This is my Vote

The History Channel has produced a series entitled "Megadisasters."

They should be required by law to change their name to The Hysteria Channel.

It's right up there with all the rampant speculation on the cable (and what the hell, network) news channels on politics, but with special effects that are supposed to convince us that these things are REAL. Woooooooo!

On the Cutting Edge of The New Barbarism

......is the outbreak of Whooping Cough in a private school in California, established in the first quarter of the 20th century by a reformer who believed:

1. Kids achieve health by proper diet alone.

2. Kids needed to contract diseases in order to be healthy.

You go on believing that. I just hope your kids don't die for the sake of validating your beliefs.

All covered by this bit of doggerel, I believe:

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man-
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:-
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wobbling back to the Fire.

-Kipling

Keep to the Subject....

This morning, I was listening to Garrison Keillor's little 5-minute spot on NPR, The Writer's Almanac. As usual, it was divided into three sections. Not as usual, the middle part had -nothing- to do with writing. I notice that even the Wikipedia entry hedges this by saying it's "usually" about writing. Well, then, how about "The Usually About Writer's Almanac?"

Part 1 was a bio of Charles Simic, a poet I would respect if the only lines he had written were Ax.*

Part 2 commemorated the invention of the birth control pill.

Part 3 was a poem by Donald Justice, one I had never heard, and which didn't convince me that Justice has anything in particular to recommend his poetry.

Wait a minute....what was that second part again? And why......?

*AX

Whoever swings an ax
Knows the body of man
Will again be covered with fur.
The stench of blood and swamp water
Will return to its old resting place.

They’ll spend their winters
Sleeping like bears.
The skin on the throats of their women
Will grow coarse. He who cannot
Grow teeth, will not survive.
He who cannot howl,
Will not find his pack....

These dark prophecies were gathered
Unknown to myself, by my body
Which understands historical probabilities,
Lacking itself, in its essence, a future.

— Charles Simic

.....and so much for birth control pills.

Parliamentary Procedure, ca. 2008

And here we have our civilized, adult display for the day: cue the Detroit City Council. And, no, it's not produced by Comedy Central. To call it disheartening would be to use an emotion that probably became obsolete a quarter century ago.

Following this, however, is a brighter note, reason to hope when several Middle School children deconstruct Ms. Conyers' behavior. Perhaps there is character developed in some people, no matter what obstacles are placed in their way, or how perverse our society becomes......