The Truffle

Soundbitten responds to the latest talking point re Cindy Sheehan--namely, that she's exploiting her son's death. He also includes a helpful table for determining what's crass and what's tasteful. Hint: that 9/11 Freedom Walk and Clint Black concert coming up doesn't fall under "tasteful."

I spent the weekend in the Poconos with Le Sweetie and friends. It's beautiful up there. However, it started raining on Saturday and was totally soggy on Sunday. Plus, I came down with a cold. Argh! And now Hurricane Katrina has hit the south. Crap.

I read Pam Spaulding's piece on virginity pledges while listening to "The Trees They Do Grow High," a traditional English folk song about child marriage. The song exists in many forms and has been recorded by Joan Baez, Pentangle, and Martin Carthy. Steeleye Span (one of my favorite folk groups) recorded a verion titled "Long A-Growing." The storyline is as follows: A nobleman marries his daughter off to a much younger bridegroom. By "much younger," I mean mid-teens: most versions place the husband's age at fourteen or sixteen, and in one version of the song, he's twelve. The bride isn't too happy about the arrangement, but the father assures her that her husband, with some education, will become a proper young man. Alas, it's not to be: the husband marries one year, sires the next year, and expires the next. More information on the song and its many variations can be found here . So, what's this got to do with virginity pled...

From the Booman Tribune, an interview with Senator Feingold. Feingold says all the things that the Democratic leadership should be saying about Iraq: Steve: In your announcement this week you spoke about the "taboo" of suggesting withdrawal. Has the administration been effective in framing the Iraq issue as a matter of patriotism, and in turn, make overt opposition muted and tentative? Senator Feingold: Unfortunately, until very recently, they have been extremely effective. I mean, we could have won that election in 2002. We were way ahead on domestic issues, but the Democratic Party and Democratic leaders decided to take a pass on the Iraq war. They decided to defer to the President, and I have to tell you many Democratic leaders knew better. This was a bad idea, but they allowed the Bush administration to brilliantly intimidate them into not standing up and saying this doesn't fit in with the fight against Al Qaeda and the terrorists that attacked this country ...

Via One Pissed Off Veteran comes this news item about the kind of welcoming committee the mayor has planned for the Preznit. And there's no accompanying quote from Orrin Hatch. Aw gee.

From Ayn Clouter. Ow, my poor tummy.

With this proclamation, Senator Chuck Hagel wins this week's Counselor Troi Award for Most Blatantly Obvious Commentary. "We should start figuring out how we get out of there," Hagel said on "This Week" on ABC. "But with this understanding, we cannot leave a vacuum that further destabilizes the Middle East. I think our involvement there has destabilized the Middle East. And the longer we stay there, I think the further destabilization will occur." Hagel said "stay the course" is not a policy. "By any standard, when you analyze 2 1/2 years in Iraq ... we're not winning," he said. Naturally, another GOP senator, Mark "Party Line, All the Time" Allen, disagrees. Like Hagel, Allen is considering a 2008 run. If we are (God forbid) still in Iraq by 2008, expect to see a lot GOP nominees duking it out over the Iraq issue. Last week, Senator Russ Feingold was pushing for a deadline for US withdrawal from Iraq--preferably D...

I am not sure whether to be amused or horrified or both. Moore proof of how thin-skinned today's wingnuts truly are. "Oh no! She snarked on Rick Santorum! She was even going to have him sign a Dan Savage book!" Wussies.

In a galaxy of lissome, insubstantial, and undistinguished blond starlets, Natasha Lyonne stood apart--husky voice, head of reddish-blond curls, and a choice of roles that ranged from quirky cult films to ensemble blockbusters. I first saw her in "Slums of Beverly Hills," and she was fabulous as a teenage girl in 1970s California with a flat-broke dad and a crazy cousin. Certainly more deserving of megastardom than Lindsay Lohan. (Not that Lindsay's a bad actress, but she's gotten overexposed and seems way to fragile for all this press attention.) Anyway. Back to Natasha Lyonne. She's in the hospital with a host of medical and drug-related problems. I'm usually not the sort of person to follow celebrities, but this just so sad. She once had so much promise. Here's hoping she makes a full recovery and gets her act together.

Senator Bill "I'm the Senate Majority Leader, so why shouldn't I get the 2008 nomination" Frist now supports (not so) intelligent design. From MSNBC via Jon Aravosis. First, he can diagnose patients by watching them on video. Then he supports stem cell research. Then he supports "intelligent design." Either Bill Frist got through med school by cheating off other students on exams, or he's just spouting this nonsense to make nicey-nice with the religious right, in the hopes that they won't demolish his presidential hopes. Still, it's pretty funny every time he opens his mouth. If he keeps flip-flopping, he'll make himself dizzy.

Well, a couple of Fiona Apple tracks are now on iTunes for download. I, music fan and wary admirer of her talent that I am, went ahead and downloaded them. Now that her album is FINALLY coming out, I feel a little cheated. I suspect everyone was led to believe that she was a victim of label politics. Jon Brion gave the sob story about Sony leaving the album on a shelf because there was no apparent single. "Free Fiona!" cried her fans. My guy wondered if perhaps she could buy back the album and take it to a nice, sympathetic indie. But now rumor has it that Apple herself is the reason the album was delayed. (Of course, no one can explain how the thing got leaked onto the net in the first place.) Oh poopy. That's not as exciting as the concept of Fiona vs. the Record Industry. Anyway, her new album, "Extraordinary Machine," will be out October 4. Here's hoping she can avoid flaking out.

I went to one of the city's many, many vigils in support of Cindy Sheehan. We were right in front of the NBC building, in fact, and perhaps they'll run a ten-second segment on it at some point or other. Feh. The hell with TV news. I've been to demos, but never a vigil. It was a well-mannered but passionate affair. Lots of people were holding candles and the occasional sign (with slogans gladly provided by Moveon.org). I got one of these small candles that I put in a Dixie cup. It's very easy to put a candle in a cup. You use the melting wax, let it drip into the cup, and stick in the candle. Presto. There were a few women from Code Pink (a feminist peace organization that I know very little about). They were identifiable because of their pink outfits and hot pink buttons. They do seem like an interesting group. I'd like to find out more--but as for getting involved, there's a problem: I look awful in pink. It's my worst color. Weirdly enough, e...

A follow-up to yesterday's post re moms, grandmoms, and other antiwar voices. Via Kos, I stumble onto this piece by Missy Comley Beattie, whose nephew, Chase Comley, was killed in Iraq. For those of you who still trust the Bush administration -- and your percentage diminishes every day -- let me tell you that my nephew Chase Johnson Comley did not die to preserve your freedoms. He was not presented flowers by grateful Iraqis, welcoming him as their liberator. He died fighting a senseless war for oil and contracts, ensuring the increased wealth of President Bush and his administration's friends. He died long after Bush, in his testosterone-charged, theatrical, soldier-for-a-day role, announced on an aircraft carrier beneath a "Mission Accomplished" banner that major combat was over. He died in a country erupting into civil war and turned into a hellhole by Bush, a place where democracy has no chance of prevailing, a country that will become a theocracy like Saudi Ar...

These days, the right-wing noise machine's got a problem when it goes up against the antiwar movement. The new symbol of Iraq war opposition isn't some 1960s holdover. It's not some goofy Marxist academic. It's a mother. Specifically, the mother of a fallen soldier. Suddenly, they can no longer frame antiwar activists as a "fifth column" in American life, and they can no longer smear them as traitors to their country. Not when they're moms. After all, motherhood's one of those things that Americans are supposed to love and defend--along with Uncle Sam and apple pie. Smear a grieving mother, and you come off as a heartless dick. Suggest her motives are less than pure, and you risk a raised eyebrow. "She lost her son!" "Have a heart!" Those are some likely responses you'll get. Of course, the right-wing noise machine won't give up trying. But their desperation, their flailing, their rush to find something to use ag...

There's a reason why "conservative humorist" is such an oxymoron these days. They don't dare poke fun at the Bush administration, even though the Bush administration is to blame for the mess in Iraq, the ballooning deficit, the limp economy, the Plame case, and just about every single mess we're in. Well, they could dare. They could poke a few holes in the president's hypocrisy or lampoon his ever-shifting excuses for the Iraq war. They could cast a withering satirical eye at Bob "This is EXPLETIVE DELETED" Novak. But, as Carl Moore's State of the Union strip makes clear, it's easier and less embarassing to just make stuff up. Now, really. Nonsense like this makes "Mallard Fillmore" look smart and insightful. Someone kept a straight face while drawing this? A good political cartoon takes a current event--something rooted in fact--and offers a new perspective that makes the reader grin and, maybe, think. This goes for libera...

Or, "S is for schadenfreude, that's good enough for me." Robert "What journalistic ethics?" Novak threw a hissy fit LIVE on the set of "Inside Edition." Not only did he have a hissy fit, he said a SWEAR WORD! Ooooooooh! Bad Novak, bad! CNN doesn't like it when their pundits swear and curse live on the air, so they've suspended him. Here's the Cliff Notes version from USA Today. Sounds as if James Carville was trying to get in a few digs at Novak, and Novak couldn't take it. The fact that they were planning to ask Novak about--AHEM--Plame probably also had something to do with it. This is one of the funniest examples of an on-air meltdown I've ever heard of. Novak has thus far emerged unscathed from the whole grand jury investigation into the Plame case (probably because he blabbed about everything to save his skin) and continues to be welcome on polical TV gabfests. Why this man isn't a pariah in the punditverse is beyo...

Last week was the Romance Writers of America's annual convention in Reno, Nevada. Nora Roberts was supposed to be the emcee. It was supposed to be, in Roberts' words, "a celebration, a night of fun and anticipation for the nominees, and an entertaining and sparkling event." But the idiots in charge of RWA had other plans, and when Roberts saw the script for the thing, she flipped and refused to take part. As it turns out, even romance writers can be freepers. Selah March has more. Instead of a celebration of RWA and romance fiction over the past 25 years, the RITA/GH awards ceremony included the following: * a video and audio rehash of every national and international tragedy that's taken place since 1980, set to a back-drop of kicky tunes from each year represented. Imagine, if you will, footage of the tanks rolling through Tiananmen Square with "Don't Worry, Be Happy" playing in the background. Apparently, only a last-minute edit managed to save...

I spent a nice long weekend on beautiful Long Beach Island in New Jersey. My guy and I stayed at a motel by the beach and spent our days bicycling, swimming, and going to Beach Haven's amusement park. Meanwhile, I did some early bird Xmas shopping. (My mom is worse than I am. I suspect she has all her shopping done by August.) Also picked up the requisite souvenirs (t-shirts, postcards, etc.). Work is busy but not too busy. Just as it should be. I got my check for a freelance writing gig, so I'm feeling happy. Am also looking to do freelance editing while I'm at it. I've been too busy having fun and keeping up on current events to think about it, but...it's always nice to have extra money.