The Political Compass Test

Economic Left/Right: -5.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.72


Take the test.

I took a similar test a few years ago, and, although my result was still in the same quadrant, I was much closer to the center. It seems that I've been marked by the Bush years. The test is not a quickie six-question test.

They're Talking About Gov. Jindal's Exorcism

Talking Points Memo has taken note of our governor's participation in an exorcism (or so Jindal called it):

Bobby Jindal, the 36-year old governor of Louisiana, is being taken seriously by the national press as a candidate on the shortlist to be John McCain's Vice President. No one doubts that he's a political prodigy -- his impressive resume includes stints as president of the state university system, a Congressman and now governor.

But one of Jindal's job titles hasn't gotten much attention -- and it just might prompt a few questions if his Veep candidacy gains steam: Exorcist.

What impresses me most about Jindal's resumé is his nearly 100% loyal support of all of Bush's mad schemes, both at home and abroad, while he was in the House of Representatives.

I have no doubt that this wider notice of his participation in an exorcism will lessen his chances of becoming McCain's running mate, if he ever was a serious contender. The word of the exorcism has been around locally for some time, but it didn't seem to make much difference to Louisiana voters in the House race and the gubernatorial election. However, in a national election, the story of the exorcism could be a tad radioactive.

TPM failed to take note of the local bloggers who have talked about the story for years, except for one link to The Daily Kingfish, added in an update.

Thanks to Oyster for the tip.

UPDATE: Time Magazine's blog has picked up the story, and the full article from the New Oxford Review is available now, probably only for a limited time, but I printed a copy.

Wise Words From J. K. Rowling

Please go read or watch the video of J. K. Rowling's commencement address at Harvard University. It's powerful, simply amazing. After pondering what to speak of, she says:

I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ‘real life’, I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.

I'll give you a few snippets of the address, but I urge you to read the entire speech or watch the video at the Harvard Magazine website that I link to above. It will take a little time, but I promise you, it's worth it.

She tells of the period in her life, seven years after graduating from the university, when her marriage had ended and she was a jobless single mother. It was a time of great difficulty for her. She says of herself, "I was the biggest failure I knew".

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

On imagination:

You might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so. Though I will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

Her final words from Seneca:

"As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters."
I wish you all very good lives.

I hope that these brief quotes are enough to whet your appetite for more.

Thanks to Ann for the link.

Oh, That Liberal Media!

Via Sadly No comes a link to Anne Applebaum's opinion column in the Washington Post. Applebaum is on the editorial board of the WP. Oh, that liberal media!

Applebaum said:

“Will Americans vote for a black man?” I’ve been asked this question by foreigners of various origins a dozen — or maybe three dozen — times since the U.S. presidential campaign began for real in January. … Which means that it is time to turn this rather offensive question around: Will foreigners accept a black American president? I realize that this, too, may seem like a rather offensive question.

Anne, is it the "foreigners" who have a problem with accepting a black man as president? How do you make the leap in logic from the "foreigners" asking the question about how Americans will vote to the conclusion that it was time to turn the question around in the manner that you did? Anne goes on to say, "I hate to put it so crudely, but -- European newspaper reporting to the contrary -- racism is not unique to the United States." What a surprise! If you hate to put it so crudely, then why do it?

A President Obama wouldn't have to worry too much about angry stares from people at bus stops, of course, and it is fair to assume that prejudices harbored by the odd foreign leader would vanish in the presence of the American president.

Indeed! I don't think he will be riding the bus, and he won't have to worry about taxis not stopping to pick him up, either.

But in the meantime, do not be surprised if there is some backlash as well. A hint of what might be hiding behind those enthusiastic headlines emerged last week in Obamamanic Germany, where a Berlin newspaper, Die Tageszeitung, put a photograph of the White House and the headline " Uncle Barack's Cabin" on its front page. The editors argued that their intention was satirical, but since the same newspaper has also referred to the current U.S. secretary of state as "Uncle Tom's Rice," it is clear that they understood the nastiness of the "Uncle Tom" connotation perfectly well.

So. We should keep the views of the racists around the world in mind when we cast our vote for president.

Listen carefully, too, when foreigners start worrying about Obama's lack of foreign policy experience. Though this is a legitimate concern, I occasionally catch a racist undertone in this kind of conversation. "How could a black man possibly understand European/Middle Eastern/South Asian politics?" is what my interlocutors sometimes in fact seem to be saying.

That seems another great leap in illogical reasoning, but, of course, I could be wrong. Perhaps I should conclude that you, and only you, Anne, know what's in their heads, what they really, really mean.

Sadly No's commentary on the column is wise and funny.

Sad Doggy News

Remember the story of Roger's newly adopted rescue pet, Becky? Roger, aka Lapinbizarre, told their story here on Wounded Bird in the middle of May.

Tonight I received this email from Roger:

Becky's persistent "kennel cough" - I decided a week or so back that it was too resistant to antibiotics to be this - turns out to be lung cancer. The vet thinks three to six months, poor little soul, tho treatment with steroids, etc., could extend it as far as two years. I'll speak to her at greater length later in the week. In the meantime, Becky is her usual busy self. Very sad.

I wrote back:

Roger, I am so sorry. What sad news. We lost Rusty to lymphoma at the age of 9, too soon. I'll pray for Becky, that she'll have good times in whatever days are left for her. I'll pray for you, too, Roger. I know that this tears at your heart. I'll post a prayer request if you like.

And so I have done.

Mystery Solved! It's "The Dap"!

Ooooh, I'm getting my groove now.

From Newhouse via the Times-Picayune:

Moments before stepping to the podium Tuesday night to acknowledge that he would be the first black candidate nominated by a major party for president of the United States, Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, knocked knuckles.

It was a tiny gesture so cool, so tight, so loving and so right, that it seemed to encapsulate both the satisfaction of the moment and the new cultural trajectory of American politics.

"Barack and Michelle were giving each other some 'dap,' " says Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of black popular culture at Duke University. "I was watching the speech with my wife and she saw 'the dap' and said, 'Do you see that? A bunch of folks must be wondering what that means."

Yeeaah! Cool, tight, loving, right! Ya gotta love 'em. But wait! How much cool can the citizenry of the US take? What would the Founding Fathers think?

To wit: NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, who on Wednesday asked Obama about the dap, noting that Michelle had "tried to give her husband a fist pound the way a lot of Americans do, the way a lot of couples do. The only problem it's an inside move shared in front of 17-and-a-half thousand people in the arena and millions watching at home."

Of course! Why Brian, of the raccoon eyes due to tanning with his goggles on, is right! It was as though they had sex right there on the stage. Tell me, is there anyone less cool than Brian Williams? Well, probably. What can one do to confront this sort of assininity, but make sport of it?

In fact, Neal says, the dap probably does trace its early origins to the black power salute of the 1960s.

Horrors! Can this be? Bring me my smelling salts.

But it morphed into what it is today -- lateral instead of vertical -- in the intersection of hip-hop and the National Basketball Association in the 1980s. In the years since, it has become familiar beyond the black world to many Americans younger than 50 -- especially to anyone glued to a television as professional athletes congratulate each other on exceptional performance.

Black people and those under 50 -- a demographic that has come to be known by another name: Obama's base.

Dayum! Now that is scary. How did I know that the gesture was common? I'm in the wrong demographic. Is it possible that I'm 43, instead of 73?

"A Sad Story" - Carol McCain

Fran at FranIAm posted the story of John McCain's first wife, Carol. As she notes, it's been posted elsewhere. To give McCain his due, he has taken responsibility for the the break-up of his first marriage, but I did not know the whole story. It doesn't make him look good. Carol seems a lovely and forgiving person. God bless her.

Fran's story is from the UK. I wonder if the story would be more prominently covered in the US media if a Democratic candidate had a history like this.

Of course, we've seen the intense coverage of Michelle and Barack Obama's fist bump, as Media Matters notes, especially the nonsense at Fox News by E. D. Hill.

Teasing a segment on the "gesture everyone seems to interpret differently," Fox News' E.D. Hill said: "A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab? ... We'll show you some interesting body communication and find out what it really says." In the ensuing discussion with a "body language expert," Hill referred to the "Michelle and Barack Obama fist bump or fist pound," but at no point did she explain her earlier reference to "a terrorist fist jab."

Media Matters has the video of the segment, if by some miracle you have not already seen it ad nauseam.

It's vital to the future of the country that we know the precise meaning of this gesture. Was it a code signal to the terrorists?

UPDATE: As Atrios says, "Terrorists Everywhere" Check it out.

Here He Is - Part 2

It's "Here He Is, Part 2, but - Alas! - I have no more pictures of Paul, nor of the girls, Maggie and Belle. As I said, I get caught up in the moment. He did better by me than I did by him with pictures. The post should rather be titled, St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square.

After we left the Palace Café on Sunday before last, the French Quarter beckoned. We headed in the direction of St. Louis Cathedral, not walking on Bourbon Street. One could imagine oneself in a European city or in the old part of town on an island in the Caribbean.

According to Wiki:

Saint Louis Cathedral (French: Cathédrale Saint-Louis), also known as the Basilica of St. Louis, King of France, has the distiction of being the oldest continuously operating cathedral in the United States, first established in 1718, is the cathedral Basilica in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. It is located on the Place John Paul II (French: Place Jean-Paul II), a promenaded section of Chartres Street (rue de Chartres) that stretches one block between St. Peter Street (rue Saint-Pierre) on the upriver boundary and St. Ann Street (rue Sainte-Anne) on the downriver boundary.

I did not know that the street name had been changed to Place John-Paul II. Below are my pictures of the interior and exterior of the building.


MAIN ALTAR


MARY'S ALTAR

Paul and I crossed the street to Jackson Square and walked the circle. The girls loved it, but I did not think to take their picture. Paul has more pictures and better pictures at his blog, Byzigenous Buddhapalian.

 

It's a beautiful building. The much-favored angle from which to take a picture of the exterior is this view that includes the equestrian statue of Andy Jackson. Below is my favorite picture of the humans in this adventure, Pablito and me. It's stolen from Paul, who took it himself. We're really clattering our way downtown, but pretend it's our journey home. What a lovely day.

Yes! My Hero!

Email from Democrats.com:

History is in the making as I type: Rep. Dennis Kucinich is on the floor of the House reading 35 Articles of Impeachment against President George W. Bush.

At last!!!!!

We've waited years to find one Member of Congress brave enough to stand up for our Constitution, for which generations of Americans have fought and died. We are thrilled and honored that Dennis Kucinich has chosen to be that one genuine patriot.

We congratulate him on his historic leadership, and pledge to do everything in our power to persuade the House to adopt all 35 Articles and put George W. Bush on trial before the Senate of the United States, exactly as the Founding Fathers wanted.

We can be sure Kucinich will come under furious attack by the White House, the Republican Party, the Corporate Media, and even Bush Democrats. So let's inundate Congress with emails and calls (202-224-3121) showing our full support for Rep. Kucinich's Articles of Impeachment:

http://www.democrats.com/35-articles-of-impeachment

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your constant support throughout this long and historic struggle.

Bob Fertik

And The Winner Is....

"Streetcat Named Desire"

I know. No one suggested this one to pair with my other print, "Purr de Lis", but I thought I'd like the elegant cat and the somewhat disreputably titled "Steetcat named Desire" side by side. I thought seriously about "Marie Minou", with my reputation as a sorceress, and "The Purrfect Storm", but I remember Katrina and the federal flood enough already.

Thanks all for playing the game. Go ahead. Call me contrary.