Is Nausea Enough?

It’s not very often that I agree with Jack Danforth. In fact, his name simply conjures up for me bad memories of the way Anita Hill was treated. But my brilliant friend Elizabeth pointed out this article to me in today’s WaPo and I’m glad to see Mr. Danforth saying what he says. I especially agree with him about the meanness that is, for me, at least, the predominant characteristic of today’s Evangelicals.

The article quotes Samuel Lloyd, dean of the National Cathedral, who says, ”My hope and my guess is that there is a fair amount of revulsion and that the moment is right for one or more candidates who want to appeal to a more generous spirit in the American people.” I think that’s what I’m trying to get at with my discussions of Galway Kinnell’s poem about St. Francis and the Sow. When the poet says, “though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing,”
I think of America, which seems rather desperately in need of someone who can reteach it its loveliness, who can retell it in words and in touch that it is lovely, until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing.

Danforth says he’s “counting on nausea” to turn politics around. I’m not so sure that’s enough. I’m wondering a lot these days about the role of heroes and heroines. Do we need someone who can articulate for America what is good about it and remind it of its better nature? Or is it something that lots of smaller someones can do? And if so, how? Or is Danforth right and nausea alone will turn the tide?

Find a Sacred Well and Read Some Poetry -- or Write Some!

Happy Imbolc! February 2nd is one of the eight major Pagan holidays. It goes by several names, but in my Circle, we call it Imbolc. It’s been almost six weeks since the Winter Solstice and you really can tell that the days are getting longer. Spring’s not here yet, but we can tell that it’s coming.

We celebrate and honor the Celtic Goddess Brigit (pronounced Breed). Brigit was worshipped at various sacred wells throughout Ireland and Scotland. She was the goddess of, among other things, blacksmiths and poets. I’ve always loved that juxtaposition -- blacksmiths and poets. The connection, for me at least, is that they both work with fire.

I’ve been thinking lately about what poor poetry, what poor art in general, totalitarian regimes tend to produce. And here’s what I believe, although I know of no study that backs this up: I believe that the side with the best poets always wins in the end. In the sixties, the anti-war side had, by far, the better poets, albeit that those poets tended to put their poetry to music.

And, I’m wondering, where are our poets today? Who’s writing good poetry that explains what’s wrong with the theocracy that is being installed in the White House, Capitol, and Court Houses across America? Who’s writing the poetry that will, in the words of the poem by Kinnell, help America to remember how to blossom from within of self-blessing?

The Gift

So today pretty much sucked. In fact, it started sucking last night, when my throat started to feel scratchy and when our new moon ritual was only kinda ok, which happens sometimes, but it's so much nicer when everyone really clicks. And then, the cloture vote. Less said at the moment, the better. I'm still trying to process what to do next. At five o'clock, an absurdly early hour for me, I gave up and drove home, getting more despondent every minute.

When I opened the door, there on my floor was a package that the mailman had brought to me from one of the many dear friends I have that I've never met. For no reason at all, except to wish me a happy holy day on Imbolc, February, 2nd, was this amazingly gorgeous new tarot deck. And it's some kind of serendipity because, last night at the dark moon, we cleansed and consecrated divination tools, which for almost all the women in my group, means tarot cards. And, today, I have a beautiful and meaningful new tarot deck.

It's amazing, isn't it, how a kind act can help us to remember that we live in an enchanted world, in spite of the George Bushes and the Haliburtons, and the cold germs? Once, when I was doing chemotherapy, had just been abandoned by my lover of twenty-some years, and was about as sorry for myself as it was possible to feel, I was sitting in a restaurant trying to make myself eat something. I called for the check and the waitress said, "A man saw you sitting in the window, came in and paid for your meal. He left this." It was a tiny, dirty scrap of paper, torn off of an envelope and it said: "Believe." I still have that scrap of paper and it keeps me going sometimes when I feel like giving up.

So, while I don't have any grand strategy to save the Republic (the song I keep hearing in my head is "I need a hero!"), nor any deep philosophical explanation for what happened today, other than to say that evil, as it sometimes does, temporarily prevailed, I can say that I'm not giving up. I'm bloody, but I am not yet bowed.

And, because I've been reminded today of the power of gifts, I'll gift you with a tarot reading, if you like. Click on Lunaea's link in my Wicca section, ask a question, and pick a card from her oracle. Tell me in comments what you pulled and I'll read for you. As they said in Dr. Zhivago, "Ah, well then, it's a gift."

I Am Begging You

Call today and demand that Senators filibuster Judge Alito. Just go here for all the information on who to call and how to reach them. DON'T limit yourself to only calling your own Senators. Call the ones that blogger Thersites lists and tell them that if they can’t stand up for women, you won’t be donating any more time or money to the DNC or the DLC and that you’ll be telling the DNC and DLC which Senators are to blame.

The Sow

I love this poem very much. And, lately, I've been thinking of it because it seems to me that America is quite a bit like the sow in Kinnell's poem. She needs to be reminded that she can "flower, from within, of self-blessing." She needs a St. Francis,or maybe a whole bunch of St. Francises, to remind her what it is about her that's beautiful. I know America has always been far from perfect. That's true, as far as I can tell, for every society on Earth. But there was much in America's "bud" that was lovely: the idea of the rule of law, the notion of self-governance, the fearlessness of her people as they faced the trip across the oceans, or the trip across the prairie, or the depression, or Hitler, or the need to change ideas about race. America's generosity to the rest of the world has, for a long time, been part of her loveliness. America's willingness to accept all immigrants and to become stronger because of diversity rather than weaker has always been a part of her loveliness.

But the Bush administration has made America forget her "long perfect loveliness." Now, we're given to believe that we're a nation terrified of a few terrorists, although the rest of the world manages to live with the threat of terrorism all the time. In fact, America lived with terrorism for 200 years, from the attacks on Native Americans, to the KKK, to Timothy McVeigh, and no one ever suggested we give up our rights, let Big Brother spy on us, allow the government to seize people and throw them in secret jails without charges or access to lawyers. I don't believe it.

We need a St. Francis, or maybe a St. Frances, to remind America "from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of
the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking
and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow."

Galway Kinnell - St. Francis And The Sow

The bud
stands for all things,
even those things that don't flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as St. Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of
the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking
and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.

The Mad Ones

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars . . . . "

~Jack Kerouac

Last Best Chance

OK, I’m begging you. We have only today, Friday, January 27th, to convince the Democrats to filibuster Judge Alito. And, if any one ever needed filibustering, it’s this racist, sexist, Tory. He WILL overturn Roe v. Wade.

Luckily, someone else has made it very easy. Blogger Thersites gives you the names, phone numbers, etc. to call. Just go here. Don’t limit yourself to only calling your own Senators. Call the ones Thersites lists and tell them that if they can’t stand up for women, you won’t be donating any more time or money to the DNC or the DLC and that you’ll be telling the DNC and DLC which Senators are to blame.

I honestly believe that today is the very last possible chance we may have to save Roe v. Wade. And I don’t care if a filibuster results in the Republicans using the “nuclear option.” If we can never use the filibuster out of fear of the “nuclear option,” we’ve already lost it anyway. As I said above, if Alito isn’t worth being filibustered, no one is.

If my grandchild has to live in a post-Roe world, I at least want to be able to say that I tried, right up to the last minute, to hold the line. What are you doing during your lunch hour today that’s more important?

The Rude Pundint has a great list of reasons why the Democrats should filibuster Alito, as Prior Aelred reminded me. They include:

Then here's a brief list of reasons to filibuster Alito that have nothing to do with Savage Sammy:
- Because President Bush authorizes spying on Americans without a warrant.
- Because President Bush authorized torture by Americans and through renditioning.
- Because President Bush detains people without charge for an indefinite period.
- Because President Bush ignores whatever laws he wants, even if he signs them.
- Because President Bush lied about Iraq to get us into the war.
- Because the Army is stretched "to the breaking point."
- Because the reconstruction of Iraq is being fucked up, too.
- Because President Bush refuses to acknowledge what it's gonna take to help the people of the Gulf Coast.
- Because Ford is getting rid of 30,000 employees.
- Because Karl Rove still has a job.
- Because President Bush and the Republicans fail to fully fund the bullshit "No Child Left Behind" program.
- Because President Bush denies the existence of global warming.
- Because the Medicare prescription drug program is a clusterfuck that will end up in people dying because of its existence.
- Because President Bush denies any connection to Jack Abramoff.
- Because President Bush refuses to speak before any audience that doesn't adore him.
- Because Dick Cheney exists.
- Because Osama Bin Laden is either living free or died free.
- Because Donald Rumsfeld still has a job.
- Because the White House has stymied every investigation into its fuck-ups.
- Because President Bush calls spying "terrorist surveillance" and pollution "Clean Skies" and money to churches "Faith-Based Initiatives."
- Because Richard Scaife doesn't need another tax cut.
- Because there has to be a line in the sand, somewhere; otherwise, it's just one long desert until who-knows-when.

See, the thing about a filibuster is it says to the White House, the Republicans, the nation, that Democrats have some say left in the processes of government. The nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito, and the abandonment of Harriet Miers, were pure manna to the right wing base. At some point, Democrats have to give something to their base, something to keep the faithful from throwing up their hands in disgust, from shaking their heads and mumbling, "What pussies, what godforsaken pussies." And if not this, then what?


Rude Pundit is right. So please call.


Lines will be busy. Keep calling back. Really, I'm begging you.

This Is How It's Done

Barbara Boxer has ovaries.

During the hearings, we all felt great compassion for Mrs. Alito when she became emotional in reaction to the tough questions her husband faced in the Judiciary Committee. Everyone in politics knows how hard it is for families when a loved one is asked tough questions. It is part of a difficult process, and whoever said politics is not for the faint of heart was right.

Emotions have run high during this process. That's understandable. But I wish the press have focused more on the tears of those who will be affected if Judge Alito becomes Justice Alito and his out-of-the mainstream views prevail.

I worry about the tears of a worker who, having failed to get a promotion because of discrimination, is denied the opportunity to pursue her claim in court.

I worry about the tears of a mentally ill woman who is forced by law to tell her husband that she wants to terminate her pregnancy and is afraid that he will leave her or stop supporting her.

I worry about the tears of a young girl who is strip searched in her own home by police who have no valid warrant.

I worry about the tears of a mentally retarded man, who has been brutally assaulted in his workplace, when his claim of workplace harassment is dismissed by the court simply because his lawyer failed to file a well written brief on his behalf.

These are real cases in which Judge Alito has spoken.

I Think Louise Slaughter and Barbara Boxer May Be the Only Ones Who Truly Get It -- Must Have Something to Do with Ovaries

OK, Atrios already linked to this, but I think it's so well-written and spot on that it bears repeating.

It sums up perfectly the frustration that we liberals feel with the Democrats. Why don't they GET it? How can they continue to send Donna Brazile (and if not send, at least not try to replace) out to go up against Ann Coulter? Why won't they call the media on their bullshit? Why didn't Barak Obama say to Russert: "Tim, that's an obnoxiously racist question for you to ask me. I'm not going to dignify it with a response"? Why don't the Democrats have their own version of the weekly Grover Norquist meetings to hand out poll-tested talking points? Didn't they see the John Stewart show where one Republican talking head after another repeated "most liberal Senator" something like a hundred times in one day? Why can't they figure out how to support popular positions such as reproductive choice or national health care? I mean, sure it's difficult to support an unpopular position, but Dems consistently fumble issues where the vast majority of Americans agree with them and have for years!

Daou identifies the problem perfectly, but he doesn't propose much of a solution. I don't know myself what the solution is. (Don't do it. Don't say the solution is for Soros to buy a network. I'll hex you into tomorrow morning. If that were the solution, it would have happened by now.) But as Woody Guthrie's Guitar has commented many times over at Atrios' place, as long as the Dems allow the media to keep these races close, they'll be close enough for Diebold to steal them. And I've about fucking had it with that.

I will say that a good start would be for Boxer, for example, to start holding the weekly meetings. I will say that no Democrat ought to apologize, the way that Durbin and Reid have, for making truthful statements. I will say that Dems need to learn how to interrupt and talk over other panelists. I will say that Dems need to question the premise of the questions and call the media on their bullshit all the damn time. The media will only change incrementally, but we've seen, with the pressure on Debbie Howell, that we can make them change. She'll at least phrase her Republican talking points more carefully next time.

So, I don't know what the solution is, but I'm sure that it's not continuing to do the same thing and hoping for a different result. That's what the Dems have been doing and that, by definition, is insanity.

In Order to Persuade You Would Need What You Lack: Reason and Right

Recently, there’s been a concerted effort by various “conservative” (read: fascist) groups to “go after” college professors who are “too liberal.” A lot of it has been below the surface of the tv news (can’t take valuable time away from talking about the missing white woman de jour), but it has received some blog coverage.

I think it’s terribly dangerous and deserves a lot more attention than it’s gotten. Movements like this are designed not so much to route out the one or two professors that they highlight, but to intimidate all professors, to get them to self-censor out of a desire to avoid trouble. And that’s not a good way to educate America’s young adults.

By the time a young person gets to college, they’re ready to have their cherished notions -- generally the notions they received from their parents -- challenged. And that’s as true of red diaper babies at Brown as it is of blue-blooded Muffy (funny how those colors now mean different things than they once did!) at Princeton or of the child of NASCAR fans who is attending community college. Being exposed to new ideas, new ways of living, and new people is one of the major benefits of college. Examining your unexamined premises, learning how to support your positions, becoming able to understand how and why others have adopted positions with which you don’t agree -- those are as important as any specific course of study that a college student takes. Gotcha goons reporting back to their fascist masters when a professor doesn’t toe their prescribed party line puts an end to this important aspect of education.

Which, even more than imposing their particular party line, is what fascists are really upset about when they begin these attacks on education. An educated populace, well versed in the ability to reason and argue, sophisticated enough to accept a diversity of opinions, and unwilling to simply accept the word of an authority because the authority “says so” is not the sort of populace that a fascist government can easily control.

I once was privileged to write about this at Eschaton, but I think it bears repeating. Fascists have always had to go after professors and educators. Roger Housden has a series of books (Ten Poems to Set You Free, Ten Poems to Open Your Heart, etc. ) that are fantastic, especially for people who never “got” poetry or had it ruined for them by an uninspired high school English teacher. Each book has, not surprisingly, ten very well-chosen poems and then a short discussion of what the poem is about. In Ten Poems to Set You Free, Housden includes an amazing poem: Throw Yourself Like Seed by Miguel de Unamuno:

Throw Yourself Like Seed

Shake off this sadness, and recover your spirit;
sluggish you will never see the wheel of fate
that brushes your heel as it turns going by,
the man who wants to live is the man in whom life
is abundant.

Now you are only giving food to that final pain
which is slowly winding you in the nets of death,
but to live is to work, and the only thing
which lasts
is the work; start then, turn to the work.

Throw yourself like seed as you walk, and into your
own field,
don’t turn your face for that would be to turn it
to death,
and do not let the past weigh down your motion.

Leave what’s alive in the furrow, what’s dead
in yourself,
for life does not move in the same way as a group
of clouds;
from your work you will be able one day to gather yourself.

Here’s what Housden tells us about de Unamuno:

When the fascist General Milan-Astray stormed into the University of Salamanca to confront the elderly professor and poet-philosopher Miguel de Unamuno over his criticism of Franco and the fascist cause, Unamuno said to him:

At times, to be silent is to lie. You will win because
you have enough brute force. But you will not con-
vince. For to convince, you need to persuade. And
in order to persuade you would need what you lack:
reason and right.

The general shouted, “Death to intelligence! Long live death!” and drove the ailing poet out of the university at gunpoint. The poet suffered a heart attack and died within the week. It was 1936, soon after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.

Mieguel de Unamuno was right. The reason why the fascists must fight college professors with the intimidation that we see today and with the brute force that we’re likely to see before this is all over is that they cannot convince. For, in order to convince, you must persuade, and, in order to persuade, you need what fascists lack: reason and right. If their ideas were truly persuasive, if their ideas were truly better, the free market that this group of fascists fetishizes would surely ensure their gradual adoption by society in general and college professors as well. The blind poet Milton himself remarked that, ”And tho all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; whoever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?” Their ideas -- that we live in a perpetual state of attack by dangerous brown people, that women and gays are inferior, that George Bush was picked by the xian god to lead the world, indeed, that the free market is the solution to all of our country’s problems -- suck. They are not based upon reason and they are not right.

At times, to be silent is to lie.

The Gender Gap

Echidne of the Snakes is consistenly good on feminism. Go read her latest posts and her "ads".

Religious Vigil Against Torture

Don't know this group, but this was forwarded to me on a DC Pagan listserv that I belong to. It sounds like a good idea.


RELIGIOUS VIGIL AGAINST TORTURE

Tuesday, January 31st
(The night of the President's State of the Union Address)

5:00 6:30 P.M.
Massachusetts Avenue and 34th Streets --
across the street from the Vice President's House
(The Naval Observatory)

Sponsored by: River Road Unitarian Church Social Justice Council

This will be our third vigil at the Vice President's house against torture, and we hope we can double the number of people who attend. Please invite members of your religious community as well as friends and family. On December 21 and December 28 we had 50-60 people at the vigil, and the effect was significant. We would like to see 100 people come out for the night of the President's State of the Union Address.

As religious people, we feel it is critical that we speak out against this country's torture policy and practices. We need to let our government, our country, and the world know, that we oppose torture, whoever commits it & that the torture policy of this administration does not reflect the values of the American people. Vice President Cheney is the apparent leading voice with respect to torture in this administration, and we think it is appropriate to hold our vigil outside his home at the Naval Observatory.

We will be demonstrating quietly and peacefully with candles, flashlights, and signs on the sidewalk across from the Vice President's House. If you come by Metro, you will need to exit at Dupont Circle and transfer to an N2, N4 or N6 bus going up Massachusetts Avenue. Plenty of parking is available in the neighborhood, but we will also car pool from RRUC.

As before, when you arrive, please take your place next to the last person in line, on the sidewalk, facing the Vice President's House. We will create a line down Massachusetts Avenue as long as the number of people we have joining us.

This is a vigil, and we ask that there be no shouting or chanting. However, signs are important, and they need to be large in order for the drivers going by to see them.

For further information, please contact Linda Gustitus at 202-363-3928 or linda.gustitus@yahoo.com.

A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned into the bondage of its wings

Thriving. It is, as I’ve noted before, even more important during times such as ours -- difficult times, to say the least -- to feed the soul.

Last night, I saw the National Ballet of Canada do Swan Lake at the Kennedy Center. It was, in a word, unforgettable. Beautifully and richly costumed and gorgeously and creatively set, this Swan Lake emphasized the male dancers as much as the ballerinas. In the fourth and final scene, the flock of swans were all dressed in black, echoing the black always worn by Odile in the third scene. They were gorgeous and made a perfect contrast to the flock of white swans that attends the lovers’ meeting in the second scene.

The dancers were excellent, really as good as I’ve seen in several seasons of ballet.

Mary Oliver, one of my favorite poets, wrote about Swans and, I think, about thriving, as well:

The Swan
Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?
Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air -
An armful of white blossoms,
A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned
into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
Biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
A shrill dark music - like the rain pelting the trees - like a waterfall
Knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds -
A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet
Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river?
And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?



What will you do this weekend to feed your soul? How will you thrive in these difficult times? Have you figured out what beauty is for and, if so, how has it changed your life?

Shit.Fuck.Damn.

James Lovelock certainly wasn’t the first human to figure out that the Earth is alive or to identify her as a Mother -- most pre-xian religions in Europe, parts of Africa, and the Near and Middle East did so long ago -- but his Gaia Theory certainly popularized the notion in the latter half of the Twentieth Century C.E. And he caused many of us to wonder, if the Earth is a living organism, what role do humans play? Are we similar to the brain, the nervous system, the heart, or the eyes, or are we a germ, beneficial in small colonies, but likely to kill the host organism if not reigned in?

In today’s Independent, Lovelock states that “Earth is about to catch a morbid fever that may last as long as 100,000 years. Each nation must find the best use of its resources to sustain civilization for as long as they [sic] can.” He notes that “climate centers around the world, which are the equivalent of the pathology lab of a hospital, have reported the Earth’s physical condition, and the climate specialists see it as seriously ill, and soon to pass into a morbid fever that may last as long as 100,000 years.” He explains that Earth has suffered from similar conditions before, but that her recovery can only be measured in tens and tens of thousands of years. One function of fevers, I’ve always understood, is to raise the temperature high enough to kill off many of the germs and bring them back to a stable (i.e., tolerable to the organism) population level.

How sick does Lovelock think Earth is? He says that as this century progresses and temperatures rise, “Much of the tropical land mass will become scrub and desert, and will no longer serve [to help regulate Earth’s temperature]; this adds to the 40 per cent of the Earth’s surface we have depleted to feed ourselves. He notes that current air pollution in the Northern Hemisphere actually cools the earth by reflecting sunlight back into space but (pace, wingnuts! don’t embarrass yourselves the way Ronnie Raygun did! keep reading!) this “global dimming” could “disappear in a few days like the smoke that it is, leaving us fully exposed to the heat of the global greenhouse. We are in a fool’s climate, accidentally kept cool by smoke, and before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable."

Well, it’s interesting to think that the Eskimo and Laplanders will be the ones to survive this fever. Ursula LeGuin could write a fascinating novel about what that civilization would look like. But ecological stresses often lead to population movements that displace the original inhabitants. Somehow, I’m afraid that the rich and powerful (at that point, likely the Chinese) will claim those tolerable climates for themselves.

But Lovelock has more to say about what Earth’s fever means for civilization: First, we have to keep in mind the awesome pace of change and realize how little time is left to act; and then each community and nation must find the best use of the resources they have to sustain civilization for as long as they can. Civilization is energy-intensive and we cannot turn it off without crashing, so we need the security of a powered decent. I don’t know about you, but I have a grandchild about to be born whose life expectancy covers a large part of this century. The idea that this child will be involved, not in colonizing Mars or conquering cancer or writing transcendent poetry, but in conducting triage in order to “sustain civilization for as long as” possible so as to ensure a softer crash -- well, shit. Shit. Fuck. Damn. Who’s Hummer was worth that?

Lovelock still can’t completely answer the question that his theory originally caused us to ask: What role do humans play in Earth? Or, he answers the question in a way that creates even more questions: Perhaps the saddest thing is that Gaia will lose as much or more than we do. Not only will wildlife and whole ecosystems go extinct, but in human civilization the planet has a precious resource. We are not merely a disease; we are, through our intelligence and communication, the nervous system of the planet. Through us, Gaia has seen herself from space, and begins to know her place in the universe. Then, he concludes with a sentence scarily reminiscent of some of Al Gore’s themes from his speech this week: "So let us be brave and cease thinking of human needs and rights alone, and see that we have harmed the living Earth and need to make our peace with Gaia. We must do it while we are still strong enough to negotiate, and not a broken rabble led by brutal war lords."

I fully expect many to ignore Lovelock as an alarmist. I wont. I take what he says very seriously. So along with “fear” and “thriving” -- my understanding of both of which concepts are enriched by Lovelock’s article -- I’m going to spend some time over the next year or so thinking about what this means. What does it mean for me -- as a grandmother, as a witch, as a lawyer -- to do my part to sustain civilization for as long as possible in order to try and win a softer crash? A softer crash for some baby. Some baby who will have straight black hair or Nordic blonde hair, who will grow up to speak Mandarin or Aleutian, who will wear shorts at the North Pole. Some baby who will learn about our time not as the time when people reached for the stars, but as the time when people had their last best chance to save civilization and chose to drive Hummers instead.

I guess I’ll start by reading Lovelock’s new book, The Revenge of Gaia.

How will you start?

PS Thank you to SITTENPRETTY for directing me to this article. I took the liberty of Americanizing a few of Dr. Lovelock's spellings.

Hey! Maybe There Was a Reason They Regulated this Stuff Back in 1935! Ya Think?

Well, the Billings Gazette at least bothered to report what many of us have suspected for some time. Electric utility deregulation, or "restructuring," has not reduced rates for industrial consumers - the group it was most expected to help - and in some cases created costs that raised prices, three experts have concluded.

"There is no evidence that the price or rate of change of the price (for industrial consumers) has been any different whether in restructured states or not," said Jay Apt, professor of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Look, electricity isn't like other commodities.

When the price of hog bellies goes too high, you can quit buying hog bellies. If a drought in South America makes the price of coffee go through the roof, you can drink tea or use up the coffee that you bought on sale last month and put in your freezer. Electricity is an essential service. We have to have it. The price is inelastic, particularly in the short (e.g., several year) time frame. And, it can't be stored (Note to electricity geeks, I know about water behind the dam. It's irrelevant to my point. Bite me.) So it makes ZERO sense to deregulate it. ZERO. None. Nada.

We've know for some time that retail customers, Jane and Jennifer Homeowner, don't benefit from deregulation and, see, e.g., California, are often hurt by it. The big push for electricity deregulation has always come from power marketers such as Enron and from large industrial consumers who imagined they'd be able to get a better deal from the Enrons of the world. (OK, and, in the case of California, from Thatcher devotee William Fessler.) As this study shows, industrial customers hbenefitednefitted from deregulation, either.

That's not very surprising for a number of reasons. First, deregulation itself has had huge costs. Setting up and running ISOs and RTOs that duplicate what the public utilities used to do has been phenomenally expensive. Second, public utilities are the providers of last resort who must have enough generation on hand that they can step in and supply those industrial customers the very morning that Enron or Calpine declares bankruptcy, abrogates its contracts (which is generally the point of a power marketer going bankrupt), and quits supplying power. Someone has to pay for that backup generation. So, no savings. Finally, experts, such as Harvard's Paul Joskow believe that we would have to invest massive amounts of money in new transmission lines, which no one wants in their back yard, and which are hardly profit centers for their owners, in order to "make" deregulation work. That's so because in many cases, public utilities used to substitute generation for transmission when that made economic or ecological sense. The system just wasn't built to work under the deregulated market, as the East Coast blackout from several years ago made all too evident.

But I don't expect Dick Energy Policy Committee Cheney's administration to admit any time soon what even the Billings Gazette now knows.

Commander. Visit Our Displeasure Upon This Town

Monday's a federal holiday, but I suggest we arrange for our displeasure to be visited upon the Honorable Senator from the great State named for the Amazon Califia first thing on Tuesday morningL

Phone or Fax

If you wish to phone or fax the Washington, D.C. office:

Phone: (202) 224-3841
Fax: (202) 228-3954
TTY/TDD: (202) 224-2501

Write a letter

Senator Dianne Feinstein
United States Senate
331 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

I've fucking had it with Vichy Dems. I have a daughter in law and maybe a grand daughter on the way and I want them to own their own fucking uteruses, you Feinstein bitch.

I Was Not Angry Since I Came to Bedlam

As always Athenae says it best. Listen to me Dems, and listen to me very closely. You.Either.Support.Women.or.You.Don't. If you want any more of my money, and I think you do, and any more of my volunteer time, and I think you do, do not lay down and enjoy this rape.

For the love of the Goddess, Diane, if you won't fillibuster Alito who WILL you fillibuster?

I am so fucking sick and tired of Dems who "keep their powder dry" for the next battle and then, when the next battle comes along, save it for the NEXT battle. Kali's Dugs! The Republicans will call you obstructionist no matter what you do; does the name Tom Daschle mean anything to you??

The Dems better fillibuster this evil creep and they better do in on a party line and they better make the Republicans go nuclear and they better vote against him on a party line. Persephone in a poppy field!!!


PS And go download NTodd's podcast to your iPod or listen to it on your hard drive. His rant at the end is worth it.

Feast of the Red Dragon

OK, I’m going to pimp this now and then several more times between now and mid-February. If you live in or anywhere near DC you have GOT to experience this!

DC Radical Faeries
Present
The Feast of the Red Dragon

All Hail the Red Dragon!
All Hail the Life Giving Blood!

What: The Feast of the Red Dragon
When: Saturday, February 11th 2pm – 5pm
Where: Universalist National Memorial Church, 16th ST and S St NW, Washington, DC Dress Code: Anything as long as it’s RED
Cost: $10 Suggested donation, but no one turned away for lack of funds; and cash or check for whatever you buy at auction.

The DC Radical Faeries are a fantastic group of Pagans and their Feast of the Red Dragon has become an amazing annual fundraiser.

Proceeds from this year’s event will go to support Grandma’s House. Grandma's House operates five homes in Northwest DC which care for HIV infected infants and children. The children range in age from newborns to 10 years, and require 24-hour attention.

If you’ve never been to a Pagan event, the Feast of the Red Dragon is an excellent place to start. Everyone is very friendly and there are so many different people from so many different Pagan traditions that no one can feel “out of place” or “silly for not knowing what to do.” Here’s the agenda for this year’s Feast:

**What Happens at the Red Dragon Feast?**

Our local practice of the Red Dragon Feast is to…
gather near Valentines Day wearing red outfits
drum and dance with the Red Dragon
feast on red foods
offer raucous toasts of red drink
honor all who have died of blood borne disease
host a raffle and auction to raise funds for charity
call for strength for healers
call for comfort and healing for all who suffer

They usually manage to attract some fantastic priests and priestesses, as well, who are excellent at raising and directing energy in large public groups. In previous years, one of my teachers, Katrina Messenger, has led the ritual and she may be on tap to do so again.

Fun, feasting, and a chance to help out a great charity. As the RadFey say, “Go ahead. Be fabulous!”

Words of One Syllable or Less

Well, the Goddess knows I don't say this very often, but the NYT is spot on.

In an editorial in this morning's paper the NYT explains what any moron ought to be able to see: America cannot win President Bush's much-vaunted war on terrorism as long as it is sending billions of dollars abroad for oil purchases every day. It cannot establish democracy in the Middle East because governments rich in oil revenue do not want democracy. And it will never have the geopolitical leverage it needs as long as it is dependent on unstable foreign sources for fuel.
You'd think that would be obvious, but apparently not to the neo-cons.

Something else obvious that the NYT points out: Iran is the second largest oil producer in OPEC after Saudi Arabia. Iran has recently inked energy deals with China and India -- two huge consumer countries that already have nuclear weapons. Someone better pull George Bush's head out of his ass and explain this to him in words of one syllable or less. An attack on Iran -- by the U.S. or Israel, which is widely perceived in the Middle East to act on America's orders -- would be not only an invitation to WWIII, but also would deprive America of the fuel it would need to fight said WWIII. It's just stupid enough for him to do it.

The Times suggests that becoming less dependent on foreign sources should be among the West's - and most especially America's - most urgent priorities. But not in the way that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney seem to prefer, which is to try to drill our way out of dependency - an utterly impossible task for a country that uses one-fourth of the world's oil while possessing only 3 percent of its reserves, and whose once-abundant supplies of natural gas are now severely stressed. A much better answer would be a national commitment to more efficient vehicles and to the rapid deployment of new energy sources like biofuels. Gee. I remember a Democratic President who tried to get us to do that thirty years ago. Ronald Reagan played footsie with the Iranians in order to defeat and humiliate President Carter and then dropped any pretense of caring about energy independence.

Imagine where we'd be if we'd spent the last thirty years really focused on energy independence. Think what it would mean for our foreign policy, our economy, our environment. Goddess, if even the NYT can figure it out, you'd think maybe one or two of the frappin geniuses surrounding the boy king could break this down into sound bites he could comprehend.

We need a Manhattan Project to develop safe, renewable sources of energy. And we need it now. We could easily spend a trillion dollars or so on this if we'd quit flushing money down the Bremmer-hole in Iraq and if we'd raise taxes on (1) the richest two percent of Americans and (2) consumption of all forms of fossil fuel. A Democrat with some passion could make this a winning presidential campaign. Or, we could play Scarlett and think about it another day.

Me, I'm thinking of taking Mandarin lessons.