Nobody 695

Sunday, April 29, 2007
Nobody # 695

Nobody Asked Me But:

Dear Barbara and Elizabeth,

Even though recent research by health experts seem to show that singing a simple tune can boost mood, memory and the immune system -- and ease stress, I DO NOT want you to feel guilty for all these years you banned my singing in your presence. I probably was flat and couldn’t carry a tune, so just because I might have gained additional years to my long and healthy life by publicly singing songs of truth and great beauty was no justification for the embarrassment I may have caused the two of you.

What? You both will plead innocent on the grounds that what I was doing cannot be classified as singing.

I object!<<<

With gas at $3.27 this morning, when I got to Starbuck's I could only afford to let the "barista" squirt a quick blast of whipped cream into my mouth – but it was good whipped cream.<<<

Thanks to all of you who responded to the Greg Hansen issue that I wrote about last week. It seems that we have all had our moments of courage in which we openly showed distain for the haters – the bigots of all kinds, racist, religious, sexual.

And we have also known times when we said nothing – because we were taken by surprise or didn’t want the controversy or unpleasantness. I know that I like myself during the times that I choose to speak up and feel ashamed when I don’t. I am sure that you all feel the same. Even if our protest does not change the hater, I firmly believe that the world is a little better for our having taken a stand.<<<

OF ALL THE POOR OPINIONS, IN ALL THE SUPREME COURT JOINTS IN ALL THE WORLD

You all know about my ambivalent feelings about abortion. I think it is one of those many grey areas in morality where we must accept the lesser wrong. Abortions should not be a form of birth control, but they MUST be legal lest we return to the days of the coat hanger.

But the Supreme Court’s central argument in their recent 5-4 decision upholding the government’s right to ban partial-birth abortions borders on ridiculous. The central theme of their opinion was that the law’s purpose was to protect women from themselves – that women are natural mothers and to choose an abortion is an unnatural act, which will, in the long run, cause them great mental harm. In other words, making the choice proves them to be unnatural, i.e. crazy, and the aftermath of their decision makes them crazier.

This imperious and denigrating decision, another example of male paternalism on a court dominated by the dumber sex, was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy. That’s why I appreciated the delicious irony in this line from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s dissenting opinion: “Our obligation is to define the liberty of all, not to mandate our own moral code.” You see, these very words were used by Justice Kennedy in his majority opinion that struck down the Texas sodomy law in Lawrence v. Texas and overturned the 1986 anti-gay-rights precedent, Bowers v. Hardwick. How quickly he forgets, vacillates or some combination thereof .<<<

Add on: One of the other controversial parts to the decision involved the Court practicing medicine without a license – upholding a ban on a medical procedure that a doctor may think is in the best interest of his/her patient. That’s why I love this letter sent to the NY Times:

To the Editor: Re “A Sharp Turn for the Supreme Court on Abortion” (letters, April 20):

I am a rheumatologist caring for a patient whose lupus nephritis is flaring. Her creatinine is rising as her platelet count falls, and she has failed to improve with pulse methylprednisolone and intravenous cyclophosphamide. I am contemplating using rituximab. I would like to refer this case to the United States Supreme Court for its guidance.

Richard Zweig, M.D. Santa Rosa, Calif., April 20, 2007<<<

ATTENTION ALL ILLEGALS: UNCLE SAM WANTS YOU (or at least your money)

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark W. Everson, on the IRS practice of collecting taxes from illegal immigrants by assigning taxpayer ID numbers.

"We want your money whether you are here legally or not and whether you earned it legally or not."<<<

With my birthday only 4 months away, I felt a need to prove that I am still young at “heart,” so I had Barb take this picture.<<<

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, Newsweek is running a series of pieces in which they ask a writer to name his or her 5 favorite books. This week, having apparently run our of writers, they ask James Patterson whom many suspect does not exist except as a trade name covering a myriad of writers who produce a book of the month every month. This begs the question – was the man who Barb and I saw at a Border’s signing really Patterson or merely one of his many ghosts? Anyway, real or not, here are his choices:

1 "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel García Márquez. The great American novel, which just happens to be from South America.
2 "Ulysses" Blame James Joyce for making me a mystery writer. I read this and stopped pretending I could ever write a serious novel.
3 "Our Lady of the Flowers" by Jean Genet. Rudely woke me from my provincial, small-town view of the world.
4 "Day of the Jackal" by Frederick Forsyth. This was where I stopped being a book snob, and started loving books to death.
5 "Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain. I'm keen on coming-of-age novels, probably because I'm still coming of age.

Newsweek - A Certified Important Book you haven't read?

Patterson - OK, you got me—I've never read, "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret."

Actually, I haven’t read “Margaret” either, which brings me (finally) to my point. There are several classics that I have never read. (actually several hundred) Here are 3 that I plan to read in the “near” future.

"One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel García Márquez
“Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand
“The Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor Dostoevsky<<<

Stanley Fish on electing our next president:

Wrong question – “Whom would you rather have running the country, protecting our troops, educating our children, and throwing out the first ball on opening day?”

Right question - “Whom would you rather have exercising the power of appointment? That’s not a sexy question, but it gets to the heart of what electing a president means.”

Fish, who writes a provocative weekly column for the NY Times on subjects diverse, from education and politics, to philosophy and religion, is the Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor, a professor of law at Florida International University, and dean emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Mr. Fish has also taught at the University of California at Berkeley, Johns Hopkins and Duke University. He is the author of 10 books. His entire column on this matter is so interesting that I am sending it later today as a Nobody add-on.<<<

Remember upon our return from Oxford, I wrote about the Eagle and Child, the pub where J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and others used to meet and discuss each other’s writing projects? I recently learned more specifics. They met on a weekly basis and called themselves “the Inklings.” Cool!<<<

My delicious quote of the week comes from David Halberstam, the great reporter and writer who died last week. He was in Warsaw at the time and struggling with a dictate by his employer, the NY Times, that correspondents should, when in doubt, file stories exactly 600 words long. This is what Halberstam wrote to fellow correspondent J. Anthong Lucas:

“There are only two kinds of stories in the world: those about which I do not care to write as many as 600 words, and those about which I would like to write many more than 600 words. But there is nothing about which I would like to write exactly 600 words.”<<<

I am not comparing a writer with a play-writer, but I do have the same trouble with the 600 or 800 word thing.<<<

Headline: Utah bucks trend with guns OK on campuses.

Sub-headline: Utah students have the highest collective grade point average in the nation.<<<

What I learned at the Book Festival yesterday:

A woman can be turning 75 next December 7th and still be drop-dead beautiful. Ellen Burstyn, being interviewed by Leonard Maltin, was delightful.

That a man can be turning 82 on October 3rd and still be brilliant and funny. (And look young for his age - below, left)

Gore Vidal is no friend to Republicans (or many Democrats) but is a complete devotee to the Bill of Rights and mourns its passing under the current administration.

Someone asked him about his view of the array of Democratic presidential candidates, and after saying every one of them is a giant along side Bush, (and that Al Gore is his personal favorite) he told this Hillary story:

During her first campaign for NY Senator, someone told her that the demographic group with whom she scored worst was white, male, middle-aged and propertied. She wondered why and the answer was that she reminded them of their first wives.

Also, when being reminded by his host that he had consented to be godfather to the new child of Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, he responded with, “always father and never God.”

Both interviews were terrific but I cannot imagine anything being quite as fascinating as last year’s sessions with Joan Didion and Joyce Carol Oates.

However, as always, the best part was just the feeling of being surrounded by so many books and book lovers. I will gladly give up being the kid in the candy store to be forever young with so many words to sample.<<<

I could not let the week pass without a sigh of relief because Darren Collison is returning as Bruin point guard next year. This means that we should start the season rated either first or second in the country.<<<

Hard to believe but we will be waking up next Sunday in Ottawa.<<<