I'm Wailin, I'm Palin

Sorry, can't resist: a Sara quote generator.

Chicago Cubs & Steve Goodman

Thanks to Frank Haulgren.

Triangular Sail

Triangular Sail

            for Yen Yu

 

Triangular sail the only light

in a dark sea of water and sky

 

Fifty-seven years on this earth

and still lost

 

Certainty also is transient.  The

sail has vanished.  At the edge

 

of the world, a traveler.

New Poem

I just had a new poem published in Raven Chronicle, a noted Seattle online publication.  You can check it out here: http://www.ravenchronicles.org/FoodCulture/foodcultureindex.html

Dogs

Let's hope Sarah Palin wasn't thinking when she made her pitbull remark -- the only difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull is lipstick -- since pitbulls are the breed responsible for maiming and killing more children than any other breed of Canidae (even wolves).

Excellent letter in the B'ham Herald this morning wondering how she would be able to handle being a responsible mom with a special needs child and a pregnant teen as well as fulfill her governmental duties, especially if she should become president.

Slacker Uprising

The new Michael Moore film will be released on September 23rd, and is free for school and university libraries.  http://slackeruprising.com/school.php

And today the world will formally begin to end, due to the tiny black holes formed by the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, which was turned on today.  These tiny black holes will eat whatever is in their way, starting with Switzerland and working their way west (or east or through -- hard to say).  Anyway, it's been nice while it lasted.

Service to One's Country

Forgive me for waxing (in a minimalist way) political.  Must be something in the air.

Lately the Republicans have done an excellent job defining service to one's country, and its off-shoot heroism, in a narrow and militarist way.  Soldiers, they claim, even those fighting in wars that are questionable, are the only true recipients of these badges of honor.  This is simply a lie.  While many soldiers are unquestionably serving their country to the best of their knowledge, and may commit acts that are easily pegged as heroism, there are many other citizens who are solidly committed to their country's service, and are involved in largely unchampioned heroic acts.  A very abbreviated list contains: doctors, police & fire(wo)men, teachers, writers and journalists, clergy, factory workers, miners, environmentalists, librarians, community organizers, social workers, and so forth.  The Democrats have again allowed the Repulbicans to define national service and heroism, and cast it in an exclusively military light, just as they had previously done to patriotism.

It's time to take back these words and redraw their definitions.