January 31, 2005
Endangered Libraries
Michael McGrorty has provided a (hopefully) comprehensive list of public libraries that are currently endangered. Endangered in this case is being defined as suffering major cuts in service, facilities or personnel, and sadly these do seem to fit the bill.
Remind me again why I'm in Graduate School? Because surely there should be a better way to spend my money. It seems like this degree might end up being useless by the time I graduate, but hope springs eternal. Maybe one day people will realize how valuable their public libraries are and that even with the Internet, you still need both libraries and Librarians. I really hope so, and not just so my degree won't go to waste.
Book of the Night: The Children's Blizzard, by David Laskin. Graphic descriptions of the process the body goes through while one freezes to death was unnecessary, however.
January 29, 2005
Believe It or Not
There was a time when I didn't mind Republicans. Seriously. I know, I know, but it used to be that Republicans weren't all that bad and talking to one didn't make my head hurt. Monied? Definitely. Elitist? Most certainly. But there was a time when there was a kinder, gentler Republican. Remember FDR? When I realized he was a Republican I was floored; I mean, he actually cared about people, wanted to create jobs and everything. I can even relate to some of the Republican "values", because I consider myself overall fiscally conservative. But what happened to the socially liberal Republican? And don't laugh, because there were some. Remember when nobody thought that Sealab 2020 was a real cartoon and just something I made up? Trust me on this one, too.
Christine Todd Whitman has a book out that looks interesting and which I will certainly read. It's about how polarized the Republican Part has become and how the dominant Right's agenda on race, the environment, sexuality, women's rights (via abortion) and seemingly everything else that touches all of our lives has the potential to tear our country apart. I like her term "social fundamentalists", so I think I'll like the book.
One of the reasons that I think that party has changed so much is that they're experiencing a sort of "not in my backyard" syndrome. Like whites in the 60's who wanted equal rights for blacks but didn't necessarily want to live next door to them. Now that their vague generalities are materializing in front of them, it's a different matter altogether.
Book of the Night (Friday) : Ragtime in Simla, by Barbara Cleverly.
January 25, 2005
Screen Cleanin'
I could watch this pretty much all day long.
I think there should be a variety of cats to choose from, however.
Perhaps we'll make some.
Book of the Night: The Last Kashmiri Rose, by Barbara Cleverly.
January 24, 2005
Past? Better Have a Good Memory
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
--George Santayana
The past is the luxury of proprietors.
--Jean-Paul Sartre
The Globe and Mail has an interesting story about how reports on the effects of increasingly restrictive permissions costs on documentary filmmaking (registration required, natch).
As a big fan of documentaries, I find this a bit sad. I certainly believe in copyright protection, but they may be right that certain types of history could, in fact, become a commodity. So much else has.
Book(s) of the Night: Lucky Child : A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind by Loung Ung (review). AND Welfare Brat: A Memoir, by Mary Childers (review). Both read on Sunday.
January 21, 2005
Freakish Creatures o' the Day
Okay, this creeps me out. It reminds me of that scene from Invasion of the Body Snatchers where the guys head and his dog's body meld, remember? Apparently there are actually two of them! Shudder...
On a more cheerful note...
Don't care how much their little heads happen to resemble artichokes, I adore pangolins.
Book of the Night: Baker Towers, by Jennifer Haigh
January 20, 2005
Sad Day
I heard the saddest thing last night...two women wondering about how Bush got reelected given his low approval rating. They mention that they didn't vote themselves because it "wouldn't make a difference", but they were very depressed about the Inauguration.
Excuse me? If you didn't even try to stop him being elected to a second term, shut up. It may suck to be all of us right now, but if you voted at least you took a stand. There are people in my office who are as concerned about the upcoming Second Act of the Regime as I am, but they didn't vote. You know what? Your inaction helped elect him, so in some ways he's more your problem than mine. My conscience is clear.
But let's not get started on the Inauguration. The American Progress Action Fund sheds a little bit of light on how the enormous cost of the festivities could more reasonably spent.
$40 million: Cost of Bush inaugural ball festivities, not counting security costs.
$2,000: Amount FDR spent on the inaugural in 1945…about $20,000 in today's dollars.
$20,000: Cost of yellow roses purchased for inaugural festivities by D.C.'s Ritz Carlton.
200: Number of Humvees outfitted with top-of-the-line armor for troops in Iraq that could have been purchased with the amount of money blown on the inauguration.
$10,000: Price of an inaugural package at the Fairmont Hotel, which includes a Beluga caviar and Dom Perignon reception, a chauffeured Rolls Royce and two actors posing as "faux" Secret Service agents, complete with black sunglasses and cufflink walkie-talkies.
400M: Pounds of lobster provided for "inaugural feeding frenzy" at the exclusive Mandarin Oriental hotel.
3,000: Number of "Laura Bush Cowboy cookies" provided for "inaugural feeding frenzy" at the Mandarin hotel.
$1: Amount per guest President Carter spent on snacks for guests at his inaugural parties. To stick to a tight budget, he served pretzels, peanuts, crackers and cheese and had cash bars.
22 million: Number of children in regions devastated by the tsunami who could have received vaccinations and preventive health care with the amount of money spent on the inauguration.
1,160,000: Number of girls who could be sent to school for a year in Afghanistan with the amount of money lavished on the inauguration.
$15,000: The down payment to rent a fur coat paid by one gala attendee who didn't want the hassle of schlepping her own through the airport.
$200,500: Price of a room package at D.C.'s Mandarin Oriental, including presidential suite, chauffeured Mercedes limo and outfits from Neiman Marcus.
2,500: Number of U.S. troops used to stand guard as President Bush takes his oath of office. Because they have no more pressing duties.
26,000: Number of Kevlar vests for U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan that could be purchased for $40 million.
$290: Bonus that could go to each American solider serving in Iraq, if inauguration funds were used for that purpose.
$6.3 million: Amount contributed by the finance and investment industry, which works out to be 25 percent of all the money collected.
$17 million: Amount of money the White House is forcing the cash-strapped city of Washington, D.C., to pony up for inauguration security.
9: Percentage of D.C. residents who voted for Bush in 2004.
66: Percentage of Americans who think this over-the-top inauguration should have been scaled back.
Considering the difficult time our Nation and the world is experiencing right now, what better gesture could our President make than to have a very small, deeply scaled-back inaugural and visibly use the money elsewhere? He's barely out of the starting gate on Term II and already he's showing the world how little he knows and cares about it in general.
January 18, 2005
Despite the Life-Sized Yoda
WHICH WAS A COMPLETELY UNSOLICITED GIFT... I am not that much into the whole Star Wars thing; never have been. It was always a little "male" for me, Princess Leia never had that much to do except during the second film (the only one I liked, since it actually had character development). Even then, all she really did was fall in love. And don't get me started on the prequels...even my love for Natalie Portman cannot compel me to view them.
That said...I am a bit more than enamored with Hasbro's latest marketing attempt. Love It! The poor little tater looks so scared, like he's facing down a giant Veg-O-Matic Death Star. He would look well in my office next to my Dark Witch Willow and Kali bobblehead.
Book of the Night: Sisters: Catholic Nuns and the Making of America, by John J. Fialka. Even if the whole time I'm reading it I can't help but think of the Magdalene Laundries.
January 17, 2005
Got MLK?
Forty-one years ago Martin Luther King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered his I Have A Dream speech. I still get goosebumps every time I hear it; the beauty of the words is almost indescribable. I might not feel this way if his dream had become reality, if his ideals of brotherhood and equality, freedom and justice had stopped being just that--ideals. But they didn't.
The America of today is a different one than Dr. King envisioned; indeed, it's quite different from an America I ever thought I'd live in. In George W. Bush's America, there is no inspirational dream; there's just a nightmare for those who are not rich, straight, and white. In Bush's nightmare, you get all sorts of footnotes, addenda, and caveats. In W's world, the speech goes like this:
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." [1] I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. [2] I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. [3] I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. [4] I have a dream today.
1. Equality for all, except for homosexuals. In Bush's America, marriage is a right reserved for straight citizens. Ideally Christian ones of the same race.
2. Brotherhood for all, except for Muslims. If racial profiling, snooping through library records, and tapping phone lines don't do it, surely special cards will do.
3. Freedom and justice for all, except for those who have oil. Those people will have to be bombed into submission, even if it means war with no end in sight. No matter how many members of our Military have to die to do it.
4. No prejudice against anyone, except against all women (especially those who want the right to control their own bodies), blacks, browns, gays, the poor, liberals, and anyone whose definition of patriotism doesn't fit.
Myself, I'm pretty fiscally conservative, and while I consider myself liberal overall I'm not exactly a bleeding heart. But I believe in Dr. King, and what he wanted, and that his dream might be the only thing that can get our country back on track.