Guilty, My Aspen!

Adam on WWDTM? Okay, now I’ve got one more reason to look forward to this weekend; like I needed another reason.

Hate to be picky, but you might want to make that “cost you AN arm and a leg” instead of “cost you AND arm and a leg.” It’s all about the details.

And while I imagine Minnesota has more oxygen, I think we might be colder. (Currently in Aspen — 34 degrees F. Currently in St. Paul — 20 degrees F.) So enjoy the warmth!

Years ago on March days like this I would call my mother up in Michigan and say “I can go outside without a coat today!”

To which she would reply “Well, we could go outside without our coats, too.

(Pause)

Of course, we would be cold.”

God, I miss that woman.

I’ve got a friend from high school who wore shorts all the time, unless dress pants were required. It could be 100F, it could be blizzarding, but he would be in shorts. I don’t think he had circulation in his legs. Just seems improbable.

Nice one, Tim!
And, to add more taunting to our friends in the Frost Belt, it’s 79 up the road here in San Angelo

Yeah we got 5″ of snow on the insane driveway (170′ climb) that insulates me from the road. We had our spring in early January.

About 15 years ago I installed a huge greenhouse on the cafeteria on the SUNY in Oneida NY. For two weeks in December the warmest it got was 20 degrees, we had over 3′ of snow and many days the high temperature was 0. Not a day went by that I didn’t see students in shorts heading for lunch.

According to Christine Lavin, “Nobody’s fat in Aspen” Enjoy Little Nell’s

Chavez might seem goofy sometimes, but he doesn’t bomb people, he is making the life of the poor much better, and unlike Mr. Bush, who tried to overthrow Mr. Chavez with a military coup, Mr. Chavez has not repaid in kind. Of course, as in Iraq, that is our oil.

So I have to disagree with Tom Toles this time around. Geopolitically and socially, especially as regards the Catholic church’s preferential option for the poor, to which Mr. Chavez is attending with money from Venezuela’s nationalized oil reserves, I have to say that Hugo Chavez, for all of his foolishnesses and what appears to be some heavy-handedness, stands head and shoulders above our pathetic president. I’m surprised that Tom Toles would join in on the Chavez bashing in a manner that equates him with Bush. I would understand Toles going after Chavez for ill-advised posturing. But Bush isn’t posturing, he is wreaking homicidal havoc while leaving America’s poor to fend for themselves/fester in the aftermath of Katrina/etc.

Other than that, gillian, no problems with this particular cartoon from one of the masters of the genre.

Here’s an interesting story. Marine Reserves Cpl Matt Sanchez attends Columbia University in NY. He wrote this article in the New York Post about how he was dissed by a student for being dumb because he joined the Marines. He also feels he’s just not getting enough love from his fellow students and is disappointed that the administration at Columbia hasn’t taken the steps needed to make the student quit calling him names. After his article ran, he became the darling of CPAC and made the rounds at last week’s convention, having his picture taken with the likes of Newt Gingrich, our friend Ann Coulter and many others. Countdown reported tonight that Matt Sanchez has a secret life as a - drumroll, please - male prostitute and gay porn movie actor. Ain’t life strange?

I don’t know enough about the internal politics to dispute Dale on the subject, but I’d make two comments. One, he was subject to a U.S. backed coup attempt, and he may be just a tad paranoid. And, two, he has won three elections, beat back a recall attempt and no one, so far a I know, thought the elections rigged. If Dale is right, and I have no reason to doubt her, I hope Chavez backs off on the more repressive measures that have been imposed.

I think the bombastic nature of his appearance and our perception of him here is culturally affected. I don’t believe we’ve had a politician like him here in the States since Huey Long, and Long was killed over 70 years ago now. I wasn’t around for FDR, but I think he set the style most Americans are comfortable with in a politician. It’s different for Latin American where Fidel Castro has set the precedent, especially for the Left.

I sure wish high end wining and dining would go to my head instead of my rear.

No, cooper, that doesn’t settle it all. W(h)ining and one’s rear end are gender neutral. And notice the interest in maintaining the supply of soap, which is also gender neutral. Me, I fling the stuff to the wind. I also have no idea what my point is at this point.

I was thinking, however, Bush’s Latin American tour (that is usually Jeb’s job, since he’s the family enforcer south of the border - but he no longer has the clout of Florida’s governorship) could be called the Stench of Sulfur Tour.

America’s problem with General Bombast seems to me not to be that he is a strongman, just that he’s not our strongman. Wish there were some reliable way to know more fully what the picture in Venezuela really is, but what you are hearing, Dale, must be accounted for, for sure. Perhaps in our short-lived coup, we were successful in that we forced Chavez to take on a much more heavy-handed stance than might otherwise have been the case, which then helps make him less acceptable and our continuing war against his presidency more acceptable here.

ginny, I’m sure the hot springs are great and that Carbondale is fun. But clearly the best use of his time in the area would be to go looking for ptarmigan. That’s why I visited the area, and I can’t imagine any one wouldn’t share that enthusiasm.

Well, we all have been exposed to my prowess as a birder, and I hope you all are duly impressed. But I’ll risk all that prestige here by saying - I’ve always thought the ptarmigan is an Arctic bird.

…Maybe I should just shut-up…

I went to a taping of This American Life last night. Ira Glass and Co. are touring to promote their new TV show.

Just throwing that out there.

Amy Dickinson was on Talk of the Nation this afternoon from a NPR studio in Aspen, CO. I would hazard a guess that she is one of the panelists on WWDTM this week. Just a guess.

Yeah, Ann, what did you think of the show?

David’s impressions from his Venezuelan colleagues square exactly with what I’ve been reading about Col. Chavez in the Economist for the last 5 years. He is bribing the country into leaving him in power by lavishing oil money on the very poor; since they outnumber everybody else, he always wins the elections. Venezuela is now a wonderful place to live if you are (a) very poor, or (b) a Chavista. Or, of course, both. Everybody else pretty much has to watch his back.

The fact that Chavez survived a U.S. backed coup attempt (we won’t admit it but it was) merely displays his great political skill and great popularity. Caligula was popular with the mobile vulgus too - he threw them money. The fact that it was red hot was incidental, it cooled off eventually. Chavez is throwing money to the poor. God knows they need the money, but I wonder what will happen if the price of oil comes back down again, as it still may.

David may well be right that America’s primary objection to Chavez is that he’s not our sumbitch. However, it’s possible to object to his actions toward his own citizens, regardless of his attitude toward the U.S.

It’s Pat, shouldn’t the new name be “Minne-Snow-Bloat-a” by now? Or have you already used that one?

I think ilk are beautiful, with their big antlers and their doe-y eyes.

Cooper, I´m so glad we finally see eye to eye on my se…. oh dear, that´s not what I mean at all.

Well, siobhan, if you’re into Gershwin as well as birds, the Oakland Symphony Chorus is doing a “Discovery Day” on Porgy and Bess this Saturday morning, and I’ll be there. Four hours of discussion of the piece and its background and history, by Dr. Lynne Morrow who did her dissertation on it, during which chorus members in attendance (and musical guests) will sing all the choruses; $35 at the door ($25 on the web site in advance, we take PayPal). 9 AM at St. Peter’s Episcopal on Broadway in Oakland (near the exit off 24).

Lemuel, all that talk about President Bush has reminded me of another of my stories, this one entitled “Hail to the Chief”. Politicians have always been a puzzle. They are all formlessly, enthusiastic chimpanzees to me. “Hail to the Chief” is a story about an optimistic chimpanzee who became President of the United States.
The chimpanzee wore a little blue blazer with brass buttons, and with the seal of the President of the United States sewed to the breast pocket.
Everywhere he went, bands would play “Hail to the Chief.” The chimpanzee loved it. He would bounce up and down. And so it goes.

hedera, it was Dale of the mysterious gender who has been getting feedback from Venezuelans. The impossible situation for me is that Chavez has been forced into a hard-headed populist box by our clumsy, stupid, old-school treatment of Venezuela. Sadly he is demonstrating an ego-driven “you’re my ally or my enemy” mindset (fortunately we don’t have to worry about that with our presidente). Since we won’t allow anyone with major oil reserves to choose their own governments outside of whomever we approve, and we are willing to kill innocent people in rather large numbers to get our way (the list is long and sickening), I wind up being more tolerant of a strongman who alleviates poverty than one who inflicts it. It is the lesser-of-the-political-evils argument, I know, but he’s an angel compared to, say, Rios Montt. I am inclined to say Let the Venezuelans decide at the ballot box, assuming the elections are reasonably legitimate (as ours in 2000 was not). If the way to winning is having to bribe the poor, because there are so many of them, then it’s a reality that I think has to be accepted. My personal hope is that people like the new president of Chile, and other progressives in Central and South America, can have a moderating effect on Chavez, but the reality that clouds everything is the never-ending plots by our government to overthrow/invade/leave to fester in their poverty so long as they serve our perceived business interests and are in no way suggestive of the possibility that socialism has any place, any where, in any form in the new American century.

I also think that the leader of a revolution is all to often ill-equipped to build a civil society, Castro being a prime example, but I have no way to know for sure because the military behemoth without scruples in relation to countries like Cuba, Chile, Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Venezuela, Iraq, etc, would never allow them to lead in peace. I am reminded of the British attitude toward the Middle East early in the last century, an attitude shared by Winston Churchill:
“We know how to bomb the niggers.” I’m afraid we’re back to square one under Bush, as we were toward Nicaragua and El Salvador under Reagan through proxies, and I am also afraid that the only thing the majority of Americans are pissed about is that we are losing in Iraq. Chavez has good reason to arm himself and take measures to prevent another coup, which might make impossible the kind of government we would like to see there.

Damn, but I wish Chavez could possess the wisdom to be someone progressives could embrace without serious reservations, and I hope to Lobster he doesn’t fuck up and become just another banana republican dictator, which he can’t so long as he has to have the votes of the poor rather than being able to use the poor for target practice.

Wow, all of this from a Tom Toles cartoon. OK, I’ve used up more than my share of band width on this topic, so I pledge to go brief for a while.

Also, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, feel free to kiss my root-cause fanny.

Fanny apparently ate my last comment. I think that’s good. My keyboard became possessed.

What appears to be a nesting pair of sandhills has apparently moved into the small pasture right next door, siobhan. Love the way they just look at me like Who are you?

Sorry, must disagree with you about Tom Bodett. I have very much enjoyed him since he started on the show. Everyone is entitled to an off-night, of course; maybe last night was his.

I like Tom Bodett. He tends toward the droll, which works for me.

He also holds the distinction of having provided the setup for the funniest caller line in the history of the show. During a call-in segment, the movie Brokeback Mountain was mentioned, and Bodett said, apropos of I don’t remember what, “Well, you kind of knew those guys weren’t going up to that mountain just for the fishing.” To which the caller responded, “Well, fly fishing, maybe.”

The panel broke up, the audience broke up, and the earth tilted ever so slightly on its axis.

You have to think that being a pannelist on WWDTM is a tough job. You need to have a very quick wit, deliver it perfectly the first time and not step on other’s lines.

Adam sets a very high bar. Not being AS good doesn’t mean that you aren’t good. All those years of improv have paid off.