Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

I just learned a new  word.  Maybe.  Maybe it  was a  word just made up for  that article, which  is O.K., a writer is  allowed to do that, and maybe  it’s just putting together two  word  parts  in  a way  that makes obvious sense, like semi-liberal or pseudoblogger.  The word is retro-futurism and it was defined thus: “broadly refers to the exploration of outdated visions of the future.”  But, I guess it’s different than steampunk, which seems to go back to  the 1890s or so for  its inspiration, and the picture accompanying the article looked more like a 1960s motel, lots of big, orange beams, and plexiglass and balconies.
It’s a cool concept.   It’s good to look into the past and refresh our minds about what we thought the future would be.  Then we can laugh (or cry)  about how deluded we all were.

Back in the early days of the internet, I had very high hopes. I thought it would shatter the glass ceiling and end racism because, you know, anonymity.  Well, we’ve made some progress in  those areas, but had some pretty dramatic setbacks, too, and I’m  not at all sure the internet has been a positive influence.  I thought that, as a place where people could  discuss and debate any topic, that it would  lead to resolutions, town  hall style, to all our problems.  But, we’re shouting slogans  at each other more than ever.

One thing that surprised me was the huge number of cat lovers out there.  Dogs, you  always knew about.  They bark at you as you walk down  the street, they poop everywhere, they are outdoors, they are obvious.  Cats usually stay  at home, and the homes of people who have cats tend to have fewer visitors  from the  outside world than the homes of people with  no cats.  You know, cat people.  Also, when you are over visiting a cat person (maybe you didn’t even know), the cat will stay  hidden.
I’d like to go back to the  idea of having intelligent conversations  with each  other until solutions to  all  the  world’s problems have been found.  We could try  and figure out  where the internet veered off course  on that one, and maybe get things moving in the right direction.

Because the future is still the future  if we haven’t accomplished it yet.

I had a good time teaching today.  Picking up the 2nd graders from their rooms went  a bit  smoother than usual, maybe they are getting  used to the routine.  Then, as has  happened  once  or twice  before, the room was locked.  So, I did the same as I did the time before.  I sat them all down on the window ledge that runs the length of the long, glass hallway, pulled out the flashcards and started teaching.  All the kids like the flashcards.  I can’t explain it.
I knew that pretty soon another teacher would come along and complain about us making too much noise in the hallway, and I could tell them that we were locked out.  Couldn’t just leave the kids there and go looking for somebody  with a key.

Anyway, I did something with that group that was long overdue.  I sat the two biggest troublemakers right in front of  the room, where I could keep an eye on them.  It wasn’t a total success, but it was an improvement.

The next class only had about 6 kids in it, so it was pretty easy and when I was reading Green Eggs and Ham, they started reading along with me.  Just had to slow it right down and they got into the rhythm just fine.
5th and 6th graders went just fine, I tried a flashcard variation that just popped into my head, and made them do  presentations.
9th graders had a couple of girls in the class I’d never seen before and quite a few were absent, so it was almost like teaching a different class.

I am often amazed at how literally fundamentalist Christians take the bible.  Like the story of Noah and the Ark.  It’s just so totally impossible on so many levels.  The huge number of animals, the impossibility of building a wooden boat big enough, the implied proximity of predator and prey, the lack of kangaroo fossils anywhere in Asia, and that’s not to mention the smell of all  that animal dung.

Then there’s the Holy Bang theory, you know, where Mary was a virgin and it was God who made her pregnant, which strikes me less as an explanation of her virginity and more a straight up question of paternity.

It seems some devout Christians in the state of Alabama may also  be having second thoughts about that theory.  In defense of rootin-tootin’ Roy Moore, the redneck judge who  loves posing with pistols and is running for the Senate, and was recently accused of raping a 14 year old girl, his friend and Republican ally Jim Ziegler said “Take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus.”
So, what are you saying there, Jimbo?  Was Mary not, in fact, a virgin?  Or was  God the father, which means it’s O.K. to boink 14 year old girls because God did it, and  Joseph was just the  poor  shmoe who  married her, a loser and probably a Democrat?
Well, if God did that then he wasn’t very nice, poor Mary was only 14 and probably traumatized as hell, turning up pregnant and all.  Try  getting your friends and family to believe you’re still a virgin after that.

And I’m sure God wouldn’t get away with that kind of thing if he were around today.

It’s November, so it’s time once again to play “Who Killed JFK?”  My money’s on Lyndon Johnson, because cui bono mostly, but it also just seems to be in character, and it happened on his home turf, plus some other stuff, but that’s not what I want to talk  about tonight.
I just  got into a discussion about all the Kennedy/Lincoln coincidences.  First off, there really is a striking and amazing list of coincidences.  However, they are coincidences.  I don’t believe that there was  some kind of multi-generational conspiracy theory.  I’m  not  saying that’s never happened in human history, it’s basically the story  of all  hereditary monarchies.  I’m just saying I  don’t believe  it  happened  in this  case, or that aliens did  it, or anybody  with  a time machine.

It’s kind of an amazing coincidence, for  instance, that they were elected 100 years apart, 1860-1960.  It’s also an amazing coincidence that presidents elected at 20 year intervals from 1860-1960 all died in office.  Reagan broke the curse, disappointing millions.
It’s 5 in a row,  but not unbelievable.  Garfield and McKinley  were both  assassinated, sure, but officially Harding died of natural causes.   Some historians think that his doctor and/or his wife poisoned him to put an end to the scandals, but there’s no proof of  that.  Roosevelt, of course, was fated to die in office because he was just  going to keep getting re-elected as long as he lived – he was just that good.
It’s also quite interesting that Lincoln was shot in Ford’s theater, and Kennedy was shot in a Ford Lincoln, or that Lincoln was shot in a theater and Oswald was apprehended in one (although I think he was the patsy, and they never caught the guys who fired from the grassy knoll.)
I think it’s interesting, even a bit bizarre, that both men had vice-presidents named Johnson, or that both had been Senators from southern states, but Johnson’s a common name, and approximately half the country consists of the south.
The list goes on, but at some point you get  into numerology and  nonsense, so we’ll end it right there.

O.K., I’m not particularly thrilled about Northam being elected governor of Virginia.  Yeah, Democrat, yadda yadda, but not in any way progressive.  Really, the kind of Democrat Democrats don’t need, but at least the Republican lost.

Same story in New Jersey, from what I hear.  At least Chris Christie is done, but a corporate Democrqat is not going to solve the problem: they aren’t even going to address the problem.

Nonetheless, the more I read about Tuesday’s elections, the more heartened I am.  Danica Roem’s victory  over the big homophobe whose main  issue was who  uses which bathroom was a great victory for enlightened common sense.

Apparently, progressives picked up 3 seats in the Georgia legislature that Democrats had never even bothered campaigning for before.

My favorite  win, though, is Lee Carter, who openly calls himself a Democratic Socialist.  They had flyers out connecting him with Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao.  He won anyway.  The Democratic party didn’t back him at all – too progressive, and they’re big jerks who honestly would rather lose to Republicans than allow progressives to gain a toehold in the party (O.K., I’m being a bit disingenuous here…we may be struggling for a toehold now, but yes, our intent is to take over the party), but he won without their support.  The guy he beat was a high ranking Republican, among the party’s leadership.  And he won by almost 10 points which, in American politics, is a landslide of epic proportions.

The Berniecrats have  arrived.