Class warfare, revisited

Right wingers frequently accuse people of class warfare any time anything related to inequality is discussed, but they are the best ones at waging it. Here's just one example: due to federal budget cuts pushed through last year have resulted in Legal Aid of West Virginia laying off 15 case handlers and closing the office in Logan County.

Legal Aid served over 24,000 West Virginians in 2010.

Similar cuts are taking place around the country. Add to that efforts to restrict access to the ballot and shred safety net programs and the truth becomes a little clearer.

I'd like to be able to call down some kind of cosmic retribution on the perpetrators, but I'm afraid my clout doesn't reach that far. I guess it's up to us.

THE SAFETY NET: WHO NEEDS IT? Lots of folks.

COMFORT FOOD is the theme of the latest edition of Notes From Under the Fig Tree by the Rev. Jim Lewis (disclosure: I gave the woman mentioned in the second part of the newsletter his telephone number).

SIDESHOWS. Here's Ken Ward with more on the tenuous connection between mine safety and drug tests.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Just a thought

I'd like to be wrong about this, but the congressional "super committee" in charge of slashing the deficit seems to be composed of a mixture of bullies and appeasers in equal numbers. This means they are likely to spare the wealthy (the 1 percenters in the parlance of our times) and tax dodging corporations from any increased taxes while slashing the programs that help sustain the other 99 percent.

If that is the case, I think it would be a very good thing if the Occupy movement took up the cause and started kicking up some national dust, with a little help from unions and other friends. To paraphrase Che Guevara, "create two, three, many Oaklands!" (Nonviolently, of course.)

ONE NATION, DIVIDED. Here's Jim Hightower on the 99/1 thing.

VETERANS OCCUPY. This story is a day or so old but worth a look. Around the country, quite a few veterans are stepping up their involvement in the Occupy movement in the wake of the injuring of Iraq war vet Scott Olsen by police in Oakland, which helped spark that city's general strike.

THE R WORD. Here's another one on the future of the Occupy movement.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Regarding marriage and the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Here come the Magyars! A painting of Prince Arpad and his followers crossing the Carpathians by way of wikipedia.

For several years, I've been making my way, a little at a time, through the unabridged version of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I'm not sure why, exactly, but it might have something to do with the ability of the author to turn a phrase. They knew a thing or two about that in the 18th century.

I've gotten through most of it and only have a scant 500-600 pages to go. Some parts are a slow slog, but my interest picks up here and there.

Recently, I've stumbled upon a section directly relevant to my marriage. Some years a go, I committed matrimony, as my late father used to say, with a female of Hungarian extraction. A Magyar if you will.

A few days back, I got to Gibbon's discussion of the migration of the Hungarians into Europe and took great delight in reading them aloud to the Spousal Unit. Here are a few sample passages that I rushed to share:

When the black swarm of Hungarians first hung over Europe, about nine hundred years after the Christian era, they were mistaken by fear and superstition for the Gog and Magog of the Scriptures, the signs and forerunners of the end of the world.

and

Except the merit and fame of military prowess, all that is valued by mankind appeared vile and contemptible to these barbarians, whose native fierceness was stimulated by the consciousness of numbers and freedom....Their simplicity has been praised; yet they abstained only from the luxury they had never known: whatever they saw they coveted; their desires were insatiate, and their sole industry was the hand of violence and rapine.

and

...mercy they rarely asked, and more rarely bestowed: both sexes were accused as equally inaccessible to pity; and their appetite for raw flesh might countenance the popular tale that they drank the blood and feasted on the hearts of the slain.

I thought she would be pleased by this affirmation of her heritage and my efforts of cultural competence, but it didn't seem to work.

I guess you just can't be nice to some people.

THE STATE OF THE YOUNG. Here's an interesting report on how young Americans are doing.

OBSERVATIONS TO OCCUPIERS. Here's a well known linguist talking to young activists.

A CERTAIN DISGRACEFUL CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE is meeting to see how much damage it can inflict on the American people...if we let it.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Learning to be miserable

This weekend I ran another 5K run with my seven year old grandson. Unlike last time around, this Saturday the weather was wet, cold and raw. The kid in question also has asthma, which made breathing in cold weather painful. Then there were foot problems. He was running in new shoes and complained about foot pain.

While a 3.1 mile jog is a piece of cake for an active adult, it is a long way for a little kid to go. I don't think I ran that far until I was in my teens.

In my efforts to keep him going, I explained that one of the real advantages of distance running was that it teaches you how to be miserable and keep on going. Unfortunately, that is a pretty useful life skill.

He finished the run anyhow.

GETTING MEAN. Here's the latest budget gutting I mean cutting proposal from US House Republicans.

NEEDED: a left.

WALL STREET. The protests there are picking up steam and spreading beyond Wall Street. Here's a take on it from a participant and here's the latest from CNN.

KOCH BROTHERS. Here's info about more fun and games from the bankrollers of the American right.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Saving the republic, one hot dog at a time

Since the rich are unwilling to do their part to save American democracy, the labor movement does its part.

At about 10 locations around the state of West Virginia, the state AFLCIO and allies, including West Virginians United for Social and Economic Justice and the American Friends Service Committee, celebrated the 76th birthday of Social Security by hosting a tongue in cheek "Help the Really Rich Hot Dog Sale."

Larry Matheney, secretary treasurer of the WV AFLCIO, makes his pitch to help the really rich.

Hot dogs were on sale at 1935 prices of $.05. The labor federation sent a letter to House Speaker (and faithful servant of the really rich) John Boehner that read:

In support of your effort to continue millionaires’ and corporations’ outrageous tax cuts at the expense of destroying our nation’s social safety net programs (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) we are advising you of the West Virginia AFL-CIO plan to reduce the debt of our nation while protecting the rich and tax dodging corporations.

On the weekend of August 14, 2011 we will be having hot dog sales promoted by our Central Labor Councils, located in thirteen cities in West Virginia, in celebration of the 76th anniversary of the signing of the Social Security Act by President Roosevelt. We will be selling our hot dogs at the 1935 price of 5¢ with all proceeds being donated to the United States government. We hope you’ll recognize our effort to reduce our nation’s debt, could help you build a stronger case to continue protecting the rich and tax dodging corporations from paying their fair share of taxes.

The West Virginia AFL-CIO will present a check to the Bureau of the Public Debt, (200 Third Street, Parkersburg W.V.), on August 25th at 1:00 p.m. and request your presence as we award the proceeds resulting from our, “Help the Really Rich Hot Dog Sale”.

The serious point behind all this is the absurdity of proposing cuts to vital programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security while undoing Bush era tax cuts for the extremely wealthy are off the table.

The next act in this tragicomedy will happen on August 25th, when proceeds from the hot dog sales will be presented to the Bureau of the Public Debt in Parkersburg.

If you think all this is silly, you're right. The only thing sillier is a Congress that thinks preserving tax cuts for the rich is more important than promoting the common good.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Short rations again

No time to ramble today, but here are a few items that caught my eye:

FAMILIES CHALLENGE MASSEY SALE. A lawsuit is in the works challenging the sale of Massey Energy to Alpha Natural Resources in the wake of the Upper Big Branch disaster and the facts that have emerged since it occurred in April 2010.

"RIGHT WING SOCIAL ENGINEERING." Congressman Paul Ryan's plan to gut Medicare continues to generate political blowback. More on that here.

SPEAKING OF POLITICS, bees have an interesting system.

WHEN SPIDERS ATTACK,they do it really well.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Vox populi

Not that many people in positions of power seem to care, but the majority of Americans strongly oppose the radical agenda being pushed by the right wing in Congress.

Roger Hickey of the Campaign for America's Future notes in the Huffington Post that most people in this country

•oppose cutting benefits for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid recipients;

•reject the idea of raising the age of eligibility for these popular programs;

•hate the proposal to turn Medicare into a voucher or privatize Social Security;

•support taxing the rich and corporations to close the deficit and fund needed investment;

•favor cutting military spending for both obsolete weapons systems and current wars;

•and, while acknowledging the need to reduce deficits, place a higher priority on creating jobs and getting the sputtering economy growing.

DESTROYING MEDICARE IN ORDER TO SAVE IT here.

I'M GAME. Robert Reich calls for federal budget ju jitsu.

JAY VERSUS JOE. Here's a good Gazette editorial on the budget debate and how West Virginia's two senators find themselves on opposite sides. Please step away from the Dark Side, Senator Manchin.

A NEW CHARGE has been filed against a Massey Energy security officer. Meanwhile, tomorrow the independent investigation of the Upper Big Branch disaster ordered by then governor Manchin will be released tomorrow.

THE STATE OF THE STATES. Not good (although WV is doing fairly well for a change).

MY NECK OF THE WOODS didn't come out too good in a survey of well-being.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Gearing up for the budget battle

Ready or not, here it comes! Between now and July, major decisions will be made in Washington that will affect not only the federal deficit and budget but also the well-being of millions of children, elderly Americans and low income families.

Here are some items from the Friends Committee on National Legislation that might be useful:

First, here's a good introduction to the budget debate and related jargon;

Second, here is information about proposals put forward by a range of groups on how to cut $2 trillion from the national debt over the next 10 years by cutting Pentagon spending and raising revenues.

Third, here are some surprising voices who call for looking at cutting Pentagon spending.

While we're at it, here are some reasons why a spending cap, which is favored by WV Senator Joe Manchin, is a bad idea that would force major cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security over the next several years and here is a look at what that would mean for West Virginia and what some people here have to say about it.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Drop everything...

...and read this column by E.J. Dionne Jr. from the Washington Post.

He makes the point that I tried, much less eloquently, to make here last week, namely that the American republic is being deserted and betrayed by elements of its ruling class.

The sad thing (one of many sad things) is that if they succeed, in the long run they will lose, along with the rest of us.

MAKE IT PLAIN. Krugman suggests it's time to draw the line.

WHO PAYS? Not these corporations.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Just kidding

We once again interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to announce new arrivals at Goat Rope Farm.


Yesterday morning, Juno, daughter of caprine doyenne Arcadia S. Venus, was herself delivered of two kids representing respectively both the male and female persuasion.



I'm not sure what's gotten into the female goats around here...

WHAT WAS CUT IN THE LAST BUDGET DEAL: a lot, for ordinary people. And that's just the start of it.

A MODEST PROPOSAL. This NY Times item suggests that if Congress did nothing about the deficit things would get better--by letting Bush era tax cuts die.

AYN RAND AND PARENTHOOD. They don't seem to go too well together.

JUSTICE IS BLIND (BUT TIME OF DAY MATTERS). A study of parole hearings found that whether you get it or not may depend to a surprising degree on what time of day your case is heard.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Goats versus picnic tables

Don't bet on the picnic tables.

WHERE'S THE BEEF? Krugman takes the president to task again here.

TALKING SENSE. This op-ed by some friends of mine talks sense about taxes, budgets and deficits.

JAWING AROUND. A Kentucky coal miner found the jawbone of a 300 million year old shark 700 feet underground.

AUTHOR CHRIS HEDGES spoke in Charleston WV this weekend about the decline of liberal institutions.

UNION SUPPORTERS rallied at the state capitol Sunday as well. El Cabrero was on the way when the fan belt died in my old car.

BOUNCE BACK from stress if you want to live to be 100

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Uprooting the evil in the fields that we know

The Spousal Unit used to work for a social justice organization which shall remain nameless in New England. It was not unusual, depending on the news headlines, for people to call her up and scream "What are you going to do about Burma?" Or Bosnia. Or wherever the latest crisis was.

To my discredit, I found this to be hilarious. I mean no disrespect to anyone anywhere and don't mean to minimize global problems. But some people apparently believed that one could pull out pixie dust from some orifice and blow it halfway around the world and make everything OK.

We all have a limited reach and range of things which we can affect. That range will vary from time to time and situation to situation. Sometimes it might reach very far. But, as the Stoic philosopher Epictetus observed long ago, some things are within our control and others aren't. It makes more sense to me to focus on the things over which we have a degree of control.

(Did you guys notice the elegant way I avoided ending that sentence with a preposition? A preposition is a bad thing to end a sentence with.)

We can't do it all, but we probably can do some. Which leads to the last in a series of practical insights about working for social justice from The Lord of the Rings. As Aragorn, who knew a thing or two about a thing or two, put it,

...it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.

That's a pretty tall order as it is.

FIVE REASONS CONGRESSMAN RYAN'S BUDGET PROPOSALS ARE NOT COOL: this, this, this, this, and this.

MAKE THAT six.

THE BUTCHER'S BILL. Here's what gutting Medicare and Medicaid would mean for West Virginia.

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, jobless claims dropped again.

YES, VIRGINA, THERE IS A class struggle.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

The tales that really mattered

I like to quote Vernon Johns, an African-American pastor who was a pioneer in the civil rights movement. His father told him, "If you see a good fight, get in it."

But it seems to me that the best or most righteous fights or struggles are not the ones that you go out looking for; rather, they are the ones that come to you.

In one of the more hopeless parts of The Lord of the Rings, the sturdy hobbit Sam Gamgee expressed a similar idea. Reflecting on the adventures related in old stories and songs, he said

I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of sport, as you might say. But that's not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually--their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn't. And if they had, we shouldn't know, because they'd have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on--and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it might call a good end...I wonder what sort of tale we've fallen into?

That's a good question. I wonder what sort of tale we've fallen into as well.

GREED IS IN, but that doesn't make it right.

JUST SAY NO. West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller came out swinging against Republican proposals to kill Medicaid and Medicare. To their credit, acting governor Earl Ray Tomblin and WV's newest senator Joe Manchin also oppose the plan. (Note: to get to the story scroll down after clicking on the link.)

TWO MINUTE WARNING. The clock is running out on a chance to modernize WV's unemployment system.

IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING, dinosaurs probably had lice.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

The estrangement that divides

The theme here lately, aside from current events, is The Lord of the Rings and its practical relevance to people interested in social justice. I've just re-read it (for the umpteenth time) and made notes as I went along for this explicit purpose. If you like this kind of thing, click on earlier posts.

If there is any major message in the trilogy, it is about the importance of coalitions, both their potential strength and their fragility. Opposing the Dark Lord takes all kinds of allies: different groups of humans, elves, dwarves, ents, eagles, etc.

But in the books, as in real life, it is all to easy for alliances to wither and fall apart, even between groups that are or should be on the same side. Haldir, an elf, expresses this about 1/3 of the way through:

Indeed in nothing is the power of the Dark Lord more clearly shown than in the estrangement that divides all who still oppose him.

I can remember many struggles when people joined together to accomplish some goal or fight off some threat. When such a campaign is strong, people form bonds and may swear to always stick together and stay in touch. But time does its thing, other issues arise, people drift apart and sometimes find themselves on opposite sides of minor issues.

All this is probably inevitable to a degree, but this makes it harder for people to come together when they really need to. I guess one advantage of having a dangerous opponent is that this makes people join together whether they want to or not.

I guess the trick is to keep relationships intact in the relatively good times--if there are going to be any more of them--so that they will be there when needed.

KILLING MEDICAID. Here are some reasons why this is a really bad idea.

SPEAKING OF BAD IDEAS, here's a brief statement from the Economic Policy Institute about why Republican congressman Paul Ryan's proposed 2012 budget is one.

MORE ON THAT BAD IDEA here.

A BETTER IDEA can be found here.

A YEAR LATER. The milestone of the one year anniversary of Massey's Upper Big Branch disaster brought renewed calls for mine safety reform.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Happy birthday, health care reform!

West Virgina residents celebrate the first birth day of the Affordable Care Act. WV Senator Jay Rockefeller was guest of honor, but my picture of him didn't turn out so good.

I never really planned my life this way--not that I'm a huge believer in planning a life--but I've spent over 20 years working on health care issues. Not all the time, thank God, but here and there as threats or opportunities arose.

In several union struggles I tried to support, as far back as 1989, health care for active workers and retirees was a major factor. In the late 1990s, lots of folks here joined to support the state Children's Health Insurance Program, and we've worked to expand it ever since. Then there were efforts to improve or defend the state's Medicaid program.

All the while, though, in the back of my mind and the minds of many others the main goal was achieving universal health care. Yesterday, March 23 2011, marked the first anniversary of the passage of the Patient Protect and Affordable Care Act, referred to hereafter as the ACA. In Charleston, over 100 people gathered to celebrate this milestone.

Let me be the first to say that the act we got wasn't exactly the one I had in mind. The Gentle Reader may have noticed the sometimes vast difference between what one wants and what one gets. Of the different versions of reform kicked around since 2009, I liked the federal House version a bit better than the Senate's. I was disappointed that the public option was eventually dropped. But still, I worked as hard as I could to support the bill we had and would do it all again.

Of course, there was a price to pay in the form of a backlash and a well-funded campaign of misinformation. But one year later, the real benefits are starting to kick in for people in West Virginia and around the country. And West Virginia's senators, including the late great Robert C. Byrd and especially Jay Rockefeller, played a major role in its passage.

The West Virginia legislature, in a session that kind of drove me crazy, did at least take the major step this time around of creating a state insurance exchange, which will lay the basis for major reforms and expansions of care that will happen in 2014.

For all its warts, the Affordable Care Act is already reaching millions of Americans and will reach far more when fully implemented. If it survives, it will be a landmark piece of legislation. In fact, future generations may well wonder why it took so long for a country like the USA to get there.

In the meantime, we need to work to defend it and aid in its implementation.

BIG LIES. Robert Reich takes on deliberate misconceptions about job creation and job killing.

WOULD YOU BELIEVE dog therapy for law students?

URGENT AMAZONIAN FISH MANURE UPDATE here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Tradeoffs?

Random animal picture. Can you spot the crawdad in the creek?

First up, here's a good analysis from the Economic Policy Institute about the deficit and proposed budget cuts.

Sample:

The bottom line: reckless spending didn’t get us here. What got us here was reckless gambling on Wall Street and policymakers’ failure to rein in these excesses because it would have required confronting politically favored constituencies in the name of protecting America’s working families. Note that none of this is solved by cutting taxes even more, as many conservatives are proposing.

The issue comes down to a question of priorities. If we can afford tax cuts for the middle class and the wealthy and corporations offshoring jobs, we can afford to keep teachers in the classroom and cops on the street. Budgeting is about tradeoffs. Trading an estate tax cut for the wealthiest one-quarter of one percent of Americans—a costly provision in the tax compromise—for budget cuts in child nutrition, grants for college tuition, and food safety (all in the Republican budget) is a really bad trade for the middle class. It’s bad for jobs, bad for our kids, bad for our health, and bad for competitiveness. It’s good for inherited wealth and big donors—that’s about it.

The prevailing sense of Congress seems to believe that deficits don’t matter when it comes to tax cuts for the already privileged, but do matter when it comes to spending. This is job-killing hypocrisy, and a textbook recipe for “starving the beast” and hurting the middle class, not for creating jobs.

NOT GOOD. Things aren't looking good in Japan's post-tsunami nuclear crisis.

AN END OR A BEGINNING? Did the struggle against union busting in Wisconsin wake a sleeping giant?

CLASS WARFARE? More like a one-sided class beatdown.

SOCIAL SECURITY. Progressives in the US Senate are trying to protect this program from yet another cave-in.

PLAYING CHICKEN. Most Americans oppose a government shutdown. However, a majority of Tea Party supporters are in favor of one.

GOOD ELEPHANTS gone bad.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Head's up

Random animal picture.

It's all fun and games until somebody loses a head. At least that's the case in Beowulf, the theme here lately. I've been working my way through the first English epic for a while now and am on Monster #2 at this point. If this is your cup of mead, click on earlier posts. You'll also find links and more or less snide comments about current events below.

After Beowulf kills Grendel, there is much rejoicing in Heorot, the mead hall of Danish king Hrothgar. He hasn't been able to use his prize hall for years, since Grendel had the not-so-endearing habit of eating people who hung out there. The Danes reclaim the hall, although Beowulf sleeps somewhere else.

That night, Grendel's mother comes back for revenge. She is eventually driven off, but only after taking Hrothgar's trusted advisor Aeschere with her. They find his head the next day near the haunted mere, which is a lake or swamp where the monsters live.

After the attack, Hrothgar summons Beowulf and asks him to step up one more time. Beowulf gives the following classic lines, which kind of sum up his warrior ethic:

Wise sir, do not grieve. It is always better
to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning.

This is one part of the poem where the thin veneer of Christianity gets even thinner, but I must admit to feeling that way myself some days. It's kind of the proto-Viking version of the old labor saying, "Don't mourn, organize!"

PLEASE STEP AWAY FROM THE BUDGET CUTTING KOOL-AID, Senator Manchin.

INSTEAD, consider this. A new poll shows a majority of Americans favors cutting military spending rather than cutting vital social programs.

DIRTY DEEDS done dirt cheap. Maybe we should impose a no fly zone over Wisconsin.

THE WORD OF THE DAY is philanthro-feudalism.

SPEAKING OF WHICH, this is totally Koched up.

NOTE: This post was scheduled in advance due to much sleep deprivation. Well may the world go.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Mama-san

I've read and re-read Beowulf several times in recent months and still can't find the part where Grendel's mother looks like Angelina Jolie, as she did in the 2007 movie version. Say what you want about Ms. Jolie, but she is hardly the "monstrous hell-bride" described in the poem, although the original term is ambiguous in Anglo-Saxon.

In that poem, she doesn't show up until the night after Beowulf's fight with Grendel, in which he tears off the monster's arm and hangs it as a trophy in Heorot, the mead hall.

(I guess people had other ideas about interior decorating in those days.)

After the mortally wounded Grendel runs off to the haunted mere (lake or swamp) where he lives with Mom in an underwater chamber, there is much feasting, drinking, story-telling and gift giving among the humans. It never seems to occur to anyone that Grendel had any family members who might seek revenge. This is kind of ironic, since the feud-oriented raiding culture of the North Sea as depicted in the poem was all about avenging family members. I guess there is a double irony in that the family that seeks revenge here is that of Cain, which originated killing within the family.

Holy double parallelism, Batman!

His mother, unnamed in the poem, broods over this injury and the bad fate of the children of Cain

She had been forced down into fearful waters,
the cold depths, after Cain had killed
his father's son, felled his own
brother with a sword. Branded an outlaw,
marked by having murdered, he moved into the wilds,
shunned company and joy. And from Cain there sprang
misbegotten spirits, among them Grendel,
the banished and accursed....
...But now his smother
had sallied forth on a savage journey,
grief-racked and ravenous, desperate for revenge.

It's not uncommon for mothers in the animal kingdom to be fierce where their young is concerned and I guess that's also the case with monsters.

FEDERAL BUDGET CUTS won't create more jobs.

THIS GUY thinks so too.

SUIT UP. Massey Energy just got hit with more lawsuits in the wake of last year's Upper Big Branch mine disaster.

PASS IT. Here's an item about some worthwhile legislation in WV which would create an Office of Minority Affairs. If you live in WV, please consider contacting your senators in support of HB 2161.

ELEPHANTS can co-operate. We, however, seem to have some issues in that department.

NOTE: Due to having to hit the road at an ungodly hour again, this post was scheduled in advance. Well may the world go.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

A little dip

The Goat Rope Beowulf jag continues, although you'll also find links and comments about current events below. It occurs to me that it's about time to get down to some monster-killing.

The first such episode that occurs in the poem is related by the hero himself and happens during a whacked-out swimming match with one of his buddies, Breca.

Imagine that you and a pal are walking beside the ocean (with swords and full armor, of course) and one of you suggests a contest that involves plunging into the sea--which is probably cold, it being Scandanavia and all--and swimming for days to see who will be first to reach land.

If it was me, I'd say, "Knock yourself out, dude. I'm heading to the mead hall." Not so Beowulf. He jumped right in and and the two were neck and neck for five days and nights until Beowulf is attacked by a sea monster:

Together we twain on the tides abode
five nights full till the flood divided us,
churning waves and chillest weather,
darkling night, and the northern wind
ruthless rushed on us: rough was the surge.
Now the wrath of the sea-fish rose apace;
yet me 'gainst the monsters my mailed coat,
hard and hand-linked, help afforded, -
battle-sark braided my breast to ward,
garnished with gold. There grasped me firm
and haled me to bottom the hated foe,
with grimmest gripe. 'Twas granted me, though,
to pierce the monster with point of sword,
with blade of battle: huge beast of the sea
was whelmed by the hurly through hand of mine.

As if that wasn't enough, he manages to kill another eight aggressive sea-beasts before washing up on the shores of Finland, after which the waters of the area were singularly monster-free.

Too bad ultra-marathon armored swimming isn't an Olympic event, even without monsters.

DOUBLE WHAMMY. Paul Krugman argues here that federal spending cuts proposed by House Republicans could undermine the nation's future and damage a fragile recovery.

KOCHED RED HANDED. Here's a look at corporate life in Billionaire Union Buster Land.

ONE DAY LONGER (AGAIN). Retirees at Century Aluminum in Ravenswood rallied at the WV capitol yesterday protesting the company's elimination of retiree health benefits. Nearly 20 years ago, these workers won an epic struggle after being locked out for nearly two years by then owner Ravenswood Aluminum.

DROPPING THE BALL? A new study found serious coal mine safety enforcement lapses by the federal mine safety agency prior to the Upper Big Branch disaster.

CANINE SELF CONSCIOUSNESS discussed here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

How it's done

Arpad has been known to formally boast all night.

The Goat Rope Beowulf jag continues. I've been amusing myself lately with something that occurs more than once in that Anglo-Saxon poem, to wit, formal boasting. Click on the last two days for background and how-to.

Before any self-respecting monster slayer gets down to business, he or she should make such a boast in the form of a public announcement in a mead hall (a beer joint may do in a pinch). A good formal boast should have information about the boaster and his family, all the badass stuff he or she as done, and exactly what mayhem he plans on inflicting upon whom.

There is more than one in the poem, but here's a pretty good example from Seamus Heaney's translation. This one comes when Beowulf first arrives in the kingdom of the Spear-Danes and announces his plan to kill the man-eating monster Grendel.

First an intro:

...I am Hygelac's kinsman,
one of his hall-troop. When I was younger,
I had great triumphs.

Then the business:

...Then news of Grendel,
hard to ignore, reached me at home:
sailors brought stories of the plight you suffer
in this legendary hall, how it lies deserted,
empty and useless once the evening light
hides itself under heaven's dome.

Then why he's the man for the job:

So every elder and experienced councilman
among my people supported my resolve
to come her to you, King Hrothgar,
because all knew of my awesome strength.
They had seen me boltered in the blood of enemies
when I battled and bound five bests,
raided a troll-nest and in the night-sea
slaughtered sea-brutes. I have suffered extremes
and avenged the Geats (their enemies brought it
upon themselves, I devastated them).

Then the plan:

Now I mean to be a match for Grendel,
settle the outcome in single combat.

And, just to make it interesting, he boast that he will do it unarmed:

...I have hard moreover that the monster scorns
in his reckless way to use weapons;
therefore, to heighten Hygelac's fame
and gladden his heart, I hearby renounce
sword and shelter of the broad shield...
...hand to hand is how it will be, a life-and-death
fight with the fiend. Whichever one death fells
must deem it a just judgement by God.

He seals the deal with a few references to blood and gore but you get the idea. Next time you plan on laying into a monster, make sure you set it up with a good boast like that.

CUTTING INVESTMENTS in the federal budget is a bad idea, according to over 300 economists.

SPEAKING OF WHICH, a number of progressive Christians are asking "What would Jesus cut?"

WISCONSIN. Has a certain governor overplayed his hand?

THEN THERE'S Ohio.

MORE MASSEY INDICTMENTS TO COME? Maybe.

HOW ABOUT A WALKING CACTUS? Here's an article about a weird ancient animal that once lived in China.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED