Quote: "The WHO! The WHO!"

Today's quote isn't from today. It's a few decades old. But it's a favorite one.

From Dave Barry:

"My band career ended late in my senior year when John Cooper and I threw my amplifier out the dormitory window. We did not act in haste. First we checked to make sure the amplifier would fit through the frame, using the belt from my bathrobe to measure, then we picked up the amplifier and backed up to my bedroom door. Then we rushed forward, shouting "The WHO! The WHO!" and we launched my amplifier perfectly, as though we had been doing it all our lives, clean through the window and down onto the sidewalk, where a small but appreciative crowd had gathered. I would like to be able to say that this was a symbolic act, an effort on my part to break cleanly away from one state in my life and move on to another, but the truth is, Cooper and I really just wanted to find out what it would sound like. It sounded OK."

And now, from The Who:

Quote: Dobson on the Bible

James Dobson ripped into Barack Obama's version of Christianity with strong words:

"I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology."

Yeah. Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, is accusing someone else of distorting the bible to conform to their own agenda. This is the organization that somehow finds religious justification for discriminating against gays, opposing same-sex marriage, spanking kids, opposing embryonic step cell research, advocating "reparative therapy” for gays, and allowing coercive prayer in public institutions.

Quote: Joe Biden

Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) said this on national television on the Today Show:

“Twenty percent of our party really is anti-war almost under any circumstance, just like 20 percent of the Republican Party is probably ready to go to war on any circumstance."

It's probably not the most politically savvy thing to say--and right before Memorial Day to boot--but I'd guess he isn't too far away from the truth. I may even suggest the number is a little higher on both sides.

Ventura says Bush "looks pretty gay"

Jesse Ventura was on the radio today for an interview with MPR's Gary Eichten. If you have some time, take a listen to it. Ventura is hilarious. He talks about not having problems with "brown people." He talks physics with his "questions" on how the World Trade buildings really fell. He suggests that he could single-handedly turn the presidential upside down, if only he had ballot access. And Jesse gives his own explanation of global warming that he observed at the U.S.-Mexico border.

But this, 30 minutes into the interview, takes the cake...

"And I'll tell you this Gary. You know, for our current president for being such a tough guy from Texas and anti-gay like he is and all that. What looks more gay that when he comes out of a meeting with the Saudis holding hands with the guy with robes on. To me that looks pretty gay."

Gary Eichten has done interviews with Ventura for a decade now and is fairly accustomed to it. But even he was thrown off by this, asking Ventura if that was a "cheap shot." Ventura first responds that he didn't think so and latter points out he was being "tongue in cheek."

A little worse than "monkeys"

Republican congressman, Geoff Davis, put the recent mini-controversy over a Democratic convention delegate referring to kids climbing a tree as "monkeys" into perspective.

Rep. Davis talked about participating in a "highly classified, national security simulation” with Sen. Barack Obama.

Davis went on to say:

“I'm going to tell you something: That boy's finger does not need to be on the button. He could not make a decision in that simulation that related to a nuclear threat to this country.”

Yes. Davis called Obama a "boy." Davis did have the wisdom to apologize quickly after the Obama campaign took him to task.

via Pol Watchers

Quote: Dangerous anatomy

"The last time that I checked a nipple was not a dangerous weapon."

The Transportation Security Agency, in their ever-smart efforts to keep us all safer, made a woman remove her nipple piercings with a pliers in order to get on a flight, all the while screening staff snickered at her. She has threatened to sue if she does not get an apology.

Quote: Menstruation from a kindergartener's perspective

Today's quote comes courtesy of writer Neal Pollock. His son, Elijah, receives a primer on menstruation and upon running into his mother in the bathroom, has a helpful question for her:

"Mommy," he said, his eyes glistening with sincerity. "Did you remember to put your egg in the potty?"

The full explanation is available on Pollack's Parents magazine blog.

Quote: Science or Beer?

The New York Times reports For scientists, a beer test shows results as a litmus test

Key quote from Dr. Matthew Symonds:

“It’s rather devastating to be told we should drink less beer in order to increase our scientific performance."

New quote of the day

The mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, always has something "interesting" to say. Actually, he has made it clear that getting attention is all that matters.

This quote is about the Vagina Monologues. It's great he supports the play, but you know the below phrasing wasn't accidental:

"So I stand before you, a vagina-friendly mayor."

Quote: Failure of abstinence-only

Quoted in the Associated-Press article, Study finds 1 in 4 teens has a STD, Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood places a large part of the blame squarely where it belongs: abstinence-only sexuality "education" that leaves young people unequipped to protect themselves.

"The national policy of promoting abstinence-only programs is a $1.5 billion failure, and teenage girls are paying the real price."

At what point do policymakers return to sanity and go forward with public health programing that dispenses information instead of mere, abstinence platitudes?

• Those in Minnesota should check out the Coalition for Responsible Sex Ed, a coalition of groups and individuals passionate about making real change to lower the STD/STI and pregnancy rate of Minnesota teens.

Quote: Office woes

12PM Dude, Just Pull the Tray Out and Put It in Again

Man, to copier: There is paper in there! Stop being stupid! No, I will not add paper to tray four, I can tell you that right now. I will shoot someone before I add paper to tray four.

Berry College
Rome, Georgia

via Overheard in the Office, Feb 27, 2008

Today's Quote: Getting things done

From last Saturday, Tina Fey tells us in a humorous commentary on SNL in regards to Senator Clinton:

"You know what, bitches get stuff done."

Today's Quote: Divisive politics

Clinton campaign staffers have apparently distributed a 2006 photo of Barack Obama in traditional Somali clothes when he was on a trip in northern Kenya. (Available here) Of course, we know photos like this feed into the racist misconceptions about Obama's background. Via Politico, here is the response from Obama campaign manager, David Plouffe:

“On the very day that Senator Clinton is giving a speech about restoring respect for America in the world, her campaign has engaged in the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we’ve seen from either party in this election. This is part of a disturbing pattern that led her county chairs to resign in Iowa, her campaign chairman to resign in New Hampshire, and it’s exactly the kind of divisive politics that turns away Americans of all parties and diminishes respect for America in the world," said Plouffe.

It does indicate how low the Clinton campaign may go this next week as we approach the Texas and Ohio contests on March 4. Clearly, the Clinton campaign is no longer worried about damaging Obama in such a way that may dramatically hinder him in the general election.

This latest controversy started when someone form the Clinton campaign emailed the photo to the Drudge Report. The fact that the Clinton people are using Drudge as a dissemination tool may further irritate Democrats who often see the website as the lowest of the lows. Ironically, it was Drudge who broke some of the initial allegations of the Lewinsky scandal.

Quote of the Day: Misdirected

Courtesy of the Star Tribune, Ken Plant of the army's Public Affairs office said the following in relation to some recent vandalism of a Minneapolis Army Recruiting office:

"It's misdirected frustration by people who are not too happy with the way things are going. The Army just goes where America tells it to go. If citizens want change, they need to talk about it."

I'd take issue with one aspect of this quote.

I agree with the premise that if people want change in "the way things are going" as one euphemism, the political process is where efforts are effectively spent. Clearly, throwing bricks through a window at an Army recruiting office doesn't really do much except cost the Pentagon a few hundred dollars to repair. These are folks who are misplacing--or at least, not accounting for--tens of millions of dollars. This won't hurt them.

Where I take issue is whether the statement of the brick throwers is necessarily all about the war. I don't know their mindset any more clearly than the Army spokesperson, but there is plenty of things to say about the Pentagon's recruitment strategies. Whether it's their practice of waivers to let just about anyone in (a full 11% of new recruits have convictions according to today's news reports); or the continued discrimination of gay people as they let people with gang tattoos in; or how they have virtually unfettered access to high school students' and their personal information; or how schools are forced to host them lest they loose their funding; or how many recruiting offices are staffed with professional sales people who have not seen combat and set rosy expectations of what their military career will entail; or, admittedly maybe closer to the point Mr. Plant made, because the offices are staffed by people making money off signing up people to commit themselves to fight in an unjust war and risk coming back themselves in a pine box; there may be more to it than simply being against the war.

I don't know. Maybe this person or persons are pissed off about the war, saw the Army recruiting office, and decided to express their opposition with some bricks. All I'm saying is that setting "the way things are going [in Iraq]" aside, there are plenty of other reasons to be dissatisfied with Army recruiting practices. I don't know how to change them, but my guess is that it isn't with bricks.

An afterthought: Can we waste the Pentagon's manpower and resources with a campaign to provide thousands of recruiting false leads? Call them up and be interested, string them along for a bit, then tell them to go to hell? I'm not going to do that because I don't want to talk to an Army recruiter about serving, but that would be at least more effective (and less legally risky) than throwing bricks.

Today's Quote: Marriage

This month's Atlantic magazine features an essay that no doubt sparks a bit of controversy: The Case for settling for Mr. Good Enough by Lori Gottlieb. It's a lengthy and thoughtful piece, written from the perspective of a woman in her 40s who has decided to have a child by herself, attributing her lack of husband to being too picky in her 20s and 30s.

She questions what it means to be single and what it means to be married. At one point she describes marriage in the following, non-romantic way:

"It sounds obvious now, but I didn’t fully appreciate back then that what makes for a good marriage isn’t necessarily what makes for a good romantic relationship. Once you’re married, it’s not about whom you want to go on vacation with; it’s about whom you want to run a household with. Marriage isn’t a passion-fest; it’s more like a partnership formed to run a very small, mundane, and often boring nonprofit business. And I mean this in a good way."

I guess it's a little more optimistic than Marge Simpson, who once said: "Marriage is a constant battle for moral superiority." Or more on point, Edna Krabappel who said, "Ha ha ha. Children, most of you will never fall in love, but marry out of fear of dying alone."

Still, the comparison with running a nonprofit enterprise strikes me as spot on. I would say that it is definitely desirable to want to take vacations with your spouse, though. In fact, I think taking a trip with someone is a great test to the long-term potential of the relationship. You are in close proximity for a length of time. It's an opportunity to connect and have fun together. And of course all traveling involves lots of opportunities to negotiate and deal with unanticipated problems compounded by lack of sleep and stress!

In all seriousness, Gottlieb makes some good points about how we think about romance and marriage. She theorizes that "settling" means more and is increasingly difficult the older you get because you get more set in your ways and accustomed to the independence of being single. Still, there is much to criticize. It is hard for me to understand the perspective of a never-married, single mother in her 40s on issues of marriage, but she has a bit too much confidence with some of her assertions.

Like this one: "...every woman I know—no matter how successful and ambitious, how financially and emotionally secure—feels panic, occasionally coupled with desperation, if she hits 30 and finds herself unmarried.

"Oh, I know—I’m guessing there are single 30-year-old women reading this right now who will be writing letters to the editor to say that the women I know aren’t widely representative, that I’ve been co-opted by the cult of the feminist backlash, and basically, that I have no idea what I’m talking about. And all I can say is, if you say you’re not worried, either you’re in denial or you’re lying. In fact, take a good look in the mirror and try to convince yourself that you’re not worried, because you’ll see how silly your face looks when you’re being disingenuous."

My guess is that there are plenty of single 30 year-old women who are not in denial and perfectly fine not jumping on the marriage bandwagon. Here's one right off the bat from Feministing.com. (The shortened response is here.) Yes, there may be a large segment of the population that has unrealistic expectations of marriage and child-rearing and find themselves running out of time. But I doubt it is universal. Hardly anything is.

Voice of feminism

Having worked in the advocacy non-profit community, I've seen a wide spectrum in sophistication from advocacy organizations. There are some small, grassroots organizations out there with just a couple staff that are incredibly effective at what they do. Then there are the groups, big and small, which simply take donations and make lots of noise, and often cause trouble for the other groups who are actually making a difference. It can be distressing sometimes.

I suspect that the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women falls into the ineffective category. It's hard to have a favorable impression of them when their president releases this statement:

Women have just experienced the ultimate betrayal. Senator Kennedy’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton’s opponent in the Democratic presidential primary campaign has really hit women hard. Women have forgiven Kennedy, stuck up for him, stood by him, hushed the fact that he was late in his support of Title IX, the ERA, the Family Leave and Medical Act to name a few. Women have buried their anger that his support for the compromises in No Child Left Behind and the Medicare bogus drug benefit brought us the passage of these flawed bills. We have thanked him for his ardent support of many civil rights bills, BUT women are always waiting in the wings.

And now the greatest betrayal! We are repaid with his abandonment! He’s picked the new guy over us. He’s joined the list of progressive white men who can’t or won’t handle the prospect of a woman president who is Hillary Clinton (they will of course say they support a woman president, just not “this” one).

It goes on from there. Thanks to Feministing.com for flagging this

One wonders why many women are hesitant to embrace the term "feminist" even when they seem to hold such viewpoints. Who wants to be in company with people like the author of the above missive?

Today's Quote: Booing kids

"I'd boo the most adorable child in the world saving a kitten from drowning if she were wearing a Stanford jersey while she did it. Or if the kitten was." -King Kaufman, Salon.com columnist

Yes. He is being sarcastic. It's to illustrate a point over the minor controversy of Indianapolis Colts fans booing an 11 year-old girl wearing a New England Patriots jersey at last week's Chargers-Colts game. Incidentally, he's the only sports writer I read.

Today's Quote: Kurds

"What's a Kurd, anyway?" -Norman Podhoretz

This old quote comes courtesy of Jeffrey Goldbery in the current issue of The Atlantic magazine. He gives us the context of the quote in the cover story "After Iraq: What will the Middle East look like?" Basically, he's telling us now ignorant the neo-conservatives have been to the demographics in the Middle East, missing the fact that the Kurds would become a political complication in post-war Iraq.

'Just before the “Mission Accomplished” phase of the war, I spoke about Kurd­istan to an audience that included Norman Podhoretz, the vicariously martial neoconservative who is now a Middle East adviser to Rudolph Giuliani. After the event, Podhoretz seemed authentically bewildered. “What’s a Kurd, anyway?” he asked me.'

Quote of the Moment: Clinton (Bill)

ABC reporter Jake Tapper quotes Bill Clinton being interviewed by Charlie Rose, talking about Barack Obama. Clinton said regarding Obama's supporters:

"[as thinking] we're willing to risk it ... we're prepared to roll the dice."

Tapper recalls a similar quote in 1992 from George Bush campaign adviser, Robert Black: "This is not a time to gamble with our future. Electing Bill Clinton president would be rolling the dice."

Tapper is a decent journalist who has been with ABC for a while. I much preferred when he wrote for Salon.com. He's a much better writer than a television reporter. It's nice he has a blog at least (along with everyone else under the sun).

Choice quotes

I listened to much of the Democrat Presidential debate yesterday. Two of my favorite remarks...

1. From Sen. Obama, when asked his priorities for his first year in office. The first was to order the Joint Chiefs to draw up a plan for, " in a responsible, careful way" withdrawing troops from Iraq. Number three was for a plan to extend health care coverage to all Americans. My favorite part:

"Number two, I'll call in my new attorney general to review every single executive order that's been issued by George Bush. And any of those that have undermined our Constitution or subverted our civil liberties are going to be reversed."

2. Sen. Clinton answered the same question and mirrored Obama's remarks. But my favorite part is emphasized below:

"I will review every executive order, rescind those that undermine the Constitution and betray the rule of law, and issue some, like, for example, not interfering with science and ending Bush's war on science."

Clinton also said she'd ask Congress to quickly resend her the bills Bush vetoed: stem cell research funding and children's health insurance program.