The Rational Psychic

(Some of) the ugliness of the Clinton campaign. Where does Bill get off spitting on the support he’s been given by the African-American community and start lining up Obama as part of a tradition of “black” contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination and can’t find anything of greater substance one which to criticize Obama? The following is a quote from a CNN.com commentary by Roland S. Martin:

As reported on Jake Tapper’s ABCNews.com blog, at a stop in Columbia, South Carolina, the former president was asked to respond to Obama’s comment that it “took two people to beat him.”

Instead of answering the question, he said, “Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in ‘84 and ‘88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here.”

Tapper said no one asked about Jackson. His name never came up. Yet Clinton had no problem invoking it.

Here is a link to the original video snippet being referred to here. The only thing about this that is even remotely satisfying is to read Bill’s body language and to realize how pissed he is at the question of why it takes both he and Hillary to beat Obama. Watch for the shake of his head before he scoops his hand into the racial mud and flings it.

This is shaming to watch. This is racism in action and if you heard it coming from Bush’s mouth you would be incensed or, so dispirited by the repetition of it, you’d say, “Well, there he goes again.”

Meet the Press did have a intelligent discussion of this matter and the phenomenon of Bill Clinton going into feeding frenzy. The discussion of Obama and the Clinton’s performance in South Carolina starts 27:25 into the show.

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While I’m on the subject of campaigns, politics and such. I have a hard time understanding a few of the assumptions that people make regarding a candidate’s suitability to meet hypothetical situations. The assumptions these judgments are based on are often faulty or, conveniently, nonexistent.

Assumption: Barack Obama cannot be competent in the role of US President because he doesn’t have any foreign policy experience. Question: What foreign policy experience does Hillary Clinton have? What foreign policy did Bill Clinton have at the beginning of his first term?

Assumption: Mitt Romney has claimed his business experience is a requirement for functioning as President in a competent manner. Therefore, goes his calculus, a candidate like McCain, who lacks business experience, can’t be given credence. Question: How has George W. Bush’s business experience translated into an economic climate which has benefited America as a whole?

One good thing that’s come out of the past two weeks of political campaigning: I know who I’m going to caucus for on February 5 now.

I’ve got nothing new to say today. But I ran across this, listened to it twice and thought it was fantastic both times.

Just when you think you’ve heard everything, along come these two young men to open up your eyes and ears a little bit. From Yahoo video, originally.

Hip-hop violin with DJ

The two young men are Paul Dateh and inka one and also have myspace pages

I live in southern Minnesota and this is our snowiest year in about ten. It’s the exception that proves the rule to the trend of global warming (the preceding statement has not been verified by professional climatologists). I’m writing this to let you, especially those of you in Southern Florida, know about some of the benefits of shoveling snow. If you live somewhere that has alligators in the water hazards at this time of year, I thought you should know about the bliss experienced while shoveling snow. When you’re shoveling the driveway or the sidewalk for more than five minutes at a time your mind begins to wander.

Buddhist thought has plenty of explanations for this: the mind rejects inactivity, thoughts are secreted by the brain like the body produces sweat, etc. However, the experience is simply that of silly fantasies rising up in your mind while you’re flinging snow and your back is aching. For instance, today when I was shoveling the driveway against the ten below windchill I started thinking:

I am a great auteur, beloved by my countrymen and women. I am called upon by ABC Nightly News and others (with the glaring exception of Fox News) to comment upon the recession and our lack of national leadership. I manage to look both silver-haired and wizened as well as vigorous and sexy. I quote from Seneca. Pertinently.

I buy a house that I can live in with all four of my children. It’s an Arts & Crafts-style home, with built-in bookshelves, oak floors, a sleeping porch, and a large media room. It is not a “fixer-upper” and it has room for a garden.

A gene in my body converts fat into antioxidants. Another gene in my body converts stupid into smart.

I settle down with a lovely woman, born in China, who is the perfect mix of modern and traditional. Rather than being “snowbirds,” we become “Zhejiang birds” and return to this lovely Chinese province every winter.

Sting puts me on a £200,000 annual retainer to assist him with song ideas, rewrites, etc.

My body requires the mixture of chemicals in Diet Coke. It would be foolhardy, and a death sentence, for me to give it up.

I’ve written a poem about the moon that people all across the US read and can recite verbatim. An awards ceremony follows.

Sting reads about above fantasy on the blogosphere and has a good laugh. He calls me, asks for my address since he wants to send me one of his old Stratocasters. Says I’m a funny geezer. He does not offer me any retainer in exchange for song ideas or rewrites, however.

The bhante (monk) who runs the local meditation center invites me to travel along to Sri Lanka with him. I study Sinhalese with a book and CD from Barnes & Noble. When I arrive in Colombo I find I am fluent enough to say, “I can get my own bags, please don’t trouble yourself.” I become fairly enlightened (for a layperson) and contented. I am encouraged to marry a Sri Lankan woman who is gorgeous, crazy about me and speaks English with a British accent. There are tropical flowers everywhere.

I change my name to Diablo Evans and write an Oscar-nominated screenplay.

The following written by and from a blog entitled, “How McDonald’s Is Spoiling America’s Future Workforce:”

U.S. News and World Report ran a story a few days ago about how schools are doling out prizes to reward students for good behavior and academic achievement. Incentives such as Happy Meal coupons, iPods, cash and even cars are being handed out to students in hopes that it will motivate them to do better in school.

This post went on to mention kids growing up in poverty and the author stated “their motivation to learn and get ahead is right in front of them.” I believe the real situation to be counter-intuitive. From the number of truly impoverished kids I’ve worked with in an inpatient setting they’ve taught me that the message from the neighborhood is powerful: don’t play it straight or you’re a chump. Although some kids who choose to go against the current it’s tough swimming against a gang-directed current.

Many of us in the US subscribe to the Horatio Alger notion that you can get ahead through simple force of will, character and hard work that gets rewarded by the market. We forget that moralizing over situations will not stand up to the power of material conditions. Marxist thought is not a blueprint for overthrowing governments, but a tool for examining the power and politics of human situations in a specific way.

When the powerful people in your neighborhood are people with guns driving Escalades and carrying fistfuls of cash, people will pursue these rewards knowing the price is risk of imprisonment or death at the hands of rivals. Then it’s a conflict not between the good guys and the bad guys but a conflict between individuals attempting to survive in a dysfunctional social order.

After saying this I don’t know if it’s a great idea to reward kids materially for their academic achievement. I do know: 1) the schools attempting this are setting up a rival economy that offers at least some rewards for turning away from the street, and 2) kids all over the nation hear adults spouting this negative crap about how they are members of a debased generation (“they have iPods, XBox’s, cell phones, too much freedom, not enough consequences,” etc.) And you can line up example after example to show that you’re right if you want to go that route.

But kids can also see that their class sizes at school are increasing; that art classes, music classes and Phys. Ed. time have been reduced in order to make them perform on all of the testing days they have each year (up to a full week in our school district). And they see the President of this good nation vetoing money for health care for children because it is seen as superfluous.

The kids may not understand the complexities of the budget but they have at least an inkling that Money talks and Bullshit walks. And then there are the pictures of children being hurt and killed and orphaned in Iraq. And although, again, the kids may not understand the complexities of why this is happening, the fact is they are dying in the service of our policy that terrorists be distracted from killing Americans. As adults we are responsible for weighing the costs of killing hundreds of kids and orphaning thousands versus the possibility that the terrorists might get into the US again for an attack which might kill American children.

I understand that many people are comfortable with that metric: many Iraqi children dying now as an exchange for possibly saving American children from future harm. I truly find this exchange repulsive. For me this means making an unjust decision now when I know the result of the decision instead of taking just actions now realizing there may be negative consequences later. To me this is the difference between trying to cheat a universal rule (Thou shalt not kill) versus following the directive given to all nations in one form or another (Leviticus 19:18 “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.” [¹,²])

This blog is not my claim that I follow all lofty directives consistently. Neither do I intend to wag my finger at American society. I am also a product of it. I do believe that now that we’ve entered 2008, an election year, it does all of us well to expect a higher standard of our candidates and elected officials than we have in the past 8-16 years. I think that what happened with both Clinton and Bush 43 is that they and their Administrations have used rhetoric to cut corners and dodge responsibility. Yes, Barrie knows this is part of political rhetoric. I would argue it’s gone much farther than any time since Watergate and that we have become cynical enough to expect it.

All of us alive today are charged with nothing less than saving the world and saving our civilization for the benefit of our children and grandchildren. To do that, we need a shot of enthusiasm. This conclusion isn’t based on wishful thinking. Instead, look at the results of the caucus in Iowa and primary in New Hampshire. The excitement generated by Obama and even Huckabee has a great deal to do with generating hope by offering a vision of something other than “business as usual.” Hillary Clinton picked up steam after she was able to put emotion into her explanation that she still believes in what she’s doing.

If Hillary Clinton digs deep and can only find her cynicism and businesslike competence, then that’s a personal failing. If the rest of us aren’t willing to get out there on the road and find something worth believing in, that’s a national tragedy. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, consider asking a 9-year-old. She may be able to show you the way.

I don’t think that I’ve done this yet—simply copied and pasted an article wholesale and called it a post. The reason why I’ve done so today is because what is described in this article is something that is a deeply held value for me: keep it fresh, dawg. Here’s a man who’s reached the century mark, a truly rare milestone for any human being, and he’s not going to sit on the porch and watch the cars go by.

One of the “Science Friday” radio shows on NPR talked about the possibility that we will live to be 150 years old beginning in the near future. Of course, to endure that much existence requires that you keep your body and mind in some kind of good condition. And the rest of that show was dedicated to the potential medical advances which could lead us to an unimagined ability to turn back, or at least blunt, the worst which the aging process can dish out to us

I take the fish oil capsules, vitamin C and, occasionally, ginseng of one type or another. I think I’m blessed with some good genes but I can’t rest on all of this. This article, published at the beginning of 2008, reminds me that I need to exercise more and work at keeping my spirits up. Depression and stress are clinically proven to have a negative effect on your health[¹][²].

I mean to cultivate and grow the attitude displayed by these two beautiful kids featured in this article. I can ask that much from myself. If I am truly keeping that beautiful bird named Optimism on my shoulder daily it won’t matter if I reach 100 years, 150, or even eighty. Because I will have lived so much more than if I simply spend my time counting my troubles.

The article from Reuters:

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Fri Jan 4, 2008 11:01pm GMT

LONDON (Reuters) - A 102-year-old will become Britain’s oldest emigrant this weekend when he leaves to start a new life with his wife in New Zealand.

Eric and Doris King-Turner, 87, will start their “wonderful new adventure” on Saturday when they set off on a cruise liner from Southampton.

“I would say to anyone that if you want to do something you should do it straight away while you can,” the retired dentist told Friday’s Daily Mail.

“What’s important is that when I’m 105 I don’t want to be thinking: ‘I wish I had moved to the other side of the world when I was 102.’”

New Zealand’s better weather, excellent fly-fishing and lack of crowds attracted King-Turner, although he admits he will miss his friends in Britain.

The couple, who are both widowers, have lived in Hampshire since their marriage 12 years ago.

Doris King-Turner is a New Zealander and still has a bungalow in the South Island town of Nelson, where they will live. She sponsored his application to emigrate.

“It’s going to be a great adventure,” she said.

(Reporting by Peter Griffiths; Editing by Steve Addison)

I am not an unadulterated fan of Radiohead in the same way as I am a fan of The Kinks, for example. The Kinks have done some horrible stuff, a few great things, some of their good stuff is even schmaltzy and a bit juvenile, admittedly. But, they hold a special place in my heart. Ray is an unusual person. He is the father of a child with Chrissie Hynde, one of my favorite female songwriters and rock performers. He’s also a vegetarian who has been known to indulge in vanilla milkshakes after a concert rather than a bottle of Jack Daniels.

Their U.S. appearance in St. Paul, MN, in September, 1981 was my very first rock concert. And—“L-O-L-A”—I was not disappointed. To this day, I want women to have dark-brown voices and, should they squeeze me tight, want them to nearly break my spine, oh, my Lola. La-la-la-lay Lola.

Radiohead has appeared on the scene long after I can give my heart and a good chunk of nostalgic memory over so readily. Yet, they battle for ground within my head. And, goddamn them, they’re doing pretty well at setting up their musical shop there.

Since I’m not knowledgeable about musical structure I’m unable to tell you why I hear some of the things about Radiohead that I’ve heard. NPR did a short piece last year about a classical musical composer who is attempting to create arrangements of Radiohead songs that can be performed by orchestra. He feels that their music—the chord structures, time signatures, etc.—are challenging and inventive enough to create interest for a classical music audience.

For me, the attraction is watching Thom Yorke, that overexcitable elf (and I mean that in the best sense, Mr. Yorke), as he gets punk–rock‘n’roll–crazy while performing his songs. There’s an energy there that is infectious. And even with my limited musical understanding I can feel that the songs are not just verse–chorus–verse–chorus, etc., and all of it made of one slab of the same-colored plastic 95% of radio’s pop trash is built from. And by that I mean pop trash that has no feeling, no righteous groove and no development of lyric, mood or tempo.

Radiohead’s songs don’t even wander close to that kind of pop boneyard and yet they maintain some pop accessibility which, according to the more complicated qualities I’ve said they possess, they have no right to encourage this kind of happy, uncritical enjoyment by the listener.

Rather than go on all day about what their music is or is not like, let me post a new Radiohead song from their latest album, “In Rainbows.” Did I mention that Radiohead had a marketing experiment going on in which people could buy their latest album buy naming their own price (until 12/2007)?

Here’s a link for an interview with Thom Yorke (Thom Yorke Interview 3) talking about the problem of global warming and how ignorant and sold-out we look from the U.K.’s side of the Atlantic.

The video, “Bodysnatchers,” from Radiohead.

P.S. Mr. Yorke and company, if you read this, please share the wealth and send me one of those older Fender guitars, OK?

From,

A guitarless, guitarist wannabe.

I just put a link on this blog to one called Black Male Appreciation. The title of this blog struck me immediately. Here in Minnesota, there was a home invasion and shooting over the New Year’s holiday. The only information on the suspects to date is: “The two suspects are described as ‘black’ and thought to be in their twenties. One is slight of build and the other is heavy.” Now, unless Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy have been reincarnated in African ancestry, this description offers more in the way of misdirection and racial bias than it does in providing specificity and the identity of the assailants.

I’ve worked with black, white, Latino, Asian and Native American boys who were in in-patient facilities. There was very little to distinguish them in terms of intelligence, maliciousness, etc. The biggest difference was in terms of rural vs. urban with very few of the non-white kids coming from a rural background. And although the Native American kids were often from reservations in Minnesota, the kids I ran into had primarily adopted urban attitudes in terms of clothing and music. And, within a month of their arrival, almost all of the rural kids did the same.

The biggest differences, of course, were in the attitudes that staff held toward each group of kids they were dealing with. Often, even when we were dealing with the boys on an individual basis, our attitudes toward their ethnic backgrounds came through. A lot of assumptions were made that aside from no longer committing crimes and having better mental health, the 16-year-old boys who could recite every Tupac Shakur rap would drop this “pretense” and pick up on some other heroes if they were white kids but would stay true to their “culture” and only appreciate rap music if they were African-American.

My dirty little secret is that I wanted all of the kids exposed to classical music, jazz and Elvis Costello and The Jam, no matter what their ethnic background.

In the pursuit of meditation and Buddhist ideals, the thought is that you are really pursuing liberation from the limiting structures of this world and the structures in your own consciousness that limit how you experience the world. I don’t know which is harder, liberating myself from my biases about myself and what I’m capable of, or liberating myself from the biases I have regarding what others are capable of.

I will try to do what I can to equate brown skin with truth and beauty. I know that putting one more link on my blog–as positive as it may be–is just a small part of the changes I need to make in seeing that people who look different than I do have much to offer me if I’m willing to make myself their student.

Have a great and prosperous New Year, everyone!