goddess of clarity: a blog about politics, culture, and serenity

Archive: September 1 - September 15, 2005

September 15, 2005 — 10:04 EST

Separated at Birth?

Good grief!

And we don't know Charlie Brown's opinion on abortion or privacy rights either. Coincidence? ..... I think not.

—lori.

September 13, 2005 — 10:49 EST

Considering the dire circumstances that we have in New Orleans, virtually a city that has been destroyed, things are going relatively well.

Michael "But I'm Really Good With Horses" Brown, 2003-2005

—lori.

September 9, 2005 — 19:23 EST ::

The Unflattering Politician Photo of the Week

(Emperor Nero Edition)

Well, a fiddle is more traditional in these situations, but hell, I s'pose a gee-tar will do.

While New Orleans sank, George Bush strummed. The above photo was taken on Tuesday, the day after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and the day the flood walls broke in several New Orleans neighborhoods. President Bush was still in vacation mode, so I'm sure it seemed like a fun idea at the time.

There are two things that strike me the most about this catastrophe, one short term failing and one long term.

To take the long view first, the response or lack thereof to the hurricane points out the fact that there is no long view. Not when it comes to politics and politicians. One of the many talking heads I've seen on TV this week made an interesting point, and one that I share. He said nobody in government thinks about projects and policies that could be of use to people beyond the next election cycle. We used to plan ahead. The great public works projects of the 1930s were undertaken with the immediate goal of providing employment during the Depression, yes. But they were also designed to benefit people for generations to come. Today, plans to reinforce levees and flood walls are starved of funds so we can continue to cut taxes while waging a "war on terrorism" in Iraq, Afghanistan, and at home.

The most pressing immediate problem seems to have been the mandatory evacutation of New Orleans. Local government officials had to know that many of their citizens had no cars, or were too old or sick to evacuate themselves. You can't tell people out of one side of your mouth, "Everyone out now!" and out of the other side, "Every man for himself!" That people were left behind for days in shelters where there wasn't so much as a case of bottled water and a guy with a clipboard is shameful in the extreme.

I don't revel in the fact that our president is an idiot, I really don't. It's times like this I wish to god he'd prove me wrong, and actually do something right. Something that might actually help people. But instead, he persists with the idiocy. And I am left to sigh quietly to myself while trying desparately not to tear my fingernails out with my teeth.

—lori.

September 6, 2005 — 09:46 EST

A little back-to-school poetry dredged up from the pages of my high school literary magazine Horizons (and by "magazine" I mean "twelve 8 1/2 X 11 mimeographed sheets of paper folded in half and stapled").

I've altered the poem a bit from its original mid-1980s form, both because I can never resist the urge to edit myself and because my original copy of Horizons is long gone and I'm working from memory. I do remember that the original title was "Crayola Reality", which strikes me now as hopelessly pretentious. So we'll go for something a little less abstruse this time...

My Tree Has Eyes

We watched the rain sadly, with nothing to do.
So we took out our crayons and scissors and glue.
And my pictures were neat and tidy and true.
But my sister put *eyes* on the tree that she drew!

"But why can't trees have eyes?" my young sister asked me.
"Because," I said simply, "It's not meant to be."
"Well *my* tree has eyes. After all it's my tree."
At that moment I realized she's smarter than me.

If trees can have eyes, then the grass can be blue.
And carrots can tap dance and visit the zoo.
And a cat can say "Quack!" and a dog can say "Moo!"
And the squirrels can wear green purple polka dot shoes.

Why should I say what can and can't be?
This world isn't only according to me.
All things can happen. That's easy to see.
It's as plain as the eyes that grow on a tree.

—lori.