FLORIDA PRIMARY DATE WAS ANOTHER REPUBLICAN DIRTY TRICK

One thing I do not hear Hillary Clinton or any commentator saying is that REPUBLICAN LEGISLATURE IN FLORIDA is responsible for disenfranchising us Democrats in our primary.

It was the REPUBLICAN LEGISLATURE that set the primary date so that it broke Democratic Party rules. This is just another dirty trick by Republicans. It is making my blood boil that no one -- NO ONE -- has noticed this.

New Orleans writer Dean Shapiro pens timely thriller about a polygamist cult

Dean Shapiro, a writer down New Orleans way, has published his fourth novel, The Eleventh Commandment. With the recent raid of the polygamist community in Texas (April 7, 2008), the setting couldn’t be more current – a polygamous cult.

Dean is that rare mix of a creative mind with a eye for the details of copy editing. He’s has an M.A. in history, and he’s a bit of buff on American history and politics. He doesn’t need me to speak for him, so here are some notes about the novel that I got a few days ago:

"My new novel, The Eleventh Commandment, was published by PublishAmerica of Baltimore, Maryland. Here’s the 101 on what the book is about, taken from the blurb on the back cover:

“'How far will a reporter go to get a story? Tom Foster is about to find out. As the Religion Editor for a large daily newspaper, Tom goes undercover to expose a fanatical, polygamous cult leader suspected in the deaths of more than a dozen followers. He gets more than he bargained for when his own life is on the line, especially after he has fallen in love with one of the cult leader's wives. Can Tom save her -- and himself -- when his deception is discovered? The answer comes after a tragic climax that shocks the world.'

"So what exactly IS the "Eleventh Commandment"??? Aaahh, you'll just have to buy the book to find out."

I’ve never asked Dean how old he is, but he has encountered employment ageism. That motivated Dean to do what so few freelancers manage – to earn his entire living as a wordsmith.

Besides being one of the hardest working writers I know, Dean also is what is known in Yiddish as a mensch. When hurricane Wilma devastated New Orleans, Dean’s apartment on the other side of the Mississippi River, in Gretna on high ground, became a refuge for friends. It was a kind of huge dorm party, the way he describes it. Electricity and phone service were out for a short time, and people piled one on another in friendly camaraderie.

That’s the kind of person Dean is. He threw me a huge assignment that he was too busy to tackle, when I most needed a boost. I will be forever grateful to him for that. I just wish my blog had more readers so I could give Dean’s book the traffic it deserves. He writes:

“As a nearly-starving artist, I have to depend on sales of this book and other writing jobs to keep food on my table and in my cat’s dish (not to mention two kids with college expenses). I hope you will support this nearly-starving artist you know by buying a copy of his book.

"Here’s how you can order the book. Go to the the Barnes & Noble website. . . It’s $24.95 + $3.99 shipping (a few dollars less if you’re a B&N book club member), out of which a whopping 8% goes into yours truly’s pocket (roughly $2.00 on each copy sold). . . . Or, you can go to the nearest Barnes & Noble store and place the order with them.

“Then, once the book is in your hands and if you want me to autograph it for you, contact me and I’ll make arrangements to do this.

“It costs less than a tank of gas at today’s prices, and it’s more permanent. Call or email me if you have any questions or if you just want to congratulate me. When I become rich and famous (well, famous, anyway) you can always say, “I knew him when . . . “ Anyway, I thank you in advance for your support of me over the years you’ve known me, and I hope you buy and enjoy my book. It’s pretty damn good, if I don’t mind saying so myself.”

Eat More Ice Cream, Forget Diet Programs

Special K cereal is advertising a swimsuit challenge. It’s guaranteed that if you use their product for two weeks, you will lose an inch off your waistline. I’m pretty sure that even if I lose an inch off my waistline, I am not going to look like the model wearing the red bikini in the television spot.

Oddly, I don’t care as much as I used to about these things. There is something maladjusted about a woman of a certain age who thinks she has to look like a 20-something fashion model. We’ve known for decades that fashion models have bodies that do not even look human, if what one means by human is the median female body.

Swimsuit challenges abound right now, connected with promotions for various diet and exercise plans. Try Googling the term and see what comes up. Then go enjoy a nice bowl of ice cream.

A Goddess for Our Times: A History of Goddess-Lore from Pre-Historic Times to the Contemporary Era

Gadon, Elinor W. (1989). The Once and Future Goddess. New York: Harper & Row.

Elinor Gadon write fluently about a wealth of goddess-lore research that encompasses archaeology, anthropology, ethnography, arts, and the emerging Gaia ecology. She distills these sources into a highly readable account of the virtues and qualities of feminine knowledge, from the pre-historic roots of humankind to contemporary times. The work is attractively laid-out with a readable font and wide margins that frequently feature photos and art that illustrates the ideas.

Among the well-known writers, artists, and researchers whose work is taken into account by Gadon are:

• Judy Chicago, feminist artist whose best-known work may be The Dinner Party art installation;


• Mary Daly, the scholar and interpret of feminist and feminine studies;


• Mercia Eliade, specifically The Encyclopedia of Religion;


• Robert Graves, The White Goddess;


• Maria Gimbutas, the pioneering archaeological-anthropologist whose work was among the most to foreground a theory of pre-historic matriarchal societies;


• Merlin Stone’s work along similar lines;


• Starkhawk’s updating of the old religions and many, many more.

The most arguable part of the account of matriarchal pre-historic societies is, to my mind, the broadly interpretive speculations of how such societies functioned and worshipped on the basis of a few icons, ruins, and other shards of the past. Late in the work, Gadon admits that such speculations are debatable.

Gadon is truly in her element as she makes sense of the feminine artists’ emergence in the 1970s and beyond. She weaves together the artists’ own accounts of their works, her own and art critics’ interpretations, and photo illustrations in a persuasive account.

The idea of the planet Earth as a living goddess whose body has been tortured by the ecological offenses of humankind is another idea that is appropriate in our times of ecological crisis. Perhaps the softer arts of feminine nurture and collaboration are the healing unguent for a planet that has been contaminated by the masculine emphasis on science and technology.

If you are interested in a comprehensive and fluently written summary of groundbreaking feminist research and a new interpretation of human history, Gadon’s account is an excellent starting place.

Sexism, Racism, Ageism: America's Dirty Secrets Are Projected Into the Presidential Contest

The competition between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, and the candidacy of John McCain under the Republican Party banner, is a screen onto which the nation’s deepest and most secret biases are cast. Here are a few of these psychological telltales that are circulating this week.

SEXISM. Hillary Clinton plays the “woman card” too often when she says, “The boys are coming after me again” because she has refused to concede the close race. Even a token African-American feminist said last night on Chris Matthews’ Crossfire (MSNBC) that her organization encourages women not to make gender an issue.

But why not, dear girl? Women of Clinton’s generation – and mine – fought and have born the weight of many discriminatory indignities so that you can sit on Chris Matthews’ show and intone against the gender card. How would you like it, dear lady, if Senator Obama was asked to leave the race because he can’t win anyway? It would be called racial discrimination, as indeed almost every observation about his lack of experience or other defects is contextualized. And that brings us to the next projection.

RACISM. It’s always about race when Barack Obama is criticized. Like a teenager at his first strip club and fascinated by the display of pulchritude, TV’s political pundits can’t get their eyes off Obama’s brownness. He is as white as he is black. But the nation’s guilt from the history of slavery is projected onto his candidacy, a country’s dirty secret. The lingering white separatist and supremacist tensions that are predicted to sway male voters, especially in some sections of the country.

AGEISM. McCain is old, doddering, could die in office, and is generally unfit for office due his age, according to political commentors who shamelessly spout ageist comments. Extreme ageism is a comedy joke for David Letterman, John Stewart on The Daily Show, and Bill Mahar on Real Time. Mhar was called on his ageism last night by Robert Reich, former secretary of labor for President Bill Clinton. Ageism is the last ism that many people wholeheartedly believe is all right “because I’m just making fun of my older self,” as one of my students expressed it.

So there we have it: three great isms – sexism, racism, and ageism – playing out across our TV screens as we engage in the quadrennial blood sport of electing a president. Our deepest dirty secrets are now played out on our television sets, the ruminations of a nation’s hearts and minds moderated by stand-up comics and corporate point men posing as political commentators.

In future posts, I will use archetype analysis to discuss other psychological patterns evident in this contest.

No Bail Out for Prudent Home Buyers: Open Letter to Senator Chris Dodd

OPEN LETTER TO SEN. CHRIS DODD
Chair, U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

Dear Sen. Dodd: As I listen to you and other national leaders about plans for action about the housing, mortgage, banking and foreclosure crisis, I hear plans (some already underway) to bail out two groups:

• 
  Big spenders, such as the fat cats at Bear Stearns, who took big risks to make big profits as housing prices rose.
• Buyers who overspent, bought homes they could not afford, and now are in or face foreclosure as their mortgage payments rise.

What I do not hear about is help for those of us who bought prudently, can afford our mortgages, do not need to sell our homes, but have seen our savings in the form of equity eroded, so that we are now in price inversions. If we were to sell, we would lose everything – and more, such as any investment we put into the home for renovation.

Senator Dodd, I did not choose the appraiser for the mortgage loan. Countrywide did. Yet, only I am responsible for paying in full the mortgage – whether or not my little apartment condominium is now worth that. In fact, I bought in 2005 near the top of the market. The apartment is worth 20% less than that value. In addition, this complex was hit hard by hurricane Wilma; our leadership did not ask for government aid in a timely fashion, so my special assessments total about $9,000 – additional debts, which, like the mortgage are mine and mine alone to pay. My total loss, should I sell at this time, would be about $25,000. That may seem small compared with the loss of the Bear Stearns bigwigs and the $200,000 homes to be lost by people who took out no-money-down mortgages – but it is everything to me. And it was real money that I worked for and saved.

I am 60 years old, and my opportunities for starting life over and rebuilding my small savings are limited. These are compounded by ageism in a labor market that is constricting.

If you are going to bail out big investors who live in mansions and imprudent buyers who purchased homes they could not afford, why is there no help for those of us stuck in the middle, stuck in price inversions who have watched our savings be whittled away? Why does the mortgage holder – who chose the appraiser – not have to share in this loss?

I ask the Senate Banking and Finance Committee to find some way to compensate those of us who are paying the real cost of the gambles taken by those at the top of the money pyramid and those who bought homes they could not afford. We are the ones who behaved prudently, and we are the ones who pay taxes who bail out the others, while we suffer and sacrifice.

Clinton Must Concede for Democratic Party Unity

I started writing about the competition for the Democratic Party campaign nomination when Ted and Caroline Kennedy endorsed Barack Obama. That sealed the fate of Hillary Clinton, I was sure.

Now, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson – former appointee of President Bill Clinton who putatively owes them political fealty – has endorsed Obama. Pundits now wonder what effect this may have on the Hispanic vote, a stronghold of Clinton support.

Neither candidate can win enough delegates in primary contents to earn the Democratic Party nomination, according to news reporters. Clinton, trailing Obama in the popular vote, cannot catch up and can only get the nomination if the super-delegates – party office-holders and appointees who represent influential voting blocs – back Hillary. Overturning the popular vote would, however, create party dissent that would undermine chances of victory against Republican Party putative nominee, John McCain.

Even though I prefer Hillary Clinton because she is the more experienced candidate and, as usual, I see a highly competent female overlooked in favor of a male, I concede:

Hillary Dillary Dock

Time’s run out the clock.

It’s time to go,

To leave the show,

Concede Obama is a lock.

Democratic Presidential Candidates Sound like Kids Squabbling in the Backseat of the Car

“Mom, he hit me.”
“She called me a name first.”
“He’s lying. I didn’t say that.”
“I didn’t do nothing. Leave me alone.”

First, there was Hillary Clinton accusing the press of ganging up on her in the Ohio debate. Her reference to a Saturday Night Live skit fell flat.

Then, a member of Barack Obama’s campaign was fired for calling Clinton a “monster.”

Next, feminist party venerable Geraldine Ferrara, the first woman to run for vice president of the United States as a major party candidate on the Mondale ticket in 1984, claims that Obama has only received recognition because he’s black, not in spite of it.

In the wake of this media tempest, Ferrara resigns from Clinton’s fundraising committee, amidst charges that she was racist. Meanwhile, black males accuse Clinton’s “Is your family safe at 3 a.m.?” ad of playing on ancient racist fears of black men threatening the safety and security of sleeping white women and their children, shades of the Ku Klux Klan.

As the cherry on top, the media unearth videotapes of Obama’s pastor and, in the senator’s own words spiritual mentor, giving a black separatist sermon accusing the U.S. of having provoked the 911 attack by its foreign policies. This is interpreted as blaming the victims by the press. The minister’s words damning America are as unseemly for a potential future president, so a new cycle of renunciation-denunciation is in effect.

Meanwhile, John McCain is busy solidifying his image with the Republican Party and abroad.

The Democratic Party, famous for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, is well on its way. Chris Matthews, on last night’s Crossfire, said the back-and-forth over whose surrogate campaign spokesperson said what was starting to sound like the Inquisition. “Do you recant fully and completely?” sounds too much like a page out of old playbooks that required public denunciation for crimes real and imagined.

If Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama don’t stop that fighting, the country is liable to turn this car around and let your father – John McCain – give you a good licking. I’ve already got the inside word from a scion of a famous political family telling me that John McCain “will be hard to beat.”

The Age of Miracles by Marianne Williamson: book review

Williamson, M. (2008). The age of miracles: embracing the new midlife. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House.

This book easy to read but less than filling, like potato chips. Willliamson uses the Course in Miracles, a putative channeling of the Christ voice, as the basis for her spiritual teaching. She is an effective story-teller who laces the work with tales of both the rich and famous and ordinary folk. Yet, in the end, the lessons can be reduced to simple homilies:

• Never give up, never give up,never give up (Winston Churchill)
• Seek and practice only love
• Be forgiving
• Find new interests
• Be grateful
• Pray, meditate
• Take care of your body and mind

Williamson, like many teachers of spiritual wisdom, believes that a quantum shift in human consciousness is possible when enough people practice love and forgiveness. A tipping point will be reached such that people who are out-of-alignment with principles of peace, love, and harmony will now adopt and adapt to these practices. Human consciousness will evolve into a new reality that provides peace on earth -- a kind of return to the Garden of Eden.

Williamson does not present any ideas that she has not thoroughly gone over in previous books such as A Return to Love. In the early pages, I was attracted to her claim that midlife and old age can be a time when we again experience the sense of magic that many of us enjoy in childhood and youth, before the cares of everyday life overwhelms our innocence.

She argues that by practicing gratitude for our extended life spans, by implementing wisdom learned from our life journey, and by spiritually connecting with love and joy, we can return to that sense of the miraculous. It is a seductive message but one which, by the last pages of the book, contends with the realities of old age -- reduced income and physical limitations that can reduce the possibilities we have.

In sum, this book will be more attractive to someone who has felt enriched by reading Williamson's past works. A slight volume larded with prayers and anecdotes, it is upbeat in tone and a light confection of positive reflections with which to greet aging.

For more information about the book and Marianne Williamson, please visit her website.

Godddesses for Our Times: Jean Shindo Bolen Tells Archetypal Stories to Inspire Aging Women

Bolen, Jean Shinoda. (2001). Goddesses in older women: archetypes in women over 50: becoming a juice crone. New York: HarperCollins.

Bolen casts a cross-cultural net to find goddess stories to inspire and provide templates for aging women in the United States and other Western cultures. She also provides a mature perspective on the stories of Greek goddesses covered in her earlier book, Goddesses in Every Woman.

The parts of the book are about goddesses or icons of wisdom; goddeses of anger, laughter and compassion; the update on familiar Greek goddesses Artemis, Athena, Hestia (who also appears in the wisdom section), Hera, Demeter, Persephone and Aphrodite; and a final section of forming circles of wisewomen. Bolen argues for a cultural renovations of the word crone. The word has long been associated with the Halloween witch with a wart on her nose, a pointed chin, and yellowed baggy skin, like the hags in Shakespeare’s MacBeth.

As a communication scholar, I do not see this term rising like Lazarus from the grave to connote juiciness. Combatting ageism in our youth-worshipping culture is a challenging enough without saddling these efforts with a timeworn word of such negative connotations.

Bolen is an effective story-teller who relates the stories of each archetype through the lens of psychology. She creates mental pictures into which each woman can project images of herself in the broadly-defined roles and qualities of each goddess icon. I found it especially interesting to read her interpretations of the biblical Sophia as a goddess of mystical and spiritual women; of Hindu Kali as a goddess of angry destruction and regeneration (the cycle of life and creation); Baudo as a goddess of bawdy mirth; and Chinese Kuan Yin and the Roman Catholic Virgin Mary as goddesses of compassion. Today’s aging woman needs stories about admirable women whose qualities offer templates for maturity that do not depend on cosmetic surgery and desperate efforts to avoid aging.

In conclusion, I recommend this book to any woman who is looking for models for aging with grace and maturity. These iconic stories tap into timeless energy patterns that Carl Jung called archetypes. Through these mysterious psychological resonances, we may discover blueprints for our future.

Barack Disses and Dismisses Hillary with Male Disdain

Barack Obama resorted to male dismissal last night in the debate. He would never tell John McCain or John Edwards or a male candidate that a point they raised was "just silly. It’s silly season in politics."

But it’s still all right to dismiss an accomplished woman’s legitimate concern in this way in a public forum. Not a single political pundit noticed it. In fact, Hillary is being berated for bringing up the legitimate charge of plagiarism for having made a misstep.

The double standard has been in effect throughout the campaign. Obama, the flavor of the month, was hailed for being greeted by “rock star crowds,” fixing his celebrity status as a rock star. Hillary, on the other hand, never has a moment of peace from characterizations of her as cold, divisive, and the “b” word.

John Edwards was almost completely ignored by the media. The media have made the front-runners in the Democratic primary.

I know one conspiracy-theorist who thinks the media seeded a women and an African-American as the Democratic front-runners so that a weak Republican prospect, John McCain, would steal the white, male, under-$50K-a-year vote and maintain the Republican presidency. They will not vote for a woman or a black man and will cross party lines to vote white male.

Even though I teach media and know all about interlocking directorates and the heavily conservative bias of corporate news organizations, I discounted this theory.

It’s too bad females are not able to so clearly identify their own best interests with having a female in the White House and breaking the final glass ceiling. Clinton will work hard, but Obama will be fluff. He is likely to make the same naïve mistakes as Jack Kennedy, who had Nikita Krushchev tap-dancing at our Miami doorstep with his missile sites in Cuba. Let’s not forget, either, than it was Lyndon Johnson who got important civil rights legislation passed, drawing on his decades of experience as a congressional deal-maker.

But young women are out, dancing to mindless slogans, suckered by yet another charismatic male who promises hope and change – whatever that means – while offering the same old dismissal of an accomplished woman’s argument as silly. And that’s why a woman supporting Obama is as silly as hen buying stock in Kentucky Fried Chicken.

A black male can fit through the eye of the public more easily than a woman can break the ultimate glass ceiling.

The Obama Juggernaut

The Obama juggernaut, aided by pack journalism, moves forward, its momentum seeming unstoppable. According to the MSN Encarta Dictionary, “It used to be said, apocryphally, that worshipers of Krishna threw themselves under the wheels of the Juggernaut wagon in an access of religious ecstasy, so juggernaut came to be used metaphorically in English for an irresistible crushing force.”

Last week, I predicted that Senator Barack Obama will win the general election. Then, overwhelmed by the bandwagon effect of his campaign, I flew away from mob-think to endorse Hillary Clinton. I do not believe that she will win the nomination, but she is the thinking-woman’s candidate.

Obama is now cast by the media as the magician, the one who will bring change out of hope, or perhaps I should write: change out of hype.

According to Eclectic Tarot, the Magician of the Tarot “is someone with a magnetic personality, someone who can convince people of almost anything. For better or worse, his words are magic."

The Senator fits the image of “a regal figure, powerful, graceful, and confident - able to make things happen, and even move mountains. The Magician Tarot card meaning deals with the ability to utilize every resource we have available to us,” according to Tarot Teachings.

I see the triumph of surface over substance, one that is challenging to articulate because to express the idea immediately is transformed into a statement of racial prejudice.

Obama is charming, a word with ancient roots that means to put observers under a spell. But in the end, magic is merely an illusory feat that appears to be supernatural only to naïve observers (Princeton wordnet).

Last night, a TV pundit noted that Nikita Kruschev ran rings around Jack Kennedy’s naïve diplomacy, and our naïve – albeit charismatic – president led us to the edge of nuclear confrontation during the Cuban missile crisis as the wily Russian leader demonstrated brinksmanship.

It’s not out of the question, either, that Obama will be assassinated, like JFK. Racial hatred runs deep in some portions of the U.S. The heirs of the Ku Klux Klan, with their ignorant theory of mud people, will not shy from violence to halt what they will see as a great degradation. So all these comparisons of Obama with Kennedy may turn out more parallel than the Senator’s supporters’ desire.

As president, Obama will not achieve much, and a Republican will be back in the White House four years later.

Hillary for President: Obama Is All Surface, Little Substance

The more my fellow Americans jump on the Barack Obama bandwagon, the greater grows my respect for Hillary Clinton and my desire to see a woman in the White House.

“Hope and change, change and hope,” I hear in endless sound loops of Obama rallies. I see the slogan posters bobbing up and down, and I feel as if I’m living in an Orwellian nightmare. What kind of change, exactly?

The more Obama talks, the more he sounds like an intellectual lightweight. Hillary, as her political fortunes sag anew in the Chesapeake primaries last night, emerges as a polished leader down in Texas. She has indeed found her voice, firing up Hispanic voters, in a hoarse voice. The political pundits, white men with their overfed bellies, are pronouncing her campaign all but dead, but this 60-year-old woman is out there facing down the naysayers -- again -- with a smile on her face.Now, that's bravery.

Damozel at The Moderate Voice writes:

“Meanwhile, those of us who have supported Hillary have done so for exactly the reasons that Obama’s fan base derides her. She is tough, a bit battered by hard experience, hardened to being disliked, a little soiled by her mistakes, persistent, politically astute, intellectually flexible, wary, wiley, and all the things that her critics take for insults but which are really the constituents of the ability to make realistic judgments and politic (as opposed to popular) decisions.“

Hillary is called hard-edged because the patriarchy makes feminine success, by definition, hard-edged. It just isn’t womanly to be that doggone accomplished. It just isn't womanly to beat the boys at their own games. Of course, she is found wanting in the womanly arts department. That, my friends, is patriarchy at work.

The criticism is being raised that it isn’t good for democracy for the presidency to be passed between two dynasties – Bush and Clinton. Oddly, the danger of dynasties didn’t come up when Son-of-a-Bush was anointed by the Supreme Court. What I remember is the conservatives gloating that Jeb Bush would be next up to bat, wishing on America a 24-year reign of narrow-minded, right wing cultural restriction and unfettered business exploitation of working people. Dynasty was just fine with everyone back then.

As for Obama’s vaunted charisma, Damozel is spot-on about that, too:

“True, Hillary doesn’t have Obama’s much-touted ‘charisma.’ I don’t care. I distrust charisma. It’s an aura, a glamour, a trick of the light, too often taken for the outward and visible sign for an inner and invisible grace. Those who compare his candidacy, apparently unconscious of the irony, with JFK’s and Reagan’s have got it exactly right.”

If charisma was all it takes to be a good president, Mick Jagger should have been elected long ago.

Bruce Miroff debunks the Kennedy mythology at The History News Network . As it turns out, Kennedy wasn't much better than Obama at getting down to particulars of policy and governance. Miroff writes:

"John F. Kennedy evoked an era of public service and participation in the most famous line from his Inaugural Address, but when asked to supply specifics to go with the soaring rhetoric, apart from the Peace Corps he was reduced to suggesting such public sacrifices as a curb upon expense accounts and an acceptance of higher postal rates. The later image of "Camelot" was unwittingly apt in capturing the royalist air of the Kennedy regime."

Senator Clinton is, after all, heir to the greatest policy-wonk presidency of contemporary times. She is better prepared on every issue than Obama, because she is a woman and she has to be. She has done the research. She has been working to extend health care to all Americans since her husband’s administration. She is still fighting.

Senator Clinton, with her clear complexion and tireless campaigning, reminds me of a warrior mother, an ancient goddess from matriarchal times, who embodies both strength and protection. What is Obama, one of the newest members of the Senate with just two years under his belt, but just another pretty new face?

He needs seasoning, and what a great word that is. He needs to experience the waxing and waning of the political seasons and the seasons of life before he is prepared to lead our nation in these perilous times. The movement of the electorate toward Obama is yet another illustration of the U.S. population’s preference for surfaces over substances: pretty words, beloved, but what lies beneath?

At 46, Obama can use eight years productively to learn the arts of governance and the wisdom of the years. If elected, his will be one of least effective presidencies ever. He may delight crowds with his so-called rock-star charisma at least for a while, but it is Hillary who has proven that she has the intelligence, the political resiliency, the wit and the guts to clean up the Bush mess.

Hillary vs. The Patriarchy by Erica Jong

In my last entry, I went out on a limb and predicted that Barack Obama will win the Democratic Party presidential nomination. I also expressed my own preference for Hillary Clinton for president.

Erica Jong, writer and seer for women of my generation, has expressed my feelings so much more clearly than I have in an article for the Washington Post,Hillary vs. The Patriarchy.

So long as troglodytes such as Bill Kristol can get away with saying, “White women are a problem. We all know that,” women are still – as John Lennon said so long ago – “the niggers of the world.” Bill Kristol would be excoriated for referring to African-Americans as “a problem,” but it’s just fine to say it about white women.

Ronni Bennett, in her always informative Times Goes By blog, takes the press to task to reducing complex issue debates to race and gender. She is right, of course. I left newspaper journalism a long time ago because it had devolved into idiocy of which I wanted no further part.

As long as journalists distract Americans with simplistic views and the entertainments of blood and circuses on television, democracy will be a sham of one candidate beholden to corporations battling like a gladiator another just as beholden to corporate interests.

Obama most probably will win because it is easier for males to see another man in the White House, even if he is “half-black,” than it is to see a female running the show. If Hillary doesn’t win the nomination and the election, I do not think that another woman will have as good a shot at it during my lifetime.

Why Barack Obama Will Win the General Election in November 2008

One of the first predictions I heard about the race between Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton for the Democratic Party presidential nomination said that it would be easier for Obama to get the nod. A National Public Radio pundit said that would be easier for white men to envision another man in the office than a woman.

The glass ceiling is made of super-strength safety glass or Plexiglas.

As I watched the Lion of Judah Senator Ted Kennedy, last living brother of the dead president, anoint Obama, I felt as if I was watching a scene from the Godfather. Caroline Kennedy, the last living member of JFK’s immediate family, bestowed the mantle of her dead feather’s inspiring leadership on the youthful African-American.

Eviscerally, my gut claimed this is the Kiss of Death for Hillary.

Hillary, in turn, has trotted out the ghost of RFK in the form of his son to affirm a close friendship with iconic California farm workers’ labor leader Cesar Chavez. This courts the Hispanic vote. As in Hamlet with Banquo's spirit roaming the castle, there are ghosts upon the battlements in this race.

During the Thursday night Democratic debate in a star-studded Hollywood auditorium, Barack and Hillary made nice like a family reunion. Reduced to a contest of titans with the withdrawal of John Edwards from the race, both eulogized him as if he were dead. Politically speaking, he is for the time being. MSNBC's Chris Matthews commented that Edwards would make a terrific Secretary of Labor, the first strong man in that position for decades, and a chance to revive this country’s moribund labor movement. Matthews has that spot-on. My Weekly Reader taught us elementary school students about the Big Three in American politics – Big Business, Big Government, and Big Labor. Like the faded star in Sunset Boulevard, labor now cracks, “I’m still big. It’s politics that’s gotten small.”

Politically active star Susan Sarandan reportedly said, “America is ready for a woman president, but maybe not this woman.” There are too many liabilities to a Clinton presidency.

First, there is a yukkiness to passing the leadership of the country – a putative democracy – between two families, Bush to Clinton to Bush to Clinton, should Hillary win..

Second, there is the record of sexual peccadilloes of her husband, our former president, Bill Clinton, and other scandals that erupted during the Clinton presidency.

Third, Hillary polarizes voters. I suspect that any assertive female is always polarizing in a sexist society. Females have such limited choices – be sweet and a doormat or tough and a bitch. A man can be tough-minded and likeable.

I find it hard to believe that any Republican can win the general election at this juncture in history. Bush's mistakes have poisoned the country. But then, I sat unemployed one dank November in Baltimore listening to coverage of Regan’s election in 1980. I couldn’t believe that Americans would elect an actor to be president. I ran out to the polls just before closing, but my puny vote didn’t help.

Reagan turned out to be one of our most beloved presidents, but not by me. I was shocked anew when he fired all the air traffic controllers for going on strike in 1981. After all, Reagan had been president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). That action played a huge role in diminishing the power of employed people to get their fair share of the economic pie, safe work environments, and health benefits, and that action reverberates to this day.

I predict Obama’s victory cautiously. Predictions are risky in a tight contest such as this one. Even though I might like a woman to hold the office, I think the markers say Obama and that could be better for the country. So I’m all in.

Grocery Totes: Arty, Handcrafted, Colorful, Practical or Frugal -- Your Choice

Once upon a time in Baltimore, in a distant century, a health foods store was run by the 3HO Society, followers of Yogi Bhajan’s kundalini yoga. The store was on Charles Street, in the neighborhood where I lived, and I shopped there often.

I brought bottles and filled them with honey. I brought canisters and filled them with whole wheat flour, unbleached white flour for pastry, rice, nuts, raisins and other dried foods. We weighed the container before filling it, and weighed it again after it was filled.

I have been doing my part this past year to use the many cloth bags that I’ve received from colleges and universities where I’ve worked, as well as one from a chiropractor and another from a grand opening of The Whole Foods Market.

Sometimes, I have to run back out to the car, because I forgot to bring them in with me. Bronwen Davies at her Flights of Fab Fashion Fancy blog published the perfect solution last year – completely foldable fashionable totes that fit into their own small carrying pouch.

The pouch shown at the top. $37.95, holds the five colorful bags in the Retro series. The tan bag with the circles, right, is from that series. You can purchase one bag for $8.50. Davies likes the black-and-white bag from the Monochronmatic series. I agree. You can see them at the Envirosax website.


I thought I might find something ultra high-style at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). I was disappointed with this tote is priced at $55.00 for the largest size (14 x 20 inches). The leather handles probably discourage purse snatchers with the standard operating procedure (SOP) of snapping the strap.

Project for the Old American Century has advertising exhortations that evoke early 20th century advertising.



Speaking of frugal, I was fascinated to discover that more enterprising people than I are making a beautiful buck from an idea I had some time ago. My kitchen is far too small for typical recycling containers, so I turned a nice burlap mall bag with a plastic laminated interior to purpose as a garbage container. Another free-standing bag, a plastic shopping tote from a take-out place, stores my bottles until I have time to carry them to the apartment building’s floor containers.

This set of four colorful bags are made of waterproof tarpaulin. The bright colors make it easy to sort recyclables. My Oceanside burlap shopping bag cost me a buck or two at a thrift store and the Pei Wei bag was free. The matched bags here will set you back $22.

In sum, there's plenty of choice -- far more than I can show. If you are tired of plastic bags spilling out of your cupboard, take a moment to save the environment, bring your own bag, and tote in style.

Kudos to Stan Boreson for "I Just Don't Look Good Naked Anymore"

The Sonomah County Herald in Texas is running a clever video by elder musician Stan Boreson. I hope his tune, I Just Don't Look Good Naked Anymore, becomes a huge Internet hit.

The video has been attractively edited to accent the witty lyrics with an amusing photo montage. Stan has a good singing voice and can still coax a lively tune from his accordion. For a good smile, do stop by this link.

A Dream of Cell Phone Booths

Now that everyone has cell phones, I miss the privacy of cell phone booths and nooks. A cell phone is convenient to call for directions while driving, arrange to meet a service representative without staying home all afternoon, or to let someone know I’m running late. On the other hand, the constant chatter that surrounds me everywhere I go is irritating. Doesn’t anyone want to be here now?

When I first moved to South Florida, I didn’t have long-distance access to the phone where I stayed. I often went to an elegant beachside hotel. I could grab a drink at the bar and ensconce myself in a comfortable phone nook for private conversations. As I recall these nooks, they had upholstered walls, nice wooden shelves, comfortable padded benches, and a pay phone. They were deep enough so that a door wasn’t necessary and sufficiently soundproof to offer privacy. All in all, these were a lot more comfortable than metal street boxes.

I thought about calling a friend today while I was waiting for my car to be waxed, but it was too noisy everywhere I went to feel comfortable doing it. It was noisy inside the car wash lounge, and even noisier out on the street with six lanes of traffic whizzing past. I stopped for lunch at the Chicken Kitchen. Even though it wasn’t crowded, I did not feel comfortable having a personal conversation at an open booth in that cavernous space.

Perhaps it is time to bring back some variation of the phone booth. Not much is available yet, and what there is lacks comfort.

Cell Atlantic’s portable cell phone booth can be stored in a backpack. It looks like a person could suffocate in there.

The Cell Phone Zone is more useful, but the round shape makes it an impractical use of space for a bank of them at an airport or in a hotel lobby. It doesn’t seem to have a cushy seat, either.

The red melamine booth, top, evokes those that vanished from our streets not so long ago. See Wired for more information.

They also are available in wood finish, as depicted at engadget.

Is it only a dream to think that someday cell phone etiquette will require the incessant talkers among us to retire to private places, and that designers will make these comfortable enough so that users will enjoy them?

Bad Journalism as Usual: Primaries, Caucuses and Choosing a President in the USA

Pack journalism predominates in television coverage of the Democratic and Republican processes for choosing presidential candidates to run for the country’s top office this fall. Pack journalism starts with always referring to these processes as races, contests, and competitions – the first mystification.

So many academic media analysts have commented on the harmful effects of framing electoral politics using metaphors of war and sports that it seems redundant to mention it. Yet, our numbskull journalists seem not to have read a single serious book about the subject they cover.

The latest pronouncement circulating is that the Republican Party is in disarray because no single, clear winner has emerged after only three decision-making events – a caucus in Iowa, a primary election in New Hampshire, an upcoming caucus in Nevada this weekend with South Carolina primaries to follow. “Republicans want leaders,” Chris Matthews has solemnly decided on NBC, diagnosing a sociological mindset for half a nation without a single social science instrument.

Is it true the Republican Party is in disarray, because the multiplicity of U.S. sentiments is being expressed in these early political processes? I doubt it. The purpose of allowing all of the 52 states to offer their input is to arrive at the decision of party candidates by popular vote this summer – not by polling and pundit prediction based on a few states in January.

Meanwhile, every awkward statement gets blown up out of proportion to its importance, instead of useful comparison of candidates’ positions on heath care, Social Security, financial impetus packages for an economy sliding into decline, and complicated issues related to foreign policy, such as the rise of China and India as competitors in world markets.

Former President Bill Clinton clumsily remarks that candidate Barack Obama’s statements about his consistent opposition to the Iraq War are a fairy tale, and the press convolutes this into a statement that the first credible black candidate’s campaign is a fairy tale. Former Arkansas GovernorMike Huckabee supports South Carolina’s display of a confederate states’ flag, while Senator John McCain decries it. Our feeble journalists run the bytes over and over again: This carnival sideshow is the real news for them.

Few of my students want to read or learn about anything that can’t be Googled and read in four minutes, but most want to be on television. It’s no wonder that I live in a know-nothing society. Journalists focus on the wrong things when covering political processes, and democracy suffers.

Two Books About Aging

Millner, Nancy Bost. (1997). Creative aging: Discovering the unexpected joys of later life through personality type. Mountain View, CA: Davies-Black Publishing.

Raines, Robert. (1997). A time to live: Seven steps of creative aging. New York: Plume (Penguin).

What I would like to find in a book about aging is a game plan for transcendence. These books repeat platitudes about aging being a time when we can come to self-acceptance, wisdom, and creativity. These things are true enough, but they do not provide me with the sense of magic and wonder of my youthful illusions that the future stretched out with endless possibility and promise. I miss that.

The first 60 pages of Millner’s book orient the reader to a Jungian perspectivpere on the elder years. Millner is a fluent writer who performs this task effectively. If you are not familiar with the 16 personality types, as categorized using the Myers-Briggs personality index, there are many good websites where you can gain fundamental understanding before buying the book. A pretty good free version of the MBTI may be found at the Humanmetrics website. The scoring isn’t particularly detailed and, therefore, it wasn’t spot-on for my type. If you are interested, you may want to find someone who is certified to administer and explain the type fully for you.

Chapters four through eight characterize five components of the elder experience as: vitality and contentment, generosity and spaciousness, connectedness and relatedness, joy and devotion, and reflecting on the great art of living.

Millner then suggests how some of the 16 personality types might inhabit that dimension of aging, using extended case-study examples. I am out of patience with popular psychology books that over-generalize on the basis of limited studies. It’s a shame that my training has been as a quantitative researcher, because it is getting harder as I age to persuade me that limited studies do as much as even I have claimed in my own work to promote the understanding that is a goal of qualitative research. Perhaps this is merely a testament to the wisdom of my own years.

I think this book would be more appealing to someone who is relatively new to personality type studies. The engaging writing, clear descriptions of type, and concise case examples will appeal to many readers.

Raines, on the other hand, writes with the deliberation of the memoirist, which in fact he is. I had been expecting a illumination of Jung’s seven tasks of aging, and this is not.

Jung’s 7 tasks of aging	Raines 7 steps of creative aging
1. Facing the reality of aging and dying	1. Waking up
2. Life review	2. Embracing sorrow
3. Defining life realistically	3. Savoring blessedness
4. Letting go of the ego	4. Re-imagining work
5. Finding new rooting in the Self	5. Nurturing intimacy
6. Determining the meaning of one’s life	6. Seeking forgiveness
7. Rebirth – dying with life	7. Taking on the mystery

A retired minister, Raines brings numerous personal experiences to his exploration of the blessings of aging, as well as examples from other people’s lives. The book is liberally sprinkled with quotations from great writers and thinkers. Raines is reflective and deeply human as he describes his illuminations. In the final analysis, however, his illuminations are his, and I must have my own.

In sum, I respect all writers on the basis that they have accomplished something I have not – the publication of a book. Each book has its particular strengths and will appeal to its own audience of readers. Neither, however, has lifted me from the doldrums of vague disappointment with the experience of aging, for I am neither as wise as I would like to be nor as accepting of this life stage as its inevitability requires.

The Introvert Advantage: Research Shows Brains Hard-Wired Differently

Laney, Marti Olsen. (2002). The Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an Extrovert World. New York: Workman Publishing.

Introverts “can’t get no respect,” in the words of the late comic Rodney Dangerfield. We live in a world that values heavy socializing, fast answers and multi-tasking. Working in noisy, shared office spaces in a way of life, and professional conferences that keep us booked from early in the morning until late at night are supposed to be fun. And that “ain’t me, babe” as an old pop song wailed.

Dr. Laney’s book offers three key messages. First, brain research now shows that introverts' brains are hard-wired differently, in a way that often facilitates more thoughtful processing and greater control of impulsive and emotional responses. Those can be real advantages.

Second, society gives introverts many messages that suggest we are not okay – labels such as shy, anti-social, slow, and dull. An introvert may be none of those things, and most have rich inner lives. Laney provides much needed evidence that it is time for introverts to accept ourselves and to insist extroverts do the same.

Third, Laney presents thoughtful coping skills for parenting, socializing, and managing relationships at work, with families, and in our personal lives. She understands that many everyday situations overtax the introvert cognitive pattern and offers non-evaluative suggestions.

Laney’s writing style is engaging and does not beef up the content with abbreviated case studies. I am weary of popular psychology and self-help books that present one brief example after another, each supposedly revealing some all-purpose life lesson. The result too often is the reasoning fallacy of hasty generalization. Laney’s chapter on brain research is especially worthwhile. Her coping suggestions are generally based on this, with examples that illustrate rather than substitute for research. There also are concise chapter summaries of the main points.

In summary, Laney has written a useful and concise guide to life for introverts and everyone who knows an introvert, which is the rest of the world. The book does much to dispel myths and misinformation and to grant introverts dignity in a society biased toward extroversion. Laney fulfills the subtitle's promise to tell introverts "how to thrive in an extrovert world."

Sacrificial Lamb? Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Assumes Figurative Leadership in Pakistan Politics

Perhaps it is a seasonal reflex to superimpose a story of martyrdom onto the chain of recent events in Pakistan.

Benazir Bhutto’s 19-year-old son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, has been named the figural head of the Pakistan People’s Party, following the assassination of his mother, a former prime minister, on Dec. 27. He will finish his studies at Oxford University, while his father, Asif Zardari, manages party affairs in Pakistan. Democratic elections have been postponed, as violence in the wake of Bhutto's death is quelled.

Naming Bilawal party leader seems shockingly like offering the sacrifice of an innocent, as in ancient blood religions. I hesitate to call them primitive religions, because what could be more primitive than the religion-driven bloodbath that engulfs the Middle East and inflames global poltics? Storm Warning's question: Benawal Bhutto stepping forward (or pushed?) pithily expresses my concern.

Young Bhutto has witnessed the death of his mother to political gunmen. His grandfather Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the first democratically elected president of Pakistan, was hanged in 1979 when ousted by a military dictator. His maternal uncles, Benazir’s brothers, "died in mysterious and violent circumstances," according to Griff Witte of The Washington Post.

His father has been tortured and his mother was jailed on charges of corruption, before the family fled the country in self-imposed exile. Benazir had returned in October to run for office, stating that she felt that was her mission despite the risk to her life. Currently, Bilawal is not old enough to run for office in Pakistan anyway.

I am not very brave, so if it were me, I would say – Thanks but no thanks. I’ve spent a good deal of my life in England, and I think I’ll just go on living a reasonably comfortable life here and let you folks in Pakistan have it out.

That is not the sentiment of Bhutto, however. News reports are abuzz this morning with statements he posted on a Facebook site. "My time to lead with come," he reportedly claims.

Only youth, with its intimations of immortality, can rush headlong into gunfire, which is why old men send young men to war. Realistic perceptions of risk are an area of the brain that is slow to develop.

When I view from afar the lives of people in the public eye, I am glad for my own ordinary, ordinary life. I would not wanted to be Princess Diana, even if she had not died such a tragic, senseless death. The densely-packed public schedule and required smiles would be too stressful for me. I have read that Oprah Winfrey gets up at 5 or 6 a.m. to exercise and works until after 11 p.m. planning her programs. Are these people on methedrine? Where do they get this energy, focus, and determination?

Already, young Bhutto will live under 24-hour armed guard in England, which seems sensible but certainly not the life of an ordinary student. For now, Benawal is, hopefully, safe studying history, watching Buffy reruns and eating junk food, accroding to his self-report. I wish him well, and I hope he survives public scrutiny and lives to a peaceful old age.

New Year 2008 Sites and Sights

I have been pondering the New Year by web surfing to gather the ideas of other people, hopefully smarter and better informed than I am. Along the way, I have gathered a few blogs and websites to share with you.

First, please visit Ronni Bennet’s fabulous blog about aging and ageism, her travels, Ollie the Cat, the weather in Maine and sundry topics. Time Goes By is a permanent link at left. Her new year’s column is a meme list. Ronni threatened to give up her well-read column a short time ago, but thank goodness, the warm response from her readers has staved off this prospect. Thank you, Ronni Bennett, for the good reading.

Second, discovered only yesterday, Robert Wilkerson’s Aquarius Astrology – Global Astrology is subtitled “Using Astrology, Spirit, and Archetypes to move and groove through the intersections of fate and free will." I don’t understand most of the astronomy jargon, but he creates a more complex perspectives on planetary relationships and uses archetypal imagery that can appeal at a deeper level. You can find out some planetary prospects that go beyond fortune-cookie sayings here.

If you think astrology is bunko, stop by Bad Astronomy. There are many different ways to measure what constitutes a year, so new year’s celebrations are a social convention, rather than the acknowledgement of an uncontested fact of nature.

Those grinches at the Wall Street Journal bah-humbug celebrating 2008. They warn, “Don’t count on a happy new year” as economic analysts read the entrails of the dying year past.

On the other hand, Chinese astrology occultists report the opposite, predicting that the “world economy will boom."

Indeed, why should we of the globally linked world be content with only one new year celebration, when the very fact of a new year is in dispute by scientists of astronomy? Rat-happy Russians with an interest in Chinese astrology are emptying pet shops of the creatures, according to the BBC.

The Rat is the first sign in 12-year cycle. I am an Earth Rat and found instructive information at, of rather unlikely locations, a bridal guide.

There is no effective transition from rats to cherubs and this photo of an art exhibit at the Telfair Art Museum in Savannah, Georgia, that I took in August 2007. The little statues on the stairway represent racial poulation statistical mixes. Unfortunately, I do not remember the details of the exhibit, or the artist. It was the only exhibit that visitors were allowed to photograph. The dozens of cherubs on the steps were a cheerful sight that, one can only hope, symbolizes the blending of all races, ethnicities, religions, political perspectives with respect for each other, peace, and harmony. That is a new year’s dream worth having.

Daytona Deco: Kress Building

Daytona Beach was the last stop on my way home from the Hope Institute in Ashland, VA.

The downtown area on the land side of the Intracoastal Waterway has been redeveloped to be more appealing to tourists. I ate lunch at a place with some natural foods, across from a park that runs along the waterway and next to the bridge over the Intracoastal.

This old Kress building preserves the Art Deco era in Florida architecture, my favorite. Note the classic deco details on the side of this fabulous historical structure. It is located a few doors away from the restaurant. There is plenty of metered parking to allow time to walk around the area and enjoy the park, shops, restaurants, natural beauty, and architecture.