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Month: October 2006

In Which, I Finally Get to Use the Word ‘Dastardly’

October 19, 2006 • • 4 Comments

The most chilling aspect of the futuristic society imagined in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is the fact that the people willingly gave away their rights and liberties. The thing about firemen going door-to-door burning books always seemed a bit silly, but the larger point, namely Bradbury’s vision of how America could become a totalitarian state is truly eerie.

More interested in being consumers than citizens, more engaged in passive entertainment than in civil discourse, Bradbury’s fururistic populace willingly gave away all their rights and liberties in the name of being kept safe and so long as they were all entertained, had plenty to buy, no one cared or noticed that a war was raging in the skies overhead, that a nuclear apocalypse was fast approaching, or that those who did notice were quietly disappeared.

In short, apathy, much like that which greeted the Military Commissions Act that was signed into law yesterday. We appear to already be on the road Bradbury imagined. This despicable law gives the president the right power to detain anyone for anything for any period of time, so long as he believes that that person is somehow helping terrorists.

Cheney says that debating these issues helps terrorists. Now I don’t think that those of us who don’t support Bush and his policies will be rounded up and sent off to ‘Gitmo, but it should be of grave concern to everyone that nobody knows who the next president will be. Or the one after that. Or the one after that. Bush is incompetent, in over his head and a fool, but I do not believe he is evil and I do not think there is any intention of rounding up political enemies, but even so, sacrificing this nation’s core values for the sake of safety and political advantage is shameful and evidence of a lack of fitness for the office.

At this point the only thing that will give us any balance, any oversight or accountability is to elect as many Democrats as possible to the US Congress. That is the only way we get oversight or accountability. Divided government is the only hope we have now to slow down or even stop the constitutional bleeding, but only we can make ourselves stop being afraid of terrorists and start being afraid of what can be done in the name of safety.

Bradbury’s vision suddenly seems frighteningly prescient. It probably won’t come to pass, but then every people who gave up their rights, their liberties, their values to be safe probably thought the same thing. When I used to teach Fahrenheit 451, we used to discuss whether or not it could ever really happen here. Sadly, I think the answer is yes.

If you haven’t already, check out Keith Olbermann’s commentary on this. He’s the only TV journalist who really seems to be calling it like it is, and his willingness to stand up to the Bush administration and call them on their dastardly machinations is truly inspiring.

Albuquerque

October 18, 2006 • • 1 Comment

-This is from a road trip in ’95.

Walking low streets, I breathe mountains
Frosty morning air steals into my lungs like perfect smoke
Later desert warmth will rule the day, and storms…
Skies blaze with fiery clouds
Balloons navigate the misty currents
My feet walk conquistador paths and missionary trails
Turned streets that lead past adobe homes and pueblo bungalows
To breakfast in a warm and welcoming diner:
Bagel and cream cheese with fresh green chiles

©1995

A Fine Austin Brewery

October 17, 2006 • • 6 Comments

Last week I stopped in at HEB for some beer and saw a brew I’d never noticed before – Independence Pale Ale. As I was checking out, I saw that it’s brewed here in Austin. The beer was a very good pale made with lots of hops, especially cascade hops, which happens to be my favorite variety.

It turned out that last weekend was the second anniversary of the Independence Brewing Company and that my wife had already made plans for us to go to the celebration. She’d never had the beer and so was surprised to see that that’s what I had happened to buy.

On Saturday, we went to the brewery in one of the many warehouses off of East Ben White. The brewery is very small and the people friendly. There was a band and Jasper was there wagging his tail and greeting the guests, but I didn’t try the beer named for him. I did try the Freestyle Wheat which was crisp and refreshing as well as the Bootlegger Brown. The Brown was my favorite. I’m not a big fan of browns, but this one with its dark color and rich chocolatey flavor reminded me more of a porter. Delicious.

The Independence Brewing Company is the best thing to happen to Austin beer in a long time, at least since the days of Celis and Waterloo. Hopefully, they’ll grow and continue to brew great beer for many years to come.

Space (I Believe In)

October 12, 2006 • • Leave a comment

If you believe in space, go visit the Bad Astronomy Blog for some truly stunning recent pictures of Saturn and Mars. I’ve been going over there just to look at Saturn all day and Mars for the past week. There’s nothing more important than stopping occasionally to gape and wonder at the profound beauty of the universe.

It’ll do you good.

Hatchet

October 12, 2006 • • 1 Comment

I have one class of middle school students and no idea what literature to teach. I’m set with my high school kids, but middle school. Woof.

After exploring the room I inherited, I found class sets of books that seem middle-schoolish. One in particular jumped out at me – Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. I heard this book was good so I started my kids on it and then proceeded to get out ahead of them.

Hatchet is about a thirteen-year-old boy named Brian who is traveling in a two-seater Cessna to see his dad in northern Canada. The pilot has a heart attack forcing Brian to try to figure out how to crash land the plane… in the middle of nowhere.

Brian’s struggle to survive in the vast Canadian forest with only his windbreaker, the things he had in his pockets, and – you guessed it – a hatchet makes for an interesting coming of age story in which the young hero must learn to let go of his old problems and one-by-one solve the riddles of his new life which is quickly reduced to its simplest terms: food, water, warmth. Paulsen’s fast-paced writing, which is immediate and internal, simultaneously takes the reader inside Brian’s psyche and deep into the pristine wilderness of the northern forest.

By the end of the book, it’s hard to leave Brian and his lake in the woods, and the deus ex machina ending, while logical, leaves the reader wanting more. Paulsen’s fans thought so as well prompting him to write a sequel, Brian’s Winter, that changes the ending of the first book and extends Brian’s adventures into the more perilous wintertime.

By the end of Hatchet, I’m left wanting to go camping to escape into the wilderness but not under circumstances as dire as Brian’s. Books take us places, though, and I thoroughly enjoyed spending a summer on that nameless lake watching Brian learn for himself the ancient lessons of man’s survival as he discovers the clarity that comes with self-reliance.

Is Kinky Awesome?

October 11, 2006 • • 3 Comments

That’s what commenter “Kinky is Awesome” seems to think. In fact, this person posted an entire post from the Kinky is Awesome blog in the comments section of my post about the recent debate. WordPress seemed to think that this was comment spam, but since it was on topic, I figured why the hell not? and let it in. Still, I wonder if other blogs have recieved similar comments from “Kinky is Awesome.”

So, what makes Kinky awesome? Well, let’s think about what “Kinky is Awesome” said.

Is it his desire to militarize the border and declare martial law? I wonder if Kinky knows what martial law is, and if so is he really in favor of turning the justice system in south Texas over to the military? Is this how he’ll get Chris Bell out of the way since Bell is apparently a terrorist?

Perhaps Kinky is awesome because he supported Bush/Cheney in ’04 and still supports Bush’s middle east policies? Admiration and support for incompetents and incompetence aren’t exactly selling points. Is this really the best time to be talking up your candidate’s admiration for Bush anyway?

“Kinky is Awesome” then goes on to suggest that perhaps I might be a bit worried that Kinky “showed liberal tendencies by voting for a tree-hugger like Al Gore.” Despite the fact that several recent posts on this blog indicate that that might be a selling point, “Kinky is Awesome” tells me that I needn’t fear since Kinky never voted between 1994 and 2004. I guess his conservative principles are intact even if he sold out his apathy. Awesome.

And, no, I didn’t think he’s a liberal because he’s a Jew, but having religious views (which really means political-religious views) “well to the right of Perry’s” isn’t very reassuring whether it comes from a Christian, Jew or anyone else.

The pitch here is basically that Kinky is no liberal. I guess the idea is to help him pull off some of Perry’s conservative support considering that he’s probably gotten all he’s going to get from Bell. Kinky strikes me more than anything else as something of a libertarian, which I prefer over Republicans so, yeah, “Kinky is Awesome,” you’re right he’s better than Rick Perry, but I’d prefer more tree-hugger and a bit less martial law on the border.

100 Years

October 10, 2006 • • 3 Comments

Last week, I sat in a focus group for a company that wants to install systems that will use renewable energy in homes. The idea goes beyond solar panels to include wind and geothermal where possible. When the moderator asked us to rank the reasons we might be willing to consider renewable energy everyone chose cost savings first. Only two of us chose environmental protection first.

I like saving money, but I couldn’t help but wonder why more people don’t consider preserving a healthy and liveable world for future generations to be more of a moral issue, and quite frankly, the most important one there is. This is something I’d like to hear one of the so-called ‘values voters’ explain to me. I often read about the issues that drive these people to the polls and it’s rarely conservation.

There are some in the evangelical community (which seems to think it owns values and morals, but never mind) who would like to add environmental protection to the mix of values issues, but the leaders of the movement see it as a wedge issue to divide their base. Do they care about anything other than short term power?

Don’t answer that.

In 100 years, it seems unlikely that anyone other than scholars will care how we structured our families, whether or not we let gay people marry, what schools taught kids about evolution, or even whether or not abortion was legal. I suspect, though, that they will curse us for every methane spewing landfill, toxic waste dump, dead reef, poisoned aquifer, dead forest, overfished sea, desertified landscape, silt-blocked river, lost glacier, styrofoam cup and plastic water bottle that we leave for them to enjoy.

A few days after the focus group, I read Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and was struck by how often he refers to environmental protection as a moral imperative. I couldn’t agree more, but I wonder how long it will be before we look at politicians and demand to see their environmental ideas before we make the decision about their values. What kind of people ask about candidates’ positions on gay marriage before asking about ocean policy ideas?

Can you have values if you don’t value the well-being of future generations?