Hattie's Web

Tweetage

I am too busy to finish my Nation Magazine Summary before we leave for the Mainland, nor will I finish the new post for my other blog. And I won't have time to post again until Monday. So just as placeholders, here are some good tweets.

 

alaindebotton Alain de Botton

Today's photo that 'doesn't look really like me' is five years from now's 'quite good shot'.

alaindebotton Alain de Botton

With age, one comes across more and more photos about which one protests in vain, 'That doesn't really look like me.'

 

chrislhayes Christopher Hayes

Mike Daisey will be returning to @upwithchris this weekend to talk about this: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Daloosh Dalia Ezzat

No #ArabSpring without women : "In #Egypt, there are now voices saying that women should leave the revolution to men" bit.ly/AxtbNs

1 hour ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Retweeted by @JessicaValenti

TPM Talking Points Memo

Even more Adelson money coming Newt's way: http://tpm.ly/w6gjoX

2 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply

chrislhayes Christopher Hayes

Your must read of the week: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/30/080630fa_fact_bruck?currentPage=all

3 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Got to clean up my office and pack.

Aloha until Monday.

Unfriended a person who owes us $$$$$$ and just had a pool party and did not invite us. Dud friend anyway.

More:  There are a lot of bloggers out there who are just fools.   Enough said, and you know who you are. There are bloggers on my blogroll I disagree with, but they are not out and out fools.  If a blogger gets past me and turns out to be a fool, as sometimes happens, he or she is removed from my blogspace.

Young activist Rinku Sen on race, immigration, activism.

http://arc.org/content/view/44/43/

Rinku started her organizing career as a student activist at Brown University, fighting race, gender and class discrimination on campuses. She received a B.A. in Women's Studies in 1988 and an M.S. in Journalism at Columbia University in 2005. A native of India, Rinku grew up in the northeastern factory towns, and learned to speak English in a two-room schoolhouse. She can often be found with a pair of knitting needles in her hands.

Martin Bashir interviews Tea Party "freshman" Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh

Hard-hitting interview with deadbeat dad who owes $$$$$ in child support.

 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 

This is a Democracy Now interview with Nicholas Shaxson, author of Treasure Islands: Uncovering the Damage of Offshore banking and Tax Havens. It first broadcast on tax day, April 15, 2011. Mitt Romney comes up for discussion.

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/15/offshore_banking_and_tax_havens_have

After watching this, it was clear to me that tax evasion by the very rich is the reason our government is broke.

The Republicans out there in the blogosphere are starting to get worried, now that they see what a turkey Romney is.

http://floppingaces.net/2012/01/20/republicans-in-denial-reader-post/

From the Queen: Facebook page Ladies with Multiple Sclerosis for Newt.

http://www.mocklog.com/queen_mediocretia/2012/01/a-link-i-must-share.html

From Nancy Nall's blog.

http://nancynall.com/2012/01/23/the-one-great-scorer-is-ready/

From TPM livewire:
Gingrich: Romney Getting 'Desperate'

Newt Gingrich, speaking in Tampa, Florida said that Mitt Romney’s edge slipping after six years of campaigning is making the former governor “desperate.”

“It used to be pious baloney, but now it’s just desperate baloney,” Gingrich added. “Perhaps he’ll be able to open a delicatessen.”

Newt! The choice of nasty people everywhere.

Busy Monday

Too much to do for a person with a lazy constitution, but I forge on.  My notebook from the 2011 Nation Cruise turned up,  so I've been working on a summary, which I'll post later in the week. Also, working on a short piece about Global Hope  for the other blog on local progressive politics.

Four of us Leaguers went out to Hawaiian Shores, one of the numerous subdivisions in the Puna District, for their home owners' association vote count.  As usual, people were divided into angry factions. That's why we get hired for these things. Everyone respects our high ethical standards and professionalism. For many, it's the first time they have actually seen how much care and time go into vote counts. One observer told us, "We tried to run this election ourselves last year, and it took us twice as long to do it as it did you folks" Why?  We proceed in a careful and methodical way and double check everything,  This is the fastest way to handle things. Even at that, there will be glitches, and we have learned how to deal with those. I'm glad we have some younger members learning the ropes now. This is probably the single most important activity of the Hawaii Island League, because we  model proper election procedures.  And we make money for National, State, and local Leagues, too. 

And such excitement!  A nice couple in a pickup truck hauled away our old still functional but rusted out fridge. I imagine they, being young and worthwhile, will fix up the exterior and get some more use out of it. And we got rid of it without paying the $50.00 Sears would have charged us for the service. The new one has no freezer, which is fine, because we have a freezer downstairs. We also have a fridge downstairs with no freezer, where we store flour and rice, beans, coffee, pet food, etc. out of the reach of tropical heat and insects.  Lucky our electricity is free.

 

By the end of the week, we will have had to move all the furniture, etc. out of the back rooms so  our friend Jim can refinish the floors while we are  gone to the Mainland. And we will touch up the paint job on the kitchen cupboards. This should put us in good shape for friends and family coming in Feb. and March. April will be when grandchild #4 arrives, a girl.

I got into a big argument with a friend about finding out the sex of the child before birth.  I think it's always nice to know things. I know my daughter is over the moon about having a girl.

Did get a good swim in last week and will do yoga later. 

Have a nice day, everyone.

 

Earthquake! Magnitude 5 in Puna. Pretty good shaker. Caused things to bounce around but nothing got knocked over. Did not last very long.

This seems timely.

http://hattie.typepad.com/hatties_web/2010/03/michael-berube-says-coordinate-the-hate.html

My Twitter feed is being inundated with junk tweets, which makes it almost useless. Oh, good. I unfriended and reported some as spam, and that cleared out my stream. Leaves me with one follower (thanks Leslie).  But I'm interested in following on Twitter, not followers.

I loved this, and it made me feel good about my country.

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Why are there so many "legendary" and "iconic" figures that I have never heard of?

Off to help with one of those boring civic duty type things that League of Women Voters do. This is a vote count for a home owners' association.
The vog has cleared. If you look at the vog map (side bar) you will see how it's sweeping away from us.. Oahu is getting vog now. And it's at its worst in Ocean View, where people have been suffering for a long time from very high levels of emissions.

Voggy thoughts

I'm feeling sorry right now for academics who invested so much of their intellect in critical theory and postmodernism. Who cares about that stuff any more? Are students going to be willing to sit in class and listen to such philosophies?
I don't think so.

More: The above  is just a thought that drifted through my vog-addled brain that I haven't explained very well. When I was in grad school there were a lot of professors and students who were using German and French philosophy, usually in translation, to mystify themselves and others. It was basically a grad school game, and as such, harmless. But a few of them believed that engaging in such studies was a sign of superior intelligence and adopted a snobbish attitude. Of course they were free to feel that way, but most of them ended up doing the same kind of teaching I did, to people who did not give a fig for great thoughts and who needed more accessible ways of critical thinking. And skills. Especially writing. 

After all, why have mushrooms growing out of your brain when pragmatism is so accessible to Americans as a philosophy and so effective at getting things done? O.K. It's good to read Plato (in translation) and to at least understand what Kant is talking about, which is more or less the state of my philosophical education. I have read as much of the Germans as I could stand and a lot of Freud (talk about being led down the garden path) and the Marxist philosophers  (aka critical theorists) like Walter Benjamin (my favorite) and Habermas (who is very pragmatic for a German). I don't have to read the English pragmatists, because  I am a native of that culture. 

To me,  a humanities background implies a wide knowledge of culture, literature, history, music and art. Teaching and learning these things are a better use of educational time than postmodern analysis of a few texts. And a lot more fun, too.

And it is really important to write and write. The more you write, the clearer your ideas become.

 

This shocked me. I lived in Switzerland for years and never heard a word about the children who were taken away from their families and forced to work on farms, as late as the 1950s.  And the excuses. "We were a poor country." "The parents were not fit to bring up children." Just when I think I can't be disillusioned any more, something like this comes to light. The Swiss  hid this disgrace from the world to keep up their reputation for respectability.  How reprehensible.  It's a pretty little country with a lot of dirty little secrets.

Puts me in a funny position, because I get Swiss social security, but I did earn it!

BBCWorld BBC News (World)

"My childhood was stolen from me" - #Switzerland's "Verdingkinder" or "contract children" speak out bbc.in/wtmxy4

 

Wow! His first campaign ad and he mentions the League of Women Voters, of which I am the proud past president,  and now vice president, of the local League.
Wow! We always feel like no one notices us. Just: Wow!!!

I didn't realize until today how often I use Wikipedia. Already three times today I've been thwarted in my quest for information from them by their 24 hour blackout.

jeremyscahill jeremy scahill
RT @thinkprogress BREAKING: State Dept will announce later this afternoon it is NOT going forward w/Keystone Pipeline (via @edhenryTV)

Looks like Gingrich has decided to go for the white resentnicks and racists as his base. It's giving him a bump in the polls.

Stephen Colbert
StephenAtHome Stephen Colbert
If the grass is always greener on the other side, why don't we all just go over there? Problem solved!

Oh, wow. I found a map that shows exactly why the vog is making me so sick. The air is mostly OK, but it has these pockets of heavy pollution in it. Where we are located, the wind keeps shifting and dragging the bad air back and forth over us. Fascinating,. Koff Koff.

http://weather.hawaii.edu/vmap/hysplit/index.cgi?banner=uhmet&domain=haw&variable=so4&orient=horiz&anim=java

Worst vog in years has me hunkered down

Watch Maddow's show.  She's smokin' hot. 'Tis now the true political season, which is where  she excels in her commentary.

Too tired and vog-challenged to say much here. We are in for a very voggy few days and maybe longer.  I went to my ceramics class and everyone was looking ill. They get vog like this a lot in Kona, but it is unusual here.

Two main topics: Wisconsin recall of Gov. Scott Walker and the way he played hooky with his rich friends while his fellow Wisconsinites delivered a million recall petitions to the state Capitol.

South Carolina Republican debate and racism "coming out of the closet."  The racist material under Paul's name that he is refusing to take credit for is now on the Internet. It's even more sickening than this vog. It's straight out of the playbook of the dear old Southland, which of course those crackers in the audience really enjoyed. That's quite a nostalgia trip for them, I'm sure. It's very hard not to despise them.

More: What I can't get over is that none of the official air quality sources show anything but that the air is clean. Not true. 

I don't know why Ron Paul's head is on this video.
What is happening right now in Michigan is shocking. This is what the Tea Party is really about, and the racism is becoming more and more obvious. 

Update: Here is the explanation for Ron Paul's floating head

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 

 

 

Oh shoot! We won't be going there for a while, though. Hope it's all cleared away by Feb.
BBCWorld BBC News (World)
US Pacific north-western states are bracing for blizzard that could bring heaviest snowfall seen in a generation bbc.in/x6wivO

Alain de Botton Ted talk on atheism

My favorite philosopher explains the dilemma of the unbeliever.

How to account for the great power over an unbeliever like me of Martin Luther King? Was it his faith, really, or was it the tradition he came out of, with its rich store of literature, oratory, communality, ritual, moral guidance? Can atheists incorporate these virtues without believing? Where then does the sense of wonder come from that the religious find in belief? Can we do without that? Or can we find other sources of meaning and joy? Botton does a wonderful job of answering these questions.

 

Democracy Now tribute to Martin Luther King. His April 4, 1967 speech at the Riverside Church. And his speech just before his assassination on April 4, 1968. Lots of footage from those times.
What people like us who lived through then is now history. How strange.
Dr. King was so aware of history and knew himself when he was alive as a historical figure. What would he think of the course our country has taken since he died?
Martin Luther King was perhaps the greatest orator who ever lived, a man of wide culture and erudition, a genius more than worthy of being remembered on this holiday.