Happy Birthday!

My father was born today in 1922. He's still going strong.

Spruuuuuuuce Treeeeee!

A rebuttal. Simple.



(Yes, he meant "every extant religion", but still...)

Black Friday

I'm in the top 15% of Americans by income. I'm not even close to rich - the top 2% have so much more money it's mindboggling - but at least 85% of the country makes less than I do. That means I really cannot comment on where other people should shop or when they should. My choices are born of privilege that others simply don't have.

I don't have to try and make $9 an hour ($18,720 a year) or even $15 ($31,200/year) feed and clothe and transport and educate and entertain my family.

I personally never shop at WalMart, but then I don't have to. And I don't have to shop on Black Friday to save some money. And that's why all these memes - gods, I must have seen 60 at least this week - about how Black Friday is evil and people who shop on it are evil or stupid and probably both just annoy the hell out of me. (And don't even get me started on the ones that say straight up you shouldn't want anything more than you already have. I mean, this is just that whole undeserving poor trope again: it's entirely possible to be sincerely thankful on Thanksgiving for what you have and still want to buy something else. Unless you don't plan to give anyone a Christmas present this year and don't want anyone to give you one, either, shut the hell up, okay?)

Ahem.

Personally, I wish everyone in the country made enough money that they didn't need to save a few hundred bucks today.

But they don't.

So if you're shopping today, I hope you get what you wanted and save the money you're trying to save. And come home safely.

The Musical!

I'm definitely thankful to Moy and Giella for the very notion of "Nostradamus the Musical":

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers, and happy end of autumn (or spring) to the rest!

Trying for Equivalence

Krugman notes:

Meanwhile, media coverage is shifting fast. It’s still mostly trying for equivalence — each positive story of people being helped matched by a negative story of people hurt. But the stories don’t actually match up at all.

Small example: earlier today I found myself trapped in a place with CNN on in the background, showing a fair-and-balanced account of losers and winners. First, the loser: a guy who admits that Obamacare has gotten him a plan cheaper than the insurance he had, but who has found that his current allergist is off-network. Annoying, no doubt; but there are other allergists, and this particular one probably didn’t help the case by saying that he’s thinking of refusing to take Medicare patients, too.

And in any case, insurance with restricted networks is hardly something new to Obamacare.

Then, the winners: a couple with no insurance at all, because her premium would have been prohibitive and he has a preexisting condition that won’t let him buy any kind of insurance at all — but now both covered, at a very affordable price, by Covered California.

I don’t know about you, but these don’t sound to me like equivalent stories.

And so it begins...

first time with the snowscape on the weather (though we didn't actually get worse than some sleet)

Let the pendulum swing

Via TPM, Ed Kilgore gives us five reasons we're better off without the filibuster . And here's a rather nice point to consider:

If America's political genius is, as professional "centrists" sometimes insist, to foster the competition of conservative and liberal ideas and constituency groups operating dialectically like swings of a pendulum, the pendulum must be allowed to swing. Parties must be able to govern--succeeding, failing, adjusting, rethinking--before they can meaningfully be countered or restrained. A motionless pendulum halted by legislative obstruction means a dead mechanism: a feckless government, a directionless bureaucracy, and a democracy where voters express contempt for both parties and for government itself. Sound familiar?

This country's name is....

Alex just said, "The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 was Aun Suu Kyi from Myanmar." The question was what country was that year's winner from. We had two South Africas and one China.

What I wonder is - would "Burma" have been accepted?

Pre-Thanksgiving Freezing Weather in Two Worlds

Today the main story is the same - the Iranian deal. The takes are certainly different, though, as are what's considered important secondary news.

Times:

• Secret Service Missteps, resistance hurt Secret Service sex investigation: Information leak in misconduct inquiry
• Diplomacy Iran nuclear deal faces uphill battle: Netanyahu sees a 'historic mistake'; some in U.S. call for stiffer sanctions
• Pact could give Obama a rate boost in job performance ratings
• Career diplomat steered the talks quietly in rounds of negotiations
• Congress 'Nuclear' move opens window for Obama on nominations
• State Department Former editor's bonus amid layoffs follow him to State
• the big photo: John Kerry Deal maker Secretary of State John F. Kerry arrives at London's Stansted Airport on Sunday after deparing Geneva where he defended an agreement reached with Iran on its nuclear program. "You can't get everything in the first step," he said.

Post:

• Iran nuclear deal done, but the road ahead is uncertain; Right to enrich uranium still at issue; Skeptics on Hill, others question sanctions relief
• The Negotiations Last-second objection typical of tense talks
• Foreign Policy Pact nangs over other U.S. goals in Middle East
• Crucial health-law test awaits for IRS | Troubled rollout puts further pressure on beleaguered agency
• Md. woman accused of embezzling $5.1 million
• the big photo: people ice-skating on the Mall Skaters take to the ice rink at the National Gallery of Art's Svupture Garden on a frigid Sunday. Washingtonians are braving the cold in pursuits less seasonal as well, bicycling and even dining on restaurant patios. Story, B1
• Smaller but still big picture: Endorsement for U.S.-Afghan security pact Tribal elders and other Afghan officials ended a four-day assembly in Kabul known as a loya jirga. Delegates said it was in Afghanistan's "vital national interest" to have a partnership with the United States, and they urged President Hamid Karzai not to delay signing the agreement. Story, A6

The Week in Entertainment

TV: Sleepy Hollow: I think it's funny the way Crane insists on things like correcting the docent on Paul Revere given how much this show plays around with history. But they cracked me up with Jefferson stealing Crane's line about newspapers. The Mentalist: boy, I hope they really do end the Red John thing this week. (I know I complain about it, but am still watching, but that's because I like the characters. The show was better a few years ago, though.) The comedies were good - I love Max's "dun dun DUN" ring tone on Sean, and the re-attaching the lunar module sequence in Modern Family was hysterical. I enjoyed seeing SHIELD cleaning up after Thor: The Dark Kingdom ("Just once I wish they'd send down the god of cleaning up after yourself"), and whatever is going on with Tahiti (it's a magical place) is going to break out sooner than later I think. I gave Almost Human a look - Karl Urban is worth it - and it's alright. Pretty violent, and a tad predictable (oh, he doesn't like kids? Cue cute kid needing comfort in three...two...), but I'll keep on watching for now. And - of course - The Day of the Doctor, the 50th anniversary special. I loved John Hurt, I loved the moment when Ten and Eleven (oops, Eleven and Twelve!!!) sat down in the vault and their body movements were identical, I loved homage beginning at the Coal Hill School and IM Foreman's sign, I loved his conscience being Bad Wolf Rose, I absolutely loved the very end of it. I can't wait for the next season to start - a big damn story arc! Yes!

Read: The first four of the Malone mysteries/comic noirs, very enjoyable. Nothing O'Clock, a lovely Doctor Who short by Neil Gaiman, one of the 50th anniversary series of short stories.

Israel?

In 1933 Choudhary Rahmat Ali coined the name of this country that wouldn't come into existence for 16 years.

I thought that was way too easy for Final Jeopardy. But actually, only one of them knew it. One went with the cute "I love you" answer, but the other went for (if I may) the Hail Mary - and answered "Israel".

Not a bad guess timewise - 1948, 1949 - but "coined the name" Israel?

Then again, many people I know don't actually know what that phrase means, taking it mean "thought of" rather than "invented".

Ptooie.

Priests chant the name of the Ptah in the final scene of this opera.

Yes, yes, Aida. But Alex, really? P-tah? You said Puh-TAH?..

What? You say it is /pəˈtɑː/?

Oh.

Never mind.

Casing

I meant to note this earlier; it's from the novel The Cuckoo's Calling, decribing a run-down part of London through which her protagonist is walking (it's part of a list composed of fragments):

Past a sign that advertised "Kills 4 Communities", at which he frowned for a moment before realizing that somebody had swiped the "S".

That simply doesn't work in that character set. If the sign was actually in mixed case, it would now read "kills 4 Communities". If it isn't, the book should read "KILLS 4 COMMUNITIES".

Hoy!

Oh, Alex. Brünhilde's warcry is not ho-YO-to-HO. It's HOYo-t'HOOOO.

The Week in Entertainment

Live: The Peabody Conservatory's production of The Dialogues of the Carmelites, at the Lyric. Someone has got some fine female students, particularly Alexandra Razskazoff (who was powerful as Blanche), and Huanhuan Ma as the new prioress, but several others as well. The men's roles are minor, but they were sung well, too, though they are young voices and it showed at times.

TV: Agents of SHIELD: I love Fitz. I truly do. Also, I really want to go to Tahiti now - "it's a magical place", after all! Sean Saves the World - his mother is über-annoying. The Middle, Modern Family, The Crazy Ones all were very entertaining this week. Michael J Fox Show, not so much. I'm not surprised it's been cancelled - it's got him, but he can't elevate the pedestrian plotting and writing. Torchwood: Miracle Day - finally finished it. Torchwood has always been way darker than Doctor Who, and this one was very much like that. But good; I liked it. I'm just not sure about that ending. It's not Jack's blood, and unless the Blessing just reset Rex willy-nilly and stupidly, he's got his own blood now, anyway. In fact, the more I think about it the less I like it... Ah, well. Orphan Black ended pretty powerfully. Alison really went bonkers, and "Proclone" is creepy. I really like this show, and it's a travesty that Tatiana Maslany didn't get an Emmy nomination.

Read: Several more Craig Rice comic noirs, but I discovered that while I adore the Malone books, the Bingo-and-Handsome, at least the first one, didn't do anything for me. Also read The New Cthulu: The Recent Weird, which had some excellent stories, and a few duds (like any anthology).

Seven and One

Via fev over at Heads Up, this:

Fred kindly says it's a case of not being able to count, but I say it's an outright slap by Sports on Earth  at whoever that is on the left (since he's the one cropped out when they fixed it - see Heads Up for details). Yep: there are seven excellent teams, and one more that's only there to make up the numbers.

Wrong punch line

Today's Stone Soup has the wrong punch line.

What she should be responding with is "And that's my point!" or "And why isn't it?"

That would turn her hypocritical complaint into a piercing analysis of her actions and motivations.

Of course, this is Stone Soup. "Piercing analysis" isn't exactly their shtick.

Funny things, minds

Crossword clue yesterday was "1959 hit by The Drifters". I had a few crossing letters, and immediately thought of "Here Comes My Baby."

Which was The Tremeloes, in 1967. Ah, well.

The puzzle wanted "There Goes My Baby," of course, and I had that corner messed up for a bit. But I also had "Here Comes My Baby" stuck in my head all day. And today, too, for that matter.

So here - you can have it, too.

thanks but get lost

Bill Moyers has a searing indictment of the gap between the chant of "honor the veterans" and the reality of our policies.

And there's a good list of "things veterans really need" at Truth Out.

I'll say it again: "thank you for your service" doesn't hold up our end of the bargain.

Veterans Day

Seven years I wrote a post which began:

It's called "Veterans Day" here in the States - we renamed it, I guess, when it became clear that the War to End War hadn't and wouldn't. So it's Veterans Day, now - not Memorial Day, for the dead, that's in May... now we remember the living.

At least, we say we do. Well, I'm a veteran. I don't want just another day off work with no commitment behind it to actually give a damn about the veterans, especially those who come home from these modern wars all torn up, because medicine can save their bodies, only to find that no one in the government intends to take care of them. Veterans Day is nothing more than automobile sales, and servicemen get a 5% discount!, and wear your uniform, eat free! It's not go to a hospital and see what the price really is; it's not lobby the congress to restore the benefits cut in 1995; it's not give them their meds and counseling on time and affordably; it's not tell the VA to actively take care of vets instead of waiting for them to find out on their own what they're eligible for. And it's most certainly not the government actually giving a damn....

Since then, of course we had the stark proof of that, in the Walter Reed scandal (you do remember that?); we've had "Warriors in Transition" (the catchy new name for wounded soldiers on their way to discharge via the VA and therapy); acres of missing paperwork, "personality disorders" being diagnosed by the dozens so soldiers (and no, I won't capitalize it, we aren't Germans, we don't capitalize ordinary nouns, and this is just another ultimately empty fetishization of the military, like calling them "Wounded Warriors" in ordinary prose) can be kicked out of the army without benefits; National Guardsmen brought back from Iraq after 729 days of active duty - so they don't qualify for the educational benefits that kick in at 730... Need I go on?

We've also had some steps taken in the right direction, of course. As Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Edward Shinseki is trying hard to take care of those who need it most. He's tackling homelessness, and joblessness, among vets; the agency provides much more than medical care now. The VA has made huge strides in the past ten or so years, and is now capable of delivering world-class care, efficiently and more cheaply even than Medicare does. Last year we rejected the policies that would have privatized the VA, leaving veterans to navigate the private sector with vouchers that would, if experience is any guide, have never paid for enough.

But those problems, and the rest of them, still exist: homeless vets still number around 60,000; their unemployment rate is too high (10%, much higher than non-vets); too many of them have to wait more than two weeks for mental health appointments; and their suicide rate is appallingly high, more than 6,500 a year).

And still we tell ourselves that we're honoring veterans by what are, in the end, gestures only.

Today is Veterans Day. It's not Memorial Day. It's a day to honestly assess the price of the war - any war - to those who fight it and come home, and to promise ourselves to do the right thing by them. Because it is the right thing. Because we owe it to them. Because we sent them into harm's way, and they were harmed (one way or another, they were harmed, war harms everyone it touches). As I said before,

We don't need people paying lip service to vets while ignoring them in the VA hospitals or on the street corners. We don't need to mythologize veterans, turn them into some great symbol of our nation's righteous aggression while we forget their humanity. We don't need a holiday that glorifies war by glorifying soldiers.

Let's stop capitalizing Solider and Wounded Warrior and Troop - and stop capitalizing on them, too. Let's stop the relentless glorification of the figure of the soldier, and start actually caring about them. Let's stop Supporting the Troops with magnets and signs, and start some actual damned support - with money, first of all, money and beds and hospitals and benefits that actually are.

Let's save the worship for Memorial Day. Today's for the ones who are still alive, and most of all for the ones who still need us.

I've offered a number of poems for today: 1916 seen from 1921 by Edmund Blunden; Siegfried Sassoon's Aftermath (written a year after WWI); Li Po's Nefarious War, translated from the Chinese by Shigeyoshi Obata (with its key line: The long, long war goes on ten thousand miles from home. That's the kind of war we can pretend is going well, because we can't see it or its fighters.); The Next War by Robert Graves; and a pair of short poems by Carl Sandburg, written during WWI: Iron and Grass; Wilfred Owens's great Dulce et Decorum Est; and Steven Vincent Benet's Minor Litany.

This year I offer you Dreamers by Siegfried Sassoon:

Soldiers are citizens of death's grey land,
Drawing no dividend from time's to-morrows.
In the great hour of destiny they stand,
Each with his feuds, and jealousies, and sorrows.
Soldiers are sworn to action; they must win
Some flaming, fatal climax with their lives.
Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns begin
They think of firelit homes, clean beds and wives.

I see them in foul dug-outs, gnawed by rats,
And in the ruined trenches, lashed with rain,
Dreaming of things they did with balls and bats,
And mocked by hopeless longing to regain
Bank-holidays, and picture shows, and spats,
And going to the office in the train.

The Week in Entertainment

short list due to a crazy week and then vacation!

Movie: Thor: The Dark World - this is a very entertaining movie. The big fight scene is funny without being silly, and the whole film is full of very nice character moments.

TV: The Crazy Ones,from last week very nice sappy ending, and this week's which was very funny (at Sidney's expense, but still...). The Middle, pretty amusing the way Mike reacted to Sue's heartfelt speech. Grimm, I think I really like Captain Renard. He's cold in a very cool way.

Read: Another three of the John J. Malone mysteries - classic screwball noir, good mysteries. Also Home Sweet Homicide by the same author - very funny noir-y about three kids and a murder.

Oops.

Whoever wrote the headline in the local paper's running of the AP story about Typhoon Haiyan shouldn't have let spell-check go automatically...

And one more

The sea change continues: it's 16 states plus the District of Columbia, and New Mexico is on the way. It's especially nice to see Hawaii join, since this was where it all began, 20 years ago, with a state supreme court ruling that kicked off the whole thing - albeit in the wrong direction at first. Hawaii prompted DOMA, now struck down, and yet also gave the impetus to civil unions and then the same, equal rites in Massachusetts... and equality is gaining momentum.

the "very most deeply held" belief

From Fred at Slacktivist:

The lone Republican senator to speak against ENDA was Indiana’s Dan Coats. Coats, confusingly, argued that protecting workers from discrimination would mean discriminating against employers who wished to discriminate against those workers — the old intolerant to intolerance canard of the Stupid Brigade. Coats also said ENDA would “require employers to hire individuals who contradict their very most deeply held religious beliefs.”

Dan Coats is a white evangelical. Dan Coats just rose in the U.S. Senate and said that being anti-gay is, for white evangelicals, the “very most deeply held religious belief.” Forget the Bible. Forget the creeds. Forget loving God and your neighbor. Screw that Jesus guy. The “very most deeply held” belief, according to Dan Coats, is being anti-gay.

(We should note that Coats was hardly the only Republican senator to vote against it - 31 others did, too. They just didn't speak first.)

Bawsil?

I don't know how Alex pronounces the herb - BAYsil is more usual, I think - but the character on Fawlty Towers was definitely not BAWsle /'bɔː-zəl/. He was BAsil /ˈbæzˌəl/.

Alex must never have watched the show.

Let me guess...

At MSNBC, Steve Benen sums it up, and asks a question:

So let me get this straight. Several major news outlets told the public last week that Dianne Barrette is an example of an American consumer poised to lose big as a result of the Affordable Care Act. This Florida woman, we were told, is the quintessential example of someone disappointed by “Obamacare” and its effects on her personally.

And now that she’s received some additional information – details that weren’t included in last week’s coverage of her situation – this alleged victim of the law is starting to realize that maybe the Affordable Care Act is going to work in her favor after all.

So here’s my next question: will those same shows that presented Barrette as a victim last week tell the rest of the story, or will they move on to other folks who reinforce a pre-determined narrative?

Oh! Oh! I know! Pick me! Pick me!...

And now 15

With Illinois's vote today, it's 15 states plus the District of Columbia. Hawai'i may be next, and New Mexico is on the way.

This is a sea-change. And it is astonishing, as well as heartening.

The Week in Entertainment

Live: Tosca at the Lyric - a wonderful production,with Raymond Aceta stepping in for the strep-stricken Eric Owens (he was fine, but I was really hoping to see Owens). Then the next day, up early in the morning to go up to the Met to see the new opera, Two Boys, which was quite riveting, plot-wise, an exciting afternoon. I really did like it.

TV: The Neighbors, with Larry Bird discovering that golf is boring and asking Marty to teach him about football. Big. Mistake. Yet so funny, especially the romantic-not-awkward date. A very funny Sean Saves the World, loved the office "kitchen dance party".

Read: More Christianna Brand (Green for Danger, Death of Jezebel, Fog of Doubt, The Three-Cornered Halo (which was quite the oddest mystery I've read in a while), and Tour de Force), and then two comic noirs by Craig Rice (The Big Midget Murder and The Fourth Postman).

November 1 in two worlds

Another comparison of the two local papers' front pages. This time, absolutely no shared stories:
Times

• Nationals new skipper
• Terrorism: Syria becomes largest home to al Qaeda : Foreign jihadists find safe haven to plot attacks against Western targets
• Virginia: McAuliffe AWOL for students and media : Campaign ducks simple questions
• White House: The Gettysburg Offense : Obama snubs historic battle site on its 150th anniversary
• Real Estate: Feds tell Trump: No riffraff at new hotel : Pennsylvania Ave. just for upper crust
• Regulations: Health officials: E-cigarette peddlers just blowing smoke
• Senate: Republicans filibuster; say they need balanced court
• the big photo: Obama at Lincoln memorial, titled Words and Deeds, accompanying the Gettysburg story

Post

• Restrain NSA, say leading tech firms | Assertive tone marks shift for industry | Oversight, privacy concerns voiced in letter to senators
• Foreign blowback : Leaks change the cost-benefit analysis of spying on allies
• Medicaid tops private plans in tallies of new sign-ups
• DHS employees claim unearned overtime | Report says 'entrenched' practice costs the agency millions of dollars every year
• 'Common ground' a potential 2016 theme : Clintons' stump speeches channel voter frustration with partisan gridlock
• the big photo: a (really rather cool) top-down shot of two guys repairing the Washington Monument at the 400-foot mark, titled Progress in high places, for a Metro-section story, and a smaller but still large photo below the fold of Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton

I have to point out that those "simple" questions McAuliffe is "ducking" involve abortion, marijuana, the economy, and foreigners in Virginia's universities. He may well be ducking them, but "even the simplest questions"?