a fool in the forest

Your Our Tax Dollars at Work

If I were asked to trace the precise moment they lost me, it would have to be the loving closeup of the prosthetic racing leg at 0:16.  

"Let's be completely honest" in the first few seconds runs a really close second.

In the immortal words of Sheridan Whiteside: "I may vomit."

~~~

Update [mere moments later]: 

Seriously, my head is in danger of going full Cronenberg each time I watch this.  

[Insert inarticulate, gurgling scream here.]

~~~

Further Update [30 minutes or so after that}:

Even more seriously, this ad would not be running at all but for its creators' confidence that the American public might be swayed by it in a useful way.  Each time I watch it -- and the fact that I keep returning to it is not a healthy sign -- I find even more to be amazed by: the fallen hockey player, the charging thoroughbreds, the surging bean sprouts, the "Extreme Home Makeover"/barnraising, the solar panels and wind turbines, Joe Louis, and the gol-durned Moon Landing, all in one glossy, toxic package.

Sure, its only hope is to sell some of your neighbors a car -- and to sell all of us on a multi-billion dollar charitable donation to a wallowing leviathan -- but this spot cannot but reminds me, in a kinder-gentler way, of the classic and still kinda creepy indoctrination sequence in Alan Pakula's [mysteriously hard to come by ] The Parallax View (1974):

Of course, I may be overreacting.

~~~

The Infernal Retinues Surface

Our National Anthem of the Day:

Taxman -- George Harrison and Eric Clapton (live)

And for the young people (as Ed Sullivan used to say), an alternate version: 

~~~

Photo: "Have you paid your income tax this month?" (Accra, Ghana 2001) by flickr user Walt Jabsco , used under Creative Commons license.

~~~ 

And Darwinner is . . .

Charles Darwin is 200 years old today, and I believe him even if too few of my fellow citizens do. 

In honor of the grand old man, this fool presents the highly evolved setting of Ravel's "Bolero" from Bruno Bozzetto's 1977 Fantasia send-up, Allegro Non Troppo.  Here is Part 1:

And here is Part 2:

(Better quality, but non-embeddable, versions are here (Part 1 - 10:43) and here (Part 2 - 2:16).)

~~~

Photo: "Darwin Has a Party" [at Swarthmore] by Flickr user Colin Purrington, used under Creative Commons license.

Hope: It's What's for Lunch

Festivities, festivities, festivities!

"Hope is the thing with feathers," says Emily Dickinson, so it is only right that the 44th President of the United States should begin his term of service by sitting down to eat a brace of formerly feathered things.  Frazer would understand.

This evening, there will be Inaugural Balls on nearly every theme, but there will be no Policeman's Ball.   This is because all of the police are so busy.

So, as we wait in Hope for the Change we Need, let us all join hands in a Spirit of Optimism and Sacrifice and sing along with Mr. Alan Price:

~~~

On Freedom's Ground

Praise to this land for our power to change it,
To confess our misdoings, to mend what we can,
To learn what we mean and to make it the law,
To become what we said we were going to be.
Praise to our peoples, who came as strangers,
Who more and more have been shaped into one
Like a great statue brought over in pieces,
Its hammered copper bolted together,
Anchored by rods in the continent's rock,
With a core of iron, and a torch atop it.
Praise to this land that its most oppressed
Have marched in peace from the dark of the past
To speak in out time, and in Washington's shadow,
Their invincible hope to be free at last --

--from Richard Wilbur, "On Freedom's Ground" (1986)

~~~
Illustration: Lincoln's Second Inaugural, by Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly, 1865

~~~

UPDATE (only slightly frivolous):

"Mr. Obama, you've just become President of the United States: what will you do now?" 

"I'm going to Walt Disney World!"

~~~

On Proposition 8 (with surprise guests Benjamin, Peter and Franz)

Before leaving politics behind and returning to the "culture and nonsense" theme for which this weblog is known, I feel obliged to remark on Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage initiative that appears, at this point, to have passed ever so narrowly.  I am on record in opposition to Proposition 8, and I am more than somewhat disappointed in my fellow Californians for voting as they've done, especially by such a frustratingly close margin.

At this writing, with something like 99.5% of the ballots counted, the Secretary of State shows the margin to be 52.5% "Yes" to 47.5% "No," a difference of just under 500,000 votes statewide.  Non-Californians should keep in mind that a "Yes" vote was a vote to amend the California Constitution to eliminate same-sex marriage by declaring that

Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

So "yes" meant "no" to same-sex marriage, and vice versa.

Proposition 8 amends the state Constitution, rather than enacting a new statute.  Other than that, it is identical to Proposition 22, which Californians passed by a better than 60-40 margin in the year 2000.  The California Supreme Court invalidated Proposition 22 earlier this year, on the ground that it violated the rights of citizens to equal protection of the laws when those citizens wish to marry and happen to be of the same sex.  The equal protection analysis referred solely to the California state Constitution; there has not been any particular indication from the U.S. Supreme Court that it would be inclined to consider same-sex marriage to be encompassed within the federal equal protection guarantees of the U.S. Constitution.  Because the California Supreme Court framed its decision in terms of what the state Constitution does or does not permit, the proponents of Proposition 8 took the direct and practical approach of amending the state Constitution to reinstate the policy of Proposition 22.

If there is any comfort to be had for gay marriage proponents in yesterday's results, it may come from comparison of the county-by-county map for Proposition 22 from 2000 with the county-by-county results for Proposition 8.  While the opposition to Proposition 22 prevailed in only six counties, sprinkled in the general vicinity of San Francisco Bay, Proposition 8 opponents carried the day in fifteen counties, spreading north, south and even to far-flung Mono and Alpine Counties on the Nevada border.  The maps tell the tale: over the past eight yeare there has been a substantial decline in total voter opposition and a significant geographical spread of support for same-sex marriage.

A number of disappointed commentators have criticized the California Supreme Court for bringing about marriage equality, temporarily, by judicial action rather than leave the issue to legislation or the ballot.  Megan McArdle's comments can stand for many others:

In general, courts are the wrong place to press these sorts of claims.  The courts were appropriate for civil rights because blacks were literally denied the right to participate in the legislative democratic process.  And on a practical level, they worked because a majority of people in the country were more than happy to force civil rights on an unhappy white southern minority.  Unfortunately, too many groups have decided that the success of civil rights can be widely applied to circumvent the electorate on issues where there is no public consensus.  Now widespread gay marriage seems quite a bit less likely for the near term than it would have been had we attacked the issue legislatively.

Equal protection challenges, however, have traditionally been the province of the courts.  The state Supreme Court's view was not that it was "creating a new right" to gay marriage, but that it was eliminating a barrier that stood between same-sex couples and the existing right to marry that every other couple enjoys.  The Court majority held that there are insufficient differences between the two groups to warrant different treatment.  Couples are couples -- just as in the Civil Rights era courts repeatedly held that people are people, each entitled to the same treatment under the law.  Proposition 22 created an impediment to equality among people, and the Court declined to enforce it.  Proposition 8 reinstates it.

At LA Observed, Kevin Roderick notes the declining numbers as one works down the ostensibly "progressive" positions on the California ballot: there is a decline of nearly a million votes between supporters of Senator Obama and the (successful) opponents of Proposition 4, the latest in our recurring line of anti-abortion "parental notification" proposals.  Proposition 4 opponents outnumber opponents of Proposition 8 by another quarter million or so.

Professor Bainbridge has the most interesting purely-legal take on the "what's next" question.  Because the definition of "marriage" is now ensconced in the California Constitution, one can't very well claim the ban is "unconstitutional".  The counter-argument apparently turns on how Proposition 8 got on to the ballot and whether it is an "amendment" or a "modification" of the state Constitution -- the sort of distinction that the legal conceptualist in me adores and that drives Real People crazy. 

• In an update added while this post was in preparation, Professor B cites to his UCLA colleague Professor V [for Volokh] and concludes that Proposition 8 is most likely an "amendment," and therefore here to stay.

• The original post includes an embedded YouTube version of the original, highly effective, pro-Proposition 8 ad, featuring the premature triumphalism of San Francisco Mayor (and likely 2010 gubernatorial candidate) Gavin Newsom.  Removed from its gay-marriage context, my wife is of the opinion that Newsom's crowing "It's gonna happen, whether you like it or not" would make a great -- and really annoying -- ringtone.

~~~

In a transitional move back to the "culture and nonsense" front, let's throw in a gratuitous reference to one of the premiere gay couples of the 20th Century: composer Benjamin Britten and tenor Peter Pears, who knew firsthand "the difficulties involved in maintaining a virtually open homosexual marriage in the sexually repressive 1950s." 

Although the post itself has vanished in a server accident, Tim Mangan a few weeks back on the OC Register Arts Blog embedded this video, in which Ben at the piano accompanies Peter in a selection from Schubert’s “Die schöne Müllerin”:

Coming soon: more culture.  Also more nonsense.

~~~

[Photo: "Broken" by Flickr! user messtiza, used under Creative Commons license.]

Hail to the Victors! (Here's Hoping at You, Kid)

William Hogarth
An Election Entertainment 4: Chairing the Member
1754-1755 [complete series viewable here.]

~~~

One of the signs you are becoming an adult in this country comes on the day that you realize that you are older than most of the people singing on the radio.  One of the signs that you have been an adult for rather a while comes on the day that you realize you are older than the President (or in this case the President Elect) of the United States.  *sigh*

Congratulations from this fool to all those candidates who prevailed in yesterday's elections.  Congratulations particularly to Senator Obama.  Don't get cocky, kid.

When the Inaugural celebrations have concluded in January, here's hoping that the members of our newly refurbished Government will be able to get over themselves and do their job for the nation.  Zealotry and self-importance are unseemly traits, no matter how worthy the perceived cause.  It is more true than not that, as Senator Obama said in his victory oration last night, "we have never been just a collection of individuals ... : we are, and always will be, the United States of America."  But we are, also, that collection of individuals, and the role of our government -- which belongs to us, not we to it -- should be to serve all while interfering as little as possible with each.  Neither major party's partisans embrace that notion with any real enthusiasm today, if they acknowledge it at all.  In your new era of "service and sacrifice," Mr. President, try not to lose sight of it.

Well done, sir.  Give our best to the new puppy.  Now I have to get back to work, and you do, too.

You Casts Yer Vote and You Takes Yer Chances

John Gutmann
Black Jack in Reno at Election Time
Nevada, 1936

"The man who never took a chance never had a chance." 

Don't forget to vote now, y'hear.

Questions and Antlers, Election Day Edition

I have spent most of my adult life as a registered Republican, and I have learned that the central challenge posed by that status, cycle after cycle, is to find a Republican candidate to whom I am actually willing to give my vote.  Finding Democratic candidates to oppose has been easy; finding Republicans to support has been hard. 

I cast my ballot twice for George W. Bush, both times because the Democratic candidate drove me to it.  In 2004, John Kerry was simply awful as even many Democrats admit.  In 2000, I was fully prepared to vote for Al Gore, until he threw my vote away with his blood-and-thunder "people vs. the powerful" tirade at the Convention.

With fewer than 24 hours remaining, I have decided this year to give the Presidential slot a miss.  Because this is California, there has never been any doubt that the State's electoral votes would go to whoever was the nominee of the Democratic Party, short of Satan himself (and even he might stand a fighting chance).  Senator Obama does not need my help to collect those votes, and I could not swing them to Senator McCain if I tried.

It is odd that I would choose not to vote for President this year, because the major parties gave me exactly what I wanted: each candidate was my preferred choice to receive his respective party's nomination.  Neither, however, will have my vote. 

Senator Obama has been sufficiently forthright for me to know I cannot vote for him because I disagree strongly with many of his central policies, but I will shed no tears when he is elected, as seems inevitable.  I wish him well in office, and I feel more than a little sympathy for his supporters: anyone investing that much Hope is bound to be disappointed in a world that sadly, campaign rhetoric aside, does not in fact operate on wishes, good feeling and pixie dust.

I expected at this time to be preparing to cast a ballot for Senator McCain, but he managed to throw my vote away every bit as effectively as Al Gore once did.  The McCain campaign has been, to my surprise and sorrow, an horrific display of every trait that has caused me to despair for the party these past years: the snippiness, the nastiness, the fear-mongering, the embrace of sentimentality in place of thought, and so on.  Not at all what I expected from this Senator, and a depressing spectacle that cannot end soon enough.

And, of course, there is the final deal breaker: Governor Palin.  Readers of this weblog know that I am a firm fan and supporter of that mighty creature, the North American Moose.  I will endorse moose whenever possible.  The Governatrix of Alaska is well and proudly known for her hunting of moose, which puts a severe crimp on our relationship even before we begin to inquire into trivial matters such as knowing the first thing about the public policy issues of the day.

More electoral moosery:

• The anonymous but all-seeing Editor of Blawg Review -- who encourages his stable of law bloggers even when, as in my case, their rate of posting has fallen to near invisibility -- knows of my moose-fancying tendencies and forwarded along this Language Log post: "Sarah Palin’s Favorite Meal."  It includes a detailed explanation of moose taxonomy, how to distinguish the moose from the elk, and other useful matters.  It also includes -- WARNING! -- a graphic photo essay on Governor Palin's particular skill: field dressing a moose.  Not for the faint of heart.

• Back in September, when the dew was just beginning to fade from the Palin rose, author Paul Theroux took to the Sunday Los Angeles Times to cite the example of Henry David Thoreau, who in The Maine Woods appreciated and defended the moose -- and disdained those who enjoy carving moose in to bite size morsels. 

Through Thoreau, Theroux threw a thorough thrashing at the McCain-Palin ticket.  (Say it three times fast, I dare ya.)

So, while I believe that we should all emulate this fine, free, franchise-exercisin' creature --

-- I will be leaving my Presidential ballot blank tomorrow.

I will be voting on an array of other races and issues on the ballot.  In particular, I will be voting "No" on Proposition 8, so as to ratify the California Supreme Court's decision recognizing same-sex marriage.  I mention this mainly so as to have an excuse to link one more time to my versified thoughts on the subject.

Now, go out there and vote your conscience, why don'cha? 

To send you on your way, return with us now to Those Fabulous '80s -- and look ahead to January's Inaugural Ball season -- with the decadent Cocteauviana of "Election Day" from the Duran Duran spinoff known as Arcadia:

[Politically active Moose illustration via Wonkette.]

The Expo Has Landed(Zaragoza the Neighborhood)

Sombras y Curvas (Interior de la Torre del Agua en Expo Zaragoza 2008)

In a rambling, shambling post this past December, I declared my fondness for World's Fairs and international expositions, ending with a preview of Expo 2008 in Zaragoza, Spain.*   The exposition opened officially this past weekend -- it will run from June 14 to September 14 -- so it is time for a quick revisitation, a random walk through Exponential topics:

Expo 2008, emphasizing a theme of "water and sustainable development," has suffered construction delays and been obliged to cancel or modify some events along the riverfront because of -- O! the irony -- excessive rain and flooding.  Although open less than a week, the event is already producing rumors (reliable or not, I cannot say) of disappointing attendance and unhappy workers.

Marcus Fairs of Dezeen has posted a sumptuous portfolio of photos of the combination Expo pavilion/pedestrian bridge designed by the Pritzker-winning Zaha Hadid.  (Link via C-MONSTER.net.)  The bridge looks very much as though it had just come to rest after buzzing around the quadrant in a Star Trek episode (although not nearly to the extent displayed in Hadid's designs for the proposed Guggenheim Hermitage Museum, Vilnius).  Here is a photo by a Zaragoza resident of the structure as it appeared on June 12:

Zaha Hadid's Bridge Pavilion, spanning the River Ebro at Zaragoza Expo 2008

Visitors' photos from the scene are rapidly accumulating under the Flickr! tag, "expozaragoza2008", including this one (rights reserved hence not reproduced here) showing off the Trekkiness of the bridge to good advantage.

As for other Expo structures, Gizmodo reports (with grainy video) on the Digital Water Pavilion, a structure whose "walls" are made of water droplet generated by some "3,000 digitally controlled solenoid valves," that can be stopped and started to create doors, windows and decorative patterns.  (More details are in an earlier Gizmodo posting, here.)

ExpoMuseum has a broad collection of information and links on the exposition, as well as on its predecessors back to 1851.  (ExpoMuseum creator Urso Chappell now has a blog devoted to international expositional matters, and is en route to attend the Zaragoza Expo later this week.)

~~~

Illustrations: "Sombras y Curvas" and "Pabellón Puente" by Flickr! user Zaragozano, used under Creative Commons license.

* And remember, that December post also includes Bob Dylan's Expo-inspired remake of "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall."  The original pre-Expo site touting the Dylan tune seems to have been shuttered, but the MP3 remains available right there, at a fool in the forest.