Occupying the courts

Last Friday marked the second anniversary of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, which gave corporations even more power than they had before to corrupt democracy.

That day, over 100 people gathered in Charleston, WV, as they did around the country to make a statement that this was not cool.

One of my favorite parts of the event was a bit of street theater in which Uncle Sam tried to teach certain justices the difference between real people and corporations.

All kinds of people showed up.

Of course there were signs. This was one of my favorites.

And there was music, including a song by Little Steven aka Steve van Zandt which I hadn't heard for years. If you recall, Little Steven is part of Bruce's E Street Band and played Silvio Dante on The Sopranos.

A good time was had by all.

Gangland

The theme here lately is Beowulf, although you'll also find links and comments about current events below. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this oldest English epic is a bit like a cross between The Hobbit (dragons and monsters and all that) and The Sopranos. No wonder the world it portrays is so dangerous.

The kind of society portrayed in the poem isn't all that different from that of the Iliad. It's a warrior society based on a culture of honor. Culture of honor have been discussed here before (search blog in upper left hand corner form more). They have appeared in all kinds of societies and neighborhoods down to the present day.

To make it plain, a culture of honor is one in which the good things of life are easily taken away unless one responds vigorously to any and all slights or Nike stomps.

Beowulf also shows a glimpse of a "heroic" society dominated by lords and their thanes or retainers, who spend their time getting sloshed in mead halls when they aren't out raiding. The lord/thane bond was a very serious one, but it wasn't maintained with tyranny. Rather, the lord gained the loyalty of his retainers by generosity. In the poem, the lord is often called "the ring giver." As the poem puts it,

...a young prince must be prudent like that,
giving freely while his father lives
so that afterwards in age when fighting starts
steadfast companions will stand by him
and hold the line. Behaviour that’s admired
is the path to power among people everywhere.

Within the poem and in other Anglo-Saxon sources there are several stories about the lord/thane bond and the duty of a retainer to fight for and if need be avenge one's lord, even if he has already died and even if the fight is hopeless.

It's also a culture where feuds are common and can drag on and on. It wouldn't take much to get one started. Imagine a bunch of drunken warriors exchanging boasts in a mead hall. Bragging gives way to insults, which gives way to violence and then it's on. One good killing deserves another, unless the offender pays the wergild or blood price.

Finally, it's a culture composed of many rival bands and little kingdoms, each of which are prepared to move in on another's territory at any sign of weakness.

And all that is without taking the monsters into account, about which more later.

BUDGET CUTTING AUSTERITY MEASURES when taken to extremes can lead to disastrous outcomes.

COURTING TROUBLE. This article looks at the risks of climate change denial.

GET MOVING. Here's an NPR tribute to America's first fitness guru, the late great Jack LaLanne.

WHAT'S IN A SMILE? Apparently, quite a bit.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

The Beowulf cookbook

When pressing events don't intrude, I've been blogging about Beowulf lately. I mean, somebody's got to do it. If you aren't into that kind of thing, you can skip to the links and comments section.

After going over this first major work of English (sort of) literature several times, I think I've got the recipe down. It has four main ingredients:

1. A full cup of Tolkien. Old J.R.R. was a major medievalist and possibly the 20th century's greatest Beowulf scholar. He also got a lot of inspiration and ideas from the text for his fiction, including orcs, dragons sitting on hoards, the term Middle Earth, Rohan, and the whole ambiance thing;

2. An equal amount of the Sopranos. Each little kingdom is like a mob family, with a lord who distributes benefits (or "ring-giver") and loyal retainers. At any sign of weakness, another crew will muscle its way in. It's a culture of honor where violence can break out at any moment and feuds are common;

3. A full cup of pagan warrior ethic, in which the greatest immortality one can have is to live on in legend after death. The Greeks called this kleos; and

4. A tiny drop of Christianity, minus any references to Jesus.

Mix the first three ingredients and coat sparingly with the last one, bake for a few centuries and there you have it.

ONE MORE TIME, here's a de-bunking of several right wing lies about health care reform.

COAL KABUKI covered here. At least things remained peaceful as far as I could tell.

WAL-MART is moving to promote healthier foods. I still won't shop there, but in the spirit of fair play I'll give them 5 points.

URGENT SLIME MOLD UPDATE here.

TESTING, TESTING. It may work better than studying.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Like thieves of mercy (and an action alert)

There are some unlikely plot devices in Hamlet, but I guess you'll have that in a play that opens with a ghost.

One of these occurs when the prince is sent to England in the company of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who are carrying a letter to the king of England ordering Hamlet's death. Hamlet opens and reads the letters and changes it to order the death of his former friends. He was just lucky enough to be carrying with him the official seal of Denmark.

OK, I can buy that part, but then the ship is attacked by pirates (!) who wind up taking Hamlet with them and eventually dropping him off in Denmark. As he wrote in a letter to Horatio,

Ere we were two days old
at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us
chase. Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on
a compelled valour, and in the grapple I boarded
them: on the instant they got clear of our ship; so
I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with
me like thieves of mercy: but they knew what they
did; I am to do a good turn for them.

(I think I'm gonna use the captured-by-pirates story next time I'm caught playing hookie. )

Another unlikely device is the plan Claudius and Laertes come up with to deal with Hamlet when they find out he's alive after all. They will contrive a fencing match at which Laertes will use poisoned blades and Claudius a poisoned drink. They could have used "more matter with less art" themselves.

It occurs to me that several characters in this play could have used some lessons in The Art of Whack from Tony Soprano...

ACTION ITEM. If you live in West Virginia, please click here to support a bill that would create an office of minority affairs to address racial disparities. The bill passed the House but is in danger of dying in the Senate Finance Committee, which such things often happen.

TWO WEEKS? The White House is pushing for quick votes on its health care reform bill.

ON A RELATED NOTE, Senator Byrd has indicated he might support reconciliation as a way to pass health care reform.

WORLDS APART. Schisms in the US Senate reflect different political and moral universes.

SURVIVAL OF THE NICEST? Some researchers suggest that kindness and generosity may convey some evolutionary advances.

ON THE OTHER HAND, hate groups seem to be doing pretty good these days.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

The sky is falling?

I've often written here and elsewhere about how the coal industry and its allies have been doing their best to create a climate of hysteria over the Obama administration's approach to mining, mountaintop removal, and climate change. These have sometimes been portrayed as an outright war on coal.

The recent EPA ruling on the Hobet 45 mountaintop removal mine permit shows that this rhetoric is out of touch with reality. What the agency did was basically grant a permit after getting the company to reduce the damage that would otherwise have been done. This may be a sign of what we can expect from the administration in the coming months.

While this obviously won't please opponents of this type of mining, it does show that the Chicken Little hissy fit, aside from being dangerous, is just plain wrong. But as Ken Ward noted in a Coal Tattoo post yesterday, West Virginia's more coal-friendly media outlets haven't exactly been tripping over each other to tell the tale.

That's too bad, because a responsible media could help tone down what could become a very ugly situation.

JOBS, JOBS, JOBS will be on the top of the US Senate's list when it returns later this month.

NEED A LITTLE DARWIN FIX? Click here.

IT'S A WRAP. El Cabrero apologizes for this late post, but I stayed up late last night to finish watching the very last season of The Sopranos. I can now put "Mission Accomplished" on my aircraft carrier.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Cutting remarks and New Year wishes

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a guy's view of the world varies in direct proportion to the functionality of his chain saw (I'm being literal, in case there are any underemployed Freudians out there). El Cabrero has spent a good bit of this week fighting with those devices. If I make another trip to the saw shop, they're going to think I'm stalking them.

But, for today anyhow, at least one saw worked.

This is newsworthy since I am a mechanical idiot and have bad machine karma. I'm sure there's a scientific reason for this. My pet theory is that I offended the Greek god Hephaestus at some point in this or a previous life. He has jurisdiction over such things. I should probably make some kind of offering, preferably not one inflicted by said chain saw.

At any event, have a happy 2010 and may all your chain saws start on the first pull.

Regular semi-serious posts to resume on Monday.

URGENT SOPRANOS UPDATE. It looks like Netflix and or the Postal Service stiffed me for a day so I may not complete my New Year's Week resolution to finish the last season of the Sopranos before the Spousal Unit returns. It almost makes me want to whack somebody.

LEFTOVERTURE. I'm still slacking, but here's the latest edition of the Rev. Jim Lewis' Notes from Under the Fig Tree. It's a New Year's edition filled with leftovers and brains.

AND ON A POSITIVE NOTE, here is an encouraging tale of friendship under fire from the Middle East.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

New from the Hillbilly Health Club

It's way bigger in real life.

Anxious to lose those extra holiday pounds? Feel no fret. The official Goat Rope Hillbilly Health Club has a special plan for you.

Our staff of professional trainers has devised the perfect workout using the latest equipment, in this case a tree that fell on a neighbor's yard. The workout consists of using a chainsaw, which around here is defined as a device that works for about 15 minutes, a handsaw and a splitting maul.

The routine, which combines cardio with resistance training, involves deconstructing the tree, loading it onto the "farm use" truck (if it starts) and then turning it into firewood. The stuff that is too small for the wood stove is to be dragged off and dedicated to the bi-annual Celtic bonfire (for which wicker bonfire sacrifices are strictly optional).

Don't be the last kid on your block to sign up!

SOPRANOS UPDATE. El Cabrero's heroic effort to make it through parts 1 and 2 of season 6 of The Sopranos before the Spousal Unit returns is still in progress. So far 9 episodes have been devoured and things don't look too good for Vito right now, even though he's enjoying New Hampshire. After this, progress may be delayed until Netflix and the US Postal Service do the right thing.

I'M STILL SLACKING, but here's a good summary of what the final version of health care reform is likely to do. As flawed as it is, there is some decent stuff in it.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

The purpose-driven week

Image courtesy of wikipedia.

El Cabrero has the feeling that a lot of people are slacking off this week. I know I am. While I am technically off, my overly developed (gasp) sense of duty compels me to continue posting.

Here's what's up: I am on a mission this week. The Spousal Unit is out of town for a few days. Of course I am prostrate with grief and all that. Indeed, it is only the fact that I have a higher calling that allows me to survive.

My calling consists of watching parts 1 and 2 of season 6 of The Sopranos. That's 20 episodes, give or take a few.

For some reason, the aforementioned Spousal Unit has refused to watch the series on the grounds that it is too violent, not that she's seen any of it or anything. I have tried to explain repeatedly that there's really not all that much violence in it, aside from people getting whacked. And what else are you going to do with a guy like Ralphie anyway?

I'm off to a modest start (only about seven episodes done so far). Whether I finish or not depends on the vagarities of chance, the US Postal Service and Netflix. But at least my life has a purpose.

I may or may not get through it by the time she returns. But what are you gonna do?

JUST ONE link. I told you I was slacking this week.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: FUGETABOUTIT