A gallant lady has died

Remembering Molly Ivins
John Nichols
Washington Correspondent, The Nation, Jan. 31, 2007 (web only)
Molly Ivins always said she wanted to write a book about the lonely experience of East Texas civil rights campaigners to be titled No One Famous Ever Came. While the television screens and newspapers told the stories of the marches, the legal battles and the victories of campaigns against segregation in Alabama and Mississippi, Ivins recalled, the foes of Jim Crow laws in the region where she came of age in the 1950s and '60s often labored in obscurity without any hope that they would be joined on the picket lines by Nobel Peace Prize winners, folk singers, Hollywood stars or senators.
And Ivins loved those righteous strugglers all the more for their willingness to carry on.
The warmest-hearted populist ever to pick up a pen with the purpose of calling the rabble to the battlements, Ivins understood that change came only when some citizen in some off-the-map town passed a petition, called a Congressman or cast an angry vote to throw the bums out. The nation's mostly widely syndicated progressive columnist, who died January 31 at age 62 after a long battle with what she referred to as a "scorching case of cancer," adored the activists she celebrated from the time in the late 1960s when she created her own "Movements for Social Change" beat at the old Minneapolis Tribune and started making heroes of "militant blacks, angry Indians, radical students, uppity women and a motley assortment of other misfits and troublemakers."

The country has lost a journalistic treasure in the passing of this brave and beautiful lady. And that's my opinion.

Why I Blog

I enjoy the stimulation that comes with writing.

The brain is a muscle and, like more physical muscles, will suffer from overuse, misuse or under-use. Reading a book, doing a puzzle, playing card games, learning new songs, and writing are a few ways to exercise the memory and the brain. And all of these things can be done at home and cost next to nothing.

Writing my blog requires me to think about a subject, maybe do some research, learn something new, compose thoughts and put them in logical sentences and paragraphs. Doctors, scientists, and other practitioners in mental health, tell us this kind of mental exercise will help keep the memory sharp. Mentally active people, it is said, live longer and more meaningful lives than those who sleep-walk through the “golden years.”

Frequently people who read my blog agree or disagree and say so, often putting forth new thoughts or insights on the issue. I enjoy these exchanges with people, some of whom I know, others total strangers. Occasionally, a man (judging by the handwriting) from the Charleston, SC, area sends me an unsigned, no return address, letter and dresses me down in intemperate language, casting aspersions on my sanity, politics, and/or heritage. I always enjoy his scribbling and wonder what his room number is at the mental health facility.

Gay Sheep

Among the many things we know that we don’t know all there is to know about the subject is that there are gay male sheep out there and researchers are experimenting to discover why about eight percent of rams choose sex with other rams. Logically, it would follow if one can learn why; perhaps one can amend the reason and turn the rams into heterosexuals. This might lead to some sort of antidote for future moms having male children and wanting to insure they are straight.

(Which invokes memories of Brokeback Mountain: did the two cowboys give the rams some strange ideas or learn from the rams.)

You can learn more on this fascinating, albeit low priority, subject at the PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) website (they are against the experiments), or, for some lighter reading on the sex habits of rams see, John Cloud’s article, “Yep, They’re Gay,” (TIME, February 5, 2007, page 54.)

John says “Zoologists have known for many year that homosexuality isn’t uncommon among animals,” and his cat has raised suspicions ever since he tried to mount a male dachshund. Also, irreverent comedian George Carlin a few years ago sent out a Christmas card featuring a picture of his male dog trying to do the male cat. He called it “Piece on Earth.”

The fork in the language road

Yogi Bera is credited with saying, "When you come to the fork in the road, take it."

Jeff E. Schapiro, Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist, wrote about Virginia Sen. John Warner (R) on Sunday (1/28/07): "He responds to the whims of a state that in his 79 years -- he turns 80 on Feb. 18 -- has transformed from ducal agricultural backwater preoccupied with race to diverse suburban dynamo where, in some neighborhoods, one might hear 21 foreign languages."

This weekend former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, (R), a presidential candidate, pushed for English-only in educating the country's children. To be successful in this country kids "need to speak the language," he said. (The Post & Courier, 1/28/07, pg 16A)

I believe language is going to be one of the major issues of the 2008 presidential campaign.

A WOW feature

When reading an editorial in The New York Times I found this "tip" at the end of the article: -
"To find reference information about the words used in this article, hold down the ALT key and click on any word, phrase or name. A new window will open with a dictionary definition or encyclopedia entry. "
I tried it and it works. This is my first experience with this capability and for now it seems to be peculiar to the Times editorial. How far will this capability spread? What will it take to make it universally available? I consider this an amazing feature, worthy of at least one big WOW!

Can you believe this?

The Boston Globe (1/26/2007) reports "Vice President Dick Cheney orchestrated his office's 2003 efforts to rebut assertions that the administration used flawed intelligence to justify the war in Iraq and discredit a critic who he believed was making him look foolish, according to testimony and evidence yesterday in the criminal trial of his former chief of staff."

As the Charleston vapors lady would say, "Lordy, can you believe this?"

Say it ain't so

Can you imagine the White House making Lewis "Scooter" Libby the fall guy to protect Karl Rove so the president's advisor could be around to shepherd the 2004 re-election campaign? This is what Libby's defense attorney claimed in his opening statement. I imagine some Charleston matron with the vapors will exclaim, "Oh, my goodness." Stay tuned.

Press '1' for English

A Hometown Newspaper

Many years ago an observer asked Tom Landry, then coach of the Dallas Cowboys, what he thought about the Green Bay Packers having their own Hall of Fame. Landry said, "They might as well, they got their own newspaper." This came to mind today when Elsa McDowell replied to a critic of The Post and Courier who complained that The Citadel "does not have a hometown newspaper."
Back in the 1920's the publisher of the Green Bay newspaper told his staff the paper would always stand by the Packers' come hell or high water because if Green Bay ever lost the team they would never get another one. To this day this is the paper's position.
Elsa said the P&C recognizes The Citadel as significant but reports the news - good and bad.

On the obit page

Politicians (and I used to be one) cannot choose on what page the local newspaper will print articles about them. It has to be nerve-racking, however, when you are recovering from surgery and the paper reports it on one of the two obit pages - as was done with North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey today (The Post & Courier, Charleston, SC,January 17, 2007.)

Congressman votes against people's interests

All you South Carolina workers out there earning minimum wage or slightly higher ought to take a look at how your congressman in the First District of South Carolina voted this past week. And those in Medicare ought to look up as well. The people hoping stem cell research might some day lead to a cure to their debilitating diseases would also do well to look at his conduct.
It is not that he, Henry Brown, (R), Hanahan, has deviated from his first term promise to not vote against the (Republican) leadership. This past week he voted with other Republicans (whose leadership in the House was rejected at the polls in November) against the majority passed legislation to raise the minimum wage, to require Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices, and to promote stem cell research.
These are bread and butter issues to a lot of Lowcountry workers and one would hope their congressman would have their best interests at heart. Like other legislators who think we are asleep at home he voted for alternative GOP proposals he (and they) had to know were doomed to failure so he (and they) could cover their butts.