Poem of the Day

Between Going and Staying by Octavio Paz

Between going and staying the day wavers,
in love with its own transparency.

The circular afternoon is now a bay
where the world in stillness rocks.

All is visible and all elusive,
all is near and can't be touched.

Paper, book, pencil, glass,
rest in the shade of their names.

Time throbbing in my temples repeats
the same unchanging syllable of blood.

The light turns the indifferent wall
into a ghostly theater of reflections.

I find myself in the middle of an eye,
watching myself in its blank stare.

The moment scatters. Motionless,
I stay and go: I am a pause.

Collected Poems of Octavio Paz, 1957-1987: Bilingual Edition

Eleanor Roosevelt's Wartime Prayer

Dear Lord,

Lest I continue
My complacent way,
Help me to remember that somewhere,
Somehow out there
A man died for me today.
As long as there be war,
I then must
Ask and answer
Am I worth dying for?

Amen.

"It is impossible to reason someone out of something that he did not reason himself into in the first place." - Jonathan Swift

Right on , Brother Swift, right on!

A big tip of the old thank-you bonnet to By Neddie Jingo for the quote

Poem of the Day

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.


--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

The Complete Poems 1927-1979

Poem of the Day

My Letters! all dead paper. . . (Sonnet XXVIII) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!
And yet they seem alive and quivering
Against my tremulous hands which loose the string
And let them drop down on my knee tonight.
This said—he wished to have me in his sight
Once, as a friend: this fixed a day in spring
To come and touch my hand. . . a simple thing,
Yes I wept for it—this . . . the paper's light. . .
Said, Dear, I love thee; and I sank and quailed
As if God's future thundered on my past.
This said, I am thine—and so its ink has paled
With lying at my heart that beat too fast.
And this . . . 0 Love, thy words have ill availed
If, what this said, I dared repeat at last!

Sonnets from the Portuguese: A Celebration of Love

from Sacramento News & Review: No Oil For War

A mailer from California Congressman Dan Lungren strays off message. Or does it?

Al Eaton was all set to toss Dan Lungren’s letter in the trash when he noticed something that amazed him. The Rio Vista resident already had no idea why Sacramento’s Republican congressman would be sending him a “reply” for “contacting” his office, given that Eaton had never written to him in the first place. But apparently, Lungren had something to say to the retired high-school teacher and liberal Democrat.

The letter, dated April 4, 2005, starts off by defending the Republican Congress’ push of House Resolution 6, energy legislation that allows drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). While critics say the oil in ANWR would last only six months, Lungren argues that it could last 25 years by being used to “supplement rather than replace our need for foreign oil.” (Congress passed the bill on April 21.)

" While discussing the nation’s dependency on foreign oil, Lungren writes, “I feel quite strongly that as long as we have our military in the Middle East fighting so that we can continue to purchase oil from that region, we have an obligation to find alternatives to foreign oil. It is difficult to justify the death of even one soldier when we are not doing everything in our power to explore options for oil within our country" (more)

Well now? Who'd have thunk it? We're in Iraq for the oil? And all this time I thought we, to quote Rick Blaine,'were there for the waters'. Like him, I seem to have been misinformed.

from WLOS News13:Ahh, Doesn't It Just Warm Your Heart to See Those Nice 'Christians' Playing So Well Together?

Religion and politics clash over a local church's declaration that Democrats are not welcome.

East Waynesville Baptist asked nine members to leave. Now 40 more have left the church in protest. Former members say Pastor Chan Chandler gave them the ultimatum, saying if they didn't support George Bush, they should resign or repent. The minister declined an interview with News 13. But he did say "the actions were not politically motivated." There are questions about whether the bi-laws were followed when the members were thrown out.

'the actions were not politically motivated.' Say Whaaat? This guy's been hit in the head a few times too many during those vigorous revival meetings. If it were my church I'd be looking for a new pastor.

Updates:
from North Carolina blogger Scrutiny Hooligans comes this discussion of the religious hypocrisy of it all
from Asheville Citizen-Times, a detailed local report on the story

from Salon.com Microsoft comes out in full support of Gay Rights

People who follow the software industry know that products from Microsoft often follow a similar progression curve: Version 1.0 of any new application is awful. Version 2.0 comes closer to the mark. And Version 3.0 gets things right.

Today, Microsoft announced Version 3.0 of its stance on gay rights. After weeks of reversals -- and at times tortured explanations for the company's sudden decision, late in April, to drop its support for legislation in Washington state that would have prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation -- Microsoft now says that in the future, it will endorse gay-friendly laws.

'I've concluded that diversity in the workplace is such an important issue for our business that it should be included in our legislative agenda,' Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, wrote, in an e-mail to employees. (It was made public by Robert Scoble, a blogging Microserf.)

Ballmer did not explain why Microsoft changed its mind on the Washington bill -- HB 1515 -- in the first place (after the company pulled its support, the Washington Senate defeated the law by one vote). Many observers have speculated that the reversal may have had something to do with Rev. Ken Hutcherson, the minister of a mega-church in Redmond, Wash, who had threatened to boycott Microsoft if it supported the bill. In his e-mail Ballmer didn't mention Hutcherson, saying only that 'there was a lot of confusion and miscommunication, and we are taking steps to improve our processes going forward.'

But Ballmer did say that 'if legislation similar to HB 1515 is introduced in future sessions, we will support it.' And, remarkably, Ballmer promised to endorse anti-discrimination legislation beyond the Washington bill. 'I'm proud of Microsoft's commitment to non-discrimination in our internal policies and benefits, but our policies can't cover the range of housing, education, financial and similar services that our people and their partners and families need,' he wrote. 'Therefore, it's appropriate for the company to support legislation that will promote and protect diversity in the workplace. Accordingly, Microsoft will continue to join other leading companies in supporting federal legislation that would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation -- adding sexual orientation to the existing law that already covers race, sex, national origin, religion, age and disability. Given the importance of diversity to our business, it is appropriate for the company to endorse legislation that prohibits employment discrimination on all of these grounds.'

Ballmer's pro-diversity position is admirable -- but it's also not surprising. Microsoft is the king of an of an industry whose chief raw material is human creativity, and whose main fuel is brain power. As the economist Richard Florida has pointed out, such well-educated employees often care about where their firms stands on important social issues. The kind of people who are drawn to software engineering tend to be progressives on issues like gay rights (that's why, incidentally, the tech economy is centered in California, not Kansas).

Seen in this light, Microsoft's initial waffle on HB 1515 was not only shameful, it was bad for business -- perhaps for sales, definitely for corporate morale. Many employees were appalled by the company's decision. And who knows how many prospective employees decided to look for work elsewhere when they heard about the company's stance?

But say what you want about Microsoft, it's not a firm known for sticking with dumb business decisions, Rev. Hutcherson be damned.

Now, when are they going to fire that contemptible worm Ralph Reed?

from Grist via Salon: John Peterson's Latest Attack on the Environment

Appetite for Destruction by Amanda Griscom Little

Republican Reps. Richard Pombo and John Peterson have put a poison pill in this year's energy bill -- an amendment that would eliminate the public review process for projects on public land.

When the energy bill sailed through the House of Representatives late last month, the media reported that it was same old grotesquely corpulent package that the GOP leadership had previously tried -- and failed -- to pass through Congress four times in the last four years. This is true. But what flew under the radar were a few new provisions sneaked in at the 11th hour by Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., chair of the House Resources Committee, which have made the bill even more environmentally threatening than previous versions, many Democrats and environmentalists say.

The environmental statute Pombo is targeting this time: the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act, long considered a cornerstone of U.S. environmental law. NEPA requires all major projects on federal land -- from logging to highway construction to energy exploration -- to be reviewed for their potential environmental impact, and it mandates a comment period during which the public can voice related concerns.

A Pombo-backed amendment sponsored by Rep. John Peterson, R-Penn., and added to the bill the day before markup would allow energy companies to skirt NEPA requirements in a number of situations, with the aim of speeding energy development on federal land.

Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., the ranking Democrat on the House Resources Committee, said it would grant the energy industry "carte blanche to conduct drilling and exploration activities on public lands without any kind of meaningful environmental review, and remove the legal grounds for scientists, communities, and local governments to intercede. It is an affront to the American people." (more)

Dirty Dozen member Peterson once again lives down to his rating with this latest contemptible trick. He truly won't be content to there are oil and gas wells on every square inch of the Allegheny National Forest. Of course he wants to clear cut it first. That way all of his extractive industry buds will benefit. Slimeball.

Antonio Salieri

Composer Antonio Salieri died today in 1825. Although he was one of the accomplished and prolific composers of his time, today it is usually only his contentious relationship with Mozart that he is remembered for, particularly the rumour that he was responsible for the younger man's death in 1791.

Salieri was the victim of atrocious rumor and slander in later life, a slander that continues to present day. It doesn't help that the slander is so well accomplished in both the play and film versions of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus. Regardless of its total lack of a factual basis, the film in particular is a genuine work of art.

Wickipedia article on Salieri's life and music with a nice bit on his real relationship with Mozart.

A nice page of photos and graphics of Salieri and his hometown of Legnago.


Antonio Salieri and Viennese Opera

The Salieri Album: Cecilia Bartoli.

Amadeus: A Play by Peter Shaffer

Amadeus: A Film by Milos Foreman

from the Independent: Revelation! 666 is not the number of the beast

A newly discovered fragment of the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament indicates that, as far as the Antichrist goes, theologians, scholars, heavy metal groups, and television evangelists have got the wrong number. Instead of 666, it's actually the far less ominous 616. (more)

But I thought the Bible was divinely inspired and that every word was literally true? Again, I appear to have been misinformed. Oh well, kinda makes you wonder what else they've gotten wrong, doesn't it?

from Hullabaloo:

Digby Sez:

" We are no longer in a period in which liberalism must tone down its radicals and burnish its management credentials. If anything, we must prove that we even exist and beyond that, that we stand for something. Even the liberal eliminationist mantra on the right has begun to sound stale and decrepit --- the evil strawman they've created is as lackluster and dull as we are. We are in danger of simply fading away if we do not pour some some blood and nerve into our politics.

Furthermore, the consensus style of politics that the DLC depends upon to deliver its centrist vision simply is not possible in this political environment. The right has become radical and uncompromising, each of its factions growing more and more demanding. There is no middle in American politics today, as much as we might wish it to be so --- and it's not because of positions on the issues, it's because of the zero sum politics the Republicans are playing. In order to provide some ballast, we simply must have some weight on the liberal side of our arguments or they will carry us all further to the right than even the DLC can live with. That's where Move-on and Michael Moore and the left blogosphere come in.

This is not the kind of politics I would prefer. It would be nice if we could have some civility and comity for awhile; this is exhausting and mostly unproductive. And people in hell want ice-water. It is what it is and if there's one thing we should have learned over the past 15 years it's that being conciliatory with the radical Republicans and allowing them to take us further and further right is a recipe for losing. We've lost it all for the moment and we are barely hanging on to the possibility of getting a piece of it back."

The man is absolutely right. I stopped being conciliatory when Paul Wellstone died. I decided that being a fullbore take no prisoners progressive angry pit bull was going to be my memorial for him. DLC whimpiness has lost us three national elections in the last 5 years. Isn't it time to try something that might actually work? Like standing up strong and tall for what we believe and calling bullshit on the neocons 'culture of lies'. Stop being gentlemanly with thugs. It only gets you whacked that much harder.I

from UCalBerkeley via Science NewsWatch: Researchers help define what makes a political conservative

Politically conservative agendas may range from supporting the Vietnam War to upholding traditional moral and religious values to opposing welfare. But are there consistent underlying motivations?

Four researchers who culled through 50 years of research literature about the psychology of conservatism report that at the core of political conservatism is the resistance to change and a tolerance for inequality, and that some of the common psychological factors linked to political conservatism include:
Fear and aggression

Dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity

Uncertainty avoidance

Need for cognitive closure

Terror management

'From our perspective, these psychological factors are capable of contributing to the adoption of conservative ideological contents, either independently or in combination,' the researchers wrote in an article, 'Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition,' recently published in the American Psychological Association's Psychological Bulletin. (more)

Poem of the Day

Forgetfulness by Billy Collins

The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of,

as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

Long ago you kissed the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.

Whatever it is you are struggling to remember
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.

No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.

Nine Horses: Poems

EO Newsroom: New Images - Ivory-billed Woodpecker Habitat

Surrounded by farmland, crossed by an interstate highway, and located less than 75 miles from Arkansas’ capital and largest city, the 55,000-acre Cache River National Wildlife Refuge hardly seems wilderness enough to be harboring any secrets. But between 2004 and 2005, this small refuge within Arkansas’ “Big Woods” revealed just how valuable a treasure it hides in its secret cache: the ivory-billed woodpecker, which had been presumed extinct for 60 years.

In this image from NASA’s Landsat 7 satellite, acquired on December 23, 2001, the dense vegetation of swampy bottomland forests, sloughs, oxbow river bends, and bayous in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge makes a dramatic contrast to the geometric checkerboard of farmlands. Ground that is bare or sparsely vegetated appears pinkish tan. The dense (but leafless in winter) vegetation of the refuge’s tupelo and cypress forests appears dark gray. When you look carefully (particularly in the high-resolution image), the forests are interwoven with swampy areas that appear lighter gray. A large swath of this gray swampy area runs through the narrow strip of the refuge that follows the Deview Bayou northeast of the large protected area near image center. Interstate 40 cuts diagonally across the southern part of this large tract of land.(more)

via dadahead: 'More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history'

Again, I want to point this out. Pat Robertson has declared that the Democratic Party, with its minions the media and the homosexuals, are persecuting Christians to an extent unsurpassed in human history.

Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It's no different. It is the same thing. It is happening all over again. It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians. Wholesale abuse and discrimination and the worst bigotry directed toward any group in America today. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history. (more)

Pat Robertson is an asshole. I despise assholes. In particular I despise tinhorn country preacher assholes who accuse others of being worse than the Nazis.

That's an oxymoron, you moron.

I challenge Mr Robertson to show ANY substantive evidence for his charges of "bigotry worse than anything that's happened to any minority in history."

Tell that to the Native Americans, African Americans, Cambodians, Rwandans, Bosnians, Armenians, Kurds, Irish, Sudanese, and yes, Jews of the world.

The Nazis KILLED homosexuals, you fool.

I further challenge this particular fascist hatemonger to point out to me one American 'Christian' who has had their shop burned, been forced to wear a cross tattooed on their forehead, or been forced to live in segregated housing because they were 'Christian.' I challenge him to show me the camps where the 'Democrats' are systematically exterminating their 'Christian' victims.

I also challenge him to explain how this is possible in a country where the national government is completely controlled by the political arm of these previously mentioned as persecuted 'Christians.'

I suspect I will get silence. This particular asshole can only fart one tune. And it doesn't like to admit that just perhaps it was misstating the case.

But then again, that's what makes Pat an asshole.

Take every opportunity to beat the religious right about the head and shoulders with this one. An asshole is a terrible thing to waste.

from Pandagon: Overview of the anti-feminist/men's rights movement

This ridiculous essay 'Sex, Women and Conservatism' was floating around the Internet a few weeks ago, being deservedly mocked by some of the bright stars of blogging. When I read it, I immediately realized that it was just more of the same stuff from the 'men's rights activists', better known as the MRAs. And it occured to me that your average feminist blogger is more than aware of the MRAs, due to the emails and comments we get from them, but most liberals may only be vaguely aware. So, since I had some time on my hands with Pandagon being down, I thought I would put together an overview of the men's rights movement, not to be confused with any overall men's movements, some of which are actually female-friendly.

The best way to understand the men's rights movement for me is to view them as the secular arm of the right wing move to return America to an old-fashioned patriarchy. Many MRAs consider themselves Christian, and some even consider themselves fundamentalists. But generally, their arguments for male dominance come not from the Bible but from repeated and colorful assertion that nature has made women inferior. They are also secular in that many MRAs do not wish to return to a situation where women refrained from premarital sex, and in fact, many would argue that women's greater power comes from our manipulation of men with sex. (more)

from spiked-science: If You Could Teach the World Just One Thing...

spike's E=MC squared centenary survey

2005 - announced as Einstein Year - marks the centenary of the publication of Albert Einstein's equation E = mc2. To mark this occasion, Sandy Starr at spiked and science communicator Alom Shaha have conducted a survey of over 250 renowned scientists, science communicators, and educators - including 11 Nobel laureates - asking what they would teach the world about science and why, if they could pick just one thing. Alom Shaha, who conceived the survey, has made four accompanying films in which interviewees talk through their responses.

The survey and films are sponsored by NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), a public body that champions and invests in UK innovation. NESTA has always been keen to explore innovative approaches to supporting dialogue between public and science-based audiences. The survey provides an insight into what scientists think are the most important features of science in the twenty-first century. Respondents include:

Colin Berry
Paul Davies
Richard Dawkins
K Eric Drexler
Susan Haack
Matt Ridley
Simon Singh
John Stachel
John Sulston
Raymond Tallis
(more)

A grand and gloroius collection of scientific knowledge, lore and philosophy. Plenty of ammo for your next run-in with your favorite ID-er or luddite wingnut.

via Boing Boing: Perceived Discrimination Linked To Coronary Artery Calcification

The more discrimination African-American women report, the more likely they are to have coronary artery calcification, a buildup of calcium in the vessels that is associated with atherosclerosis, according to a study presented at the American Heart Association's 45th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.

These results indicate that chronic exposure to discrimination might increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in African-American women, the researchers reported.

"We know from other studies in this area that stressful life experiences can have an effect on cardiovascular outcomes," said Tené Lewis, Ph.D., a health psychologist in preventive medicine at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago. "Discrimination appears to be a stressor that has particular relevance for the health of African-American women."

Previous research has suggested that social status stressors in the form of discrimination and unfair treatment may have a negative impact on a variety of risk factors for heart disease, she said. "Most of these studies have focused on clinically manifest disease, which may actually underestimate the impact of discrimination on cardiovascular outcomes. (more)

Poem of the Day

The Internationale

Arise, you prisoners of starvation!
Arise, you wretched of the earth!
For justice thunders condemnation:
A better world's in birth!
No more tradition's chains shall bind us,
Arise, you slaves, no more in thrall!
The earth shall rise on new foundations:
We have been naught, we shall be all!

'Tis the final conflict;
Let each stand in their place!
The international working class
Shall be the human race.

We want no condescending saviors
To rule us from their judgment hall,
We workers ask not for their favors
Let us consult for all:
To make the thief disgorge his booty,
To free the spirit from its cell,
We must ourselves decide our duty,
We must decide and do it well.

'Tis the final conflict;
Let each stand in their place!
The international working class
Shall be the human race.

Wobblies!: A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World