I'm starting to understand why all my friends are leaving the country.

Is Florida on the way to becoming the next Florida? Here's some stuff.

This is not in the least big surprising, but it is frightening.

I've been waiting for this since the beginning of the "war on terror," wondering when they were going to start including domestic political activists in the definition of potential terrorists.

I don't know what to say.

And something I haven't done in awhile...

What I've been reading: Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer, Gulliver's Travels by Jonathon Swift, The Ambassadors by Henry James, The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman, All He Ever Wanted by Anita Shreve, The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde, Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion.

I attempted to calculate how many books I've read since I learned to read. I came up with 4,160. In the "I'm slightly obsessive" category: I wish I'd kept track of every book I ever read since the day I read my first book. That'd be interesting, wouldn't it...

Alright, alright. I'm horrifically embarrassed to admit that I even thought of watching this moving, much less having spent an hour and a half actually doing so, but man. The Mandy Moore phenomenon that is "How To Deal" shored up almost every point I made in my thesis so perfectly, how can I not mention it?

I knew this movie would be bad, but I had no idea just how bad it would really be. I thought bad in a "Clueless" kind of way. Maybe even in a "Freaky Friday" kind of way. Oh no. It was bad in a "why am I watching this shlocky badness?" kind of way. The screenwriters seemed to never have met a teenage person ever in their lives. The predictability factor was off the charts. For the love of buddha, it was bloody awful.

But here's why I'm writing about it anyway: there are some very basic themes that prevade in "female coming-of-age stories written in the past decade." These include divorced, inept parents, who can't teach their daughters how to truly love another person; young girls learning how to trust other people; young girls tormented by popular, bitchy other girls; young girls with fathers who aren't willing to grow up; young girls whose mothers are experiencing the same dating/relationship things (and hence are not much in the way of role models); on and on ad nauseum.

My god, this movie fit into my thesis perfectly. How can I not write about it, despite it's inherent, unacceptable, painful badness?

(And as an aside: After having spent the past few years examining female coming-of-age stories in the past decade in literature, might it be worthwhile to study it in real life, too?)

In the "Completely Pointless Thoughts" category:
Y'know when someone wins a big monetary prize, or donates a lot of money to a foundation, how the exchange of very large fake cardboard checks is often involved? Um, why? Where did this bizarre symb0lic ritual originate? Does the size of the piece of cardboard ever correspond to the monetary value of the donation? Whose idea was this?

Wow. Everything you ever wanted to know about food safety. And crossing the border with meat and poulty.

(Yes, it's USDA day. I'm that bored.)

And in the "Bureaucracy is Confusing" category: the USDA administers food stamps, WIC, the school lunch program, and several other similar programs. Wouldn't you think programs like these would be under the auspices of the Department of Health and Human Services? I would. The USDA also deals with housing and telecommunications issues in rural America, something I would, were I in charge of these things, likely assign to, oh, say the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

No wonder it's so hard to get anything done.

Hm. Another fun fact: South Dakota has more cattle than people.

Some interesting statistics from the 2002 USDA Census of Agriculture:

"Ninety percent of farms are operated by an individual or family. The number of corporate farms declined by 18.4 percent from 1997 to 2002, which reverses a trend that has continued without interruption since 1974.

Direct sales to consumers increased 37 percent from 1997, totaling $812.2 million in 2002.

The value of organically produced commodities reached $392.8 million in 2002. "

I have been thinking a lot lately about agriculture (call it a side effect of my trip to Iowa), and specifically about sustainable agriculture. I started wondering whether recent moves toward organic farming, and greater publicity of CSAs and farmers' markets, were making an impact on agriculture trends of the past decade. Reading Fast Food Nation a few times certainly instilled in me the desire to know better where my food is coming from. And after eating locally-grown organic produce, and realizing that the difference really is tremendous, I thought a transition away from corporate farms was inevitable.

It looks like maybe, for once, I was right.

(The USDA website is kind of interesting. But maybe only t0 me...)

From Washingtonpost.com:

"While local police were providing security for the candidates at the morning events [in Davenport, Iowa], three nearby banks were robbed within a one-hour period. Authorities provided few details of the holdups and declined to say how much money was taken."

Hee hee hee.

I'm always a sucker for a funny quote:

From The New York Times Online:

'"This shows that unless we do something now - or it may very well be too late - Florida is headed toward being the next Florida," said Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, a lawyer who is the chairwoman of the coalition.'
 

Ok, I haven't written anything here in a long, long time. I guess I just haven't had much to say.

I'm pleased with the selection of John Edwards as Kerry's running mate. I think they've made a very balanced ticket, and the choice definitely increased the likelihood of a Democratic win this November.

I was out in the midwest this weekend, for a family reunion (I'll put some fun soybean field pictures up somewhere shortly), and, of course, started talking politics with my dad. My parents live in San Diego, a highly conservative city, which is a huge contrast from where I live, in Boston. I think we've been entertaining opposite feelings about the upcoming election, largely because of the kinds of politics with which we're surrounded: Dad's almost certain Bush will win again, and I'm almost certain he'll go down in flames (ok, I don't really think he'll lose that badly, but I feel sure he'll lose). Of course, our prophesies about this election have a lot to do with the people we're around, and I've long been aware that those in Massachusetts might not represent the rest of the country. I was curious to see what people in Sioux Falls, South Dakota think about Bush, and where they're planning on throwing their votes.

Both my Dad and I were surprised to discover that many, many people in South Dakota (usually a Republican state, despite Daschle's long tenure as Senator) are almost as rabidly anti-Bush as we are. My uncle Paul, an ex-Army man and ROTC teacher, vehemently decried Bush as "dumb as a rock." In fact, my dad told me the only person he spoke to who was planning on voting Republican was a crazy pro-life woman wandering the streets at midnight, shouting about Jesus and the dead babies.

This gives me great hope.

Boston's not nearly as hectic with the DNC as I was expecting. I was even early to work this morning, because no one was on the trains. It's empty around here. A comedian at the MW last night said to check out this website, showing the streets of Boston, to see what it will be like here after the zombies come.

I'm tired and I'm going home.

I'm in love with T.S. Eliot. It sucks being in love with a dead guy.

He was only 23 when he wrote 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.'

I'm not one to say "vast right-wing conspiracy," but...

From Washingtonpost.com:

"While drafted in terms applicable mainly to the case before it, the opinion [of the court, regarding Cheney's 2001 energy task force and the request for documents regarding that task force to be turned over,] revealed a court now sympathetic to the White House's need to insulate itself from lawsuits. In 1997, the court ruled 9 to 0 that President Bill Clinton would not be unduly hampered by Paula Jones's lawsuit for sexual harassment he had allegedly committed while governor of Arkansas; yesterday, the court warned of 'meritless claims against the executive branch.'"

(Oh, ok, I am one to say "vast right-wing conspiracy.")

We went to see the new HP this weekend, and, as usual, the empress and I had entirely opposite reactions. Where I thought it was lovely and more visually, hmm, stimulating than the first two, I found there to be more gaps in the narration, more holes, the story moving too quickly, not as compelling. It's as though there was simply too much story to put into a movie, so they decided to focus on making it very, very pretty. And of course C thought that narratively, it was the best of the three. I will never understand how we can walk out of a theater together feeling as though we'd seen two completely different movies.

I really wanted to go down to the MW afterwards, but curses! They were having some silly Hyde Park Community fund raiser and everyone was wearing hula shirts and leis. No thank you. We ended up sitting in the arboretum until 2:30 in the morning, drinking beer and talking about every random thing. Despite the plethora of bugbites I now find myself covered with, we had a spectacular night. It's our new summer night hang out. Who needs crowded, noisy bars when there's the arboretum right there?

I've been reading Nancy Mitford the past few days, and am finding myself thinking like a turn-of-the-century British aristocrat. These novels are actually pretty fun to read. It's like stepping into a world completely different from my own, but in the opposite way from reading Mahfouz. It's all landed gentry and coming-out balls and marriage marriage marriage (but only the right and proper kind). Very fascinating. And Mitford writes with the most subtle, quiet wit, I absolutely adore it. It all feels very frivolous and fun, in the way "The Nanny Diaries" was supposed to be last weekend. Instead, "The Nanny Diaries" just made me sad (there are people in this world who should never give birth). Nancy Mitford is perfect summer reading.

Hmmm. Burnt coffee...it smells like hot dogs. Has anyone ever noticed this? Why is this? What is the connection between burnt coffee and processed pork products? Discuss.

In the "oh, so that's who our vice president is" files:

From Washingtonpost.com:

"You know who the White House thinks should pay for their deficit? They think it ought to be children in Head Start, women with young babies who need nutritional help, veterans who need health care. . . . And if you think that's compassionate conservatism, then Dick Cheney is Mr. Rogers." - John F. Kerry

Heh. Heh heh.

From Washingtonpost.com:

"During the Clinton years, Jeremy Tuck said he had been selling mobile homes in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and, at $45,000 a year, making good money. Last year, he was assembling mobile homes, earning $15,000 and living hand-to-mouth. But Bush has his vote this November. Had Gore been elected in 2000, Tuck said, 'we would've been taken over by Saddam Hussein or [Osama] bin Laden.' "

Yup. Definitely would have been taken over by Saddam Hussein. It was soley the aegis of Dubya that prevented us from becoming A-rabs. If them stinkin' liberals had been in power, the United States of America would have been left unprotected. Hell! those stinkin' liberals prolly woulda LET them A-rabs in. They woulda INVITED 'em! We'd all be worshippin' Allah and sendin' our kids to Israel with bombs strapped to their chests.

Should one laugh at these kinds of sentiments, or just feel supremely sorrowful?

Alright, curse me if you will for being irreverant in the face of a man's death, but, truth be told, I never had much love for Mr. Reagan, anyway.

I can't help but reflect on the irony of the false security alert that occurred just before Reagan's service in Washington. Todd Purdum, in the New York Times, describes it like this:

In a vivid sign of the intense anxiety over security, a little more than two hours before the service was to begin the entire Capitol and adjoining offices were hastily evacuated in what turned out to be a false alarm. The Federal Aviation Administration said a radio transmitter had malfunctioned on a Beech King aircraft belonging to the Kentucky State Police as it neared Washington airspace. The device is supposed to identify the craft to air controllers, but it failed intermittently, prompting a heightened alert.

Capitol police officers, shouting "Airborne threat, four minutes out!" ordered an evacuation as loud alarms sounded, and dozens of dignitaries and former Reagan aides gathered in a reception room near the Senate floor went running down the north steps of the Senate wing. In dark suits and black dresses, mourners including former Attorney General Edwin Meese III, former Vice President Dan Quayle and Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, the former ambassador to the United Nations, hustled into the muggy late afternoon sunshine, with men shucking their jackets and women under orders to remove high heels if they could not run in them.

"They came in screaming at us like you can't believe," said Margaret D. Tutwiler, the former State Department spokeswoman, who with the others returned to the building when the alert was lifted after several minutes. "They said, 'you can't walk, you have to run.'"

The irony's not immediately clear?

Reagan's administration was responsible for some of the worse foreign policy offenses, especially in the Middle East. I'm not saying the intense hatred for America in Islamic countries is the fault of Reagan and his ilk; the reasons for that go much farther back and are the fault of far more than one person. But Reagan sure didn't help, and I do think that the "war on terror" we're currently facing likely wouldn't be happening were it not for some of the decisions and movements made during his administration.

Now we live in a state of constant alert, constant fear, seeing danger in every malfunctioning state police aircraft. It seems fitting that this fear should disrupt the funereal atmosphere of a man who helped make it so.

Maybe I just haven't had enough coffee this morning, and am making random, unfeasible connections here. Whatever. I thought it was funny.