Across the Universe

The Demise of a Sun-Like Star. Source: Hubblesite.org

Politics is a favorite subject of mine. It's a tough topic for me to avoid, since there is so much injustice and misinformation out there, so much evil shit happening right under our noses. The public is ill-informed, unaware, or willfully ignorant of how lives are affected by the unchecked reckless greed and lust for power that corrodes our political system. With the Supreme Court recently deciding to lift the limits on corporate campaign expenditures, it's going to get worse; one can only hope that the buying and selling of government positions will become so blatant that the public finally recognizes what's been going on for decades, becomes nauseous and outraged and demands new laws, new representation.

Whether it was manipulation or outright collusion, the banking giants (whose actions helped to precipitate the current recession) were able to skip the line and get what they needed out of the government in order to continue reaping astronomical profits, while middle and working class Americans were left waiting at the back of on line, empty-handed. Combine this with the anti-government fervor that usually accompanies economic downturns, and trust in government is at an all-time low. Of course, the disconnect between the mood on main street and the mood inside the Capitol bubble is so nearly complete that it's taken weeks of very public scoldings by the President to shake the Democrats out of their lethargic ineffectiveness. There is no waking up the Republicans. Their behavior is so erratic that they cannot pretend to have a plan; if they have an agenda, it's to cause confusion and to disrupt government business in order to make the President look ineffective.

It's with this frustrating nonsense in mind that I look for mindful diversions. A great one I've recently found is hubblesite.org.

Here's a tiny preview of what you can find at Hubblesite:

Turbulent Gases in the Omega/Swan Nebula

Source: Hubblesite.org

The Sombrero Galaxy in Infrared Light

Source: Hubblesite.org

Light Echoes From a Star

Source: Hubblesite.org

The Surface of Jupiter

Source: Hubblesite.org

After looking at the vast beauty of celestial interplay, it's hard not to feel foolish for giving politics so much of my attention. There are individuals around us trying hard to figure out the secrets of the universe, who are looking backward into time in order to predict how the future will unfold, while others are examining the very nature of time and space. A man sits quietly in his home contemplating the nature of existence, trying to attain enlightment, while a group of men and women brainstorm over how to create an oxygen-rich atmosphere on Mars. Meanwhile, the rest of us call each other names and wrestle over money.

Check out these image tours. They help explain what it is you're seeing in these incredible captures of outer space.

The Health Care Trap

It has taken a mild recession to waken people to the fact that there is something deeply wrong with how the business of our government is being conducted. Populist sentiment runs high and strong. Part of the reason is that our elected officials have shown themselves to be far more capable in assisting the wealthy and powerful than in helping the less fortunate. Part of it is the normal noise of the party out of power. Part is the frustration of those, like myself, who helped sweep the Democrats and Barack Obama into office with our votes and our campaigning, who spent time and money and emotional energy hoping they could turn this country around, only to see them squander the opportunity given to them. There is no doubt that things are better since Bush left (could they have gotten any worse?), and they're better than they'd be if John McCain, and Sarah Palin, were in the White House. And I think that throughout it all, with the mess he inherited, President Obama has been more than capable. He hasn't been great, but it's early. They say he took his eye off the ball a bit chasing health care but I think it was shrewd to go after it as soon as possible and to shift the public focus toward a benevolent development, which is what universal health care would be for most Americans. As long as the economy is in better shape, and the Republicans continue to trot out the likes of Sarah Palin, the President should win a second term.

It's the Democratic majority in Congress that will fall before the President will. It won't happen this year, because the Dems have too large a majority in both houses and the one constant over the life of our Congress in the last 50 years is that the odds are stacked in favor of incumbents. Count on Republicans taking at least one house, if not both, in 2012.

It may be better that way. Having seen all the possible combinations of power available in a two-party system (you don't need a statistician to figure them out), it seems that the worst of all worlds is for either party to hold the presidency and both houses of Congress. The Republican majority of 2000-2006 fell in line behind nearly everything George W. Bush introduced, even when it included expanding the size and budget of the federal government, infringing on constitutional rights, fiscal irresponsibility, etc. The Democrats, meanwhile, have dithered and quibbled over health care, banking reform, and anything else meaningful to their constituents, all while having a filibuster-proof 60 seats in the Senate, a 35 seat majority in the House, and control of the executive branch. The Democrats are either ineffectual, or just as tied to corporate interests as the Republicans. My guess is that it's a little of both.

There are some honest characters on Capitol Hill, no doubt, but it's hard to find them in a crowd so littered with Willie Starks.

Voters are rightfully disgusted with the way Congress has behaved over the past year. Instead of enacting effective legislation, they seem to be running perpetual re-election campaigns. Recently Evan Bayh, a popular Democratic Senator from Indiana, in announcing he would not seek another term, cited the never-ending campaign atmosphere as one of the reasons Congress is in terrible shape. Maybe he is simply reading the writing on the wall. A recent NYT/CBS news poll found that only 8% of respondents think their representatives in Washington deserve re-election.

As weak as congressional Dems have been in battling the Republican noise machine, President Obama has been doing his best to dispel the notion that Democrats are weak on foreign policy. He's taken to challenging China by hosting the Dalai Lama at the White House this week(though there was no photo-op) and selling billions in arms to Taiwan. He has increased troop presence in Afghanistan and managed to capture a number of Taliban leaders He's even been tough with opposition leaders at home, challenging them to debates and open forums to discuss differences over policy, especially health care. He scolded the Supreme Court for allowing unlimited corporate spending in elections, and in the same State of the Union speech told Republicans that if they're going to stall legislation out of spite, he would make sure the public understood how their stalling tactics have affected them.

The GOP is so wary of debating Obama that paranoia is leading them to call the health care forum a "set-up" House Minority Leader John Boehner: "I want to have this bipartisan conversation, but I want it to be productive and I want it to be real. I don't want to walk into some trap."

One can easily see how this might work. Everyone sits down, the GOP on one side of the table and the Dems on the other. Notes are consulted, water is poured into glasses. Pleasantries are exchanged, and there is the usual posturing and grandstanding, after all there are cameras in the room broadcasting these deliberations to voters and capturing these moments for posterity. These are your tax dollars hard at work.

About two hours in, when pretty much everyone but network producers have stopped watching, the GOP signals that there is no chance they are going to agree with anything President Obama introduces. The President, expecting this, but truly savoring the moment, takes control of the conversation, and delivers some final words of warning to the GOP.

The GOP is non-plussed. For every hour they fight health care reform, the health insurance industry donates a million to the GOP's campaign coffers. Papa's getting paid, you see. How many donations do you think Obama's receiving from uninsured poor people? Not many.

Convinced the GOP has settled on an obstructionist strategy, the President places his right hand under the table. A particularly vigiliant congressional aide sees what is happening and screams as she dives forward toward the table to protect the man she loves, sleeps with, and works for. "Nnnnnooooooo!!!!"

Two secret service agents run forward to block the way to the President. The aide is too late. To the cameras surrounding the table it appears that the entire Republican delegation has fallen off their chairs onto the floor. There is a moment of confusion. Then another scream, from the same woman, who is now grabbing onto the edge of the floor to keep from dropping into the viper/piranha water pit thirty feet below her dangling panty-hosed feet. There are muffled cries from inside the pit, as the predators below eat their own. It is hardly good eating; never have these piranhas feasted on animals so full of shit.

The remainder of the Republican aides stay in the seats against the wall, not willing to risk their own demise to save their fellow aide. In fact, they have already started cursing their former employers, and circumstances which now force them to find another job, and in such an awful market! Just when it appears the tartish aide will share her lover's fate, a figure appears over her, clad in thousand dollar loafers. It is Rahm Emanual. "HELP ME!" the girl shrieks. With a Cheshire grin Emanual kicks the aide in the face and sends her reeling into the trap below.

The Republicans know better than to fall into such a trap.

Chelsea Dagger

A Valentine's Day special for all the young lovers out there.

It's One Life, It's This Life, It's Beautiful

This sister duo is my favorite act out of Sweden since Nicolai Dunger. Love everything about this song: the guitar, the harmony, the bold lyrics, the Elliott Smith-ish piano change, the ethereal vocals.

"Hard Believer" is off First Aid Kit's debut album, The Big Black & the Blue, released here in the states on January 26, 2010.

They do a mean cover of Fleet Foxes' "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song"; you must also check out "Ghost Town" off that debut album.

Subtle Sarah

"How's that hopey-changey thing workin' out for ya?"

That's the sound bite Sarah Palin, speaking at the Tea Party Convention this past weekend, wanted news networks to broadcast across the nation. Mission accomplished.

Zinger!!! Finger pistols and a wink.

Watching the clip on FoxNews, George W. Bush, sitting on a couch somewhere in Texas, halfway through a bag of Rold Golds, turned to Laura in disbelief. "That bitch stole my style!." Laura could only shake her head.

Some things, however, Palin would rather not have the world see.

Her palms, for instance.

Apparently Palin wrote crib notes on her palm for the appearance at the Tea Party Convention. There is video of her looking down to refer to it, and of her lifting her open palm toward the camera(to swear on the bible, I'm guessing), unwittingly broadcasting to the entire nation the talking points she apparently lacked the mental capacity to remember: "Energy, Budget Cuts, Tax, Lift American Spirits".

How mind-blowingly disturbing is this, that someone with presidential aspirations uses the methods of a middle school cheat to remember talking points? For crying out loud she only has four or five talking points to begin with! I can only imagine what she'd write on her hand before meeting China's Foreign Minister: "Free Trade-Bad Milk-Checkers-Opium"

Couldn't she have thought of the acronym BELT? (Budget-Energy-Lift-Taxes) It would have been a perfect sound bite for them, "This country needs to lift its BELT and buck up" or something to that effect.

Instead, to be caught looking at her hand, then to raise her left hand in full view of everyone? This is sophomoric stuff. It puts on full display how very unprepared she is for anything but adulation and fame. This, after mocking President Obama in the very same speech for using a teleprompter.

What may be the scariest and most doltish aspect of this, is that if you look at the hand closely, she has "budget cuts" written down, then crossed out the word "budget" and underneath inserted the word "tax". Is this woman so dumb and unprepared that she can't even get a cheat sheet correct?

Del Zotto hit on Kovalchuk

The Rangers finally won a game Saturday, beating the Devils 3-1. Henrik Lundquist had an incredible game, stopping 41 out of 42 shots.

Best moment? With the Rangers up 3-0, Ilya Kovalchuk, the superstar winger the Devils acquired this week, crashed the net with Patrick Elias in tow, only to have Rangers rookie Michael del Zotto flatten him for the effort.

Del Zotto is a good offensive player, an exceptional passer, but this is what I want to see out of the Ranger defenseman:

Who's monitoring the comments over at the NYT?

After reading a recent New York Times article about online insults, I came across the following post in the comments section:

"You haven’t lived until you get a state certified psycho stalker who spends money to get a personal profile of your history including trivial things like your arrests, court appearances, driving convictions etc;
That not being enough the stalker also calls all over your home town to find out what he can about you and then threatens to put it all on the internet.
Then of course, having a huge obsession that consists mainly of you he finds out your cell number and posts it on the internet with out right warnings that there is much more inside information to come.
Yes, internet threats of blackmail
He also publicly claims to have had sex with your 83 year old sister and your 109 year old mother.
With nothing to do but live off his ancestor’s money while sitting at his computer in your former hometown and causing trouble between life long friends at the daily newspaper, he then follows you all over the internet and even invades the New York newspapers including the Times City Room Blog with nasty inuendoes and veiled threats that the commentator takes as friendly, cute little barbs and publishes them with glee.
All of this of course gets picked up by MSN Search and Google and is printed under the headline consisting of your very respectable real name, all the while he’s using multiple phony names that are changed as quickly as he’s being shut out of bloggin those particular sites.
Oh, yes;
And I know that I’m giving the obsessed fat unattractive troll fuel for the fire but, I must add that he goes even further by posting his disjointed meaningless off the subject messages under your real name as if it were you who had the stupidity to have such crazy thoughts.
All of the above added to the fact that he blames you for being a “free loader” who spends all your time on the internet and gives nothing to the world around you.
Does that sound familier?
Of course it DEW.
As he’s publicly accusing you of being all the things that he is, and even he must realize that amid his schizophrenic rantings to the world at large.
They say, “Nothing has the fury of a women scorned,” however, when rebuked an ugly troll in every sense of the word doesn’t give up very lightly either.
“Take a minus and turn it into a plus,” is my philosophy so, therein lies the plot for my yet untitled next mystery novel. See you at the movies!"

I think someone's in love.

Jon Stewart Visits Papa Bear at the Federation Of Xenophobes studio.

Jon Stewart was a guest on the O'Reilly Factor this week. It's been a long time since I've watched more than 30 seconds of Bill O'Reilly so it was particularly amusing to see how he's slipped so cleanly into the role of the nasty old codger everyone loves to hate. I guess his personality was always there, he just needed his body to catch up.

There were various moments of amusement.

At one point, after Stewart comments that he'd like to see the federal gov't use it's regulatory power to protect citizens, keep lead out of toys, etc, O'Reilly says:

"That's really smart analysis. You know a lot of people don't think you're smart. Did your writers come up with that?" You can tell O'Reilly had been waiting to say this. That's really smart analysis. You know, a lot of people don't think you're smart. In two sentences O'Reilly goes from naked condescension to whining like a jealous eight year old girl. You know, a lot of people don't think you're that pretty.

When O'Reilly attempts to patronize Stewart again moments later, Stewart quickly retorts: "By the way: did you notice that I used the work ilk?"

I love the little hidden smirk on Stewart when O'Reilly later says, "Come on Stewart, wise up man,". You can see he is trying to restrain himself from laughing. It's almost like a wink to his audience, can you believe this guy? This is just seconds before O'Reilly disparages the entire nation of Pakistan with an awful impression that sounds more like an Indian Mr. Magoo than any Pakistani I've ever met. Was he just trying to be funny with Stewart there in his studio? Or is this how O'Reilly's normal behavior? (Sorry, but the O'Reilly Factor conflicts with the Daily Show at 11 pm, and at 8pm...it conflicts with everything else.)

Bill O'Reilly has the race sensibility of Michael Scott:

Fitting in line with his inner young woman, it becomes apparent halfway through the interview that what O'Reilly seeks more than anything is adulation. Stewart flatters him, calls him "The most reasonable voice on Fox," and his tone completely changes. So now we know: he just wants to be adored. Isn't that cute.

Of course, Stewart is only setting him up. Being the most reasonable voice on Fox, he says, "Is like being the thinnest kid at fat camp."

Suddenly there is loathing in O'Reilly's eyes.

Here are the clips:

Part I

Part II

Part III

P.S. Kudos to Dennis Miller for giving what sounds like an honest assessment of Stewart and his talent, although in order to compensate he flatters O'Reilly to the point of nauseousness. Miller is another guy I haven't heard from in a while, ever since he came out of the conservative closet in the fall of 2001. He looks like hell. The dark side has not been kind to him.

Wu-Tang and the Beatles

If you're a fan of Danger Mouse's Grey Album, which deftly mashed tracks from the Beatles' White Album with Jay-Z's The Black Album, you may want to check out Enter the Magical Mystery Chambers, which, as the title suggests, mixes the musical stylings of the Wu-Tang Clan with those of the fab four. The download is free after a simple email signup.

Producer Tom Caruana, who lives in the UK, doesn't relegate himself to just two albums; instead he picks and chooses from their entire catalogs, solo efforts included. There are some highlights: "Uzi (Pinky Ring)", using samples from "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey", and "Getting Better"; "Might Healthy" features Ghostface lyrics over a sample from "My Love Don't Give Me Presents". ODB sings the chorus from "Love Me Do" in one of the skits, possibly what sparked Caruana to make the album in the first place.

For someone whose interest in Wu-Tang waned after the first round of solo efforts (Tical, Liquid Swords, ODB's Return to the 36 Chambers) this is a nice introduction to some of the lyrical efforts I missed over the years. For all fans of Wu-Tang, it is definitely worth a listen, though it's certainly not as accomplished and polished as the Grey Album. Danger Mouse's treatment of "Allure" and "December 4th" far surpass anything you'll find here. But hey, it's free.