Roger Green: a librarian's life, deconstructed.
Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer – Nat King Cole
One of my favorite summer songs when I was growing up I thought was schlocky, even then. But there was so much to like, such as the way the singer said be-ah instead of bee-er, because he was taught, as I’ve heard from every choir director for decades, that the ending R sound is UGLY.
So since this is in the middle of a 3-day holiday weekend in the US, I’ll leave you with:
Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer – Nat King Cole
(and if that doesn’t work, try this)
What do YOU think American exceptionalism is?
As you may know, I get information from entities of many political stripes. I think it’s healthy to get multiple points of view. Every once in a while, I might even agree with an unlikely source. Don’t remember the particulars anymore, but Mike Huckabee said something in the populist/”COMPASSIONATE conservative” bent during the 2008 campaign that I didn’t dispute.
Anyway, I got this thing from Newt Gingrich, and it reads as follows:
The most important question in American politics today is whether America is an exceptional nation. This is the core question behind every debate we are having about how to solve our country’s most pressing challenges.
If America is a unique nation founded upon self-evident truths about the rights of man, then that belief imposes inherent limits on the size and scope of government.
If, however, America is a normal country, no different than our European cousins, then big government socialism that takes power from citizens and gives it to bureaucrats is acceptable.
We believe in American Exceptionalism – in creator endowed rights, limited government, and a responsible, self-sufficient American people. That’s why we have undertaken a major investment of time and effort in focusing every American on our history and our remarkable culture.
In another e-mail, Gingrich says that his “inspirational new book, A Nation Like No Other: Why American Exceptionalism Matters,” in which “Gingrich lays out a powerful defense for America as the Founders intended it” and “explains exactly what American Exceptionalism is (a set of core values reflected in our Declaration of Independence) and what it is not (nationalist hubris).”
Meanwhile, a recent Pew poll suggests that more Americans think that the U.S. is one of the greatest countries in the world than say it stands above all other countries.
So I ask you:
What do YOU think American exceptionalism is? Is it our founding declaration of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Is it that America, alone among the nations, is beloved of God? Is it the experiment that created a Bill of Rights? Is it the vast natural resources of a country this large? Is it jingoism? Is it “the last best hope for a mankind plagued by tyranny and deprivation,” as Reagan put it?
I ask because I don’t know. The term has become so fraught with political intrigue that it’s muddied the waters for me.
I once joked that American exceptionalism meant that we could take exception to soccer, the metric system, and single-payer health care.
All insights are welcome, from within and without the country.
I’ve always wanted to see Toronto, so that’s on the agenda.
AS I may have mentioned, in a couple months, we’re going to be making a visit to Canada. Essentially, we’re going to circumnavigate Lake Ontario. Still not sure what the route will be. Initially, we thought we’d start by going northwest, visiting my wife’s alma mater of St. Lawrence University, then go north into Canada, head west, then south, then back east into the U.S.. But lately, we’ve considered start going west through New York, and enter Canada at Niagara Falls.
We all have passports, including the Daughter. One doesn’t NEED a passport to go Canada from the US; one could get an enhanced driver’s license or non-driver’s ID, or similar products. BUT one day we might want to fly somewhere in Canada or Mexico, and the alternate products are only good for traveling by land or sea, not by air.
We’ll see the Falls, of course; it’ll be the Daughter’s first time. I’ve always wanted to see Toronto, so that’s on the agenda; ideally, we’d see a Blue Jays game. More than one person has suggested staying outside the city proper, and use the mass transit. One of my coworkers highly recommended the Peterborough lift lock. We’d see Carol’s college on the return trip.
Hey, Canadians, especially you folks in southeastern Ontario! Anywhere else we ought to go that wouldn’t take us too far out of the way?
Democracy is not freedom. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch. –LA Times editorial 1/12/92
Here I am with my good buddy Walter, who works at one of the SBDC centers. Shortly after this picture was taken, I started having trouble with my knee. Walter’s been having trouble with HIS leg, and I called him to tell him that, whatever he has, it’s contagious!
An ad hominem argument is any that attempts to counter another’s claims or conclusions by attacking the person, rather than addressing the argument itself.
Why Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Must Go, which, as a couple of commenters note, does not go far enough. And another article re Thomas.
Japan Earthquake Swarm Google Earth Animation. And the controversy over Surviving an Earthquake.
The Pink Triangle: Never forget.
I used Twitter more often last week than in the previous six months combined, mostly keeping track of our state legislature. Here’s my favorite tweet: “Democracy is not freedom. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch. –LA Times editorial 1/12/92”
My niece Rebecca is having her debut CD Release Party with her band, “The Jade Element”, Friday, July 8th, 2011 at Anthology ~ 1337 India St, San Diego, CA 92105 (in Little Italy). Doors open at 9:30 pm.
You can purchase tickets at www.AnthologySD.com or at the door. You can check out a couple of their songs on the website, www.TheJadeElement.com.
Another Kickstarter project that caught my eye: the Winsor McCay Resurrection Project.
How Books Were Made in 1947: Interesting ten-minute film on YouTube. Warning–for print lovers only.
I’m not much of a hockey fan, but I am a hockey traditionalist, I guess. Score One for the Ghosts of History: As Another ‘Original Six’ Team Vies for a Stanley Cup, Classic Franchises Are Flexing Their Muscles.
The Green with Envy movie trailer. And the REAL Muppet Movie trailer.
Schoolhouse Rock: The Next Generation? Renaissance Man.
Music video by “Weird Al” Yankovic performing Perform This Way, a parody of “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga, which in turn was a ripoff of Madonna’s Express Yourself. Also from Weird Al: Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me.
From the pages of LIFE magazine: MAD Magazine: A Semi-Secret History. And check out the MAD Magazine blog!
From the New York Times: Marvel Superheroes and the Fathers of Invention re “the battle now being waged between Marvel and the heirs of the legendary comic artist Jack Kirby, who breathed life into such pop culture icons as the X-Men, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Thor and the Silver Surfer.”
Great comic book artist Gene Colan, R.I.P.
Actor Peter Falk died. He’s remembered for his role in The Princess Bride, and of course, as Columbo (I remember this!)
Actor James Arness obit.
Something from someone’s Facebook page:
The GOOGLE ALERT section
la.donna.pietra, woodendreams: (by Roger C Green Photography)
President John Kennedy, and his brother Robert, the Attorney General, needed to be prodded into action, just as President Barack Obama needs political pressure applied to continue on the right path.
While praising New York state lawmakers as they debated legalizing gay marriage, President Barack Obama stopped short of embracing it. Instead, he asked gay and lesbian donors for patience. “I believe that gay couples deserve the same legal rights as every other couple in this country,” the president said at a Manhattan fundraiser [last Thursday], his first geared specifically to the gay community.
Last week, my Internet buddy Arthur posited the question: Has President Obama done enough for gay rights? He included a news video. “Let me be clear: President Obama is dead wrong on marriage equality: Civil unions are not a substitute for real marriage. It’s time for the president to stop “evolving” and get there and support full equality for GLBT people.
“However, Dan Choi is also wrong, possibly because he doesn’t know history. As Brian Ellner of the Human Rights Campaign says, this president has done more than any other president for GLBT equality than any other president in history.”
And this reminded me of a program I watched on PBS last month called Freedom Riders.
FREEDOM RIDERS is the powerful harrowing and ultimately inspirational story of six months in 1961 that changed America forever. Harrowing is right; it took me at least four sittings to get through the whole thing, not because it was boring, but because it was so intense. Just watch the two-minute Freedom Riders trailer.
From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives—and many endured savage beatings and imprisonment—for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws, the Freedom Riders met with bitter racism and mob violence along the way, sorely testing their belief in nonviolent activism.
From award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson (Wounded Knee, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, The Murder of Emmett Till) FREEDOM RIDERS features testimony from a fascinating cast of central characters: the Riders themselves, state and federal government officials, and journalists who witnessed the Rides firsthand. The two-hour documentary is based on Raymond Arsenault’s book Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice…
Despite two earlier Supreme Court decisions that mandated the desegregation of interstate travel facilities, black Americans in 1961 continued to endure hostility and racism while traveling through the South. The newly inaugurated Kennedy administration, embroiled in the Cold War and worried about the nuclear threat, did little to address domestic civil rights.
“It became clear that the civil rights leaders had to do something desperate, something dramatic to get Kennedy’s attention. That was the idea behind the Freedom Rides—to dare the federal government to do what it was supposed to do, and see if their constitutional rights would be protected by the Kennedy administration,” explains Arsenault.
Organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the self-proclaimed “Freedom Riders” came from all strata of American society—black and white, young and old, male and female, Northern and Southern. They embarked on the Rides knowing the danger but firmly committed to the ideals of non-violent protest, aware that their actions could provoke a savage response but willing to put their lives on the line for the cause of justice.
President John Kennedy, and his brother Robert, the Attorney General, needed to be prodded into action, just as President Barack Obama needs political pressure applied to continue on the right path.
Watch the Freedom Riders film, and/or read the transcript, and/or buy the video from PBS.
Ordinary People Making Great Changes: An Interview With “Freedom Riders” Director Stanley Nelson.