Gentle Reader -- You are welcome to peruse my web-based journal. I assure you that my contributions to this medium will be both infrequent and inconsequential. Read on!

SPECULATION

I hesitate to ask a question, since I know that there aren't too many people reading this page after my long absences, but here we go: What do you think will be the long-term legacy of the Bush Administration? When historians of the later 21st Century look back on these four years (and hopefully the only four) of Bush-rule, what will they identify as its primary characteristics? That's two questions, but I think they are the same, more or less.

My own thoughts: The Bush administration will finally rehabilitate the Grant and Harding administrations from their positions as the most corrupt and worst-managed in American History. This is in the same way that Arkansas occasionally "rehabilitates" Mississippi from the bottom of the heap in literacy, teen pregnancy, etc. posted by Carlton at 1:33 PM

MUPPET SHOW

It looks like this very strange pantomime carried on by the White House and Speaker Hastert regarding the 9/11 Commission has totally fallen apart.


My summary:

Bush: "Dennis, you MUST, absolutely MUST extend the deadline for the 9/11 report until July."

Hastert: "Mr. President, with all due respect. I cannot." (whisper: "Was that OK, George?")

Bush: "Alas! Woe for the victim's families and the war on terror! Well, we tried our best. After all, the commission is under the control of Congress, not the White House."

Everyone in the ENTIRE WORLD, including a bunch of angry victim's families: "We call bullshit! If you won't give us an extension, we will paint the streets with your blood and festoon the graves of the victims with your entrails!"

Hastert: "I have reconsidered -- I will give the President what he has asked for. After all, the Congress should defer to the President on matters of National Security."

Bush: "Justice has been done." (aside: "Shit!")

It makes you wonder about these people.

posted by Carlton at 7:43 PM

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Molly's new website is in progress, but it's worth checking out. posted by Carlton at 7:25 PM

I FIND THIS NO END OF SATISFYING . . .

You're Catch-22!

by Joseph Heller

Incredibly witty and funny, you have a taste for irony in all that you
see. It seems that life has put you in perpetually untenable situations, and your sense
of humor is all that gets you through them. These experiences have also made you an
ardent pacifist, though you present your message with tongue sewn into cheek. You
could coin a phrase that replaces the word "paradox" for millions of
people.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Thanks to Greg! posted by Carlton at 11:02 PM

A SERVICEABLE VILLAIN

As you've no doubt heard, our president has decided to come out (so to speak) in favor of a Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage in all its forms. I don't have the text of the proposed amendment in front of me at the moment, but I read it to exclude civil unions in adddition to "marriage."

There is a lot of outrage out there tonight -- outrage which is perfectly justified, in my opinion. If I were gay, I would feel directly attacked by this president. If this amendment passed, I would feel like I was one step closer to being rounded up and put in to a camp somewhere.

I am a passive supporter of the right to marry someone of the same sex -- I certainly do not believe it should be illegal, and I am confident that the next generation of Americans will be infinitely more progressive about this than the current forty-and-up crowd without my having to do anything (hence the passivity). I have gay friends and gay clients, and I sympathize with the difficulties they face in arranging their family situations and finances.

What is truly outrageous -- what should outrage both those in favor of same-sex marriage and those who oppose it -- is that this administration does not really even care about this amendment. Bush is not particularly concerned about gays and lesbians getting married, I am convinced, but only in retaining his office and pandering to his supporters. The truth is that this is the latest in a series of fireworks that are designed to distract us from the sorry state of the Union: first there was the immigration program, then the mission to Mars, and now this. If either of those had been well received, we would not have this amendment on the front page today. Bush's proposal springs from the calculus of deperation.

[Note that I don't think that Bush is particularly friendly to gays and lesbians, of course. I think that, in his mind, it is perfectly all right for any number of groups to be treated unfairly and denied "rights" -- for the simple reason that he cannot imagine a world in which he and his cronies are not at the top of the pyramid. Never has a president so obviously endorsed a belief system based on inequality, in which the normal rules -- morality, duty, truthfulness, the law -- only apply to other people.]

While the amendment itself rightfuly outrages its opponents, the cynicism of its proposal should outrage its supporters. Because he does not really care about the amendment, as he does not care about immigration reform or a Mars mission, Bush will abandon this issue as soon as it loses its political utility. If I were a member of the anti-gay right, the last thing I would want would be this president to forcefully champion my cause, taking it as his own, and then toss it aside like a dirty shirt. A cause is never so marginalized than after its moment in the sun has ended -- and I believe that Bush will bring this moment to an end as soon as it is convenient.
posted by Carlton at 6:09 PM

I AM YOUR NEIGHBOR

Oh heck -- I keep coming up with good, pithy things to blog and then forgetting them, or when I finally get to the computer it's already time for beddie-bye . . . I'm such an old man these days.

I want to blog about why I think providing a health-care plan for all Americans would be an enormous boon to business, even with the higher taxes it would require.

I want to blog about John Kerry, and the li'l spat I've had recently with Greg about him.

I'd also like to discuss how I think that the fact that the primary race is a close one will really help the eventual nominee (Kerry) by keeping everyone alert and engaged and the candidates' criticism of Bush on the front pages.

I want to discuss the BBC series "The Office" and how it's the funniest television I've seen in a long time.

I want to bring up the predictions I made a while back about things that would happen this year -- and how none of them have come true (to my knowledge). I'd also like to make some more predictions.

I want to mention that, during my short hiatus between jobs in November, I sought the advice of a career counsellor in Cambridge. We met twice before I started my new job, and she suggested that I schedule a couple of visits in February. I called over there yesterday -- and she has died. No more career counselling for Carlton! posted by Carlton at 11:19 PM

EROTIC DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY FOR BEGINNERS

Somehow, a piece of blue paper has come into my hands which details the schedule of the most recent Fetish and Fantasy Fair held at the Park Plaza Hotel here in Boston. This is a great document -- it may bear more discussion, but my current favorite elements are as follows:

Someone named "Peacefrog" leads morning yoga sessions for all the fetishists. ("Make the downward-facing dog, slave!" "Yes, Master Peacefrog!");

Classes in "Elementary Corsetry," taught by Mistress Sly; and

A seminar on "BDSM and Disability" taught by Neptune -- for that leather-and-motorized-scooter set, presumably.

And of course, Erotic Digital Photography for Beginners -- which I think should be the name of my autobiography. posted by Carlton at 11:17 PM

WOW

. . . I haven't posted anything here in a while. I seem to recall that I used to do so. But now . . .

And there's so much going on! America seems to be discovering that GWB is a sow's ear from which a silk purse may not be made after all. John Kerry is whuppin' him some ass in the primaries -- at the same time that he is being mysteriously slimed by people who can't believe that he isn't JUST LIKE Dukakis (wimp), Clinton (womanizer) or Gore (politically tone-deaf, uncomfortable with his own persona).

And yes, the Iraq situation is piss-poor, at best, while neighbor Iran is simultaneously having an electoral crisis and coughing up elements of an active nuclear program. (GWB: "Iran! I meant Iran! Did you think I said Iraq? Oh, what a crazy misunderstanding!")

I'm going to try to get back into the posting mode. So much is happening!

And there looks to be a really good party tomorrow night at my friend Sherry's place. posted by Carlton at 11:10 PM