What's on the ol' nightstand

Funny title because I have no books on my nightstand, and it's not near my bed. A more accurate title would read: What I'm not reading right now because I'm reading this.

The Field Guide to Parenting: A Comprehensive Handbook of Great Ideas, Advice, Tips and Solutions for Parenting Children Ages One to Five - Shelley Butler and Deb Kratz
This book is amazing for clueless newbies like me. In short it is a comprehensive handbook of great ideas, advice, tips and solutions for parenting children ages one to five and I'm wondering if I'll ever give this loaner back...

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie
Dang it!! Fifty pages into this beautiful and hilarious young adult novel and I'm sure that I won't be able to create the YAL to define a generation Catcher in the Rye-style. Alexie's beaten me to it. That is, if Neil Gaiman already didn't... (other must-read: The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, a collection of short stories.)

The Prophetic Imagination (1st Edition) - Walter Brueggemann
Few pages into it and not really sure it's my cup o' tea. Unfortunately, don't think I'll get to chance to figure it out just yet. However, an excerpt:

The hypothesis I will explore here is this: The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us... The alternative consciousness to be nurtured, on the one hand, serves to criticize in dismantling the dominant consciousness. To that extent, it attempts to... engage in a rejection and delegitmatizing of the present ordering of things. On the other hand, that alternative consciousness to be nurtured serves to energize persons and communities by its promise of another time and situation toward which the community of faith may move. To that extent it attempts... to live in fervent anticipation of the newness that God has promised and will surely give.

A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - ed. Clayborne Carson and Kris Shepard.
It's pretty much what it says it is. Also overdue. I'll see how much of it I can finish tomorrow. Also, apparently it's out in audiobook. Wonder who gets to be vocally compared/contrasted to King there.

Prophetic Deliverance: The Missing Ministry of Jesus in the Church - T. C. Mather
Amazing. That is, if you like me are not used to words like 'deliverance' and 'prophetic' being used in a toned-down Charismatic/Pentecostal-style. It's self-published, so I'd like to know if this could be made available via PDF or somehow easily accessible. Also, one of those rare books that I actually finished.

Team of rivals : the political genius of Abraham Lincoln - Doris Kearns Goodwill
Okay, my subdued man-crush on Honest Abe may force me to read this eventually. But probably not this one.

Jesus and Nonviolence - Walter Wink
Snap! I finally got this book (which I want to quote at length, alas...) and love it so much that I lose it on the very same day.

There are good reasons for reluctance to champion nonviolence. The term itself is negative... "Nonviolence" is identified by many as the injunction to be submissive before the authorities. Romans 13:1-7 has been interpreted as an absolute command to obey the government whatever it does. "Turn the other cheek" became a divine ultimatum to slaves and servants to accept flogging and blows obsequiously. "Love of enemies" was twisted to render the oppressed compliant for the very heart, forgiving every injustice with no thought of changing the system. Nonviolence meant, in the context of this perverse inversion of the gospel, passivity...

When church leaders preach reconciliation without having unequivocally committed themselves to struggle on the side of the oppressed for justice, they are caught straddling a pseudo-neutrality made of nothing but thin air. Neutrality in a situation of oppression always supports the status quo...

A proper translation of Jesus' teaching [in Matthew 5:38-41] would then be, "Don't strike back at evil (or, one who has done you evil) in kind." "Do not retaliate against violence with violence." The Scholars Version is brilliant: "Don't react violently against the one who is evil." Jesus was no less committed to opposing evil than the anti-Roman resistance fighters. The only difference was the means to be used...

Now we are in a better position to see why King James' faithful scholars translated antistenai as "resist not." The king would not want people concluding that they had any recourse against his or any other sovereign's unjust policies...

TGIfor Google Reader.

This Land Is Their Land : Reports from a Divided Nation - Barbara Ehrenreich
Really, really looking forward to reading Nickel and Dimed. But this was a good satiating of the ol' progressive appetite.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Barbara Ehrenreich
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Protests

You can view the interview for this book on the Colbert Report here (hopefully).


Psalms - Various
I hear a lot of evangelicals (good people, good friends) say that they read the Proverbs on a daily basis. Doesn't really make a lot of sense to me, to be honest. It's like reading an advice column and thinking that since it's the Bible, it's all applicable. But if you're going to read some ancient Hebrew poetry, I can't think of a better place to start than these honest (too honest, at times) prayers. Well, maybe the first couple of chapters of Genesis and latter Isaiah...

Miscellaneous:
These are books that I've put on hold. They're wonderful and very consuming of attention. Digestive and challenging. Which is probably why I've put them on hold for this time.
Surprised by Hope - NT Wright (short excerpt)
Jesus Wants to Save Christians - Rob Bell
Prayer - Philip Yancey

Ten Rockinest LP's from the Allright Aughties

Paste Magazine has been asking your favorite albums of the decade (in whatever it's being called these days: the Aughts? The Rockin' Aughties? the "Double" "O's"?) and it got me to straight-up thinkin... Hmmm...

Okay, this is not my definitive list. It's more of a working-edit list - a preparation for the big event that is the roar of the Big Teens. Nothing is set in stone here.

Bare in mind that I haven't bought too much music recently and that only occasionally have I really been able to delve into the latest and greatest (only to be reminded once again that just because something plays good on the radio doesn't mean it lasts. I'm looking at you, just about every band). I still have a lot of music recently that I'd like to play a few more times, loudly, to see if they make the cut or fake the dump (do you think that phrase will make the cut... or fake the dump?). Even ones listed on here should get another couple spins before I

A further complication is that either rock music is spending less time composing the full-length album and going back to the singles format, only still selling 50-70 minute records, or I'm just too lazy to listen to a full album anymore.

In no particular order except Album - Artist:

• Phrenology - The Roots
• Return to Cookie Mountain - TV on the Radio
• Come on and Feel the Illinoise - Sufjan Stevens
• Mr. Buechner's Dream - Daniel Amos
• Funeral - Arcade Fire
• Graduation - Kanye West
• Modern Times - Bob Dylan
• Live from another Level - Israel & New Breed
• Oh Brother Where Art Thou? - Various, Music from the Motion Soundtrack
• The Ringing Bell - Derek Webb
  

Note, I deliberately tried not to double-up on artists.

Others that are in consideration include U2, Joe Henry, Metric, Mars Ill, Jay-Z (for Fade to Black, which I'd have to consider apart from his post-retirement drizzle), Hold Steady (I'm still torn on them...), and Radiohead.

Another consequence of consumptive consumerism (lost authority & identity)

The internal cause of such enculturation [as the American ethos of consumerism has been wrought particularly in the American Church] is our loss of identity through the abandonment of the faith tradition. Our consumer culture is organized against history. There is a depreciation of memory and a ridicule of hope, which means everything must be held in the now, either an urgent now or an eternal now. Either way, a community rooted in energizing memories and summoned by radical hopes is a curiosity and a threat in such a culture. When we suffer from amnesia every form of serious authority for faith is in question, and we live unauthorized lives of faith and practice unauthorized ministries.

- Walter Brueggemann
The Prophetic Imagination (1st edition)

Drops Like Stars: A Rumination

This probably won't be so heavy as to justify being titled a rumination, but just a really random collection of ideas from Rob Bell's Drops Like Stars event last night.

The circulating and connecting ideas were on creation, hurt, boredom, purpose, art, life, incarnation and the many ways that these truths are interconnected and how we are connected because of suffering and the art produced thereof.

We can own yet never possess. And we can possess without ever owning. As an illustration, he points out that he owns a high-end Rickenbacker. And occasionally he'd strum madly on it, but not with any sort of expertise. A friend would come in and make the guitar gently weep (my words, well George Harrison's words, not his). He and his wife own a painting, but a friend came by and was completely in to the painting, delving in all the wonderful intricacies that are in the frames of the frames on the canvas - areas and subtleties and nuances and colors and themes that the owners weren't even aware of...

Because of the incarnation, no one could ever say to God, "But you don't understand what I'm going through..." Incidentally, one of the most powerful sentences you can hear from somebody else is, "I understand your pain."

Oftentimes when we've made a mistake, we claim that we've wasted our time. But God wastes nothing. Two groups of students were given a project for their sculpting class. The first was to make the most beautiful project that they could by the end of the semester. The other was to make as much as they could by the end of the semester. At the end of the project, Group 1's work was far less appealing than that of Group 2. G1 had sat around theorizing all possible manner of getting the "right", the "perfect" opus. G2 had tried and failed and learned and tried and failed and learned and tried. And failed. And learned. Their final pieces were infinitely better than the other group's.

Are we bored? Are we living somebody else's life? Do we not know how our lives could be filled with purpose? It's through love, through helping others. That's how we fit into a larger, cosmic purpose set out before us, long before our time. God designed us to love, to feel each others' burdens, to pick up our cross, to delight to be of service...

May we see with creativity, may we see with the wide-open eyes of a child.

If you can, I'd encourage you to go see it. Chicago was the first stop. If you see a bunch of weirdos walking around in black Michigan-shaped T's, follow them around... I just think it's a great experience to hear freshness again.

More filler: First 24 songs on iPod

another random shuffle, sukas! Set your iPods (or comparable player, in my case, my iTunes player) to shuffle and transcribe the first 25 that come up. You're on the honor code, so no skipping over those teenage girls that you pretend you only have for your nieced and no skipping ahead to some no-name band that quit after its first show thereby granting it instant twirps-in-tight-jeans cred.

Ready? Let's rock!!

Beverly Blvd. - Pigeon John
Ghost of the Heart - Daniel Amos
Droned - Starflyer 59
Jesus Be a Fence Around Me - Fred Hammond
I'm Cool [Interlude] - Stankonia
Presence of the Lord - Blind Faith
Noah: Me and You, Lord - Bill Cosby
One and the Same - Deepspace 5
Axe to Grind - Deepspace 5
I'll Be Around - Duvall
Everything's Just Wonderful - Lily Allen
Can't Stand Losing You - The Police
Theo's Logic - Daniel Amos
I Get a Kick out of You - Frank Sinatra
Thought Managerie - Sixpence None the Richer
Freedom's Child - Billy Joe Shaver
Blank - Violent Femmes
Whitey on the Moon - Gil Scott-Heron
New Way to Be Human - Switchfoot
Rock You - The Roots
Blank - Violent Femmes (yes, that came up twice. What am I supposed to do about that?)
Boplicity - Miles Davis
Blue Monday - New Order
Greater Is He in Me - The Crabb Family (Get your minds outta the gutters, folks. And no, I'm not a fan of Southern Gospel)

Good ness! There is a whole lotta music by Christians on this. Even one of the 'secular' songs is a Gospel song. Fortunately, nothing embarrassing showed up (wouldn't want y'all to believe that I'm still listening to 'Luv Is a Verb' or 'The Champion' now) - at least nothing that I'm embarrassed by - until the end.

We are called Jas Dye for we are many

The makers of Facebook are both astute businesspeople and complete nerds. Now, most astute businesspeople are aware that in order for their ventures to succeed, they have to do well in the minds of their customers. However, it's becoming clear that the Facebookers-that-be have figured that if we're busy making and becoming friends with real people on their network, then we won't be able to find out just how misanthropic they really are.

They have no direct customer service. Instead, they have set up a system where everything is run into a complex computer database and program - their reactions and fixes are based on logarithms or logosrim or latinrhythhms or whatever you computer geek friends call it (here I use "geek" in a nice way!) - and they find it cheaper and more effective to run their galaxy from afar and aloof, like a non-vampire Rupert Murdoch. But who can blame them? With such a large, exponentially-growing network, why should they be pestered by the cries of their individual customers anyway?

Now that I got that recently discovered background out of the way...

Recently, when I've left comments on status updates, occasionally a window would pop open and warn me that their loggorheia is telling them that I may be annoying or pestering to some. Fine, I think. Checking on the 'information' link they send me, there's nothing - as far as I can tell - that is applicable to me (unless I have sent out malware unawares). They warned that if I continued in my actions (which were unclear), that they would be forced to discontinue my account.

However, I had to ask: Is it likely that I've been annoying people? The answer: Does a bear poopoo in the woods? Do I write a lot of comments? Is Facebook my main source of social interaction? (How did introverts ever survive before social media? What's that? Monasteries, you say... Hmmm...)

In response, I commented less and less, yet the pop-up window threats were appearing more and more. A couple days ago, I got sent an automatic email that made the threat very clear and very present. They are going to shut down my facebook account!! I was anxious!! Oh no!! Somebody stop me!! I really like Goose Island's Honker's Ale!!

I figured that even though I would have to start a new account very soon, I really did not want to have to start it over from scratch. I should probably have an overlap period of time (give it about a week or so) where I could pull from the old account and then shut it down... for good (or bad, really).

Obviously it's a bit of a waste of time for me, but the alternative makes less sense - especially since I use the site for networking as well as retaining and expanding upon friendships.

And That was pretty rambling...

My life through the hidden, hidden songwork of Adam Again

Rules:
Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to 15 people you like and include me. You can't use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think! Repost as "my life according to (band name).

Pick your Artist:
Adam Again - Obscure to many but other obscure, independent-minded, underground-ish musicians and music lovers toiling in the CCM industry (many of which I am peeing my pants that I'm so happy to fb-befriend), the late, great Gene "Eugene" Andrusco & Co. released a wonderful and neglected album called Dig. And a handful of other wonderful albums as well. But I've blogged about them again and again. For now it's just silly blog filler (until later this week when I do the same thing with other fatally-neglected underground CCM genius songwriter Mark Heard).

Are you a male or female:
"Homeboys"

Describe yourself:
"Hopeless (Etc.) "

How do you feel:
"Relapse" or "No Regrets"

Describe where you currently live:
"This Band Is Our House"

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
"Hide Away"

Your favorite form of transportation:
"Sleep Walk"

Your best friend is:
"All You Lucky People"

You and your best friends are:
"Eyes Wide Open"

Your Pets:
"Stone"

What's the weather like:
"Walk Between the Raindrops"

Favorite time of day:
"Morning Song"

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
"Dig"

What is life to you:
"It Is What It Is (What It Is)"

Your relationship:
"You Can Fall in Love"

Your fear:
"River on Fire"

What is the best advice you have to give:
"The Trouble with Lies"

Thought for the Day:
Is "Deep"

How I would like to die:
"Bad News on the Radio"

My soul's present condition:
"Miracles"

My motto:
"Worldwide"

In Defense of Affordable Housing

This is a repost from a blog I did in March on the now-defunct ChicagoDads site. I am partly doing this in anticipation or celebration of a few events. One is the kick-off of Home Sweet Chicago, a joint venture of neighborhood watchdogs with the implicit goal of asking for more TIF funds in Chicago to be used for affordable housing for those who need them (an informative article from the Sun-Times about HSW and the regrettable practice of "affordable" housing is here). Another biggie is MAPA's big event in cooperation with a local After Schools Matter program (they had interviewed several members of the community and are releasing a book about it) at a local hot-spot on Monday night (interestingly enough, right in between my wife's birthday and our anniversary. I think three years is celebratory, eh?). The third reason, well, that may be the subject of an upcoming post soon.

Affordable housing is all the rage in Chicago recently. As in, some people get viscerally and physically angry about it. They feel that since they put a lot of money down for their property under the auspices that it is an “upcoming” neighborhood, setting aside new buildings for low-income families means that the undeserving get to steal a piece of the retail pie. Meanwhile, those who just invested much money into the fledgling area are swiftly losing their investment, or so some would have them believe.

First off, just a wee bit of education: Affordable housing is not giving away space to lazy, worthless, freeloading individuals or families. Everybody who applies for affordable housing needs to have steady income. They are already contributing members of society. Second, simply because they do not make as much money as some others does not mean that they should be pushed and shoved at the whim of those who can afford to buy and sell houses as if they were dealing in poker chips.

But then the opponents of affordable housing must further be asked: What of the people who have put down family and history and community and business in their area and have invested in it for decades? What if they have worked their tails off day-in and day-out just in order to get by, just to pay rent or mortgage and have barely enough money left over for essentials? What happens when they are forced out of their living arrangements because the area around them is moving in such a rate that they (or their landlords) cannot afford to keep up with, say, the new taxes on their property. So, owners are forced to sell their properties or jack up their rents. All of a sudden, a whole slew of people are looking for cheap apartments and yet has the type of infrastructure that is needed for their families.

So, what these hard-working families are left with is a volatile cocktail with any of the following options:

• Live even closer to the edge of financial ruin by pulling money out of a safety-net (retirement savings, college savings, insurance, car, etc.)
• Pull oldest children out of school so that they can earn extra money for family.
• Move to an area where it is difficult or impossible to commute to current jobs or jobs within their skill set that would pay a decent wage.
• Move to an area without social, societal, and scholastic infrastructure.
• Declare bankruptcy and default on loans.
• Become homeless. Which also may happen as a result of the items listed above over time.

I have shared in both the responsibility and the burden of having many of my students, friends and their families wrestle with these realities. What’s more, any of the above puts more burden on the community and society. A homeless family is primarily concerned about getting basic needs met now, for instance. Contributing to society is not a practical option by the way, Time magazine just ran an article on how 1 out of 50 children is now homeless . That includes a more than 20% jump of Chicago Public Schools students in the last three years that are deemed homeless - with total numbers well above the national average). Bankruptcy and financial ruin means less money. Kids being pulled out of college, high school and sometimes grade school may be necessary in the short-run, but is economically disastrous in the long-haul. Also, when families are cast out of their neighborhoods to other areas, existing school buildings lose students. As they lose students, they lose finances and function (this is happening at an incredible rate here in Logan Square). Soon, the schools have to close down. In the meantime, the new neighborhoods that the families are thrown into do not have the resources to school all of the new children. So, while the one school is being torn down, new schools - and social networks - are going to have to be built in entirely different areas. Not only does this not make financial sense, it doesn’t make ecological sense.

Save the planet, support affordable housing.

-originally posted in ChicagoDads.Today.com

Happy birthday, dear Joss.

The terrible two's, eh?

It seems weird in that when she's not sick and holding on to us for dear life (and giving us kisses in an apparent decision to share her diseases), she's fiercely independent.

But when has that not been the case?

In honor of her turning two, I gathered up 18 photos representing the last twelve months of her life (because we only took three pictures for every two months) and put a little She & Him on top of it like so much butter and maple syrup on your favorite pancakes. Mmm, 'joy!

Health-Care Reform - or - The History of the World, pt. 5b -Edit

These are in large part responses to some questions I've been hearing (and to be honest, re-hearing and re-hearing) in regards to health care in general in the US, mostly by US citizens who are fearful of losing rights and what they perceive as the slippery slope towards Communism. In lieu of a narrative or even a framing device, I give you points:

• I do not consider myself to be a liberal. To me and many others, the term brings up images of naive folk who believe that people are, in their hearts, nice and good and gentle. We could all just get along if only we were allowed to. I tend to think that we all have goodness and corruption dwelling within us. And if the bad within us is not checked in social (and not just private) settings, well, some pretty monstrous and heretofore unimaginable events have happened just within the last century. People - in other words - need protection from people. And not just the scary, boogie-woogie men that lurk in shadows and alleys, either. We need protection from systems of people - which is where the worst that could happen not only does, but is condoned and justified (think Aushwitz, think Taliban, think Enron, think Manhattan Project).
• If the federal government is something to be scared of, so are big, multinational corporations. And there's more money in those corporations than there are in the government. So, guess who has whose ear? But also, guess who, in terms of medicine and health care, is wasteful, uses large sums of government monies with no re-pay for their own profit, has immense overhead costs, limits patients' ability to see doctors and to get treatment off-campus, will deny coverage for pre-existing conditions, and is generally not affordable for members of the working-class who do not have jobs that pay a huge percentage of the insurance costs?
  
• As the economy continues to suffer and bleed (although more slowly) while health care costs continue to rise, those companies will not be able to afford to foot the bills.
• The Health Care bill making its rounds through the legislature is weak, ineffective and will probably end up doing more damage than good, convincing Washington and Joe SixPack that universal health care is a bad idea. Now, it may be a step in the right direction, and may be an impetus for some strong change, but I will not argue nor speak about the current health bill. As far as I'm concerned, it's a bad compromise, watered down by Big Pharm interests who are still threatened by it enough to send misinformation by paid think-tankers.
• Who would dream of privatizing the military? Yet the military is run by Washington and is a pretty smooth machine.
  
• And the post office. I constantly hear complaints that amount to a pandering, "We don't want our hospitals to be run like the post office." What?? Are you kidding me? The hospitals would be run by the staff and administrators, same as always. They would be paid by one single insurance company. That's the main difference: Single. Payer. Health. Care. Furthermore, if the insurance companies were to be run nearly as smoothly and effectively as the USPS, I would be a very, very happy man. I have lost less mail sending and receiving during my whole life than I have lost claims, files, and complaints sent to the insurance companies during my daughter's first year of life.
• My wife and I easily spent the majority of our adult lives without any sort of health insurance. Where it not for SCHIP (an imperfect program, cf. the fourth point), our two year old would have been uninsured for most of her life as well - especially since my insurance ran out when she had turned two months old. Not a good spot to be in, for sure. To boot, we would have run in immense debt and would spend years trying to pay that off rather than, say, send her to preschool so she can begin her education amongst her peers.
  
• Under SPHC, every one puts money into the pot. A three percent flat tax rate should be equal to or less than what is being paid now by most of those who are insured. As far as the companies, they will also pay at a rate around or less than what they pay now. Now, as per companies that do not now pay, I for one would be only too happy to see the largest retailer in the world finally give to the system that they have been stealing from. Although the costs may, at first, be a bit steep for many small and start-up companies, they will have the added advantage of not having to worry about hassling with a medical benefits package (and that would save money and time that would otherwise go to Human Resources and paperwork), and not have to worry about not having insurance as a carrot to get the better employees. Likewise, employees can relax and work where they want to and where they feel most needed and otherwise compensated as long as health insurance is not a worry.
• Edit: Malpractice insurance will also drastically reduce. Think thusly with me, if you would: If the majority of money rewarded in a malpractice suit goes toward future operations to remedy the operation in question. But if all future operations are already paid for, that would reduce the settlements to, say, punitive and work-related damages, (reduced?) lawyer fees, etc.
  
• All this talk asserting that socialized medicine will turn our country into another Communist/Marxist state is... I don't know, why don't you yell at Great Britain, Australia, Canada, France, Sweden, Denmark, Norway... you know, the Soviet Bloc run by Mao, Lenin and the Anti-Christ?
• And the Republican strategy for reforming the health industry in the US is based on the promise of tax rebates. Tax Rebates? Seriously?? And not even guaranteed but suggested? How will this help the working poor? Seriously, they barely pay taxes in the first place. Who gives a crap about taxes? Seriously!! I can't think of a more silly idea. I'm offended by the idea...
  

For sure, there are other areas that could not be feasibly addressed by any government action yet would drastically cut costs while improving health and national proficiency. Regular exercise, cutting out of junk food, eating organic, alternative medicines, drastically reducing air and soil pollutants, perhaps making such dangerous and costly habits as excessive drinking as taboo as we have smoking, etc, etc. We also need to move away from this culture of medicine as business, where doctors prescribe what will get them the most money (some articles are attached below and they give examples, including the Mayo clinic and a community in Texas, will provide examples of what to do as well as what not to do), regardless of whether it's in the patient's best interest or not.

Some other reading that may or may not be about single-payer health care but may lead to an intelligent conversation about affordable healthcare in this country anyway:

NY Times on a hospital that pays its doctors by salary, thus drastically reducing its costs (yet, oddly enough, is not being modeled in the bills in DC).
A fairly exhaustive FAQ's page about Single Payer Health Care.
A long but extremely informative (and well-written) piece by Dr. Atul Gawande on the culture war of medicine as business and how it is destroying us.
Stephen Colbert interviews Aaron Carroll on SPHC.

A Modest Proposal for All Those Trying to Enter America

It appears that with every problem in these United States that we have, every time a resourceful citizen dreams up a possible and viable solution to a fundamental problem of the peoples (be it health care, economic prosperity, national safety, job retention, or problems in the bedroom with a member of the fairer sex), another road-block is thrown onto the streets. That roadblock is called "illegal immigrants." They apparently are the reason that we cannot afford childcare, welfare, health care, nor, apparently, Bel Aire.

Now, I know the answer that you are thinking to that ultimate question. We should run over those roadblocks and their children. They aren't even supposed to be there anyway. And that is a good answer, four years ago, when we could afford Expeditions and H2's. But this is a new, ecologically-friendly Depression-lite era, and unless you have a chipper in front of your Prius, that thinking just will not do justice for this day. We need a bold and creative plan of action that will once and for all solve the problem of too many immigrants.

Now you will notice that I did not say, "the problem of the immigrants." That wording is too broad. It does not tell you what it is that is wrong with immigrants. For surely not everything about immigrants (nor immigration) is amiss. Most reasonable men (and some of the more reasonable women folk) will agree that at least a small amount of new blood is good for the soil of our country. Who else will work crappy jobs for piss pay? The un-Americans, that's who!

So, we do not need to completely plug the holes, but rather to control the flow of foreigners coming into our land, dating our sisters, and eating our children. I, fortunately for you, dear reader, have thought long and hard for many, many minutes about this thingymabobby.

It has struck me that the path to legal immigration and citizenship is wholly unlike the path that our forefathers took in founding this wonderful nation. George Washington never had to take a test that asked who George Washington is. No, the Washingtons worked the fingers of their slaves to the bones and threw tens of hundreds of thousands of voluntary military men into the range of fire for the right to be called a citizen of the United States of America (or, as it was called in the time, "America: F**k yeah!"). True heroes opened up the borders of what we would define as our God-given rightful land by heart-wrenchingly creating and then breaking peace treaty after peace treaty, raping, declaring war on, and/or enslaving brown-skinned people from

Our new visitors need to demonstrate that they have the same heart that our great forefathers did. It seems to me that very few, if any, of the recent migrants who have darkened our shores (be they via the Pacific, Atlantic, or Rio Grande Oceans) have raped, murdered, mangled or so much given a smallpox-infested blanket to an Indian. Obviously, there aren't enough Indians around for large-scale genocide in these times (Oh, the old glory days...), but that will in fact open up the stakes, for they will understand that they are being hunted down and will go into hiding.

The practicalities would work out as thus: by lottery we will choose, say, 2,000 "undocumented" immigrants for short visa stays per month. Within that month, they are expected to unload, pay their respects to the great centers of our nation (the Statue of Liberty, Liberty Bell, Wasilla, Savannah plantations, etc.) and then commit random acts of genocide on the Indian population.

However, if the foreigner has the ability to import a boat load of free laborers upon his or her arrival, that will also prove his or her character. The new arrival will not need to undergo the month-long process, but will be granted immediate citizenship upon arrival and a recitation of The Pledge of Allegiance (preferably with bombs bursting in air in the background). I mean the new arrival who owns the boat and the laborers, not the laborers themselves. They will each represent 2/3's of a person.

One perceived side-effect for this ultimate solution would be that there will be fewer casinos. Not to worry, since the gaming centers run on reservations may be staffed by Natives, but are not owned by Natives. Although, for nostalgia's sake, I'm sure you will be greeted by a tall, dark and handsome man wearing loincloth and carrying a tomahawk and peace pipe -- just like the Iroquios, Mohawk, or Fighting Illini.

That is, if you are a citizen.

Things You Find in a Closet

From Graph Jam via Tony Jones

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.

Book Selection: Surprised by Hope

[Editor's notes: 1) I'm going to try to finish up "Oscar Week" this week or next week. Most likely early next week. Depends on whether or not I can finish up any more really recent really good films (at current rates, no such luck); 2) I'm taking a semi-bloggatical, but mostly from my work at ChicagoDads. Still, every other day (at least through this week), I'll have something posted there. So, please, check it out.]

This book addresses two questions that have often been dealt with entirely separately but that, I passionately believe, belong tightly together. First, what is the ultimate Christian hope? Second, what hope is there for change, rescue, transformation, new possibilities within the world in the present? And the main answer can be put like this. As long as we see Christian hope in terms of "going to heaven," of a salvation that is essentially away from this world, the two questions are bound to appear as unrelated. Indeed, some insist angrily that to ask the second one at all is to ignore the first one, which is the really important one. This in turn makes others get angry when people talk of resurrection, as if this might draw attention away from the really important and pressing matters of contemporary social concern. But if the Christian hope is for God's new creation, for "new heavens and new earth," and if that hope has already come to life in Jesus of Nazareth, then there is every reason to join the two questions together. And if that is so, we find that answering the one is also answering the other. I find that to many -- not least, many Christians -- all this comes as a surprise: both that the Christian hope is surprisingly different from what they had assumed and that this same hope offers a coherent and energizing basis for work in today's world.

NT "Tom" Wright
Surprised by Hope

Oscar Week #1: Wall*E

Oscar week (where I try to recount my favorite movies from 2008 as I'm catching up to them) starts today. My review of my favoritest movie of the year (and favorite for a long time) is posted at friend, pastor (and blogger) David's Signs of Life blog.

I really love that film in a way that I think my review doesn't quite express. But the review was festering in my head and I didn't write down and wrestle with the passages until the last few minutes. So what's left is a sprawling bit of a mess that I don't have the talent to put together in the last few minutes. I may just re-edit the piece and repost it here at the end of the week. But don't let that stop you from going to SoL and making a comment.

As far as what qualifies as an Oscar Week pic at LeftCheek:
1) I'd have to really like it. (Sorry, Tropic Thunder)
2) I'd have to have had an interest in seeing it, in order to see it (sorry, Benjamin Button)
3) It should have either been released in 2008 or widely released in 2008 (therefore, even though There Will Be Blood was released in '07 and in fact nominated for Best Pic at the last Oscars, most people didn't get a chance to view it until '08. Then again, most people chose not to. Sometimes, it sucks to be most people).

Weekend Links We Like to Link to

The early history of Gitmo. And, Gitmo replies to the closing of Gitmo:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Gitmo's World - Death to America

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Funny Political News
Joke of the Day

Other Daily Show pieces on Gitmo/Guantanamo Baywatch here.


Interesting article at NYTimes about how the financial district tends to lead the way in the cyclical nature of executive pay. This actually seems like good news to my ears, a kind of leveling off. No mention, however, was made to how this Great Pay Deduction may affect pampered sports stars. But all signs point to: let 'em loose and suffer like the rest of us!

Fellow Facebook users, protect yourselves! There's actually a lot of stuff on here that I wasn't aware of, and before I get my professional on again, I'll have to put 'em to good practice. (via A. T. at Facebook)

Illinois Governors - the Facebook Profile Pics

In case you missed it, for the last week plus, my profile picture was of former governors of Illinois who ran afoul of the law either before or after their tenure. There are four, count them FOUR, within the last half century or so. Four of the last eight. Beautiful. That's a 50% chance. Not good odds.

Rod Blagojevich: 2003-2009
Pay to Play Scandal
(Did we mention that he looks like a Lego-Man? More info on him in ChicagoDads page. And yet some more to come.)

George Homer Ryan: 1999-2003
Licenses for Bribes Scandal (twenty-three charges, including racketeering, extortion, obstructing justice, accepting bribes)
(Fun fact: Wikipedia lists next Republican trying to replace him [and losing to Blagojevich] as "Jim Ryan [his son]". This is wrong. And bad, even by Wikipedia standards. The two are not related; that much was reported by the media numerous times during the election.)

Daniel Walker: 1973-1977
Savings & Loan Fraud in the 1980's
Quote from his autobiography, "I knew this was against regulations. But like most businessmen, I saw a huge difference between regulations and law."


Otto Kerner, Jr.: 1961-1968
Accepting Bribes
(Interesting note from Wikipedia - and this may or may not be apocryphal, Kerner was turned in because the Arlington Park race track manager deducted his bribes from her tax forms because she was under impression that bribes were an ordinary business expense in Illinois. To which I reply, "Well, to an extent.")

Weekend Links We Like to Link to - Super Duper Deluxe Edition!

This is to make up for sucking at blogging here the last few months (although you can still find me - at least through the next month - blogging at ChicagoDads. I think I did some pretty decent posts there this last week, if I do say so myself.)

Maureen Dowd's righteous indignation at these idiots who take our money and reward themselves for doing it.

Since we're speaking of harsh lifestyle changes for the rich: It's the Economy, Stupi... Girlfriends (and mistresses). (Micah via Twitter)

Graphic novelist (and recent Newberry Winner) Neil Gaiman gives it to us straight: Where do ideas come from? Also, just a bit of slant, too.

Be warned: There be slow zones and zombies ahead! (Jeffrey Overstreet via Facebook)

Berkeley, oh, Berkeley. Thanks for reminding me of where hippies went wrong [and why I want to kick them]. (@spydrz via Twitter)

Young Adult Literature writing kit. If it sounds familiar, that's because it's been done, time, and time, and time, and time again.

Another reason to not name your boy Sue or Roddrick: Jail time. (ibid)

Weekend Links We Like to Link to - Inauguration & Palestine edition

• Wonderful pics of Inauguration Day via the Boston Globe. Numbers 3 & 5 give a wow visual to the crowds. But I was more awed/floored/taken by the pics 19 and 23. Which means, yes, I did cry. Again.

• Among all the hubbub, it was good to see friends who supported and voted for Obama keep their cool about them and just throw a few words of moderation out there. In addition, I did a post on the other site about this social-psychological status called elevation, which I think a lot of people erroneously view as either idol-worship or momentum for change. It is neither, but it can still be a watershed moment (pun not intended).

• My wife's friend is studying in Jerusalem now, expecting to leave shortly (long story). She told us about how the Palestinians were basically trapped - that all of the jobs and money was outside of their encamped neighborhoods but that they could not leave those areas. Now, I'm no fan of terrorism, but I think I can see where the seeds of extremism and violence are sown, and this scenario can't be good for anyone. As Jenn said via Facebook, I don't think they'd put this story ("Inside the World's Largest Prison") in a US paper, which is too bad, because a lot of people are missing something in their anti-terrorism (and anti-Muslim) rhetoric. Pray for the peace of the Middle East.

I found it on Wikipedia!

Ever since this whole series of interconnected tubes got together to call themselves the interwebs, I was a bit skeptical that the center may not hold. And now, here's my proof:

"Factual Error Found on the Internet". srce: The Onion News.

If this trend continues, tomorrow may see this headline:

Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash

Click here if video doesn't play (due, no doubt, to collapse of internets)