the bastards' last stand

I have worked with people younger than myself since fourth grade. One of the things that I have always found striking was how often I was told by a parent that a kid couldn't do something or didn't like something only to watch the kid prove her wrong within hours. Not always, but often enough. Kids learn quickly, quickly enough to surpass our awareness. I think it has happened most often with kids on the autism spectrum. Kids perform to expectations, and raising expectations has the power of changing behavior. Easy to say but sometimes difficult to do, especially in the face of a diagnosis like autism. So when I encounter a story like that of Jason McElwain I can't help but be touched. I'm a huge fan of stories of human potential. stories like this make me question the ways in which I limit myself. At the end of the report they assume it's his last game, but that just seems silly.

I can't remember the last time that I heard or saw a subway performance that made me stop to watch, forget buying a cd. I have to admit that the subway and street performers were a contributing factor in my moving to New York. What I didn't realize until moving here and seeing the same amazing and not so amazing acts repeatedly is that most of these performers don't change their acts. Ever. Por ejemplo, there's this brother who plays versions of Bob Marley on the R train sometimes, always seems to get on the same train as me. I tipped him once, but never again, as I soon realized that he only plays one song, and mostly just the chorus. I have no problem with that, we all do what we can to avoid doing what we must, or something like that. My favorite performer was the guy in the Times Square station who I never saw play his violin because anytime I saw him he was tuning it. I doubt he actually ever played. Although his performance of tuning a violin was compe

I had a conversation with a woman earlier this week who feels that the democrats and republicans are basically the same party. I felt that way too until bush. In retrospect Clinton was actually a pretty good president, the most effective in my lifetime, unless you consider Reagan's success at making workers less secure and corporations stronger a good thing. I personally don't. She also said that the democrats won't speak the truth because, like the republicans, they are afraid of losing money and power. I disagreed with her at the time on several points, but find myself agreeing with her on this point, at least in part. I hear individual democrats making smart, precise, and thoughtful critiques fairly often. At the same time I feel they lack the seemingly unified voice of the political right. I also think that for too long the dems have rolled over for bush, instead of making principled stands because they were afraid of the political backlash. Bush has been poli

I've been less engaged with the world than usual for most of the month of February. My entire life is changing and I have been trying to embrace that change. I've continued to follow the news without writing about the world, sort of absorbing the impact of our nation's directionless lawlessness and dissolving national character without the release that, even if unread, a forum like this allows. I think that I have gained a better understanding of a few things in taking a step back. I don't think people are as disengaged from the news of the day as they seem, and to the degree that they are I understand better why. It really is too much. It's too much to live your life and follow all of the criminal details of this administration and the republican machine. Bush and congress' disapproval numbers have been consistently high for months . So what is obvious is that despite not having the details people have a strong sense that this presidency is failing us ac

i admit it-- the ease of the alito confirmation was disheartening. i took a little break from politics, downloaded a bunch of justice league unlimited episodes. they're great there's a dark undercurrent of paranoia fostered by illegal actions by a covert govt. agency, just took my mind off of everything. during my little break i thought about the clinton impeachment. it was over a lie about a blowjob. the lie came out in an investigation that began by looking into alleged financial improprieties during his days as governor and through several odd turns, and acquitals for clinton at every one, it all came down to the fact that monica doesn't swallow. i saw a great post recently comparing the coverage of clinton after the lewinsky revelations and the coverage of the illegal nsa spying revelations. it might not be too surprising that there was much more coverage of clinton and lewinsky. clinton was under such incredible scrutiny, more than any other president in my lifet

(reposted)