Bolton in Trouble?
Laura Rozen at War and Piece has been watching the Bolton hearings (he's nominated by Bush to be UN ambassador), in which Republican Carl Ford said that he had "never seen anyone so abusive to a subordinate" as Bolton. If you want to know what's happening there, give it a read. (via Kevin Drum)

UPDATE: Chafee (the only Republican thought likely to vote no in committee--and only one is needed) says he's still voting yes, so it's probably a done deal. Sounds pretty cowardly--people who think he may switch parties are dreaming. He's GOP through and through. This vote is just a case in point.

If Chris Shays' gamble doesn't pay off though, and he's run out of the leadership, persona non grata in the Republican Party, he may be the one to jump ship. I'd take him.

Mario Cuomo
A great moment on Bill Maher's show last weekend, in an interview with Mario Cuomo. Bill was noting Cuomo's religious convictions as a Catholic, despite his not agreeing with many of the pronouncements of the church. He seemed to think that "picking and choosing" the things you want to believe from a religion was somewhat missing the point. I'm paraphrasing, but the exchange went something like this:

Maher: Why would you buy the raisin bread if you're just going to pick out all the raisins?
Cuomo (after an appropriate dramatic pause): you do it for the bread, Bill.

Maybe you had to be there, but it was the perfect response, and in one phrase summed up the barriers that separate the decidedly non-religious, the radically fundamental religious, and the religious/spiritual like Cuomo who recognize a difference between the calling of faith and the rules of a religion. I'm not sure that anyone in any one of those three categories truly understands the thought process of those in one of the other two.

If you miss Cuomo like I do, and want to relive the glory days, here is the text to his famous Convention speech from 1984.

Ha!
A campaign for a new stadium name baseball's newest team, the Washington Nationals:
Taxation without Representation Field! I like it. (via Yglesias)

MEDIA MONDAY

What have you been listening to, reading, or watching?

Doug recommends Downfall: Hitler and the End of the Third Reich
Stevie T Steven P recommends, tearfully with allergies, "My Sister's Keeper"
Lewberry recommends "Bloody Sunday"
George W. Bush recommends The Knack.

Rare Music Site
Check out chromewaves.net -- each week there is a new rare mp3 posted; only one per week. I'm sorry I missed last week, a Radiohead cover of EC's "I'll Wear it Proudly."

"You Gotta Fight the Powers that Be"
Hopefully saving the legacy of Public Enemy from becoming Flavor Flav's bizarre reality-tv romance with Brigitte Nielson, the Library-of-Congress-appointed National Recording Preservation Board has tapped the great rap band's most accomplished recording, "Fear of a Black Planet" for inclusion in the National Recording Registry. Each year, since 2002, 50 recordings have been selected for preservation. The 2004 entries were announced last week. In addition to Public Enemy's 1989 album, Article 19 favorites include Nirvana's Nevermind, The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, James Brown Live at the Apollo, Glenn Miller's In the Mood, and especially Harry Partch's US Highball. You may remember, in a troublesome post from way back when, I pointed to a great Harry Partch site--he experimented with tuning ratios that were based on Pythagorean ratios and other whole number approaches, not the equal-tempered system we use today. He constructed his own instruments to that end. You can view the first 2 years of the registry here.

Book Recommendations Please [UPDATED]
A little prematurely--because there are still 4 weeks left until my grades are turned in and it's officially summer--I am looking forward to having the time to read actual books for a month or so at least, once May gets here. I still have a book about the great flu epidemic to finish, and after that I want to read something new - new authors, new topics. So what do you suggest? I would like both fiction and non-fiction suggestions, but prefer to avoid books about the present state of world, or American, affairs. I already think about that too much, and don't want to be as depressed as that makes me, not so early in the summer. It will already be a cloud hanging over my news-junkie intake.

UPDATE: Metacritics says the way to go is: Fiction: Ian McEwen's Saturday; Non-Fiction: David B's Epileptic. But I would prefer to get recommendations from people I could blame thank more directly, so jump in.

Doc-Day and the other Peterson case
Not that I'm suggesting you give your Monday over to TV, but if you get the Sundance Channel, Monday is Documentary Day. I only found that out last weekend when I caught the first installment (of 4) of a new film called "The Staircase," about a North Carolina man charged with murdering his wife--he claims she fell down the stairs. It is absolutely riveting and horrifying. In the spirit of The Thin Blue Line, or Brother's Keeper, or Paradise Lost, it's a case study in a justice system fixed on a target, and you watch developments as they unfold. He may be guilty--I don't know how this true story plays out. But if he's innocent, this drama is about the most terrifying thing I can imagine happening (beloved wife dies in his arms from a brutal accident, and then he's helpless against charges that he is responsible), second only to if he's guilty, in which case he has her entire family fooled into supporting him strongly. (If you know how the trial turns out, don't tell me!)

Straight Men Heart Broadway
Finally, men have found a broadway show they want to see. It seems to be taking hold as a compromise: the wife wants to see a show; the husband says ok, so long as it's Spamalot.

[A]vid theatergoers, including many gay men, will go to see almost any musical regardless of subject matter, young straight men not in the habit of seeing plays seem to need some assurance that they will find something familiar and likable. And what could be a safer bet than a guy movie like "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"?

Still, Harvey Fierstein wonders about the state of mind of the 20-something male who would attend:

"If I were of frat boy age and I had $100, would I opt for a Broadway ticket or would I want to spend that on booze and drugs?" Mr. Fierstein asked. "Even I, and I am as gay as a pink leather piñata, would choose booze and drugs."

Weekend Box Office
1. Sahara
2. Sin City
3. Fever Pitch
4. Guess Who
5. Beauty Shop

15. Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda (opened in Nashville this past weekend; I went to see it, but had the time wrong and missed it...maybe this week)

Anybody see any of these?

Project Greenlight
Finally caught last week's episode (#4) last night (they've moved the date to Thursday). I am starting to wonder what relationship the show actually has to the reality of the making of this film. Obviously every conflict is played up to make for drama, and the preview scenes from next week make filming look like a disaster. And yet, when I read the participants' blogs (written now after the fact - with the film presently in post-production), they refer only to the great job John does. Producer Chris Moore, who does not come off as a Gulager fan by any means, writes "I think you guys will all see that John did a great job." Screenwriter Marcus Dunstan says that Gulager "embraces each of the actors as part of his creative family" and writer Patrick Melton says, of the upcoming weeks of shooting, "it's finally time to...watch John spin his magic."

They don't sound like 3 team members who felt like Gulager failed, or is hopeless as a director. So, either they hyped the sense of disaster to keep us watching the show, or they're lying now so there's at least a chance someone will go and see it. Either way, it makes for decent TV but one of the stupidest movie marketing plans ever. You can't badmouth a movie project for months on national TV and then expect people to actually want to go see it. And if they are just going to try and put on a happy face now in public, or online, to control the damage, it's too late if the film does actually suck.

I suppose there is a third option, that they are telling the truth in both instances, and things dramatically turn for the better in the next few weeks. That's what I'm hoping for, and the reason I watch the show. If/when those hopeful things are actually happening, they would do well to put them in the show.

If you want to catch up, on Thursday (Bravo Network) they will show episodes 3 and 4 at 3 and 4 pm Eastern time before the new episode (#5) at 10 pm. On May 1, they will back up and show from episode 2 on. So get those VCRs ready.

Tennessee Legislature Update
The good news? I received an email update tonight saying that a compromise voting rights bill will be up for a vote in the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday at 3:30 (anyone who can attend the hearing to show support is encourage. Davidson County Democrats will have people there). This is the result of a considerable effort of grassroots, organized lobbying to improve the laws which presently keep convicted felons from being elegible to vote without extraordinary effort in petitioning a circuit court judge. Sadly this first step will not cover those still on parole or on probation, only those who have completed their entire sentence (that was the compromise), but it is still a first step.

The bad news? Our legislature seems intent on intruding on marriage. The predictable gay marriage amendment will be on the ballot in 2006, but beyond that there is a bizarre covenant marriage bill pending that would be a new marriage option (like choosing the power windows on the car) making it more difficult to get a divorce. Presumably, conservative churches would counsel their members that if they are not ready to enter into that special super-promise marriage, then maybe they're not ready at all. But really, they just want to end the scourge that is divorce.

But my favorite, while they're at it, is new legislation that will entitle a person to damages should their spouse cheat.

What exactly do they hope to accomplish by trying to force couples to stay together? When did this become part of the job of government: building a higher bureaucratic wall around divorce, and trying to threaten unhappy spouses? I'm all for marriage--I think we should let more folks who want to enter into a personal covenant of love and commitment and family join in the party; but I'm just about sick of these yahoos who run for State office and see it as nothing more than a chance to turn their sunday school discussions into new law, come Monday.

If they insist, though, maybe they should explore some of the many areas in which the job of government and the cares of religion definitely intersect: in helping those who can't help themselves, and treating every person with dignity and respect.

We have a health insurance system in shambles, a struggling education system that lags behind almost every other state in almost every category, and a revenue system that would be laughable if it weren't so borderline cruel. And these bozos insist on trying to solve all our problems by tinkering with marriage.

Cutting their losses?
Both kinds of Republicans are starting to distance themselves from Hot Tub Tom Delay:
The crazy wacko right-wing kind, like Santorum:
"I think he has to come forward and lay out what he did and why he did it."

and the slightly less crazy right-wing kind, like Shays:
"He is an absolute embarrassment to me and to the Republican Party," Rep. Christopher Shays (R) of Connecticut told a constituents at a townhall meeting in Greenwich on Saturday.

"Do I think Tom DeLay will be the majority leader by the end of this term? No," Shays went on to say. "I don't think Tom DeLay is going to survive."

And even his cohorts are tiring of his self-righteous posturing:
"Everybody is lying," [Jack] Abramoff told a former colleague...."Those S.O.B.s," Abramoff said last week about DeLay and his staffers, according to his luncheon companion. "DeLay knew everything. He knew all the details."

Let's not forget which Republicans voted in caucus to change the ethics rules to let him keep his leadership position.

Nature Hikes and Unavoidable Truth
The sun is out, 75 degrees--so I'm thinking I have to get outside, right? So, about 1.25 miles into a 2 mile trek at the park, it occurs to me that I really am an avid indoorsman.

Saturday Multiple Choice Quiz
Guess which of the following is true:
A. Long-time conservative Republican consultant marries his gay lover in a Massachussetts civil ceremony (was concerned about benefits)
B. Bush's EPA choice reluctantly agrees to end a program that tests the effects of bug spray and other pesticides on infant children.
C. Republicans seek mass impeachment of all judges who do not believe in a "living constitution," apparently preferring a dead democracy.
D. All--of--the--above

Nissan
Sad to say, my fabulous Nissan Sentra may have to be replaced one of these days. I am only about a half of a week away from crossing over 175,000 miles. I assume that eventually something will go wrong with it (though maybe not!). I have assumed that when the mournful day comes, I will find another Nissan, and why not, given how well this one has held up?

But today, I got a reason why not. Nissan has come rushing to the aid of none other than Tom Delay with 5 grand for his legal defense fund. Other companies can be found at the new anti-Delay site, dropthehammer.org. It shares info on the dense layers of corruption that surround him.

Is there a responsible inexpensive car out there, for when the need arises? Or do all the automotive companies support Republicans to avoid increased emission standards?

Changing Odds
The thing about the lottery is, it's just too easy to win. At least they're doing something about it - because that game was really getting boring. Win win win win win win win.

Question
Our earliest known ancestor is believed to have been uncovered in Chad in 2002. The skull is dated at 6 to 7 million years old. Originally thought to be more closely-related to the ape, many scientists now believe Toumai leans on our side of the family.

This kind of thing always makes me wonder just what exactly goes through the mind of a biblical literalist (there are more of them than you would think) upon hearing this kind of information. Do people who believe life is roughly 7,000 years old (and that Noah lived to be 950), or whatever the going calculation is now, think that the carbon dating system is just profoundly inaccurate? A rather inconvenient contemporary failure in light of the truth laid out in Genesis? Or do they think that fossils are God's way of testing our faith? In other words, are today's scientists inept, or are they involved in a grand anti-God conspiracy, or are they just being actively fooled by the Big Man himself, who no doubt chuckles as they dig down and "uncover" more and more stuff they think is really really old?

And, a student recently brought up a "scientific study" that claimed that the human gene pool "bottlenecked" just at the time of "the great flood." (I deftly sidestepped that minefield..). Seriously, what are they thinking? How does the inner logic work? All humans were wiped out except for some on a boat with all of the animals? That's a bit more severe than a "bottleneck", wouldn't you say? Nevermind the more important question...where the hell do they think all the water came from? There's only so much water on the biosphere that is Earth. It doesn't come to us from outer space. If there was enough water to cover all land, wouldn't water in fact be covering all land? I mean, sure, if the icecaps completely melt, and every cloud empties out all of its moisture, I wouldn't want to be in any proximity to the coast, or the Mississippi River. And New Orleans would be pretty well screwed. But, all the humans and the animals wiped out? I don't think so. Anyway, didn't the recent tsunami teach us that animals have a way of anticipating and getting out of the way of such things? Wouldn't God have been in on that feature?

I don't much mind creationists on principle. There's nothing logically inconsistent with believing in evolution and believing that some intelligent being created all life. It's the belief that the big guy must have done it in the way, and time scheme, laid out in The Book that seems so crazy to me. The beginning of Genesis is so clearly a 5-act play. A metaphor. A tradition. An amalgam of ancient stories. So what's the problem? Why is it impossible for a beautiful (or at least interesting) mythology to be worthy of sacred text? Jesus (their favorite) seemed to like passing on the capital-T Truth through story-telling. Why could he not have picked this up from his Dad?

I just don't get the insistence that God went to such pains to tell his story of creation through first and oral and then a written tradition, passed down through translation of language and custom, but then decided to muddy up the system with these pesky fossils. If I sat down with a literalist for an hour or so, could I at least understand the logic that tries to hold that all together? Does anyone have a clue what that structure of beliefs might look like?

UPDATE: Nevermind, I did a little googling, and now I'm kind of sorry that I asked.

Democrats show some spine!
Democrats are not backing down. Read Nancy Pelosi on Bush's insistence that there is no trust fund. (via kos). Atrios has Rep. Defazio getting in on the act, and the two are not only making strong arguments, they almost sound like they have similar talking points. If I didn't know better, I'd think Democrats may be part of an organized team. Imagine that...

And here is Bush himself smirking over the IOU's he has forced onto us.

Wahoo!
Looks like the Sox may get their first win in style: by helping Rivera blow his second straight save. He came in leading 3-2 in the ninth. Now Boston is up on the Yankees 6-3. Yesterday, the Sox blew it in the bottom of the ninth after they had tied it in the top. we'll see about today.

UPDATE: Game over - Sox win, 7-3. This still probably won't quell the panic that has already invaded after 2 games.

Should he stay or should he go?
It's finally become chic in the media to search for evidence of Hot Tub Tom Delay's lack of ethics.
---His pacs have paid his wife and daughter half a million dollars.
---His 1997 trip to Moscow was sponsored by Russian government lobbyists.
---Working for Tom Delay has helped 11 lobbyists rake in 45 million for their firms in 2 years. But, really, his support for their bills was based entirely on principles, not on financial interest.

But the bigger statement I'd like to make is: SLOOOOW DOOOOOOWN. Let's not run him out of town so fast that we don't have him to kick around in the '06 leadup.

Ha Ha
Read the April Fool's day editorial at Scientific American.

In retrospect, this magazine's coverage of so-called evolution has been hideously one-sided. For decades, we published articles in every issue that endorsed the ideas of Charles Darwin and his cronies. True, the theory of common descent through natural selection has been called the unifying concept for all of biology and one of the greatest scientific ideas of all time, but that was no excuse to be fanatics about it. Where were the answering articles presenting the powerful case for scientific creationism? Why were we so unwilling to suggest that dinosaurs lived 6,000 years ago or that a cataclysmic flood carved the Grand Canyon? Blame the scientists. They dazzled us with their fancy fossils, their radiocarbon dating and their tens of thousands of peer-reviewed journal articles. As editors, we had no business being persuaded by mountains of evidence.

I didn't know you could use April 1 for smart-ass day, but I like it. Wish I had thought of that myself.

Americans Heart President Bush
Not.

Making plans
You may have heard that a new study of teenagers and sex is out. Lots of things to talk about there, from parenting concerns to health issues. But I couldn't help but focus in on one sentence:

Almost one-third say they intend to try [oral sex] during the next six months.

What does this mean? Is there like a sign-up sheet, or a waiting list somewhere I don't know about? Or a big oral sex festival scheduled in 5 months? And if so, does anyone have the address?

In Case You Missed It
While we were out having a grand old Media Monday, contemplating interesting art, challenging music, films good and bad, Texas Senator John Cornyn was out smoking crack. Or at least that's the only explanation I can come up with for his decision to blame activist judges for inciting anti-judge violence. Is he insane? What more can you say about these folks when they think a judge shot and killed in Georgia by an angry defendant has only himself to blame for belonging to the same profession as some judges who would later anger Tom Delay (and God)?

Kos has a nice rundown of what some bloggers (including John Conyers!) are saying about this.

Topic: Socialized Medicine
Start with Kevin Drum here and then here and here. Follow all the links in between and then tell me what you think. Has anyone had horrendous experiences in other countries to counter these happy stories? Not having any direct experience myself, it's hard to have an informed opinion. On this point, though, I definitely agree: if we were starting a health care system from scratch and wanted it to be efficient, and make sense, we wouldn't come anywhere near the mess we have now.

MEDIA MONDAY
What have you been reading, listening to, watching?

Lewberry recommends "The Legend of Ron Jeremy" but didn't enjoy "How to Draw a Bunny," a film I have heard mixed things about--I think it's a love it-or hate it kind of film.

Statistically Improbable Phrases
Amazon has a feature Kevin Drum pointed out a few days ago--not sure if it's new, but I had never stumbled across it. For many books that have been scanned into their database system, they provide phrases that appear in the book which are least likely to appear any other book. They are stastically improbable phrases. So, that Rick Warren book, the Purpose-Driven Life, that has been in the news, has SIPs like "real fellowship" and "defeating temptation." And Al Franken's most recent book has SIPs like "corporate speeches" and "insolent pleasure." Italo Calvino's If On a Winter's Night a Traveler offers such phrases as "butter curler" and, surprisingly improbable, "empty grave." Once on the book's page, click on the phrase to see how many times is occurs in that book, and how many times it occurs in other books. I'm sure there's a use for this feature, but until I think of it, it's still fun to play with.

Beck Review
Paste Magazine gives the new album 3 1/2 stars:
But it doesn't seem like they mean it. I still haven't heard it myself.

Aimee Mann
Interview with Salon about her upcoming concept album. It sounds like the kind of thing Elvis Costello would have thought about, and then thought better of. Still, I look forward to it. I'm a fan. Thought Magnolia (the music and the film) was fabulous.

Video Releases
There is an impressive list of films coming out on video this week, including Sideways, Spanglish (which wasn't the greatest, but I liked it better than most seemed to) and The Corporation, the style of which is a little odd, but it's interesting once you get accustomed to it.

Pulitzers Announced
Fiction: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Drama: Doubt, a parable by John Patrick Shanley
History:Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer
Biography: de Kooning: An American Master by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan
Poetry: Delights & Shadows by Ted Kooser
General Non-Fiction: Ghost Wars by Steve Coll
Music: Second Concerto for Orchestra by Steven Stucky
Link I haven't read, seen, or heard a single one, but at least now I know to be on the lookout.

Unusual Art
Johnny Beinart sculpts creatures out of doll parts, and Mitch Fincher builds amazing structures with pennies.

Nerd Watch
liningup.net takes you to the ticket line waiting for the next Star Wars film to premier. Yes, it's 6 weeks away. Apparently the way it works: you sign in for time, and the ticket priority list will be based on the amount of time you spent in line. So you need not be there the entire 6 weeks to et into the first showing, just more of it than most anyone else. via boing boing, who points out that those in line are answering the pay phone: (323) 462-9609

Forbidden Apple
Via Atrios, the NYTimes discusses a never-released album by Fiona Apple, produced by Jon Brion (the part that got my attention), and put to death by Sony for lack of a big hit. Despite their bets efforts, the Internets have got it, and it's a downloading favorite that has critics impressed.

The beats are often waltzes and oom-pahs, not hip-hop or punk; the arrangements are full of cellos, horns, bells and vintage keyboards. Ms. Apple's piano and voice are still at the center of the music, but now orchestras and show bands sprout around her, adding layers of whimsy and artifice.

Weekend Box Office
1. Sin City
2. Beauty Shop
3. Guess Who
4. Robots
5. Miss Congeniality 2

Actually, there was a buzz in my classes today among the students who had seen Sin City over the weekend. Given that most of them are conservative Christian types, I was surprised, but it made me curious. There seemed to be some genuinely thought-provoking discussions going on about it, but maybe it's nothing. Has anyone seen it? Matt Yglesias really liked it. Metacritics scores it a 75 out of 100, which means it has received "generally favorable" reviews.