Hipster Olympics

If hipsters competed in anything. At all. This is what it would look like.

Bush somehow wows war scholars

As part of his Victory Tour, Bush spoke in my hometown of Carlisle, PA at the town's US Army War College, where he "found a friendly audience" who "ate up his applause lines, talked glowingly of his leadership style and thought little of his low approval ratings," according to an article in the Harrisburg Patriot News. What gets me is how these students--high ranking Army officers--can "study the nitty-gritty policy decisions and wide-arching philosophies that govern military action" then turn around and speak so "glowingly" of Bush. Sure, he's the president, and they'd show respect to whoever's in that office, but I don't see how the Bush doctrine can be seen as politically, philosophically, militarily or academically viable enough to turn these war policy geeks into giddy little kids.

Supposedly, "the president's speech gave them fodder for their classes," but the quotes I found sound more like spin than cohesive policy talking points for graduate level education, unless of course you're studying rhetoric and communications.

"We sent a clear message that America will not distinguish between terrorists and those who harbor them."

"Around the world more people live in liberty than any other time in world history," Bush said. "This is a hopeful beginning but only a beginning. The struggle against terror is a generational struggle."

"It is now the policy of the United States to seek the end of tyranny in all countries at all times."

Here's a blow-by-blow account of Bush's three and a half hours in Carlisle from the town's newspaper, the Sentinel.


(Photos from PennLive.com)

Holiday Vacation: Home Edition

January is national organization month! As in home organization, not political organization or unionizing, which is fun, too, and would make sense given that I've been blogging mostly about politics lately. But I got tired of my header and switched it out for something much more simple and less topically limiting. I'm also taking what widgets off I can get away with. Maybe the political theme will come back (but really, I doubt if it will leave, since even the personal is political!), and I'll keep talking about news & Obama, don't worry. But I'm done with the semester and want to take it easy, and not stay glued to the news 24/7. So I've started a house organizing project. We'll see how long it lasts, but I'm aiming to get each of the five rooms done in the next couple of weeks.

It's always good to start with a blank slate, so here's what the house looked like on moving day, July 2006 before we moved everything in. As you may have noticed, it's a small house. It'll be tricky getting the clutter down, but if we clear a lot of it out and send it to Goodwill, then place what we've got very carefully around the house, we just might able to pull it off. Stay tuned to see how it goes.

Bedroom: right now, the wardrobe on the right, plus two dressers, is all the place for storage here.

In the dining room, we've got a too-big table taking up the majority of floor space. Just a tiny shelf unit for dishes, plus this desk in the corner, a filing cabinet and a little table in the corner it what's in this room. I ultimately want shelves, and better light, in this room. 

The space below the counter wasn't being used very efficiently, so my project today was to consolidate a lot of containers, and now a lot more is under there. It would be nice to have cabinet doors under the counter. On the wall on the right side of the kitchen is our washing machine and mini freezer, for which I would like to build a countertop to go on top of, but be removable (either flip up or roll away) so we can access the appliances when needed. Finally, there's carpet on the floor, which people in Richmond seem to like. I don't, and I want it gone.

The living room is tricky because it's small, but it's the room we use the most, and every space is precious. We have a love seat on the wall to the right, and a book shelf to the right of the doorway. I'm compromising to get rid of the big chair that sits in front of the shelves and put in our futon. The shelves on the left were my first project this week, making videos/dvds, games & oversized books fit much better. I want shelves all along the wall on the left. 

The study/2nd bedroom is crowded with shelves of stored stuff I either want to throw away, send to Goodwill, reorganize, or send to the attic (which is a project in itself thanks to the lovely drop panel ceiling). Additionally, the futon takes up half the space, as well as a big desk I made from filing cabinets and scrap shelf wood. It's also the library and laundry room. And this is the smallest room in the house! I suspect this will be the last room I tackle.

I'll post updated photos as I take them, so come back for updates!

American Life in Poetry: Column 194

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

Father and child doing a little math homework together; it's an everyday occurrence, but here, Russell Libby, a poet who writes from Three Sisters Farm in central Maine, presents it in a way that makes it feel deep and magical.


Applied Geometry

Applied geometry,
measuring the height
of a pine from
like triangles,
Rosa's shadow stretches
seven paces in
low-slanting light of
late Christmas afternoon.
One hundred thirty nine steps
up the hill until the sun is
finally caught at the top of the tree,
let's see,
twenty to one,
one hundred feet plus a few to adjust
for climbing uphill,
and her hands barely reach mine
as we encircle the trunk,
almost eleven feet around.
Back to the lumber tables.
That one tree might make
three thousand feet of boards
if our hearts could stand
the sound of its fall.


American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright (c) 2007 by Russell Libby, whose most recent book is "Balance: A Late Pastoral," Blackberry Press, 2007. Reprinted from "HeartLodge," Vol. III, Summer 2007, by permission of Russell Libby. Introduction copyright (c) 2008 by The Poetry Foundation.  The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.  We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Weekly LOLnews roundup

From Pundit Kitchen, Fail Blog, and ROFLrazzi.

Civil Disobedience Cat

via LOLcat Photos Google Gadget.

Credo of a follower of Jesus

For those with interest in theology, I've posted my credo. It's incomplete and still evolving (as it should be), but my aim is to keep it as simple as possible.

Responses? Challenges? Leave a comment below.

Money for college or war?

This might be the most direct, certainly poignant, statement regarding war spending at the expense of education. It's scralwed onto a musical notation sheet; I wonder if anything would harmonize with it.

From Found Magazine.

Bush's religion interview from ABC

From ABC News,

As the end of his presidency nears, President George W. Bush sat down with "Nightline" co-anchor Cynthia McFadden for a wide-ranging interview in which he discussed in depth his personal faith and how it has informed his presidency...

In the interview, Bush also spoke at length about his personal faith and how it has informed his presidency. The president said that his relationship with God has grown over time, and began when he decided to stop drinking.

"It is hard for me to justify or prove the mystery of the Almighty in my life," he said. "All I can just tell you is that I got back into religion and I quit drinking shortly thereafter and I asked for help -- I was a one-step program guy."

When asked if he thought he would have become president had it not been for his faith, Bush said, "I don't know; it's hard to tell. I do know that I would have been -- I'm pretty confident I would have been a pretty selfish person."

Bush said he is often asked if he thinks he was chosen by God to be president.

"I just, I can't go there," he said. "I'm not that confident in knowing, you know, the Almighty, to be able to say, 'Yeah, God wanted me of all the other people.' My relationship [with God] is on a personal basis trying to become as closer to the Almighty as I possibly can get. And I've got a lot of problems. I mean, I got, you know, the ego ... all the things that prevent me from being closer to the Almighty. So, I don't analyze my relationship with the good Lord in terms of, well, you know, God has plucked you out or God wants you to do this. I know this: I know that the call is to better understand and live out your life according to the will of God."

He also pushed back on the notion that the decision to go to war in Iraq was somehow based on his faith.

"I did it based upon the need to protect the American people from harm," Bush said. "This was a period of time where we were deeply concerned about the security of the country, and given all the behavior of Saddam Hussein, and given the intelligence that we thought was valid at the time, and given the fact that we tried to give him a diplomatic way out, it was the right thing to do, and frankly, the world is better off without Saddam Hussein and so are the citizens of Iraq, but it was not a religious decision."

The private religious life of a president has always garnered public interest. As President-elect Obama prepares to take his place in the White House, many are wondering which church he will choose to attend in Washington, D.C.

Like his father, Bush is a member of St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington and often attends services at Camp David. He told McFadden that he prays in the Oval Office and said that faith "has made a great difference in my life."

"There is a sense of calm in the Oval Office, where there are obviously a lot of dramatic moments and a lot of, you know, pressure, but there is calm in the Oval Office," Bush said. "People say, 'But how do you know that it's because of prayer?' And I guess the answer is because of faith is how I know -- I can't prove it for you. People, you know, say it's just a crutch. For me, it's not a crutch, for me it's the realization of a power of a universal God and recognition that the God came manifested in human and then died for sins. Now, all of this was hard for me to understand for a period of time and I am still trying to understand as best as my human mind can possibly do so. But in the understanding and in the search and in the quest, I find comfort and strength."

When asked if he thinks that he prays to the same God as those with different beliefs, Bush said, "I do."

"I do believe there is an Almighty that is broad and big enough and loving enough that can encompass a lot of people," Bush said, but he drew a distinction when it comes to those who perpetrate terror.

"I think anyone who murders to achieve their religious objective is not a religious person," he said. "They may think they're religious, and they play like they're religious, but I don't think they're religious. They are not praying to the God I pray to ... the god of peace and love."

When asked if he believes the Bible is literally true, the president said that he's "not a literalist" when it comes to reading the Bible, but rather focuses on the important lessons he believes the Bible teaches.

As for whether one can believe in the Bible and believe in evolution, Bush said he does, adding that "I happen to believe that evolution doesn't fully explain the mystery of life.

"I think that God created the Earth, created the world," he said. "I think the creation of the world is so mysterious it requires something as large as an almighty, and I don't think it's incompatible with the scientific proof that there is evolution."

Read the rest of the story here.

Sadly, there have been rumors that Bush has been drinking heavily throughout his presidency. It's hard to know what's reliable information, but a conversation I had recently with an addiction counselor confirmed the reports.

Obama's (thankfully) Ivy League picks

For reasons I can't quite grasp, Obama is actually getting heat for hiring some of the best minds in the country. Since when did an Ivy League education actually disqualify someone from a job as selective and challenging as running the government? Maybe some like the "folksy" ways of Bush and his cronies, but I'd feel much better knowing someone is running the country who actually got something out of their first rate education. As the Washington Post reports,

All told, of Obama's top 35 appointments so far, 22 have degrees from an Ivy League school, MIT, Stanford, the University of Chicago or one of the top British universities. For the other slots, the president-elect made do with graduates of Georgetown and the Universities of Michigan, Virginia and North Carolina.

While Obama's picks have been lauded for their ethnic and ideological mix, they lack diversity in one regard: They are almost exclusively products of the nation's elite institutions and generally share a more intellectual outlook than is often the norm in government. Their erudition has already begun to set a new tone in the capital, cheering Obama's supporters and serving as a clarion call to other academics.

...Obama is to be credited, skeptics say, for bringing with him so few political acquaintances from Illinois. But, they say, his team reflects its own brand of insularity, drawing on the world that Obama entered as an undergraduate at Columbia and in which he later rose to eminence as president of the Harvard Law Review and as a law professor at the University of Chicago.

...Bush's first Treasury secretary, Paul H. O'Neill, went to Fresno State, Vice President Cheney dropped out of Yale before graduating from the University of Wyoming, and strategist Karl Rove never finished college. Dozens of administration members hail from Regent University, founded by Pat Robertson. And many of Bush's hires were friends from Texas, such as former attorney general Alberto R. Gonzales, former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers and Education Secretary Margaret Spellings.

Obama, who wrote a literary memoir at age 33, represents the opposite approach. In a country where politicians often wrap their learning in folksy charm to avoid seeming elitist, his candidacy represented a forthright assertion of intellectual prowess, as he turned his oratory and cerebral demeanor into campaign assets.

Read the story here.

Obama "a breath of fresh air" to governors

I just heard Michigan's Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm say on PRI's Tavis Smiley Show that Obama was well received at the National Governor's Association meeting this week. Not only is he the first president-elect to meet with the NGA, but the conversation was "an open exchange, a free flow of ideas" rather than a show with questions pre-screened by staff members. Granholm reported that Republican governors were enthusiastic, and many present felt like the meeting was "a breath of fresh air."

Listen here.

Obama makes transition process more transparent

From President Elect Obama's Change.gov,

In a memo released today, Obama-Biden Transition Project Co-chair John D. Podesta announced that all policy documents from official meetings with outside organizations will be publicly available for review and discussion on Change.gov.

This means we're inviting the American public to take a seat at the table and engage in a dialogue about these important issues and ideas -- at the same time members of our team review these documents themselves.

Co-chair Podesta's memo to the Transition staff is a bold move towards opening the doors and ensuring access to government processes.

Read the full memo and watch the video here.

Deadly Stampede At Wal-Mart Not Surprising

From NPR, All Things Considered, December 3, 2008
by Andrei Codrescu

President Bush told us to go shopping.

Seven years later, Lehman Brothers went under.

In the aftermath, our panicked leaders prophesied doomsday if we didn't immediately go shopping to save America from recession.

And so we went shopping! We so went shopping, in rumbling herdlike elephant masses, we killed a guy who didn't get out of the way fast enough. It's a tragic incident, but by no means meaningless. Shopping is a religion, and some religions demand sacrifices.

The Wal-Mart employee died for us on Black Friday, but have we stopped to think what his sacrifice means? Not at all: We're stampeding right on through to the other side of Christmas. We aren't just shopping: We are saving America.

Read the rest or listen here.

PolitiCat gets some much need exercise

...at least until his nasty doppelganger had to get in on the fun.



I yanked this video from Simply Left Behind, a political blog that unapologetically mixes cats and politics, something I've been trying to figure out for awhile. I'll have to see is if I can get any pointers.

PolitiCat's Myers-Briggs Type

Typealyzer says this blog's an ISTP. I'm an INFP (like my brother), but nevermind that. Watch for PolitiCat leaping tall buildings in a single bound! I wonder what his cape would look like.

Here's the Typealyzer analysis.


ISTP - The Mechanics

The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.

The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

The end of the witch's spell

Soon the man behind the curtain will vanish, and all will declare,

"Home! And this is my room - and you are all here! And I'm not going to leave here ever again, because I love you all! And, Oh, Auntie Em, there's no place like home!"

This is another lol I made. Vote for it here.

Recession helps war & military

The AP reports, "A growing number of soldiers are choosing to stay in the U.S. military because of the bleak economy."

Do poor economic times foster war and violence? It would seem so. At least it helps retention and recruitment.

Sgt. Ryan Nyhus spent 14 months patrolling the deadly streets of Baghdad, where five members of his platoon were shot and one died. As bad as that was, he would rather go back there than take his chances in this brutal job market.

Nyhus re-enlisted last Wednesday and in so doing joined the growing ranks of those choosing to stay in the U.S. military because of the bleak economy.

"In the Army, you're always guaranteed a steady paycheck and a job,"


...Pentagon officials acknowledge that bad news for the economy is usually good news for the military.

In fact, the Pentagon just completed its strongest recruiting year in four years.

"We do benefit when things look less positive in civil society," said David Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. "What difficult economic times give us, I think, is an opening to make our case to people who we might not otherwise have."

Read the story here.

Bush reflects on legacy, apologizes

The AP quotes President Bush as expressing remorse, regret and a whole slew of near do-overs. It's almost as if he's finally taking responsibility for blunders he has long washed his hands of.

Here's a hefty collection of Bush's reflections:

President George W. Bush expressed remorse that the global financial crisis has cost jobs and harmed retirement accounts..."I'm sorry it's happening, of course," Bush said


On the war in Iraq, Bush said the biggest regret of his presidency was the "intelligence failure" regarding the extent of the Saddam Hussein threat to the United States...."A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein," he said. "That's not a do-over, but I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess."


On the presidential election, Bush called Barack Obama's victory a "repudiation of Republicans."

"I'm sure some people voted for Barack Obama because of me."


As he leaves office, Bush said he felt responsible for the economic downturn because it's occurring on his watch...

Weekly lolnews roundup

I missed last week's roundup due to the holiday, so let's catch up.

First, here's a lol I created.


Like it? You can vote for it here.


Now, on with the rest, in no particular order, from punditkitchen.com.