R.I.P. JOHN MILTON
December 9,
1608-November 8, 1674
The first things that he
lost were both his eyes,
The second were the keys
to Paradise,
Which finally were found.
Others built on
This poor foundation the Parodies of Milton.
R.I.P. LÉONIE ADAMS December 9, 1899 – June
27, 1988 A poet’s poet since she
was on a trike, She never metaverse she
didn’t like.
Sunday, November 29,
2009. Special to the Dresden Mills Gazette. By Wesli Court, Blues Reporter.
DMG. At the moment I am standing in front of the candy counter of the Dresden Texaco and Take-Out in Dresden, Maine, having a conversation with Republican Senator Gloria Monday. Good morning, Senator Monday.
GM. Good morning.
DMG. The Democrat-controlled Senate recently voted to send to the floor of the United States Senate for debate a health care bill that was crafted by the Democrats. As a Republican senator from Bluestate, how do you feel about that?
GM. As you know, I voted with all the other members of my Republican Party against sending that bill to the floor.
DMG. Why was that?
GM. Although I feel that the health care system desperately needs to be reformed, I was against the bill’s containing a Public Option provision.
DMG. What is wrong with the Public Option?
GM. It will lead inevitably to Socialism in our Republic.
DMG. How so?
GM. It will create a system in which the government will weigh in with a heavy hand on our citizens’ rights to choose their own health care, and it will tell our doctors and medical practitioners how much they can charge for their services.
DMG. Aren’t you ignoring the word “option” in the bill? Citizens will keep their right to have the health insurance program of their own choosing, if they already have one.
GM. I don’t feel it is ever a good idea to have the Government involved in health care. People will eventually drop their private insurance coverage in favor of the Public Option.
DMG. Doesn’t that imply the private companies would be providing worse care, like deciding if a person covered by their policies has a “pre-existing medical condition” that they don’t want to pay for, or like choosing to drop a person’s coverage arbitrarily?
GM. Oh, I don’t think so. Government health plans are likely to be much worse than private ones, tied up in red tape, run by committees that decide who should live or die.
DMG. Excuse me, Senator, but Senior Citizens are all covered by a “Public Option,” Medicare. Doesn’t Medicare do a decent job?
GM. Medicare is beset by problems, like fraud and waste.
DMG. “Fraud” is a crime. That’s really not a part of the plan, is it? That requires investigation by law enforcement agencies. Are you suggesting that the Government is being remiss in not enforcing laws against medical fraud?
GM. That may very well be the case.
DMG. Perhaps the Congress should appropriate more money for law enforcement?
GM. That is a different subject than the one we were discussing.
DMG. That’s true. To get back to the idea of the “Public Option,” aren’t all members of the Armed Forces — the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard — all covered by a Government health care system? Not to mention veterans of all the services, who are covered by the U. S. Veterans Administraton.
GM. Yes, they are, but there’s a very good reason for that system.
DMG. Although it’s run by the Government, the USVA hospitals are both efficient and effective, aren’t they?
GM. In general, yes, but again, they had better be. Our service men and women deserve the best care available. But that’s not the kind of “Public Option” I was talking about.
DMG. Well, how about the “Public Option” that the U. S. Congress is covered by? Do you find that you personally receive decent health care?
GM. Er, ah…, uh, well, yes, of course.
DMG. And how about the health care option that covers ALL government workers? All Civil Service employees, employees of the Postal Service, and the various “public options” that cover State, County, and Local government employees?
GM. I am against specialty options for American citizens.
DMG. You mean like Medicaid that helps the very poor?
GM. No, no….
DMG. Isn’t it true, Senator Monday, that the “Public Option” included in the current Senate bill would apply only to those people who are covered by no health care plan at all? In other words, a relatively small segment of the population who are falling through the cracks of the current “system” of health care?
GM. Um. Well. Perhaps….
DMG. And isn’t it true that the bill also contains provisions for those states — primarily Republican Red States, one would assume — that would have another kind of option: the option to “opt out” of the coverage outlined in the bill if they wished?
GM. Well, yes, but….
DMG. Thank you, Senator Gloria Monday, Republican of Bluestate. You have been most helpful. I’m sure the readers of the Dresden Mills Gazette will find your remarks enlightening.
REMARKS
Well, Wesli,
You certainly nailed that interview! How can that dodo ever show her face in public again?
But wasn't Senator Monday implicated in the recent, notorious Seven-Day Escort Ring scandal involving the Washington call-girl known as Ruby Tuesday? Their boss was the sinister and secretive Mr. Friday, who ran the operation from a fortified island in the South Pacific.
Rhina Espaillat
You're making me Thursday. Good thing I have a cup of coffee in my hand.
Wesli
Love It, Lew.
Hope you had a good Thanksgiving & post-tryptophan days.
Moira Egan
Lew,
Thanks for sending the hilariously pathetic interview. The responses, I mean, not the interview questions, which are terrific.
Clarinda Harriss
Lew,
Didn’t you just interview this woman? (click on link:)
Understanding Our Hollow "Centrists"
Dennis Morton
Thanks, Lew.
It's about time Someone gave Anyone the straight dope on the option. It's possible no one can persuade a Monday, though — the week's most recalcitrant day--
Ruth Harrison
It infuriates me that so many people are so purblind. EVERYBODY knows about the Public Options we already have. They're just determined to be stupid, apparently. I could hardly believe it when I saw all those old people who are clearly on Medicare waving signs AGAINST the "public option." And how politicians can actually get up in front of a camera and act like THEY are not on the Public Option themselves boggles the imagination. They must have gonads of brass if male and ???? if female. It requires tremendous amounts of cynicism on everyone's part. Lew
Yes. The pretense at not grasping a truth which is straightforward and plain — it's shoddy indeed. But that has been the nature of the Reps the past three decades or so, and by now it's an accepted technique — pretend something else is true if you do not like the truth before you. You've got it — it's determined stupidity.
Am I wrong, or has it become more pronounced of late?
Maybe I'm just old and crotchety ...
Ruth
No, you're correct, but probably we're both as old and crotchety as those morons waving those stupid placards.
Lew
Thanks, Lew. Enjoyed reading the Wesli Court interview!
Don Kimball
R.I.P. WILLIAM CARLOS
WILLIAMS
September 17,
1883-March 4, 1963
So much depends upon that
red
wheel barrow, glazed with rain
water beside the white chickens,
no doubt – but what? We
feel
someone should tell us but, alas!
only Doctor Williams could.
(Reuters
/ Jason Reed)
November 5, 2008,
To Dee in New Jersey: Last spring, when we were bickering over Hillary, do you remember that I said there would be a landslide for Barack Obama in the fall?
To Ar in Ohio: Do you remember how, in all your evangelical wisdom, you told me I was always voting on the losing side?
To Em and Ar in Pennsylvania and Oregon: Do you remember how, when I asked you how many campaign signs you saw in the countryside you replied that nearly all of them were for Obama-Biden? Congratulations on your excellent observations.
To Ar in Massachusetts: Do you remember that when McCain picked Sarah Palin as his veep running mate I said that he'd just given the election to Obama and you replied, "From your mouth to God's ear"?
To Ay in New Jersey: Do you remember when I said that I had no idea how, remembering Mussolini in World War II, Italian-Americans could vote for Republicans, you replied that Rudy cleaned up New York City just fine and Benito did great things for Italy after World War I, and sometimes dictators were necessary? Alas, what are we going to do now? Let’s both cross our fingers and hope that Obama can do as well as Giuliani and Mussolini.
To Vee in Oklahoma: Do you remember when you told me that you and your hubby weren’t going to vote for Obama because he is a “Socialist”? Wasn't that what I suspect it truly was: An excuse not to vote for a mulatto?
And thanks especially to my wife in Maine and New York for reminding me frequently over the decades how few of my political predictions have panned out. However, this is the one that counts, the one that irrefutably proves once again that the United States of America is truly a great nation.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
COMMENTS
Lew,
I'm as elated as you. I feel like I finally woke up in the America I was told about, that others were promised, and the rest of the world aspires to.
Paul A. Austin
Paul,
It's 7:14 p.m. on Thursday, November 6th, 2008. Jean and I got back to Dresden about an hour ago after a month in Oswego where we voted. I was so drained yesterday I could hardly move: what a let-down; no, I mean relief! Today I'm up and ready to live again even though the stock market plunged over another cliff today and next month we find out how our CREF retirement portfolio is doing. Right. It's lying at the bottom of that cliff, no doubt.
It's going to take a while for our new President Obama to begin to deal with the situation, but at least he doesn't have to wait until he is sworn in to begin doing things because the Democrats already control the Congress and he can start to work with them immediately.
I hope two things: That Ted Stevens is thrown out by the Republicans if he manages to be reelected somehow, and I hope Lieberman is ostracized completely. That process began today. I look forward to the day when the term "Joe the Traitor" is as widely used as "Joe the Plumber" is, or as "Joe Six-pack." Have you seen who voted for Obama? EVERYBODY! Including a whole pile of Joe Six-Packs and hockey moms. He did well across the spectrum, and he truly is everybody's President.
Lew
Lew,
If Joe Lieberman had a whit of decency, he would resign.
Ted Stevens is already being shunned by his own.
Wednesday morning I recalled a pop song that came out when the Berlin Wall fell and Eastern Europe broke away from the Soviet Union. The song is called "Right Here, Right Now" by Jesus Jones and the opening words were:
A woman on the radio talks about revolution when it's already passed her by.
Bob Dylan didn't have this to sing about, you know it
feels good to be alive.
It felt wonderful to be alive then, but even more so now.
Paul
What are "taxes"? They are the means by which the social contract is fulfilled. What is "the social contract"? It is an agreement among the members of society to share the burden of living with one another: building and maintaining infrastructure and social institutions, caring for all the people. What is a "rhetorical question"? It is a question everyone knows how to answer. The answer to the Biblical rhetorical question, "Am I my brother's keeper" always has been, and is still supposed to be, "yes."
There are two kinds of people in a society. The first kind understands the social contract and is willing to pay his or her fair share of taxes. In the modern United States, these people are often called "Democrats." The second kind of people have a different idea. They believe that they are rugged individualists and can "go it alone." They believe that taxes are an unfair burden placed upon them by the rest of the society. We often call these people "Republicans."
Rugged individualists believe, on the one hand, that, even though they may own businesses that require workers to keep them running, it is one's own business, the purpose of which is to make as much money as possible. Owners ought to pay workers as little as possible while charging consumers "all that the trade will bear." One ought not to have to pay taxes on the profits of that business because it is not the business of the "government" to interfere with trade in any way, even though that trade takes place within an area occupied by the entire society which has installed a government to regulate the social contract.
Rugged individualists believe in "family values," so long as it is their own families we are talking about and not the families of other segments of the society. Rugged individualists understand that "charity begins at home," and they ought not to have to pay for educating other people's children, or taking care of the impecunious poor, or helping the helpless elderly who are no longer able to pay the taxes they ought to pay. Rugged individualists can afford to educate their own children and care for the members of their own families. Everyone ought to be able to do the same. "If I can do it, so can they."
There ought not to be subsidies for anything — except for farmers, most of whom are big-business people these days; except for airplane manufacturers, which make billions from the "armed forces" of the government — what President Dwight Eisenhower called "the military-industrial complex." Except for AIG when it nearly went bankrupt, and except the other big lending institutions whose greed led them into the “derivatives” pyramid scheme and the current bubble explosion. Except for the Savings and Loan institutions of America when they finished milking their clients and did go bankrupt, causing the American public to pay twice for making rich people richer. Except for Enron, which spent a summer cheating the residents of California and causing brownouts and untold hardships to the consumers and then went bankrupt after feedng its profits to its executives and colluding with Arthur Andersen accountants to cheat the government of its taxes.
Now that the mortgage market and the stockmarket have crashed, plunging the United States into what the dilapidated and discredited George W. Bush administration is calling an impending “recession,” but what old timers (like me) recognize as a full-blown Depression, What is going to happen? The wealthy members and institutions of society are going to have to begin to pay their fair share of taxes, like those that have been paid for years by the middle classes. Financiers don't like it, especially those who make their money through owning property: the mortgage-holding banks. These "rugged individualists" don't need the rest of us. If they can keep control of the government, maybe they can stave off paying the taxbill instead of finding the “loopholes” the corrupt Congress has set up for them in the tax code. What was the Republican "Contract with America"? It was, and it still is, an anti-contract. It is an abrogation of the social contract. It is a way of stripping the middle classes of what little money they have and handing it back to the wealthy, where it "belongs."
Here is another rhetorical question: Who voted for this failed (for the middle classes) Bush doctrine these past eight years? The answer is, the elderly, who now find that Medicare costs too much in taxes for rugged individualists to bear. The parents of children who now find that the mandated Bush “No Student Left Behind,” and other un- or under-funded education programs are going down the tubes. The middle class mothers and fathers of teenagers who discover that the Republicans still want to destroy public higher education by cutting “unnecessary public programs” — "let their kids go to Cornell, Columbia, Harvard or Yale, like my kids." There is no bread? Let them eat cake.
And now the Republicans want to hold onto the power. Who can blame them? That’s a rhetorical question, too. The answer? The voters of the United States of America.
Excellent! Thanks. I read “Contract” to a very passionate liberal and it was the first time he ever stopped long enough to listen to me. We both thought it was excellent.
Peggy
Lew, this is great! You've hit every nail on the head. I'm sending it up to Alfred's computer so he can enjoy it too. Undoubtedly he will pass it on to friends. He sent a letter to the publisher of the local paper last week, on the importance of voting NO on Question 1, and subsequently was lambasted by furious anti-tax Libertarians who accused us both of being "loafers" who want to live on public tax money while we waste time playing with clay and writing poetry. He was instructed by one yahoo to "buy your own clay, Al," and asked if his wife had received a tax-payer-subsidized grant to edit his letter.
Alfred was tempted to reply, and I toyed with the idea of telling the writer that I've never received — or asked for — a grant to write anything. But we both decided that adding verbal fuel to the fire only encourages ideologues, and tightens the logic-tight compartments around what passes for their thoughts.
Besides, I approve of cultural grants and state support of the arts, and don't want to be misunderstood as negative about them or the artists who do apply for them, and who produce, thanks to them, valuable work that we might not have otherwise. What I think is that arguing with people who value their ideologies more than the society they live in and the people who live in it with them is futile: they can't hear a word.
Rhina
PS: A friend of mine says, "Fine; people who don't want to pay taxes should not have to, but they must be required to buy their own fire engines." And I'd like to add, they must build their own streets, roads, bridges and tunnels for their exclusive use, too.
Wouldn’t that take up quite a bit of space?
Lew
Yeah, but hell, people who can get The Market to correct itself and do everything right must know how to work wonders with Space too, right? And Time, for all we know! Just have faith, Lew.
Rhina
Lew - are you the author of this piece? Just wondering.
Ann
Who else?
Lew
Would you please mail it to the Ayn Rand Institute? I'm tempted to
ask them all to hand in their copies of Atlas Shrugged. It's not
bad enough that Rand's favorite writer was Hugo and that she imitated his style
— a beautiful irony, too — but the idea of the powerful elite going on strike
is laughable. Who the hell do they think is going to take out their garbage?
Paul
Thanks, Lew. Good essay--good points. AND, not only would they need to buy their own fire engines, they'd need the firehouse and salaries for the firefighters and supplies for the volunteers or paramedics.
The little boats for water rescue, helicopter patrols, gasoline,
and pilot time ... usw.
There's a whole lot to it even in a podunk coastal backwater like this. Cheers to you for so effectively pointing it out.
Ruth
Lew,
I know I'll hate myself in the morning ... but here goes ... first off, I am not well-versed in the area of politics — so I never get into it with anyone — so if my question sounds naive forgive me … do you think that the Democratic liberal "grillion-aires" in Hollywood (La Streisand and her ilk) really, really, really pay all the taxes that they're supposed to? ... don't you think that they hire very expensive CPA's to find clever ways and enormous loop holes within which they can find all kinds of write-offs? You don't honestly believe that it's just the GOP'ers who don't pay all their taxes do you? Uh oh - here comes the Turco tsunami of liberal verbiage ..... Duck!!!!!!
Ann
I don’t know, Ann,
Do you? Were Hollywood “grillion-aires” what I was talking about? I thought I was talking about the social contract and how Democrats and Republicans differ in their attitudes toward it.
I take it that my essay annoyed you; may I therefore assume that you are a Republican? If you are, may I ask you what you have in common with the wall street bankers who are currently engaged in once more looting the public treasury — my money and yours? May I ask if you think that the last eight years have been competently administered by the current administration? Did you enjoy being lied into the war in Iraq? Was any money or time wasted during the aftermath of Katrina? Do you approve of the methods of torture used in Guantanamo Bay (it was a nice place when you and I were kids and my ship visited Bayonne and Cuba, and I visited you in New Jersey; I personally wouldn’t want to be at Gitmo these days).
Your reply to my article does not address any of the things I was discussing in it. What you have done is to do what the Bushwhackers do: change the subject; talk about irrelevancies; set up straw men to set afire. I don’t know, Ann, what the Hollywood grillion-aires do with their money, I just know what I do with my money: I pay my taxes with part of it, don’t you? And I don’t begrudge those taxes, so long as we all play on the same level ground. Do you cheat on your taxes? I never have.
Lew
P. S. “Liberal” is not a four-letter word. This is from my computer dictionary:
Liberal
Adjective
1
the
values of a liberal society tolerant, unprejudiced, unbigoted, broad-minded,
open-minded, enlightened; permissive, free, free and easy, easygoing,
libertarian, indulgent, lenient. antonym narrow-minded, bigoted.
2
a
liberal social agenda progressive, advanced, modern, forward-looking,
forward-thinking, progressivist, enlightened, reformist, radical. antonym reactionary,
conservative.
3
a
liberal education wide-ranging,
broad-based, general.
4
a
liberal interpretation of divorce laws flexible, broad, loose, rough, free, general,
nonliteral, nonspecific, imprecise, vague, indefinite. antonym strict, to the
letter.
5
a
liberal coating of paint abundant, copious, ample, plentiful, generous, lavish, luxuriant,
profuse, considerable, prolific, rich; literary plenteous. antonym scant.
6
they
were liberal with their cash generous, openhanded, unsparing, unstinting,
ungrudging, lavish, free, munificent, bountiful, beneficent, benevolent,
bighearted, philanthropic, charitable, altruistic, unselfish; literary bounteous.
antonym careful, miserly.
Lew
Yes!!!!
Matt
Caring people come in all shapes, sizes, colors and from all political persuasions. I know democrats who would give you the shirts off their backs; and I know generous republicans who would joyfully do the same.
Take care.
Vivian
Vivian,
My remarks to Ann's, above, apply to yours as well: They are irrelevant to my argument which was not about personal qualities such as generosity, but about the differences in attitude toward social responsibility between the Democratic and Republican parties. Surely, you agree that there are such differences, don’t you? Otherwise we wouldn’t need a two-party political system.
Don’t you know businessmen who are personally very generous people, but who would cut any corner, even cheat, to make a buck? I certainly do; one of them was a dear older friend (and former student) whose business behavior made me cringe. (I was his partner in one of his more marginal, and altruistic, business ventures: A publishing company.) Don’t you know other business people who would sooner fail than do something unethical? So do I. Which party is more likely to condone the behavior of these very different types of people?
Lew
Lew,
Excellent piece — Thanks for writing it.
Alice
If being a liberal would make me such a kind and caring person and
I could be part of such a magnanimous society, why do I still wanna' be a
conservative? Uh, that's a
rhetorical question.
Ann
No, Ann, it’s not,
Because the answer to the question you pose is not generally known. And liberalism won’t “make” anyone into a liberal person; in order to be one, first you have to be a “kind and caring person.”
I personally have no idea why you would “wanna' be a conservative.” I have never understood why any American of Italian background would wish to be one, particularly in view of the model we have of Mussolini. I remember during the Second World War how ashamed I was that Italy was run by such a pompous and despicable ass. Here are some other definitions of “conservative” from my computer dictionary which, again, you may check in a dictionary of your choice:
Conservative
Adjective
1
the
conservative wing of the party right-wing, reactionary, traditionalist;
Republican; Brit. Tory; informal redneck. antonym socialist.
2
our
more conservative neighbors may object to the modern architecture being
proposed traditionalist,
traditional, conventional, orthodox, old-fashioned, dyed-in-the-wool,
hidebound, unadventurous, set in one's ways; moderate, middle-of-the-road,
buttoned-down; informal stick-in-the-mud. antonym radical.
3
he
wore a conservative blue suit conventional, sober, modest, plain, unobtrusive,
restrained, subtle, low-key, demure; informal square, straight. antonym ostentatious.
4
a
conservative estimate low, cautious, understated, moderate, reasonable.
Lew, Like I said, I'm a neophyte when it
comes to politics so I don't get into it on any level. I'm a fan of CNN, I've listened to the
pundits — I've listened to the talking heads — read the NYT's every morning and
my own regional newspaper — some are conservative — some are liberal. I weigh the input and make up my own
mind. But to sit here with you and
opine on a subject in which I cannot intelligently discuss would simply make
myself look stupid. (I was going to use "ass" but that would make me
a democrat). Yes, I know all the definitions of "conservative" — I
looked them up when you sent me the first list ... thought I'd find some that
weren't so "Red State" ... but didn't. As
to Mussolini. My mom and dad and
their entire families (and other Sicilians I have talked with) all praised
Mussolini for cleaning up crime-ridden pre-war Sicily and ridding it of the
staggering number of outlaws and criminals. No question, the guy was an autocrat — but he did some
really good stuff for Italy/Sicily.
Of course his downfall was his hookup with Hitler. But I hope you're not
saying that all Italians should be liberals. Nonsense! I can
think of one important Italian politician who was ultra-conservative and he was
the best thing that ever happened to New York ... Rudy Giuliani. Sometimes you
just have to be a little iron-fisted to get things done right. There was a time
when New York was a drug and crime garbage dump and it was truly dangerous to
work in and visit New York — when he came into office that all went away
... the transformation was
spectacular. Yes, it's true,
not everyone agreed with his methods ... but he got the job done — and people
came back in droves — which put lots of money in the NYC coffers. So sometimes you can't have it both
ways ... I realize the drug problem still exists ... just as it does in every
corner of this country — but the level of safety, cleanliness, orderliness
during his tenure was outstanding. Ann P.S. when I used the term "ass" I
meant "donkey" ... hope you didn't take it the wrong way I’m not going to comment on this one, Ann. It speaks for itself. Lew
A Cyberspace Interview.
Special to
the Dresden Mills Gazette. October 3, 2008. My name is Wesli Court, a reporter
for the Dresden Mills Gazette, and I’m back at my post beside the counter of
the Dresden Take-out and Texaco, waiting for another local resident to come in
so that I can interview him or her. Ah! Here comes one now — I see it’s my
previous interviewee again, Dick Everyman. How are you this morning, Mr.
Everyman?
E. Fine.
You?
W. Very
well, thank you. Can you answer a few more questions today?
E. Why not?
W. Did you
watch the vice-presidential nominees debate last night?
E. I did.
W. What did
you think of it?
E. Sarah
Palin reminded me of my childhood.
W. Oh? How’s
that?
E. I kept
thinking about the nursery rhymes my mother read to me.
W. Really?
Which ones?
E. Well, “Wynken,
Blinken and Nod,” for one.
W. Any
others?
E. “An Old
Woman Who Lived in a Shoe,” except in this case you’d have to substitute “Young”
for “Old.”
W. But
Sarah Palin doesn’t have so many children.
E. She will
have. If she’s Veep we can watch her waddle around the White House.
W. Isn’t
that a bit unkind?
E. Maybe,
but that doesn’t make it a lie.
W. Did you
see her Katie Kouric interviews?
E. Some.
W. Did they
remind you of your childhood too?
E. Yes. I
thought of “Little Bo-Peep” who lost her sheep and couldn’t tell where to find
them.
W. Did you
see a difference between her and John McCain?
E. “Tweedle-Dum
and Tweedle-Dee,” except he’s living on borrowed time, has more tracks, and has
more wrinkles.
W. What do
you think of the Republican nominees’ plans for the economy?
E. “If
wishes were horses, beggars would ride, If turnips were watches, I’d wear one by
my side, And if ‘ifs’ and ‘ands’ Were pots and pans, There’d be no work for
tinkers,” or anybody else, for that matter.
W. What about
Palin’s lipstick remarks?
E. Pigs won't fly, even wearing lipstick.
W. Does
John McCain bring to mind any nursery rhymes?
E. Just
one.
W. What’s
that?
E. “Humpty
Dumpty.”
W. Then you
believe that Barack Obama will win the election?
E. In a
landslide.
W. Really?
E. I’ve
been saying that since McCain was nominated.
____________________________________________________________________
COMMENTS
Aside from the fact that his arms are too short, and in spite of his history as a war hero (though my father - also a Vietnam Vet - says I should ignore all that), I don't like McCain because he just wants to be president too badly. He wants it so badly that he is taking what little reputation he has left and banking it on whatever patchwork coalition he can thread together. In addition to being an obvious move to get the female vote, his choice of Sara Palin sold his soul to a greater devil. That drew the obnoxious crowd into his recent rallies (in which, unfortunately, even his wife got nasty) where he got booed for saying something nice about his opponent.
What the hell kind of people boo at their own candidate?
I see his ambition as his downfall, a tragedy in the classical sense, just as I see Sarah Palin bowling herself over in a comic sense as Tina Fey defines her image more than all McCain's team can. There's a new tragedy/comedy mask for you.
Paul A. Austin
Lew, Consider this (from someone who is voting Independent this time}: Obama/Biden vs McCain/Palin, what if things were switched around? Would the country's collective point of view be different? What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three-month-old Down syndrome infant and an unwed, pregnant, teenage daughter? What if Joe Biden had been given a $150,000 wardrobe by the Democratic National Committee? What if John McCain were a former president of The Harvard Law Review? What if Barack Obama had finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class? What if McCain had only married once, and Obama were divorced? What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she had suffered a severe, disfiguring car accident? What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and later had a long affair while he was still married? What if Michelle Obama were the wife who not only became addicted to painkillers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization? What if Cindy McCain had graduated from Harvard? What if Obama were seventy-one years old? What if he owned several homes? What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five? ("The Keating Five" were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s)? What if McCain were a charismatic, eloquent speaker? What if Obama couldn't read from a teleprompter? What if Obama were the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing planes? What if Obama were the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem? What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution? You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are? Might racism have been a factor in this political race? This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference. Here are the educational Backgrounds of the candidates: Barack Obama: Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations. Harvard - Juris Doctoris (Doctor of Laws) Magna Cum Laude. Joseph Biden: University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science. Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctoris (Doctor of Laws). John McCain: United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899. Sarah Palin: Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester; North Idaho College - 1 semester, general study; University of Idaho - 2 semesters, journalism; Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester; University of Idaho - 3 semesters, B.A. in Journalism. Education isn't everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world. You make the call. Tony A. Actually, Tony, I received your e-mail message on October 24th, and the poll numbers aren't that close anymore, though your comments are well-taken. Lew
A CYBERSPACE INTERVIEW
Special to the Dresden Mills Gazette. September 28, 2008. My name is Wesli Court, a reporter for the Dresden Mills Gazette, and I am standing beside the counter of the Dresden Take-Out and Texaco. With me is my sketchist, Art Penman, and we are about to speak with a gentleman who has just entered the store to pay for his gasoline. Good morning, sir. What is your name, please?
D.E. My name is Dick Everyman.
W. C. Mr. Everyman, would you mind answering a few questions for the Dresden Mills Gazette?
D. E. Okay.
W. C. Are you a registered voter?
D. E. Yes, I am.
W. C. What is your opinion of the people who are running for the Presidency of the United States?
D. E. Depends. Which one?
W. C. How about the Republican nominee?
D. E. I think in his dotage he’s raising McCain.
W. C. And the Democrat?
D. E. Lots of racists are afraid we’re turning into an Obama nation.
W. C. How about his running mate?
D. E. He should start Biden time before he blurts again.
W. C. How about the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee?
D. E. She started out pale, and she’s still Palin. The depth of her ignorance is appalling.
W. C. How do you feel about the bailout of the country’s financial institutions taking place right now?
D. E. I thought the Bush League had finished looting the national treasury, but I was wrong. And they’re going to get away with it again.
W. C. What’s your opinion of the Secretary of the Treasury?
D. E. He, too, apPauls, son.
W. C. Which party do you think you’ll vote for in this election?
D. E. Well, in the recent past I’ve voted Green, but they’ve reached their Nader once too often.
W. C. Then you’re undecided?
D. E. Hell, no! If you think I want a third term sitting in the Bushes with McCain and his sugar, you’re crazy.
W. C. Thank you for your time, Mr. Everyman.
D. E. Welcome. How much do I owe you for gas?
IN THIS POLITICAL SEASON we might do very well to review some of the things we hear every day on all the media. Many of them are called,
Rhetorical
Fallacies: Logical fallacies are those that stem from faulty reasoning; material
fallacies are errors that are
caused by flaws in the subject matter; psychological fallacies appeal to the biases and emotions of the
audience. Argumentative fallacies
include the ad hominem, which
attempts to transfer the burden of the argument away from the issue in question
to an attack on the person opposing the speaker or writer: "It's all very
well for Newt Gingrich to espouse 'family values,' but wasn't he raised by a
single mother? Didn't he divorce
his wife when she became ill? And
why does he deplore the Lesbian life style — is it not his sister's?" In the appeal to authority (a church authority proclaiming a doctrine does so
ex cathedra, "from the pulpit"), the essayist cites
a person with an impressive reputation in the field; ipse dixit
is a forceful assertion that an authority has said a particular thing and that
it is therefore so, without offering proof. The appeal to force threatens the audience with dire consequences. The
appeal to humor is a
diversionary tactic that directs the attention away from the question in
hand. The appeal to ignorance avers that the argument must be true because the
opponent cannot prove it is false.
The appeal to pity
attempts to enlist the sympathy of the audience at the expense of reason:
"Yes, it is true that this young woman at the age of fourteen bludgeoned
her mother to death with a hammer, but though she is still young, she has paid
her debt to society and deserves an education. Why did Harvard revoke her application when it discovered
she had committed matricide?"
The appeal to
tradition plays to conservative
feelings. The bandwagon fallacy is the argument that the audience ought to do as others have done.
The either / or fallacy is a reductio
ad absurdum, reducing a
complicated thesis to only two choices: "Either all women are feeling
creatures, or they are not. If
they are not, they are not women." Equivocation utilizes the same term in two different ways:
"Walter is the lover of Jennifer, but Jennifer is a lover of
clothes."
The faulty cause is the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy — “after this, therefore because of this”: “In the twelve years since
Mario Cuomo took office as Governor of New York State the ability of students
to read has plummeted throughout the nation." The faulty hidden
generalization has a false missing
premise in the enthymeme: "He displays the American flag, so he must be
patriotic."
Name calling uses cues and stereotypes to impugn an opponent. A non sequitur is a conclusion that does not follow from the premise or proposition on which an argument is based, as in the catachretic syllogism discussed above. The red herring is a deliberate and irrelevant distraction from the true subject or argument. The rigged question is a a verbal trap that requires a conclusion of guilt no matter how it is answered: "Do you beat your wife, or do you merely abuse her by shouting at her?" A straw man is a setup, something erected so as to be easily destroyed, such as an argument so preposterous as to be refuted seemingly without effort: “My opponent believes that all people are created equal, which is an easy thing for a person born into wealth to argue. What about those of us who are born into poverty?”— from The Book of Literary Terms: The Genres of Fiction, Drama, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism and Scholarship, www.UPNE.com, 1999 ISBN 0874519551, quality paperback, $23.95, 224 pages. A Choice “Outstanding academic title” for 2000. A companion volume to The Book of Dialogue and The Book of Forms.
The pathetic
fallacy is absurd or overstated personification (prosopopœia); that is, the endowment of objects or animals with
human qualities (anthropomorphism), often through cues (“motherhood,” “Old Glory,” “apple pie”) which are meant to
induce automatic sentimental responses in the reader. A distinction is to be made between the terms sentiment and sentimentality. The
former is a feeling of tenderness whereas sentimentality is an excess of
sentiment, overstated sympathy. For
instance, in the phrase, “The little white cloud that cried,” little, cloud,
and cried are cues.
Similarly, in Joyce Kilmer’s “Trees" which is a series of rhymed aphorisms rather than a poem, the uncritical reader will see the tree as, simultaneously, a mother-figure (“A nest of robins in her hair”), an infant-figure (“...whose mouth is pressed / Against the earth’s sweet-flowing breast”), and an orant; that is, a praying figure (“...that looks at God all day). A bit of thought, however, will combine the images and piece together a monster that has hair for leaves, eyes tangled in the hair, its mouth at the bottom of an elongated head whose mouth is buried in the earth, and so forth. — from The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics, Third edition, www.UPNE.com, 2000. ISBN 1584650222, quality paperback, $23.95, 337 pages. “The Poet’s Bible," A companion volume to The Book of Dialogue and The Book of Literary Terms.
TREES by Joyce Kilmer
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
For a current perfect example of the pathetic fallacy, hit this link:
http://www.writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2008/08/29
Cartoons by Socrates Samson from Poetry: An Introduction through Writing by Lewis Turco, Reston VA: Reston Publishing Company, copyright 1973; all rights reserved.
____________________________________________________________________________
COMMENTS
Lew,
Where does the abuse of lofty-sounding phrases like we're just arguing about semantics here fall? Ironically, I have argued with many people about just what that means as they use it to stop a discussion when they realize they've lost their way. I also recall a discussion on your blog about what the exception proves the rule really means after it was offered as a ham-handed way of getting out of an argumentative dead-end.
I'd be curious to see what others find as dismissive and hollow as those.
Paul
“Semantics,” Paul, means “the meanings of words.” Definitions. I guess you’d have to say that “we're just arguing about semantics here” would be a tautology: ending where you started. Or maybe we’ll have to invent a term such as a “deconstructionism” — this, too, is from The Book of Literary Terms:
Deconstruction, a term coined by the French critic Jacques Derrida (1930-2004 during the 1960s, is a theory of literary criticism, based upon the "difference" postulated by Saussure, that disputes the critical assumption that language can carry meaning in and of itself. Words have reference only to other words and not to objects or ideas: “In deconstruction, the critic claims there is no meaning to be found in the actual text, but only in the various, often mutually irreconcilable, ‘virtual texts’ constructed by readers in their search for meaning,” according to Rebecca Goldstein. One of the techniques used by such critics to prove that words undermine one another is the identification of binary oppositions within a text to show, first, that there is a hierarchy of terminology ("John saw the world in terms of black and white"); second, the inversion of the hierarchy in order to reverse the meaning of the original terms ("John saw the world in terms of white and black"), and, third, the neutralization of both terms nonhierarchically ("John saw the world in terms of whack"). In this case, the neutralization is a portmanteau word, q.v.
J. Douglas Kneale
declares that "Reading is an act that critics perform vis-à-vis texts but
also something that texts perform on themselves in those moments when they
declare and at the same time dispute their status as language." But this statement — if one understands
its meaning — is like Emerson's regarding the ability of the poem to choose its
own form, for "texts" cannot perform anything "on"
themselves because they are not sentient.
Everything "in" a text occurs not in the text but in the mind of
the reader. A mind duplicates, or
attempts to duplicate, what occurred in the mind of a writer as it is reflected
in a text. Furthermore, if a text
deconstructs itself and therefore has no meaning, then there is no point in
reading literature, or in writing criticism, for it is meaningless, like all
other texts, like this text.
Very interesting, Lew, and clearly defined, with examples! But you omitted "Swift-boating," or maybe that's simply a category under "lying."
I thought the Dem. convention was splendid, especially last night. Will have to brace myself with a bourbon or two to watch the Rep. one, though.
Rhina
If there is one, Rhina.
Gustav appears to be getting ready to wipe out New Orleans again right in the
middle of it.
As to the term "lying," I prefer the euphemism "prevarication" because it sounds more like a term that should appear in an academic handbook.
Dear Lew,
Thank you for including me in this email. I recall some of the fallacies from Wayne Booth's The Rhetoric of Fiction (which I read for a 'Form and Theory of the Novel' class back in graduate school) and a useful reminder. I also enjoyed reading your review of Rhina's latest book as well as your spare tetrameter couplets on William Clinton (kudos for your rhyme for Bill's last name!).
Warm regards,
Don
McCain has just picked as his running mate the forty-four year old female first-time governor of Alaska who has been in office a year and a half. So much for his judgment. How does he argue, from now on, that Obama doesn't have enough experience to be Commander in Chief?
MC CAIN IS A COMPLETE IDIOT! THIS IS THE DAN QUAYLE THING ALL OVER AGAIN, DOUBLED!
Unbelievable.
Lew
Lew:
I just read the announcement and I am near to being dumbfounded…. Double standards — what?
I suspect that McBlame thinks that Sarah P will insure that he gets all of the disaffected Hillary voters. He's going to be in for a big surprise (I hope and pray).
Jerry
Yes, bad judgment, but you can see the reason he was told to pick her: a woman. He thinks he'll get the Hillary vote. It also tells the Hillary people that they are stupid and will just vote for a beauty queen with as much experience in politics as one of Michelle Obama's little girls. I think Republicans, and especially conservatives, are about as ready to move to Europe for good as we left winger socialists have been these past 7 1.2 years.
John
Lew,
"...threw away the election"? Let's hope so! From your lips to God's ears! But nothing surprises me any more, after Al Gore lost to The Village Idiot in 2000. But why are you surprised?
Rhina
I’m surprised because I’ve been hoping McCain would do this ever since I heard Palin was in the mix last night. I am astonished that I got my wish! I had no idea I had such telepathic power!
Lew
Egads, Lew...could it be he's trying to promote a Republican Hillary? I don't know anything about her except what I've just read — I'm not sure that just being "tenacious" will be enough — the man is 72 years old! is she really qualified to sit in the oval office should he not be able to? Looks like a May/December political courtship. It's scary all right. I hope she knows how to spell "potato" — or is it "potatoe"? — ask Dan Quayle, he knew — or did he?
Ann
Lew,
Thanks for your note. It really energized me after five hospital visits since March 7 this year and with latest discharge on August 23. Even my daily RN visit didn't turn me on as much as you have.
Just as a leopard cannot change its spots, Most Elite Senator Obama (Obummer) and Joe (I'm just bidin' my time, cause that's the kind of guy I'm) Biden haven't lived long enough to know let alone solve America's problems, or have had no impact on foreign policy despite over thirty years in the Senate. Here is my racist remark: We do not need to allow the fallacy equal opportunity any role in the choice of president, which is the hidden message in everything Obama has ever said. Do you really believe that he is not an opportunist who will say or do anything to get elected? After we finally really get rid of the Jackson's and the Sharpton's how long will we have to put up with people passing for spokesmen of people of color who are not really "black" but only half there[?] I could vote for Cosby or Powell who are more mainstream American than Obummer can ever be.
I suspect that you will find that the major failing that Palin has is that she is a mother of many (right to life), a hockey Mom (who should stay at home), a foward-looking environmentalist (drill in Anwar), has high political ethics ("If we wanted a bridge to nowhere, we would build it ourselves"), a supporter of the Second Amendment (lifelong NRA member), and experienced in the vicissitudes of life (as any good wife certainly is). You are lucky that Obummer came along so that you would not be conflicted about Sen. Clinton's audacious run for president (18 million votes).
Really, I do not think that I am as out of touch with reality as you are. My advice: stick to poetry because you have been on the wrong side of America since JFK.
Enjoy,
Ray
Ray,
Although you’ve spent most of your life as an evangelical preacher, you went to college and used to be a journalist, so I’m surprised you don’t remember that there are no apostrophe’s in plural’s, not even in “its,” and especially not in “Jackson’s” and “Sharpton’s”.
Did you read my list of rhetorical fallacies? Quiz: What would you call “Obummer”?
I’m sorry you’ve spent so much recent time in the hospital, but I’m pleased, despite your health and religious problems, that you are lucid enough to recognize that you’re a racist. My dad was a preacher too, you’ll remember from high school, but he never managed to get anywhere near as far away from Christian charity as you. (In fact, to the best of my recollection, he never got away from it at all.)
As to my being “lucky that Obummer [sic] came along so that [I] would not be conflicted about Sen. Clinton's audacious run for president (18 million votes),” I have been for Senator Obama ever since he gave the keynote address at the last Democratic convention, so I have never been conflicted about Hillary’s run. Try to remember that Senator Obama announced his candidacy before Hillary did.
You say that I’ve been “out of touch with reality” and “on the wrong side of America since JFK”; since I turned twenty-one (the same year you did), besides John F. Kennedy I have voted for Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton, so I guess you’ve been out of touch with America as much as I have, as you certainly are this year.
I’m happy I’ve managed to energize you, Ray,
Ever your friend,
Lew
P. S. I still have the Mossberg .22 caliber rifle I owned when you and I were on the Meriden High School rifle team and members of the N.R.A., before we joined the Navy together after our graduation.
Lew,
But a comment on the great site
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com
captures the upside: "She looks nice with her hair up, and those naughty librarian glasses."
Dave
Lew,
I couldn't agree more.
Jess
Lew,
I recognize these fallacies. Thanks for spelling them out so clearly. What do you think of McCain's running mate and his choice of running mate?
Alice
Take another look at my blog, Alice. Lots of stuff gone on there today.
New computer?
Lew
Wow, Lew,
Great remarks going there on your blog. In the future I will remember to keep scrolling down the blog.
Years ago I went to a chiropractor I didn't know who asked me, "Did you know that chiropractic can cure asthma?" I thought immediately of the "When did you stop beating your wife?" question and didn't attempt to answer. Now I know this kind of question is called a rigged question.
No new computer, yet. Mine is still limping along okay. I press the big button to start it up and it whirrs, but doesn't come up. Then I push the little restart button and it starts up just fine. Logic board is causing this, but it may limp along long enough for me to save $ towards a new one, instead of using a charge card. I'm going to get the MacBookPro just like yours.
Alice
Actually, Alice,
The chiropractor’s question was a rhetorical question, the answer to which is known — in this case the known answer is, “No.” In Broadway terms, it is a “Known ‘No,’ Nanette” question.
Lew
Lew,
The Governor's selection comes amidst the brewing Alaskan scandal (something like Teapot Dome?) wherein the Senator (Stevens), who amongst other great achievements engineered the "Bridge to Nowhere,” and his son (President of Alaska's state senate), and some other scalawag cronies, managed to get yet-to-be-determined large amounts of money from Veco (an oil company-serving corporation in Alaska) for "services rendered." Will the Governor-now-GOP-VP candidate escape? This may the best thing that has happened for Obama!
Ralph
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