Sunday Observations 12.29

It's officially cold this morning. When I go get my paper if it's below freezing and breezy, windchill is 16°, it's officially cold. That makes me wonder about our New Years Eve plans because ice skating at Bryant Park or going to Times Square were both options but who wants to freeze in the new year? Than again my brother is in State College and the Village is rather balmy compared to the mountains.

When it comes to the tunes I listen to I can be a bit strange because I can jump from Ellie Goulding to Linkin Park in one playlist. Thing is my iTunes holds almost anything including sadly country and Tom Jones but there is no opera. Last night I was listening to a playlist that may have been stranger than any of mine. Like some of mine it was all over the music rainbow but yes it included opera, opera shuffling to dance shuffling to indie which is my whole point of writing this. I heard a cover of Neil Young's "Into the Black" that was awesome so I asked who it was and was told it was a band fro Oregon called the Chromatics. We ended up listening to there entire newest album, Kill For Love, and it's really quite good, worth a listen, or maybe it was just the wine. (video)

I was reading an old article from the Guardian about career tips for art school graduates when I came across this one, it's a rule I follow at all times. "It's crucial to remember that everything you do online can be seen by everyone. So no political rants, no passive-aggressive behavior, keep it light, fun, happy and professional at all times." I'm very good at their first tip, multitasking.

So you thought this was a non-political post? Wrong because here we are looking into the national financial abyss without a parachute and the House is just coming back tonight. Well maybe not an abyss, as with the whole mess the 'fiscal cliff' is totally self inflicted drama. It would take months for all the spending cuts and taxes to take effect and in the end it's just not going to happen, take my word for it. But there are a couple things to notice.

The first is that if nothing happens tax rates will go up and than will be cut again for most people. But as the new year begins, if nothing happens, the Bush tax cuts cease to exist. When they take effect again they will be forever known as the Obama tax cuts.

The other thing to do is sit back and enjoy the beauty of a second term president. I may have mentioned before that a second term president is a totally different beast because he/she is never going to run in an election again. When President Obama made his fiscal cliff statement on Friday he threw down the gauntlet, actually he put a noose around the tea party's neck and dared them to jump. Come up with something he can support or allow a yes or no vote on his tax rates before we hit the curb. That leaves them very few options none of which are good for Republicans because either we play Thelma and Louise or they raise tax rates on the wealthy. Republicans get the blame for the first but no credit for the second. It's a beautiful thing.

Finally, Saturday morning at 12:25 AM Eastern Time the first same sex couple was married in the state of Maine. Next up the sate of Maryland on New Years Day. Congrats.

12/31 update - I wanted to add this yesterday and never got around to it. This week a bill legalizing gay marriage will be introduced in the Illinois State Senate. It is a rare thing for a sitting president to voice their opinion on state matters but on Saturday President Obama privately urged lawmakers in his home state to pass the bill. Also Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel asked major state CEOs to sign a letter which calls passing the marriage equality bill an economic imperative for the state. Among the signers so far are Google, Groupon, Morningstar founder Joe Mansueto, and PrivateBancorp Chairman Norman Bobins. This letter follows the release on Saturday of another letter signed by 250 state religious leaders supporting the bill which would make Illinois the tenth state to legalize same sex marriage.

Observations from the Road 12.27

I never did get back to my emotional response to guns but I still plan on doing it at some point. That doesn't mean it will ever happen, my head is full of posts I plan on getting back to but never do. This is more like a mid-week post Christmas edition of Sunday Observations which is going to seem more like an economics lesson.

I hope you had a good Christmas because it seems Congress has a very special New Years celebration planned this year.

And so I give you this fiscal cliff thing, something I'm totally tired of hearing about. Here is the fiscal cliff in a nutshell; Congress can't seem to do anything, with over 200 votes Congress passes a draconian law that automatically does its job for it, Congress figures it will have to do something before its own law takes effect. Now, and this is the surprising part, Congress can't force itself to do anything to stop what Congress itself has created. Is it any wonder said Congress has an approval rating slightly lower than the Communist Party's? I didn't know the Communist party still existed.

Meanwhile the government will once again hit the debt ceiling on New Years Eve, something else to add to the cliff. I agree with former President Bill Clinton on this one. President Obama should just raise the debt limit by executive order and let the republicans take him to court if they want to. As Clinton said why should Congress be allowed to vote on expenditures they already passed? It's like you went out and bought a Christmas present on credit and than when the bill came decided not to pay it. What makes this even crazier is that the government currently pays 1% interest on new loans so borrowing now to pay for projects is probably the best investment they can make. The Treasury department says they can put off the ceiling for a few months by using accounting methods, I think I'll try that when it's income tax time.

A quick note on White House petitions. Some people have been complaining that 'joke' petitions are taking away from serious politics in this country. It is beyond me how that is possible given the state of Congress but that's what they say. Anyway there are some serious petitions to look at. One would have the President "Legally recognize Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group." It was started by a member of the hacker group Anonymous after the WBC announced it was going to protest at the funerals of the Newtown shooting victims. As of now it has 263,000 signatures so will get an official response which should be interesting. You can read it here.

Also there was a good but sad article about the complete disconnect between those who fight our wars and the rest of the country in Christmas day's edition of The New York Times. The article, "With a Parent Off Again at War, a Holiday of Pride and Isolation," included this line; "No one really cares,” Tyisha Smith, a 19-year-old senior, said of the outside world."

I'm sure Congress will get to Afghanistan after it gets past its Thelma and Louise moment.

Finally, and once again, where have you gone NHL?

12/28 update - I just read a Reuters article about the Westboro petition and it said 475,000 people has signed it. I was thinking 200,000 more signatures can't be possible in one day so I checked it out. Seems there are three petitions; the main one has 287,000, another to investigate Westboro's tax exempt status has 69,500 signatures, and a third to revoke its tax exempt status and label it a hate group has 63,000 signatures.

Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

So what could be so good I saved it till Christmas night? It's a bit of country music, yes I said country. I first saw this video maybe ten years ago when music TV still played music. It was on one country channel or the other and Sean and I left it on all day so we wouldn't miss this anytime it played and laugh as we sarcastically pointed some part of it out to our own family. I think every family has small part of this Christmas in them and can relate, I like to think they do anyway. Than again maybe it's best if they not.

Merry Christmas everybody, I hope it was a good one.

Robert Earl Keene's Merry Christmas from the Family

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Merry Christmas

Palace of St. Nicholas
In the Moon
Christmas Morning

My Dear Susie Clemens:

I have received and read all the letters which you and your little sister have written me by the hand of your mother and your nurses; I have also read those which you little people have written me with your own hands, for although you did not use any characters that are in grown peoples' alphabet, you used the characters that all children in all lands on earth and in the twinkling stars use; and as all my subjects in the moon are children and use no character but that, you will easily understand that I can read your and your baby sister's jagged and fantastic marks without any trouble at all. But I had trouble with those letters which you dictated through your mother and the nurses, for I am a foreigner and cannot read English writing well. You will find that I made no mistakes about the things which you and the baby ordered in your own letters, I went down your chimney at midnight when you were asleep and delivered them all myself--and kissed both of you, too, because you are good children, well trained, nice mannered, and about the most obedient little people I ever saw. But in the letter which you dictated there were some words which I could not make out for certain, and one or two small orders which I could not fill because we ran out of stock. Our last lot of kitchen furniture for dolls has just gone to a very poor little child in the North Star away up, in the cold country above the Big Dipper. Your mama can show you that star and you will say: "Little Snow Flake," (for that is the child's name) "I'm glad you got that furniture, for you need it more than I." That is, you must write that, with your own hand, and Snow Flake will write you an answer. If you only spoke it she wouldn't hear you. Make your letter light and thin, for the distance is great and the postage very heavy.

There was a word or two in your mama's letter which I couldn't be certain of. I took it to be "a trunk full of doll's clothes." Is that it? I will call at your kitchen door about nine o'clock this morning to inquire. But I must not see anybody and I must not speak to anybody but you. When the kitchen doorbell rings, George must be blindfolded and sent to open the door. Then he must go back to the dining room or the china closet and take the cook with him. You must tell George he must walk on tiptoe and not speak--otherwise he will die someday. Then you must go up to the nursery and stand on a chair or the nurse's bed and put your car to the speaking tube that leads down to the kitchen and when I whistle through it you must speak in the tube and say, "Welcome, Santa Claus!" Then I will ask whether it was a trunk you ordered or not. If you say it was, I shall ask you what color you want the trunk to be. Your mama will help you to name a nice color and then you must tell me every single thing in detail which you want the trunk to contain. Then when I say "Good-by and a merry Christmas to my little Susie Clemens," you must say "Good-by, good old Santa Claus, I thank you very much and please tell that little Snow Flake I will look at her star tonight and she must look down here, I will be right in the west bay window; and every fine night I will look at her star and say, 'I know somebody up there and like her, too.'" Then you must go down into the library and make George close all the doors that open into the main hall, and everybody must keep still for a little while. I will go to the moon and get those things and in a few minutes I will come down the chimney that belongs to the fireplace that is in the hall, if it is a trunk you want, because I couldn't get such a thing as a trunk down the nursery chimney, you know.

People may talk if they want, until they hear my footsteps in the hall. Then you tell them to keep quiet a little while till I go back up the chimney. Maybe you will not hear my footsteps at all, so you may go now and then and peep through the dining-room doors, and by and by you will see that thing which you want, right under the piano in the drawing room-for I shall put it there. If I should leave any snow in the hall, you must tell George to sweep it into the fireplace, for I haven't time to do such things. George must not use a broom, but a rag, else he will die someday. You must watch George and not let him run into danger. If my boot should leave a stain on the marble, George must not holystone it away. Leave it there always in memory of my visit; and whenever you look at it or show it to anybody you must let it remind you to be a good little girl. Whenever you are naughty and somebody points to that mark which your good old Santa Claus's boot made on the marble, what will you say, little sweetheart?

Good-by for a few minutes, till I come down to the world and ring the kitchen doorbell.

Your loving Santa Claus
Whom people sometimes call "The Man in the Moon"

(Mark Twain to his daughter, 1875)

Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

Oh Tannenpalm


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Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

A public service message from Lewis Black ....

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Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

One of the most intriguing Christmas stories you will ever here is about the World War I 'Christmas Truce' of 1914. I know I'm showing more weirdness but yet I'm not. If you study art history you can't help but like history and it's something my grandfather first told me about years ago. It was only five months into the war and nobody yet understood industrialized or total war so a few leaders suggested a Christmas truce, the generals refused. On Christmas Eve some German soldiers began decorating their trenches with candles and trees and, generals be damned, the truce was born. The two sides sang carols together, exchanged gifts, and one group even played soccer in the no mans land between the trenches. The truce, mostly between German and British troops in Belgium, was never recognized by higher ups and the first official histories of the war ignored it completely. It never happened as far as they were concerned.

"O ye who read this truthful rime From Flanders, kneel and say:
God speed the time when every day
Shall be as Christmas Day."

From "A Carol from Flanders" by Frederick Niven

Snoopy vs. The Red Baron


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Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

One for my mom ....

"The holiest of all holidays are those
Kept by ourselves in silence and apart ....
White as the gleam of a receding sail,
White as a cloud that floats and fades in air,
White as the whitest lily on a stream,
These tender memories are; a fairy tale
Of some enchanted land we know not where,
But lovely as a landscape in a dream."

"Holidays" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Trans-Siberian Orchestra, "Christmas Canon"

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(Sorry, You might have to watch this on YouTube. Atlantic Records, in its infinite wisdom, allows you to have an embed code but doesn't always allow it to work.)

Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

This video has it all so it had to be used, there was no choice in the matter. Carols, a tree, presents, Santa's helpers. Best get it out of the way now before the final four.

The Victoria's Secret Angels Sing "Deck the Halls"

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Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

This is a video a friend sent me last night and not one of my 'official' 12 days of Christmas posts or that would make it "Katie's 13 Days of Christmas" and christ what with the Mayans and everything who needs the bad luck? Just think of it as a bonus post.

Now anybody that knows me knows how much I like Anne Hathaway but this short hair of hers, I just don't know about that. I'm not about to kick her out of my dreams over it though. And yes, yes that is my princess saying motherf*cker in the video, you were warned.

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Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

The Killers star in elves gone wild.

"A Great Big Sled"

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Observations 12.19

"Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven,
Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Charlotte Bacon, 6. Daniel Barden, 7. Olivia Engel, 6. Josephine Gay, 7. Dylan Hockley, 6. Madeleine Hsu, 6. Catherine Hubbard, 6. Chase Kowalski, 7. Jesse Lewis, 6. Ana Marquez-Greene, 6. James Mattioli, 6. Grace McDonnell, 7. Emilie Parker, 6. Jack Pinto, 6. Noah Pozner, 6. Caroline Previdi, 6. Jessica Rekos, 6. Avielle Richman, 6. Benjamin Wheeler, 6. Allison Wyatt, 6.

And I don't even have to tell you who they are.

Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

I don't know, my whole little Christmas project just isn't as enjoyable as when I started it. Some clips I was going to use like Die Hard, yes it is a Christmas movie, and the Home Alone black and white gun scene just seem wrong. So I'll go with a modern classic suggested by my brother. U2's first Christmas tune ....

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Observations on Guns

The more I thought about what I wanted or needed to say about guns the more notes I had and the greater the threat of some massive post that made no sense to anybody. I decided I would break it into two parts. There is just too much swirling around in my head so first I'm going to get out some basic "facts" about why I think about guns the way I do. Maybe in the end it will be that long awkward post broken in two but I have to start somewhere.

At times it is a very emotional issue for me, at other times very fact based, which is very hard to explain to some people. Before I go any further let me get this out of the way, it has to stop. Every year more Americans die in this country from gun violence than died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Yes the second amendment guarantees the right to own guns but that right shouldn't override the most basic of Jefferson's rights, the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." When the Constitution was written muskets couldn't hit the side of a barn from 100' and there was no such thing as a semi-automatic musket. Does the second amendment give me the right to a nuke? I don't think so, so why a semi-automatic assault rifle with a hundred round magazine? Nobody needs to go to Cabella's for armor piercing bullets to go duck hunting. It's just insanity.

I grew up in a small town ruralish county in Pennsylvania, a state which has more NRA members than any other state other than Texas. In the fall the thoughts of a large part of the state doesn't turn to Penn State football but to hunting. Pennsylvania has more hunting seasons than I can remember. Small game, deer, bear, archery, and musket come to mind. All my uncles hunt and my dad does too although I always had the feeling he hunted more to be with his brothers than for any other reason. I love my uncles but I argue with them all the time and doing that has taught me two things about gun control. Like global warming it's just a bad term and if there is ever going to be a rational gun policy in this country it has to soothe the very real, if somewhat irrational, fear of rural Americans that somebody is going to come and take there hunting rifles.

For years I owned gun, a completely legally purchased and licensed hand gun. My one uncle taught me how to shoot it, took me to a safety class, and often took me to a shooting range where, to be brutally honest, I quite enjoyed shooting it and did much better than hit the side of a barn. Why did I enjoy it? Have you ever played a shooter computer game? If you have you and enjoyed it you understand even if you don't want to admit it to yourself. It's the same feeling just a 'real' feeling and not a 'virtual' one. Beyond that I wont get into it because it's one of those no win emotional issues of the gun debate. One extreme will say I'm evil because I enjoyed firing a gun and the other will say I'm bad because I got rid of my gun to prove a point.

Why do some people react with near hatred of the right when it comes to gun control? Because they have to deal with people like Texas Governor Rick Perry who yesterday told a wingnut meeting that teachers should be able to carry guns. Then there is former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee who thinks a mass shooting in an elementary school is the natural result of taking god out of schools. If his god is that spiteful it would allow twenty children to die to prove a point I'm so glad I don't believe in it. As for the National Rifle Association I'm not sure I can discuss them, least at the national level, without a touch of loathing. There answer to everything seems to be more guns. Guns in school, guns in church, more guns everywhere as if 300 million weren't enough.

But now it all comes down to one simple fact, twenty small children died in a way nobody deserves to die. As I wrote somewhere last Friday, what does it say about a country when it kills its children?

So you can see that, even when I'm trying to not be emotional, when it comes to guns in America emotion is never far away for anybody.

Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

Saturday night "Saturday Night Live" paid tribute to the victims of the Newtown shootings with a rare serious opening by the New York Children's Chorus.

"Silent Night"

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Observations 12.17

Last night President Obama made a speech at a prayer vigil in Newtown, Connecticut. It was a good speech, maybe one of his best, or maybe it was just the moment. Either way it was the best I have ever heard on the subject, again maybe the moment. One thing I didn't realize until today was that he made the entire speech without even once using the word that the speech was primarily about. He never said the word gun ....

"This is our first task, caring for our children. It’s our first job. If we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything right. That’s how, as a society, we will be judged. And by that measure, can we truly say, as a nation, that we’re meeting our obligations? Can we honestly say that we’re doing enough to keep our children, all of them, safe from harm? Can we claim, as a nation, that we’re all together there, letting them know they are loved and teaching them to love in return? Can we say that we’re truly doing enough to give all the children of this country the chance they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and with purpose?

I've been reflecting on this the last few days, and if we’re honest with ourselves, the answer’s no. We’re not doing enough. And we will have to change. Since I've been president, this is the fourth time we have come together to comfort a grieving community torn apart by mass shootings, fourth time we've hugged survivors, the fourth time we've consoled the families of victims.

And in between, there have been an endless series of deadly shootings across the country, almost daily reports of victims, many of them children, in small towns and in big cities all across America, victims whose -- much of the time their only fault was being at the wrong place at the wrong time. We can’t tolerate this anymore.

These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change."

You can read the entire speech here.

Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

A Festivus for the rest of us.

n. An alternative to the crass commercialization of Christmas, typically celebrated on December 23. It involves The Airing of Grievances (telling your family and friends all the ways they have disappointed you during the year) and does not end until the Feats of Strength (pinning the head of the family) are accomplished. A plain, metal pole is used in lieu of a Christmas tree, because decorations (such as tinsel) is distracting from the true meaning of the holiday.

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Sunday Observations 12.16

The past few months I've had some fun with the petitions on the White House website. Who wouldn't have some fun with secession, death star building, imaginary countries? At the moment there is a very serious petition you should take a look at; We Petition The Obama Administration To: Immediately address the issue of gun control through the introduction of legislation in Congress. At the moment it has 113,000 signatures or four times what is needed for an official response from the Obama Administration. It's very short, only five sentences, and you can sign it here.

That's all I'm going to say about guns at the moment. I had a few notes for today but now they all seem relatively unimportant as I look at them. The wingnuts made a big deal of President Obama planning on spending Christmas in Hawaii and thought he should cancel those plans if there is no fiscal deal. Petty as hell because they know damn well, as Joe Scarborough noted, he was born there. Some of us are lucky enough to be born in Hawaii and some of us aren't. I wouldn't mind spending Christmas on Kee Beach with lights in the palm trees and a Corona in my hand but I don't see it happening anytime soon. The wingnuts probably think the President should be spending Christmas in Nairobi.

Meryl Schenker, ZUMA Press

Here is a little something to remind you that even after the past few days there is always something to make you smile about life. Last week I posted a photo of Larry Duncan and Randell Shepherd, the gay bears, getting their marriage license in Seattle. Last Sunday the two were married in Seattle's First Baptist Church. While not religious at all the two said they wanted a church wedding because as Larry said, "Enough people have told me, ‘God hates fags,’ I want someone in a church to say, ‘God loves fags,’ to have that stamp on it." No word on where the happy newlyweds spent their honeymoon.

I did something yesterday I have never done before, went into a Japanese bookstore. If for whatever reason you ever want to feel totally lost in the world I suggest a Japanese bookstore. The most awesome looking books you'll ever see but I have no idea what they said.

Finally Jesuit Father Jose Funes, the head of the Vatican Observatory, assures us the Mayan Apocalypse is not going to happen this week. In L'Osservatore Romano he published an article in which he emphatically states the Mayan calender is 'irrational' which is something I'm sure a Jesuit priest would know something about.

I have to go now, seems hell is calling ....

Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

Fa ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra, Chinese turkey.

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Observations from the Window 12.15

Gun control is that subject I try and stay away from, probably the only issue where you can be seen as too extreme by both sides of the argument, but after twenty children were slaughtered yesterday I really can't do it anymore. Be warned that post is on its way but this isn't it.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg may sometimes be a bit full of himself, imperial is word thrown around in the city, but at times he is the most rational politician in America. Maybe that comes with having a personal fortune large enough to say fuck you to any group he cares to. Honestly he may be the one non-Democrat I would like to see run for president, one I would seriously have to think about voting for.

What follows are Bloomberg's words after yesterday's Connecticut shootings, italics are mine ....

"With all the carnage from gun violence in our country, it’s still almost impossible to believe that a mass shooting in a kindergarten class could happen. It has come to that. Not even kindergarteners learning their A,B,Cs are safe. We heard after Columbine that it was too soon to talk about gun laws. We heard it after Virginia Tech. After Tucson and Aurora and Oak Creek. And now we are hearing it again. For every day we wait, 34 more people are murdered with guns. Today, many of them were five-year olds. President Obama rightly sent his heartfelt condolences to the families in Newtown. But the country needs him to send a bill to Congress to fix this problem. Calling for ‘meaningful action’ is not enough. We need immediate action. We have heard all the rhetoric before. What we have not seen is leadership – not from the White House and not from Congress. That must end today. This is a national tragedy and it demands a national response. My deepest sympathies are with the families of all those affected, and my determination to stop this madness is stronger than ever."

The madness has to end.

update - Sometimes simple is the best, at left is Google's poignant homepage since the Newton shootings.

Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

One of my favs, I was going to save it for Christmas Eve but given what happened today ....

"Imagine"

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Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

"Good night, Santa. Good night, Mrs. Santa's sister."

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Observations from the Window 12.13

Last night was the 121212 Concert for Sandy and it wasn't bad. I'm quite sure my dad enjoyed it much more than I did, he told me so. I grew up listening to that music with my dad and so much of it really is timeless. Clapton, Pink Floyd in everything but name, and the Stones will always be the Stones even if they look like they escaped from a wax museum for the night. One thing I didn't need to see was Roger Daltrey's almost seventy year old bare chest. Really I was never a fan of The Who and that sight didn't change my opinion in the least. My thought is the concert could have used some younger performers and less Kanye West, but that's just me, it raised $30 million in just ticket sales.

But I didn't set out to write a concert review here. As always I have something else on my mind.

While we were watching I had my eye on twitter even though I had told myself I wasn't going to tweet the night away and just retweeted phone numbers and the like. Still I can't stop myself from looking and as the night went on one segment of humanity slowly began to irritate me. I did a good job of keeping my thoughts to myself, until now.

Occupy Sandy and Occupy Sandy New Jersey have done a lot of good since the storm and I don't want to take away from that at all. They have done such a good job that a one point FEMA actually shipped supplies to them to distribute. To their credit they stayed away from ideology last night, just thanked those that had donated to OS, and said where to be today if you really wanted to help. I can't say the same for some members of Occupy or the 'official' Occupy twitter account. I should add I have no idea who runs that account now or how many have access to it.

To me when the recovery costs are in the hundreds of billions of dollars it doesn't much matter where the money comes from. There is no right or wrong way to help, just helping is what matters. Yes people are needed in the neighborhoods to 'hands on' help but that doesn't make those people any better than corporations or celebrities that donate money, supplies, or just their time and name to the cause. All those supplies Occupy handed out were paid for by somebody, they didn't just magically appear in Brooklyn. You could say that Chase donating is all a PR stunt, or as Occupy calls it "disaster capitalism," and you might be right. So be it. Somebody who likes Chase will like them whether or not they give and I doubt their giving will make anybody think better of them. Personally I would take the money from the devil herself if I had to so if they want to donate I have no problem with it. It's less they have to hand out in bonuses this year.

To publicly say that Chelsea Clinton should rip down mildewed drywall if she really wanted to help does absolutely nothing for anybody. It all just smells of the holier than thou sanctimonious attitude I hate about the far right and that's turning into a major problem with politics in this country. Until people accept the fact that we are all in it together, that neither side is totally right about everything, we are just screwed. I don't see that happening any time soon.

I'll finish with a tweet from someone I have since stopped following, "Charity is a bullshit illusion. It has to be said."

No it didn't.

Observations from the Gallery 12.12

Just a quick post because on Sunday I mentioned a Charles Bukowski quote that was popular on my tumblr, "My soul is sadder than all the dead Christmas trees of the world." I thought it suggested people weren't all in a happy holiday mood but it seems a few days can make all the difference. Today they rediscovered a Tolstoy quote I had originally posted months ago ....

"If you want to be happy, be."

At the same time you may have noticed today's date is 12.12.12, Speaker Boehner is doing his best Nero impression, and North Korea has a satellite in orbit. Taken together the three make me wonder if the Mayans may have indeed been right.

And where have you gone NHL?

12/13 update - NBC News reported this morning that the North Korean satellite seems to be "tumbling out of control" and I don't think the were referring to the tumblr blogs. I just wanted to say ... heads up!

Observations 12.11

Tomorrow night at Madison Square Garden is the 121212 Concert benefiting Hurricane Sandy relief through the Robin Hood Relief Fund.

The current list of performers includes the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Kanye West, Chris Martin, Roger Waters, Alicia Keys, Billy Joel, Eric Clapton and Bon Jovi. Also appearing Susan Sarandon, Chris Rock, Kristen Stewart, Quentin Tarantino, Brian Williams, Jessica Chastain, Chelsea Clinton, Jake Gyllenhaal, Seth Meyers, and Jon Stewart. Expect the usual array of 'surprise' guests, maybe a certain Governor from Jersey.

The concert will be broadcast on 34 U.S. TV networks including AMC, Encore, Fuse, HBO, Showtime, Sundance, and VH1. A full list of networks, radio stations, and streaming sites is here. The "Concert for New York City" after the 9-11 attacks was broadcast on just one network, VH1, and raised $32 million.

"12-12-12" The Concert for Sandy Relief

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Observations

by  Kate le Roux

"This Happened."

Photo at left and words tweeted by Dan Savage after he and Terry Miller were officially and legally wed in Seattle, Washington earlier today. I don't think I need to add anything.

Sunday Observations 12.9

I'm going to start with a quick warning. The Eagles won a football game today, the Mayan apocalypse is upon us.

For possibly the first time in my life I have three biographies started. Now I've often had three books started but never three bios, I hope I don't get anything mixed up. I guess that isn't possible with these three books; Ted Kennedy's True Compass, Keith Richards's Life, and Salman Rushdie's Joseph Anton: A Memoir.

Not sure if it's a sign of the times or what but at the moment one of the more popular quotes on my tumblrs is this from Charles Bukowski, "My soul is sadder than all the dead Christmas trees of the world."

I don't want to be totally depressing on a Sunday evening but this week I saw a good article in Forbes about sex trafficking which it says is now a $32 billion a year industry worldwide. I'm not going to get into it, the article isn't long if you want to read it, but I wanted to share this line. It's one of those things that is so obviously true but evidently isn't seen that way in this country. "Legally, they cannot consent to sex with an adult, so the use of the term “child prostitution” in the media is misleading. In any other context, this would be considered statutory rape."

A few days ago I said that there was a lot going on in the art world this week but I have yet to finish that post. One of the major things was the ribbon cutting at the new Louvre-Lens museum which will officially open later this week. The museum will contain over 300 works from the Louvre. The other thing was the Art Basel show in Miami. A funny geek thing happened this morning that relates to the Miami show. I was reading a Le Monde article about it and hit the tweet button which than said it was posted. It hadn't so I tried again with the same result. Turned out something in the french name of the culture section was telling twitter it was a direct message so it wouldn't send it.

Finally Ash's line of the week, "If you are going to call yourself a painter you really need to paint."

Truth.

Observations from the Coffee Shop 12.7

I'm hoping to finish an art post later today but I have a few updates to throw out here. The first is just a link to a list of the 38 Senators who voted against the U.N. disabilities treaty, The List: The 38 Senators Who Voted Against The Disabled. As David Badash wrote with the list, "If there is a Hell, these 38 just earned some frequent flyer miles toward a long-term stay there."

by Meryl Schenker

In some better news yesterday was the first day same sex couples could get a marriage licence in Washington and a lesbian couple who had been together 35 years was the first, getting theirs in Seattle just after midnight. They might not have been the first but this couple, 56 year old Larry Duncan and 48 year old Randy Shepherd, certainly has left the most memorable photo of the day. If these two don't become the new poster guys for gay marriage I don't think anybody should. The first day same sex couples can get a marriage licence in Maine is December 29^th and January 1^st is the first day in Maryland.

Finally I know what I said just yesterday about those end of the year lists but this one is just awesome. From BuzzFeed LGBT comes the 60 Reasons to be Proud in 2012. Number has 14 the best photo and number 31 is the best fact but you're going to have to go look yourself.

For now it's back to waiting for those first infallible papal tweets. I can't wait. Happy Friday.

update - The Supreme Court decided today it would hear cases involving both DOMA and California's Prop 8. The DOMA case wasn't surprising because a federal court had ruled a federal law unconstitutional so SCOTUS has the final say. Prop 8 is the surprising one, what they could ultimately decide is whether or not a state can take away a right once it is given. The problem with that is if they say yes same sex marriage is never totally safe. All very confusing but the cases will probably not be heard until maybe March.

Observations from the Coffee Shop 12.6

It's the end of the year so every place you look is another one of those end of the year lists which I really don't like all that much. I can't say I'm thrilled with the thought of looking at them for another month but this video makes it all worthwhile because I love movie trailers almost as much as movies. I sat and watched it over and over as I tried to figure out what each movie was. He does an awesome job.

This is the third year that he has made the video so if you want to see more just follow the link to The Sleepy Skunk's YouTube channel, "Movies That Come To The Rescue" is a good one.

2012 Movie Trailer Mashup


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Published on Dec 2, 2012 by sleepyskunk
FULL LIST OF MOVIES AVAILABLE HERE: SleepySkunk Tumblr
1. 'Pruit Igoe' - Composed by Philip Glass (Nonesuch Records)
2. 'Tick Tick Boom' - Performed by The Hives (Polydor Records)
3. 'Outro' - Performed by M83 (Naïve Records and Mute Records)

I dedicate this video to my cat Gaston who normally sits by my side when I engage into crazy long editing ventures (he even assisted me on The Amazing Spider-Man in 25 minutes!). Unfortunately, the poor thing had to be treated for colon disease a few weeks ago and was obligated to sit this one out. I hope to edit many more videos with him in years to come. Cheers Gaston :)

Have a safe Holiday Season moviebuffs!
T.S.S.

12/7 update - I didn't realize until later that one of the better movie mashups from last year wasn't by this, emm, sleepy skunk. Rather than embed another complete video I'll just drop the link here. This is probably the best mashup from 2011. The 2011 Portfolio. Hopefully the link works, YouTube just updated yet again and everything is different.

Observations from the Window 12.5

Did you ever wonder why when Bill O'Reilly is talking the words type next to him on a split screen? I never thought about it before but I think the answer came to me last night watching The Last Word. They showed a clip from O'Reilly's show and two reasons hit me. One reason could be that his viewers, and Fox News viewers in general, are so old they can't hear what he is saying. More likely is that those viewers are just so thick they need to see the words just to understand what they are hearing.

Wingnutism reached a new low yesterday when the United Nations disabilities treaty fell five votes short of ratification in the Senate. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, based largely on the Americans with Disabilities Act, was negotiated by the Bush administration and signed by President Obama in 2009. It has been signed by 155 countries and ratified by 126 including Britain, France, Russia and China. Eight Republicans voted for the treaty but a two thirds majority was needed and it fell five votes short. The reason the wingnuts used for voting against it, home schooling. I have this vision of a wingnut fantasy, blue U.N. helicopters flying over America dropping wheelchairs.

John Kerry called the vote one of the saddest in his 28 years in the Senate, "a wake-up call about a broken institution that’s letting down the American people." I repeat, The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is almost a copy of the Americans with Disabilities Act, something that has been law in the United States for twenty two years. These people really are just pathetic and stand for absolutely nothing positive, nothing at all.

After that embarrassing display a petition currently on the White House website looks even better than it did when I first saw it. It says, "Cease paychecks and health benefits to ALL members of Congress and the President until the fiscal cliff is avoided."

Maybe it should say stop paychecks until the Congress of the United States of America starts acting a little more mature than a typical junior high school student council.

Hillary

I know what you are thinking already, it's too early for 2016 talk, and you would be correct. Hillary Clinton will be leaving the State Department soon and she says she isn't going to run for President but honestly why should she say otherwise? If she did run she could wait until just before the primaries began to announce and it would be more a coronation than a campaign. Any presidential campaign would be a combination of the Clinton and Obama machines, two of he greatest political machines the country has ever known. There isn't a thing the Republicans could throw at her that hasn't already been in the past twenty years. If she won there would be children who only ever knew a black or a women president and that boggles my mind.

But it's way too early to even talk about it and the only reason I even mention her running is this video. Last Friday night Hillary spoke at the Saban Forum, a sort of Israeli-American Clinton Initiative, where she was introduced by this video. I love the Clinton's so the video is worth watching for what 'officially' is, a retirement video, and it is good. The thing is if it reminds you of one of those campaign kickoff convention videos you wouldn't be alone.

So much can change in the next couple years but as Tony Blair says in the video, "I just have an instinct that the best is yet to come."


link

Sunday Observations 12.2

I had a busy day and never got around to my Sunday observations but watching the Eagles game I just saw something I had to share. First the Eagles are terrible but are beating the Cowboys at halftime which is reason enough to watch. Any year that they beat the Cowboys isn't a total loss. Still my highlight of the game is going to be this Lenovo Yoga commercial. Not only is it a hot ad for obvious reasons, the jacket, but it has a directors cut. Really, a TV commercial with a directors cut. Soon it will be a full length short on blu-ray.

link

While I'm in geek mode I should also mention iTunes again. For some reason I have been having problems with iTunes for a few months now. It's been slow to load and a total memory whore. Normally I don't update it as fast as I do other things because the updates don't usually concern me but this morning I updated to a totally new version (11) as soon as I got the notice. If you are having any problems with iTunes you should too. It's sleeker and has some new features but more importantly it took care of all the problems I was having.

Day Without Art

Coinciding with today's World AIDS Day was the 24^th Day Without Art to raise AIDS awareness. Robert Mapplethorpe was diagnosed with AIDS in 1986 and died on March 9, 1989 at the age of 42. Less than a year before his death he took this simple but striking self-portrait that is considered one of his best and most influential works. During that last year of his life he also created the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation which has since raised millions of dollars for AIDS research.

"Robert Mapplethorpe shows himself in a 1988 self portrait withered and dying from AIDS. He grasps a cane topped with a small skull. It is one of the photographs in which every part is not fiercely defined by sharp focus. In stark, silvery black and white, the shiny detail of the skull is chillingly juxtaposed with Mapplethorpe’s haunted face – floating out of focus, receding into darkness." John Ingledew, 2005.

self-portrait, Robert Mapplethorpe, 1988
The J. Paul Getty Trust and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Observations 12.1

Today is World AIDS Day. On a trip to New York when I was maybe ten I met a friend of my mom's who I now barely remember but I do remember as possibly the funniest person I have ever met. If somebody would ask me to describe him today what comes to mind is the Nathan Lane character in The Birdcage. My mom didn't tell me until later that he had AIDS because she didn't want my reaction to that fact clouding how I reacted to him. I never met him again and he died from the disease a year or so later. I can't even remember his name.

Since HIV/AIDS* was recognized by the CDC in 1981 over 30 million people have died and currently 35 million are HIV positive of which 3.5 million are children born HIV positive. In the United States 50,000 die every year and 150 are diagnosed every day. In comparison in 2009 10,839 people died in alcohol related traffic accidents.

I know comparing AIDS to drunk driving deaths is totally messed up but if you asked the average American what killed more every year, AIDS or drunk driving, I'd be willing to bet a majority would say drunk driving. This country's priorities always seem to be messed up that way. If we as a nation took half the money we spend on war, weapons, and killing and spent that money on AIDS and Cancer research we could probably go a long way towards wiping out both. Never going to happen.

For what it's worth ....

WORLD AIDS DAY, 2012
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION

On World AIDS Day, more than 30 years after the first cases of this tragic illness were reported, we join the global community once more in standing with the millions of people who live with HIV/AIDS worldwide. We also recommit to preventing the spread of this disease, fighting the stigma associated with infection, and ending this pandemic once and for all.

In 2010, my Administration released the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, our Nation's first comprehensive plan to fight the domestic epidemic. The Strategy aims to reduce new infections, increase access to care, reduce health disparities, and achieve a more coordinated national response to HIV/AIDS here in the United States. To meet these goals, we are advancing HIV/AIDS education; connecting stakeholders throughout the public, private, and non-profit sectors; and investing in promising research that can improve clinical outcomes and reduce the risk of transmission. Moving forward, we must continue to focus on populations with the highest HIV disparities -- including gay men, and African American and Latino communities -- and scale up effective, evidence-based interventions to prevent and treat HIV. We are also implementing the Affordable Care Act, which has expanded access to HIV testing and will ensure that all Americans, including those living with HIV/AIDS, have access to health insurance beginning in 2014.

These actions are bringing us closer to an AIDS-free generation at home and abroad -- a goal that, while ambitious, is within sight. Through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), we are on track to meet the HIV prevention and treatment targets I set last year. We are working with partners at home and abroad to reduce new infections in adults, help people with HIV/AIDS live longer, prevent mother-to-child transmission, and support the global effort to eliminate new infections in children by 2015. And thanks to bipartisan action to lift the entry ban on persons living with HIV, we were proud to welcome leaders from around the world to the 19th International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C.

Creating an AIDS-free generation is a shared responsibility. It requires commitment from partner countries, coupled with support from donors, civil society, people living with HIV, faith-based organizations, the private sector, foundations, and multilateral institutions. We stand at a tipping point in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and working together, we can realize our historic opportunity to bring that fight to an end.

Today, we reflect on the strides we have taken toward overcoming HIV/AIDS, honor those who have made our progress possible, and keep in our thoughts all those who have known the devastating consequences of this illness. The road toward an AIDS-free generation is long -- but as we mark this important observance, let us also remember that if we move forward every day with the same passion, persistence, and drive that has brought us this far, we can reach our goal. We can beat this disease. On World AIDS Day, in memory of those no longer with us and in solidarity with all who carry on the fight, let us pledge to make that vision a reality.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States do hereby proclaim December 1, 2012, as World AIDS Day. I urge the Governors of the States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, officials of the other territories subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and the American people to join me in appropriate activities to remember those who have lost their lives to AIDS and to provide support and comfort to those living with this disease.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand twelve, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.

Barack Obama

*A few links if you want to learn more:
AIDS Healthcare Foundation
AIDS.gov
HIV Law Project
UN AIDS
Wikipedia HIV/AIDS

Observations from the Window 12.1

This is one of those totally strange posts I throw in now and than. The kind I come up with, I should say the kind Ash comes up with when I suddenly have no idea what to write about. She just throws something around like "hey, what are your top played songs on iTunes and what the hell does it mean?" So here you have my ten most played songs from iTunes but I have no clue as to what they mean other than I don't seem to have a fav genre of music. Keep in mind I do wipe out the play numbers now and than so Carly Rae Jepsen is pretty much a fluke that I'm going to blame on the Olympics. Also, I removed any Lady Gaga or Britney tunes from the list because I just didn't want to seem weird.

Call Me Maybe (Manhattan Clique Remix), Carly Rae Jepsen
Miss You Paradise (Shogun Remix), Emma Hewitt
Impossible, Anberlin
Pray Tell, Anberlin
Colours (Armin Van Buuren Remix), Emma Hewitt
Drive By, Train
Hypocritical Kiss, Jack White
A Lot of Things Different, Kenny Chesney
Amerika, Rammstein
That's Life, Frank Sinatra

I thought about adding a top Christmas song list to make it seasonal but than I realized too many of the top tunes were Mariah Carey. I dropped that idea because, like I said, I didn't want to seem strange or anything.

So there you have it. My first, and hopefully last, iTunes top ten list. Plan your holiday parties accordingly.

Observations from the Window 11.27

A cloudy and cold morning in the Village as I went for my morning paper and you could just feel it, the first snow of the year is on its way. You know that feeling if you live anywhere that gets snow, the crisp calm air, the quiet. The city has its own version of the quiet, call it loud quiet. The horns and sirens are just as loud but they sound totally different, somehow distant. My sister tells me there is already a few inches on the ground where she is so it's only a matter of waiting here.

I never watch the Today Show but I have it on this morning for a very good reason. Scarlett Johansson is guest hosting and as I write about the weather she is, you got it, doing the weather forecast. She is guest hosting because she will be doing Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Richard Rogers Theater. I think I may need tickets for that even though I'm not a big fan of the theatre. Maybe Chloe would like to go but than maybe I should be saying I just love the theatre.

While I'm on the subject of entertainment, or girls, Lindsay Lohan's performance in Liz & Dick was evidently so bad it had twitter in an uproar. It got so bad Dan Savage tweeted "The mob on Twitter will have the decency to feel bad when Lindsay Lohan kills herself, right?" Sad but I only bring it up because my sister showed me this R.E.M. video over the weekend and Lohan happens to be in it. It's a rather fitting if disaffected video given R.E.M. no longer exists and Lohan's current reviews. The tune, which features Patti Smith, was released last year but the video just surfaced last week, that according to my new entertainment editor Kayla.

Lohan always did look good in black.

link

Published on Nov 15, 2012 by remhq
Directed by James Franco. From 2011 Warner Bros. Records release

11/29 update - So it seems Lindsay Lohan was arrested for assault last night at a club in Chelsea. Apparently after a disagreement with a woman in another booth she got up and punched her in the face. Troubled girl she may be but I can't help but like her.

Observations 11.26

Originally the Supreme Court was to announce on November 20^th whether or not it would hear cases on California's Prop 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Instead it announced a ten day delay in that decision which could be good or bad, who knows. If the court decides not to rule on the Prop 8 case, much more likely than not ruling on DOMA, the Ninth Circuit ruling will stand, Prop 8 will be viewed as unconstitutional, and California will become the tenth state in which same-sex couples can legally marry.

This ad began airing yesterday during the Sunday morning news shows. Such a voice ....

Dawn of a New Day for Marriage Equality


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Published on Nov 24, 2012 by hrcmedia
Freedom, justice, and human dignity have always guided our journey for a more perfect union. With historic victories for marriage, we've delivered a mandate for full equality. The wind is at our back, but the journey has just begun.

Observations from the Gallery 11.26

I love my Kindle even though I'm using it for something I hadn't really planned on using it for, reading. I have a button attached to Google Chrome that with a click will send any article I can read online to my Kindle, "Send To Kindle for Chrome". With the HD no glare screen it's much better to read on than my laptop and oh so much easier on the eyes than phone reading. Totally worth the investment and worth waiting for the HD models to arrive.

The following paragraph is just a minor geek vent. Somebody recently accused me of setting my tumblrs to private. For the record no I haven't made them private and no it's not something I ever really considered. What would be the sense of having them if I didn't want anybody to see them? Also the links to are right there on this blog's sidebar so I ask again, what would be the sense of making them private? Honestly if this blog got as many hits as my tumblrs I would be a rich girl. But enough about that.

Something else I have found so very interesting is how many people have discovered VPN (virtual private network) software since the whole Petraeus email mess. Suddenly everybody wants to be anonymous and they don't think other people realize that their emails aren't originating in Russia. To be fair I should say that I have been using one program or another for years but it's funny seeing the pizza delivery guy using one. I'm thinking maybe I should just give up art and go into the security business or maybe, even better, art security.

This short geek post is actually a bit of history in the making. This is my first blog post written and posted entirely by Kindle. Technology is a wonderful thing, until it's not.

Sunday Observations 11.25.2

Well I did find something, something I had been saving to write once I found out more about Sandy's hit on Stone Harbor. I never did use it but I do like it and finding a home for orphan paragraphs was the whole idea behind Sunday Observations. I don't remember where it was from or who wrote it but it's just a perfect description of why people feel how they do about the Jersey shore, the shore.

"There are parts of the Jersey Shore that, in high summer, are almost indistinguishable from California or Florida or some other sun-washed paradise. The difference here is that summer dies each year. It is briefer, and thus more precious, and Labor Day is the saddest day of all. That’s why we grasp the Shore so hard, why we hang on to it so fiercely. How much can we squeeze from this wave, from this romance, from this fishing trip, from this bar band, from this sun? How much more before it all chills and fades and we have to wait nine more months to try again?"

Before anyone texts me I know I could just google the first line and find out where it came from but that would take away from it no? Okay it came from a New York Times op-ed piece by Kevin Coyne.

One more thing while I'm thinking about The New York Times. What is up with the Styles section? Its been way too boring for months now. After three years maybe it's time Stuart Emmrich went back to the Travel section and left Styles to somebody new, preferably a woman after two decades under men.

Sunday Observations 11.25

A weekend with the family seems to go so fast but here we are, Sunday, soon time to head back to the Village. I think I will be waiting until morning, traffic be damned, because I have some photo work I can do here and quite honestly I don't feel like going back yet. Usually I have some notes left over to post Sunday morning but I was a bit lax this week so I'm going to have to wing it. Here we go.

In an awesome gesture Penn State put the year 2012 on the wall of Beaver Stadium along with the years of all the championships and undefeated seasons. It is meant to honor a team that stuck together through everything that happened in the last year but more importantly it honors the thirty one seniors who held the team together. Penn State won its final game against Wisconsin and finished the year 8-4, pretty damn awesome considering many national writers didn't see them win a single game, indeed hoped they wouldn't.

Bill O'Brien became a legend at state in a single year. Not only did he coach the team to its 8-4 record he did it with a style of football some fans have only dreamed of for years. O'Brien's eight wins are the most ever by any first year head coach of the Penn State football team. An impressive total even though there have only been 15 head coaches in the team's 125 year history. Now rumors swirl that some NFL or NCAA team will try and buy him out of his contract after one year so I guess we'll all find out something about Bill O'Brien in the coming months.

An interesting fact about Wisconsin. The Badgers will face Nebraska in the Big Ten championship game next week even though the finished third in their division. They are just lucky enough to be in the same division as Penn State and an undefeated Ohio State both of which are ineligible for the championship or any bowl games. As for bowl games, I don't care who is playing, none of them will be as good or played as hard as yesterday's come from behind (both teams) over-time win by Penn State.

In totally diff type of football the Penn State women's soccer team will be heading to the College Cup, the final four of NCAA soccer, where they will play Florida State next Friday on ESPNU. Even though PSU has won fifteen consecutive Big Ten titles it will be their first trip to the final four since 2005. Congrats!

Seems Sunday Observations became a sports blog this week. That's what happens when I hang around my dad too much.

Observations from the Road 11.22

It officially begins, the holiday season. It begins with warm pastries, coffee, and a newspaper with enough Black Friday ads to kill a tree. Somewhere in this house my dad surely has a case of win hid but I haven't begun to seriously look for it yet. He started hiding it years ago when he bought a case of wine to last the entire month and I drank most of it over Thanksgiving weekend. My wingnut uncles will do that to me and I can call them wingnuts in writing because I've been known to call them wingnuts to their face. They laugh it off though because they know Katie never has been all there. Little do they know, Katie is just fine but they aren't all there. This is how it goes at our Thanksgiving dinner and I love every wine soaked minute of it.

Somewhere Christmas music is playing now. Probably that overly sentimental sister of mine preparing herself for an early round of shopping tomorrow morning. I know its not my brother because it isn't noon yet so he wont be awake. But I lie, he was up as early as me and made the coffee. Much better coffee than I could have made I might add.

It's a gorgeous if cold morning in Pennsylvania. The turkey seems to be suitably thawed and it looks like a nice if somewhat unlucky bird, it didn't win the White House turkey pardon lottery. Wine, cook, dinner, football, wine, argue, stomp out to the porch for a cigarette, football. I think that covers it but did I mention wine?

Strange but as much as I sometimes dislike this time of year it's also the time of year I'm the least cynical. I really don't understand why that is so I guess it just gets filed in the 'I'm just an enigma' category. So what am I thankful for, it always comes down to my family, really that's all I need and I would't change a thing about any of them. Hell I even enjoy arguing with the crazy wingnut branch of the family but maybe that's just because of the wine. I know they don't celebrate our Thanksgiving in the middle east but the Gaza ceasefire seems to be holding for now. That's something to be thankful for too.

Honestly I don't understand why everybody doesn't celebrate our Thanksgiving Day. I mean seriously, who wouldn't want to remember a group of religious zealots landing in a new land, celebrating with the native population, enjoying their gifts of food, all the while wondering how they could be rid of them in the spring. It's just so American. Sarcasm! Just prepping for my uncles.

Happy Thanksgiving people

Observations 11.20

As I have said before I try and keep my opinions to myself when talking about the Palestinian situation, it's just a no win thing no matter what I think or say. Jews having been killing Muslims who have been killing Christians who have been killing Jews for two thousand years. Sadly I don't think that is ever going to completely change. It seems more wars have been fought over supposedly peaceful religions than any other reason.

It's a little bizarre watching a war unfold on Twitter. One minute you can read as the Alqassam Brigade tweets every time it fires a rocket at Israel and a moment later the IDF announcing something called the 'Iron Dome' shot the same rocket down. Than there is a man who tweets under the name "News of the Middle East" from Oklahoma of all places. That is one person who does piss me off because he is totally pro-Israel and his av is a photo of President Obama with the Israeli flag behind him. Talk about not so subtle propaganda, Goebbels himself couldn't have come up with something better than that.

This is one of those videos I stumble onto while randomly chasing links. I'm not completely sure what the 'Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)' movement is but it doesn't really matter for my purposes here. The video was published in September, long before the current round of fighting began, and watching it I can't help but wonder how the turmoil is effecting these students. What they are doing, how they are coping, if they are even alive today.

Gaza, Palestine Youth Send Message to BDS Activists


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Published on Sep 20, 2012 by Shahd Abusalama
Young Palestinian activists in the Gaza Strip ask their peers in the United Kingdom and around the world to build the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and attend the UK Student Palestine Conference at the University of Manchester on Sunday, September 23.

Observations from the Gallery 11.20

Reuters: GAZA TRUCE WILL BE DECLARED AT 1900 GMT AND GO INTO EFFECT AT 2200 GMT - HAMAS OFFICIAL SAYS

A mobile news flash, the funny thing with this is that before I could even get it posted and IDF spokesman said that truce talks were ongoing and they were still hopeful. That as the Israeli air force intensified the bombardment of Gaza.

We shall see but I wont hold my breath.

Observations 11.18

I really try not to take one side or the other in the whole Palestine, Israel, Jewish, Muslim historical mess. You really can't win no matter what you say and anybody that knows me can figure out how I feel. Last night an Israeli jet bombed a building housing international journalists and an Israeli missile killed 11 civilians bringing the current death toll in Gaza to over seventy. Another 660 have been injured including well over 200 children. As far as I can tell four Israelis have been killed so far by the dreaded Hamas rocket barrage.

You can call them terrorists, victims, innocents, or anything in between but it doesn't matter in the end. Dead is dead. These are the names of the Palestinian dead as of Sunday morning with their age where it was available. Also children under ten years old are italicized. As to what it means, make and up your own mind.

Abdula Muzanar, Amina Muzana, Suhaila Dalou, Raneen Al Dalou (22), Son of Suheil Hammad, Suheil Hammad (45), Hussam Abu Shaweesh (37), Abdallah Al-Mzannar, Tahani Al-Dalou (46), Samah Al-Dalou (25), Sulifa Al-Dalou (50), Nawal Abdelaal (52), Ahmad Essam Al-Nahhal (25), Tasneem Zuheir Al-Nahhal (13), Eyad Abu Khusa (18 months), Muhamed Abu Nuqira, Tamer Salamah Abu Sufyan (3), Gumana Salamah Abu Sufyan (1), Omar Mohammad Hmeid (26), Tamer
Al-Hemry, Samaher Qudieh (33), Mohammad Al-Louji, Awad Hamdi
An-Nahhal, Mokhlis Adwan, Hasan Isaed, Abdulrahman Al-Masri, Ahmad Al-Ja’bary (52), Marwan Abu Al-Qumsan (52), Osama Abdel Jawad, Ashraf Darwish, Ali Al-Mana’ma, Mohammad Al-Hamss (30), Ahmad Abu Musameh, Ayman Saleem, Khalid Khalil al-Shayer (28), Walid Abadleh (4), Hasan Salim al-Hulei (27), Ziad Farhan Abu Jalal (23), Majd Abu Jalal (33), Abu Jalal (43), Mahmoud Sa’ad-Allah (3), Tahrir Suleiman (22), Ismail Qandil (24), Fares al-Bassiouni (5), Oday Jamal Nasser (16), Tareq Jamal Naser (14), Haneen Tafesh (10 months), Walid al-Abadleh (18 months), Khaled Abu An-Nasr, Rami Hamamd, Hisham Mohammad Al-Ghalban, Wael Haidar Al-Ghalban, Habes Masbah (30), Mahmoud Abu Sawaween (65), Omar Jihad al-Mash-Harawi (11), Heba Adel
al-Mash-Harawi (18 and pregnant with twins), Essam Mahmoud Abu
al-Ma’za (19), Mohammad Hani Kaseeh (18), Ranaan Yousef Arafat (3), Mohammad Al-Hamss (30), Marwan Abu Al-Qumsan (52),
and Ahmad Al-Ja’bary (52).

11:00PM update - I'm not going to keep doing this but after an early Monday morning (Gaza time) airstrike leveled two homes I thought I would continue the list till the end of my day. The new names include five more children: Hussein Nasr (7), Jalal Naser (39), Ahmad Abu Amra, Samy Al-Ghfeir (22), Jamal Al-Dalou, Ibrahim Mohammed Jamal 
Al-Dalou (1), Yousef Mohammed Jamal Al-Dalou (10), Jamal Mohammed Jamal Al-Dalou (7), Mohammed Jamal Al-Dalou, Mohammed Bakr Al-Of (24), Mohammed Salama Jundeya, Hussein Jalal Nasser (8), Nabeel Ahmad Abu Amrra, Nawal Abed al-Ali, Saadiyya al-Theib,
and Atiyyeh Mubarak (54).

Sunday Observations 11.18

Thanksgiving is Thursday so I suppose it is officially the holiday season now. It's cold enough in the Village and I went ice skating last night but something still seems to be missing. Oh yes, the NHL is still pretending to be a league on the level of the NFL and there is still no major league hockey. Some Philadelphia Flyers players are going to play some of the hated Rangers in Atlantic City Saturday night to raise money for Sandy victims and my brother has tickets. This now makes my Thanksgiving dinner goal talking him into taking his loving older sister to the game instead of his girlfriend, something that could be interesting with her sitting there. We shall see, I'll just have to keep their wine glasses full.

Another sign of the season is that I have turned on my iTunes playlist of 500 Christmas tunes. Yeah I know, so not me and I sometimes really don't like the season at all. It's just that same old love/hate thing I have going with Christmas.

There was another bit of election news, this time from Oregon. Democrat Tina Kotek was elected state House Speaker by the state's Democrats on Thursday. She will be the first open lesbian to lead a state legislature. Openly gay people will lead the legislatures of five states now, up from two before the election.

Not much news on the secessionist front but there is this very important petition on the White House website now that I will post below. It has been there for a couple days now and the White House doesn't seem in any rush to remove it. Must be something about the Hostess CEO raising his yearly salary to $2.25 million than filing for bankruptcy and putting 18,000 out of work.

WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:
Nationalize the Twinkie industry
"We the undersigned, hereby request Barack Obama to immediately Nationalize the Twinkie industry and prevent our nation from losing her sweet creamy center."
Created: Nov 16, 2012
SIGNATURES NEEDED BY DECEMBER 16, 2012
TO REACH GOAL OF 25,000: 22,125

I would scream "save the Twinkie" to finish but to be quite honest I hate the damn things. It would make a good sign for the Walmart Black Friday strikes though so I better get that copyrighted quick.

Observations 11.17

I don't know if I have ever done a post that contained just a single quote before but given the state of the world yet again it seemed perfect dream for a gorgeous sunny morning.

"I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, 'Mother, what was war?'"
 Eve Merriam (1916-1992)

Observations from the Window 11.16

Age can be a tricky thing in politics. I remember when I first saw Willard's motto "real change" and thinking sure vote for the old rich white guy for real change. Yesterday I had the exact opposite feeling when Luke Russert was rude enough to ask Nancy Pelosi if not stepping aside as Democratic leader in the house was keeping the party from grooming new leaders. Pelosi, who is 72, said she found the question offensive and as much as I like Debbie Wassermann Schultz I would agree, what has age got to do with the job? Russert, who I also like, quieted down like a spanked puppy.

Now I give you Arizona Senator John McCain who at the age of 76 seems to have just lost it completely. First McCain trashed UN Ambassador Susan Rice over what she had said at the start of the Benghazi mess even though Rice was just passing on what the CIA had told her. Evidently CIA Director Petraeus was too busy screwing his biographer that day to appear himself. McCain's outburst prompted this from an obviously pissed off President Obama; "If Senator McCain and Senator Graham and others want to go after someone they should go after me. When they go after the U.N. ambassador apparently because they think she's an easy target, then they've got a problem with me."

But it got even better yesterday when McCain held a press conference demanding more information on what happened in Benghazi. The thing is McCain gave his presser at the very same time the Senate Homeland Security committee was being given a classified briefing on that very subject. When questioned about it by a CNN reporter later in the day McCain went into a meltdown worthy of Fox News on election night. From the CNN article ....

"'I have no comment about my schedule and I'm not going to comment on how I spend my time to the media," McCain said. Asked why he wouldn't comment, McCain grew agitated: "Because I have the right as a senator to have no comment and who the hell are you to tell me I can or not?" When CNN noted that McCain had missed a key meeting on a subject the senator has been intensely upset about, McCain said, "I'm upset that you keep badgering me.'”

Where will McCain go next? Maybe, as The Daily Kos noted, he will demand a hearing into which hearings he should have attended while demanding more hearings.

Observations on Amerika 11.13

Not long after President Obama's reelection the spirit of Jefferson Davis infected some people and they have filed petitions to secede from the union on the White House website. Now you can argue the merits of just letting Texas secede and be done with them but I have this fear of it becoming a narco-terrorist haven. A small country filled with religious zealots, a wacko leader in Rick Perry, and flooded with guns. What could possibly go wrong? Maybe we should just call it Texistan.

But this is the United States of America and if we can't have fun with secession who can? This is an official petition filed yesterday with the White House. I think it is courtesy of our friends at The Daily Kos but I'm not sure, maybe just its rogue editor David Waldman. It only has 25 signatures so far so please do your part to help this fledgling country.

WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:
Peacefully grant the State of Herp-a-Derp to withdraw from the United States of America & create its own NEW government
As the founding fathers of the United States of America made clear in the Declaration of Independence in 1776:

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one neighbor to secretly let his dog crap on the lawn of another, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation." Therefore, herp-a-derp-derp, but please keep sending my Social Security check. I earned that, yo.

Created: Nov 12, 2012
SIGNATURES NEEDED BY DECEMBER 12, 2012
TO REACH GOAL OF 25,000: 24,975

11/14 update - Due to the seriousness of the secessionist cause I wanted to update this with some links. The first is a self-proclaimed epic rant by David Badash at The New Civil Rights Movement. Read his article and you will learn that wingnuts in 42 of the 50 states have started petitions to secede, "The Only States That Don’t Want To Secede Are The Ones With Gay Marriage."

On The Huffington Post I found something that's too funny. It seems somebody in Texas started a petition to have the city of Austin secede from Texas and remain part of the union. So far that petition has over 4,000 votes. But also in this article you will see that the Hardin County Republican Party Treasurer, Peter Morrison, called Obama backers maggots. That should give you a pretty good idea what kind of people these are.

From The New Republic comes the best of all, "Go Ahead and Secede, Texas. I Dare You," and the one you need to read if you read any of them. If you do read it you have to read it all from beginning to end. It gets a bit serious in the middle and you'll start to think that maybe Texas would be better off but the finish is totally awesome. I don't want to ruin it but I will finish with the final line from that column ....

"Don’t mess with us, Texas. You just might get what you want."

11/16 update - Sorry for this bit of sad news but the petition for the State of Herp-a-Derp to secede from the union was removed from the White House website because it violates the site's terms of service and is in fact fictional. Really? I never would have guessed. At this writing petitions to deport anybody who signs a petition to secede remain on the site. Probably just wishful thinking on everybody's part.

Observations on the 2012 Election 11.12

Gloat: to exhibit a conspicuous sense of self-satisfaction, often at an adversary's misfortune ....

I started to gloat but as we know I never finished, than I was reading an article about the movie Lincoln and saw a quote from Daniel Day-Lewis that changed my mind about gloating. "There’s a tendency now to deconstruct and analyze everything and I think that’s a self-defeating part of the enterprise." Although it was about his acting style, and not politics, I decided to trash what I had started to just sit back and enjoy the moment. Instead of gloating I thought I'd just share some results.

President Obama was elected with 51% of the popular vote making him the first Democratic President to win two Presidential elections with over 50% of the vote since FDR. I have been reminded that Bill Clinton is the only other Democrat who has even won two elections since FDR, it still sounds good. Obama also won the electoral vote by a wide margin (332-206) so the wingnuts have no possible argument on the results. By the way, have you noticed that a Democrat has won four of the last six presidential elections?

Until now a marriage equality referendum had never passed by a popular vote but this year it did in three states (Maine, Maryland, and Washington) and in Minnesota a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage was defeated.

Some firsts; Tammy Baldwin will be the first openly gay person to serve in the Senate, Mazie Hirono the first Asian American woman to serve in the Senate, Iraq War veteran Tammy Duckworth the first disabled woman to serve in the house, Tulsi Gabbard the first Hindu American to serve in Congress, and Kyrsten Sinema the first openly bisexual woman to serve in the House. As I have mentioned before there will be a record twenty women Senators in the next Congress, only four will be Republicans.

In another first the state of New Hampshire's entire Congressional delegation (2 Senators and 3 Representatives) is made up of women and as a bonus the state elected Maggie Hassan as its Governor. Also in New Hampshire Stacie Laughton was elected to the State House, the highest office ever held by an out transgender person.

In something not totally related to the election MSNBC beat Fox News in the ratings game each of the three nights following the election. Who knows the reason, maybe the Fox News meldown on election night or a Fox anchor calling Rachel Maddow "an angry young man" that same night. As with the election results and the failure of every member of the GOP's rape caucus results sometimes speak louder than words.

I never even got to Karl Christian Rove and his millions of lost dollars.

Finally all too sweet quote from Speaker of the House John Boehner. When asked if, given the election's result, his goal was still the repeal of President Obama's healthcare reforms he answered simply;
"Obamacare is the law of the land."

No, I have no possible reason to gloat.