New look

Yeah, change is in the air. I thought the blog's facelift made it look a bit less somber.

I'm also wondering if I've become a bit of a misnomer. It's pretty obvious I'm a damn liberal (or progressive, if you prefer), and now that liberals/progressives are being defined as "socialists," who knows what defines a moderate? But, as Obama has often been described as having a conservative temperament despite his politics, I maintain that I have always had a moderate temperament, given to occasional extremes... but always in moderation.

As to the brighter mood, sure, the economy's still in crisis. None of that has changed overnight. But genuine hope shouldn't be underestimated. It's been a long time since this country has been acquainted with it, and we might be pleasantly surprised what we can accomplish if we take an experimental vacation from cynicism.

Gone Fishing Again

Yeah, it's that time of year when I temporarily flee the country (on vacation, I mean, of course.) I'm a bit bummed that this year's trip coincides with the DNC, just because I'm a big enough geek that I'd actually enjoy some of the speeches. And this time I'm probably not the only one who will be following it with something approaching actual interest. Well, you know, it's the climax we've been building to since -- well, since Dubya was re-elected, basically.
But hopefully it will show up on the Canadian news now and then, too. It's kind of hard to ignore us Yanks and our crazy antics, for good or for ill.

Pennsylvania: The Calm Before the Storm

My native state has been getting a lot of attention lately, but their time in the sun is finally winding down. In 24 hours, give or take an hour or two, we'll know the verdict that will determine the next phase in this crazy election process.
Will she or won't she win big enough to stay in the race, or will she win at all?
Even though I'm no longer in her camp, I can't bring myself to actively wish her defeat, even though I want to see this thing settled, and the Dems united.
There's part of me that's still wishing her well (and no, not just my "lady parts," for those with their minds in the gutter ;)
But for the most part, I just want to see this thing over with.

What He Said

I guess it's time to come out and say what I've been hinting about. And internally agonizing about. I think I'll feel better. But I think the Boss said it better than I could.

In a letter addressed to friends and fans posted his Web site, Springsteen said he believes Obama is the best candidate to undo "the terrible damage done over the past eight years."

"He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next president," the letter said. "He speaks to the America I've envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that's interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where '...nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone.' "

The Hannah Jones Rodham Factor

First of all, Kathy Callahan desperately needs an editor. The flagrant abuse of various punctuation marks and overall run-on style made her post on Daily Kos very painful to read. But that's beside the point.
The point is that she raised an issue which has been on my mind ever since reading Bernstein's Hillary bio. Hillary's by-all-accounts formidable grandmother was a profound influence on her life, in small part because of the direct contact they shared, but no doubt mostly because her equally formidable (and by most accounts disagreeable) father, who had been tyrannized and intimidated by Hannah Jones Rodham, passed on her way of thinking.
Growing up with Hugh Rodham, Hannah's son, meant doing what needed to be done, and getting away with what could be gotten away with, in conspiracy with Hillary's firm but infinitely supportive mother Dorothy. Their household, in a way, reminds me of the cast of "Death of a Salesman," with Hillary's two younger brothers as Biff and Happy. Hillary is the one who's not in the script, the one who got away, and found real, genuine success. But those instincts of getting along and getting away with are still a part of her, as is a trace, no doubt, of Hannah's authoritarianism, even without the Republican trappings. All you have to do is read the latest press to see the traces of each of those instincts.
Childhood is only a part of everyone's story, but it's a big clue to how the rest will unfold, to a lesser or greater extent, depending on who one joins forces with in adulthood. Hillary joined forces with William Jefferson "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is" Clinton, God love him. And the rest has been history... theirs and ours.
As an American, I still love the Clintons, like one does a dysfunctional family, warts and all. I think Bill Clinton's presidency was one of the most successful in our history. But I'll be honest. If they don't do the right thing this time, for their party and the country, I don't think I could vote for one of them again.
That's not something I say glibly, but with a heavy heart. Whenever I hear that Fleetwood Mac song from the '93 inauguration, I feel like crying. But yesterday's gone.

We are gray now.

Well, not "us," yet, but this blog, anyway.
I've been planning to change the look (superficial tweaking greatly amuses me :) for the blog's 1 1/2 year anniversary, but since we're going on vacation next week, I thought I'd make the change a little early. I guess I'm going back to basics this time. The times seem to call for it.

Oh, yes, and happy Ides of March! Et tu, Geraldine? (Sorry... I felt I needed to throw a little something topical in there, since it's been awhile. The electionscape has just been so depressing lately, I needed a little time to psych myself up into developing an opinion again.)

When Weather Changed History

Weather Channel fans? Never mind :)

OK, so the weather didn't really change anything. Obama won all three "Chesapeake" states by a landslide, and McCain won by a respectable margin, if less than impressive for an all-but-declared nominee.

The only thing the raging ice storm changed was the number of accidents on the Beltway, some no doubt caused by people rushing home to make the polls before they closed at 8pm. I fortunately don't have a Beltway commute, but I do have what would normally be a 15-20 minute commute from work to my polling station, which was slightly delayed by the thick, unscrapable sheet of ice I found on my windshield as I left work eight minutes late due to a communications/media-related activity tangentially related to none other than John Kerry, Keith Olbermann, and Chris Matthews (ah, we meet again, John Kerry. It was raining the night I voted for you, too, only, since it was November, it wasn't freezing in thick sheets on my windshield.)

It was still too thick to attack with my trusty scraper, as you can see, at 7:30 pm. I was bored, so I took these photos while waiting for it to melt.

I made it to the polling station at 8:04 pm, but, thanks to that County Circuit Court judge who extended Maryland's voting hours until 9:30 due to inclement weather, I was given a provisional ballot. Of course, the provisional ballots won't be counted until next Tuesday. But, looking at the numbers, that doesn't really matter much, anyway. At least I did my civic duty. But I have nothing on the polling station volunteers who told me they'd arrived at 6:30 that morning, and, now, thanks to the well-meaning judge, they'd be there another hour and a half longer. They were looking pretty tired -- but still friendly -- good souls.

Oh, yeah, and I voted for Hillary, in case anyone was wondering :) No big surprise, I'm sure.

Not that she was around to cherish her hard-won votes or rue her losses here; she's already in Texas. And over the next couple months, que sera, sera. I've done my part for now, and I have to admit I'm looking forward to the next phase of this thing. Bring it on, John "10,000 years in Iraq" McCain...

My Moment of Truth: The Personal is the Political

So tomorrow is the so-called Potomac/Chesapeake/"Crabcake" primary. There was a time, not so long ago, when I was looking forward to this day, but that time passed sometime after New Hampshire. I now find myself in the untenable position of supporting one candidate over another for reasons I can only justify in emotional terms.
This wasn't how I envisioned it when I first imagined a Hillary Clinton run, back before I'd even heard the name Barack Obama. When I did hear Obama's keynote speech in 2004, I felt the same enthusiasm about him that I did about Hillary: this guy will be the future of the party. But I thought that future would materialize a little later down the road.
Obama isn't as young as he looks, but he certainly has a lot of good years ahead of him. For Hillary, it's pretty much now or never. I wish that weren't so, but things are different for women in the public sphere. Which pisses me off, but it's the reality. Women above a certain age are still held to impossible standards of female beauty and modesty, and not all that much has changed since the Middle Ages when it comes to fearing and vilifying older women with wisdom and power. Which is one of the many reasons we so desperately need to see a woman in the White House -- besides Geena Davis.
But I know gender and age are skin-deep issues, as much as race is. On the latter issue, it really did break my heart to see both Clintons squander so much of the good will they had genuinely earned from the black community over the years. And for what -- politically, even, leaving morality aside? No gain at all, and possibly irreparable losses. But if it weren't race, it would have been something else. The "Clinton machine" may not play as many levels underground as the likes of Rove & co., but they're certainly willing and able to use a means to an end. And Obama's people, as close to the line as they may go to position their candidate, are not going to cross it in the way that the Clinton team will. That's just a given, and I've faced that fact.
And I know as well as anyone what America needs right now -- and it's not more fire fought with fire. What Washington need is a giant freaking fire hose. But yeah, "change," yada, yada. Even as I say the word, I wish it struck as deep a chord with me as Hillary's story does.
Her story is a woman's story, one that's different from mine but still resonates with me on a personal level. While, as a writer and an introvert, most of my battles are inner, and I wrestle on the page, her battles are outer and she wrestles in the public sphere. Her story is one of lifelong idealism, hard work, but also much complexity -- strength and weakness, courage and compromise, successes and failures. To paraphrase the ending of Carl Bernstein's bio, A Woman in Charge, she's always stood for good things, but sometimes there's a disconnect between her actions and her ideals. Sometimes short cuts are taken; patience is in short supply. Which all sounds a bit like the styles of many of her male predecessors who sought this office. Not to mention her husband, or her own ill-advised identification with Johnson, but also Truman, both Roosevelts, and all the way back to Jefferson and Adams, with everyone in between -- some theatrically flawed and some just plain pedestrian, at least a handful inexplicably devoid of charisma (well, I guess it was easier to get away with that before the age of television.) But none of these men were without inner contradictions. Should a woman be held to a higher personal standard in any of these regards?
And for all this talk of Kennedy, look at JFK's life and family background and you don't see Obama the family man. Sure, Barack did some drugs as a kid and didn't get straight A's in high school, but let's be serious here. George W. Bush was an alcoholic and cokehead for most of his life. Obama is the rare person who is impossible to smear. Whatever Hillary says about the Republican steamroller, they're going to have trouble finding anything substantial on the man himself, because he's laid everything out there, he's pretty much is who he is, and that person is someone America likes, from Iowa to Louisiana to Maine.
So does that mean I'm voting for him?
I can't say that it does. But until tomorrow, I can't absolutely say that it doesn't.
Personal angst aside, there are a few policy differences that make a difference to me. As someone who's gone years at a time without health insurance (after a melanoma scare in my late teens) and lost some sleep over it, I like the idea of at least some basic health insurance for every last person in the country. I also trust Hillary's relative foreign policy experience, her personal relationship with world leaders, and, in general, her instincts and leadership ability.
If this weren't a popularity contest, or, I should say, a personality contest, I'd have no trouble justifying a vote for her. But there's this nagging feeling that the element in Obama's personality that people gravitate toward is what will heal this dangerous divide in America, and actually bring people together, rather than just make sure the good guys beat the bad guys (by which I mean the Right-Wingers, of course ;) If that's true, then despite Obama's youth and the fact that he might have other moments, maybe America won't, if it doesn't seize this one.
On the other hand... on the other hand... Like I said, Hillary had me at hello, and she never really did anything to let me down as a supporter, except not being Barack Obama. Life sure isn't fair sometimes.
Oh well. I guess the exercise of democracy is like the exercise of anything else; if it really hurts, you know it's probably starting to work.

Happy Birthday, Blog.

Here's a belated present (I wish it was surprising that I'm late for my own blog's birthday) of a new look.
At one year old yesterday, you've nearly come of age in blog years. I'm so proud. Next year I'll take the time to make you an original template, blog, I promise.

Back to Work...

... for me and for the good old 110th Congress.

I had a great vacation and am feeling jetlagged but revived in spirit. I hope the same is true for the legislative branch, and that they'll get down to accomplishing something tangible, especially on Iraq.

Harry Reid had the following to say in a press conference today, where he seems to take a stand against the kind of empty political compromise that gives moderation a bad name. Let's hope it holds true in the coming weeks.

We're going to take this matter up the week of September 17. The one thing that we're trying to do is to give the Republicans the ability to keep their word.

They said, in September, there would be a change of course. We're willing to go halfway with them, as long as everyone understands that we're not going to do something that's cosmetic in nature.

To say that a Democrat and a Republican get together and have a piece of legislation that we can all vote for and it doesn't accomplish anything -- I will do everything I can to stir up enough votes to stop that from passing.

I want some legislation that will change what's going on in Iraq, for the reasons I've already outlined.

This is a war that's going to soon be in its sixth year -- think about that -- costing this country -- we're close to three-quarters of a trillion dollars.

I think enough's enough.

Gone Fishing

Well, gone, anyway, for a couple of weeks. And not a minute too soon. I'm having one of those days where it started out cloudy; now it's sunny; but it still feels cloudy.
See you in September.

The best thing the 108th Congress ever did...

... was pass the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
Yeah, it left out some provisions that maybe should have been in there, and vice versa, but from a personal perspective, it's the Best Act Ever, all due to the Daylight Savings Time provision that pushed back the start of that magical time of year three weeks, to make it effective today.
This guy disagrees, but I don't trust people who are against sunlight, so who cares? Besides, they said on the NewsHour that he's an English professor, so what does he know about energy policy? ;)
All I know is that now is the time of year when the last drop of vitamin D drains from my body, and that, thanks to this act, I can get up from my computer and go out there to enjoy the sunshine for one hour longer each day, starting right now. Theoretically.

P.S. The new look is in anticipation of spring fever. Once it hits, I won't be able to stay inside customizing my blog. Bring it on!

Official plug...

... for my new "side" blog, appropriately named Writing on the Side, launched secretly into the blogosphere this weekend. It's not going to be as prolific as this one, but I'll update it from time to time.
It's my little valentine to the world.

Tantra, tightropes and cinnamon lattes: caffeinated musings

First, an announcement to those who may care that I plan to start a new blog (in addition to this one) within the next week or two on my other vocation/avocation, the more creative sort of writing. I think it's going to be called "Writing on the Side." It's meant to take the place of my Live Journal blog, which I will still keep but only for photos and that sort of thing.
It will be another "Eudaimonia" production, which brings me to the point that I doubt I have more than an elementary understanding of Aristotle's idea of that term, but something just occurred to me today as I was sipping the most delicious cinnamon latte ever while driving home from work (after a busy day, we were let out early.)
From a rational standpoint (obviously not a physiological one, in the case of the latter) pleasure and pain are easy to navigate. In the first case, what you want is more, right, ad infinitum? And in the second, less. Very simple. If it was diagrammed, I guess it would just look like an arrow pointing in one direction, as far as one's goals were concerned.
But anyone who's had a hangover (or drank one too many delicious lattes in a row) knows that ad infinitum is untenable.
Bearing just a little pleasure isn't pain, but it's not exactly pleasure, either. In fact, it's a rather odd state of mind for which no particular word comes to mind (I'm sure yogis and Tantrists know some, but let's stick with the cinnamon latte illustration for a moment :) Actually, it makes me curious about the less sensational aspects of Tantric philosophy, but that's another blog.
In any case, while semi-blissed out on cinnamon and the tempered joy of being released from work knowing it just meant coming in earlier tomorrow, I had a glimmer of why moderation, or my reading of it, is so prized: it's even more of a psychic tightrope than it's cracked up to be! On the other hand, maybe it's a lot sexier than it's given credit for as well ;)

Viva moderation...
(On that note, here's an article on "golden girls" living the moderately good life in a particularly long-lived region of France)

Hey There

So by way of introduction, before someone calls me an oxymoron (I'm sure I've been called worse) here's a nutshell defense of what I mean by "radical moderate."
I'm not talking middle-of-the-road, let's-not-rock-the-boat sort of moderate.
What I like about the classical concept of the golden mean with regard to ethics (if you're looking for my take on geometry, I'm sorry to say that I missed that boat back in eleventh grade) is that it's not about where you end up on the spectrum but how you arrive there. And just because the center may at times resemble, for instance, what used to be the Right, that doesn't mean moderates have to pack up and head east. Just because the current mode is to view George H.W. Bush as a moderate doesn't mean anything more than the fact that a decade or so ago, Bill Clinton seemed to look like one. Although I respect the latter in many ways, neither are precisely the model for my conception of what a radical moderate would look like in the political realm.
It's not about carving out a niche in the spectrum or compromise for compromise's sake but a state of mind and the corresponding behavior of thoughtful consideration and open dialogue.
A passionate dedication to thoughtful consideration and open, unprejudiced dialogue informed by firsthand research and mutual respect (as opposed to the current mode of either polarized vitriol or spineless compromise) seems like something worth fighting for.