At a Loss …

Posted on January 19, 2008 by JordanCornblog

It’s Saturday … and a busy one at that!  I don’t have a topic for today, and need to go do the food shopping for the week.  Well – how about this?  Here’s a copy of our weekly staples list for your perusal.  Take it, adapt it, and use it if you like!

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The White House Goes Green(er) and Other Tidbits

Posted on January 18, 2008 by JordanCornblog

Have you been following this story?  I am so heartened to read about the White House getting more aggressive about recycling!  Who’d a thunk it?  Bush, in his final year, is really stepping up to the plate on all fronts.  I guess I had misjudged him.

Meanwhile, I and a friend had a discussion about the impact of the movie Juno last night.  While I haven’t seen it (and am not sure I want to be supporting it with my ticket $$), I’ve heard very strong reactions, both positive and negative.  It sounds like a seemingly entertaining, engaging story that packs a message straight from the religious right about issues of choice.  From what I hear, the depicton of clinic workers, etc. is gratuitously negative – while the depiction of pregnancy and childbirth is rosily romanticized.  What’s up, folks?  Sounds like we’re being entertained right out of our rights as women.  How 21st century American!

And speaking of 21st century America … here’s an interesting piece about the folks behind Facebook.  I should know better … but sometimes I’m still surprised when things are just not what they appear …

I feel SO naive. 

  • Facebook isn’t the result of undergraduate creativity and chutzpa? 
  • We’ve moved so far to the right that we don’t recognize anti-choice propaganda when it’s all over the multi-plexes? 
  • Once again, the White House is above Federal Law (not to mention best e-mail practices)?

PS:  So to prove that I wasn’t born yesterday, here’s an insight/prediction!  Before the primaries are through I predict that we’ll discover that John McCain’s trophy wife and his “Straight Talk” aren’t actually what they appear.  They are a crafty cover for the fact that on social issues he has a very wide stance and, when not out campaigning and talking straight, he is Larry Craig’s very, very good Senate buddy.  Mark my words – you heard it here first!

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Bush's Legacy

Posted on January 17, 2008 by JordanCornblog

I found this piece about Bush’s Legacy on the Common Dreams website this morning … and have added Common Dreams to my blogroll (my bad to have left it off this long). 

I’m not so naive as to think that everything was roses and lollipops before Bush and Cheney hit Pennsylvania Avenue.  But good god, y’all!  Bush would have been horrible no matter what.  Unfortunately for the world, however, the combinaton of 9/11 with the vision, depth, and attention span that he brings to everything has been devastating just about everywhere you look (with the exceptionof the pricey addresses, of course).   And now he wants to turn it all around with some simplistic plan (underwritten with billions of our tax dollars) to make peace in the middle east.

Nauseating … just nauseating.  I can see why I’ve tended to stay away from writing about Bush.  If I start out like this, I’m just gonna be pissed off and depressed all day.  That’s how it works, isn’t it?  People (I) hardly even want to look.  I’ll choose to distract myself with other things.  Worry about other things – less overwhelming.  Meanwhile this idiot continues to wreak havoc.  (And calling him an idiot is too kind by half – evil-doer is much closer to the point.)

But on a slightly brighter note, the movement to impeach Cheney is moving along.  Maybe it’s a hopeless cause, but to do SOMETHING feels better than to just let things continue as they have. 

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Wednesday Wanderings

Posted on January 16, 2008 by JordanCornblog

First, here’s some nice stuff from Susan Faludi on Hillary Clinton and another possible reason for her appeal to women in particular.  I watched about half of the Dem’s debate last night and continue to be impressed by the level of discourse (even factoring in the fact that they are all politicians). 

Went to see Atonement at Concord’s Red River Theatres last night.  Very beautiful, moving movie.  Not having read the book, I was not prepared for the plot twists … and was absolutely mesmerized by Vanessa Redgrave’s seering and unembellished 5-some minutes on-screen.  What a formidable presence she brings!  And the actress who plays the young Briney was also especially wonderful – not to diminish the wonderfulness of the entire cast!. 

Stop here if you don’t want to read soccer results! 

Unfortunately, at this hour, I don’t have the actual results, but from the postings on BigSoccer I gather that the USWNT beat Canada rather handily in game #1 of the Four Nations tournament.  The buzz is that they looked great.  One poster wrote:  “Amazing things happen when you pass the ball.”  Details from the forum are here, starting partway down the page. 

Interestingly, there is absolutely NOTHING posted on the ussoccer site yet.  No MatchTracker for the game either.  US Soccer’s treatment of the women’s team (aside from the selection of Pia) continues to unimpress, putting it mildly.  It seems particularly so, as they try to rebuild after Ryan.  (Makes me wonder if Pia, in her straight-talking and forthright way, has already pissed them off somehow … you go girl!)   But what the hey – it sounds like already, things are turning around.  Can’t wait to see ’em live (err, on TV) against a quality opponent (sounds like Canada wasn’t at full strength).

More later, maybe … gotta go get on the treadmill!

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Tuesday Tidbits (Pre- and Post Treadmill)

Posted on January 15, 2008 by JordanCornblog

So, we’ve got the Michigan Primary today, with McCain and Romney in a dead heat and Pastor Huckabee third.  I read somwhere that Romney might drop out if he doesn’t win this one, strapping his dog back on the roof of his car and heading on home to whatever state he hails from.  (After the Michigan vote, if he’s still in, I’m guessing he’ll be hailing from Massachusetts until they vote – unless there’s still time to establish residency in California or New York.)

Meanwhile in Nevada, the Dems debate tonight – apparently with Kucinich joining them.  Should be interesting to hear the ‘discussion’ of the Nevada NEA’s attempt (seen by many as backed by the Clinton campaign) to overturn a March 2007 court ruling that permitted folks to caucus during work time.  (It was okay, I guess, when Hillary was the prohibative favorite.)  Whatever their reasoning, I can’t come up with any scenario where this is easily-defended – and may provide a good opportunity to hear the new voice that Hillary found in NH.  I hope so!

I see on MSNBC that a pastor in Missouri has been arrested for soliciting sex from a male police officer posing as a 13 year old girl.  Pastors, priests … yes, please, rise to your pulpits and tell us all again what is wrong with America!  Uh, and while you’re at it, we’d love your advice on how to vote!

I love the Cluster Map feature that I picked up on when I visited Boltgirl’s site.  It updates daily and reflects a running graphic of visiters to JordanCornblog.  If any of you 9 or 10 frequent visitors wanted to share JordanCornblog with friends in Seattle or Chicago … or Moscow … their visits would be very nice additions to the map!    😉

And here’s a great piece from The New Yorker about the stress of campaigning and how it eventually cracks the coiffed, combed, and constantly-focus-grouped facades of the candidates …

… and now it’s post-treadmill and all I can say is YEE HAH!  It’s so good to get two days of breaking a sweat under my belt!

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Check Out This Link to Pandora Radio

Posted on January 14, 2008 by JordanCornblog

I just added a link to Pandora Radio to my Blogroll under “Things to Check Out.” It’s an internet radio station that you create for yourself by giving it feedback about the music you prefer – so the more you listen the more it plays what you like.

I am listening to ‘Laura Nyro Radio” right now – and am magically back in a dorm room on Willets 3-North in January 1972. Ah, nostaligia. (But you don’t have to go the nostalgia route … try picking, I don’t know, Feist or something.)

Pandora Radio is part of something called the Music Genome Project. What can I say? It is very, very cool!

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Just do it … Just show up … Just … Just … No JUST about it!

Posted on January 14, 2008 by JordanCornblog

Okay, here it is.  It’s 1/14/08 and my exercise regimen (the one I wrote about before the holidays) is almost non-existent.  Meanwhile chocolate calls, blogging calls, football still calls … and with football there’s the whole beer and pretzels thing … and you get the picture. 

I thought I had it licked, stepping back from “just do it” and telling myself that the key was to “just show up.”  It’s true – that’s the key.  But it turns out there is really no “just” about it.  Between “just” and “show up” stretches a yawning gulf of volition.  And it appears there’s “just” no way around that.

I thought the trick for me was to make exercise (and other healthy choices) as volitionless as possible.  If it’s a really, really tiny choice that I have to make to get me started (so I’ve surmised), that’s the likeliest path to success.  But what I’ve realized is … there is no getting around the fact that I have to make a choice.  Choosing feels existentially different from doing … it’s where I set my course … or where I veer off track.

All weekend (when there was plenty of time) I chose to do “other” things.  It didn’t actually feel like choosing – more like continuing a kind of momentum.  My time wasn’t wasted by any means – but I didn’t entirely take charge of it either (at least not in a conscious, up front, grown up way). 

So it’s not just choosing TO exercise, but also choosing NOT to do something else at some point.  It’s choosing to paddle and steer, rather than just being carried downstream on a warm, sunny day .. ahhhh.  It’s choosing to STOP and MAKE a choice … dammit!  If I don’t stop, I know now that I will slide through my day – doing useful things in many instances – but NOT CHOOSING!

Come on, JordanCornblog … you can do it!  It’s actually a very teeny, tiny choice that you need to make … but it’s a choice … yes indeedy … and you’re making it, one way or the other.  Doing it consciously is power.  You know how good it can feel when you do it.  So just do it!  (Watch out treadmill … here I come!)

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New Captain for USWNT … Bravo Pia!

Posted on January 13, 2008 by JordanCornblog

Coach Pia Sundhage has named Christie Rampone as the new USWNT captain.  To my mind it’s a great move.  Rampone has always impressed me with her hard-nosed, steady, consistent (and damned fast) play.  With Lil taking time off to have her first child … and the team still (I’m guessing) sorting out the fallout from the Ryan era and the Solo episode … it’s a great time for Christie to step in.  Abby may have seemed the presumptive favorite … but as one of the “team leaders” during the WWC mess, she probably has bridges to rebuild and ties to re-bind. 

Rampone is the most-capped member of the current team and I’m betting stayed out of the fray as much as possible.  Cat Whitehill seemed to be right out there lobbying for the  position in recent months – which kinda turned me off – as does my sense of her politics (based only on the tiniest bits of evidence- but I’m not shy about shamelessly and irresponsibly extrapolating).

So here’s to you, Christie!  Filling the shoes of Foudy and Overbeck won’t be easy – and that’s the kind of leadership I think this team needs to recapture.  I look forward to seeing what you (and the team) do in the coming months.  And bravo, bravo, bravo Pia! 

Pia Sundhage-Guitar

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Let the Parsing Begin … err … Continue

Posted on January 13, 2008 by JordanCornblog

Come on folks … let’s get real!  The Clintons are trying to clarify recent remarks that the Obama campaign and/or some in the African American community apparently view as impugning Martin Luther King and Barack Obama.  Here’s a relevant piece from yesterday’s NY Times.  Puhleeease! 

It’s not that I don’t think that race and gender play a role in our lives or in these candidacies … but I do get what Hillary was saying.  Whether you agree or disagree, it was a viable point about the relatonship between inspirational leadership from outside the system and nuts-and-bolts work within the institutions of government.  And I also get what Bill was trying to say.  They are both way too smart to be saying what people are reading into their remarks – and frankly, I don’t think there’s a racist cast to what they believe … any more than I think there’s a sexist cast to Obama’s core values or message. 

Racism and sexism are alive and well in this country – and both candidates are going to have their hands full as things heat up and the craziness develops a sharper and sharper edge.  Playing it up as a fight between the two camps perpetuates a falsehood, though.  It’s not sexism or racism on the parts of Barack and Hillary that we need to worry about in particular. 

We should turn the light back on the voting public – and maybe the media.  This is where racism and sexism live like viral diseases – this is where they have their traction.  And this is why the candidates DO have to be careful about what they say … so that they are not fueling or giving aid and comfort to those who would inflame America’s worst characteristics.  The candidates and their camps need to be clear about this … and they also need to not parse one another’s words and try to make something out of nothing.  These issues are too important … and we’ve had enough of what is is!

Afternoon addendum … so meanwhile, as you’ll see here, the press can’t even seem to agree on whether to print the quote in full or not.  If we’re going to parse, at least let’s agree on what we’re parsing for goodness sake!

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