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Friday, October 23, 2009 by Nanette Over the past couple of years I’ve spent quite a lot of time offline, with little or no access to the internet due to one thing or another, so - having got rid of cable ages ago because I just don’t watch much TV - for the first time in 11 or so years I’ve been getting most of my news and information from network TV. I am having trouble describing what that is like for me, but sitting at the bottom of a dark well listening to echoes of the same things over and over again comes close. Definitely no information overload, whether I am watching the local or national news or even reading the local paper. The same people reading/writing the same news (from slightly different perspectives each time, if we’re lucky) about the same events with the only real diversion from what appear to be scripts shared across networks coming in whatever little “slice of life” feature they choose to highlight. If that’s all there is, my friend, then let’s keep dancing indeed. No wonder so many of us are so ignorant of so many things. Thank the gods (and Al Gore) for the Internet.
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Sunday, September 06, 2009 Mr. President, You’ve Got Your Knife Fight by Nanette Time to put down your flyswatter and (rhetorically and strategically) pick up something a bit more substantial. That is all.
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Saturday, June 13, 2009 by Nanette
Iran I really wish I had something meaningful and relevant to say about the situation in Iran, but I don’t. There are plenty of people who actually know something about that part of the world and all the ins and outs of their politics who are saying it so much better. Me, my thoughts are with people there and I hope everything turns out for the best. Dear President Obama: None of us without all of us I am still in the “wait and see” mode with Obama because I haven’t yet figured out where he is going. On most issues I will give him a year in office to really establish himself and for some policies to bear fruit before I decide if I like what he is doing or not. I *think* he is probably playing a very long game on some issues and I can sort of see the sense in some of it - especially shoring up his right flank before (if this is the intention and I hope it is) spreading leftward - but it’s really difficult to see how the language in the DOMA brief to the Supreme Court is helpful, no matter how long the game.
Even if it was someone’s oversight that this sort of bigoted language got through, there really is no excuse for this. And it just seems like it’s been one - possibly explainable as necessary until and if, etc, but still - slight on top of another when it comes to the GLBTQ community. I *think* that, in the end, the Obama administration will have shepherded through equal rights legislation which will result in more concrete and unshakable rights, including marriage rights (or some equivalent - personally I am hoping government gets out of the marriage business and just civil unions for all, regardless of what one calls them). I hope I am not wrong. Dehumanize a Population and Even Babies Seem Like Fair Game This is just such a sad, but not surprising, story - I don’t even know what to say. This sort of thing - where children, who are often referred to in the anti-immigrant movement by the vile and dehumanizing term of “anchor babies”, are deliberately targeted to be harmed or killed - is the natural outgrowth of all the hate speech against immigrants, especially Mexican ones. photo by Farhad Rajabali/news.goya.com via dailykos diary
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Friday, June 05, 2009 Meanwhile… London Bridge Is Falling Down by Nanette Or would be, if it wasn’t in Arizona or someplace. ‘ Lots of stuff going on in British politics, though - some of it very confusing, with people resigning left and right and apparently some racking up huge expenses and Gordon Brown um… dunno, being pushed out? This sounds like a job for scouser/melonhead! (Not being Prime Minister - although what fun that would be to see - but detangling it all.)
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Thursday, June 04, 2009 by Nanette I’ve not really had time to read or watch the speech yet, probably won’t until the weekend. From reading some of the reactions around the web, though, I think it was pretty well received, overall? Of course there were some who disagreed with it, others who hated it and all that, but (from my readings, anyway) the balance was tipped towards those who thought it was a good beginning. And that it needed to be backed up with action. I am not sure if there will be enough patience for that, though. Obama seems to move slow and steadily in whichever direction he’s going, while still often taking a circuitous route - which tends to leave those he’s seemingly (or in actuality) passing by or leaving behind screaming bloody murder. So, we’ll see. What was y’all’s impression?
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Wednesday, June 03, 2009 Good News For Some Still Suffering From Katrina by Nanette
From the NYT
Mind you, it was my understanding that these trailers will filled with formaldehyde or something but hopefully that problem was solved already. At any rate, for people who had nowhere to go and no money to pay the previous asking price ($9000), this must be such a relief. IF, as they say, it’s actually followed through on - as so many other promises made to them in the media have not been followed through on in the past. There’s a new guy in town though,so hopefully it will be.
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Wednesday, May 20, 2009 by Nanette
For some reason Governor Terminator and the legislature thought it would be a just dandy idea of the electorate did their jobs for them (without pay, of course). The electorate had other ideas - even though we (or, at least, some of us, primarily the anti-tax nutters) are partially to blame for the mess. Everyone, but everyone is tired of Ahnold, who has made former Governor Gray Davis’ fiscal mess look like the most sound of financial practices. Too late, though, sadly. This is one time, I think, when the fact that a politician is term limited is a comfort to all.
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Sunday, February 08, 2009 by Nanette Marc Ambinder’s explanation - Explaining The Cable TV Booking Disparity - just doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.
So, no. That explanation just won’t fly.
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Friday, January 30, 2009 by Nanette I’m such a slow writer that it might be all over by the time I’m done with this post, but the race for RNC chairmanship is turning out to be very interesting.. and sort of a referendum on which direction at least the perception of the Republican Party is going to go. UPDATE: Steele won, going on to become the first Black chairman of the RNC. Too late, though. If not for Obama, it’s *possible* that something like this would have caused some of the more conservative Black or other people of color to give the Republicans a second look, but as it is… nah. I doubt it.
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A Thousand Pinpricks Of Clarification by Nanette Okay, maybe not a thousand, but man… the “clarifications” in this piece - “Does Torture Work?” - certainly serve to highlight the bankruptcy of this guy’s moral core.
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Random Mutterings - Obama And Stuff by Nanette So, I’m sitting here this morning - had my coffee, finally have a quiet room to myself, no distractions and am full of ideas… and all I have done is stare at the blank page, writing nothing at all. Shameful.
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Tuesday, January 20, 2009 by Nanette
 I was going to liveblog the inauguration but when it came time to… I found I had little to say. Not to mention little time to say it in. Instead my time was split between sitting with my 85 year old mom, who was glued to the television coverage of the transition of power all day long, and taking care of my two grandkids, the younger of which was considerate enough to take a rare morning nap while the other one sat quietly. Another rarity. Perfect bookends. I still have no time and none of the quiet needed for the gathering of thoughts - that will come soon - but I did want to mark the day. (photo via Jack and Jill Politics)
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Monday, January 19, 2009 by Nanette
What a spectacle tomorrow is going to be, eh? Like many, I’ll be watching on TV only - it would be nice to be there for history, but not with those expected crowds. I might live blog the day, thoughts and impressions and so on, just to have a record for later, for my grandkids and such. I hope anyone else who wishes to does so as well, either here or on the community blog, to which everyone who is a member of the site has access. Also, after tomorrow, it looks like I will be free from some home obligations and can finally start putting site plans into place and implementing new stuff and all that. AND answer emails and comments and all sorts of neat, normal day things. Soon, soon.
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Saturday, January 03, 2009 by Nanette I remember somewhere around this time last year that I declared 2008 the Year of the Manatee! I never did get around to explaining what that was all about but it turns out that is a good thing because I was wrong, wrong, wrong! Not about it being the Year of the Manatee, but about what that meant. See, while I remembered and loved the secret Manatee Lisa smiles some of them wear - their gentleness and lumbering grace…
 I didn’t want to focus, as I was inclined to, on the scars that so many wear across their backs as a testament of not only an uncaring and, sometimes, unaware adversary but also of a resilience and a capacity to survive, secret smiles intact.
 That is usually the more interesting story, though, no? Anyway, 2008 is finally over - and not a moment too soon - and while I still love manatees I do hope this new year will be free of them. I have a lot planned, including a re-focusing of the site (of course!) and other stuff, which I will be writing about as I can. My life is still not quite my own, but now that things have calmed down at least a bit it’s obvious that I’m not likely to get the life I want, at this moment, so will just have to make do with the one I have, and work through whatever obstacles as well as I can. This means that my grammar and punctuation will be even worse that usual as I will have to take the time to write when I can, and will worry about it being proper some other day, when I have more time. I have so much I really should be writing about - I still have to write a letter to PE Obama - who actually won the election, amazing as that is - , as I sit writing the heartbreaking news comes in that Israel has invaded Gaza with ground troops, so there is that, and also lots of navel gazing to come, as I try and make sense, or at least lemonade, of the past year. And continue moving and looking forward into this next one. What’s everyone else up to?
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Wednesday, December 03, 2008 FINALLY Someone Explains What Is Going On In Canada by Nanette And in a way that we non-parliamentary government folks can easily grasp. And she (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee of Yarn Harlot) does it on a knitting blog (which is also pretty cool, if you are into knitting).
 Go figure (And go read!). via Booman Tribune Edited to add : How cool is this? Knitters Without Borders (or Tricoteuses Sans Frontières)!From the faq:
Also, she writes books. They look like fun for knitters (and non-knitters, too).
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