DANCERS IN LIFE

A great collection of photographs of dancers in everyday places, well done and interesting, beautiful, often sexy. Really nice.

http://www.jordanmatter.com/photography/dance-photography/dancers-among-us.php#

Obama Commentary I liked

Darn good commentary by a CNN analyst, I though.

"Even though some Republicans have attempted to paint the president as a left-wing radical who is intent on bringing socialism to American shores, the reality is that Obama is very much a product of the 1980s and '90s era of liberalism, when numerous Democrats shifted to the center in an effort to stay relevant.

On economic policies, Obama has continually surrounded himself with moderate, market-oriented liberals such as Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner. The president has continued President George W. Bush's policies that shored up Wall Street following the financial meltdown of 2008.

Notwithstanding Republican rhetoric, his health care plan, which resembled then-Gov. Mitt Romney's program in Massachusetts, was far less government-centered than what previous Democrats had proposed. Indeed, in almost every area of domestic policy, Obama has stuck close to the center of the Democratic Party.

The problem for Democrats is that Republicans have been far more successful at playing the message wars. They have successfully depicted Obama, regardless of what he does or says, as far left."

Julian E. Zelizer, "Is Obama seizing the political center?", CNN.com, 25 July 2011.

thoughts

In a quip attributed to Alaskan politician Andrew Halco, he said of Sarah Palin, "she's a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy recommendations, but at the fine art of the nonanswer, the glittering generality." I wonder if Michelle Bachman took the same classes?

And while I am on it, as the corruption and blatant lying unravels Murdock's empire in England---because who can truly believe that he and his son were unaware of payouts and improper investigative tools, such as phone hacking, and that he didn't know about large sums of money paid to victims of his newspapers, or the considerable amounts that must have been paid to lawyers defending his assets---why is it that Americans condone the purchase of media outlets in the United States by foreign interests? If Americans want to read the opinions of the foreign press, they should purchase those papers and magazines; foreigners should not have the ability to financially (and ideologically)influence American reportage. Although I don't see it happening, nothing would make me happier than to see FOX crumble, or at least get a black eye and greater scrutiny for its "reportage," ahhheeemmm, I mean "editorializing" and "propagandizing."

GAMECOCKS

I love my Gamecocks. How sweet it sounds to hear back-to-back national champs. Thank you Coach Tanner. Wingo deserved that MVP. Roth. . .he can forever say he was the winning pitcher in two USC championship games. Everyone contributed. A gritty, scrappy team. . .the personification of a fighting bantam!

Clinton and scandal

"I for one am deeply glad that Bill Clinton did not resign; he was one of the best presidents of my lifetime and left the country in far better shape than he found it. His wife and daughter chose to forgive him and to preserve their family, which is their business, not ours. He also breached the public trust by lying, but in my view not to an extent that it affected his ability to govern successfully." (Anne-Marie Slaughter)

My sentiment, but just said a lot better than I could have done.

THWARTED

They say that it’s smart and ultimately wise,
for many passwords a person to devise,
to protect access and block meddling hands,
stopping those e-thieves and other brigands.
So I make up code words, a vast array,
I must use one hundred during the day,
mostly at work and definitely home,
and with the laptop wherever I roam.
I use variations from all seven children,
brothers and sisters, nicknames and given,
combinations of numerals important to me,
one that included a grand forty-three.
In the gamerooms I’m studlymanone,
Though used awesomelovr for a short run.
Employed every pet name I’ve ever had,
Buttons, and Curly, and Slobberdogbad.
Some are so secret, I can’t tell you here,
and I change them, three times a year,
So now I’m safe and online protected,
any intrusion quickly detected,
But now I’m stalled like a morning commuter,
forgot the code to unlock my computer!

SWAMPLANDIA!

How many times, while growing up in Florida, did lurid billboards hawking amazing spectacles awaiting at dozens of entertainment venues---ranging from alligator farms and mermaid grottoes of my younger self to strip-clubs with stunning beauties grinning down at my teenaged self---fall far short of supplying what had been promised? SWAMPLANDIA! beckoned in a similar fashion, glowing reviews garnering my interest, only to let me down like so many a tourist trap. Yes, there was entertainment to be had and not all was squandered, but I still felt like a country bumpkin when I put down the book, mildly amused and cheekishly embarrassed that I actually had a little fun. Now, don't get me wrong, I think the book was an interesting read, and despite the increasingly unsettling feeling I got as one trusting protagonist hooked up with a certain lowlife character and she wouldn't listen to my warnings to wise up and escape the quicksand she was headed into, I enjoyed much of the novel and cared about the travails of the Bigtree siblings---all dealing with the dislocating and damaging experience of having their world (cocoon really) torn asunder under the combined onslaught of losing their mother to cancer, their business (an alligator-wrestling emporium) to competition, their father to grief and depression, their grandfather to senility, as they all react in somewhat self-destructive manners. Without giving too much away, the two girls both seemed to slip into fantasy, making them easy prey to inner and outer demons, while the boy---intelligent and striving---chooses a different, but no less immature, path. In some ways, this mishmash of a novel was like reading a first attempt by some unnatural offspring of an unholy union of Neil Gaiman and Dorothy Allison, with a touch of George Saunders thrown in for good measure. I can only conclude that Russell was tapping into the situational depression the children were undergoing. Still there was so much promised: a compelling ghost story, a heroic odyssey, a humorous critique of religious entertainment. But the three story-lines never really pan out, and one feels somewhat duped. Russell's writing is often beautiful and quirky, but also a little too, well, MFAish, and the switching back-and-forth in narrative was jarring at times. This would have been a far better book, I feel, if she had written it in the manner of Louise Erdrich, taking up each story on its own from the perspective of the protagonist, and letting their stories interweave yet stand alone. Russell seems to want to thread three short stories into a novelistic narration, and it didn't work for me. And, I doubt the hardcore advocates of homeschooling will be putting this one on their children's to-read list. Nevertheless, despite these criticisms, in the end I liked the book, and will let the gaudy come-ons calling readers to this young writer's first offering continue to deceive, because in the end the trip to Swamplandia is still worth the price of admission.