Jen-sized

More government shenanigans…

First of all, just when you thought the Blagojevich business couldn’t get any weirder, “Mr. YOU’RE NOT HELPING” decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and appoint a senator. You know, before going to jail and all. My reaction here:

It was folly for Blago to appoint a senator. My first question was “Wonder how much he paid him?”

What’s more, he, his appointee, and Bobby Rush all had the race card on standby as if the fact that Roland Burris is black has ANYTHING to do with the fact that there is no way in hell the governor of Illinois can appoint a replacement for Barack Obama without any illusion of impropriety. And then the feigned shock when Senate Democrats pushed back against the appointment, and the Senate secretary rejected his credentials…  Not looking for drama, Burris? To quote Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler, REALLY?!?!

Tags: antics, blagojevich, bobby rush, Illinois, politics, Roland Burris, senate, snl, the race card

Programming note:

I’ve been MIA lately because of the holidays and the move. Despite being the same age as our old place this house makes spooky noises (doors opening and closing and whatnot) and the cat seldom comes out from under the bed. What’s more, we don’t have cable yet thanks to a total lack of interest on Comcast’s part. We’ll be lucky to get hooked up before the “digital transition” at this rate. Thank goodness for my iPhone; otherwise I’d die of boredom or at least Internet withdrawal. As soon as things get back to normal (with school starting up soon who knows when that will be) I promise tales of romance and adventure. Or at least some travails in home ownership. Happy new year!

Happy birthday… Adolf.

I’m sure you’ve heard the news about the grocery store in New Jersey that refused to inscribe a three-year-old’s birthday cake with his name, Adolf Hitler. And his parents complained, accusing the folks at Shop-Rite of intolerance:

“There’s a new president and he says it’s time for a change. Well, then it’s time for a change,” he said. “They need to accept a name. A name’s a name. The kid isn’t going to grow up and do what [Hitler] did.”

Though I certainly don’t agree with their choices, it’s absolutely Mr. and Mrs. Heath Campbell’s right and prerogative to choose their children’s names. But by naming your child after someone, you are thought to be honoring that person. For example, if/when Brian and I ever have a daughter we intend to name her after our maternal grandmothers. As a tribute. Because we like what they were about.

Naming your kid after somebody is serious stuff because that name, and therefore all the associations that name carries, is going to live with that kid for his or her entire life. It’s saying you endorse and support the things that person did. Sure, my grandma had her faults but they certainly don’t compare to calling for the extermination of an entire race of people.

Asking someone to be tolerant of your child, after you have proven your own intolerance by naming him after a racist tyrant (thereby endorsing said tyrant’s actions) – that’s a tad hypocritical, don’t you think? And as for the “I’m not (prejudiced against X group) – I totally have (X group) friends” card… please just put that away:

The Campbells ultimately got their cake decorated at a Wal-Mart in Pennsylvania and about a dozen people attended the birthday party, including several kids of mixed race, the dad said.

“If we’re so racist, then why would I have them come into my home?” he asked.

Something tells me those mixed-race kids probably did not actually attend that neo-Nazi birthday fête. In fact, they’re more likely to be seen hanging out in Alaska with Sarah Palin’s one gay friend.

Like it or not, just as much as it’s the Campbells’ prerogative to name their kids Aryan Nation and Adolf Hitler, it’s Shop-Rite’s prerogative to reject inscriptions they deem offensive as store policy. I agree that if we don’t know our history, we are doomed to repeat it. But that doesn’t justify glorifying those dark moments in history. Having lived in the South for most of my life I’m familiar with the fine line between knowing history and celebrating hate, and it seems pretty clear to me what side naming one’s child Adolf Hitler falls on.

Tags: adolf hitler, bad baby names, birthday cake, racists, shop rite

Blago-blahdy-blah.

via Attackerman

When I tell someone I’m studying political science, one of three reactions follows.

First, there’s “Oh, are you going to law school?” The answer, of course, is no. Number one, I don’t really like wearing suits, number two I’m scared I’d become one of those jackasses trolling around the courthouse (anybody who’s paid a ticket a 201 Poplar knows what I’m talking about) looking for people to represent. I’ve spent enough time in my years as a bartender and server begging people to give me their money and I don’t prefer it.

Second reaction is, “Oh cool, what do you want to do with that?” To which I reply, “I don’t know, probably policy research and advocacy, maybe I’ll lobby for wetlands restoration or something like that, maybe I’ll write legislature… I’m not sure yet…” at which point most are reminded that politics and policy don’t just involve people who hold elected offices.

Finally, and this is probably the most popular one, is “I hate politicians.” And then I give my spiel about how I don’t want to be a politician, I want to be the one who tells politicians what’s up. I want to be the guy behind the guy. Because if you think Barack Obama came up with all those good ideas all by himself, you are silly. I mean, he’s smart, but he ain’t that smart. He’s got hundreds of advisers and think tank folks in his ear.

Anyway, when people tell me they hate politicians, and how they’re all crooked bastards, it makes me kind of sad. Because there really are people who enter public life with the intention of doing good by others, and some of those people actually do fulfill those intentions – on “both sides of the aisle.” (Can we think of a new euphemism for that? It’s a little overused.) It certainly requires some degree of calculation to be a politician and the political arena is not a place for pushovers. But one simply cannot make the blanket declaration that all politicians are evil.

People like embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich certainly don’t help the cause – a guy that shady surely drags down the average, right? As I listened to all the things he was being indicted for I was so disgusted. His conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave, and me run my car off the road, because that’s almost what happened.  And not only is he dishonest, he apparently is stupid. As Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers pointed out on last weekend’s episode of SNL, if you’re going to talk about illegal activity on the phone, wouldn’t you at least try to be a little discreet? Like maybe, instead of “I’m trying to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat,” try something like “I’m trying to sell this chair and I wanted to offer it to you before I put it on Craigslist?”

Tags: Amy Poehler, bastards, Illinois, Obama, political science, politicians, Rod Blagojevich, Seth Meyers, snl

Laughed so hard I fell down…

This is normally the time of year when I begin compiling my “Best of” music lists, but after perusing other people’s lists it occurred to me that I haven’t really listened to any new music this year. Of all the records on Pitchfork’s “Best of” ballot, I only have listened to ten. Most of them – She & Him, Islands, and Vampire Weekend, to name a few –  were released early in the year. If I wanted to compile a list of “Ten Best Albums Released Before Barack Obama Clinched the Democratic Nomination,” I totally could.

In fact, during the primary season, my music-blog reading was superceded by political-blog reading, and I stopped being my tastemaker self. And once school started… Forget about it.

Yesterday I stayed home sick from work, and once I woke up (feeling much better now, by the way) I decided I was going to catch up on what I missed. Armed with iTunes 30-second previews and a music blog in every Firefox tab, I got to work in checking out the unanimous picks for the year. I downloaded a few albums: Blitzen Trapper “Furr,” Plants and Animals “Parc Avenue,” Vivian Girls’ self-titled œuvre, Quiet Village’s “Silent Movie,” and one more, which has emerged as the only thing I’ve been able to listen to in the past 24 hours:

I have listened to 11 new releases in the past 12 months, and this is the best.
Because I said so, and I am an expert.

Department of Eagles is kind of a Grizzly Bear side project, in that it includes 3/4 members of Grizzly Bear. It’s kind of not, because Department of Eagles predates Grizzly Bear. And because Ed Droste is the excluded member and he basically is Grizzly Bear. Which fully explains why I loved “Yellow House” (which was on my ‘06 list) and did not love “Horn of Plenty,” which was mostly Droste.

This record is just as soft and ethereal and “swirling” (as Pitchfork puts it) as “Yellow House,” but it’s more upbeat. I wouldn’t go as far as calling it poppy, but, it… swings a bit harder, I guess? But I can guarantee that if you like “Yellow House,” (which, if you haven’t figured it out, is the most recent Grizzly Bear LP) you also will like this. I daresay I love “In Ear Park” more, because of some very obvious Nilsson influences, particularly on “Teenagers” and “Herring Bone,” which I have uploaded here for your listening pleasure.

I’d just like to add that I’d be a terrible music reviewer. I second-guess myself so much that even though I have a sprawling collection of Harry Nilsson’s work on vinyl (by sprawling, I mean three records, but I’m a huge fan), I Googled “daniel rossen nilsson” to make sure I wasn’t the only person who detected this influence. And even then I considered it a cop-out because, well, everybody’s influenced by Nilsson, right? He’s only like one of the greatest songwriters ever.

Tags: brooklyn, daniel rossen, department of eagles, grizzly bear, Music

$10 therapy sessions!

Last Thursday I did something I haven’t done since my sister – who’s now almost 19 – was in middle school.

I saw a kids’ movie – a Disney animated movie, in fact – in a theater. In 3-D! And in spite of knowing that, like in all kids’ movies, everyone eventually would live happily ever after, I cried during no less than half of “Bolt.” It was a sweet movie about a pet’s love for and loyalty to his “person” (or, as the LOLcats say, “hoomin”), and how ordinary dogs (or people) can do extraordinary things when they have the will to.

I’ll confess that I am a serial crier when it comes to Disney and Pixar movies. When I saw Finding Nemo the tears started coming during the opening credits. The second time I saw The Lion King I started preemptively crying because I knew what was going tto happen. I’m pretty sure I cried during Monsters, Inc., too.

But this time, I left the theater feeling really, really good. Half because it was a cute movie, and half because, I needed that. I spent almost two hours totally engrossed in a story about a dog and a cat and a hamster. I also spent those two hours NOT thinking about my grades, my impending finals, the new house, the economy and its potential impact on my Christmas bonus, or how much LSU sucks this year. So much cheaper than therapy – I highly recommend it.

Tags: bolt, Disney, dogs, Movies

Maybe they just aren’t good test takers.

I was reading an item on Daily Kos about how abysmally political leaders performed on a civil knowledge test. On average, they scored 44 percent and the average person’s score was 49 percent.

To be fair, the test was kind of difficult. I took it and got 26 of 33 correct (78.79%). I mostly got tripped up on the economics questions. Some questions were oddly phrased. Some pertained to concepts I only just learned this semester, so they weren’t necessarily the kind of things you learn in your standard high school civics class.  So I am willing to give the folks who didn’t do so well a little slack.

I can understand not knowing what Plato, Socrates and Aquinas agreed on, but here’s what made my jaw drop:

Forty percent of respondents, meanwhile, incorrectly believed that the US president has the power to declare war, while 54 percent correctly answered that that power rests with Congress.

What? Seriously? That’s dangerously ignorant. Because if government doesn’t know its limits, and we don”t know its limits, who’s going to keep that line from getting crossed? I guess I should feel encouraged by the possibility that anti-intellectualism is on the wane, but damn! No wonder all the other countries laugh at us.

Tags: anti-intellectualism, civics, Congress, economics, government, ignorant

Why’s it upside-down?

You may remember Brak, the character from Space Ghost. He got his own spin-off show called “The Brak Show” which wasn’t on very long, but remains one of my all time favorite Adult Swim shows. He even made a CD called “The Brak Album Starring Brak.” Well, there is this one song called “I Like Hubcaps,” that just cracks me up. whenever someone says “I like…” I begin singing it in my head. I’m not even sure why I think it’s so hilarious, because he’s just naming things that he likes.

Since I don’t really have anything substantial to talk about, I’m going to make my own “hubcap list” of things that I like, but not enough to merit their own posts. So, without further ado:

• The 11:00 Tigers game Monday night: awesome. I mean, they looked pretty sloppy on offense and got off to a slow start (Ten minutes in, each team had only scored 11 points) but I saw a lot of potential. And honestly, the FedEx Forum is just… magical during UM games. I’ve been to games at 11 am and 11 pm and they always pack the house in blue. I get all jittery when I hear the band play. Can’t explain it.
• My schedule next semester rocks. Constitutional law, state and local government, international relations theory, and comparative politics. Two are online, one is MWF at 9:10 am, the other is Wednesday at 5:30 pm.
• My boss is also awesome for letting me tweak my schedule in order to go to school. So instead of coming home at almost 9 pm every night, I’ll be working until 6 (except on Wednesdays when I have my night class). And I won’t have to wake up much earlier because school is closer to home than work is. Oh and my boss also told me today that I was doing a great job, and who doesn’t like a little affirmation every now and then?
• Three weeks from today I take my last final exam of the semester. Then I’ll be 21 hours from Bachelor’s Degree #2 and 54 hours from Master’s Degree #1. It doesn’t sound so bad when you put it in terms of credit hours instead of actual time.
• Three weeks from today we are also moving to a new-to-us house that we get to keep this time. Thankfully I’ll have aforementioned exams to keep me occupied until then so the wait passes a little more quickly.
• I thought surely by now the lustre would have worn off, but LOLcats are still funny.

Tags: adult swim, brak show, School, space ghost, Work

You, sir, have to see this.

For the “Countdown” fans out there.

Tags: keith olbermann

A saucy cause to get behind.

This tweet got me to thinking about how ridiculous it is that Tennessee is among a dwindling number of states that forbid the sale of wine in grocery stores.

The reason I was so excited about the Whole Foods renovation (beside the greater variety and the fact that their house brands are more affordable) is that I like to get all my provisions in one place. Before, I was having to divide my shopping between Wild Oats, Schnucks and The Fresh Market and the fact that all three stores are within a block of each other didn’t make things much easier.

And after rushing out of the grocery so our perishables don’t … um … perish, the last thing I’m thinking about is stopping by the liquor store for a bottle of vino. Even though Wine Market is en route, we’re usually reeling from the amount we’ve spent and none-too-inclined to drop twenty bucks more.

Why not take a step out of the process?

As someone who doesn’t start to feel buyer’s remorse until actually leaving the store, when it’s too late to say “Um, maybe I don’t need that after all – will you void it?” I feel like I’d be far more likely to splurge on a bottle of wine if I could put it in the cart with the rest of my groceries. Plus, recipes that call for wine are better with drinking wine instead of cooking wine (that’s a little pro-tip I gleamed from some fancy chef I know). One-stop shopping would mean saving money on fuel; and I can’t speak for everyone, but I’d probably go to bars less often (safer roads!). The state might get an economic boost from the additional sales tax we’d be paying (especially since grocery stores stay open longer) and since Gov. Bredesen warns that the state may be facing an $800 million dollar budget shortfall, that probably is a very good thing.

I did a little Googling and was reminded that I am not the only Tennesseean who feels this way. The CA a few months back reported on this very issue in March, and there is an organization called Red White and Food that is pushing for food stores to be allowed to sell wine. According to their blog, a state senate subcommittee will be having a hearing Monday to discuss wine legislation, including wine in retail food stores wherever “package sales” are allowed at the retailer’s discretion. I strongly recommend taking a look at Red White and Food’s blog because it contains a lot of valuable info.

I’m not getting too excited because, let’s face it, this is Tennessee. Remember the hubbub surrounding the lottery? This state is populated by quite a few self-righteous evangelical types bent on legislating morality, regardless of what grape beverage Christ made from water. Surely they’ll argue that easier access to wine will lead to widespread underage drinking, although I bet you’d be hard-pressed to find a teenager with a taste for tinto. Plain and simple, kids steal booze from their parents (Except for me, because neither my parents nor my friends’ ever had any booze).

I’m eager to see how this turns out. If you live in the Volunteer State and want to contact your legislators in support of this legislation, here is a link to do so. It’s about time Tennessee got with the program.

Tags: fresh market, Gov. Bredesen, liquor store, schnucks, Tennessee, whole foods, wine, wine market