Insert a Trite Metaphor About A Corral

Posted on July 5, 2004 in Roundup

….all they want to do

is tie the poem to a chair with rope

and torture a confession out of it.


They begin beating it with a hose

to find out what it really means.


  — Billy Collins

Brian Kane is home again and shares a photo of himself having a heart attack. He describes his ordeal on his weblog.

Glad to see you still among the living, Brian!

Some are celebrating the “transfer of power” in Iraq, but I recall this: our troops are still there. Throughout our sojourn in Vietnam, elections were held and a native government ruled in Saigon.

Entries in this roundup cover the period from 25 June to 2 July 2004. Half of blogspot continues to be “missing”.

Politics

• Jack is outraged at the latest Bush-Cheney campaign dirty trick:

  The spot juxtaposes images of these men criticizing Bush with clips of Hitler taken from an ad that appeared briefly on the Moveon.org site. That ad was part of a contest among the general public, and when people complained about the entry, Moveon.org took it off the site.

• Jeanne follow a story of dirty business practices by American contractors:

  A couple of months ago, the New York Times ran an interesting article on contractors’ exploitation of Indian workers in Iraq. The workers were charged a large fee for jobs in Kuwait at relatively high pay, only to find themselves in Iraq, working for half what they were promised, and forbidden to go home.

• Evano is suspicious of plans to cancel elections in the event of a terrorist attack.
  
• LQ discovered a new back door draft:

  This is so wrong, I am so angry that the Army is doing this. “Involuntarily recalled”? ….these people are retired and discharged. They have served their duty and their country, this is just wrong that they are now being called upon again.

• Lauren gave Fahrenheit 9/11 a tepid review:

  while I agree with Moore’s thesis, I think there are many more things that constitute for a change in power. What we should fear is Big Business’s control over governmental happenings, the power of the news media to propagandize and selectively report, the government’s role in censorhip of information, conservative think tanks that frame political conversation, this administration’s hypocritical inability to accept responsibility for it’s wrong-doings, and so much more.

• Michael shouted

  shame on everyone calling Michael Moore “UnAmerican” for his film. For decades, the right’s been quick to label anything that disagrees with their ideal of patriotic as “UnAmerican”, mostly in an attempt to minimalize it, but also to guilt/scare people into believing differently. This has been said before here and many other places, but when one man speaks out against the government in the way Moore’s done, that’s not only acceptable, it’s uniquely pro-American.

• Vic listened in on a conversation regarding Fahrenheit 9/11:

  The white man came out with the classic Bush apologist lines, and the man who had seen the movie just cut him off saying, “No man, you GOTTA see this. It really tells it like it was.” And on and on. It really could be a rebellion in the making.

• Greybird equivocated:

  This is a two hour film, only so much can be included and Moore is known for spin too. There’s many that will take it as absolute truth in the same way that right-wing fundies have taken the neo-con spin as their gospel. Then there are the rest of us left holding the bag, trying to figure out what to believe.

• Steven linked low prices at Walmart and Target to coerced abortions in China.
  
• Stu quoted Lincoln at Bush.
  
• Randy noted the little-celebrated victory for the Alien Tort Act.
  
• Red Water Lily ennumerated things you have to believe to be a Republican today.
  
• Andrea applauded NATO telling Bush where to stick it.
  
• Andrew enumerated reasons against voting for Ralph Nader.
  
• Jeremy examined American “Democracy”.
  
• Allison called Bush “Mean on the Green”
  
• chari is shocked that a Florida judge ordered the indiscriminate release of teacher records — including Social Security Numbers!
  
• Rachel Ann is angry at the Palestinian Authority’s denial of the right to vote to refugees.

Culture

• Teresa loved reading about the influence of lesbians on the fashion industry.
  
• Brian provides a guide to online dating profile photography.
  
• Kate still sees spots in grain fields.
  
• Liz contemplated the plight of the female superhero.

Religion

• Jodi took aim at those who characterize the Inquisition as a mere “misunderstanding”.

Personal

• Tracy shares an encounter with one of her favorite patients:

  She will invariably answer, “Take ’em yourself, you technical whore” or “A fucking alligator is wearing my goddamn pantyhose!” The first statement is easy to de-code. It means, simply, that she wants me to understand what it’s like to have to take a cup-full of medication every morning, how frustrating it is to have to take meds just because some idiot judge says she’s crazy, and how horribly debilitating it is to have to take meds every single day for the rest of your life when God and every citizen of Bangladesh knows you don’t need to! The “technical whore” part is still fuzzy to me.

• Tracy goes on to reflect upon what happens when lesbians break up:

  When lesbians break up, they not only lose a partner, but they do indeed lose someone that they’ve shopped with, lunched with, giggled with and stayed up with until four in the morning. And not just that, but deeper aspects of being women seem to prevail.

• Aurora engaged in Instant Messanger Wars.
  
• Elkit found herself experiencing an odd phenomenon:

  It’s been a busy week, and I’ve been entirely overbooked. I even complained to my boss today that my work-life balance has been out of whack this week: there’s been way too much life and not enough work. I feel like the White Rabbit – “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!”

• maria is giving herself a rest:

  My doctor is sending me to the neurologist, but we both see two things at work here, the first one of which would be my choice – if one can choose in this matters. And that would be nothing more and nothing less than your plain vanilla panic attack! Wouldn’t that be lovely … not to mention somewhat old territory already for me from my younger days when I was an overly stressed graduate student.

• Marylou dreamed:

  You know that first sip of coffee in the morning? The one you have waited all night for? The PERFECT cup of coffee, flavored just right, with all of your favorite flavorings in it…Or not? Just cool enough that you semi-slurp it because you know it will burn your lips. The expectation of waiting for it to be ready.

• Ellen was surprised to see Greece beat Czechoslovakia in the World Cup.
  
• Leigh recorded new conversations with her Japanese mother:

  JM: How your visit go with you know who . . . your friend?
  
  AH: Horrible, actually. It went so badly I had to break up with her.
  
  JM: Must be because she was bore to death.

• Caterina talks about Toaster Rage.
  
• Billy prepared himself for delivering a Twinkie Defense.
  
• Kimber felt for her husband:

  John went in on Friday and is now officially a gelding. Well, nothing was removed, just the plumbing was disattached. And he was pretty much couch ridden for the entire weekend. I did feel bad for him because I can imagine it was a rather painful experience but I really had no idea the extent of his discomfort until I actually saw the offended area. Suffice it to say there was significant swelling which would impede mobility in any human being. Poor fella.

• Jill talks about going to a party where everyone was named Tina.
  
• Manda contemplated what kind of Asian that she is.
  
• Theodore shared his puzzling searches for June.
  
• Natalie put on her tights and danced at the news of being named Top Blog by the Guardian.
  
• Katherine discerned a pattern in her blogging calendar for June.
  
• John took his first bike ride in 35 years. He did just fine.
  
• Mike suggested giving medals to parents who take their kids to school.

Photos

• Coup de Vent: Otley Street Market

Poetry

• Seraph posts a poem from a friend.
  
• greg: Real as a Ten Dollar Bill

Missing Bloggers

• Raven
  
• Mama Geek

Recent Reading

• Annie’s Soup Kitchen by Lawrence R. Smith
  
• The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
  
• In the Palm of Your Hand:The Poet’s Portable Workshop by Steve Kowit
  
• Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry by Billy Collins

• Wheelock’s Latin, 6e and Workbook for Wheelock’s Latin, 3rd Edition, Revised
  
  Buying books through these links does put a little money in my pocket. Thank you!

Web Links

• Aztec Calendar
  
• Wonders of the World
  
• Stop Bush Project

The camera is an emptiness that longs to be a camera.

  — Tom Andrews