And I took the road less traveled... Or maybe not. Can't quite remember

Jocelyn turns two in a couple days (and of course, a powerful, rockin' montage set to a power ballad by White Snake is due). This isn't in itself great news. I mean, it would be if anybody at any particular time ever looked forward to their child becoming a two-year old monster. I imagine Joseph fretting about the decision he made a couple years back to stick with Mary and her "miraculous birth": "Why is this child throwing temper-tantrums in Egypt of all places?!"

We are excited, though, because it marks another era in our tot's life: day care. For the last two years, Jennie and I have traded duties watching the child. For a few months, my wife even went to work with the baby several days a week - wherein there was no nap time and there was plenty of screaming (mostly from Jocelyn, I'm assured). In a highrise office building. In downtown Chicago. The Loop.

For the last year, I stayed home with the child nearly full-time as I weighed my job options. Which, to be frank, were very limited to begin with - and moreso limited as the recession took hold of the pay-for-words world. But also during that time, I've begun to heal. I've faced some demons, and still have many others in my closet that I've yet to eradicate - but the process has begun. Life has slowed down to a crawl so that I may listen to someone who does not yet know how to speak her needs or wants. My hopes are that I continue to listen, I continue to grow and learn in this area for my family's sake and that I can take that with me wherever I go - that I may be a listener.

And I believe that those first two years were crucial for the child as well. She got to make permanent bonds with her parents that - Lord willing - will never, ever, ever break. But she is also ready to move on. Her first and primary inclination is to be inquisitive. We may as well have named her Georgetta. Secondly, she's sociable. Especially with people her size. She cried twice yesterday when we left two groups of neighborhood kids.

See how she gets along so well with others?

In short, three roads are converging right now, and they meet at Kedzie and Diversey at Diversey Day Care. Financially, we're about as ready as ever. Psychologically, I'm ready for the change. Socially, Joss is more than ready. Relationally, our family is ready.

RT Weekend: #1stdraftmovielines

A little late for the weekend, but have been wanting to do this since Saturday, so that counts, right? First, some of my favorites from others, and then the big letdown.

RT @timcarvell: "Play it for me, Sam. Play 'Pop Goes the Weasel'."
"Bond. James Bond, D.D.S."
"Badges? Wow, those'd be a great idea! I don't know why we didn't think to bring badges. Wait here. I'll go get some."
RT @urbanape: 'Who runs Bartertown?' 'Look, I told you. We're an Anarcho-syndacalist commune....'
RT @robcorddry: "Rosebud... My sled, Rosebud!";
"I'm Bruce Wayne! I mean... sh*t."
RT @GothamCityGeek: Get your stinking hooves off me, you da-ah-ah-ah-mned dirty sheep.
RT @SonOfND: "You had me at whaaassssuuuppp!"
RT @cariosity: "Skip, Forrest, skip!"
RT @hodgman "who rules swapmeet town? I, master blaster rules swapmeet town"

RT @jasdye: ""I find that you are lacking in the whole faith department. And, frankly, I'm a bit perturbed. Disturbed, even."
"Nobody puts baby in the spot where one wall meets another wall at a right angle!"
"You search every outhouse, henhouse, treehouse, farmhouse, doghouse until..." "Found him!" "Well, that settles that"
"Stella, are you upstairs? Can you come down here so we can talk this out like reasonable adults? Stella? C'mon Stella."
"Did you ever dance with the Devil to the Macarena in the pale moon light? I ask that of all my wedding guests."
"I coulda been somebody. I coulda been a baker, or even a candlestick maker."
"Heeeere's me again, trying to creep you out."
"We're on a mission from Todd."
And...

"Tell him we've got a peanut butter & jelly sandwich he CAN'T refuse."

New one:
"If I have a straw that goes allll the way down the hall... d'ya think it'll qualify for Guiness Book of World Records?"

What's your favorite? Got any of your own? Add to the commentary in the comments.

Really Bad Sociological Analysis

While at the park yesterday I noticed that there are two girls by the name of Sophie who are both my daughter's age. I'm a bit curious about trends, so I'm trying to think of other girl names that are repeated for kids around her age. And it strikes me that I've met a lot of other Jocelyns - although a bit older (usually around five years old).

Factor in a couple other facts: 1) Sophie means "Wisdom", Jocelyn means "Joyous"; 2) Nannies brought the Sophies to the park, yet the Jocelyns are generally from lower-income Latino families. Therefore, we can surmise, rich people value learning and poor people would rather be happy.

...

Jonathan and Chris at New Community Covenant Church's Warming Center

Somehow that joke was funnier in my head. But as I was stewing it up, I was thinking about a misconception that I've been hearing quite a bit about recently. It's this idea that a multicultural/multiclass environment is good because it allows the poor (and, specifically in the cases that I'm familiar with, Black and Hispanic) to learn healthy work habits from the more affluent.

That is ignorance on so many levels. It supposes, again, that there is a superior type of people who's job it is to teach the less-fortunate. It supposes, again, that poor people are poor because of laziness or lack of knowledge.

These stereotypes are as old as the divisions at Babel, I guarantee. But that doesn't make them true. I would suggest to anyone to whom this may come as a revelation to get to know some poor people - or, better yet, a lot of them. And to be honest, vice versa.

We could all, after all, use a little learning.

Boys don't cry

I know that there's other, more important stuff in the news today. Like Derek Webb releasing his sh*t-filled record online today only to have complications with the ordering process. And Facebook is acting mighty peculiar - maybe because they're so busy turning our status updates over to the robots and general stalking populace.

But I got caught up in just how naive this couple is. Parents of a 2 1/2 year old child are being purposefully ambiguous about the sex of their child. They dress "Pop" up in both boys' and girls' clothing (jeans and dresses, which, incidentally, my 2 year old girl wears) and have sported the child in traditional hairstyles of both genders.

Why? Well, they believe that gender is a social construct, according to The Local (Sweden's News in English, according to the virtual masthead). Further:

“We want Pop to grow up more freely and avoid being forced into a specific gender mould from the outset,” Pop’s mother said. “It's cruel to bring a child into the world with a blue or pink stamp on their forehead.”

The child's parents said so long as they keep Pop’s gender a secret, he or she will be able to avoid preconceived notions of how people should be treated if male or female.

I will not argue that gender is not a social construct, just that it isn't fully. Nobody forces a boy to like a Tonka truck or to be more aggressive in his pursuits -- sometimes ostracizing girls - like my infinitely curious child- in the process of protecting their GI Joes, as I noticed at a Reading for Tots on Monday morn. Or ostracizing nearly everybody else in declaring their Alpha-ness as I noticed in my childhood - being quite the Zed kid. Neither my wife nor I are crazy about phones, so it strikes me as a bit odd on first view to see how much Joss loves to take just about anything (including plates, cups, stuffed monkeys and the loose cell phone) to pretend talking on it. As curious as she is about objects, she's much more interested in people and in social circumstances. It wasn't our expectations -- or others' -- that forced that on her.


What is it? I'm not sure. It doesn't sound like anybody's exactly sure. Some very heterosexual girls prefer playing with cars and straight boys would prefer to wear dresses if they get the chance (as many married men have been caught doing while the wife's away).

Psychologists differ on the overall effect of this experiment, but I'm left wondering why the same people who believe that gender is primarily 'learned' do not believe also that sexual identity is learned, but rather primarily biological.

Just sayin'...

Oh, yeah, and then there's the whole Xianjiang-China civil strife thing.

And some influential pop star died.

John Donne had some of these in his closet

Clearing through my mega-mess today and just found this throw-away poem from my latter undergrad days. Just a lark, I'm sure.

It's 7 in the mornin'
the sun come thru, it's warmin'
my head - roll outta bed
grab my dashiki
ain't got no time for eatin'
my cornflakes
i was late - in such a hurry
news caught me in a blurry
from a time last night
and my girlfriend cried
my brothers laughed
my mama almost had a heart attack
"Oh my,
I'm sorry mom"
what i guess i failed to mention
and i promise 'twas no intention
me and my dashiki
went out streakin'

Books I'm Crazy to Give Away for Sooo Free

Books are categorized as Christian, Education, YAL or whatever. Trying to get as rid of as many of these as soon as humanly possible. If you're interested in one or several, leave a comment on the blog, at my fb, twitter, email, wherever. If you can pick it up, awesomest! If I need to send it to you, could you please send a couple bucks for S&H (especially for the whole H thing). just trying to keep it as free for all as humanly possible. Allright? ttyl.

Christian: theology/practice/inspiration:
Adams, Jay E: Ready to Restore: The Layman's Guide to Christian Counseling
Augustine, St: Teaching Christianity
Campbell, Ernest T: Christian Manifesto
Green, Melody & David Hazard: No Compromise: The Life Story of Keith Green
McBride, Neal F: How to Lead Small Groups
McLean, Gordon: Cities of Lonesome Fear: God Among the Gangs
Johnson, Phillip E: Darwin on Trial
Piper, John: Future Grace
ibid: Taste & See
Schaeffer, Francis A: A Christian Manifesto
Sinsabaugh, Ginger: Help! I'm an Urban Youth Worker!
Strauch, Alexander: Biblical Eldership
Warren, Rick: The Purpose-Driven Life

Education:
Atwell, Nancy: In the Middle: New Understandings About Writing, Reading, and Learning
Charles, CM: Building Classroom Discipline
Clancy, Tom: Tom Clancy's Net Force: The Ultimate Escape
Cushman, Kathleen: Fires in the Bathroom
Eagleton, Terry: Literary Theory: An Introduction
Heward, William L: Exceptional Children: An Introduction to Special Education
Holden, James & John S Schmit, eds.: Inquiry & the Literary Text: Constructing Discussions in the English Classroom
Morenberg, Max: Doing Grammar (2nd Ed)
Rosenblatt, Louise M: Literature as Exploration
Selden, Raman & Peter Widdowson: Contemporary Literary Theory
Weaver, Constance: Teaching Grammar in Context
Wilson, Dr Eboni: Breaking the Cycle: From Special Ed to Ph D
Wong, Harry K & Rosemary T Wong: The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher

Young Adult/Children's Literature
Babbit, Natalie: Tuck Everlasting
Bligh, William: Mutiny on the HMS Bounty
Burroughs, Augusten: Running with Scissors
Howe, James: Bunnicula Strikes Again!
L'Amour Louis: The Burning Hills
Lee, Harper: To Kill a Mockingbird
Myracle, Lauren: ttyl
Myers, Walter Dean: Monster (several copies)
Myers, Walter Dean & Christopher Myers: A Time to Love: Stories from the Old Testament
Paulsen, Gary: The Crossing
Petry, Ann: Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad
Stroker, Bram: Dracula
Twain, Mark: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Verne, Jules: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Great Illustrated Classics)
Wolfe, Tom: The Right Stuff (poor)

ETC
Lansky, Bruce: The Very Best Baby Name Book
Ellis, Jack C: A History of Film
Noriega, Chon A: Shot in American: Television, the State and the Rise of Chicano Cinema
Cicero: On Oratory and Orators
Wood, William: Elizabethean Sea-Dogs
Reader's Digest, compiler, edit: Today's Best Nonfiction:

• Ambrose, Stephen E: Undaunted Courage: Merriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West
• Simon, Neil: Neil Simon Rewrites: A Memoir
• Nesaule, Agate: A Woman in Amber: Healing the Trauma of War and Exile
• Yates, Brock: The Critical Path: Inventing an Automobile and Reinventing a Corporation
  

The Passion of Soroya M. & The Adventure of Tedium

The Mrs. jasdye and I rarely go out to the flix these days. So no love for T2: the Crapocalypse or Revenge of the Moctezuma this year. However, we did check out two films within the last month that have made me think enough to rev up the ol' blog engines again.

Up
Pixar does it again. I may not end up liking this movie as much as Wall*E, but then again, it's less heavy-handed (and doesn't tie up its producers in a two-faced lie about mass consumerism) and may end up getting an Oscar nod for best pic this year (thanks to the desperate - but perhaps well-timed - move by the Academy to extend the nominees to ten from five this last month). It's a fun movie, and I think it's more well-rounded than the writer/director's last one, Monsters, Inc. which didn't seem to have a real theme besides, "Little girls are cute and you shouldn't scare them." The theme of the adventure of the mundane, the idea that "It's the boring stuff that I remember the most," that really struck home with me. Because, mostly, I tend to be or around home a lot.

I'm kind of like a hobbit in that way.

The 3-D was cool. Joss was sitting between us and watched most of the movie with her glasses on. But then the Mrs. discovered that she fell asleep when she started leaning over - I was a little slow on that end. Didn't feel that they were over-reaching with the 3-D (like no dogs jumping out of the screen, that type of stuff) but it didn't really seem to further a purpose, either. Which I think is fine in for repeated viewings. In general, though, the movie looked good. Many wonderful colors, which I can't help but think were muted by the glasses/effects.

The Stoning of Soraya N.

Jim Caviezel in another The (Violent Act) of (Innocent Victim) movie. I'm sure there've been many parallels drawn by many critics. But I have not read their reviews, so I feel free to infringe my own comparisons.

* Jim Caviezel speaks a variant of ancient Persian.
* Middle east, under oppressive rule.
* Murderous mix of theocrats and more-or-less secular politicians scheming to save their hides.
* The titular act is relentlessly bloody and barely winces until the main character has died - leaving viewers rather breath-less.
* Lots of dry stones.
* Demonic arch-villain piling on the accusations and urging the blood-letting.

Though the movie is heavy-handed and not did not strike me immediately as very film-ic, the story is an intense thriller and offers a microcosm view of not just the Iranian countryside, but of any tribe that desires to put the interests of the powerful (usually men) over those of the voiceless (usually women). There is critique also of entertainment and media alternately triumphalising this violence and hiding it, of the legacy of the sins of the fathers, and of those who proclaim that their duties are the will of God yet are heedless to the voice of God.

Sublime performance of the Theme from Doogie Howser

I don't know why I love it so, but I do:



Gotta have me some Doogie!

Weekly Links We Like to Link to: OK, you can call this a comeback.

And yes, these articles are at least a month old! Got a lot of catching up to, kids.


I want me some bookshelves like these! And then maybe I can get me some readin'!

Tips on why Obama is not a socialist. "Obama properly belongs in a specific anti-socialist movement on the left, Social Democracy, which accepts a capitalist economy but demands a state strong enough to moderate its failures and excesses."

"Why newspapers can't be saved but the news can."

When someone demands to know how we are going to replace newspapers, they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution. They are demanding to be told that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place. They are demanding to be told that ancient social bargains aren’t in peril, that core institutions will be spared, that new methods of spreading information will improve previous practice rather than upending it. They are demanding to be lied to. There are fewer and fewer people who can convincingly tell such a lie.

Christianity had taken root in some non-European locales that we don't tend to associate with Christianity at all. Philip Jenkins (not the Left Behind guy, but an author who studies the movement of Christianity in non-Western world - lastly looking at the astronomic rise of conservative churches in the Global South) is interviewed about why these ancient churches died out. The answer may surprise you (well, maybe not. But it did take me under):

PJ: Churches die by force. They are killed.

CT: But what about the old saying, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church"?

PJ: That was said by Tertullian, who came from the church in North Africa, where the church vanished. If you were to look at the healthiest part of Christianity right around the year 400 or 500, you might well look at North Africa... It was the land of Augustine. Then the Arabs, the Muslims, arrive. They conquer Carthage in a.d. 698, and 100 years later—I don't say there were no Christians there, but there certainly was only a tiny, tiny number. That church dies.

Call it the Kingdom of Heaven, Incarnate Living, Missional. But please don't call it Shirley.

Jesus' new way of taking over (the beginning of his kingdom on Earth):

It wasn't a matter... of Christians simply taking over and giving orders in a kind of theocracy where the church could simply tell everyone what to do. That has sometimes been tried, of course, and it's always led to disaster. But neither is it a matter of the church backing off letting the world go on its sweet way, and worshiping Jesus in a private sphere.

Somehow, there is a third option... We can glimpse it in the book of Acts: the method of the kingdom will match the message of the kingdom. The kingdom will come as the church, energized by the Spirit, goes out into the world vulnerable, suffering, praising, praying, misunderstood, misjudged, vindicated, celebrating: always -- as Paul said it in one of his letters -- bearing in the body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed.

- NT Wright, Surprised by Hope

What do you think?

My Humps, My Humps, My Down-in-the-Drawers Dumps

I'm in a melancholy mood today. Sad, depressed. And it's not because of the rain. The rain just seems to be doing what I told it to do. Come out, cover me up in a blanket of darkness and wetness. Make the trees, the blooming leaves, the buildings and their bricks moist. All that literate stuff...

But, no, I'm in a funk today. A funk so deep it could be etched into a George Clinton record - if he wanted me to sap the party away.

And I try to do the things that I was created for when this mood hits. Write, think, read, create, teach others to listen to and act as participants in the world they are around and are material in.

But then a voice counters that. Tells me that I'm not good enough, that my writing is frivolous at best, that it doesn't contribute anything to society. That I cannot be a teacher again, that I need to let that dream die. That I am worthless.

It is at this moment that I would like to formally say this to that voice:
Shut the F**k Up!

Perhaps not the most graceful words ever committed to proving oneself ready to write for a living. But truer words were never spoken.

Golden Age

Sitting on my desktop tower this moment - and for the last month - is a copy of Shotgun Stories, ranked as one of Jeffrey Overstreet's favorite movies of 08. I wanted to see if it'd be one of mine too. After all, he has helped to shape how I view movies over the last few years (in particular, looking for moments of grace) and introduced me to personal favorites like Paul Thomas Anderson (via Magnolia), Krystof Kieslowski (who's Bleu I finally watched for the first time late last year and have added to my faves of all-time), and Stevie, by locals Steve James and Peter Gilbert (whose Hoop Dreams is within my top-five all time).

But yet I'm not watching Shotgun Stories. I tried a couple weeks ago. Had me a brewski, a man's dinner, a night alone before my birthday. Neighbors downstairs were partying with their frat-friends in anticipation of St. Paddy's Day (because you know how those Irish like to get down...). And I made it a couple minutes in.

But I just wasn't in the mood. Still not in the mood. Not that I don't trust that it will be an experience to remember. But then I realized something.

I. Like. TV.

I'm watching a lot of tele these days, which is remarkable for a guy who doesn't even own a tube. And all this tv viewing can eat at chunks of whatever other time that I might have for quality film viewing. And it's high-quality stuff (well, maybe with one cheesy exception). I'm not dumbing down (for the most part); I do believe that we've only got so many hours of time for consumptive viewing and that we shouldn't waste it on trivial garbage. But TV is not what it was a generation ago. One needn't resign to PBS to purify oneself anymore. Even FOX has some quality (albeit stuck in Friday night limbo now. Remember when Sunday nights were the golden nights at Fox?).

But there's something to be said about the serial and the linear progressions that happen with a multi-year series like "The Office" can produce. Have you seen it recently? The last three shows were golden and belong in the pantheon along with much of seasons 1&2. You witness cyclical changes (Michael has a boss. The boss is a jerk/tight-wad. The boss starts to upset the weird status quo in the office. The boss starts to show fissures. Status quo is resolved) that really demonstrate how complex social interactions can be and how deep human psyches are. In a movie (as in a novel), you would see a character change through crisis, in serials, you see the character flesh-out in numerous crises - perhaps grow, perhaps not.

Another example would be Joss Whedon's series The Dollhouse. Not heard of it? Not seen it? That's a crying shame. Because the mid-season replacement is now on its seventh episode, and Hulu only carries five at a time. Who knows how many more will come out of this tenuous and stressed-filled relationship between the creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Firefly" and the network responsible for "COPS" and "When Animals Go Berserk!" marathons. For the time-being, every episode, every moment of Dollhouse is riveting smorgasbord for the mouth. It's an enigma wrapped in bacon-strips and dipped in fine, dark chocolate. It is to be slowly savored over a long period of time.

I can only hope that it lasts longer than "Firefly" did. Or, for that matter, than "Chuck" will (yes, that is my guilty pleasure).

Tv. Watch it.

For Your Lenten Consideration...

Renowned pastor, author and Bible translator Eugene Peterson meditating on the so-called "middle voice" - which lays somewhere between the active and the passive voice in ancient Greek grammar.

My grammar book said, "The middle voice is that use of the verb which describes the subjects as participating in the results of the action." I read that now, and it reads like a description of Christian prayer -- "the subject as participating in the results of the action." I do not control the action; that is a pagan concept of prayer putting the gods to work in my incantations or rituals. I am not controlled by the action; that is a Hindu concept of prayer in which I slump passively into the impersonal and fated will of gods and goddesses. I enter into the action begun by another, my creating and saving Lord, and find myself participating in the results of the actions. I neither do it, nor have it done to me; I will to participate in what is willed.

- Eugene Peterson, quoted by Philip Yancey in Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?

Oscar Weeks #3: Slumdog Millioniare

We saw it the day before the Oscars. Didn't have high hopes, but wife was really excited. I can say now that I'm a happy convert and was gladly rooting for it during the telecast.

First, the negatives: it's melodramatic (aren't most Oscar contenders?); it contains too many implausible scenarios;; it's fate-driven and, tied with that, it's predictable.

I don't always hate fatalism, but the cheap notion that destiny plays as a cheap plot device makes me sick to my cheap stomach. It's why I can't stand most romantic movies, with Eternal Sunshine being a particular (and odd) exception. And this particular film... Well, let's just say, "It is written."


But yet, there are a lot of elements in Slumdog, and though some may not work so well on their own (say, the derivative gangster movie posturing of older brother in latter scenes), the piece as a whole presents a view of lower-class India that I think the popcorn-eating, extravagance-loving, song-dance-and-swirling-color viewers out there (myself included) need to confront. The whole is worth more than the sum of the parts - it's like a Frankenstein monster of a meal made out of really crazy disparate parts that you should hate (or at least wave burning sticks at madly), yet it all works together to create something extraordinary, fresh, and tasty.

Oscar weeks: There Will Be Blood

Initially, I did not enjoy this movie. Still question if I do, but I found it to be powerful and disturbing. Disturbing in a sense that is ferociously honest.

What I found so odd about this film is how misanthropic it is - I was sure I had picked up a Coen brothers flick by accident. What made it odder still is that unlike PT Anderson's last two films (both of which rate as some of my favorite of all time), There Will Be Blood had no shot of redeeming grace. No plague of frogs to deliver the entrapped slaves of LA from their self-hatred and suicide (as in Magnolia), no inexplicable piano dropping from heaven or even less-explicable unmerited love that saves a dangerously implosive and lonely man by allowing him to act out of love and overcome regret (as in Punch-Drunk Love). Just a man who intensely and insanely drives out any would-be competition.

This is a story about the all-taking consumption of greed, and this time, there is no salvation from the emptiness of self-centeredness. It is the story of a wretched prospector who begins his adventures seemingly supernaturally aged, who hopes to find hope in finding kindred spirits but ultimately fails in this regard, who lives oil. Oil, in fact, is his lifeblood and is the metaphor for his life. His heart pumps oil. You can sense the literary functions in the movie throughout. If Jed Clampett found the crude accidentally by shooting at some food, Daniel Plainfield finds it because it is him; the land that he takes the oil from bubbles to the top with the black, volatile, cruel, nasty, mangy majesty, much as it does from his skin.

In other words, what I've come to appreciate about the film is that Daniel Plainfield represents not all of humanity, nor, I hope, the director's view of humanity. But rather, a view of humanity held by one of its most important oil men. America, the man with the long straw and bowling balls aimed for his enemies is Dick Cheney.

My name is Dick Plainfield and this is my associate, G. W. Plainfield.

I only partially kid here.

Also notable is the breathtaking cinematic scope and the haunting and searing soundtrack, not to mention the singular vision that makes this three hour movie intensely watchable.

Weekly Links We Like to Link to: Mostly politics and/or dummies edition

The Lonely Life of Rollie Burris: The Cartoon.

Mel Gibson's latest movie is going to be a spectacular mix of a biopic and more of his trademark redemptive violence.



Intriguing article about Newt Gingrich at New York Times Magazine reveals this tidbit from one of his disciples, minority whip Eric Cantor (R, Va.):

Well, generally, [Gingrich] is very quick to see the historic election of President Obama and the potential for his support to last, and what that means for Congress, and how we compare the success of Barack Obama to, frankly, the difficulties that Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid are having with the American public right now. You know, Congressional Democrats are nowhere near where this president is right now in terms of public opinion.

(On a personal note, I think that's an interesting wedge issue. I may not agree with Newt's ideas, but I think that the Republican party needs to stand up and intelligently challenge the Democrats in power. Otherwise, you face the prospect of a one (weak-arse) party system, as if the Democrats weren't inept enough as it were, they would become inept and fascist.)

And, speaking of the Times and the Republican/Democrat divide, here's an informative article about the sea-change represented in ideals that has come as a result of the new budget. The money passage:

Over the last three decades, the pretax incomes of the wealthiest households have risen far more than they have for other households, while the tax rates for top earners have fallen more than they have for others, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

As a result, the average post-tax income of the top 1 percent of households has jumped by roughly $1 million since 1979, adjusted for inflation, to $1.4 million. Pay for most families has risen only slightly faster than inflation.

Before becoming Mr. Obama’s top economic adviser, Lawrence H. Summers liked to tell a hypothetical story to distill the trend. The increase in inequality, Mr. Summers would say, meant that each family in the bottom 80 percent of the income distribution was effectively sending a $10,000 check, every year, to the top 1 percent of earners.

And here's an argument for spading and neutering dumb, dumb parents.

... And that's the rest of the story.