Pray the Devil Back to Hell - PBS, October 18

Leymah Gbowee recently won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in helping to end years of bloody civil war in her native Liberia. Gbowee is the central character in the award-winning documentary, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, which makes its U.S. broadcast television premiere on Tuesday, October 18 on the PBS' series Women, War, and Peace.

You might remember Gbowee from a post about Barnes and Noble exec Len Riggio's insistence on funding her book tour.

Congress Stalls Jobs Act, Offers Nothing New

Senators Harry Reid (D) and Mitch McConnell (R)
Photo: Sam Stein/Huffington Post

In the wake of Republican procedural maneuvers that blocked the President's full American Jobs Act last week, Senate Democrats are planning to take a more piecemeal approach to job creation. I'm skeptical they can do even that, but it's fine with me - just show you can all work together to get something done.

Like most Americans, I'm growing increasingly frustrated with Congress' failure to make progress. Democrats have proven themselves to be unable to gain Republican support for their ideas through either persuasion, political outflanking, or sheer muscle, and Republicans continue to suffer from a perpetual dearth of new and decent ideas of their own.

While standing in staunch opposition to the jobs bill proposed by the White House, Congressional Republicans have proposed little to spur job creation and economic growth beyond removing regulations from various industries (which worked out well in the financial sector, right?), repealing Obamacare (which didn't come into law until after the economy was well down the road to hell), and drilling in the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge (regardless of the economic impact, Republicans seem bent on defiling this piece of wilderness).

Beyond the halls of Congress, Republican presidential candidates have busied themselves re-packaging the same failed economic policies that led us to the promise land we enjoy today. Texas Governor Rick Perry wants to resurrect the "drill baby, drill"mentality and he has done some funny math (according to Republican journalist David Frum) to try and substantiate the validity of this approach. Meanwhile, Herman Cain is breaking no new ground with his 9-9-9 tax plan which offers the same old Republican recipe of robbing from the middle class to protect the top 10%.

My advice to all of them is the same now as it was when the President first proposed his jobs bill in early September - get busy conducting the nation's critically important business or get ready to be swept out of the way in November 2012.

Turn of Phrase - Mr. Spock on Society and Gayness

"We're terrified of facing ourselves, we're terrified of what we'll find and so, instead we seem to waste time and energy with small-mindedness and intolerance, and with bigotry and with hatred and with fear."

- From actor Zachary Quinto as he considered the societal disparity between the legalization of gay marriage in New York and the suicide of gay teen Jamey Rodemeyer. Quinto, who played Mr. Spock in the last Star Trek film, recently identified himself publicly as gay.

Red Sox Admit to Beer Drinking During Games

Two great American pastimes. 

In A League of Their Own, Tom Hanks famously said, "there's no crying in baseball," but apparently there is beer drinking.

Recent reports claim that Boston Red Sox starting pitchers drank beer, ate fried chicken, and played video games in the clubhouse during games they were not scheduled to pitch. Red Sox starter Jon Lester substantiated the reports, though he claims the behavior was unrelated to the Red Sox monumental September collapse.

I'm doubt this questionable way of passing time during games directly influenced the outcome of any particular contests (it's not likely that a pitcher took the mound with a four beer buzz and a belly full of the Colonel's original recipe), but come on. Baseball is a professional team sport, and this behavior is neither professional nor focused on what is best for the team.

Besides, fighting tedium during the ridiculously long regular baseball season by drinking beer, eating unhealthily, and checking your handheld electronic devices non-stop is what fans do at game, not players.

The Shallow End - Bad Lip Reading with Mitt Romney

The folks from Bad Lip Reading take on Mitt Romney. Funniest 2 minutes of my day. I particularly liked Mitt's strategy of forcing "spiders and badgers on the enemy."

Viewing Tip: Click on the title bar at the top of the clip to open the video in a larger YouTube window.

Daily Zen - Monday, October 17

To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to the violence of our times.
                 
                     - Thomas Merton

Herman Cain as Romney's Vice President

What would you think of a Romney-Cain Republican ticket?

Former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown is the first I have seen to propose the idea, and I think he may be on to something.

Consider the benefits for Republicans.

• In these tough economic times, Republicans could tout a ticket with not one, but two "job-creating" businessmen.
• As a newcomer to presidential politics, Cain brings a different energy and a Washington outsider edge to the ticket in a very anti-incumbent political environment.
• Cain's presence on the ticket would help Romney solidify support from the conservative wing of the Republican party.
• As an African-American, Cain may be able to siphon enough of the traditionally Democratic black vote to give the Republicans an edge.

While it's far too early for any candidate to concede that he or she is interested in the number two spot, if I were a Republican party leader, I would plant the seed now, water the hell out of it, and get the back room negotiations going posthaste.

Rapture Redux - Judgement Day Part 2

It seems like only yesterday we the select few were sitting on our freshly packed suitcases, dressed in our Sunday best, waiting for the end of times. And, nothing.

Despite the careful ciphering of the Reverend Harold Camping, doomsday did not happen in the Spring as predicted. Not to worry fellow chosen ones - the re-scheduled rapture is just nine days away.

According to Reverend Camping, the rapture vacuum will be cranked up soon and we'll all get sucked up into heaven sometime before October 21. See you there (maybe)!

SNL's "What's Wrong With Tanya? " Skit

You can't count on Saturday Night Live to be consistently funny any more, but every now and then the show still delivers.

SNL usually does well with game show parodies, and last night's Lifetime Network Game Show was a respectable effort.

Bill Hader is disturbing and hilarious as usual.

Week in Review - October 15, 2011

Here are links to a few of the fun and interesting things you might have missed on my blog this week.

The economy continues to be a hot topic. Herman Cain claims his 9-9-9 Tax Plan will spur the economy and create jobs, and if by some miracle he is correct and you find yourself hunting one of those new jobs, you’ll want to be sure to avoid biting the interviewer.

We tackled several big societal questions this week. Author and culture critic Toure asked what it means to be black in “post-black” America, and I argued that he and Walt Whitman might answer that question very similarly. Conservatives asked what it means to be Mormon like Romney, and I argued that Mormonism is no more or less a cult than almost any other religion. And with 28 people killed in a series of bomb attacks in Baghdad, I wondered what the future holds for Iraq, and postulated that most Americans simply won’t care, but we should.

Death was in the news much closer to home this week as well, and I published several posts exploring the very different ways death impacts us. There was victory in death for Steve Jobs as his family successfully evaded a Westboro Baptist funeral picket. There was sadness in death as we revisited the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard on the thirteenth anniversary of his death, but also hopefulness, as we remembered the important lessons our nation learned from that horrific event. And there was anger and angst in death, as we saw in a letter from a grieving daughter to her idiotically insensitive co-worker that reminded us to be a little more careful with how we console others in death, and with how we treat those we love in life.

From the shallow end of the pool, we had several instances of IFOs this week (Identified Flying Objects). There was the antelope who flew threw the air and hit a cyclist, the hot dog launched at Tiger Woods, a large sum of money thrown at a copy of Ken Kesey’s Cuckoo’s Nest, and an adorable picture of a toddler who comes with his own baby-tossing instructions.

As always, thanks for reading.

Weekend Zen, October 15-16

If your eyes are blinded with your worries, you cannot see the beauty of the sunset.
                         
                        - Krishnamurti

The Shallowest Sympathies for Your Loss

It's not always easy to find the right thing to say to someone who has just lost a loved one, but we should all be able to fairly easily avoid the colossally wrong things to say.

In the latest from the McSweeney's feature entitled Open Letters to People Who Are Unlikely to Respond, a woman addresses her correspondence to a co-worker who showed remarkable insensitivity in attempting to offer her condolences regarding the death of a parent.

Cuckoo's Nest Sells for $9,000

Despite the invasion of the e-Reader, bricks and mortar bookstores are not dead yet. No doubt, printed tomes are becoming less popular, but many of us still appreciate the feel of a book in our hands.

As fewer hardcover and paperback books are sold, fewer will be printed in the first place and physical books will become more valuable as collectibles.

One recent example - last week, online bookseller ABE books sold a signed copy of Ken Kesey's classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest for $9,000. 

Former Borders friends - consider your opportunities ringing this sale up:

• Will you be using your Rewards card? For a $20 investment, you could save $900 on your purchase today.
• Did you need the Cliff's Notes to go with your book?
• You know we also have this on Blu-Ray DVD if you would prefer a state of the art version?
• Bag of coffee? Donate a book to a needy child? 
• Will you need a gift receipt or are you reading this one yourself?

and of course....

• Would you like a bag for your $9,000 book?

Daily Zen - Friday, October 14

Doubt everything. Find your own light.

                     - Buddha

Antelope Hits Cyclist

I am publishing this video as reward for those who read the Herman Cain 9-1-1 tax plan post. I know your brain is tired now, and I promise you won't need it to view this video.

An antelope collides with a South African mountain biker during a race in a wildlife park. Enjoy.

Viewing Tip: Click on the title bar at the top of the clip to open the video in a larger YouTube window.

Herman Cain's 9-9-9 Tax Plan for Dummies

Can thousands of pages of tax
code be replaced with 9-9-9?

Like most Americans, I am seriously frustrated and concerned by the lack of forward progress in our nation's economy. Like the 53% of Americans who voted for the Democratic candidate in the 2008 presidential election, I believed Barack Obama might have the ideas to lead the economic charge. So far, not so much.

Regardless of where you stand on the Obama presidency, you have to admit that the economy blows. The stock market is a volatile mess, home prices are stagnant at best, unemployment remains high, foreclosures continue, and overall growth is slow. Reasonable people, of which I like to think I am one, have to be open to new ideas, because business as usual has turned out to be bad business.

Enter Herman Cain and his 9-9-9 Plan.

I have done my homework and have reached a conclusion about the plan. But let's not put the cart before the horse. First, four basic facts about the plan, presented as simply as I can.

1. Cain proposes that we completely abolish the current tax code, which is universally detested, overly complex, and potentially "unfair." (Cheap applause because everyone hates the tax code.)
2. Cain proposes that we replace the tax code with the very simple 9-9-9 Plan: this means corporations pay a 9% tax rate, individuals pay a 9% income tax rate, and we implement a 9% national sales tax on things we purchase (like groceries and other consumer goods).
3. Cain proposes the elimination of payroll deductions (Social Security, Medicare) from our paychecks and the elimination of the capital gains tax, the estate/death tax, and virtually all other personal taxes.
4. Cain claims that if we implement the 9-9-9 Plan, the total revenue trade off for our government is neutral. Intake from the old tax code would be essentially the same as intake from the 9-9-9 plan. (That's how they arrived at 9% as the magic the number.)

Now, for a little analysis. Let's think about the most fundamental implications of putting this plan into place.

Daily Zen - Thursday, October 13

We can love and care for others, but we cannot possess our children, lovers, family, or friends.

We can assist them, pray for them, and wish them well, yet in the end their happiness and suffering depend on their thoughts and actions, not our wishes.
             
                     - Jack Kornfield

The Shallow End - Instructions for Baby Tossing

Who has time to read those long childcare manuals? I prefer a baby with easily understandable "care and handling" instructions printed right on his clothes.

Wyatt Arnold, son of Anthony and Jen Arnold (Charlotte, NC)

Baghdad Bombers Kill 28 - Do We Still Care?

Baghdad bombing site.     Credit: Reuters

Today I was skimming through internet news articles and I saw this headline on Reuters - "Suicide Bombers, Attacks Hit Baghdad Police, 28 Dead." I was about to skip right over the article, and then found myself pausing to read it.

I learned about a string of suicide bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital city that have occurred in the last two days. I learned that the attacks killed some civilans but were targeted at Iraqi police forces. I learned that there is still serious concern, as we draw down the last few thousand American troops in the coming months, that Iraqis are not capable of providing for their own safety and security.

What struck me the most about this article though was how completely removed I felt from its gory details. I sat perplexed and maybe a little ashamed.

Why did this not seem to matter to me as much any more?

Maybe it's because the focus was not on American casualties. Maybe it's because Afghanistan has dominated the war news lately. Maybe it's because I feel like I have seen the same exact headline every single day for the last five years. Maybe, "it's the economy, stupid." Maybe, like most Americans, I simply don't have the attention span to handle it all.

Whatever the reason, I have this guilty feeling that I somehow "washed my hands" of the mess in Iraq. But since we broke it, shouldn't we buy it? Even if the cost is exorbitant? Or is it okay to just say "to hell with them" and move on because we have other distant corners of the globe to worry ourselves with now? I mean, we got rid of Saddam for them, right? Can't they take it from here? Hasn't the statute of limitations run out yet on GWB's colossal Iraqi invasion fuck up? Or is this still going to be our problem for decades?

Let me state unequivocally that this is not intended to be a sad remembrance of Saddam's days gone by. And let me also say, that I have no answers to the questions I pose. I guess I am just wondering if anyone else is disturbed by how easy it is to "forget" about the responsibilities America has as a result of some pretty major foreign policy decisions we made in the last ten years.

Daily Zen - Wednesday, October 12

Things of the past are already gone, and things to be, distant beyond imagining.

                         - Ch'ing Kung