Rowhouse Logic - Breathtaking Inanity

Shannika:

Silence speaks volumes. So does minimizing what others tell you is their injury. So does pushing off a solution to some time that is more convenient for you without regard to the feelings of those suffering the actual injury.

Tens of thousands of Ukrainians stood in Kiev’s Independence Square to demonstrate, with some success, against their people’s disenfranchisement in Ukraine’s recent elections. How many Americans have stood up and made a little noise about the disenfranchisement of black voters in our own November elections? Not many. Not many at all.

Where has the Democratic party been? Where have our leaders been? The idea that it is somehow acceptable for black voters, or any voter, to have to wait in line for hours, due to faulty or scarce equipment, in order to cast their vote is contemptible. The idea that it is acceptable for the House Speaker of our fifth most populace state, to openly declare that the suppression of voters in his own city was his election day goal is beyond disgusting.

Disgusting but apparently acceptable. Move on, worry about crafting an even more bland message, internalize inaction, embrace the status quo and hope that the big bad Republicans won’t hurt us too bad.

Fuck it all.

Liberal wasps, such as myself, like to use the words of Martin Luther King, but rarely, if ever, internalize his message and translate those words into actions. I received an email from Howard Dean shortly after the election in which he quoted Dr. King saying “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter”. The disenfranchisement of black voters in Cleveland matters, regardless of whether or not it affected the outcome of the election and Dr. Dean has been quite silent. So has John Kerry and the Democratic leadership. So has the storied “Party of Lincoln”. So have I. So has, well, damn near everybody.

Again - fuck it all.

If we really want to have a serious discussion about values, the value of free and fair elections, for all U.S. citizens regardless of anything, should be first and foremost among our concerns. I don’t have much hope of that happening.

More later…

Krugman says:

So the Bush administration wants to scrap a retirement system that works, and can be made financially sound for generations to come with modest reforms. Instead, it wants to buy into failure, emulating systems that, when tried elsewhere, have neither saved money nor protected the elderly from poverty.

The failure he’s referring to was British and Chilean and may soon be our own if Mr. Bush has his way. In a progressive society one would imagine that the goal would be to increase benefits and stability over time as a means toward increasing the overall quality of life enjoyed by the citizens of that society. We can’t even have that conversation. Instead we’re hearing the cries of a false ‘crisis’ over and over again, to cynically sell decreased benefits, less security, and profligate long-term borrowing. Why? Does Mr. Bush believe that he really needs to fuck up every single thing before his term is up?

Just for fun I’ve added a Bernie Kerik Goo Image to the Bush and Cheney Goo Images. I couldn’t find a decent picture so it is what it is. You may want to use the small goo tool.

[Update] How could I forget Jerry?

Herbert:

By anyone’s standards, terrible things are happening in Iraq, and no amount of self-congratulation in Washington can take the edge off the horror being endured by American troops or the unrelenting agony of the Iraqi people. The disconnect between the White House’s fantasyland and the world of war in Iraq could hardly have been illustrated more starkly than by a pair of front-page articles in The New York Times on Dec. 10. The story at the top of the page carried the headline: “It’s Inauguration Time Again, and Access Still Has Its Price - $250,000 Buys Lunch With President and More.”

The headline on the story beneath it said: “Armor Scarce for Heavy Trucks Transporting U.S. Cargo in Iraq.”

…
The man who took the lead in vetting Bernie Kerik, the White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, was also the point person in the administration’s bid to duck the constraints of the Geneva Conventions, and even to justify torture.

Medals anyone? The president may actually believe that this crowd is the best and brightest America has to offer. Which is disturbing.

Metals for failure, promotions to reward incompetence and cruelty, blind eyes gazing on the brutality of the Iraq war and declaring that all is well. Par for the course. The American People voted for this mess and we’ve got four more years of it to look forward to. I fear the worst is yet to come.

I was just reading this great post by the Liberal Avenger about some recent paranoia from Jerry Falwell. Apparently Christmas is in some type of danger. Who knew? Anyway, I made the mistake of clicking on the link to the Falwell article and came across this little gem:

Our founders were men who explicitly embraced Judeo-Christian principles in the founding of this nation. Even those who were Deists openly recognized the need for the citizenry to fall to their collective knees and beseech God’s favor. They understood the need to recognize God in our Constitution, in our courts and in our schools.

I think Jerry may need to better familiarize himself with that fellow named Jefferson who wrote this in 1823:

“One day the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in the United States will tear down the artificial scaffolding of Christianity. And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as His father, in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.”

Or perhaps he should look into some guy named James Madison who wrote this in 1785:

“During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution.�

[Update] I love a coincidance. A few additional James Madison quotes from Media Matters.

From the New York Times -

An Army study shows that about one in six soldiers in Iraq report symptoms of major depression, serious anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder, a proportion that some experts believe could eventually climb to one in three, the rate ultimately found in Vietnam veterans. Because about one million American troops have served so far in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Pentagon figures, some experts predict that the number eventually requiring mental health treatment could exceed 100,000.

After the death, after the physical mutilation, after the destruction and after the utter brutality of war, there is this - the long-term aftermath on the psychological state of those who served.

If you live, as I do, in one of America’s large cities, you know, first hand, that our country has failed miserably in terms of caring for those we sent to war. We see it daily on our streets, in the form of broken, shattered people who served, willingly or not, in prior wars. Our mental health system, already stretched, is being introduced to a whole new wave of combat veterans. That system is not capable of dealing with its current workload, let alone what it is about to face, and it’s about to face an onslaught.

As bad as our mental health system is, our system for caring for the homeless is far, far worse. The homeless you pass on the by street a decade from now will, as likely as not, be some of the same men and woman who are serving in Iraq now. Cheap yellow ribbon magnets on the back of our cars and grand proclamations of our support won’t help them. Not one bit.

Let me be the 15^th Democrat to rise up in indignation and demand the Republicans stop persecuting Bernie Kerik over an extramarital affair. It’s not the sex it’s the lying. Well that, and the incompetence and the corruption and the stalking and the…oh forget it.

“Secretary Rumsfeld has been doing a tremendous job during some very challenging times.”

-White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan.

So silly I don’t really need make any snarky comments.

If you are like me, and find reading press conference transcripts only slightly more interesting than watching paint dry, do what I do and ask Snoop. There’s a sample after the jump.
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I’ve been meaning, for some time, to point your attention towards what, I think, is a really good blog named The Ward Report. Don’s short take on the failed Kerik nomination gives me a great reason to do so. He points out something that hasn’t been mentioned much; the person who really comes out of this mess unscathed, is none other the Mr. Bush himself. Typical.

Here’s a little bit, but go read the whole thing:

So Bush found himself in the very uncomfortable position (especially for Bush and Rove) of being in Rudy’s debt.

And Bush will pay no political price for this.

Part of the reason I’ve been so slow to post, of late, is that I’ve been preoccupied with completing a short essay comparing modern movement conservatism to postmodernism. Needless to say, I’m far from finished and may never finish, but I did want throw the idea out there for a little critisism.

The basic idea is this; the modern conservative movement, as embodied by the likes of Dr. James Dobson, Linda Chavez, Ralph Reed, Jonah Goldberg, Sean Hannity, our President, et al, draws its strength and its narrative power from the rejection of objective, historical fact, in much the same way postmodernism is currently defined by its rejection or subversion of metanarratives.

I won’t go into any detail here, but, as per my usaual, I have a question. Does this seem like a resonable line of thinking, or am I just concerning myself with so many filthy, soiled yams?

Shoot me an email and let me know. Thanks.

I promise I’ll never do this again. Really, I do.

I may have mentioned previously, that I spend entirely too much time with Excel. Well it’s true, I do. I hope to stop soon. Actually, I meant to stop a long time ago. So anyway, let me share one of the fruits of my misery.

This formula will extract an email address out of a text string of any length, regardless of where in the text string the email address is located. It will always take the first email address found and no others. The formula will return an error if none is found. The example provided, assumes that the string is in cell A2. Adjust accordingly.

=IF(ISERR(LEN(LEFT(A2,SEARCH(”@”,A2)))-FIND(”*”,SUBSTITUTE(LEFT(A2,SEARCH(”@”,A2)),” “,”*”,LEN(LEFT(A2,SEARCH(”@”,A2)))-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(LEFT(A2,SEARCH(”@”,A2)),” “,”"))))),LEFT(A2,FIND(”@”,A2)),RIGHT(LEFT(A2,SEARCH(”@”,A2)),LEN(LEFT(A2,SEARCH(”@”,A2)))-FIND(”*”,SUBSTITUTE(LEFT(A2,SEARCH(”@”,A2)),” “,”*”,LEN(LEFT(A2,SEARCH(”@”,A2)))-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(LEFT(A2,SEARCH(”@”,A2)),” “,”"))))))&IF(ISERR(FIND(” “,RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-FIND(”@”,A2)))),RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-FIND(”@”,A2)),LEFT(RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-FIND(”@”,A2)),FIND(” “,RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-FIND(”@”,A2)))))

Why would you ever use this? Well, if you had any sense you wouldn’t. Sense and sensibility are not my province, however.

Again, enjoy this crap while you can, I’ll never do it again.

From the AP:
U.S. Sen. John McCain said Monday that he has “no confidence” in Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, citing Rumsfeld’s handling of the war in Iraq and the failure to send more troops.

What a fucking loser. Thanks so much for campaigning for this guy’s boss, buddy. Thanks a whole fucking lot. McCain must have known that there was a really, really good chance that Rumsfeld would stay on board, and yet he still campaigned for Bush. Not until after the election, and after he shored up his image as a bonafide, loyal Republican, does he mention that he has “no confidence” in the primary architect of the administration’s military policy. True to form - Party and Ambition over Country.

“I think I know I mean a “Yes” but it’s all wrong, that is I think I disagree” - John Lennon

That pretty much sums up the way I’ve been feeling of late. You know shit’s going downhill when you start quoting song lyrics. Anyway, sorry about the recent dearth of worthwhile posts (as if there ever were any). Let me give you the short version of what I would have been writing, had I been writing anything at all:

The war is awful….blah..blah..blah…Getting worse…blah..blah..blah..Bush sucks….blah..blah..blah…cut & paste…blah..blah..blah…Democrats should do something…blah..blah..blah…I know they won’t…blah..blah..blah…cut & paste.

Whatever. Enjoy your day.

I’ve made some changes to the look of the site in order to make it a little easier to read. At some point I will do a complete overhaul, but for now I’ll live with this. If you feel like the changes have actually made it harder to read, shoot me an email and let me know. Thanks.

Update: Ok, that wasn’t too popular. I’ve switched it back and I’ll give it another try next weekend.

Once again, failing up proves itself to be the M.O. of the Bush White House. While it’s fun to imagine that Kerik’s withdrawal from consideration as head of HSD is just another visit from Nanny-Gate’s Past, the Newswriter gives us a succinct rundown of the many reasons he was an awful choice, who, hopefully, wouldn’t have been confirmed. My personal favorite is Republican 9/11 commissioner John F. Lehman’s criticism of Kerik’s performance on September 11th as “not worthy of the Boy Scouts.” There’s quite a bit more. Go read.

(Via Liberal Avenger)

Update: The Newswriter doesn’t seem to have working permalinks, so you may need to scroll down and look for the story entitled More Rambo.

Update: Corrected numerous grammatical errors.

Just look at that head!

Continuing with the holiday ale theme, allow me to present Corsendonk Christmas Ale, brewed by Brasserie du Bocq for Brewery Corsendonk in Oud-Turnhout, Belgium.

I meant to get away from Belgium this week, but when I saw this bottle, I couldn’t resist the call of Corsendonk. Forgive me? The very first really good beer I ever had was Corsendonk’s Monk Pale Ale / Agnus Dei, which is truly spectacular and will quickly put you on the floor.

This particular holiday ale is dark red in color, a bit sweet and slightly bitter with a very clean aftertaste. I don’t feel like it’s their very best effort, but worth a number of tries nevertheless as even Corsendonk’s worst efforts are delightful. Additionally, this year Corsendonk is offering a holiday gift pack containing eight twelve ounce bottles and two Corsendonk Christmas Ale glasses, shaped similarly to what you see above, for only twenty bucks.

For those of you who prefer cat blogging, I’ve put a picture of my chubby little cat, lounging on the sofa with a bottle of Corsendonk Christmas ale and a stuffed Santa in the extended entry.
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When you can’t think of anything original on your own, just steal it right? In tribute to my favorite blogger, Jim at the Rittenhouse Review, I present you with How They Got Here, an idea stolen entirely from him (You can view his latest here). For some odd reason there seems to be more profanity involved in my search strings than his. Go figure.

Some searches that led people to Rowhouse Logic in December:

pre-raphaelite retreat from modernity
I assume this search led them to that little Mark Leyner play I posted a few week ago entitled Jenny Jones Takes on Postmodernism. On the subject of Modernity, I had the utterly peculiar and somewhat uncomfortable experience of studying Modernism, under Camille Paglia, for a full year when I was in college. She once accused me of plagiarism, which was good fun indeed. I managed to convince her that her claim was baseless, and may have dropped something about the fact that nearly every member of my family is a lawyer. She called me up at home and apologized - sort of. Other than that, it was a pretty decent, if strange, class.

Perzel, suppressing voters
One of my perennial favorites, Pennsylvania Speaker of the House, and apparently my cousin (gasp), John Perzel. He certainly did talk a good game with regards to suppressing the Philadelphia vote in the Presidential election - I’m not sure how successful he was. I’ll get to him later.

Flaming Shitstorm
There isn’t a man, woman or child alive who doesn’t, on occasion, enjoy a flaming shitstorm.

Koala Crapped
I often do feel as though a koala crapped a rainbow in my brain.

Seth Williams Philadelphia District Attorney
Not yet, but if he plays his cards right and runs a good campaign, he will be.

Rowhouse
Um…they’re usually rectangular and made of brick…found in rows…

one day the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in the united states will tear down the artificial scaffolding of christianity. and the day will come when the mystical generation of jesus, by the supreme being as his
Er…Mr. Adams?

Coltrane Kmart
I hope some other people are as pissed about using Coltrane’s music in Kmart ads as I am.

Vigorously Heterosexual
I believe that this had something to do with my koala friend.

“We should feel honored and privileged to have Karen and Rick living in Penn Hills”

-Maureen Thornburg, sister-in-law of everybody’s favorite dog lover and home schooler, Senator Rick Santorum.

It’s nice to see that he’s still trying to bilk Penn Hills School District and has even enlisted his in-laws in the cause.

According to this UPI article, the first wave of homeless veterans of the Iraq War are hitting our country’s homeless shelters. It’s pretty clear from the article that our country is ill prepared to deal with a new wave of homeless vets let alone the 300,000 who are already living on the streets. Unfortunately, supporting the troops means little more than slapping a cheap yellow magnet on the back of our sport utility vehicles and forgetting about it.

Listen, I hate this war as much as anybody, but these people did what they were asked and trained to do, in the most brutal of places and they are going to need a lot of help when they come home. We can’t wish this away with cheap bumper stickers.

I asked not so long ago, whether or not we could get this right. Sadly, I think I know the answer.

Southeast Pennsylvania ADA and Philly for Change are sponsoring a Post-Election Blues-Fighting Progressive Forum.

Network with fellow progressives to build the Grassroots Progressive movement. Facilitated open discussions and guest speakers headline the agenda. Breakfast snacks and coffee provided. Free event. Space is limited, please RSVP to Anne (Adicker@PhillyForChange.com, 215 925 1341).

When: Saturday, December 11, 2004 at 9:00 AM