Summer Reading: This Lovely Life

The author of This Lovely Life, Vicki Forman, is a loyal reader and sometime commentator on this blog (aka Special Needs Mama and Leighton Girl) — and Rebel Girl's dear friend. They first met in graduate school. Rebel Girl has followed this book's journey to be for a long time now. Through the years, she has learned much from Vicki about writing and making one's way through life.

from Publisher's Weekly (starred review):

Forman’s enormously affecting memoir—winner of the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference Bakeless Prize—about the drastic disabilities of her extremely premature child poses challenging questions about parenthood and human compassion. Having given birth to twins at just six months’ gestation (23 weeks), due to an undetected infection she learned of only much later, the author, living with her husband and three-year-old daughter in Southern California, and aware of the daunting health issues facing these babies, begged the doctors to “let them go.” However, the doctors refused the “do-not-resuscitate” order, offering the infants every form of neonatal intensive care available, and while one of the twins died within days, the boy, Evan, survived, spending six months in the hospital before the family could take him home. Evan was plagued by severe developmental difficulties, including seizures, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, congenital heart defect and blindness, and the author writes with unflinching honesty about her raw fear and conflicted feelings. With time, Forman persevered as Evan’s advocate, finding solace in friendships with other mothers of special-needs children and open to experimental therapies that might prove helpful. Numbed by the crass exigencies surrounding the burial of one child (cemetery plots, tax forms), and hardened by what she terms post-traumatic stress syndrome, Forman portrays herself (sometimes shockingly) as deeply flawed and forgivingly human.

Meg Wolitzer, author of The Ten Year Nap and Surrender, Dorothy:

It would be difficult not to be stirred by Vicki Forman’s story; but what makes This Lovely Life so good goes well past story and into idea, with which her book is so rich. The idea of love; of choice; of ambivalence; of imperfection; of purpose: these are all here, in a narrative that is propulsive, startling and vivid, like motherhood itself.”

Tom Bissell, author of The Father of All Things: A Marine, His Son and the Legacy of Vietnam

“This is a story about children born into circumstances medicine cannot currently prevent and no parent could possibly prepare for. It begins with a scene of almost unendurable horror. When the worst (one assumes) has passed, the reader awaits the various authorial balms, tonal coolants, and narrative stand downs demanded by such a trauma-splashed opening. But the reader quickly staggers into another, even more intimate horror, and then another, and then another. A tiny, cherished hope somehow endures that things will eventually improve for the author, Vicki Forman, and her increasingly devastated family. Such hopes are repeatedly incinerated in reality’s unforgiving atmosphere. By the end, the long-delayed first steps of a five-year-old child will seem the fist-pumping stuff of a more traditional triumph narrative. And yet This Lovely Life is not at all depressing. When I finished this book I felt, rather, an electric, wide-awake sadness, as though I had lost and made a close friend on the same day.”

In the upcoming weeks and months, Vicki will be reading throughout the country and in London (!) but those of you in the So Cal area can look for her at Vroman's in Pasadena on Thursday August 27th at 7 PM. Mark your calenders.

For more information, check her website by clicking here.

Elephant in the room (+ cheery videos)

Yesterday: TigerAnn up a tree

UCI fall enrollment to plunge 14 percent (OC Register)

In a move to cope with deep budget problems, UC Irvine is reducing the size of this fall’s freshman class to about 4,056, a roughly 14.2 percent drop from a year ago, when the university enrolled 4,730 freshman, according to the UC Office of the President....

Awesome criminal of the week (OC Weekly)

…John Yoo, Orange County's favorite torture enabler, may be back in deep doo-doo over his role in providing the legal justification for the Bush administration's practice of torturing terrorist suspects. Ever since President Obama stated that no government official was "above the law," speculation has abounded that Yoo, a former Berkeley law professor who fled the Bay Area People's Republic for Orange County's friendlier, more conservative shores, might face criminal charges for basically serving as a mafia-style consigliere to the Bush administration.

According to a story that ran yesterday in the Christian Science Monitor, a San Francisco federal judge has ruled that Yoo can "be held personally responsible for the indefinite military detention and alleged torture of an American citizen who was suspected of involvement with Al Qaeda." The U.S. citizen in question, Jose Padilla, is the alleged "Dirty Bomber" who was arrested in Chicago on May 8, 2002 and charged with plotting to blow up buildings in that city. Although no evidence ever emerged that Padilla intended to carry out any such plot, Padilla acknowledged having visited terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.

Yesterday: colorful varmint outside my window

After being held for two years in solitary confinement at a Navy brig in South Carolina, he was convicted in 2007 of conspiracy to commit murder. During his two-year imprisonment, Padilla reportedly had no contact with the outside world except with his interrogators…. He had no window or clock in his room and therefore had no idea whether it was day or night. Guards also subjected him to sleep deprivation via loud noises and the fact that he slept on a cold steel bunk with no mattress.

All of this treatment was endorsed in writing by Yoo, according to Padilla's attorney's, who therefore bears responsibility for what happened. US District Judge Jeffrey White, who wrote the ruling announced yesterday, apparently agrees. "Like any other government official, government lawyers are responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their conduct," he argued….

Trustee Troubles (Inside Higher Ed)

Plenty of community college presidents say they know board members like those described in The Rogue Trustee: The Elephant in the Room.

The new monograph, just released by the League for Innovation in the Community College, was penned by Terry O’Banion, president emeritus of the group and current director of community college leadership at Walden University. The work is based upon the anonymous comments of 59 community college presidents from 16 states who experienced significant conflicts with their governing bodies, largely due to the influence of one troublemaking trustee….
…
The study attempts to answer the unanswerable by asking the anonymous presidents to guess as to the motivation of their “rogue trustee.” Some of the more popular responses included “championing personal agendas,” “expressing pathological behaviors” and “working against the president.” The most strident motivation offered by the presidents was that their “rogue trustees” were acting in ways that would help them politically. Most believed that their troublemaking trustee was only on the board to leapfrog to higher political office.

“The trustee said to me, Look, I am going to be out of here before you know it,” reads one anonymous comment. “I want to go to the state house then to Washington, D.C., and this is just a stop along the way.”….

Higher Ed and the Third Reich (Inside Higher Ed)

A new book examines American colleges’ ties to Nazi Germany in the 1930s – and chronicles a record characterized by indifference, complicity and collaboration....

Despised chancellor continues to blight district (SoCoLuddite.com)

…I found [Saddleback College Art History instructor Lon Moore] in his office, his head down upon his desk. He appeared to be sick or sleeping or even dead….
...
“This used to be a happy place with lots of exciting things happening. Now, well—not,” said Moore emphatically. “It totally blows.”
…
I looked more closely. On his door were signs that said, “Checks not accepted” and “Go postal.”

“Yeah,” said Moore. “I’m a big supporter of the USPS.”....

New UC Davis chancellor says she wasn't aware of admission process at current school (The Sacramento Bee)

"Her response is absolutely incredible," he said. "Here you have someone who is the person in charge of admissions and there is a separate admissions policy and a way to get in she didn't know about."

TOO DREARY FOR YOU?

THIS'LL CHEER YOU UP.

A rose by any other name would still poke and stink as good

A man's right to be a woman; the oppressiveness of reality

Neither a Luddite nor a philistine be:

a scene from one of my favorite movies

The Third Man (1949)

Director: Carol Reed

Orson Welles (as Harry Lime)
Joseph Cotton (as Holly Martins)
Alida Valli (as Anna Schmidt)

Post-war Vienna: Author Holly Martins learns that his old friend Harry Lime is dead. He isn't. In fact, Lime has become a black-market racketeer who has made a fortune stealing and diluting penicillin, with tragic consequences. When Martins and Lime meet (on Vienna's famous Ferris wheel), Lime offers his, well, philosophy. Welles' Lime embodies evil and charm.

This is a great movie. The cinematography and music alone are enough to inspire repeated viewings.

To see what I mean, check out the film's famous final scene:



To you young people out there: Be thou not a knucklehead. See what you've been missing!

THIS JUST IN:

Eddie Bauer Files for Bankruptcy, but Roy Bauer doesn’t (New York Times)

Eddie Bauer, the outdoor-clothing chain that sold goose-down coats to Mount Everest mountaineers and college students alike, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday afternoon, and said it planned to sell itself for $202 million to CCMP Capital, a private equity firm....

ALSO: You might wanna read the comments attached to Monday’s Reg story concerning “Emeritus” PE courses at Laguna Woods Village:

Is college cheating state for seniors’ fitness classes?

See also our

Emeritus PE: the dawning of a BIG FAT scandal?

More bullshit (ethics and the blues)

Just got through reading an annoying article in this morning’s Inside Higher Ed (Do as I Say, Not as I Do) about “ethicists” not being particularly moral people.

I don’t hang out with academic philosophers much these days, but I know the field, and my guess is that most philosophy professors would simply shrug if they found out that ethicists are less moral or only as moral as the average person. That’s because Ethics is a field within philosophy—along with Metaphysics and Epistemology and whatnot—and philosophers tend to approach philosophy as an attempt to arrive at understanding, not goodness.

Sure, goodness is important, but philosophy is essentially an intellectual enterprise; its works do not belong in the self-improvement aisle.

The fictional Hannibal Lecter had understanding; he understood people very well. But he was nuts and seriously wicked.

Still, with his intellect, he’d likely be an ace ethicist.

I dunno. It seems obvious to me. Understanding is one thing; being good is another. Aristotle cast much light upon morality. I'm particularly impressed with what he had to say about moral development and how one acquires virtues and vices. But what if we learned that he was in fact a cowardly fellow who often succumbed to temptation and did bad things? It would be disappointing, but would it mean he was wrong about, say, the nature of moral development?

It would not.

Some philosophers of religion are atheists, you know. And some ethicists come to lose their initial sense of the importance or absoluteness of morality. They become a little unhinged about morality. Does this make them bad philosophers? Nope. Whether they’re good or bad philosophers depends on the strength of their arguments and insights.

But the philosopher that is the focus of the IHE article doesn’t make that point. He doesn’t say, “Look, philosophy is mostly about understanding, not about ‘being good.’” Instead, he seems to go along with the misconception.

I can think of two reasons why he might do that.

First, though there is no reason to suppose that ethicists must be moral, there is, I think, a reason to suppose that most ethicists regard morality as an important part of leading a life. Historically, this has been the moral philosopher’s starting point: “we care so much about behaving well, but what’s that all about, anyway?” (But I don't see that having that starting point is essential to "doing ethics.")

So, I suppose, it would be puzzling were it a fact that moral philosophers are not particularly moral. If morality is important to them, why don’t they show that in their lives? But still, I say, the quality of their philosophy depends on the soundness of their arguments. That they are moral midgets (an idea, by the way, I’m inclined to dispute) is philosophically irrelevant.

Second, as Harry Frankfurt has noted, we live in a world of bullshit. I won’t rehearse Frankfurt’s reasoning.

Yes, existence is highly bullshity. There’s no use denying it. You’ve got to deal with it. So when communicating with the public, the specialist is, I think, faced with a Bullshit Mountain; confronted with so great a heap, he or she will be tempted to play with, not to refute, the inevitable preposterous caricature of his or her field. “Philosophers are wise,” says the common man. That, of course, is bullshit (I know few philosophers who concern themselves with wisdom). “Philosophers are deep,” thinks John or Jane Doe. Well, maybe, but that’s not what philosophers think they are. (They might acknowledge pursuing fundamental issues that are hard to think about. Is that deepness? Why would anyone call it that?)

People tend to go with the flow, bullshitwise, it seems to me. That's because it's always a tsunami.

MUSIC FOR SAD PEOPLE

"The blues ain't nothin' but a low down heart disease"

—A traditional blues lyric

THIS REMINDS ME of how people talk about the blues. Yes, the blues—the music of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, and Lightnin’ Hopkins, to name a few of its great practitioners.

Blues, of course, is mostly a kind of sexy, good time dance music.

But then there’s the vast and deep bullshit about blues that we simply cannot escape or remove. Even dictionaries fling it. My computer’s dictionary defines blues as “melancholic music of black American folk origin, typically in a twelve-bar sequence.” Merriam-Webster informs us that a blues is “a song often of lamentation characterized by usually 12-bar phrases [etc.].”

Melancholy? Lamentation? Don’t think so.

Well, as they say, a video is worth a billion words: watch this 1964 performance by the great bluesman Robert Nighthawk:



That's the blues.

The blues first developed within rural black communities, where rowdy and impious young men and women would enjoy debauched entertainments at seedy juke joints. Musicians were expected to keep things sexy and thumpin’.

That’s right: they were playing dance music.

When this music moved to the cities, it filled bars and then clubs. Perhaps the pinnacle of this phenomenon was the Chicago blues scene of the 50s and 60s. Those clubs were funky, raucous, and wild.

No lamentations were allowed.

NEVERTHELESS, I don’t know how many times I’ve heard old (and young) blues performers dish out that malarkey about blues being an expression of pain and sorrow for a downtrodden and oppressed people. “You’ve got to suffer to play the blues,” they say, staring sadly at the ground. “You’ve got to know what it’s like to be hungry and without a dime.” They look weary, old.

Yeah right. Check out this video of a 1966 performance by the great Howlin’ Wolf. First, the Wolf provides a few thick slices of that ol’ baloney. —Then he blows some classic blues, blasting that stinky sausage clean out of the room!

As you watch his typically sexy, funny performance, ask yourself: “Gosh, just how melancholy is this fellow? What manner of lamentation is this?”



The next video presents the equally great Muddy Waters, trying to explain the blues to a clueless Norwegian in 1976. (Really.)

It’s about "hard times,” he says. It’s about being poor; it's about not being free.

The Norwegian wants more. Muddy is not inclined to go further down the baloney highway. He becomes uncomfortable.

Well, says Muddy, I've had lots of trouble with "womens" and "money." There. That's the basis of my blues.

The Norwegian wants more.

Muddy hasn't got any more. So he finally says: well, it’s “a good time thing."

Oh.



I’m not saying that the regrettable facts about African-Americans in our history have nothing to do with the blues, its preoccupations, and its themes—sure—but the music itself, when it is performed for real audiences, is not about those things.

It’s entertainment—often sexy, always passionate, sometimes dark 'n' dangerous.

By the way: I found this redolent chunk of mega-balogna on a website for a band:

"This is going to hurt some, but it'll be worth it, I promise you. You're going to experience not just our pain; you're going to feel your own pain deeper than ever before. But feeling it, really feeling it, and then letting it go will give you a sense of renewal like no other. And that, my friend, is the purpose behind the Blues. It's what makes the Blues different than everything else. And when you hear this band play, you're going to hear Blues the way it was meant to be felt!"

Man, that’s some fine bullshit.

TigerAnn goes outside

TigerAnn insisted that I take her outside. OK, I said. I opened the door. She ran out and hid under a chair.

She scoped things out, as usual. She's a cautious individual.

I told her to be careful. I'm not sure why I say these things to her. She gave me a look. What does that look mean? Dunno.

She explored the hillside for quite some time. She was hoping to spot lizards, I think. No lizards.

But TigerAnn lives in the moment. The potential for lizard spottings is enough for her.

She was happy.

After a while, I told her we need to go inside, and so she walked indoors.

She's a fine cat, she is. A very fine cat indeed.

Emeritus PE: the dawning of a BIG FAT scandal?

[NOTE: there's an update below.]

Uh-oh. Teri Sforza of the OC Reg ("OC Watchdog") seems to think she’s dug up a scandal. It's about the apparent way that Saddleback College gets money for "Emeritus" (non-credit courses for the elderly) exercise classes in Laguna Woods Village (note: if there is an issue here, it would seem to apply to Irvine Valley College as well):

Is [Saddleback] college cheating state for seniors’ fitness classes?

When Doug Goforth, retired businessman, was checking out Laguna Woods Village in 2007, one of the things that hooked him was the fully-equipped fitness center. “Residents only!” a real estate agent crowed. “Practically your own private health club!”

So imagine Goforth’s surprise after he bought his place, went to the health club on a weekday morning and was told that he couldn’t use it – unless he registered for a Saddleback College physical education class.

He looked around. Dozens of people, basically exercising on their own. It certainly didn’t look like a class.

“Enroll,” he was told. “It doesn’t cost you anything.”

Couldn’t he use his own gym without signing up for community college classes? he pressed. No; it was an insurance thing, he was told. And so Goforth enrolled....
...
What he found was no class in any traditional sense of the word. “What they really do there is, when they sign up a new student, they take blood pressure, heartbeat, show them a routine on weights and are done. This is while 35 other people are exercising,” Goforth said. “But Laguna Woods Village has its own staff there to do that already.”

He pressed on, and learned that … While the classes didn’t cost him anything directly, Saddleback College collects money from the state for each student enrolled, and that money comes from taxpayers’ pockets. ¶ There were four hour-long “classes” at the … gym, from 8 a.m. through noon, each day, from Monday through Friday. ¶ Some seniors were registered in multiple classes. …It didn’t seem right to collect state money for such an, er, exercise. And after one or two or three—or [more]—semesters, shouldn’t people know how to use the equipment already? Why would they need to re-enroll in a college class every semester?

You can imagine the rest. But do read the whole article. Anybody know about these courses? Is there really an issue here? Or is there some kind of misunderstanding?

Predictably enough, the comments that Sforza's article has thus far attracted are very angry. Waste! Fraud!--that sort of thing. It's the OC Reg, you know. No defenders. Not yet. Our PR people better get on the stick!

EMERITUS?

Yes, Emeritus. The Saddleback College website explains that the “name Emeritus refers to people ‘retired with honor.’ All seniors are welcome.”

It also explains that:

The Saddleback College Emeritus Institute was established [in 1976] as a unique educational opportunity for the pursuit and enhancement of lifelong learning for the adult population.

All of the courses are non-credit. That is, they do not satisfy requirements for a student’s transfer to a university. --Nothing surprising there.

But is Goforth correct in judging that funny business is afoot here?

UPDATE:

Sforza has asked Saddleback College for a response. Here's what was provided (with more information to come, evidently):

Since 1976 the Saddleback College Emeritus Institute has offered classes throughout south Orange County to provide life long learning opportunities to the older adult population. Many of those classes are held in Laguna Woods Village at the invitation of resident groups, including the exercise equipment classes, which are free and open to all interested senior citizens. The Emeritus Institute offers four classes in the Equipment Fitness Room Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Residents who wish to use the equipment room while classes are in session are asked to enroll due to liability requirements of the South Orange County Community College District. There is no charge to register and attend the classes. The classes were established in 1976 and are consistently very popular. During the spring semester, 1,525 students registered for at least one of the four classes.

These classes are supervised by two highly qualified kinesiology instructors who have master’s degrees in physical fitness and years of experience working with older adults. The instructors provide an individualized exercise program using a variety of equipment and provide information on health and exercise techniques. These classes are state-approved curriculum and are free to all students.

The petition you referenced was reviewed by Laguna Woods Village resident committees, including the Aquatics & Health Fitness Advisory Committee, the Continuing Education Advisory Committee, and the Community Activities Committee, which held a meeting in April 2009 and enabled residents to voice concerns and discuss pros and cons for continuing the classes. The vast majority of residents in attendance were very supportive of continuing the class and it was ultimately decided at the May meeting of the Community Activities Committee that the community wished to continue the classes.

The Emeritus Institute is pleased to continue to offer these equipment classes at the pleasure of the Laguna Woods Village Community.

Jennie McCue
Director, Public Information & Marketing
Saddleback College

The redness is my highlighting. I suppose the gist of Goforth's complaint is that these courses aren't really courses, since they amount to residents exercising by themselves, without regular and ongoing supervision or assistance, sometimes throughout the day (?) and over a period of years. The comment in red seems to be an effort to address (i.e., to refute) some of the complaint.

But is it true that some students take multiples of a course at the same time (if that is the charge)? Do they repeat such "courses" semester after semester? And are the colleges receiving money per student with every instance of a course taken in this way--as though it were a course with a level of student attainment and instructor-student interaction of the kind that is familiar for college courses?

If so, is there a problem with that? It would seem so. Surely such a scheme amounts to funny business bordering on fraud. Am I wrong? No doubt you'll let me know.

(Is anyone even out there?)

I don't see that those concerns are entirely answered by McCue's letter.

SOME PARTICULARS RE EMERITUS PE IN THE SOCCCD:

SADDLEBACK COLLEGE'S EMERITUS PE:

The summer 2009 Emeritus schedule of classes for Saddleback lists classes in philosophy, history, accounting, art, music, photography—and

Emeritus PE/Kinesiology (Fitness) — 44 classes (different kinds)
Emeritus PE/Kinesiology (Adaptive KNES) — 2 classes
Emeritus PE/Kinesiology (Aquatics) — 5 classes

One of the courses listed under "fitness" is PERSONALIZED FITNESS (KNES 2X). It is described in this way:

Supervised, individualized exercise program using a variety of exercise equipment. Includes the various principles and techniques of exercise as they relate to the older adult. Individual assessments will include review of medical history, resting and exercising heart rate, blood pressure, and body weight (formerly PE 2X).

Two instructors are listed. Each has a "Saddleback" email address.

The number of Emeritus "PE" classes offered by Saddleback for the summer: 51, by my count.

IRVINE VALLEY COLLEGE EMERITUS PE:

Irvine Valley College (the other full campus of the SOCCCD district) also offers Emeritus courses, including courses in banking and finance, computer science, film, art, food, music, natural science, photography, political science, and theater.

The remaining category: "Emeritus Physical Fitness and Movement." Again, the courses are non-credit. That makes sense.

Among the Emeritus PE courses offered by IVC this summer is PHYSICAL FITNESS (PE 401), which

...presents exercise and dance techniques designed to develop and maintain balance, coordination, agility, reaction time, and cardiovascular health in older adults. Students participate in exercises focusing on strength, flexibility, aerobic power, and neuromuscular integration. A list of instructional materials will be provided at the first class session. This is an open-entry/open-exit course.

One instructor is listed. His/her contact number is an IVC address.

IVC offers a great many PE courses this summer—54 by my count:

AEROBIC CONDITIONING FOR THE MATURE ADULT (2 classes)
PHYSICAL FITNESS (23 classes)
PHYSICAL FITNESS: YOGA (10 classes)
TAI CHI (4 classes)
BEGINNING CHAIR EXERCISE (3 classes)
INTERMEDIATE CHAIR EXERCISES (1 class)
BEGINNING CHAIR AEROBICS (2 classes)
AQUATIC FITNESS TRAINING (6 classes)
MILD EXERCISE FOR FITNESS (1 class)
PHYSICAL FITNESS/BACK (2 classes)

Right-wing mob forming, conservative leadership AWOL

It's a treacherous thing, guessing just what is afoot, historically. But it has seemed to many of us for some time that the conservative hoi polloi (i.e., the Republican "base") has been descending into new and stunning depths of mob-like irrationality. One watches the angry-man-in-the-street news stories, reads the uncouth letters to the editor (or to this blog!): these people do not distinguish between fact and opinion. They do not discriminate between sources of information. They offer no arguments. They appear not to be amenable to reason.

They believe what they want to believe, and they want to believe some ugly and frightening things.

Conservative leadership? For the most part, they seize the opportunity to demagogue*, encouraging the phenomenon. Good grief!

One good thing: there's a growing recognition of this (apparent) development and a call to conservative leadership to do something about their unruly herd.

Frank Rich’s piece in yesterday's New York Times:

The Obama Haters’ Silent Enablers

WHEN a Fox News anchor … warns urgently on-camera of a rise in hate-filled, “amped up” Americans who are “taking the extra step and getting the gun out,” maybe we should listen. He has better sources in that underground than most.

The anchor was Shepard Smith, speaking after Wednesday’s mayhem at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington…. ¶ What he reported was this: his e-mail from viewers had “become more and more frightening” in recent months, dating back to the election season. From Wednesday alone, he “could read a hundred” messages spewing “hate that’s not based in fact,” much of it about Barack Obama and some of it sharing the museum gunman’s canard that the president was not a naturally born citizen. These are Americans “out there in a scary place,” Smith said.
…
What is this fury [against Obama] about? In his scant 145 days in office, the new president has not remotely matched the Bush record in deficit creation. Nor has he repealed the right to bear arms or exacerbated the wars he inherited. He has tried more than his predecessor ever did to reach across the aisle. But none of that seems to matter. A sizable minority of Americans is irrationally fearful of the fast-moving generational, cultural and racial turnover Obama embodies….
…
This homicide-saturated vituperation is endemic among mini-Limbaughs. Glenn Beck has dipped into O’Reilly’s Holocaust analogies to liken Obama’s policy on stem-cell research to the eugenics that led to “the final solution” and the quest for “a master race.”….

But hyperbole from the usual suspects in the entertainment arena of TV and radio is not the whole story. What’s startling is the spillover of this poison into the conservative political establishment….
…
The question, Shepard Smith said on Fox last week, is “if there is really a way to put a hold on” those who might run amok. We’re not about to repeal the First or Second Amendments. Hard-core haters resolutely dismiss any “mainstream media” debunking of their conspiracy theories. The only voices that might penetrate their alternative reality — I emphasize might — belong to conservative leaders with the guts and clout to step up as McCain did last fall. Where are they? The genteel public debate in right-leaning intellectual circles about the conservative movement’s future will be buried by history if these insistent alarms are met with silence….

LOCAL VOCAL YOKELS:

• OC's Reverend Wiley Drake Prays for Obama's death

• Night of the Nazi (the SOCCCD, a decade ago)

MORE IRRATIONALITY:

Irrationality about health seems to attract people from across the political spectrum. Consider Oprah Winfrey, who resides, I suppose, somewhere on the left. Her advice and influence concerning health issues is disastrous.

Check out a recent article in Newsweek magazine:

Live Your Best Life Ever!

Wish Away Cancer! Get A Lunchtime Face-Lift! Eradicate Autism! Turn Back The Clock! Thin Your Thighs! Cure Menopause! Harness Positive Energy! Erase Wrinkles! Banish Obesity! Live Your Best Life Ever!

…[T]he truth is, some of what Oprah promotes isn't good, and a lot of the advice her guests dispense on the show is just bad. The Suzanne Somers episode wasn't an oddball occurrence. This kind of thing happens again and again on Oprah. Some of the many experts who cross her stage offer interesting and useful information (props to you, Dr. Oz). Others gush nonsense. Oprah, who holds up her guests as prophets, can't seem to tell the difference. She has the power to summon the most learned authorities on any subject; who would refuse her? Instead, all too often Oprah winds up putting herself and her trusting audience in the hands of celebrity authors and pop-science artists pitching wonder cures and miracle treatments that are questionable or flat-out wrong, and sometimes dangerous.

*Yes, I know, only a barbarian would use this word as a verb.

UPDATE:

This isn't really an "update," since the article below was published four days ago. But its relevant:

Conservatives going after Shep Smith

You bet. The delightful Mr. Charles Krauthammer seems to be the ringleader. You know what he's like.

My guess: Shep's days at FOX are numbered.

Good for him.

The Great Depression as experienced in the OC

A WPA breadline in Santa Ana

This morning, the OC Register offers a lengthy piece, by Eugene Garcia, entitled "The Great Depression in O.C.: Are the hard times back?"

The article begins unpromisingly:

Have we avoided another Great Depression? Many think the worst has passed. But some long-time Orange County residents are less hopeful. They lived in and around Orange County through the relentless Depression of the 1930s, a period with stark differences and similarities to the current recession. So how do the two crises compare?

OK, this is confused. Obviously, unlike most of us, "long-time OC residents" can tell us how bad it was in OC in the 30s. They can, I suppose, compare those days to these days.

But surely the current recession hasn't yet played out: we've witnessed only the early chapters of a long saga. The big question is: where is this heading? Have we seen the worst? How bad will this get? Hence the talk of "hopefulness" or the lack thereof.

My point: the Depression experiences of OC oldsters does not provide them with superior insight regarding that, contrary to Mr. Garcia's assumptions.

Still, if you're like me, you'd love to hear from these people about what things were like in the OC during the Depression. In this regard, Garcia's piece manages to be interesting and informative, especially when it describes the fate of local artists and the behavior of bank customers.

Also, in the article, some of these OC oldsters worry about the preparedness of current youth for an increasingly severe downturn. Very wise, that.

So check out the article.

The article is accompanied by five videos, evidently produced by Mr. Garcia, some of which offer images of OC's past that we rarely or never see. These videos are generally excellent:

Let Them Eat Lobster
Hobos descend on the county as breadlines cope with the local unemployed.

Running to the Bank
'Dirty tricks' help close one third of O.C.'s banks during the Depression.

Will Paint for Food
Laguna Beach's early impressionist painters take desperate measures to make ends meet.

Dancing for Dollars
The first reality shows in Orange County could have been called 'So You Think You Can Keep Dancing?'

Is History Repeating?
O.C. residents weigh-in on how the Depression compares to the current crisis.

(All descriptions, and the photo, from OC Register article.)

WEEKEND BRATS:

Natalie, 20 mos.

Catherine, 20 mos.

TigerAnn, six years old