Category: rants
ruby’s rants & randomness
If you’re not outraged, you’re not reading my blog.
Thank you, Elizabeth
Here’s a post I recently published on my local politics blog about Elizabeth Edwards…
Elizabeth Edwards passed away this week and is being warmly remembered from all corners. Many people talk about her great heart and the strength of her resilience, and it’s true that she was an incredible model for anyone dealing with personal pain.
But I remember her best for being whip smart and unbelievably charming. I met her once, and she was even more brilliant and impressive in person. Her death is a huge loss for Chapel Hill, for North Carolina, and for the whole country that has been a beneficiary of her health care activism in recent years.
For those who haven’t been reading OP forever, here’s the comment she posted here in 2005 after the Edwards’ moved to Orange County. And below is the text of a 2006 OP post called “Elizabeth Edwards, keeping it real.”
I swear Rosemary and I didn’t plan this, but I just read and wanted to post about this article by my friend Micah Sifry about Elizabeth Edwards. He says she is the “only person who I think we can genuinely say is participating in the blogosphere, as opposed to just using it.” One of his supporting examples is Eliabeth’s visit to OP to answer some questions I had raised about the location of their new home and the status of their voter registration.
As usual, she responded openly and directly. As I wrote to Micah, Elizabeth is so smart and fierce and charming it’s scary. Further proof was seen in her graceful handling of that clown Chris Matthews on live TV recently. I sometimes have complaints about her husband’s policies (the same I have of almost every Democrat), but as a person I only admire her more the more I get to know her. I wish nothing but the best to the entire Edwards family.
Thank you for sharing part of your life with us, Elizabeth. You made the world a better place by sharing yourself with us.
Happy Hanukkah, y’all!
Here’s some music to get you in the mood: http://www.last.fm/listen/globaltags/hanukkah
You need to know: The Powell Memo
I was talking recently with a very learned and progressive scholar of history about the depth of the right wing’s messaging strategy, and he was unfamiliar with this document that helped create and define a broad and effective corporate-conservative machine: the Powell Memorandum. We all need to know this history.
From Wikipedia:
Based in part on his experiences as a corporate lawyer and as a representative for the tobacco industry with the Virginia legislature, [Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr.] wrote the Powell Memo to a friend at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The memo called for corporate America to become more aggressive in molding politics and law in the U.S. and may have sparked the formation of one or more influential right-wing think tanks.
In August 1971, prior to accepting Nixon’s request to become Associate Justice of Supreme Court, Lewis Powell had sent to the leadership of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce the “Confidential Memorandum”, better known as the Powell Memorandum, and still under the radar of general public. It sounded an alarm with its title, “Attack on the American Free Enterprise System.” The previous decade had seen the increasing regulation of many industries. Powell argued, “The most disquieting voices joining the chorus of criticism came from perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians.” In the memorandum, Powell advocated “constant surveillance” of textbook and television content, as well as a purge of left-wing elements.
In an extraordinary prefiguring of the social goals of business that would be felt over the next three decades, Powell set his main goal: changing how individuals and society think about the corporation, the government, the law, the culture, and the individual. Shaping public opinion on these topics became, and would remain, a major goal of business.
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_F._Powell,_Jr.#The_Powell_Memorandum
Farewell, Mehitabel
Last night a long feline life of 17 years came to a peaceful end as my friend Mehitabel sat in my lap and breathed her final breath. Here’s a short slideshow of photos of her:
Things I love about canvassing:
Meeting my neighbors and/or getting to know them better.
Enjoying lovely Fall weather.
Spending time with my son. (Now his second annual canvass.)
Checking out the variety of door styles and various porch architecture in my neighborhood.
Getting some exercise.
Beating Richard Burr!
In praise of…
(Things I’m feeling thankful for this morning.)
…saying what’s on my mind in more than 140 characters.
…family members who are fun to be around, have impeccable taste, take great care of my son, and make it possible to see each other more than once a year.
…awesome music on my headphones, like Mosadi Music which makes me smile and dance and learn.
…cheap coffee and free buses.
…the opportunity to see a wonderful dharma teacher like Therese Fitzgerald tonight.
Photo: http://dharmafriends.org/?page_id=251
RIP Rich D: Dancing in the Rain
What a difference some context makes. I few months ago I came across this video of four young men doing some amazing dancing on a street corner (via a link on Twitter, natch). The dancing style is like a fusion of ballet and breakdancing, I’d never seen anything like it, and the rainy streetcorner setting and minor-key soundtrack made the scene particularly otherworldly and melancholy.
Today a friend IMed me a link to an article on Oakland’s TURF dancing that explained it all, and the story makes the video even more fascinating.
Continue reading “RIP Rich D: Dancing in the Rain”
Working hard is hardly working
I just came across these words of wisdom from Caterina Fake, co-founder of the completely-awesome Flickr.com, who says that “Working hard is overrated.”
Much more important than working hard is knowing how to find the right thing to work on. Paying attention to what is going on in the world. Seeing patterns. Seeing things as they are rather than how you want them to be. Being able to read what people want. Putting yourself in the right place where information is flowing freely and interesting new juxtapositions can be seen. But you can save yourself a lot of time by working on the right thing. Working hard, even, if that’s what you like to do.
– http://www.caterina.net/archive/001196.html
Izzy loves London
We just returned from a great trip visiting my dad and stepmom in London, England! Below is the greatest hits version of our pictures. Click here for the full album on Flickr (about 100 pictures and videos).