not a real blog

I don't run in the online circles (YouTube, MySpace) that would have brought this particular person to my attention, and even if I'd seen the source material, I feel certain I wouldn't have gotten much out of it. But this article is a beautiful example of how a journalistic lens can provide the context that twists your heart:

Escape from Real Bitch Island

I lived in Texas for twenty years — less than three of them voluntarily, but that still counts for more than half my life.  I visited in December and it was a lot like visiting someone in a prison I'd escaped a long time ago.  I came back to Seattle and have given thanks almost daily for everything from landscape to politics.

There were only two Texan public figures I ever admired, and now they're both dead.  Smart, sassy, not afraid to say it like it really is, a voice of sanity in the middle of the muck.

Jan. 16, 2003:

"I assume we can defeat Hussein without great cost to our side (God forgive me if that is hubris). The problem is what happens after we win. The country is 20 percent Kurd, 20 percent Sunni and 60 percent Shiite. Can you say, 'Horrible three-way civil war?'"

"Some of you may have heard me observe a time or two — going back to when George W. was still governor of Texas — that the trouble with the guy is that while he is good at politics, he stinks at governance. It bores him, he's not interested, he thinks government is bad to begin with and everything would be done better if it were contracted out to corporations.

"We can now safely assert that W. has stacked much of the federal government with people like himself. And what you get when you put people in charge of government who don't believe in government and who are not interested in running it well is... what happened after Hurricane Katrina.

"Many a time in the past six years I have bit my tongue so I wouldn't annoy people with the always obnoxious observation, 'I told you so.' But, dammit it all to hell, I did tell you, and I've been telling you since 1994, and I am so sick of this man and everything he represents -- all the sleazy, smug, self-righteous graft and corruption and 'Christian' moralizing and cynicism and tax cuts for all his smug, rich buddies.

"Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please pay attention."

Sadly, we'll have to figure it out for ourselves.  We'll miss you, Molly.  I'll raise a little hell in your honor.

I heard yesterday on NPR that wolves are likely to come off the Endangered Species list and felt a surge of panic. Here's why:

"Idaho's governor has publicly announced he wants to kill more than 80 percent of the state's wolves and the state has already begun planning large scale wolf eradication efforts through hunting and aerial gunning."
http://www.defenders.org/releases/pr2007/pr012907.html

This country has committed so many sins against wolves we'll probably never make up for it, but the last decade or two of conservation and reintroduction was a good start.  Don't throw it all away now, you fools.

Write a letter!

I avoid most online quizzes -- their random, ad hoc methodology irritates me -- but find true scientific tests and irresistible. The BBC has one that allows you to sex your brain, including lots of fascinating details:
Sex ID: find out how your mind works!

I'll include my results in a comment, so as not to spoil the test for those who want to take it.

For all the non-Texans who see the state only as the benighted land that spawned Dubya, here's a small collection of heartfelt farewells to Texas' greatest political daughter.  Politics for me exists almost exclusively in the land of pure reason; I mark my ballots after careful thought and without emotion.  But Ann -- Ann I adored.  She was smart and deeply principled and would go toe-to-toe with anyone.  And funny!  Not just speechwriter funny, but spontaneously so.

If I had a time machine and could butterfly-effect one single change on the world, I might choose that second governor's election.  At the very least it would have delayed the loosing of Shrub & Co. on the nation at large, and at best, Ann might have moved into national politics.  She would have made one hell of a President.

Heard this on NPR yesterday but surprisingly, a Google search turns up no other reporting on the subject. Why is the media not picking this up?

All Portland city services will be powered by 100% renewable energy (wind, initially) by 2007.  Holy hallelujah.

Jak and I took a spontaneous walk to the independent theater down the street Saturday night and saw Little Miss Sunshine.  Which is utterly brilliant.  You can't possibly not love this movie.

There is this one moment when Frank and Dwayne walk through a door, and then back out again.  That single wordless moment will be cracking me up for months.