"And I Always Carry a Purse"

Twisty of I Blame the Patriarchy writes with amusing viciousness of teensy handbags.

I remember an article on purses -- big, voluminous, hold-all-you-own purses -- in Ms. magazine, many years ago. It struck a chord with me, as my family were continuingly puzzled by my insistence on carrying my backpack everywhere I went (not considered cool and grown-up back then).

Now, in nursing school, I find it's time to move up to the wheeled variety that's not so much an oversized purse as a smallish handtruck. Oh, well.

Hold Twisty in the Light, folks. She just found out she has breast cancer.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Do what you have to."\\

In the Light, Beloved, in the Light

Dear Linda Loaiza:

Planned Parenthood has asked me to send you a message of support, so here goes:

Quakers don't go in much for intercessory prayer, but when they do, the jargon is "I will hold you in the Light."

The joking addition is, "so God can see you better."

No joke, Linda, I will indeed hold you in the Light, in full knowledge that God is not missing a thing.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Remember, God is watching."\\

Gonna Be a Nurse . . . I Think

I will, if going to nurse school and working foll-time doesn't knock me flat.

Let's just see, shall we?

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Why not try it and see?"\\

Leonardo Was Not Canadian, But . . . .

[Recycled from 13:01, 27 November 2004]

My lookout tower soars high above the mostly low-lying city of Corvallis, higher even than the County Courthouse downtown (though not as high as the proposed mega-condo that apparently is going to be built down by the riverfront), even higher than some of the Oregon State University buildings up on the hill a few blocks west of me. The lookout would dominate the skyline of the town, except that nobody can see it but me.

Sometimes, climbing the long long ladder to the snug little lookout shelter, I wonder what it would be like to climb aboard an old-fashioned Flash Gordon rocketship:

http://www.arapress.com/aapa.html

What a shame that the real thing was mnever so glamourous-looking.

But that may change, if the da Vinci Project can pull it off:

http://www.davinciproject.com

To the da Vinci Project: Thank you.

[Update, 20 September 2005: They say they're going to do a parachute drop-test of their crew capsule. Not much else in the way of news posted at their site lately.]

///The Magic 8-Bal says, "To travel stylishly is better than to arrive."\\

Myths of the Atomic Age

[Recycled from 13:01, 30 November 2004]

Once a myth is established, it dies hard. And if the truth is extremely painful (the Rape of Nanking, the Holocaust, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), the perpetrators and their descendants will cling to it fiercely indeed.

But the truth will out eventually, so long as we keep reminding people that there is a truth:

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/11/28/121331/44

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "No effort is ever wasted."\\

Don't Be So Negative

If you really want to change things, my friend, you need to stop being so negative.

You've made it clear that you don't approve of the policies of the current administration, but you never seem to have any positive suggestions to make.

You won't make any friends for your cause with such relentless negativity.

You really need to lighten up, Comrade Solzhenitsyn.

[Thanks to Sumo Merriment for today's politically correct link.]

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "What? Who said anything about Bush?"\\

I'm From the Sun

[Recycled from 2 December 2004]

You Are From the Sun

Of all your friends, you're the shining star. You're dramatic - loving attention and the spotlight. You're a totally entertainer and the life of the party. Watch out! The Sun can be stubborn, demanding, and flirty. Overall, you're a great leader and great friend. The very best!

What Planet Are You From?

But I suspect that the program ignores the answers to all the questions except "What's your sign?"

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Some questions need answers. Some don't."\\

New Orleaneans Should Rise (by at least several blocks)

Where will the evacuees from New Orleans go? After all, their former homes are ruined, or even still underwater, right?

True. But according to Naomi Klein in The Nation, in the high-and-dry (okay, high-and-kinda-moist) sections of the city, there is vacant housing for a third or more of the people currently living in shelters.

There is a reason those units were vacant, sometimes for years.

And there is a reason why the various schemes for rebuilding the city make no mention of that vacant housing.

Not only that, but it's the same reason that Halliburton and friends prefer their own ideas about how to rebuild.

What could that reason be?

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "$"\\

Then Again . . .

. . . sometimes you should compare your opponents to Hitler.

Thanks to Americablog for the link to hatecrime.org (although I was actually there because Kathe sent me a link to a picture of the Divine Wiener of Judgment).

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "What you are looking for is not necessarily what you should be looking at."\\

Save Pasargad

In Iran, they've got a new conservative faith-based initiative: There are ancient ruins at Pasargad that haven't been demolished yet, and the bulldozers are ready to roll.

Charming folks, those right-wing Iranian officeholders.

There's a petition you could sign. And if that doesn't seem like much, well, not signing it is a lot less than that.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Couldn't hurt to try."\\

Cowboy Up

[Recycled from 09:49, 23 November 2004]

The sky is gray and overcast in Corvallis, but there's plenty of light, so the town looks pretty good from up here in the lookout tower. The Benton County Courthouse stands out from its neighbors downtown, to the east of me. To the west are the cranes that are working on the stadium, on the OSU campus. I'm going to miss those cranes when they're gone.

[Note, 18 September 2005: I do miss the cranes, but it's interesting to look over to the west and see the towers of the stadium, and the ranks of windows at their tops, so shrunken by distance that they look like glass brick]

There is a bumper sticker I've seen around town lately that reads "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys", and shows photos of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush in cowboy hats.

So far, I've resisted the temptation to put a note on his windshield reading "Apparently, your heroes have always been pretend cowboys -- a Hollywood actor who played in westerns and a New England aristocrat who plays cowboy on forty-day weekends at his Texas ranchette."

Americans have an astonishing appetite for the transparently phony. Hillary Clinton pretending clumsily to follow New York sports teams*. Ollie North pretending to be a simple, honest Marine. Those guys who pretended to have served with John Kerry. The doctor who claimed to have treated John Kerry's wounds. John Kerry . . . .

At this point, a lot of people would bring up actors testifying before Congress on the strength of having played an archaeologist or a primatologist or whatever in a movie, but actually, an actor who has done research for a part probably knows more about the subject than most people.

But I do wonder what people are thinking sometimes. Or maybe I should ask why they aren't.

*[Correction: She was telling the truth. My apologies.]

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Things are often not what they are said to be."\\

Stake It Again

Will Eisner's last published work, The Plot, was his history of the hoax of the Twentieth Century, the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion

Eisner devoted much of his life to promoting sequential-art storytelling, otherwise known as "comics", as an educational tool, as well as a legitimate art form. He also spent quite a few years proving both claims.

Eisner worked on The Plot for some twenty years, and by great good fortune, it was ready for publication when he died last January. He was fascinated by the way the evil book kept on reappearing, in translation after translation, no matter how many times it had been exposed as a forgery, and no matter how much documentation was produced as proof. Still, Eisner devoted his precious time and his valuable talent to the Augean task of spreading the word that the Protocols were a fraud, and now it has been published by W.W. Norton.

Unfortunately, graphic novels such as the Norton hardback are still only published in small editions for a niche market. What The Plot needs, if it is to be effective, is wide distribution, as wide as possible. If The Plot were published by DC or Marvel as a rather thick comic book and given what's still called "newsstand" distribution to grocery stores and K-Marts, it would have at least some chance of having the impact Eisner hoped for.

So how's about you mention that idea to DC and Marvel?

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "All you can do is whatever you can do."\\

I Am a Democrat . . . a STRONG Democrat

That's what OKCupid says, according to the poll I linked to from supergee.

I didn't used to be.

I blame the Administration. Those guys are forcing lots of people to extreme and desperate measures, like voting for Kerry.

You are a Social Liberal (81% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (23% permissive) You are best described as a: Strong Democrat Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid

Thank You, Fellow Humans

Mmmmm, beautiful full Moon tonight. I don't know if it's officially full or a day before -- doesn't matter. The sky is clear and the Moon is round and bright, and it's a good time to be up here in the lookout tower looking down on the silvered rooftops of the city, and up at the brilliant white face of the Lonely Lady.

Wait up for us, lady. We'll be back.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the Coalition of the Willing to Help New Orleans Rebuild In Spite of You-Know-Who:

Fidel Castro

Hugo Chavez

The United Nations

And many others who have been offended and/or harmed, in small ways and large, but are too big to hold that against the innocent victims of disaster.

//The Magic 8-Ball says: "Take what you can get."\\

Never Shake Hands With a War Criminal

Thanks to Majikthize, I learn that Rob of HelpyChalk
faxed the Mayor of Gretna, Lousiana, and got a phone call back, with (as you might expect) disturbing results.

I tend to agree with Steve Gilliard who said the Gretna authorities proved that every country and generation has its war criminals, even if they have no war in which to commit their crimes.

The Mayor has proven his commitment to his town, all right. But now he needs to re-examine his commitment to the state of Louisiana, the United States of America and the human race.

And I salute Rob as a living saint for speaking civilly to the man.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Please rephrase your question."\\

Edgar Hollingsworth Lives

But no thanks to George W. Bush and his Free Election Money Appointees.

This man was supposed to die, but he will live to speak for all the others who did die.

Because Bush and his people let them die.

I'll tell you, sometimes it feels like it's not worth it to ever come down from the lookout tower.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Pray for the dead, fight like hell for the living."\\

Movieplex Fantasy

[Recycled from 5 October 2004]

I walk up to the googolplex box office, buy my ticket, enter. My ticket says "BIJOU" in big letters, and in smaller ones it lists the title of the movie and the date and time the ticket was printed.

I walk past the concession stand, where they are selling popcorn, drinks, candy and DVDs. I walk past the various theater rooms of the plex: the Roxy, the Horus, the Venetian, on my way to the Bijou where my film is showing. Each room has a miniature marquee, with lights and gewgaws, like an old-time movie house, and each one is different. I like the marquee for the Horus, where the "R" in "Horus" is the Egyptian ouadjet or eye-of-Horus glyph. Clever.

Entering the Bijou, I see the walls hung with blue velour curtains, with silver lame fringes. The seats are upholstered in blue, and there are distinctive oval lighting fixtures spaced along them. A pair of elaborately carved pillars flanks the screen, on which is projected a picture of a blue curtain hung with silver ropes.

I know, from previous visits, that if I'd gone into the Roxy I would have found red curtains, art deco lights and gold doodads on the panels at the ends of each row of seats. In the Venetian, I would have found pale blue curtains with gold ropes, and a pair of faux marble statues flanking the screen, and so on.

Well, I think it would be fun if they did it that way. And if it were a chain operation, they could have a Bijou at every plex they build, buy the carved pillars in bulk, &c.

Even without the individualized theater rooms, I will say that the Carmike chain has done pretty well by Corvallis. The place looked pretty good when I went there with Waldy to see _Sky Captain_.

Now if only someone would reopen the Whiteside, the long-shuttered movie palace downtown.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "A wish without action remains a wish."\\

I Want a Tattoo

[Recycled from 01:23, 16 November 2004]

Just sitting up here in the lookout tower thinking that I want a tattoo.

Of course, I doubt that, once started, I will stop with just one.

First, I want the Flash's lightning-bolt emblem on my right deltoid, to represent the energy and focus I need if I am to achieve all the things I would like to.

Second, I want Cheech Wizard, Vaughn Bode's notoriously lazy and self-indulgent sorceror, on my left deltoid (slumped under a tree with a jug of wine), to represent the slothfulness I must always struggle against. Well, most of the time, anyway . . . .

After that, I'm not sure. Probably not a big back piece, because I don't forsee developing a habit of going shirtless, and what's the point if nobody sees it? More likely, more small pieces here and there. None on my hands or face, tho -- more discreet ones, as befits a health-cvare professional.

I still haven't gotten over the former co-worker who was scolded for wearing shorts that revealed his EMT-emblem tattoo. I repeat, an EMT emblem. And this was after 9/11, when emergency service workers were supposedly going to finally get their deserved recognition as heroes walking among us. Humph.

So, what do you want for a tattoo?

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "My backpiece is a big figure eight in a circle."\\

Putting it all in Perspective

I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. -- Anne Frank

If she can do it, I can do it.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Or try, anyway."\\

9/11/05

So, how is the Right observing this solemn anniversary?

By whining about the design of the Pennsylvania memorial.

You see, it has a sort of crescent-y shape.

*Shrug*

There are only so many shapes to go around (no pun intended).

The Denver Airport has four wings sticking out in four directions, which had the nutters screaming "Swastika!"

So it's a crescent? So what? The world's full of them. Should we forbid people to look at the night sky?

Oh, and about Allah? Ask any Arabic-speaking Christian, and they'll tell you Jesus is the only begotten son of Allah (al-lah, "the God"). So all those guys heaping disdain on the name of Allah are . . . anti-Christian.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Your first guess was correct."\\

Let the Looting Begin

No, the real looting of New Orleans, by the professionals.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Business as usual."\\

al Qanadah

Will the recent proposal to create sharia (Muslim) law courts in Canada increase the ghettoization of Canadian Muslims, or will it facilitate the development of a Western sharia (just as Islam has adapted to local cultures from Morocco to the Philippines)?

And what will Canadi-Anna, my favorite Canadian conservative, think of it? Something tells me that this is one conservative faith-based initiative she will find herself unable to love, but she's surprised me before.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "If you don't like my answers, try bibliomancy."\\

Non Sequitur

Strange things happen when I climb up here to the lookout tower, contemplate the sky and the landscape, and then go online.

The other day, for instance, someone called Toby Petzold left this mysterious, cryptic comment on a post of mine (which actually had to do with George W. Bush's unseemly behavior in the wake of Hurricane Katrina):

"Look-out tower? Why don't you quit being clever and just say you smoke a little grass?"

As I said, impenetrably cryptic, yet oddly compelling. I'm forced to wonder what point, however tangential, he was trying to make about natural disasters, or inappropriatye levity, or whatever Mr. Petzold's point was.

So, I went to his blog to get his e-mail, but found that it wasn't listed. Unable to find any other way to communicate with him, I posted a comment at the bottom of one of his posts, saying, "Please excuse me for contacting you in this fashion, but I couldn't find your e-mail address. Could you please explain the comment you posted at my blog?" I added my e-mail to make it easier for him.

Unfortunately, Mr. Petzold has some sort of problem with his system. Not long after I posted this, it vanished. Not only that, but it vanished before he had the chance to see it (I know that, because he never replied to it). So I posted another comment, and the same thing happene,d this time within minutes.

It must be an intermittent problem, because I see there are other comments on his blog. Probably Mr. Petzold himself has no idea that he has this problem.

So, I'd like to ask for your help. Please visit Tony Petzold's blog and post a comment asking him to please return to http://john_m_burt.blogspot.com and explain to John what his comment means, or to write to john_m_burt@hotmail.com with his explanation. Explain that you're posting because he seems to be having some sort of problem with his comments function.

I'm sure he'll be grateful for the tip.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Don't count on it."\\

William H. Rehnquist, 1924-2005

A defender of states' rights, until his own bush was gored.

Bill Whittle isn't a racist. Certainly not:

Only a few minutes ago, I had the delightful opportunity to read the comment of a fellow who said he wished that white, middle-class, racist, conservative cocksuckers like myself could have been herded into the Superdome Concentration Camp to see how much we like it. Absent, of course, was the fundamental truth of what he plainly does not have the eyes or the imagination to see, namely, that if the Superdome had been filled with white, middle-class, racist, conservative cocksuckers like myself, it would not have been a refinery of horror, but rather a citadel of hope and order and restraint and compassion.

Interesting image. Michael Savage inspiring hope. Pat Robertson encouraging assassination of his fellow survivors to restore order. Ruch Limbaugh urging restraint while he rifled through the last of the medical supplies. And of course, George W. Bush, knee deep in foul water with snakes circling him, preaching compassion. Oh, yeah, I'd like to see that.

The Republicans say they're going to hold their next national convention in New Orleans (why not, they pulled the same trick with New York in 2004). Wouldn't it be nice to re-create post-hurricane conditions at their convention venue . . . and lock the doors for a few days?

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "You're in a bad mood today, aren't you?"\\

Labor's Day

The Teamsters, SEIU, UFCW and UNITE HERE are dropping out of the AFL-CIO. Some are panicking, and some are rejoicing, but if they thought about it, each might be doing the opposite.

Fox News spun it, in their typical class-war fashion, as "The End of Organized Labor?", but I think it's more like "Labor Movement Shows Signs of Life".

The AFL-CIO became immensely powerful by assembling most of the nation's labor unions into a single organization, coming closer than most people ever thought possible to the Wobblies' "One Big Union". Unfortunately, One Big Union wound up as bureaucratic and ineffectual as One Big Phone Company or One Big Anything Else. Big surprise.

Now, though, the split in Big Labor allows for the possibility of an actual Labor Movement, as opposed to a Labor Institution. In other words, a chance for us folks who for the last thirty years have been on the losing side of the class war to start fighting back.

We may hope, anyway.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Go away, I have the day off."\\

Transistorpunk

[Recycled from 14 August 2004]

Awhile back, I encountered the term "dieselpunk", which the coiner defined as fantasy based upon the new technology and cultural obsessions of the period between the world wars.

It made perfect sense to me -- cyberpunk romanticized and exaggerated the hot new technologies of the 1980s. Steampunk is fantasy inspired by the Victorian era's new powers of steam and electricity. And so on.

So: transistorpunk, a style of writing inspired by the hot young technologies of the 1960s. James Bond is a transistorpunk icon.

Transistorpunk. Ask for it by name.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transistorpunk

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "I'm a product of the 1960s, you know."\\

Judgment Call

[Recycled from 21 August 2004]

Pretend that you've never read or heard these words before:

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored,
He has loosed the fateful lightening of His terrible swift sword
His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps
His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnish`d rows of steel,
"As ye deal with my contemners, So with you my grace shall deal;"
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel
Since God is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.

Really, if you look at those words objectively . . . they're kind of scary, aren't they?

I thought so when I was nine, and first read the lyrics printed out bright and clear, and I still do.

Tell me the truth: If an invading army entered your city, would you want to hear them singing a song like this?

Wha is it like, really, to face heavily-armed young men who think of themselves as instruments of divine justice?

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Don't ask."\\

The Good News

I can hardly believe it, but Jeff Dubner shared with us the following actual quote, George W. Bush's idea of how to respond to a great disaster:

"The good news is -- and it's hard for some to see it now -- that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house -- he's lost his entire house -- there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch. (Laughter.)"

Ezra Klein proposes a response: "If he can take this lightly, we can play a little game. Using Bush's above quote as inspiration and stylistic template, jump in the time machine and put Bush on the podium after other great disasters and calamities. What does he think about the plague? The sacking of the Temple? The burning of Rome? The defeat of the French? Remember -- all entries have to have Bush coming from the perspective of the afflicted, and all have to be as grossly inappropriate as this one."

Here's my entry:

"The good news is -- and it's hard for some to see it now -- that out of the chaos and waste and corruption and needless bloodshed of this administration is going to come a whole new political paradigm in this country, where cronyism and ideological blindness will no longer dominate the Republican Party -- we've lost our entire credibility -- and no member of my accursed family will ever be nominated as a Republican candidate for dogcatcher. And I'm looking forward to sitting on my porch in Crawford with Jeb and George P. and the twins, talking about the days when we had a future in this party."

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "From your lips to Allah's ear."\\

Cindy Sheehan Isn't Going Away

Well, she is, but not away away, the way anti-service-family types would like.

And they're puzzled: why hasn't she gone away?

They ignored her, but Americans kept looking.

They laughed at her, but Americans told them they were being unseemly.

They swiftboated her, and the damn thing sank.

They tried to wait her out, but the fifteen-minute meter seems to be stuck.

Golly, you'd think she had something important to say, that Americans are finally willing to hear.

Or something.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Listen to the small but persistent voice."\\