Saturday, March 19, 2005
Plans and being pissed off
Well, I am having a mini-spring break of sorts. Tomorrow, I am taking the Amtrak train from Chicago to Osceola Iowa, which is 40 miles south of Des Moines. A friend is then picking me up. The next morning I rent a small truck and load up the remaining furniture and my much missed other half of my CD collection. Then with the help of another friend who is riding with me, on Tuesday (please whichever God truly rules the universe make the weather permitting!) I drive back to Chicago to move all my possessions into my studio (plus small kitchen/dining area) and make it into a home. I've been sleeping on a very comfortable air mattress for 3 months, but I think my real mattress will be better. The rest of my week will consist of working on some papers, hopefully not too intensely, and actually visited some of the awesome Chicago sites, you know like a tourist would do, except I live in this awesome place!
So, some of my readers are pretty apolitical, but maybe you've heard a few things about the Terri Shiavo case. Latest Yahoo News headline on this story is right here . It absolutely disgusts that the powers that be (Republicans in Congress, White House, and the media) are so intensively getting involved in this one specific case that covers the personal turmoils of one family, just in order to please their mindless base that continues to vote for them despite their basic lack of initiative on doing ANYTHING comprehensive to directly tackle terrorism, unemployment, poverty, any damn issue you please.
I can dump links that you won't read, but I think I'll limit myself to two.
First, this brings to mind all of the REPUBLICAN leadership smiling behind closed doors with Grinch-like smiles at an opportunity to put their foot down in the right-to-die debate. Shiavo has had her feeding tube removed and replaced before TWICE by REPUBLICAN governor Jeb Bush, and now after the courts have JUDICIOUSLY INTERPRETED THE LAW to allow this completely incapacitated woman to pass away (and by some interpretations let her soul fly up to heaven), REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMEN, who have never met this woman or her spouse personally, want to clean their desks of all the cluttered war profiteering investigation request, or Tom Delay ethics violations, and pass legislation from the highest authority in the land to shove that feeding tube back in. Because surely if Shiavo has an ounce of consciousness left, there's nothing that would be more humane or painless than bringing her back from imminent death several times in order to maintain her vegative state. This isn't a matter of a sick person in a hospital having Code Blue's or whatever and being kept alive constantly. This is a person, or what's left of a person, being allowed to die for 4 days or so, only to have the Governor from his desk miles away forcibly have her feeding tube put back in. A dark recess of my mind couldn't help but think that in this situation a more humane death would have been the smothering of her with a pillow when no one was looking. I can see this getting into murky moral ground here, so lets get back to REPUBLICAN hypocrisy, or in this case just last minute political maneuvering inconsistent with any moral values.
Here, read this damn thing and also this . REPUBLICANS and the Bushies don't care about the sanctity of life. They only care because this is an issue the religious right's base could fixate on instead of 1500 Iraqi dead, Tom Delay's corruption, and billions of taxpayer money for protecting our solidier's siphoned off by a shadowy greedy Halliburton VP. They also didn't raise a stink in the above linked cases, when issues like sick blank infants, or people too poor to be hooked up indefinitely to machines to keep them breathing raised to many "complicated issues" to publicly advocate against right-to-die laws.
If Terri's parents and spouse got along and decided to not their loved one's condition tear them apart, this would just be a private trajedy that no one would be involved with, including these folks , who could probably better spend their time serving the homeless or volunteering at a public health clinic in the inner city. But, no, REPUBLICANS, with no real ideas, have to gnash their pointey teeth into this, and destroy whatever humanity is left in Terri Shiavo's body by throwing her in the spotliight. Oh yeah, some even want to SUBPEONA HER to appear before Congress . As the blogger said "What the HELL?!?".
Many good writers and well-known bloggers are just as angry at this, and are just as shirll but more articulate. As a progressive liberal type there are so many things on so many levels to be outraged about, but this is one of the few news items that I can add to my evidence file for a future LD-style debate where the Contention is "REPUBLICANS are monsters".
Now, why have I capped it every time I type REPUBLICANS? Well, basically they have no consistent principles other than callously using any means to hold onto power. That's it. If you identify yourself as a Republican and "damn proud of it", you endorse this kind of exploitation. You don't support a right-to-die, because if you did would be fighting for the lives of poor and minority patients across the country, who due to circumstances beyond their control are allowed to slowly die because they do not have the resources to go on living. The values inherent in Republicanism and Bushisms are so absurd and adapted to the news story today that the party might as well have their binded copy of their platform full of blank pages.
Go ahead and be a conservative warmongerer, or torture-in-some-cases-when-the-person-is-Arab-and-swarthy guy. Be a conservative Christian, be a closet-racist-homophobe, identify yourself with any on of these far-right groups, and possibly you will have a footing on which to debate anyone you are opposed to. But don't identify with national-level Republicans. Not after this. You might as well call yourself members of the Inner Party.
whew, have a great rest of your weekend! Hope I didn't scare you. I would appreciate any thoughts, even comments, like "Calm down Jonah!".
So, some of my readers are pretty apolitical, but maybe you've heard a few things about the Terri Shiavo case. Latest Yahoo News headline on this story is right here . It absolutely disgusts that the powers that be (Republicans in Congress, White House, and the media) are so intensively getting involved in this one specific case that covers the personal turmoils of one family, just in order to please their mindless base that continues to vote for them despite their basic lack of initiative on doing ANYTHING comprehensive to directly tackle terrorism, unemployment, poverty, any damn issue you please.
I can dump links that you won't read, but I think I'll limit myself to two.
First, this brings to mind all of the REPUBLICAN leadership smiling behind closed doors with Grinch-like smiles at an opportunity to put their foot down in the right-to-die debate. Shiavo has had her feeding tube removed and replaced before TWICE by REPUBLICAN governor Jeb Bush, and now after the courts have JUDICIOUSLY INTERPRETED THE LAW to allow this completely incapacitated woman to pass away (and by some interpretations let her soul fly up to heaven), REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMEN, who have never met this woman or her spouse personally, want to clean their desks of all the cluttered war profiteering investigation request, or Tom Delay ethics violations, and pass legislation from the highest authority in the land to shove that feeding tube back in. Because surely if Shiavo has an ounce of consciousness left, there's nothing that would be more humane or painless than bringing her back from imminent death several times in order to maintain her vegative state. This isn't a matter of a sick person in a hospital having Code Blue's or whatever and being kept alive constantly. This is a person, or what's left of a person, being allowed to die for 4 days or so, only to have the Governor from his desk miles away forcibly have her feeding tube put back in. A dark recess of my mind couldn't help but think that in this situation a more humane death would have been the smothering of her with a pillow when no one was looking. I can see this getting into murky moral ground here, so lets get back to REPUBLICAN hypocrisy, or in this case just last minute political maneuvering inconsistent with any moral values.
Here, read this damn thing and also this . REPUBLICANS and the Bushies don't care about the sanctity of life. They only care because this is an issue the religious right's base could fixate on instead of 1500 Iraqi dead, Tom Delay's corruption, and billions of taxpayer money for protecting our solidier's siphoned off by a shadowy greedy Halliburton VP. They also didn't raise a stink in the above linked cases, when issues like sick blank infants, or people too poor to be hooked up indefinitely to machines to keep them breathing raised to many "complicated issues" to publicly advocate against right-to-die laws.
If Terri's parents and spouse got along and decided to not their loved one's condition tear them apart, this would just be a private trajedy that no one would be involved with, including these folks , who could probably better spend their time serving the homeless or volunteering at a public health clinic in the inner city. But, no, REPUBLICANS, with no real ideas, have to gnash their pointey teeth into this, and destroy whatever humanity is left in Terri Shiavo's body by throwing her in the spotliight. Oh yeah, some even want to SUBPEONA HER to appear before Congress . As the blogger said "What the HELL?!?".
Many good writers and well-known bloggers are just as angry at this, and are just as shirll but more articulate. As a progressive liberal type there are so many things on so many levels to be outraged about, but this is one of the few news items that I can add to my evidence file for a future LD-style debate where the Contention is "REPUBLICANS are monsters".
Now, why have I capped it every time I type REPUBLICANS? Well, basically they have no consistent principles other than callously using any means to hold onto power. That's it. If you identify yourself as a Republican and "damn proud of it", you endorse this kind of exploitation. You don't support a right-to-die, because if you did would be fighting for the lives of poor and minority patients across the country, who due to circumstances beyond their control are allowed to slowly die because they do not have the resources to go on living. The values inherent in Republicanism and Bushisms are so absurd and adapted to the news story today that the party might as well have their binded copy of their platform full of blank pages.
Go ahead and be a conservative warmongerer, or torture-in-some-cases-when-the-person-is-Arab-and-swarthy guy. Be a conservative Christian, be a closet-racist-homophobe, identify yourself with any on of these far-right groups, and possibly you will have a footing on which to debate anyone you are opposed to. But don't identify with national-level Republicans. Not after this. You might as well call yourself members of the Inner Party.
whew, have a great rest of your weekend! Hope I didn't scare you. I would appreciate any thoughts, even comments, like "Calm down Jonah!".
Thursday, March 17, 2005
About Chicago
So, thanks for commenting Erin. I don't know if you were just making small talk and expected an answer to your question about Chicago. But I'll use your comment to springboard into a rant about who knows what. (hey Arcade Fire just came on my satellite radio).
Chicago is really great, and from my one visit to NYC I can understand the idea in that its more liveable, primarily I think because Chicago has a land mass to spread into while the center of NYC is pushed onto an island. It is still cramped and busy enough for me, especially when you live in places like Des Moines or Edmond where you can drive and park your car pretty much anywhere. I managed to pick a place to live that's not too far into the city to be unbearably congested, but close enough so I don't have to get on the scary freeways except to leave the city for travelling. I'm still adjusting though.
The big thing is that there if I really wanted to plunge into all the stuff going on in Chicago, I would never get bored. It's really overhwhelming when there are entire types of art, music, film, expression, political views, etc. that have no outlets in cities smaller than Chicago. I consider it a rare treat that I live here, but I'm just taking the opportunities one day at a time (now Tori Amos Spark is on the radio, is that from the new album?) because I can't try everything, and frankly, some stuff just wouldn't be fun unless I did it with a large group of like-minded people. But its amazing I moved 5 hours east and now every live band, movie, cultural product, etc. I could ever imagine wanting to take part in I could find here. I feel like making my tastes more simpler, because some experimental film or theater showcases I just don't imagine myself paying 10-15 bucks to indulge in.
The mere fact that I live in Chicago is distracting, especially being back in an academic environment. After leaving a class at Drake in Des Moines that was particularly uninteresting I stepped out of the room and looked around and was like "Yeah, a boring day, what are you gonna do?". Now when that happens, I go catch the train home and I can see the Chicago skyline with the Sears Tower all lit up at night, and I'm like "Damn, here I am". There are a handful of times so far where I've been working on a paper and I'm I go through a thought process that goes along the theme of "YOu know, fuck it, I'm in Chicago!" and then I go out to a park or take the train to a new part of town or something.
Now working at my internship (starting April 5th!) will signficantly reduce my free time for studying so I might have to avoid Chicago's temptations by necessity. But I can imagine I will be distracted in a new kind of way, when I hit a challenging snag in my project (or if I'm given something mindless to do like my past internships), and I look out the window and see all of downtown Chicago around me, with Lake Michigan and all the lakefront parks around the corner, and who knows what outdoor festivals will be going on in the summer. It's going to be very hard to stay in my cubicle.
So it will be a dilemma indeed, but one welcome among the multidudes of professional and social challenges that exist here that simply could not come about in Des Moines, as nice and low-cost as that place was.
And now please check out this completely unrelated Ted Rall cartoon . I actually met him in D.C. and he a book for me! That cartoon will be all the politics I will infuse this post with.
Chicago is really great, and from my one visit to NYC I can understand the idea in that its more liveable, primarily I think because Chicago has a land mass to spread into while the center of NYC is pushed onto an island. It is still cramped and busy enough for me, especially when you live in places like Des Moines or Edmond where you can drive and park your car pretty much anywhere. I managed to pick a place to live that's not too far into the city to be unbearably congested, but close enough so I don't have to get on the scary freeways except to leave the city for travelling. I'm still adjusting though.
The big thing is that there if I really wanted to plunge into all the stuff going on in Chicago, I would never get bored. It's really overhwhelming when there are entire types of art, music, film, expression, political views, etc. that have no outlets in cities smaller than Chicago. I consider it a rare treat that I live here, but I'm just taking the opportunities one day at a time (now Tori Amos Spark is on the radio, is that from the new album?) because I can't try everything, and frankly, some stuff just wouldn't be fun unless I did it with a large group of like-minded people. But its amazing I moved 5 hours east and now every live band, movie, cultural product, etc. I could ever imagine wanting to take part in I could find here. I feel like making my tastes more simpler, because some experimental film or theater showcases I just don't imagine myself paying 10-15 bucks to indulge in.
The mere fact that I live in Chicago is distracting, especially being back in an academic environment. After leaving a class at Drake in Des Moines that was particularly uninteresting I stepped out of the room and looked around and was like "Yeah, a boring day, what are you gonna do?". Now when that happens, I go catch the train home and I can see the Chicago skyline with the Sears Tower all lit up at night, and I'm like "Damn, here I am". There are a handful of times so far where I've been working on a paper and I'm I go through a thought process that goes along the theme of "YOu know, fuck it, I'm in Chicago!" and then I go out to a park or take the train to a new part of town or something.
Now working at my internship (starting April 5th!) will signficantly reduce my free time for studying so I might have to avoid Chicago's temptations by necessity. But I can imagine I will be distracted in a new kind of way, when I hit a challenging snag in my project (or if I'm given something mindless to do like my past internships), and I look out the window and see all of downtown Chicago around me, with Lake Michigan and all the lakefront parks around the corner, and who knows what outdoor festivals will be going on in the summer. It's going to be very hard to stay in my cubicle.
So it will be a dilemma indeed, but one welcome among the multidudes of professional and social challenges that exist here that simply could not come about in Des Moines, as nice and low-cost as that place was.
And now please check out this completely unrelated Ted Rall cartoon . I actually met him in D.C. and he a book for me! That cartoon will be all the politics I will infuse this post with.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
"[Shaking] all of Christendom like a bowl of liposuctioned fat..."
Hey, it looks like I'm over my whining session. I reached that point with this short paper where I realized that I have a degree for a reason and I actually can finish the assignment, because I'm capable of collecting facts and presenting them in some kind of non-fiction narrative... good for me.
Now, when you have the time please visit one of my favorite blogs . I've followed this guy for a couple years now and he's at his best when he ferociously ridicules actual conservative and/or Christian columnists, who get paid to write the absolute worst crap imaginable.
Take a look at this post and if you want you can click onto the full Doug Giles column, but I wouldn't recommend it if you have some brain cells left. There are painful and excessive uses of extremely bad analogies, ones that aren't a result of laziness, but an intense attempt at increased creativity severly restricted by his unique Agressive Masculine Christianity.
This is only the most recent excerpts from Doug Giles the blogger TBogg has posted, not necessarily the best. I suggest you look around in the archives and you will meet more characters that actually exist and write for conservative publications, such as The Virgin Ben and America's Worst Mother . I provided direct links to the writers, but the liberal blogs quote the juicy quotes. Very funny stuff.
So, reward my efforts in typing the code to put all those links in, and visit the sites god damn it!
Now, when you have the time please visit one of my favorite blogs . I've followed this guy for a couple years now and he's at his best when he ferociously ridicules actual conservative and/or Christian columnists, who get paid to write the absolute worst crap imaginable.
Take a look at this post and if you want you can click onto the full Doug Giles column, but I wouldn't recommend it if you have some brain cells left. There are painful and excessive uses of extremely bad analogies, ones that aren't a result of laziness, but an intense attempt at increased creativity severly restricted by his unique Agressive Masculine Christianity.
This is only the most recent excerpts from Doug Giles the blogger TBogg has posted, not necessarily the best. I suggest you look around in the archives and you will meet more characters that actually exist and write for conservative publications, such as The Virgin Ben and America's Worst Mother . I provided direct links to the writers, but the liberal blogs quote the juicy quotes. Very funny stuff.
So, reward my efforts in typing the code to put all those links in, and visit the sites god damn it!
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Whine Time
I have seen on my friend's blogs complaints about work, along with ponderings about going back to school.
As is my self-centered nature, I will refuse to sympathize and quickly whine about being back into the whole academic structure after a year and a half break, and not entirely enjoying it. I wish I could just hide in a classroom somewhere and read every book about urban planning for 2 years and then I get a degree. But apparently, no one trust me to do that with my own time, and I have to turn things in for professors. And they actually have to be well-written, an organized narrative based on a limited knowledge gained from perusing through pages of a few boring books and articles (which would be a lot less boring if I didn't have to think about how I'm going to write a paper on it). Wah wah wah, school is hard. Nonetheless, the only grade I have gotten back to date was a big "A", so I'm doing something right. I hope that my restricted time due to my internship starting in April won't give me dangerously less time... in fact it might be the perfect work/school balance that will give me just the right time to get papers done and less time to write pointless rants like this.
I'm thinking about school too much, and my question for all my high school buddies and others (1, 2, 3 of you?), is what outlets or activities should I explore? You've all got quirky tastes, as I remember (I just thought of polka dancing, that was definitely unique!), but what have you explored in your new culturally rich cities since graduating that you would consider worthwhile to look into? I await comments. And if you still can't post them after all this time (cough Erin cough), I'll look around your websites for advice.
funny subversive political cartoonist
Goodnight
As is my self-centered nature, I will refuse to sympathize and quickly whine about being back into the whole academic structure after a year and a half break, and not entirely enjoying it. I wish I could just hide in a classroom somewhere and read every book about urban planning for 2 years and then I get a degree. But apparently, no one trust me to do that with my own time, and I have to turn things in for professors. And they actually have to be well-written, an organized narrative based on a limited knowledge gained from perusing through pages of a few boring books and articles (which would be a lot less boring if I didn't have to think about how I'm going to write a paper on it). Wah wah wah, school is hard. Nonetheless, the only grade I have gotten back to date was a big "A", so I'm doing something right. I hope that my restricted time due to my internship starting in April won't give me dangerously less time... in fact it might be the perfect work/school balance that will give me just the right time to get papers done and less time to write pointless rants like this.
I'm thinking about school too much, and my question for all my high school buddies and others (1, 2, 3 of you?), is what outlets or activities should I explore? You've all got quirky tastes, as I remember (I just thought of polka dancing, that was definitely unique!), but what have you explored in your new culturally rich cities since graduating that you would consider worthwhile to look into? I await comments. And if you still can't post them after all this time (cough Erin cough), I'll look around your websites for advice.
funny subversive political cartoonist
Goodnight
Monday, March 14, 2005
Audience growing
Big welcome to my friend from my Drake years and beyond, Laura (no website, sorry, trust me she's not one of my imaginary friends), who said she will visit my blog during downtime at work.
I'm very proud of that my blog has a photo identity now. FYI, that picture was not taken for my blog, it was more of a trying-out-my-digital-camera feature thing. I actually tried to submit that photo as a visual feature after I quickly put a profile together for this online Jewish dating thing , but they e-mailed me back and said they rejected my photo because it didn't reflect my personality or something! I didn't know those online things were that picky. Anyway, J-Date premium service, which actually allows you to contact people rather than stare at their profiles for hours and hours anonymously like an online pervert (something which I definitely do not do, by the way) is about 45 DOLLARS A MONTH! Yikes. Definitely not worth it, even though, as a Jew, I have lots of disposable income. I'm hiring a secretary to type this for me right now, in fact. In the least the free version of the service does let me know that there are Chicago Jews around, and some of them are single, and I recognized some that I saw at synagogue when I went a few weeks ago.
In other very cool news, I just got off the phone to confirm my starting date for my first paid gig in Chicago, an internship with the prestigious Woodstock Institute . Check out their website. I hope to do some good work with them. This position will also last at least a year, meaning it will be the longest full-time relationsip I have had with an organization I work for. Cash flow is a significant bonus too.
To top things off, a short paper that I thought was due on Thursday is actually due on Friday. A little bit more breathing room is always comforting.
Nothing else. Submit comments! Make me feel needed.
I'm very proud of that my blog has a photo identity now. FYI, that picture was not taken for my blog, it was more of a trying-out-my-digital-camera feature thing. I actually tried to submit that photo as a visual feature after I quickly put a profile together for this online Jewish dating thing , but they e-mailed me back and said they rejected my photo because it didn't reflect my personality or something! I didn't know those online things were that picky. Anyway, J-Date premium service, which actually allows you to contact people rather than stare at their profiles for hours and hours anonymously like an online pervert (something which I definitely do not do, by the way) is about 45 DOLLARS A MONTH! Yikes. Definitely not worth it, even though, as a Jew, I have lots of disposable income. I'm hiring a secretary to type this for me right now, in fact. In the least the free version of the service does let me know that there are Chicago Jews around, and some of them are single, and I recognized some that I saw at synagogue when I went a few weeks ago.
In other very cool news, I just got off the phone to confirm my starting date for my first paid gig in Chicago, an internship with the prestigious Woodstock Institute . Check out their website. I hope to do some good work with them. This position will also last at least a year, meaning it will be the longest full-time relationsip I have had with an organization I work for. Cash flow is a significant bonus too.
To top things off, a short paper that I thought was due on Thursday is actually due on Friday. A little bit more breathing room is always comforting.
Nothing else. Submit comments! Make me feel needed.
