Good for John McCain

"Military necessity does not admit of cruelty nor of torture to procure confessions." - Abraham Lincoln

I like John McCain. I'm still not sure I forgive him for foisting Sarah Palin on us but, none the less, I respect him and admire his ability to speak his mind and hold to his beliefs even when they conflict with his party's position. I don't know how many times I've said I think the biggest mistake the GOP ever made was in NOT nominating him in 2000. Think what a different world we would live in had he been in charge on September 11, 2001.

So, I want to say I admire him for speaking out on Face the Nation about the upcoming torture investigations. Like him, I have mixed feelings about opening that particular Pandora's Box but I also think we, as a nation, have to affirm what happened was wrong and it will never happen again.






I was disgusted by Chris Wallace's pandering, fawning, obsequious interview with Dick Cheney Sunday. In the interview Wallace asked Cheney, "even these cases where they went beyond the specific legal authorization, you're OK with it?" To which Cheney replied, "I am." So there you have it: the former vice president of the United States admits on national television that he is just fine with flouting to the Rule of Law. Who in their right mind could hear that and not realize he is an admitted and proud war criminal?

So, thank you, Senator McCain, for saying that what Cheney and his thugs did was a violation of the Geneva Convention and thank you for saying that our nation was deeply, deeply harmed by this. Thank you for having the courage and the integrity to say what happened was wrong. If our country as a whole could be as courageous and honest as you, that would be enough for me.

Thanks for reading.

Words to remember and aspire to...

"He was a product of an age when the joy and nobility of politics prevented differences of party and philosophy from becoming barriers to cooperation and mutual respect - a time when adversaries still saw each other as patriots."
- President Barack Obama in his eulogy for Senator Ted Kennedy

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Wonderful Photographs from Yesterday in Boston....

My friend Lily Goldman went in to Boston yesterday and created this Flickr Gallery: Remembering Ted Kennedy



These are just a few, see the gallery for the rest...

And the Classless Come Out In Droves....

Frankly I don't know why I should be shocked but I have been by the base, disgusting, classless comments posted on a variety of internet message sites about the passing of Senator Kennedy. It seems those who live their lives mired in hate can't hold back their hatred even while the rest of the country mourns. I swear, what trough do these people spend their time wallowing in?

Yes, there is plenty in the Kennedy family's closet (as there is in the closet of any large, lively family) to question but show a little restraint. You only serve to make yourselves look like the lowlifes you are. That family has been through plenty --- two assassinations, who among us can say what that is like? And, because we have all seen much too painfully in the past several years, the Slime Machines with their agendas of personal destruction never, ever, ever let up. They prey on the haters and the pathetic and count on them to carry their manufactured torches.

Here's the simple truth: nobody really knows what happened at Chappaquiddick. The tragedy was just months after Ted Kennedy had lived through the assassination of a second brother. There have been many variations on the story. The one I keep hearing over and over from people who claim to have known Mary Jo Copechne was told in 2006 on the blog, The Daily Sally. But, you see, that is not the point....

Here is the point: our legal system did not find him guilty of anything more than leaving the scene of a crime (which he may have not known about at the time), he has publicly and painfully apologized for what happened and, most importantly, he devoted the rest of his life to making amends to the entire country. What more do the haters want?

This is what I think, whatever he may or may not have done in life morally is between him and God --- as it is for all of us. But, as a person raised with Catholic values, as Ted Kennedy was, I believe the graces of atonement, forgiveness, and reparation are the most important values in any situation. No matter what the sin, no matter what the crime, no matter what the situation to atone, ask for forgiveness, and make reparation is the most decent and moral of human choices.

As I have been listening to the many memorials offered in honor of Senator Kennedy I hear over and over and over how kind he was, how selfless he was, how giving and compassionate and committed and genuinely desirous of making the world better. Maybe those qualities were all part of his reparation but that doesn't matter. To the people who received them they are everything. When Vice President Biden talked about the support he received from Senator Kennedy when Biden lost his wife and daughter in a car crash, the gratitude he felt for kindness in a time of such deep pain was heart-wrenching.

I'm just so sick of these haters. They live in such a black and awful world and they want to drag the rest of us there with them. All I can say is I hope someone as noble and caring as Senator Ted Kennedy finds a way to touch their miserable hearts and shine some light into their lives. They certainly need it.

Thanks for reading.

James Carroll's “The Prince of Peace”: 25 Years Later

Recently I posted about re-reading Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow. I ended the post by saying I was now going to read her sequel, Children of God. I ordered it but, of course, had to wait until it was delivered. In the mean time I picked up Boston columnist James Carroll's 1984 novel Prince of Peace. I'm not sure why, probably because it, also, is about a priest. The description of it said it was about two men who were lifelong best friends, one of whom was a priest, and the woman they both loved. Hmmmmmmmm... sounds familiar. Let me start this by saying I loved 90% of the book and hated 10% and I'll tell you why shortly.

Frank and Michael grew up together in New York City just down the hill from The Cloisters. As boys they would often go to The Cloisters to sit in the garden, smoke cigarettes, and discuss life. They were altar boys together and their growing up, in the 1940s was as naive and as Catholic as my own life was a decade later.

Michael served in Korea where he was a hero and spent 3 years as a POW. When he returns to America he decides to enter the seminary. Frank is an aspiring poet, aspiring beatnik, and ultimately winds up teaching at Fordham, the Jesuit university in New York. Carroll is a masterful writer and, though he spent a lot of time describing the era, the politics, the settings, it was done so well and the story was so compelling that reading it was sheer joy.

As a young deacon, a year away from ordination, Michael meets the very beautiful and feisty Sister Anne Edwards and, because of her passionate commitment to trying to save the school she teaches at, he has his first taste of political activism but things do not go well. In the fallout he introduces Sister Ann to Frank, returns to the seminary, she leaves the convent and goes back to being Carolyn. She has fallen in love with Michael but, because he is unavailable, marries Frank. This was a bit of a stretch for me but, okay, I'll bite, what's up with this?

But, of course, it doesn't matter because the rest of the book is about Father Michael Maguire --- it is about the politics leading up to the war in Vietnam and Michael's efforts to save the children being wounded in the war, and then his fight to stop the war, and then his life as a fugitive and an activist, and a hero to the millions who support his cause. Now, at that period of time, when I was in high school, college, and beyond, the war against the war in Vietnam was very much a part of my life. I was fascinated by and hero-worshipped the resistance. I loved Abby Hoffman. I loved Tom Hayden. And I especially loved the Berrigans, Daniel and Philip, two brother priests whom I found the most incredible people of the era. So reading about Father Michael Maguire was a delicious treat. The character of Michael seemed very close to Fr. Philip Berrigan in places but also to all the resistance-priests who became politically active. It was a volatile time for Catholics not just because of the war but also because our Church was changing thanks to Pope John XXIII's Vatican II Council.

So, here I am thoroughly engrossed in the story. Throughout Michael's most intense period of activism, during his trial for destruction of Federal Property, and then while he is living underground, he is very much supported by Frank and Carolyn. They love him and admire his work and, when he jumps bail rather than go to prison, they are the ones who forfeit the $20K bail they posted. But it is worth it because they believe in him and what he stands for. This is the story of an incredible, brave, heroic, magnificent warrior-hero priest but it is set against the background of my life. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough and then --- BLAM!

Okay, SPOILER ALERT. If you plan to read the book you might want to quit here. I almost wish I had quit there. We come to find out that Fr. Michael has been banging his best friend's wife for the past several years and, when Frank finds out, he is so stung by their betrayal he in turn betrays his lifelong friend, the FBI picks him up, and off to prison he goes.

Now, I'm not going to argue the likelihood or the morality of this. It is what it is and I am a firm believer that a storyteller can tell his story anyway he wants to but... this is the 10% I hate: once again it is the immoral, conscienceless, greediness of a woman that destroys a man. I mean, come on! Was that necessary? Eve offers the apple and Adam says, “I couldn't help it, Frank, the woman gave it to me. Sorry if I betrayed our lifelong bond by banging your wife but she said she loved me.”

Okay, I'm not crazy about a priest breaking his vows but it happens and I'm not crazy about him having an affair with a married woman because that happens too. But it is the blithe, cavalier way that Carolyn (a former nun) continues on in her married life (with his best friend) organizing fund-raisers for him, allowing her husband to support her (and in many ways him) all because she is just so beautiful and she loves him so much. It's such a cliché.

Yes, I know these things can happen but I resented her turning into such a dislikable, self-centered, immoral twit. Is that what the author really thinks of women? Couldn't he come up with something better than that? But, of course, the writer is male and the woman is just so damn beautiful so who cares if she comes across as a selfish brat?

Sigh. The final scene of the book is just gorgeous, haunting, unforgettable. Much of the book is. But I wish the woman they both “loved” had been worthy of their love --- and of the author's respect.

Thanks for reading. 

POSTSCRIPT: I just realized, is it a coincidence that the nun who turns into the evil temptress in this book was Sister Ann Edwards, and the married woman/scientist who befriends Emilio and accompanies him to Rakhat is named .... Ann Edwards. Hmmmmm..........

The Lion Is Gone...

Senator Edward Moore Kennedy (1932-2009)

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Beautiful commentary by Brian Williams

More good stuff on iLoveGloucester.com

The Virtual Gloucester page of iLoveGloucester.com has expanded to include these great sites:

	Gloucester Remembers (YouTube Video) Every year the City of Gloucester holds a memorial service to commemoratethe 10,000 fishermen lost at sea. This year the service included the families of Matteo Russo and John Orlando who were lost on the Patriot in January. Photographer Jay Albert created this video as a tribute. (Click the image at right or title above.) Other Gloucester videos by Jay include: St. Peter's Fiesta Greasy Pole 2009 Sail Gloucester 2009 The Seasons of Gloucester
	Gloucester Till The End (YouTube Video) This video was created by Good Morning Gloucester's Mike Lindberg to the song "Gloucester Till the End" written by musicians Earl and Arch in memory of the sinking of the Andrea Gail as depicted in the movie "The Perfect Storm". (Click the image at right or title above.)
	Faces of the Working Waterfront - A Multi-media Photo Essay In 2008 photographer Mark Teiwes, with a grant from seARTS, created this multi-media portrait of Gloucester's working waterfront. The exhibition was held at Captain Joe & Sons Lobster Company. The poem featured in the presentation is "At the Brink" by Vincent Ferrini as read by the fishermen of Gloucester. (Click the image at right or title above.)
	Eight Days of the Greasy Pole Documentary filmmakers Emile Doucette, Michael Pallazola and Tom Papows created this video about Gloucester's famous Greasy Pole event. In 2009 it was a finalist in the International Documentary Challenge at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival, and earned the Documentary Educational Services award. The video can be viewed in segments on their site. (Click the image at right or title above.)
	Down the Fort - A Documentary & Archive Project Down The Fort is a multimedia public history documentary and archive project for “the Fort,” a traditional Sicilian fishing enclave adjacent to the historic Gloucester harbor. It is a collection of oral histories, visual artifacts and local expressive culture gathered from individuals, businesses and families tied to the Fort. It offers a permanent record and preserves valuable memories for families and a city whose roots emanate from this historic neighborhood. It also creates a channel of expression for members of the community looking to celebrate and honor the generations of families who have lived, worked, loved and died “down the Fort.”

Tortured Dreams...

Back when I was an impressionable kid in Catholic school there was a discussion in a history class about World War II that I still remember. I don't remember the exact details but we were talking about American soldiers in World War II who had been tortured in Nazi prison camps. My uncle had spent much of the Second World War in such a camp and, though he never talked about it, I always harbored this secret fear that something horrible had been done to him. In the course of the discussion one of the other students, filled with the moral outrage of youth, said that if the Nazis had tortured our soldiers then why didn't we torture theirs. I'll never forget it because Sister Mary Joseph said, “We are Americans so we are better than that.”

I asked my Dad about that later on --- it was his brother who had been in the prison camp. He told me something I've never forgotten. He said that if you wanted to live your life as a decent person you had to have standards and, even if something really terrible was done to you, if you wanted to continue to respect yourself, you couldn't be as low as the people that hurt you. He said it was necessary to fight back but there would always be depths to which a decent person would not sink. He might not have used those exact words but I got the message. It's something I've tried to live up to all my life.

I don't remember when I first started hearing about the allegations of torture practiced by Americans in recent years. I remember when the first news of Abu Ghraib came out I was so sickened by it I couldn't even talk about it --- let alone read the stories. When the trials began and the soldiers convicted sent to prison I was relieved. I believed the “few bad apples” conclusion and was glad that it was just those few. I was still naive it seems. Then I saw the Frontline documentary, and then Taxi to the Dark Side, and Gitmo: The New Rules of War, and suddenly it seemed every time I turned around I was hearing more and more about how we, us, America, had tortured prisoners.

Now, I am not a highly sensitive person. There is a part of me that says we have a right to use extreme means when there is crucial information at stake. But the place where I draw the line is when we actually have no idea whether the people being questioned actually know anything. If we know for a fact that a prisoner is sufficiently highly placed that they could be hiding critical information, well, I can't quite advocate torture, but I wouldn't worry too much about hurting their feelings. But when the prisoners are just regular citizens, regular soldiers, then it's a different story. A prisoner who was tortured to death turns out to be a taxi driver whose only crime was picking up a fare who happened to be a terrorist.... that's unbearable. That's a national disgrace.

So today when Attorney General Holder appointed federal prosecutor John Dunham to investigate the allegations of CIA abuse I was relieved. Frankly, I don't really want to know what he is going to find but, dammit, like my Dad said, there have to be depths we won't sink to and let them be overlooked. Accountability is imperative if we are going to continue to believe we are better than those who would destroy us.

There has been so much come to light lately that sickens me. I still haven't gotten over the news that the CIA, as Nancy Pelosi truthfully said, lied to Congress. The news that has been revealed about John Yoo and Alberto Gonzales and Karl Rove makes me crazy. I am in the middle of reading Jane Mayer's The Dark Side and then Tom Ridge, one of the few members of the Bush administration I genuinely liked, reveals he was urged to elevate terror threat alerts! Terrify the American public into continuing to support Bush??? That's sick. How can we tolerate these people?

I know that the torture reports are scheduled to be released today. I know Rachel Maddow is chomping at the bit to read them and talk about them. Part of me just wants to cope out and ignore the whole thing and switch the channel to something mindless --- Dancing with the Stars, American Idol... I'm starting to understand why they are so popular.

And, at the end of the day, I hope that Sister Mary Joseph knew what she was talking about --- that even if some of us forgot, the rest of us will remember and hold the others accountable. I sincerely hope that “We are Americans so we are better than that.”

Thanks for reading.

Excellent Blog from Jacob Heilbrunn: Stop Panicking About Obama

Thank you, Madame Mayor!

I received the following email last night from Mayor Carolyn Kirk in reference to the new iLoveGloucester.com web site:

Kathleen,

You’ve performed a miracle on this website! It never ceases to amaze me what people will do for a city they love – and that is worth loving!

Thank you.

Mayor Kirk

I am touched and flattered but I emailed back and said I only get part of the credit --- Joe Ciaramitaro, Jay Albert, Jim Barber and others get lots and lots of credit, too.

And Jim Barber sent some excellent news. He got an email from a birdwatcher in England who saw the site. He is coming to Gloucester to meet with Jim and wants to plan a series of Bird and Whale Watching trips for other fans in 2010! Bravo one and all!

Thanks for reading.

Who Raised These People Anyway?

I keep replaying John Stewart's commentary from last night about Barney Frank's absolutely superb comeback to that ill-bred, uninformed, woman with her despicable Nazi comment. Bravo Barney! I also have watched in disgust that pathetically stupid woman who screamed “Heil Hitler!” at the Jewish man who was commenting on Israel's National Health Care System. I simply do not have words to express how disgusting I find her. Here's the point: I don't care which side you are on, you are entitled to your opinion and that is a good thing but the behavior of these people just shows them to be what they are: low-lifes without the intellect to put forth a decent argument. Nobody who was raised by parents even approaching human behaves like those people do unless they are just simply disgusting people.

OK, I tend to lean to the left. According to the test I took on Facebook the other day I am a Left-leaning Libertarian for whatever that is worth. And I have a number of friends who are the complete opposite and that is okay as long as we can discuss and argue and yell at each other without being offensive. I think that everyone is entitled to their opinion but I think there is a cultural imperative to express those opinions in a semi-respectful manner. Sure I can call you a nitwit and you can call me an idiot and blah-blah-blah. That's part of the fun of having friends you can argue with. But what the hell is wrong with these people who have to behave and use language that is just plain repulsive and only serves to do one thing: show them for the ill-bred, disgusting scum they clearly are.

Is it wrong of me to call them “scum”? I don't think so. I know what the word scum means: “a low, vile, or worthless person”. Sounds pretty close to the mark. Is that comparable to using historically racial and anti-Semitic language to a Jew? Does it, in point of fact, have anything at all to do with the discussion except to be inflammatory and offensive?

This seems to be the current tactic of a very reprehensible group of people these days --- to be as vulgar, vile, offensive and disgusting all with one very obvious objective: to present a menacing “threat”, to try to intimidate. Why are all these people carrying guns into public places where the President is speaking if not to menace? There is a very clear message being sent: “I have the power to kill you, see, it's right here.” They can excuse it however they want but that's the message. They are very scary people, these menacers, intimidators, and gun-toters.

I've been paying attention to Barack Obama for some time now and this is what I've decided: I'd hate like hell to play poker with him. He's good and he knows what he's doing. And he doesn't give in to threats and pressures, what he does is use the skills that any good community organizer has. He listens to everyone, he considers all options. It's an interesting technique: “is this what you want?”, “no? okay, how about this?” “oh, you don't want that part of it? hmmm, well, maybe we should look at it this way?” By considering all the options, seeming to go along with varying ideas, and staying visible and involved, he's letting it be known that he's willing to listen to all sides and then, in the end, he'll try to do what he intended to do all along. Methinks he knows well how to let folks hoist themselves by their own petards.

And for that very reason he's driving these non-too-stable-to-start-with folks to distraction. They haven't got a clue how to challenge him so they do the only thing they can do: make jackasses of themselves.

I'll tell you the truth --- I'm worried. There is so much inflammatory hate-mongering going on by a some of these talk-show screamers, and so many people dumb enough to believe them that something really horrible could happen. I pray it won't because we need redemption from the insane place this country has gone to over the past 8 years (just check out Tom Ridge's revelation about the terror alerts). But these screamers scare me, they don't understand boundaries or even simple logic. I pray our President is well guarded, I really do.

Thanks for reading.

More iLoveGloucester.com...

No matter how thorough you think you are, in a place like Gloucester you can't think of everything. Luckily there are lots of people who do. The iLoveGloucester.com just grew. Thanks to suggestions by other lovers of Gloucester I've just updated the site to include:

• A Guide to Retail Shopping in Downtown Gloucester and it’s Villages compiled by Janice Lufkin Shea
• The new Blynman Bridge Web Cam (under Virtual Gloucester) and a link to a multimedia presentation of Annisquam by Jim Barber
• Updates to the Festivals & Events page that includes International Dory Race, Gloucester Triathlon, Lanesville Horribles Parade & Bonfire, and the Blackburn Challenge
• A new guide to events that automatically updates itself on the homepage, this includes a link to a blog where all sorts of events can be posted. People can leave comments and ask questions and they can also subscribe to it so they automatically receive emails about events in Gloucester.

And if you have a web site or blog, please include a link with our new logo:

Let me know if you need a different size or format!

Thanks for reading!!!

I Confess – I Bought New Water Bottles

For years now I have been worried about garbage. Yeah, I know, what's that all about? But I worry about how we have polluted our beautiful planet and continue to do so. Our fore-fathers would be horrified. I come from a family that believed in the use-it-up-wear-it-out-make-it-do-or-do-without way of living that was so much a part of early settlers --- especially from Germany.

What made me think about this is a video about photographer/artist Chris Jordan that was on Bill Moyers' Journal last week. Mr. Jordan's art is designed to call attention to the profligate wastefulness of the way we live our lives now. It's upsetting. One of the photographs looks like a pretty impressionistic abstract until you zoom in and see that it is thousands and thousands of empty plastic water bottles that represent 5 minutes worth of abandoned water bottles in this country each and every day.

Now, I know this sounds dumb but this is something I've been a little obsessed with for several years. It started about five years ago when one night I was walking home from some place. It was the night before trash collection in my neighborhood and people were putting their trash out. And I noticed the recycling bins that were full of empty water and sports drink bottles --- bin after bin of them. Hundreds of them in each bin. And that was just here in my neighborhood. Granted they were in recycling bins and not trash bags but still. I couldn't believe that our little neighborhood could use and discard that many plastic bottles in one week.

The next day I went to the store and bought four 32 oz. bottles of water that came in heavy plastic bottles and a new set of filters for my water filtering pitcher. After I used the water in those bottles I washed them out and refilled them with filtered water and I continued to do that for years using the same 4 bottles over and over and over. Sometimes I filled them with water and added a couple teabags and let them sit on the windowsill in the sun to make sun tea. Sometimes I half-filled them and put them in the freezer so when I wanted to use them I could fill them the rest of the way and have nice cold water as the ice melted. Sometimes I added lemon juice or mint leaves. I've been using those same 4 bottles for several years now. One goes in my bag when I go to meetings. They are well traveled.

Recently someone asked what was in a bottle I had with me and I realized that, over the years, the bottles had become discolored from tea and other liquids. I thought it over and last week I made the big decision to throw them out and buy four new ones, which I did. Actually, I bought 6 new ones and last night when I put my trash out I added my four old bottles to the recycle bin. I figured it out. I used those bottles for about three years and I averaged 2 of them a day. That means those 4 bottles saved 2,190 bottles from going in the recycle bins.

So I have these nice, new clean bottles and I'll keep on filling them with filtered water for tea, lemonade, etc. It's a little thing but at least it's something.

In his photographs Chris Jordan(left) also has visual commentary on the US prison system, the excessive amount of travel we do – one image of 11,000 jet trails depicts the pollution we do to our skies ever 8 hours.

I guess we all tend to think, oh, what harm can one water bottle do? But when we all think that way several times a day.... the numbers add up. Even if you only reuse each water bottle once you cut your consumption in half. That helps.

Thanks for reading.

Re-reading “The Sparrow”

I mentioned a few days ago that I heard an interview on NPR with Mary Doria Russell, the author of one of my favorite books, The Sparrow. I first read the book in 2005 and it has haunted me ever since. Recently I took my copy down from the shelf and decided to re-read it. It has been a great experience. I've always believed there are two things that make a novel great: 1.) you can't forget it and 2.) when you re-read it you discover so much that you missed before. That has definitely been the case with The Sparrow.

Perspective --- both in life and in reading novels --- is all. The first time I read The Sparrow I didn't know the ending. I was hopelessly in love with the main character, Fr. Emilio Sandoz, and when I came to the end and found out what happened I was just horrified. This time through I know what happened and, as I read, I find myself looking for clues or anticipating certain events that might tip one off to the climax. They are there. It is the mark of a good writer that, when the construct a novel that is so unbelievable, they do it so believably that when the climax comes you read it and say, “Of course, of course...” (Note to self: remember that when you write.)

But reading the second time and not so wrapped up in trying to understand why this guy is acting the way he is, it is much easier to appreciate both the subtlety and the complexity of the author's craftsmanship. I'm a very visual person and good writing paints pictures in my head --- so vivid that I have actually had dreams about characters in books. This time through I am still infatuated with Fr. Sandoz but am also appreciating some of the other characters more.

The story, in a nutshell, is a futuristic fable. A group of explorers including 4 Jesuit priests, travel via asteroid to a distant planet, Rakhat, because they have detected extraordinarily gorgeous music being broadcast from the planet. Forty years later the only survivor of the mission, Emilio Sandoz, sick, badly battered, and mutilated, returns alone to earth to discover he is the object of scorn and hatred because of the reports about him that preceded his arrival sent by the rescue party that found him. The story is told in alternating chapters --- the broken, wretched man being subjected to a panel of inquiry and the young, vibrant, funny priest who falls madly in love with the people of the new world and with God in the process. It is gorgeously written and I have found myself looking up from the book after being deeply engrossed to discover it is well past midnight here on earth.

Basically, the under-current of the entire story is who is this character we call God and what is he up to? In one line in the book Emilio is talking to Anne, the agnostic doctor and scientist, who has a hard time accepting Emilio's faith and love for God. She is questioning him about a certain situation and asks why God would permit it and Emilio tells her that it is not so much a matter of why God allowed it but rather that the question of “why?” is where God exists. I thought that was particularly beautiful. God is not the reason something occurs but rather our ability to question the situation instead of accepting it.

The Jesuits in the book, all of them scientists or linguists, often say, “Deus vult,” --- “God wills it”. There was one delicious part where another scientist makes a discovery which he trumpets as proof that it is science and not God that is responsible for this situation. Another of the priests, Fr. Marc Robichoux, agrees it is a remarkable discovery and then adds, “That's the way God likes it to be.” Which, of course, drives the first scientist batty.

I never read the sequel to the book, Children of God, because I was so devastated by the end of The Sparrow I didn't think I could stand it but last night I ordered it and am eager to read it now. I just wasn't ready before but this time I think I am. We come to things when we can handle them --- “Deus vult.”

Thanks for reading.

In Search of Civil Discourse

The recent health care town halls have come as a bit of a shock to me because of the sheer, outrageous craziness I am seeing as I watch. People standing up screaming, crying, carrying on like --- well, like they think they are on the Jerry Springer Show. I thought that sort of hyperbolic lunacy was reserved for anonymous online venues. Guess I was wrong --- there are an awful lot of people who a.) don't know what they are talking about and b.) are not in the least inhibited by that. Have some damn dignity, people!

This is a subject I've been doing a lot of talking about lately since I wrote my blog last Friday titled You Can't Fix Stupid. I was at a party last night --- a really, really good party --- where there was a lot of political discussion going on. The people at the table I was at were intelligent, well-informed, passionate and still respectful. It was great --- really great.

I mentioned the message board that I stopped posting on some weeks back which was known for the nastiness and lunacy of some of its posters. It is a well-known local embarrassment and its decline has been watched by some with interest. To clarify a point, there are some who think I left because of the unbridled shrewishness of one poster in particular. While her posts precipitated it, it was the fact that the most visible administrator did nothing to curb but, in fact, fanned the flames that made me decide to leave. I may be idealistic but I believe that those in a position of authority have an obligation to hold to a higher standard but this guy seems to have an opposite view. It's all water under the bridge now.

But I've been watching the quality, or lack thereof, of exchange on a number of news sites that allow posters to comment anonymously. Mostly I read Huffington Post but also our local newspaper, Gloucester Daily Times Online. I had been watching the deterioration of civility in the Comments --- especially by two posters whose posting-style was extraordinarily familiar --- and was gratified to see that today the worst one was banned by IP along with another poster whose style was not familiar to me. The first one tried coming back under a new name but that was nipped in the bud by the administrator. Bravo to you, Ray!

I have nothing against passionate exchanges and I don't usually mind when it gets rough but there are some people with no boundaries and no sense of what is pertinent to an issue and what isn't who just become obnoxious disrupters. Good for the admin for banning them.

Which brings me to the point of this blog. There is a new effort to establish an online forum for local discourse that must remain civil. It is Cape Ann Politics and is found at CapeAnnPolitics.org. Participants are required to use their real names and their contact info will be vetted. At present there are only a few members but it will be interesting to see what happens. How many of the folks who claim they would be just as outspoken under their real names as they are anonymously will join and participate? Any bets?

I joined and made my first posts. I'm looking forward to see what happens. This might be an interesting experiment in seeing just how much anonymity really does contribute to incivility. Take a look and sign up. Www.CapeAnnPolitics.org.

Thanks for reading.

You Can't Fix Stupid, Part II

I've received so many emails about my blog the other day about the Stupid Epidemic that I decided to write more. Among the many symptoms of A.S.S. (Acquired Stupidity Syndrome) are the beliefs held by people who have come to be known as “birthers” and “deathers”. These A.S.S.es have become something of a media laughing stock but they are also totally and completely committed to their A.S.S.inine beliefs and have no intention of changing them.

Last night Rachel Maddow reported one of the most mind-boggling birther stories I've heard so far. In case you don't know what a birther is (where have you been?), birthers believe that President Barack Obama can't be President because he is not an American citizen. They claim he was born in Africa even though Snopes posted his birth certificate from Hawaii online over a year ago. Recently there was a vastly entertaining birther hoax when an unidentified blogger (those crazy bloggers) forged a fake Kenyan birth certificate so loaded with obvious mistakes that anyone but an A.S.S. would chuckle. It was “discovered” by Orly Taitz, possibly the craziest person I've ever heard tell of, who got into a fight with MSNBC's David Shuster resulting in a few moments of genuine insanity.

But back to Maddow... According to her report over three-quarters of Republicans in North Carolina still don't believe or are undecided that the President is an American citizen. And 8% of them have come up with a really unique conclusion to justify their birther belief --- they don't believe or they doubt that Hawaii is part of the United States. So there.

How can you argue with that? These A.S.S.es have decided well, okay, maybe Barack Obama wasn't born in Africa, and was actually born in Hawaii BUT since they have decided Hawaii is not part of the US of A, he still doesn't qualify.

On the other end of the A.S.S. spectrum are the “deathers”. These are the A.S.S.es who believe that the President's health care reforms will result in “death panels” which will determine whether Gramps and Granny, as well as people with various handicaps, are going to be allowed to live.

Now let me say that I really like John McCain and have said for years that the biggest mistake the Republican party ever made was not choosing him to run for President in 2000. Think what a different world we would live in had he been at the helm on Sept. 11, 2001. That being said, I don't know if I can ever forgive him for foisting Sarah Palin upon the American public. Klondike Barbie, the Killa from Wasilla, is chief among the deathers.

I will concede that Palin is probably not an A.S.S. Like Orly Taitz, I don't think there is anything acquired about her stupidity. But the A.S.S.es across the country have taken her Facebook posts to their bosoms and are screaming their lungs out at town meetings across the country, generally acting like the A.S.S.es that they are and doing their best to destroy civil discourse.

All things considered I guess we just have to accept that the A.S.S.es are here to stay. When someone asked White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs if anything could be done to convince the birthers that the President is a citizen he replied, simply, “No. The God's honest truth is nothing will assuage them.” And that's the truth about all the A.S.S.es. They've chosen their beliefs and no evidence to the contrary will make them change. They'd rather make complete jackA.S.S.es of themselves than learn something.

So, all we can do is keep our minds and hearts open, hold to the truth, and hope that a vaccine will be developed that will cure A.S.S. But, of course, that would mean Big Pharma would have to get involved and we all know what eliminating stupidity would do to them. Don't hold your breath...

The Orly Taitz Remix.....

Thanks for reading.

My Bright Idea & What Went Wrong

I haven't written about knitting in a long time and it has become something of a sore subject --- literally and figuratively. The problem is that I've been having a lot of trouble with arthritis/tendinitis in both of my hands and, while it is reasonably okay when I don't knit, as soon as I pick up the needles and set to work the pain starts. It's making me crazy.

You see I had this bright idea. Some months back I knit a marketing bag out of bright, colorful hand-painted rayon from Yarntopia Treasure. It was both beautiful and quite sturdy and I got an idea. People who know I wrote a book about knitting lace often ask me how I learned to knit lace. They seem to find the whole process quite mysterious. So, as I was knitting the marketing bag, I realized it was knit in a very simple lace pattern. And I had this bright idea for a collection of marketing bags each of which would be knit in a simple lace design. Because the marketing bags are relatively small and the process of knitting them is boring and repetitive I thought it would be a good way for people to try out a simple lace pattern and master it before moving on to the next bag.

So I knit 3 or 4 of them and it was going well except for the fact that my hands and wrists seemed to be sore all the time finally becoming so sore and swollen that I had to stop. I'm a slow learner. That was a few weeks ago and I've been trying to finish the last one but when I knit more than a few rows I have to quit or run the risk of causing serious knitting-preventing pain. So... patience is not my long suit.

Well, I've been experimenting and I have noticed couple of things. One is I just cannot knit with metal needles --- especially those turbo ones. They are too slippery and my fingers have to work extra hard to keep the yarn on the needles. I finally switched to a pair of bamboo needles and that seems to help. The flexible Bryspun needles are the best but I don't have them in the right size.

I also suspect that the rayon might be the problem, too. It has no “give” so I think my fingers work extra hard with the K2togs and SSKs. When I finish this bag I am going to give up on rayon.

Well, it's a slow process but I do think it will be worth it. The bags are really, really pretty and, because of the variety of stitches, not boring. And the best thing is, they are just marketing bags --- if you make a mistake who cares and it is good practice.

I'll post better pictures as soon as I get the final one ready. Let's hope my hands cooperate and are much happier when I start something in a laceweight cashmere or alpaca.

Thanks for reading.

NSAA Art Auction Last Night

It was a perfect night for an art auction --- the weather was pleasant, the harbor was beautiful and the people came out in droves. The majority of tickets sold through pre-registration. When I arrived at 4:30 there were less than 20 left and those were gone the minute the doors opened. It was a wonderful night! Duckworth's Bistrot provided the food which was delicious. Those little puff-pastry thingies filled with gruyere and carmelized onions were unbelievable. And What Time Is It Mr Fox supplied the music in the downstairs gallery while people previewed the art, mixed and mingled, nibbled appetizers, and enjoyed the drinks.

I've been working these auctions for a long time now and last night I was struck by two things. First the crowd looked fabulous! Ladies in cocktail dresses, gentlemen in evening casual, I even saw a guy in a kilt... in this era of super-casual all the time it was nice to see some glitz. And second, they weren't afraid to spend money. Good for us.

Back when I first started working these auctions you could count on a handful of paintings by the usual artists fetching four-figures but the majority of the work was well under and I remember happy bidders walking out with 3 or 4 paintings that sold for under $100 each. I think those days are gone. Last night the bidding went into the thousands on quite a few and, when I left both Charles Movalli and Jeff Weaver had sold paintings for over $5000. Below are a few of the top sellers. It was a glorious night and I'm looking forward to hearing what the finally tally was. Thanks to all who attended.

Men Working on Thacher Island by Donald Allen Mosher

Washington Street Garden by Jeff Weaver
American Eagle by Robert Gruppe
Gloucester Harbor at Sunset by Tom Gill
Smith's Cove by Charles Movalli

Thanks for reading!

You Can't Fix Stupid

After I read Bill Maher's column (see below) this morning I called up 3 of my closest friends and asked them who we fought in the Revolutionary War. They all got it right. I'm afraid to call the fourth one... But the sentiments in Maher's column, and the outrage his comments about this being a “stupid country” have provoked, are things I've been thinking about a lot lately. It's more than people who are just stupid, they're anti-intelligent. That's what's scary.

For a number of years I was pretty active on a particular internet message board and, like most internet message boards, it got heated and vitriolic at times. There were the usual stupid people but they were outnumbered by intelligent people, nice people, interesting people, friendly people, and/or entertaining people. But, over the last couple of years, I had become aware of a gradual decline in the intellectual abilities of the majority of the posters. It seemed that the intelligent people, the ones I kept going there for discourse with, were either dropping out or cutting way, way back on their posting. Not only that but the people that I initially thought were merely stupid became more and more anti-intelligent. They weren't content to be just stupid, which is something you can sort of overlook because, well, they can't seem to help themselves. But they were becoming increasingly proud of their stupidity and outright hostile to people who demonstrated any level of intelligence.

Case in point: a discussion arose about the vast American prison system. In all honesty I really thought at first that a couple of the posters were just trying to be funny their responses were so dumb. But I finally realized that these people really had absolutely no clue about how out of control our prison system has become --- and what a big business it is. One of the posters said that the reason we have so many people in prison is because we don't just kill criminals like other countries do. When it was pointed out to her (with links to factual references) that America is the only developed country in the WORLD that still has a death penalty, she countered with the observation that “we” don't tolerate the lawlessness that is rampant throughout the rest of the world. Again, it was pointed out, annotated, and referenced, that most developed country (and even most undeveloped countries) have far lower per capita rates of murder, theft, assault, rape, etc. she countered by calling us all Liberal Lunatic Poopyheads (a euphemism) and announcing that who could believe anything I say because my photo on Facebook is at least 10 years old. So there.

Well, I finally decided I didn't want to be the last person with an IQ above that of a slime eel to post there and took a cyber-hike. But my point is that dumb is “in”. Stupid is cute. Ignorance is something to be proud of and, if you think I'm wrong, you're a whining, crybaby liberal moron, you potty-face, you.

I was looking at the latest collection of political cartoons about President Clinton's rescue mission to North Korea this week. They were all predictable portraying him as a gross, disgusting lecher preying on these two young women. They shared the same web page with the reports about the latest revelations by a couple of John Does who used to work for Blackwater. They allege that Blackwater engaged in a collection of heinous activities including murder, torture, child prostitution, statutory rape and more. They also shared the page with more reports about the so-called “C Street” house in Washington where an organization called “The Family” holds itself so far above ordinary moral values that its members which includes congressmen, governors and senators, have engaged in all kinds of unacceptable behavior (Mark Sandford and John Ensign are members). I also read the comments posted under these articles. Many of the commenters were still ranting about that decade old blowjob but could find no end of excuses to make for Sandford, Ensign, and all the Blackwater employees who were rewarded by the same activity only from fourteen year olds. It's just unbelievable.

Were people always this stupid but the anonymity of the internet makes it possible for them to flaunt it? Or have the last few years of stupidity-from-on-high made stupid fashionable? I don't know but it's got me scared. For the record: in the Revolutionary War we fought England. There --- one in four of you just learned something. Hope it helps.

Thanks for reading.

Amen, Brother Bill

Boy, I sure wish I had written this! We may live in the greatest country on earth but we sure have lot of half-wits living here with us! One in four people don't know what country we fought in the Revolutionary War???? Good grief....

Bill Maher

Host of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher"

Posted: August 7, 2009 12:29 PM

New Rule: Smart President ≠ Smart Country

New Rule: Just because a country elects a smart president doesn't make it a smart country. A few weeks ago I was asked by Wolf Blitzer if I thought Sarah Palin could get elected president, and I said I hope not, but I wouldn't put anything past this stupid country. It was amazing - in the minute or so between my calling America stupid and the end of the Cialis commercial, CNN was flooded with furious emails and the twits hit the fan. And you could tell that these people were really mad because they wrote entirely in CAPITAL LETTERS!!! It's how they get the blood circulating when the Cialis wears off. Worst of all, Bill O'Reilly refuted my contention that this is a stupid country by calling me a pinhead, which A) proves my point, and B) is really funny coming from a doody-face like him.

Now, the hate mail all seemed to have a running theme: that I may live in a stupid country, but they lived in the greatest country on earth, and that perhaps I should move to another country, like Somalia. Well, the joke's on them because I happen to have a summer home in Somalia... and no I can't show you an original copy of my birth certificate because Woody Harrelson spilled bong water on it.

And before I go about demonstrating how, sadly, easy it is to prove the dumbness dragging down our country, let me just say that ignorance has life and death consequences. On the eve of the Iraq War, 69% of Americans thought Saddam Hussein was personally involved in 9/11. Four years later, 34% still did. Or take the health care debate we're presently having: members of Congress have recessed now so they can go home and "listen to their constituents." An urge they should resist because their constituents don't know anything. At a recent town-hall meeting in South Carolina, a man stood up and told his Congressman to "keep your government hands off my Medicare," which is kind of like driving cross country to protest highways.

I'm the bad guy for saying it's a stupid country, yet polls show that a majority of Americans cannot name a single branch of government, or explain what the Bill of Rights is. 24% could not name the country America fought in the Revolutionary War. More than two-thirds of Americans don't know what's in Roe v. Wade. Two-thirds don't know what the Food and Drug Administration does. Some of this stuff you should be able to pick up simply by being alive. You know, like the way the Slumdog kid knew about cricket.

Not here. Nearly half of Americans don't know that states have two senators and more than half can't name their congressman. And among Republican governors, only 30% got their wife's name right on the first try.

Sarah Palin says she would never apologize for America. Even though a Gallup poll says 18% of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth. No, they're not stupid. They're interplanetary mavericks. A third of Republicans believe Obama is not a citizen, and a third of Democrats believe that George Bush had prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, which is an absurd sentence because it contains the words "Bush" and "knowledge."

People bitch and moan about taxes and spending, but they have no idea what their government spends money on. The average voter thinks foreign aid consumes 24% of our federal budget. It's actually less than 1%. And don't even ask about cabinet members: seven in ten think Napolitano is a kind of three-flavored ice cream. And last election, a full one-third of voters forgot why they were in the booth, handed out their pants, and asked, "Do you have these in a relaxed-fit?"

And I haven't even brought up America's religious beliefs. But here's one fun fact you can take away: did you know only about half of Americans are aware that Judaism is an older religion than Christianity? That's right, half of America looks at books called the Old Testament and the New Testament and cannot figure out which one came first.

And these are the idiots we want to weigh in on the minutia of health care policy? Please, this country is like a college chick after two Long Island Iced Teas: we can be talked into anything, like wars, and we can be talked out of anything, like health care. We should forget town halls, and replace them with study halls. There's a lot of populist anger directed towards Washington, but you know who concerned citizens should be most angry at? Their fellow citizens. "Inside the beltway" thinking may be wrong, but at least it's thinking, which is more than you can say for what's going on outside the beltway.

And if you want to call me an elitist for this, I say thank you. Yes, I want decisions made by an elite group of people who know what they're talking about. That means Obama budget director Peter Orszag, not Sarah Palin.

Which is the way our founding fathers wanted it. James Madison wrote that "pure democracy" doesn't work because "there is nothing to check... an obnoxious individual." Then, in the margins, he doodled a picture of Joe the Plumber.

Until we admit there are things we don't know, we can't even start asking the questions to find out. Until we admit that America can make a mistake, we can't stop the next one. A smart guy named Chesterton once said: "My country, right or wrong is a thing no patriot would ever think of saying... It is like saying 'My mother, drunk or sober.'" To which most Americans would respond: "Are you calling my mother a drunk?"

Bill Maher is the host of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," and will be joined on the show tonight by Arianna Huffington. "Real Time" airs fridays on HBO at 10:00PM Eastern Time.

...and Jon Stewart does it again!

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