There are news cycles when stories just telescope on each other and things get weirder and wilder. The last few weeks have been like that, so action packed with political revolutions, coups, a slew of celebrity deaths including one super icon and another, regular icon, and then for dessert you get an extremely large serving of inept republicans bordering on bizarro world. Its enough to make your head spin and while exciting, as a voracious news consumer, its exhausting, and I am watching/listening to a Yankees baseball game almost everyday too! Not to mention, as well, several meals a day for the childrens.
So I was looking forward to the weekend when not only is there generally less content but its the weekend for God’s sake and a long weekend in the States. Since I am living in Argentina, and the one Fourth of July celebration that was happening in BA was canceled because of the swine flu (another post), I don’t have picnic and parades to keeping me off the internets… Sarah Palin resigned!
What is it about Sarah Palin people see her as a viable political leader? I just don’t get it. When she opens her mouth its beauty pageant Q&A..no substance AT ALL…. I see her personal story compelling and soap opera like at times so I get the media’s interest in her, but how does that translate to a politician with policy credentials. I think our society is getting dangerously close to equating a telephotogenic person with a buzz, as a leader. OK, sounds a bit like Obama. But please, he has cred, street and policy. He did not need to be jacked up by some Eliza Doolittle operation to make him substantial. I think that’s what we are looking at here. I think Bill Kristol needed a job and now he has one as Henry Higgins. This would all be so delicious if it wasn’t so frickin scary.
Paul Begala, me hearts him, wrote a piece that nails it. I love reading him because he witty without being satire. This is a solid opinion editorial that understands the historical and political context of what he writes. Excellent and Funny.
Here is a thoughtful and measured piece by a student on the ground in Tehran, while clearly depressed about the lull in participation by the masses, clearly this isnt over.
Bob Herbert wrote this interesting op-ed about how Michael Jackson’s weird reality is analogous to our culture’s inability deal with society’s real problems head on.
And finally, the Yankee’s play of the week, chosen, by Owen, the O’Connell Family’s MLB expert and archivist of all obscure baseball stats.
It is not something I am proud of, but I am happy to say I have finish the last installment of the Twilight Quartet, Breaking Dawn.
It should be clear, if you have read any of my other posts, I am not a fifteen year old girl. I am a 47 year old woman with 4 kids, not the demographic these books are targeted for. But I am voracious reader living in Argentina where there are no Barnes and Nobles to pop into and pick up the latest best seller or classic. An afternoon of fondling books and snacking on Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are the things I miss most about living in the States.
But I am connected to a English reading (not all native speakers, show-offs!) community and we have a book group. Not the typical book group where we all read a piece of literature during the month and meet to discuss the book with someone burdened as the facilitator of this discussion. We just simply share books. Some of the books are beach reads, some are thoughtful and provocative contemporary literature, some are biographical and a little of it is total garbage. However, we all agree that when confronted with either another Paulo Coehlo translated from Portuguese into Spanish (a smidge of foie gras) or less than great literature in English, we go for the bowl of spaghetti. Well, this teen vampire romance series is a really big bowl. Clocking in at 2379 pages, there has to be something compelling in these mediocre books.
I always go first to Frank Rich, this week is no exception. Which came first torture or the Iraqi War?
In case you havent heard, Wednesday is the 100th day of Obama’s administration. There are lots of articles about what he has done and hasnt done.The Nation has a series of articles. Its obviously complicated, they like him and they dont…their editor has her say.
Since Tuesday, I have been reading a lot of post game analysis of the primaries, the speeches from Tuesday and the aftermath. There is a lot of speculation on the battle ahead against McCain, the VP selection and how do we get Hillary’s most rabid supporters to support Obama. But I will let the better writers and experts tell you. Here is the best of the best giving you a look at whats happened and what is ahead.
Frank Rich this Sunday says it better than anyone could.
Andrew Sullivan, who was never a fan of Hillary, has a few kind words and some hard truths.
OK, I am guilty of sensationalism. But just a minute, there is a connection and it is not that they are both guilty of drug induced, grizzly mass murders. That would be hyperbole.
When I was 7 years old, Charles Manson was busy committing horrible, terrorizing bloody murders in Southern California. We were living in San Francisco when, at around the same time, the Zodiac Murders began. I do remember conversations in my house about it, especially by my older siblings. It is any wonder I was able to get a goodnight’s sleep. In college, I took a comparative non-fiction class and together we read the highly stylized In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and Vincent Bugliosi’s tome Helter Skelter . The latter is a detailed-filled, must read, retelling of the the cult, the murders and the trial of Charlie and the “girls”. Both books are chilling, but only one has body location maps and bloody police photos of the crime scenes. It really is a great, but frightening read.
What do George Bush and Charles Manson have in common? Vincent Buglisosi has written well researched, and reviewed books about their respective crimes against humanity. Published next week, Buglisosi makes the argument that if George Bush, lied, and/or withheld information to make the very public argument for war, he is guilty of the murder of hundreds of thousands Iraqi people killed in the military operation. If the brown people’s lives don’t have value, then how about the thousands of dead and disabled military personnel from the coalition of the willing?? The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder
I am feeling a lot less in exile these days. But my blog is still a mess of political and personal thoughts along with experiences of living in Argentina. While I can't promise, I will try to balance talk about my kids with something more universally relevant. And sorry if salty talk is offensive but I was a derivatives trader in another life and it cant be helped.
