You already knew al l this:
The New York Times > Automobiles > Driving: Your Car: Politics on Wheels: "Nascar has become a covert ethnic-pride celebration for red-state whites of Northern European descent.' "

washingtonpost.com: Media Notes Extra: "'In 1999, then Gov. George W. Bush signed a Texas law permitting hospitals to cease artificial life support when doctors decide reasonable hope is gone, even if the patient's family objects. Now, two months into his second term, his major domestic initiative to privatize Social Security is doomed, his budget dead on arrival and his favorability ratings down to 45 percent approval, his low point. His brother, Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, has campaigned for years on the Schiavo holy crusade, and has even hired a prominent religious right-wing leader as the lawyer to represent the state in the case. The agonized parents in their legal battle have made themselves financial dependencies on two conservative groups, one antiabortion, the other with a stated mission to 'confront and challenge the radical legal agenda advocating homosexual behavior.' (The Schindler-Schiavo Foundation is under investigation by the state of Florida for operating illegally.)' "

I have been waiting, and thinking and pondering, waitiung to make sense of the proximate CAUSE of Terri Schaivo's heart attack which plunged her into this vegetative state: bulemia. Here is a heartfelt analysis that gets right to the guts of the situation. Bulimia is often about control, an effort to excape controlling parents:

It is reported that this "simple girl with ordinary dreams" lost 100 pounds shortly after her high school graduation. It is further reported that she did this by means of bulemic vomiting (estimate: how many times would a girl have to vomit to lose 100 pounds? Where were her loving parents then? Was treatment attempted?). Those who work with eating-disordered patients are not unfamiliar with family dynamics of control. What is unusual about the Terri Schiavo case, among that of other bulemics, is that the patient's parents are being assisted in their control war by the United States Congress, the President of the United States, the Governor of Florida, the Religious Right, talk radio, the media, praying crowds outside Schavio's hospice, and just about everyone but the cavalry and the Marines. As for poor Terri, she no longer controls anything, and her tragic situation is traced to the bulemia. So now we have her father, denying both his daughter's self-starving history and its terrible outcome (and you can just bet he would also deny the family dynamics), while her mother cries "Please help my little girl! She is starving to death!" and the nation weeps for the poor parents. It seems that the whole "Terri Schiavo story" has ironies and convolutions worthy of Shakespeare, but I doubt they will ever really be a part of the inevitable coming made-for-TV movie. We would rather believe pretty fictions than search for ugly truths.




washingtonpost.com Talk #2995.1

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: The Era of Exploitation: "The Era of Exploitation
By BOB HERBERT "

The New York Times > Real Estate > What Happens If It Bursts?: "What Happens If It Bursts?"

RIIIIIIP---slaaaaash, ugggggh-
the sound of ripping american focus away from terri schaivo and changing the subject. for some time now i have been observing, suspecting, hallucinating about a/ the real estate bubble syndrome-
signs: ordinary people from the mid-west flying to Miami for the one day sale on not yet built condominiums which supppsedly rise in price by the hour.

"In Naples, Fla., some houses have been bought twice in a single day, an early-21st-century version of day trading. Buying stocks on margin has morphed into buying homes with no money down. The over-the-top parties of Internet start-ups have been replaced by flashy gatherings where developers pitch condos to eager buyers."

Remember, it was when we started to get stock tips from the janitors and read about those day-trader home -rooms that we all should have suspected something was about to blow in the stock market. Now, just as then, there are all sorts of counter stories about why the rise in hose prices actually represents real value this time. Believe it if you want to.

a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/25/business/25boom.html?hp&ex=1111813200&en=a7317cf9a6c619c6&ei=5094&partner=homepage">The New York Times > Business > Trading Places: Real Estate Instead of Dot-Coms: "eal estate-crazed Americans have started behaving in ways that eerily recall the stock market obsession of the late 1990's."

Molly Ivins:
AlterNet: Pull the Plug on Pandering: "while he was governor of Texas, George W. Bush signed the Advanced Directives Act in 1999, which gives hospitals the right to remove life support in cases where there is no possibility of revival, when the family cannot pay, no matter what the family's wishes are in the matter. In Texas, you can only live in a persistent vegetative state if you are accepted in one of the few institutions that provide such care or if your family is both willing and able to take care of you. And if Bush is so concerned about the right to life, why didn't he give death-row inmate Carla Faye Tucker more than 10 minutes consideration and some cheap mockery?
The very Republicans who pushed for this arrogant, interfering bill, which if used across the board would take away everyone's right to make their own decisions in these awful cases, are the same people who voted to cut Medicaid, which pays for the care of people like Terry Schiavo across the country.
That the main player in this fiasco is Majority Leader Tom DeLay � who is in the midst of yet another scandal himself � is enough to make anyone throw up. This is a man whose sense of morality is so deformed that upon being chastised three times by the House Ethics Committee, his response was to change the rules and stack the committee.
What a despicable display of pure political pandering. What an insult to everyone who has faced this decision without ever considering asking 535 strangers in Washington, D.C., what to do."

well Bo Gritz and Randall Terry threaten to break out the poison kook aid if Schaivo's feeding tube is not re-inserted. well, not yet, but its only a matter of time.
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: DeLay, Deny and Demagogue: "As one disgusted Times reader suggested in an e-mail: 'Americans ought to send Bill Frist their requests: 'Dear Dr. Frist: Please watch the enclosed video and tell us if that mole on my mother's cheek is cancer. Does she need surgery?'' "
"Or even better, Dear Dr. Frist, could you look at this video? I have a boil on my ass."

Masculinity againA: 99% of these school shooters are male.

All of these explanations for what has occurred have sounded to me like blind groping for an explanation. We are desperate to place a label on the perpetrators who will distance them from us. We want to know what causes this type of behavior. It would feel so comfortable and easy to blame this one on Hitler, the great demon of the late 20th century, or the Internet, the rising monster of the 21st.

The phenomenon of school shootings in the United States is beginning to read like a series of sick Mad Libs. The scripts are nearly identical with shy, victimized loners seizing power over their persecutors through gun violence. Fill in the blank. The perpetrator was a/an (a) goth, (b) overweight student, (c) neo-Nazi. Pick your letter and describe your multiple murder.The Exponent - columns

The New York Times > Washington > Judicial Appointments: Casting Angry Eye on Courts, Conservatives Prime for Bench-Clearing Brawl in Congress: "'There is no question that Bill Frist is sort of setting a new standard for overreaching,' said Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, referring to the Senate majority leader. 'I think there is that whole attitude of the arrogance of power, and that is what is driving this.'"

for all those of you interested in a gendered reading of "our situation" very very fascinating.
Daily Kos :: Male Fantasies or Fascism and the Body--UPDATED: "Male Fantasies or Fascism and the Body--UPDATED"

for all those of you interested in a gendered reading of "our situation" very very fascinating.
Daily Kos :: Male Fantasies or Fascism and the Body--UPDATED: "Male Fantasies or Fascism and the Body--UPDATED"

From the onion via Dailykos, but too funny to leave out and too true to be funny.
WASHINGTON, DC — Days after unveiling new power-plant pollution regulations that rely on an industry-favored market-trading approach to cutting mercury emissions, EPA Acting Administrator Stephen Johnson announced that the agency will remove the "E" and "P" from its name. "We're not really 'environmental' anymore, and we certainly aren't 'protecting' anything," Johnson said. "'The Agency' is a name that reflects our current agenda and encapsulates our new function as a government-funded body devoted to handling documents, scheduling meetings, and fielding phone calls." The change comes on the heels of the Department of Health and Human Services' January decision to shorten its name to the Department of Services.


Daily Kos: "EPA To Drop 'E,' 'P' From Name"

Well, evMore on the DeLay and the new culture of the rpotection Racket, Soapy Smith would be proud. This is from David Brooks who sometimes gets it right on:
Master of Sleaze.The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Masters of Sleaze: "Back in 1995, when Republicans took over Congress, a new cadre of daring and original thinkers arose. These bold innovators had a key insight: that you no longer had to choose between being an activist and a lobbyist. You could be both. You could harness the power of K Street to promote the goals of Goldwater, Reagan and Gingrich. And best of all, you could get rich while doing it!
Before long, ringleader Grover Norquist and his buddies were signing lobbying deals with the Seychelles and the Northern Mariana Islands and talking up their interests at weekly conservative strategy sessions - what could be more vital to the future of freedom than the commercial interests of these two fine locales?
Before long, folks like Norquist and Abramoff were talking up the virtues of international sons of liberty like Angola's Jonas Savimbi and Congo's dictator Mobutu Sese Seko - all while receiving compensation from these upstanding gentlemen, according to The Legal Times. Only a reactionary could have been so discomfited by Savimbi's little cannibalism problem as to think this was not a daring contribution to the cause of Reaganism."

Why the big whoop te doo about Terri Shcaivo, the poor woman stuck i a vegetative state for fifteen years, Now the focus of seemingly endless grandstanding by the Republican Right backed up by meanigless and ignorant blather on talk radio ? I think Daily Kos hits the nail on the head, this time: its all cover for "the hammer" looking for distractions from the focus on his K-street project, the washington version of the good old protection racket.
Daily Kos: "And for Representative Tom DeLay, the House majority leader facing inquiries into fund-raising improprieties in Texas and potential violations of House travel rules in Washington, taking a prominent role in rallying conservatives to the Schiavo cause also provided a sudden distraction from his troubles [ A-HA!!]. "

What's Really Going On:

Tom Delay's "K Street Project," attempts to ensure that Democrats will not be hired by lobbyists and law firms, which will kick in maximum campaign contributions or else let their clients suffer the consequences.

washingtonpost.com: Media Notes Extra: "The Republican majority is thus financially supported through strong-arm tactics and quid pro quos, and pursues policies that always serve the demands of special interests -- from the pharmaceutical companies on Medicare, to credit card firms on bankruptcy, to oil, gas and coal companies on energy.'"

another book I wish I had written 

While Americans have to wait a few more months for the release of the second guidebook, “Phaic Tan: Sunstroke on a Shoestring,” Australian readers are already raving about it. Tom Gleisner, co-author of these books, answered some questions, giving us an insider look at what type of travelers these writers are, really..

InsideOut Travel�Tom Gleisner, Real Author of Fake Molvania Guidebook

the book I wish I had written  

Visit Molvania! 

Recent killings in Wisconsin at cultish Living Church of God
The New York Times > National > After Shootings in Wisconsin, a Community Asks 'Why?': "The Living Church of God was founded in the mid-1990's by Roderick C. Meredith after he was kicked out of one of the many groups that splintered from the Worldwide Church of God upon the death of its leader, Herbert W. Armstrong. It claims 7,000 members in 288 congregations. Many of them, like the one here, meet in hotels or other public spaces with itinerant pastors.
The Living Church holds that people from Northwest Europe are descendants of the Bible's 10 lost tribes of Israel, 'possessors of the birthright promises and accompanying blessings' of Abraham's descendants, according to a statement of beliefs from its Web site. It observes the Sabbath on Saturday and counsels members to remain apart from the secular world by not participating in juries, politics or the military.
The church's view of history, which asserts that humankind is moving inexorably toward the 'end times,' when the world will go through a series of cataclysms before the second coming of Christ, is not uncommon among evangelicals. While most evangelicals eschew specific predictions about 'end times,' however, Dr. Meredith preached in a recent sermon broadcast internationally that the apocalypse was close, warning members to pay off credit-card debt and hoard savings in preparation for the United States' coming financial collapse."

Center for studies on new religions is another good web site on wierd religious movemenets.
CESNUR: Schism in the Global Church of God, Birth of The Living Church of God

Religious Movements: A lot of strange relisious movements have been in the news lateley, often connected with violence. This is a good look-up resource for anyone wanting to follow these developments. This week, the Living Church of God, which apparantly inspired the tragic killing of 7 in Wisconsin.:

Welcome to the Religious Movements Homepage Project!
On this extensive Web site you will find detailed profiles of more than two hundred different religious groups and movements. Some of them may be very familiar to you, others not. In addition, there are other valuable resources, including information on "cult" controversies, essays by respected scholars, and teaching resources on which interested visitors are invited to draw.

Begun nearly a decade ago in conjunction with a course on New Religious Movements that Prof. Jeffrey K. Hadden had taught at the University of Virginia for more than twenty years, the Religious Movements Homepage Project has grown into an Internet resource for teaching and scholarship that is widely acknowledged as among the finest in the world.



Worldwide Church of God

Raven's Tails and Polar Bears :
I was lucky enough to be able to attend this talk by Tlingit weaver Teri Rofkar of the Tlingit Snail house in Sitka who explained and demonstrated traditional Raven's Tail weaving using modern motifs - including polar bears - on a robe commissioned for the museum's Rose Berry Alaska Art Gallery by Polar bear enthusiast Grace Schaible.
Teri explained that the Ravenstail weaving technique is older than the Chilkoot blankets which feature the complex and styalized clan iconography. Ravensway blankets were not figural, and relate more closely to the abstract symbology of woven baskets, the art of women. below are some more connections to additional weavers.

this is a page on ravenstail wesving and cheryl samuel who travelled around the world to look at and analyze the remaining 10 or 11 blankets left in museums:
\ Ravenstail and Chilkat Weaving

This is what happened when i googled on ravenstail:
SpruceRoots Magazine

Tagish Elvis 

Tlingit Elvis!
JuneauEmpire.com: Local: Tlingit mixes Elvis, Native culture 03/13/05

As If..... the NYT editorial addresses the faulty logic and cost-shifting underlying efforts to simply "reduce medicaid spending." but solving the problem would require real discussions about health care needs and a real plan for universal health care insurance. As if the Republicans would ever really address real needs.
The New York Times > Opinion > Medicaid in the Cross Hairs: "It is long past time for a serious national discussion about how best to handle an aging society's needs for long-term care for victims of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other ailments that require constant medical or custodial care beyond what the immediate family can provide. "

Frank Rich on censorship, but more in my line, he invokes the west ,at least as portrayed in Deadwood on HBO, as the ur-text of cultural freedom:
The New York Times > Arts > Frank Rich: The Greatest Dirty Joke Ever Told: "'Deadwood' is the back story of a joke like 'The Aristocrats' and of everything else that is joyously vulgar in American culture and that our new Puritans want to stamp out. It's the ur-text of Vegas and hip-hop and pulp fiction. It captures with Boschian relish what freedom, by turns cruel and comic and exhilarating, looked and sounded like at full throttle in frontier America before anyone got around to building churches or a government."

Daily Kos :: Fort Huachuca: From Geronimo to Intelligence, Inc.: "Fort Huachuca: From Geronimo to Intelligence, Inc.
by SusanHu
Mon Mar 7th, 2005 at 19:38:00 PST

In forced exile in Florida, Alabama and finally Oklahoma, Geronimo pleaded 'for his Apaches' return to Arizona.' One day he told General Nelson Miles, who had hunted Geronimo and his 24 warriors with 10,000 soldiers, 'civilian irregulars,' and Apache scouts without success until Geronimo left his fortress:
'the acorns and the pinon nuts, the quail and the wild turkey, the giant cactus and the palo verdes - they all miss me. I miss them too. I want to go back to them.'
Miles replied, 'A very beautiful thought, Geronimo. But the men and women who live in Arizona, they do not miss you, ... [they] sleep now [with] no fear that Geronimo will come and kill them.'
'Hardened troopers from Fort Huachuca' -- a fort in the middle of Apacheria, now Arizona -- 'tracked down the defiant Geronimo in 1886, and with his surrender brought the Apache campaigns to a close.'
Today, Fort Huachuca is a 'military base with a long history of covert military action [that] housed the training of many ... interrogators who worked in the prisons of Cuba's Guantanamo Bay and Iraq's now infamous Abu Ghraib prison.' "

Daily Kos :: Fort Huachuca: From Geronimo to Intelligence, Inc.: "One estimate in Mother Jones magazine, compiled from interviews with military experts, suggests that as much 50 percent of the $40 billion given annually to the 15 intelligence agencies in the United States is now spent on private contractors."

privatization of security at fort huachuca

Daily Kos :: Fort Huachuca: From Geronimo to Intelligence, Inc.: "One estimate in Mother Jones magazine, compiled from interviews with military experts, suggests that as much 50 percent of the $40 billion given annually to the 15 intelligence agencies in the United States is now spent on private contractors."

Con games not a thing of the past:
Google Search: con game: "
Sorted by relevance Sort by date



FinalCall.comThe Social Security Con Game
FinalCall.com, IL - Feb 16, 2005
... What is going on with the Bush administration claiming that Social Security needs a fix right now is a massive con game, because four years could pass and ...

UMKC loses second straight Mid-Con game
Kansas City Star (subscription), MO - Feb 12, 2005
For the second straight Saturday, UMKC lost a home conference game in front of a ... The Kangaroos started 9-0 in the Mid-Con but now find themselves tied for ...

Privatizing Social Security A Con Game
TheDay (subscription), CT - Feb 9, 2005
... If you agree that the Social Security system is sound and that Mr. Bush's privatization talk is another con, write Sens. Christopher ...

The Art of the Con, Reprised
New York Times - 27 minutes ago
... allowed to command the stage. And confidence, as any grifter can tell you, is the irreplaceable basis of a successful con game. ...
A 'Rotten' way to succeed New York Daily News"

In honor of my forthcoming book, "King Con: the Story of Soapy Smith," I am collecting references to "Shell Game"
this is what happens when you google "shell game" in "News."

Google Search: shell game: "'Promises Made - Promise Kept,' Just A Political Shell Game
American Daily, OH - Feb 28, 2005
... return home expecting a grateful nation to honor all those pledges and promises�only to find they were just pawns in a never ending political shell game. ...

Teachers' union criticizes legislative 'shell game'
Lawrence Journal World, KS - Feb 28, 2005
'The current shell game being played is irresponsible to our families and dishonest to schools,' said Christy Levings, president of the 24,000-member Kansas ...

Knicks play shell game
Taipei Times, Taiwan - Feb 25, 2005
... The Knicks were supposed to be Thomas' makeup game when he was named president in December 2003, but he has never looked more confused about his own abilities ...

Scrushy trial witness: 'It was almost like a shell game'
Birmingham Business Journal, AL - Feb 24, 2005
... It was almost like a shell game,' Kenneth Livesay, the company's former assistant controller and chief information officer, testified Thursday at Scrushy's ...

Guest editorial: The DC budget shell game
Naples Daily News, FL - Feb 25, 2005
... balance sheet. We're still spending it. Its a time-honored trick of Washington accounting. But this shell game should fool no one. "

three card monte
i am collecting references to shell game, confidence games etc. more common than you think!
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Deficits and Deceit: "To put Mr. Greenspan's game of fiscal three-card monte in perspective, remember that the push for Social Security privatization is only part of the right's strategy for dismantling the New Deal and the Great Society. The other big piece of that strategy is the use of tax cuts to 'starve the beast.' "

The social Secruity debacle, which Bush is goingto lose, is probably the biggest thing going on the block. he says he is going to "Save social security," but he really means that he is going to kill social sceurity .I still can't figure out why Bush is expending all of his political capital on this, when just about everyone but his hand-picked audiences is against it.
Josh Marshall at Talkingpointsmemo has the most complete coverage of "Bamboozle-palooza".

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall

Ok, I was out of town for a bit, went to see the GATES in New York, well worth the trip. I alsway enjoy a happening, and what could be better than an Art Happening? Central Park was mobbed on a windy, snowy overcast and cold february morning.
Meanwwhil, asFrank Rich notes, no enws is no longer good news, its just no news.
the administration continues to gringd up and spit out its adversaries, pretend it is fighting terrorists in Iraq instead of creating them, and strutting around like a cowboy in a b-grade western.
The New York Times > Arts > Frank Rich: Gonzo Gone, Rather Going, Watergate Still Here: "WO weeks ago Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide. Next week Dan Rather commits ritual suicide, leaving the anchor chair at CBS prematurely as penance for his toxic National Guard story. The two journalists shared little but an abiding distaste - make that hatred in Thompson's case - for the Great Satan of 20th-century American politics, Richard Nixon. The best work of both was long behind them. Yet memories of that best work - not to mention the coincidental timing of their departures - only accentuate the vacuum in that cultural category we stubbornly insist on calling News. "