Thursday, June 25, 2009

Don't Cry for He, Argentina

Over the last twenty-four hours I've posted variations of the following in comments on various other blogs, vlogs, and emails, so I suppose I may as well put my feelings on Governor Mark Sanford (R, South Carolina) in my own blog as well...

#1 - I don't care about the affair - That's between him, his wife, his large-breasted girlfriend (did you read those emails!?!), and her husband (unclear right now whether or not she's still married). An affair just makes him human and flawed, and who am I to pass judgment.

#2 - That he skipped out of town for a quickie on the weekend of father's day is what makes him a class one SOB in my book. I pity his poor kids and the years of therapy they'll be facing as a result of this public humiliation.

Summary so far: Dump your wife? Fine. Dump your kids? Screw you. But...

#3 - What makes this whole thing a public affair, and what makes Sanford unfit for public office, is his skipping out on his elected duties as governor. His staff couldn't reach him, the Lt. Governor didn't know he was in charge... What if there were an emergency? A train wreck, plane crash, flash flood, terrorist act, Columbine style massacre, etc., etc. Shit does, in fact, happen. Even in South Carolina.

Yes, Chief Executives deserve vacation days. But there's a proper way to do it that allows the State to continue to function under its Constitution. He walked away from those duties and the Constitution; he should be removed from office.

And to those who question whether or not my outrage is partisan in nature, I'll remind you of this: When Clinton was under investigation what I said then was that an extra-curricular blow job was not an impeachable offense, but lying about it under oath was.

BTW: Mark Sanford thought that the blow job was the impeachable offense.

I'm very tolerant about perversions - I'm not very sympathetic to hypocrites.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

An Ode to Silicon Valley

From "plump, purple plums to shiny silver apples" and "fading start-up t-shirts filling Gold's gym" to traffic on 101, 280, and 85, and don't forget the food from pho to falafel... it's the Silicon Valley, for better or worse, exposed bare, dark underside, shiny future, the entrepreneurs and the laid off (and sometimes both), coming together in Santa Clara County's first official poem, "A Family Album, Santa Clara County, 2009."

County poet laureate, Nils Peterson, (does your county have an official poet?) assembled the poem from lines submitted by 500 county residents, ages 11 to 80. About 100 of the submitted lines, each with nine to 13 syllables, made the final cut.
"This poem captures the heights and the depths of life in Silicon Valley," said Peterson, professor emeritus at San Jose State University, who was moved to tears as he recited "A Family Album, Santa Clara County, 2009" at a press conference at the county government center. "We are reflecting the family of Santa Clara County, that's our extended family, and we are lucky to have each other."
Listen to Poet Laureate Nils Peterson reading the first official Santa Clara County poem:

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Why literacy programs are important

One Day Sale ... but which day? on Twitpic

One Day Sale ... but which day? Caught at Macy's Cupertino. (click on photo for full image)

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Fifteen Songs Meme

More FaceBook/Blog memes... This time we play "Fifteen Songs"...

To play along, here are the rules:

(1) Turn on your MP3 player. (What, no MP3 player? What century you living in, man?)

(2) Go to SHUFFLE songs mode.

(3) Write down the first 15 songs that come up--song title and artist--NO editing/cheating, please.

(4) Choose some people to be tagged. It is generally considered to be in good taste to tag the person who tagged you. Feel free to participate even if not tagged.

These are my 15 songs:

1 - Poets Into Space - Peri Urban
2 - Come Away With Me - Norah Jones
3 - Hot Sun - Adrian Belew
4 - So What (live) - Miles Davis with John Coltrane
5 - Permanent Hurt - John Hiatt
6 - House of the Rising Sun (live) - Bob Dylan & Tom Petty
7 - Dirty Life and Times - Warren Zevon
8 - Dave - The Bears
9 - Winter Sun - Lem Kuper
10 - Jesus is Vlogging for Me - Peri Urban
11 - Giving - Dave Davies
12 - Rollin' and Tumblin' - Eric Clapton
13 - Worried Life Blues - Eric Clapton & B.B. King
14 - Bandit of Love - Carlene Carter
15 - Accidentally Life a Martyr (demo) - Warren Zevon

I just gotta laugh that my buddy Peri Urban came up twice - purely accidental. Not surprised by the duplicates of Zevon and Clapton, but I am surprised that one Dave Davies cut was the only Kinks-related track.

Over-all, though, I'm pleased with all fifteen songs. It was tough hitting the "next" button to make the list - I wanted to sit and listen to them all!

Okay - Tagging aside, if you want to do a Fifteen Songs post, go ahead, if you don't, I truly understand. No tags here.

(BTW - The picture of me is from the debut and final performance of the Mutant Armadillos, Sacramento, CA, 1997.)

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