Rant-tastic

Well, it's been quite a few days, has it not?

Let's begin with the couple who committed a home invasion of the White House during the Indian PM's state dinner. This is what it's come to, folks. So desperate to get on TV that we will consider gate crashing a White House event WITH CAMERAS in tow. No shame. Now while the Secret Service gets a foot put up its ass and thanks god it was only two loser Bravo TV wannabes who got past the clearly lackluster security, we can all look forward to these shameless asshats on our TV justifying their unjustifiable actions. It does make you wonder something, though: why are they not in jail? What if it were, say, you and I who just decided to walk in? What if we were, say, three teenage black kids? Would we be fielding offers from ABC--or would we be incarcerated somewhere already? Hell, the balloon boy's parents got served! Why not this couple? On the other hand, perhaps we should thank them for apparently waltzing through a security system that, were it in a Nicolas Cage movie, would make me snort with laughter, like, oh yeah, we're just supposed to believe the White House Security Gate just waves him in because he's dressed up fancy! Apparently, Nic Cage knows from security...
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/11/30/white-house-security-screeners-failed-to-ask-about-state-dinner-crashers/

Let's now move on to the animal who killed four Seattle-area police officers. How was this man on the street? I know; his sentence was commuted by Mike Huckabee because he was 17 at the time of the commutation. Another part of the reason? The suspect, Clemmons, said he'd changed, and Huckabee and Judge Marion Humphrey--both ministers--believed in giving second chances. It's a tragedy from every angle, all the more so because it was preventable. This is disgusting and horrifying and truly tragic. I wonder how many other issues of law in Arkansas were decided on similar biblical principles.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010389064_webclemency01m.html

For the frequent fliers among you, this little nugget of nastiness from the FAA: Not to worry about those parts causing rare mid-flight engine shutdowns on Boeing 777's. We had ordered them grounded, but since the replacement parts are hard to get, we'll let them fly till 2011. Enjoy those pretzels, folks.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/30/national/main5834754.shtml?

And on a completely different note, some pics from Afghanistan, showing our servicemen and women doing some amazing work. It puts my little rant here in stark contrast to the real work these folks are doing. Thanks to all of them. Let's hope Obama has some good news tomorrow night.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/11/afghanistan_november_2009.html

Martha Speaks

Martha Stewart nails it on Sarah Palin. Somebody keep this lady drinkin' because she is speaking my language. Last week she was all up in Rachael Ray's grill about not being a real cook (thank you) and this week smackin' it down on Palin. I loves it!

Welcome to the Dollhouse

I read with interest and annoyance the following article in the Wall Street Journal by Megan Cox Gurdon: online.wsj.com

It asks, "Do Our Dolls Have to Look Like Us?" and answers--big surprise from the WSJ--"Naaah." The author's point is that adults try to politicize dolls (not black enough, hair too straight, etc), whereas kids just want to play with them; therefore it is ridiculous that the toy companies are jumping through such hoops to bring diverse dolls to market. What's amazing is that the author cites two seminal studies demonstrating the negative effects on children of color when given only white dolls, but she still arrives at the same conclusion: What a pain! Why bother!? And the best, a line that said something to the effect of: "my one black friend growing up loved her Skipper and Barbie dolls!" Of course it's not a problem then, because you know ONE BLACK PERSON who had fun with Barbie! That must mean that ALL black people are just like your friend, being as how she's representative of an entire group of people by virtue of her blackness. Gimme a break.

Listen, I get what she's saying up to a point. Adults can get wiggy about stuff that goes over the heads of kids. But to then extrapolate that to conclude that dolls don't really have to look like a kid because--hey--the author's white kid just loooooves her Kaya Native American doll (whom the author calls an "American Indian")! So if white kids love dolls who happen to be of another race, why can't kids of other races just get on board with white dolls, huh? Well, they can. They've been doing it for hundreds of years. Hundreds of years up until only the past, say, five to eight years, if we're discussing widely-available mass-produced dolls. Readers will recall my quest--in Washington DC--to find a doll for Bambina that was even slightly more colored than alabaster, and this in 2005 in a major city. It was not an easy task. No, Ms. Cox Gurdon, it's not that people of color can't get on board with white dolls; that's been done. It's that, as the white parent of a white child, you will never walk into a store and ponder why NOT ONE doll in the entire building even remotely resembles your child. And again, you will ask, "Well, why does it matter?" And, again, as the white parent of a white child, you will not understand my answer when I say, "Because I have seen my daughter's face when met with a doll that Looks Like Her. I have seen the spark of recognition. I have seen the pride. I have seen the excitement that this perfect mirror image of herself has been placed in her grasp."

Of course she has white dolls she plays with. Of course she has black dolls she plays with. She likes them all. But when she was given the chance to get an American Girl doll, her first choice was Ivy Ling, the Chinese-American doll who is friends with white, blond Julie in 1974 San Francisco. She loves the Julie and Ivy stories and has her hopes set on a Julie doll as well, but when given the choice, she chose Ivy first. When she plays with and talks to Ivy, I can hear how the doll is a reflection of Bambina: "Oh, Ivy, you celebrate Chinese New Year just like we do; and since you don't celebrate Christmas in the books except with Julie's family, I think you celebrate Hanukkah like me. Welcome to our family!" And then Ivy becomes a doll to be dressed and undressed, taken places, and handled just as her other dolls of various racial origins are handled. But those tiny moments, those fleeting moments, when I hear my child speak alone with her Chinese doll, I get it. I get it in a way Ms. Cox Gurdon cannot get it.

We all want to see ourselves reflected in the important things of our world; it is a human need, as old as time. Western Christendom depicted Jesus as white with blue eyes. Completely unlikely and almost impossible for someone of that time and that place to look remotely white, but there he is: your Aryan Jesus of Nazareth, for the ages. I for one am glad that the toy industry is no longer telling kids of color that they don't exist, that they don't merit a line of production. You can slam marketing and product-pushing all you want. What I'm talking about is the fact that American Girl and Disney are acknowledging that their customer base EXISTS, that there is something powerful about imaginative play, especially when it acknowledges the personhood of the girl playing. That ALL girls of ALL races benefit when given a diversity of options and stories to imagine and build upon.


ps--This entire post leaves out my parental concern, at least vis a vis American Girl, that their Asian dolls are all light-skinned. Baby steps, I say. Baby steps.

Welcome, H1N1

And just as the blog was off to a decent-enough start, the Bambina has come down with the dreaded porcine influenza. It's officially unconfirmed because they don't test for it, but her symptoms are all consistent, according to the ER (which we just visited in the wee hours), with H1N1. Ragingly high fever, emphysema-like cough, and major body aches and pains to the point of tears. Oh, it's a fiesta here at Chez Haggis. A regular fiesta.

Since I only got my shot on Wednesday and am therefore not immune yet, I will most likely be next in line, followed by the BBDD who is screwed either way: he'll either be sick himself or taking care of us. Fan-f*cking-tastic.

I knew it was coming. One of Bambina's friends got sent home from school on Friday after throwing up and spiking a high fever. When his mom mentioned that it was not a stomach virus but..dunh dunh dunh!...H1N1, I knew that mess was in the mail. Well, the package arrived at 3am in the form of a screaming child with a 102 fever and unbearable stomach pain. The doctor said to ER her, they checked for pneumonia, found none but found bronchitis--and the flu.

So although I'm certain I'm already infected due to all kinds of normal contact, the Baby Daddy is downstairs with the girl since I am attempting to limit any further ingestion of her germs. Then he can sleep today and I'll take care of her, and then we'll switch again. Until the next domino falls...

Punching Out

Here are some links for you on this Friday afternoon:

First, Roy Keane, star Irish footballer discusses why the Irish are whiners about losing to France. He also, a couple of minutes in, takes out a guy whose cell phone keeps ringing. Fun TV--especially because Roy Keane is a hottie.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/internationals/8370327.stm

Next, a story on the ludicrous notion that Lou Dobbs will run for the White House or Senate. Oh, please bring that on!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091119/people_nm/us_usa_politics_dobbs

In the "now that is giant balls" department, a woman organizes a fundraiser to help the victim of a hit-and-run. Only, she steals the money to pay the bail of the suspect in the hit-and-run. Stay classy, America.
http://columbian.com/article/20091119/NEWS02/711209987/Police%20%20Money%20from%20Patterson%20‘%20fundraiser%20%20misused

The final link's first paragraph says it all: "An eminent rabbi was so exhausted after three days of constant cocaine-fuelled partying with escorts that his pimp grew worried and cancelled that day’s supply of girls."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6924293.ece

And with that, friends, I wish bid you Gut Shabbes!

Palin: Best Fiction Writer of 2009?

The Palin Train just keeps rollin' along! As a DNC memo said yesterday: If Republicans want to anoint SP as their standard bearer: "God bless." Although, my own personal patriotism and love for this beautiful country should preclude too much glee here, since anytime someone runs for something, they might actually win. And a Sarah Palin win for any office, much less the Presidency, would be a catastrophe unlike any before in our history. Here's a link to the first TWENTY-TWO fabrications in her book (half-way down the page):

politico.com/blogs/bensmith

As much as I have shredded John McCain in these pages for his choice of Palin, I was glad to see him yesterday finally come to the defense of his staffers who have been the victims of career assassination at the hands of Palin. I mean, if Palin is to be believed, Nicole Wallace convinced her to do the infamous interview with Katie Couric because Katie had "low self-esteem." If true, Ms. Wallace is unemployable in electoral politics. Having seen Ms. Wallace's work and seeing her appearance on Rachel Maddow's show where she called Palin's account, rather credibly, "fiction," I'm inclined to believe her.

In my writing class we talked at great length about the difference between non-fiction, creative non-fiction and fiction. We were to write non-fiction. If you could not remember a detail you were not to make it up; you were to find a way to make the lack of memory work in the story: "I don't recall the way she said it, but I left with the impression that I was to..." It lets you continue with YOUR truth, your memories of the event, without inventing quotes for others and without putting the veneer of fact on what is only a spotty memory. It respects the genre, and it respects the people in your story.

Compare Going Rogue to George Stephanopoulos' All Too Human. At the time ATH came out I was outraged that a White House staffer would reveal his conversations with the President. I refused to buy the book and cursed Georgie S a blue streak. But if you read the book (it fell open off my Republican colleague's desk one day...) you will see that it is based on his copious daily notes and his memos from the time of the events. It is a well-sourced book. Most importantly, where relevant, Stephanopoulos goes to great lengths to say, "These are my recollections of the conversation/the meeting/the argument; xy may disagree." So even though I was mad that he wrote the book (which now seems quaintly tame in comparison to other people's works published in the past decade), I was heartened to see that it was not a hatchet job, a score-settling or a work of creative non-fiction in which embellishments to the truth were acceptable. He was trying to be truthful to the events, the moments, and the people insofar as any human writer can do.

Going Rogue is its own animal. Why I think I find it so interesting, to be honest is that it puts Palin's political career and writing/TV appearance career on a collision course. If she runs for office, she will have to defend her record--which now includes this book. It's just rather breathtaking, is what I'm saying, for a person who seems to have aspirations for higher office to write a book whose facts are so easily discredited, and whose idea of interesting anecdotes includes this very classy nugget:


All I'm saying is that maybe the book will fall open off the shelf at my local bookstore today...

As Good As It Gets

I'm at Dana Farber today for my now-ongoing GVHD drama. The crap news: I have developing skin GVHD, wherein the connective tissue and my skin are sticking to my muscles. So when I move my arm, a dimpled, tight-feeling line is visible where all these things that are supposed to slide smoothly over and around each other are getting stuck together. It's as beautiful-looking as it sounds.

But, now the good news: If I can stay on my current dose of immunosuppressives or less, I can travel to China to bring home baby sister! Woo Hoo!

Further good news: I'm getting my H1N1 vaccination in about 5 minutes, and there is no peace of mind like the H1N1 peace of mind, my friends. My doctor was totally fine with me getting any virus, any bacteria, but he said in no uncertain terms: "You really, really do not want to get H1N1. It kills people like you, and fast." So we've all just been waiting and waiting for a shipment, and it finally arrived for the good people of DF today...and I'm at the head of the line.

All told, I'm thinking this is a good day, even as I reflect on my new definition of "good" from, say, ten years ago. The threshold for "good" is far lower, but the joy in feeling it is far greater.
I'll take it. :)