Huzzah, Mitt! You're the toppermost!

 

Grosse Pointe must have sounded like a popgun war zone tonight.  The tuxedo-ed elite were no doubt popping open the Dom Perignon by the case.  Mitt Romney, old chap, you pulled your bacon out of the fire.  You gave a right good slap to whacky Rick Santorum in the Michigan primary.   And, in so doing, you delivered a back-of-the-hand rebuke to the grubby Republican commoners that, of late, have seemed awfully forgetful of their social station. 

The vote was close.  As of this writing the margin is a mere 3 percentage points.  But a win is a win, as you pointed out yourself in the victory speech.

You won big with Republicans who earn more than $200,000 per annum.  Blue bloods all across the nation will surely sleep more soundly with the Michigan results.  They can feel just a bit more assured that, although the rabble puts up an awful cacophony, in the end they'll bend to the lash like they always do.  Mitt, you're their man, and they'll just have to live with it.  "The bums always lose," as the Big Lebowski put it.  Or, as Monty Burns said, "What good is my money if I can't use it to intimidate my fellow man?"

But, darling, there are just a few trifling details that, as much as it pains me to mention them, might trouble your bubbly dreams when you lay your head on your silk-cased eider down pillow. 

The Detroit News reports that voter turnout was "pretty light."  Lower than it was in 2008, when you defeated John McCain in that year's primary.  Light turnout is the trend this year.  Republican enthusiasm seems to have fallen off rather precipitously since the Big Red Wave of 2010.

But if you really plan to move into the White House, Mitt, you'd better find a way to spunk up the worker bees.  They seem still to be upset about your sound advice to "let Detroit go bankrupt" back when that awful negro fellow concocted the socialist auto industry bailout.  And then there was that remark you made about "the very poor" and how they weren't really your concern.  The very nerve of it!

This is what comes of coddling Johnny Lunchpail, eh, Mitt?  Give him a decent wage and health insurance and he starts to get cheeky.  If you do make it to the White House, Mitt, I'm sure we'll soon see an end to all of that nonsense.

But Santorum isn't giving up.  He gave a fiery concession speech tonight, with every indication that he'll keep fighting.  And, Mitt, old chap, you know what that means:  more saucy talk, more uppity behavior from the hired help. 

Dreary, yes? Isn't life dreary, old chap?

Writer issues

Been having a rough go of it, lately.  Thinking of things to write about.  Sitting at the keyboard --nothing.  Every fitful start ends in disgust. 

Browsed through some Flannery O'Connor quotations.  Found some good ones.

This:  “I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted.”

And this:  “She could never be a saint, but she thought she could be a martyr if they killed her quick.”

And this:  “Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic.”  (This was my favorite of the three.  It made me laugh.  Sheepishly.)

But when my fingers hit the home row, inspiration fell dead.

Then I tried to write a post about a conversation I had with Dave Hauth on Sunday night.  We were debating the constancy of human nature.  His position was that technology was transforming humanity.  I argued that technology is just a tool; human nature is constant.  "But rate of advance!" he insisted.  "It's a matter of degree," said I.  I offered literature, with its eternal themes, as proof.  

It was a good conversation, and I banged out a few sentences about it, but the flame never took.  I might have another go at it one of these days.

So I find myself stuck here yet.  Still nothing.

The only way to get through these things is to write your way out of them.  That's how I've always heard it, anyway.   Keep pushin'.  Push on through.

Republican misogyny

If you haven't already heard, the Virginia state legislature recently proposed a bill that would require a woman seeking an abortion to pay for and be subjected to an ultrasound to determine the gestational age of the fetus before the procedure could occur.  The ultrasound would be administered by means of a vaginal probe.

Several states (Alabama, Michigan, and Texas (naturally), among others) have already enacted similar laws that require women to undergo ultrasounds before an abortion.  But the Virginia bill raises the level of degradation .

A vaginal probe?  A government-mandated, medically-unnecessary procedure that violates a woman's body?  It's nothing less than bureaucratic rape.

Last week, the bill was on the fast track to enactment.  It passed the (Republican-controlled) Virginia State House and looked to be heading for easy passage in the (Republican-controlled) Senate, from whence it would head to (Republican) Governor Bob McDonnell's desk.  McDonnell indicated that he intended to sign the bill.

Then, all hell broke loose.  National media attention and protests by concerned Virginia citizens caused such a ruckus that on Thursday morning the Governor backed down and the Virginia Senate withdrew its version of the bill.

At this point, the Governor and the Senate look to be seeking a way to alter the bill such that it satisfies the Republican base but does something to cool the white-hot anger they've stirred up among outraged women.  I wish them luck.  (Not really.)

Take a good look, people. This is what today's Republican party is all about.  Never mind the sanctimonious rhetoric about "unobtrusive government."  The Virginia legislation reveals the true priorities of the GOP:  expressing contempt, debasing and humiliating the people who don't believe as they do.  In this case, women who demand control over their own bodies.

A vaginal probe?

La Grande Mayor Pokorney apologizes

Mayor Pokorney apologizes for comments he made on Facebook

According to the La Grande Observer, that city's mayor, Daniel Pokorney, went to Eastern Oregon University on Tuesday to apologize for anti-gay remarks he made on Facebook.  You can read the whole story here.

Pokorney said of the recently-enacted Washington state legislation recognizing gay marriage that Washington was the “latest state to transition to Sodom and Gomorrah.” In another comment, he criticized the state of New Jersey for continuing the “abomination of same sex unions.”

His comments sparked outrage and disapproving remarks from the La Grande community, most of it from an organization on the Eastern Oregon campus known as the Gay-Straight Alliance.

My, oh, my!  How things have changed!

Mayor Pokorney's comments don't rise to the standard of out-and-out hate, in my opinion.  Yes, they are tasteless.  And, yes, they would seem to reveal an unsavory attitude.  But he didn't use a slur to refer to gay people, the way Texas Governor Rick Perry, for example, used a racial slur as the name of his ranch.  And, frankly, you'll hear worse broadcast over the AM airwaves or on Fox News on any given day.

Nonetheless, there is small tolerance for these kinds of indiscretions here in the Beaver State.  In Oregon, sexual tolerance is "in".  (Eastern Oregon, at that!  Be proud, Oregonians!) 

It's a different story in other parts of the country, of course.  Particularly in culturally-backwards places like South Carolina, where politicians use racism and hatred to win votes.

Credit Mayor Pokorney for recognizing his error.  It was a mistake and he owned up to it.  That deserves respect and forgiveness.  After all, if you can't forgive a man who honestly repents, none of us are going to get anywhere.

Way to own up, Mayor Pokorney.

Mitt's day of judgment

Jeepers!

Next Tuesday, February 28th, is the Michigan state primary.  Judgment Day for Mitt Romney and for the Republican party.

Michigan is, in many ways, Romney's home state, as he points out with regularity.  His father, George Romney, served as Michigan's governor from 1963 to 1969.  Romney the Elder was a popular governor and Mitt himself defeated John McCain in the 2008 Republican primary, which did much to keep the Romney campaign alive in those early months.  So the Romney name would seem to be an asset in the Wolverine State.  Up until recently, anyway.

As the countdown to the Michigan primary ticks away, all of a sudden Romney is looking rather weak. Polls show him in a dead-heat with hate-spewing conservative Rick Santorum.

Rick Santorum!  The guy who said of birth control:  "It's not OK, because it's a license to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.  They're supposed to be within marriage, for purposes that are, yes, conjugal... but also procreative."

If the Santorum "surge" (gads, what an image!) isn't proof positive of Romney's weakness as a candidate, I can't possibly imagine what would be.  He could shrug off his loss to Newt Gingrich in South Carolina as an outlier, a protest vote by the neo-Confederate wing of the party, outside the mainstream.  He could ignore the string of defeats he suffered in Missouri, Colorado, and Minnesota since those contests awarded a mere 67 delegates between them.

But Michigan?  That's a problem. 

Rick Santorum owes a lot to Newt Gingrich.  Hard-core conservatives never did trust Romney very much, and Gingrich played on that mistrust in spades after Newt's big win in South Carolina.  He made Romney into a pariah to the point that Santorum, who lacked a campaign organization and had little money, is now the non-Romney candidate and a serious contender.  In Michigan!  In Romney's home state!

To repeat, Judgment Day is fast approaching for the GOP.  If Romney loses Michigan, Santorum will have to be considered the favorite to carry the Republican banner in the fall.  That is mind-boggling!

Just how far has the Republican train jumped the rails?

The benefits of Pandora

Perhaps the best new development in this Age of the Cloud is internet radio.

Last summer, at the suggestion of Brother Eric, Maty and I took the plunge into the world of smart phones.  The first app I downloaded was Pandora, the internet radio service.  Since then, I don't think a single day has passed when I didn't spend time listening to it.  In the last 6 months, Pandora has expanded my appreciation of music far beyond anything I might have achieved by collecting CDs or downloading MP3 files.

Pandora lets you set up "stations," which you seed with the name of an artist, a genre, or even a song.  You can have up to 100 stations.  When you play that station on your mobile device, Pandora selects music by that artist, or in that genre, as well as music by other similar artists.  I've created my maximum allowed stations and set Pandora to randomly play from all of them.

The result is that, in the short time that I've been using Pandora, I've become fluent in reggae, zydeco, country/western, 70s singer-songwriters, blue-grass, Celtic, Mbalax, classical, crooners, jazz, gospel, Motown, funk, and rap.  I'd had some exposure to most of these genres before, but with Pandora, I've become well-acquainted with many different artists.  Miles Davis, Beethoven, Etta James, Manu Chao, Andy Williams, Spoon, the Black Keys... I could go on forever.

At one time, I had what I considered to be a respectable collection of CDs.  All my favorite classic rock and pop bands (The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Steely Dan, et alia) were represented, their jewel cases proudly displayed on my bookshelves.  (And before that, of course, were vinyl albums.  I've still got a stack of those collecting dust in the basement.)  But when a CD cost $15 a pop, limited resources curtailed any notions I had toward exploring new types of music.

Old habits die hard.  Even though I never listen to my CDs anymore, I've still got them stored away and everything is backed up on the Cloud.  But I'm not sure there is a need, apart from those few CDs in my possession that are so rare that they aren't included in the Pandora catalog.

Pandora is a great way to discover new music, to explore genres, and to reacquaint oneself with music from one's past.  If you're "wired up" I recommend it.

Great movie heroes

Following up on a post I wrote about a year ago, entitled Great movie villains, a list of some of my favorite movie heroes.

Paul Dano as Howie Blitzer in L.I.E.

Howie Blitzer is a 15-year-old boy in crisis.  His mother recently died in a car accident on the Long Island Expressway.  Howie's father wasted no time, bringing his trophy girlfriend into their home a month after the death.  Howie is just discovering his sexuality and develops feelings for his best friend, Gary, a delinquent and a male prostitute.  While Howie's father faces prosecution for fraudulent real estate dealings, a middle-aged Vietnam veteran pedophile named Big John Harrigan begins stalking Howie, whose lonely world is quickly falling apart.

This is a great film for many reasons.  But chief among them is the story.  Howie is an unlikely protagonist.  He's vulnerable and naive.  The viewing audience is filled with dread as it perceives all the dangers that surround this innocent young man facing challenges that would overwhelm people twice his age.  And yet, through it all, Howie displays grace, courage, and compassion.  In weathering the terrible storm that descends upon him, he not only saves himself, but offers redemption to the irredeemable.

Jon Voight as Ed in Deliverance

Jon Voight's Ed in the 1972 classic, Deliverance, is another character who triumphs over unimaginable adversity. Ed is part of a group of West Virginia businessmen who set out on a camping trip in rural Georgia. While canoeing down a remote river, they are set upon by armed hillbillies. Violence ensues and Ed finds that he must not only negotiate a dangerous river, but fight off hostile locals and concoct a story to hide the grim events from a suspicious sheriff upon return to civilization.

Although less sympathetic than Howie Blitzer (after all, Ed, is a grown man), Ed faces down an impossible situation, overcoming his own fears and validating himself.  Viewers may recoil from the ghastly challenges that Ed faces, but they secretly envy him as well, for proving himself in the face of mortal threat.

Robert De Niro as Roderigo Mendoza in The Mission
 

Robert De Niro's Captain Roderigo Mendoza is a ruthless slaver and a master swordsman in 18th century South America who, in a fit of passion murders his younger brother.  In spite of his belief that he is beyond redemption, he agrees to enter the service of a Jesuit priest who is bringing religion to the very people that Captain Mendoza once enslaved.  Flummoxed and amazed by the forgiveness of the people he oppressed, he dedicates his life to their service, even as politicians in Rome, Spain, and Portugal callously decide their fate.

Mendoza's is a powerful story of redemption, and of the power of love, of how it may triumph even in defeat.  Every would-be hero longs for a cause that is worthy of his life, a cause for which he would gladly die.  Mendoza is one of the lucky few who find it.  And if his ultimate acts are futile; if in the end his path is folly --well, there are plenty among us who would choose the same path, even knowing its futility.

Anyway, those are a few of my favorite movie heroes.  There are plenty more, but it's late.  I've got to get to bed.