The Progressive Blog Alliance HQ

Crossposted from The Republic of T.

If you think I'm going to say what you think I'm going to say about Thanksgiving, well, I already did and it went over like a lead balloon. Boy, do people not what to hear about that stuff. Thankfully, this year other people are talking about that stuff.

Teacher Bill Morgan walks into his third-grade class wearing a black Pilgrim hat made of construction paper and begins snatching up pencils, backpacks and glue sticks from his pupils. He tells them the items now belong to him because he "discovered" them. The reaction is exactly what Morgan expects: The kids get angry and want their things back.

Morgan is among elementary school teachers who have ditched the traditional Thanksgiving lesson, in which children dress up like Indians and Pilgrims and act out a romanticized version of their first meetings.

Morgan said he still wants his pupils at Cleveland Elementary School in San Francisco to celebrate Thanksgiving. But "what I am trying to portray is a different point of view."

Others see Morgan and teachers like him as too extreme.

"I think that is very sad," said Janice Shaw Crouse, a former college dean and public high school teacher and now a spokeswoman for Concerned Women for America, a conservative organization. "He is teaching his students to hate their country. That is a very distorted view of history, a distorted view of Thanksgiving."

You know, the stuff we're not supposed to talk about today.

From P!

Imagine that you are a cinderblock. Imagine that all of us Americans are each a cinderblock. And that we are part of a wall. We are stuck in that wall, unable to move, unable to escape.

The mortar binding us all together in this impenetrable wall is an iron-like mixture . . . of lies. We are all bricks in a wall of lies. It's too late to opt out of being a part of the wall - we're already there. In fact, we've become so embedded in the wall, that we're unable to struggle for one tiny nanometer of wiggle room.

We are the wall, impervious, impenetrable. Those of us bricks who do see and hear the truth are unable to act on it. We're stuck.

We haven't always been the wall. But the wall is, in truth, older than we can remember. It certainly wasn't built by the Bush Administration, although they have contributed steely strength to the mortar of lies. The Doubleduh-Cheney Gang would not have been able to perpetrate such lies if the wall was not already fully in place . . . [continue at P!]

I'm not really used to reviewing books that are not straight-up nonfiction. These days it's mostly history and/or theory. And it's not because I don't like anything else, just because of circumstance. Brand, one of Canada's foremost authors, writes novels (I've read and very much enjoyed At the Full and Change of the Moon), political essays (I would recommend Bread Out of Stone, especially the essay on cultural appropriation), history (an important work of oral history of Black women who worked in Ontario between 1920 and 1950), and poetry (haven't read any myself but it is also widely acclaimed), and she has a long history of grassroots involvement in...

(Continued here at A Canadian Lefty in Occupied Land.)

The very isolation of the individual -- from power and community and ability to aspire -- means the rise of a democracy without publics. With the great mass of people structurally remote and psychologically hesitant with respect to democratic institutions, those institutions themselves attenuate and become, in the fashion of the vicious circle, progressively less accessible to those few who aspire to serious participation in social affairs. The vital democratic connection between community and leadership, between the mass and the several elites, has been so wrenched and perverted that disastrous policies go unchallenged time and again . . .

[Ghost of Adam S]	Welcome to the Thursday Morning meeting of Imperialists Anonymous. My name is Adam and I am an Imperialist.
[All]	Hello Adam.
[Ghost of Adam S]	Will somebody be so kind as to read "Who"?
[Ghost of Winston C]	My name is Winston and I am an Imperialist.
[All]	Hello Winston.
[Ghost of Winston C]	Who is an Imperialist? Most of us do not have to think twice about this question, we know! Our whole life and thinking was centred in domination in one form or another: the getting and using of resources and finding ways and means to monopolise more. We lived to dominate and dominated to live.

For reasons of possible copyright infringement, we'll leave this meeting of IA, but it continues here.

War Against Conservativism

Let us see then if we cannot in fact eff the ineffable ~ Douglas Adams RIP

Disreputable Lazy Aliens

From the thread "Pat Robertson says something stupid, again"

"a man this vile has a platform in the most powerful state on the planet" ~ Marduk

Don't believe the hype mate. The basis for the claim that the US is the most powerful nation on earth has been fallacious for some time. It is based on the seeming potential power of the american economy, however as recent events have proved, even the dollar's value being artificially propped up by the fact that it is the currency OPEC chose as the standard for the sale of oil (thus like a magic chequebook, in that the redeemable value would never be required to be payed by the Federal Reserve), has not prevented a massive Trade Deficit ($650 billion, i believe).

The domestic economy is in such poor shape that the President was forced to levy a %30 import tax on foreign steel imports not long ago, in an illegal (by the standards of the WTO) effort at protectionism, this despite the sheer hypochrisy of that, whilst at the same time championing 'Free Trade'.

The domestic motor industry is so unable to cope that the big 3: Ford, GM & Chrysler successfully negotiated a freeze on the application of law which would require their vehicles to meet minimum standards for fuel efficiency (so called CAFE law) for at least 3 years running, this despite that the required mpg was something like 27 point something for cars and 20-ish for light vans. Can you imagine European customers, never mind environmental lobbyists, standing for anything so piss poor?

Oh yeah, but it's ok because gasoline is so cheap in the US, right? In 2000, foreign imports of oil topped %50 as the source of domestically produced petroleum products, at a bill of a staggering $110 billion/year, at the time 1/4 of the Trade Deficit, as it was.

Liberals may well accuse McCain of having served as a useful tool for the Bushites on the torture issue, in that, by diverting the public's attention away from the real problem — the US Administration’s preposterous definition of torture — he has made it impossible to discuss the issue that really should be discussed. But that is only one part of the story. Yes, it is true that Bush can now simply claim that the US "does not torture," skirting completely around the question of what he means by the word "torture." The Bushites have manipulated the definition of torture so as to make it meaningless. And it is true that, meanwhile, activities that any rational person would consider to be torture will continue as before.  (read more at http://alse.blogspot.com )

In 1829 Eastern State prison in Pennsylvania conducted an experiment. They built an underground correctional facility that denied inmates any knowledge of the outside world. Inmates were deprived of sunlight; they couldn’t write or receive letters from loved ones; they couldn’t have visitors, or receive news of worldly events (and when taken out of their cells, they had to be hooded so as to prevent them from even seeing a natural living object). The idea was a puritanical one. You could reform the corrupted by denying them contact with the corrupting forces of society. Everyone, according to Quaker theology, has the “inner light of God” within them, so by replacing social interaction with solitary reflection, an individual might become reacquainted with ‘natural’ concepts of right and wrong and thereby rehabilitate himself.

Robert Fisk, the Middle East correspondent for the British newspaper The Independent, was in Toronto a couple of days ago. He gave a passionate speech centered on the Western newsmedia’s complicity and complacency in misrepresenting the war on Iraq. His mixture of humour and horror leaves a strong impression on the listener. He manages to bring to life fairly abstract subjects such as the old and new crimes of the Western powers in the Middle East finally revisiting them in the form of terrorism, now and in the future. He should definitely not be missed if the opportunity to hear him presents itself.

His historical analysis is highly engaging. Possibly because of his great passion and humanity, though, and the fact that he has witnessed so much death and suffering, he seems to look in the human heart for a solution to the problems he identifies. I found him rather Dickensian in believing that if only enough people were made to care about the suffering of strangers, war would turn to peace. He seems to think the problem is that most people in the West just don’t care about people in other countries. I find this point of view inadequate. No-one really cares about the situation of people in other countries. In the same way that Americans, for example, don’t care about the suffering of Iraqis, Iraqis don’t care about the suffering of Americans. Heck, most of the time people don’t care about the suffering of their next-door neighbour, not to speak of the suffering of strangers on the other side of the world, except perhaps when a natural disaster strikes.  (Read more at http://alse.blogspot.com )

Crossposted from The Republic of T.

Oh don't act so surprised. I've mentioned before how I feel about Columbus Day (not to mention Thanksgiving). I guess some folks might find something in it to celebrate, but I'm long, long past being able to do that.

I remember learning about Columbus and his "discovery" of America in school. (To quote Chris Rock "How the fuck do you discover something that's already got people on it? That's like me 'discovering' your car stereo.") It wasn't until years later that I got some idea of what his "discovery" meant for the folks who already happened to be sitting on that patch of ground. I kinda figured it didn't go down to well for them, since there aren't many of their descendants left around.

Dancing Salsa in Chicago

Can’t you just see Rita Hayworth
taking off the gloves in Gilda
while Mr. Smoke, a white female Persian cat
my friend Pepsi got at a shelter
imitated her to perfection, sang
Put The Blame On Me, Boys Put The Blame On Me ......

while raising her paws, a striptease
with incredible grace.

We danced all night;
suddenly you stopped.
I pointed my roachstomping high heels
toward Lakeshore
Drive
while you brushed
my navel with your thumb
and said, “Give me more gasoline, mami.”

Crossposted at The Republic of T.

This item got my attention as I caught up with my news/blog reading this afternoon. Apparently, some Senators are considering an official apology to Native Aemricans for … well … everything.

A U.S. senator on Wednesday urged a Senate committee to pass a resolution apologizing on behalf of the United States to American Indians for centuries of massacres, broken promises and other injustices.

Indian leaders at the hearing said they would need more than an apology to overcome the poverty, substance abuse and health care problems that many of their people face.

Crossposted from Quintonotes:

During the holiday season, I traveled to southern Missouri, the land of my birth. While there, I noticed that a new trend had developed since my last visit a year previous. Although I failed to conduct a scientifically valid survey, I estimate that 30-40 percent of the automobiles I saw on the roadways had yellow ribbon magnets attached to their exterior. On the ribbons were a variety of slogans that ranged from “Support Our Troops” to “God Bless Our Troops” to “God Bless America.” Some drivers had stuck more than one magnet to their automobile, amplifying the expression of their patriotism. The magnets were on sale at gas stations, grocery stores, and even Wal-Mart – the commercial center for many small and mid-size towns in the Midwest.

Crossposted from Quintonotes:

I just finished watching a speech Antonin Scalia delivered last week at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. It aired on C-SPAN this evening. At one point during the speech, Scalia began to say “homosexuality,” then hesitated, and instead said “homosexual sodomy.”

http://www.polycog.typepad.com/

I am Asking the necessary questions and probing deeper.

I take very seriously the right-wing shift in the US.

I want to think differently so as to act differently and turn this situation around.

Some recent topics:

Recent Posts

Bush Budget: Class War and the Morals Police What is Your Position? I want daddy: generation Y'ers and women are yearning to sit on George W's lap. Bush's class war: you thought ruining the economy hurt the poor -now comes the real pain::……or punishing the poor for the deficit they created The False Liberator or how Iraq stumbles forward despite the idiocy of the Bush administration The Golden Rule Formula Part 1: Leftists Need to Leave Cocoons of Academia and Professional Orgs Right Wing BS Law and the Courts

Class War Budget

The media hath spoken: 2004 was the “year of the blog.” As we all know, whenever a broadcast and print media come to a consensus, a truth is born. Thus, we can relax. There is no need to put any further thought into the matter. Unfortunately, I have a bad habit of thinking. And as a result of my nasty habit, I believe the media has completely misunderstood what the blog represents: the first significant manifestation of much larger trend.

This powerful trend is two-fold:

• the rise of the network as a form of social organization.
• the freeing information from the constraints and limitations of the physical world.

In the first post of this series, we will explore the rise of the network through the lenses of history, and the social sciences.

Free fix for a.. Oh, wait, I can't use that title

For those looking to get their history fix today, I've got three good links. First, the farmer @ corrente posts some prime examples of moral values in red states, circa 1927.

Dance-halls are ticket-offices to Hell.

Need I quote more? Of course I need to!

There are no soul-winning dancing Christians. I couldn't pray at a dance. Could you? I wouldn't enjoy reading my Bible after the dance. No young man will go through the motions of the dance, hour after hour, without thinking impure thoughts. I would be miserable if I knew God were watching me while dancing. A girl who dances cheapens herself in the eyes of the finest men in town.

Yes, folks, them's the moral values that the right wishes to enforce upon the populace. Shifting gears, Kevin Drum devels into WWII history to discuss why Democrats shouldn't become more hawkish against Islamic terrorism.

What follows is a passage from Ronald Fraser's excellent oral history of the Spanish Civil War, Blood of Spain: The Experience of Civil War 1936-1939, published in 1979 and released in paperback by Penguin Books. The account of the bombing of Guernica, which became a symbol of fascist terror, appears on pages 398-401:

“Amatxu, the church bells are ringing,” Ignacia OZAMIZ’s three-year-old son kept saying as, from the early morning, the bells tolled out warnings of enemy planes in the vicinity. The front was barely 20 km to the east at Marquina as the crow flies. Four months pregnant, she had put her child – the youngest of four – to bed after lunch when her husband, a local blacksmith, sent her a message to go down to the shelter. People had seen a big plane – the abuelo – over the mountains.

In this awful world where the efforts of caring people often pale in comparison to what is done by those who have power, how do I manage to stay involved and seemingly happy?

I am totally confident not that the world will get better, but that we should not give up the game before all the cards have been played. The metaphor is deliberate; life is a gamble. Not to play is to foreclose any chance of winning. To play, to act, is to create at least a possibility of changing the world.There is a tendency to think that what we see in the present moment will continue. We forget how often we have been astonished by the sudden crumbling of institutions, by extraordinary changes in people's thoughts, by unexpected eruptions of rebellion against tyrannies, by the quick collapse of systems of power that seemed invincible.