harris.

The extras include a cultural tour of Memphis.

I have got to get back in West Tennessee sometime soon.

Check it out.

Outrage Overload
-- or, "Justice Scalia, you'd have to answer that question in Texas in order to adopt, buddy..."

The Texas House of Representatives just approved a measure 135 to 6 which would (a) require people to declare a sexual preference in order to become foster parents, (b) if they admit to being homosexual, they are immediately disqualified, and (c) if they are already foster parents when this bill becomes law, Child Protective Services will immediately disrupt foster families if the foster parents are known to be gay.

These foster families below are at risk...



...because these dipshits below (Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp, R-Kempner, left, and Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville)...



...think that how people reach orgasm has something to do with their fitness as parents.

(Maybe the problem is that those two frigid dipshits have forgotten what an orgasm feels like.)

Time was, I didn't know the meaning of risk. I can remember pulling up stakes from an increasingly comfortable situation in Chicago and moving to Boulder, CO with little more than an instinct that I needed to get away from the insanity of big-city life.

Did I have a job? Nope. Did I have prospects? Nope. I had a few cats, some meager possessions, and available credit on my Discover card. And I had the idea that no matter what happened, it couldn't be any worse than my situation was in Chicago.

Things have wound up pretty good in the intervening decade. While I've bounced around more than some, I've made more money year over year, I've landed in Nashville, got married, I've had steady work, I have a good life overall, and I really don't need for anything.

Except a willingness to risk.

Wow, what a subtle trap. And I walked right into it.

Marla Ruzicka

I had no idea who this woman or her organization was until I heard a broadcast on NPR this morning. (Yeah, now that Air America has put Jerry Springer up in what used to be Lizz Winstead's time slot, I've gone off the XM Radio for my morning commute.)

Apparently some people have little sympathy for her, for her friends, nor for her family because her politics weren't correct. And for those who don't know the story, she founded a group called CIVIC which is dedicated to assisting the human "collateral damage" of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They do this through documentation, advocacy, and actually walking on Middle Eastern soil to demonstrate a genuinely American commitment to help the innocent victims of warfare.

I know a lot of Bush's apologists don't want to examine that dimension of the conflict; they'd rather slap a "Support Our Troops" magnetic ribbon on their SUVs and bitch about high gas prices. But real people are subjected to real harm here, and if our national commitment is indeed to alleviating the suffering of the people of Iraq, then we could do worse than to honor this woman's service to humanity.

It brings to mind these words:

...this is why we are drifting. And we are drifting there because nations are caught up with the drum major instinct. "I must be first." "I must be supreme." "Our nation must rule the world." And I am sad to say that the nation in which we live is the supreme culprit. And I'm going to continue to say it to America, because I love this country too much to see the drift that it has taken.

God didn't call America to do what she's doing in the world now. God didn't call America to engage in a senseless, unjust war as the war in Vietnam. And we are criminals in that war. We’ve committed more war crimes almost than any nation in the world, and I'm going to continue to say it. And we won't stop it because of our pride and our arrogance as a nation.

But God has a way of even putting nations in their place. The God that I worship has a way of saying, "Don't play with me." He has a way of saying, as the God of the Old Testament used to say to the Hebrews, "Don’t play with me, Israel. Don't play with me, Babylon. Be still and know that I'm God. And if you don't stop your reckless course, I'll rise up and break the backbone of your power." And that can happen to America. Every now and then I go back and read Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. And when I come and look at America, I say to myself, the parallels are frightening. And we have perverted the drum major instinct.

But let me rush on to my conclusion, because I want you to see what Jesus was really saying. What was the answer that Jesus gave these men? It's very interesting. One would have thought that Jesus would have condemned them. One would have thought that Jesus would have said, "You are out of your place. You are selfish. Why would you raise such a question?"

But that isn't what Jesus did; he did something altogether different. He said in substance, "Oh, I see, you want to be first. You want to be great. You want to be important. You want to be significant. Well, you ought to be. If you're going to be my disciple, you must be." But he reordered priorities. And he said, "Yes, don't give up this instinct. It's a good instinct if you use it right. It's a good instinct if you don't distort it and pervert it. Don't give it up. Keep feeling the need for being important. Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be first in love. I want you to be first in moral excellence. I want you to be first in generosity. That is what I want you to do."

And he transformed the situation by giving a new definition of greatness. And you know how he said it? He said, "Now brethren, I can't give you greatness. And really, I can't make you first." This is what Jesus said to James and John. "You must earn it. True greatness comes not by favoritism, but by fitness. And the right hand and the left are not mine to give, they belong to those who are prepared."

And so Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness. If you want to be important — wonderful. If you want to be recognized — wonderful. If you want to be great — wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That's a new definition of greatness.

And this morning, the thing that I like about it: by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.

--MLK, Feb. 1968

Thank you for having the courage that so many of us -- me included -- don't have, Ms. Ruzicka.

You were a servant.

Ken Schermerhorn

Condolences to the close friends and family of Kenneth Dewitt Schermerhorn (1929-2005), long-time conductor of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and patron of the fine arts.

I pass by the shell of the as-yet incomplete Schermerhorn Center about every day. It would have been nice if he'd lived long enough to lift his baton at least once in the facility named for him.

Pick up a copy of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis or one of the many recordings of the NSO under the capable hand of Mr. Schermerhorn.

He will be missed.

Bird Blogging A Dollar Short

Maybe it was worth the wait.

OK, everyone. Grab your Sibley books and give me some help:



Blue Winged Warbler? (spotted on the banks of the Big South Fork River, Scott County, TN.)

Friday Invertebrate Blogging

(Apologies to Dope on the Slope.)

This week, no photography.  Just a number of links...

Estate taxes set to be eliminated, so the mega-rich can secure the blessings of their liberty to themselves and their immediate family in perpetuity:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050413/ap_on_go_co/estate_tax

The bankruptcy bill passes, with much fanfare and support from "New Democrats" (read: pussies) in the House:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&ncid=1278&e=6&u=/ap/20050415/ap_on_go_co/bankruptcy

Welcome to the ownership society.  Your ass is owned.  Next, I suppose your serfdom will become an asset protected by the "Fantastic Wealth in Perpetuity" giveaway, meaning that your children will be indentured if your debts are not settled by the time of your death.

I've read a bit about how the NDC in the House believed that their symbolic support for this bill was acceptable -- the reason being that the Republicans had enough votes to pass the bill, so why not hop on their gravy train to show "support" for an ostensibly popular piece of legislation allegedly necessary to encourage personal responsibility (while registering no opinion on the responsibility of ridiculous usury laws in states like Delaware and South Dakota).  Apparently, the symbolic appearance of having a conscience and a backbone have gone out of vogue.

(Note to Nashvillagers:  The bill was passed with the support of Rep. Jim Cooper.)

Washington D.C. Office
1536 Longworth House Office Building 
Washington, D.C. 20515 
Phone: 202-225-4311
Fax: 202-226-1035 
Hours: Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm ET

Nashville Office 
706 Church Street, Suite 101
Nashville, TN  37203 
Phone: 615-736-5295 
Fax: 615-736-7479 
Hours: Monday to Friday, 8am-5pm CT

The GOP circles the wagons to protect the deeply corrupt Tom DeLay:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&ncid=1278&e=4&u=/ap/20050415/ap_on_go_co/delay_ethics

For those with no memory, the equivalent sort of shit that Dan Rostenkowski pulled got him run out of town on a rail.  And we all know how much hell that Bill Clinton caught for a few "ropy jets of jism" landing on a cheap blue dress.  How about paying your immediate family $500,000 from campaign funds? 

The AP reports, and the punditocracy dozes. 

Watch the filibuster fall next:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1803&ncid=1278&e=1&u=/washpost/20050415/pl_washpost/a54661_2005apr14

This story ends with, I believe, "…and Jesus wept."

Worth The Wait



Been waiting a couple of years for this one, too. The iris beds had been inactive due to inattention of previous owners of our house.

Another view, Keefe-esque detail exaggerated by crop & color manipulation:

High Flippin' Time



Been waiting 2 years for this azalea to blossom.

Phriday Photoblogging:

Spring perennials have arrived.



This here's a hellebore from my backyard.

Bonus:



Wildflower of some sort. Too lazy to look it up.

The Buds of April

Pickin's have been pretty slim lately, but there's still food to be found if you're willing to work for it.

Left out of Roy Williams thank you speech:

Brad Kampschroeder, Kurt Sinnett, Freeman West, Todd Alexander, Terry Brown, Rick Calloway, Alonzo Jamison, Adonis Jordan, Pekka Markkanen, Macolm Nash, Kirk Wagner, Doug Elstun, David Johanning, Patrick Richey, Richard Scott, Sean Tunstall, Steve Woodberry, Lane Czaplinski, Ben Davis, Greg Gurley, Greg Ostertag, Eric Pauley, Rex Walters, Darrin Hancock, Sean Pearson, Calvin Rayford, Blake Weichbrodt, T. J. Whatley, Scot Pollard, Nick Proud, Robert Reed, Jacque Vaughn, B. J. Williams, Joel Branstrom, Jerod Haase, Raef LaFrentz, C. B. McGrath, Scott Novosel, Billy Thomas, Travis Williams, Paul Pierce, T. J. Pugh, Steve Ransom, Ryan Robertson, Nick Bradford, Terry Nooner, Eric Chenowith, Lester Earl, Kenny Gregory, Jelani Janisse, Chris Martin, Jeff Boschee, Jeff Carey, John Crider, Ashante Johnson, Marlon London, Luke Axtell, Nick Collison, Drew Gooden, Kirk Hinrich, Brett Ballard, Lewis Harrison, Todd Kappelmann, Mario Kinsey, Bryant Nash, Chris Zerbe, Keith Langford, Michael Lee, Aaron Miles, Wayne Simien.

Only five of them called to wish you luck? Wow.

"New Dean" of college basketball indeed.

Life isn't fair.

I figured that out in 1990 when my dad died of terminal cancer.

He was 43.

Had things been different, he'd have been 58 tomorrow.

Happy birthday, Dad. I miss you.

Friday Bird Blogging



Canadian honkers, paddling idly on Radnor Lake.

BONUS:

Oh, deer.

I (heart) American jurisprudence today.

"Any further action by our court or the district court would be improper," wrote Judge Stanley F. Birch Jr., who was appointed by former President Bush. "While the members of her family and the members of Congress have acted in a way that is both fervent and sincere, the time has come for dispassionate discharge of duty."

Birch went on to scold President Bush and Congress for their attempts to intervene in the judicial process, by saying: "In resolving the Schiavo controversy, it is my judgment that, despite sincere and altruistic motivation, the legislative and executive branches of our government have acted in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers' blueprint for the governance of a free people — our Constitution."

Couldn't have said it better.

Now that the ice is broken, will a fucking DEMOCRAT stand up and say the same thing??? Just one? Please?

UPDATE: Thanks to Rachel Maddow on the final broadcast of Unfiltered on AAR this morning, I was directed to my answer (sorta):

Two Democratic senators who have thought [the Schiavo issue] through, Tom Harkin and Ron Wyden, took very different positions. Harkin, of Iowa, was a prime mover behind the Senate decision to join with the Republicans to urge federal judicial review. Harkin is close to the disability community, which worries about "right-to-die" issues, and Senate Democrats deferred to him on Schiavo. He forged the coalition with Republicans Frist, Santorum, Martinez and, according to two sources, had the support of former President Clinton for his actions. While Mr. Clinton apparently didn't talk to Harkin until after the vote, one source described Mr. Clinton as "egging him on."

SOURCE

Someone please remind Harkin that in his time as president and consiglieri, the Democrats show net losses in (a) state Democratic governors, (b) state Democratic legislators, (c) Democratic House memberships, (d) Democratic Senate memberships, (e) registered Democratic voters, (f) Democratic Party identification, and (g) 0-2 versus the GOP nationally since he was term-limited out. He even managed a net loss in the 1996 midterm elections, which was nigh unprecedented.

Whether or not you like Clinton, and whether or not you thought we were better off under Clinton, that's food for thought.

You keep doing what you're doing, and you expect different results.........

"Predictable... if Ghoulish"

Remember this next time someone says that the Schindler family are a bunch of innocents caught up in a desperate bid to prolong their daughter's life:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/29/politics/29donate.html?oref=login

The parents of Terri Schiavo have authorized a conservative direct-mailing firm to sell a list of donors to their legal expenses, making it likely that thousands of strangers moved by her plight will receive a steady stream of solicitations from anti-abortion and conservative groups.

"These compassionate pro-lifers donated toward Bob Schindler's legal battle to keep Terri's estranged husband from removing the feeding tube from Terri," says a description of the list on the Web site of the firm, Response Unlimited, which is asking $150 a month for 6,000 names and $500 a month for 4,000 e-mail addresses of people who responded last month to an e-mail plea from Ms. Schiavo's father. "These individuals are passionate about the way they value human life, adamantly oppose euthanasia and are pro-life in every sense of the word!"

This seriously undermines their claims of non-involvement. These people are conservative activists, folks. That's why they openly associate with terrorists like Randall Terry.

I wonder when they ink their first book deal with Regnery.

Self-Confessional Housekeeping
.....or, "You Goddamned Kids Get off My Lawn!"

Greetings, to those of you reading this blog from here and from afar. Whether you found your way here from PF or from SKB's blog or Bubba Blab, I genuinely welcome your visit.

Despite the overall irksome tone, I do value my readership, such as it is. Granted, I often have little to say, other than to post the odd photo or "what's playing" list.

That, and political rants.

And herein lies the self-confessional stuff.

I've been reviewing the length & breadth of my own output in the wake of the fifth installment of The High Hat. I find myself in some ways awed to be in this company, and in other ways dismayed because lately I've found I haven't written much other than pissed-off-ness because it's one of the few things that gets my blood coursing these days. It's mostly residual disgust with the complacency of our populace in the face of tyranny (and in some measure, active disgust with my job situation, but that's a longer story than I care to tell here).

While my patience with the morbid stupidity that is modern conservatism has worn my nerves threadbare, I recognize how embittered that this confluence of events has made me appear. Um, "humorless prick" might about characterize the general gist of it -- at least that's my inner critic talking to me upon a second reading of some of my output here on One Reporter's Opinion. If that's the vibe you're getting around here, my apologies. Well, unless you're one of those asshole Republicans who really deserve it, and you know who you are, you flaccid, fatuous denizens of conservabot twitdom. I'm an unapologetic lefty, and if that's not in keeping with your tastes, I'm sure you can find the BACK button on your browser.

Sorry -- it really has become a conditioned response, even without much more than imagined stimuli.

Anyway, I'd like to believe that I wasn't scaring people off with my escalated rhetoric of rage and occasional fits of barb.

If you're still interested in hanging, genuine thanks for your patronage. I'll endeavor to make this more joyful encounter, as joy is something I think that I need to seek more actively, both online and off. I have added comments and an RSS feed to streamline, modernize, gadgetize, hippify, and otherwise "encoolen" the blog microclimate.

Oh, by the way -- I figured out my Javascript woes vis-a-vis the Blogger upgrade. Anybody using Mac should be warned that Allume's Internet Cleanup 2.0.3 (specifically NetBlockade) can interfere with your blog's behavior. NetBlockade selectively targets JavaScript actions as popup advertising and blocks them. The only fix I've found is to turn off NetBlockade, and I'm less than impressed so far with Allume's technical support.