Rod Blagojevich
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
The Wild, Wild West of Illinois Politics
Rod Blagojevich
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Sarah Palin,, Librarians, and Libraries
I try not to get too political here on our family-friendly blog, because I don't want to start any virtual fist-fights -- BUT I do want to tell you about a couple of library-related Sarah Palin issues that are bugging me.
The first one is merely an annoyance, and it's this: I can't count how many times I've heard Palin's look (the glasses, the bun) described as a "sexy librarian" look. First, this plays into all kinds of stereotypes about what librarians look like. Second, putting the two words together -- sexy librarian -- is redundant. The basic precept of librarianship -- access to knowledge -- is super-sexy. ;)
The other Sarah Palin/library issue that's been bugging me is much more than an annoyance -- it's a bit frightening. Apparently, as a mayor, she approached the town's librarian to find out how to ban books (insert gasp of horror). Then, it seems, she fired the librarian when said librarian didn't offer support for Palin's campaign to ban certain books that had "inappropriate language." Then, after a show of support from the locals, the librarian got her job back. Read about it in a TIME magazine article here. The American Library Association promotes the Freedom to Read and I wholeheartedly embrace their statement on the issue -- which is just another reason I can't support the McCain/Palin ticket.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Democracy & Bread bowls
Mike and I took advantage of "early voting" at the Champaign County Clerk's office and did our civic duty on Martin Luther King, Jr. day. After we came out of the ballot boxes Michael wanted to know who I voted for! I informed him that voting is private and confidential and it has to be that way for our democracy to survive. Later that evening we went bowling. Mike still isn't sure who I voted for.
The picture below is dedicated to Rachel Terry Lund, who made it possible. She gave us the recipe for these excellent bread bowls that looked so lovely I had to take a picture of them. We had a couple over to dinner on Saturday night and had mulligatawny soup in bread bowls, a fun game of Uno Spin (I lost) and Skookies for dessert. Good times.
What I'm reading:
Getting Things Done by David Allen. I'm actually reading this for work because I'm helping to teach a workshop on keeping all of your research organized and we're using this guy's method. I think it's pretty useful.
Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles. Garth told me a few months ago that he was reading this, and I was intrigued. Now I'm about halfway through and it's a really fascinating history of libraries that starts with the ancient world and the Alexandria library in Egypt.
What's up next:
Neuromancer and Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. These are two sci fi, cyberpunk novels recommended by the professor for my class Library, Information, and Society. I'm pretty interested.
The picture below is dedicated to Rachel Terry Lund, who made it possible. She gave us the recipe for these excellent bread bowls that looked so lovely I had to take a picture of them. We had a couple over to dinner on Saturday night and had mulligatawny soup in bread bowls, a fun game of Uno Spin (I lost) and Skookies for dessert. Good times.
What I'm reading:
Getting Things Done by David Allen. I'm actually reading this for work because I'm helping to teach a workshop on keeping all of your research organized and we're using this guy's method. I think it's pretty useful.
Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles. Garth told me a few months ago that he was reading this, and I was intrigued. Now I'm about halfway through and it's a really fascinating history of libraries that starts with the ancient world and the Alexandria library in Egypt.
What's up next:
Neuromancer and Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. These are two sci fi, cyberpunk novels recommended by the professor for my class Library, Information, and Society. I'm pretty interested.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Wicked
This is the green edition of Adventures in the Midwest. (Don't worry, I'm not going to preach environmentalism. Except for one little thing: RECYCLE!) I just have a few comments to make about the Broadway smash Wicked. Mike and I saw the musical last weekend in St. Louis and it's such a fabulous, smart, and funny show, I couldn't resist a little commentary.
First, a brief synopsis of the show (you can read more -- and hear some sound clips -- here): Long before Dorothy dropped in on the land of Oz, two other girls met there. One, born with emerald-green skin, is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. Wicked: The Musical is the story of how these two unlikely friends end up as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch.
The musical is, in large part, all about spin. About how a person is assigned a simplistic label and then, in the eyes of the public becomes that quality. (i.e., the Wicked Witch of the West). In a song called "Popular" that Glinda sings she says:
When I see depressing creatures
With unprepossessing features
I remind them on their own we have
To think of
Celebrated heads of state or
Specially great communicators
Did they have brains or knowledge?
Don't make me laugh
They were Popular - please
It's all about Pop-u-oo-lar
It's not about aptitude
It's the way you're viewed
So it's very shrewd to be
Very, very Popular
Like me!
This may seem like a non sequitur, but I'll go for it anyway: Since the Iowa caucus results blew all predictions of an "inevitable" race between Clinton and Giuliani out of the water, we have a bit of a chance to look at candidates with a (slightly) fresh perspective. Sure, Clinton has been labeled the "experienced" candidate, Obama the candidate of "change," Huckabee the "Christian leader," McCain the "maverick." But what does that really mean? Those one-word labels (like Wicked or Good) are completely meaningless when decontextualized, as they generally are in the press. In order to get any substantive information about policy plans, I think the best place to go is to a candidate's website to find out what is behind the carefully crafted look and message that is released through the media. It's not about who is "popular" or "wicked" or "good" or anything else. To participate in the process in a meaningful way, we need to know more than the brief and superficial descriptions we get from the media.
Ponder on one more lyrical example of how smart this show is. The Wizard sings the following lyrics:
A man's called a traitor - or a liberator
A rich man's a thief - or philanthropist
Is one a crusader - or ruthless invader?
It's all in which label
Is able to persist
There are precious few at ease
With moral ambiguities
So we act as though they don't exist. . .
First, a brief synopsis of the show (you can read more -- and hear some sound clips -- here): Long before Dorothy dropped in on the land of Oz, two other girls met there. One, born with emerald-green skin, is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. Wicked: The Musical is the story of how these two unlikely friends end up as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch.The musical is, in large part, all about spin. About how a person is assigned a simplistic label and then, in the eyes of the public becomes that quality. (i.e., the Wicked Witch of the West). In a song called "Popular" that Glinda sings she says:
When I see depressing creatures
With unprepossessing features
I remind them on their own we have
To think of
Celebrated heads of state or
Specially great communicators
Did they have brains or knowledge?
Don't make me laugh
They were Popular - please
It's all about Pop-u-oo-lar
It's not about aptitude
It's the way you're viewed
So it's very shrewd to be
Very, very Popular
Like me!
This may seem like a non sequitur, but I'll go for it anyway: Since the Iowa caucus results blew all predictions of an "inevitable" race between Clinton and Giuliani out of the water, we have a bit of a chance to look at candidates with a (slightly) fresh perspective. Sure, Clinton has been labeled the "experienced" candidate, Obama the candidate of "change," Huckabee the "Christian leader," McCain the "maverick." But what does that really mean? Those one-word labels (like Wicked or Good) are completely meaningless when decontextualized, as they generally are in the press. In order to get any substantive information about policy plans, I think the best place to go is to a candidate's website to find out what is behind the carefully crafted look and message that is released through the media. It's not about who is "popular" or "wicked" or "good" or anything else. To participate in the process in a meaningful way, we need to know more than the brief and superficial descriptions we get from the media.
Ponder on one more lyrical example of how smart this show is. The Wizard sings the following lyrics:
A man's called a traitor - or a liberator
A rich man's a thief - or philanthropist
Is one a crusader - or ruthless invader?
It's all in which label
Is able to persist
There are precious few at ease
With moral ambiguities
So we act as though they don't exist. . .
Saturday, December 8, 2007
The Presidential Politics Edition: The Good, the Bad, the Funny
Hello to our faithful blog readers. This is Mike, composing a few thoughts on the race for the White House. For those of you who know M & M, you know we're both interested in politics, so you had to see this one coming.
Let's start with the funny. By now, you may have seen the video of Chuck Norris stumping for Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. If you have seen it, come on, you know you want to watch it again! If you haven't seen it, here it is for your viewing pleasure.
I don't want to dwell too much on the bad (there's plenty of that to go around when it comes to politics), but I'd have to say that the worst part of the presidential race, so far, has been the media coverage. How many times have we heard that Mitt Romney needs to make a "JFK-style speech" about his religious beliefs? The fact that reporters keep making the comparison between Romney and JFK without much analysis highlights the shallowness of media coverage of the campaigns so far. (I did hear some in-depth reporting on the Romney-JFK connection on NPR a couple of days ago, after Mitt made his long-awaited speech. Here's the link to the story I'm referring to: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16981132.)
Like I said, I don't want to harp on this too much, but I've also been frustrated by the way the media uses the language of fist-fighting and boxing to describe candidates' disagreements, and I'm tired of the media's constantly emphasizing "top-tier" vs. "second-tier" candidates. Listening to, watching, or reading the news, you almost feel like it's a foregone conclusion that the general election will be between Rudy Giuliani and Hilary Clinton. Sometimes it feels like reporters forget that it's up to voters to decide who will win their party's nomination.
Where's the good in all this? Allow me to quote Barack Obama. In his book, The Audacity of Hope, Obama writes, "a polarized electorate isn't good enough. What's needed is a broad majority of Americans - Democrats, Republicans, and independents of goodwill - who are reengaged in the project of national renewal, and who see their own self-interest as inextricably linked to the interests of others" (40). Is it possible for citizens who are sharply divided along party lines to unite for the common good in some way? I hope so, and I'm very glad to see at least one candidate who is talking about cooperation and unity across party lines. Whoever wins in 2008, I'm hopeful that the "project of national renewal" Obama refers to will become a reality. Until then, enjoy the circus of Election 2008!
Let's start with the funny. By now, you may have seen the video of Chuck Norris stumping for Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. If you have seen it, come on, you know you want to watch it again! If you haven't seen it, here it is for your viewing pleasure.
I don't want to dwell too much on the bad (there's plenty of that to go around when it comes to politics), but I'd have to say that the worst part of the presidential race, so far, has been the media coverage. How many times have we heard that Mitt Romney needs to make a "JFK-style speech" about his religious beliefs? The fact that reporters keep making the comparison between Romney and JFK without much analysis highlights the shallowness of media coverage of the campaigns so far. (I did hear some in-depth reporting on the Romney-JFK connection on NPR a couple of days ago, after Mitt made his long-awaited speech. Here's the link to the story I'm referring to: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16981132.)
Like I said, I don't want to harp on this too much, but I've also been frustrated by the way the media uses the language of fist-fighting and boxing to describe candidates' disagreements, and I'm tired of the media's constantly emphasizing "top-tier" vs. "second-tier" candidates. Listening to, watching, or reading the news, you almost feel like it's a foregone conclusion that the general election will be between Rudy Giuliani and Hilary Clinton. Sometimes it feels like reporters forget that it's up to voters to decide who will win their party's nomination.
Where's the good in all this? Allow me to quote Barack Obama. In his book, The Audacity of Hope, Obama writes, "a polarized electorate isn't good enough. What's needed is a broad majority of Americans - Democrats, Republicans, and independents of goodwill - who are reengaged in the project of national renewal, and who see their own self-interest as inextricably linked to the interests of others" (40). Is it possible for citizens who are sharply divided along party lines to unite for the common good in some way? I hope so, and I'm very glad to see at least one candidate who is talking about cooperation and unity across party lines. Whoever wins in 2008, I'm hopeful that the "project of national renewal" Obama refers to will become a reality. Until then, enjoy the circus of Election 2008!
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