Quotable

“You drink deeply from wells of freedom that you did not dig."

- Corey Booker at Brandeis' graduation

He's got a hell of speechwriter.

More food for thought

Today's Post has an excellent piece on the cost of being poor, with a particular focus on the monetary and health costs of urban "grocery" options:

"Like food: You don't have a car to get to a supermarket, much less to Costco or Trader Joe's, where the middle class goes to save money. You don't have three hours to take the bus. So you buy groceries at the corner store, where a gallon of milk costs an extra dollar.

A loaf of bread there costs you $2.99 for white. For wheat, it's $3.79. The clerk behind the counter tells you the gallon of leaking milk in the bottom of the back cooler is $4.99. She holds up four fingers to clarify. The milk is beneath the shelf that holds beef bologna for $3.79. A pound of butter sells for $4.49. In the back of the store are fruits and vegetables. The green peppers are shriveled, the bananas are more brown than yellow, the oranges are picked over."

News to no one (Occidental's Center for Food and Justice, for one, has been doing work on on this for years), but it always bears repeating that being poor is expensive. And specifically that high prices and miserable produce offerings in urban stores aren't the result of greedy owners, and that consumer choice when it comes to locally-grown, sustainably-farmed, organic produce, is a myth for a lot of Washingtonians.

Veggiedag

Via Corby Kummer's "Fresh Feeds, " news that Ghent, Belgium's quirky Second City, has announced "a regular weekly meatless day, in which civil servants and elected councillors will opt for vegetarian meals."

I think this is particularly cool, and not just because I'm tickled that example-setting is considered a viable policy method by Belgian public officeholders - though that I certainly am. It's interesting to watch vegetarianism shift from an animal-rights movement to an environmental one (although I don't doubt that most vegatarians would assure me that the link between meat consumption and environmental degredation has been well-known, just not well-publicized, for decades), and I personally find it empowering.

A growing interest in food policy, and a good influence of a roommate, has helped me evolve into a what I like to think of as a thoughtful omnivore across the recent year or so, and I think it's helpful as a consumer to know that I don't have to foreswear the occasional Good Stuff Eatery (locally sourced!) farmhouse burger to bring my meat consumption - and with it, my carbon and water footprint - closer to what the rest of the globe considers normal. Cheers to Ghent for spreading the word.

And perhaps there's real-vegetarian hope for me yet, as the local Safeway's tragic closing has forced Steve and I to keep costs down at Whole Foods by expanding our meatless cooking repertoire. Last Saturday's chickpea-sweet potato coconut curry proved about as crave-able as anything we've ever made that once moo'ed.

Homegrown

On Slate's new full-site version of its Double-X blog, Stanford academic Terry Castle yesterday described the Times' Nicholas Kristof as "the greatest feminist journalist in this country today and perhaps the most passionate and effective media advocate for women's and girls' rights the U.S. has ever had." The more I think about it the statement, the less controversial it seems... I can't think of another American writer of any cultural background or either gender who writes as movingly about, and who maximizes their influence as effectively for, disenfranchised women and girls.

Although he usually does so in the context of Kandahar or Guinea Bissau. So his recent column on girlhood prostitution in Atlanta is particularly sobering. No additional editorializing here, really, just that it's awfully skillful of Kristof to point out that:

"The business model of pimping is remarkably similar whether in Atlanta or Calcutta: take vulnerable, disposable girls whom nobody cares about, use a mix of “friendship,” humiliation, beatings, narcotics and threats to break the girls and induce 100 percent compliance, and then rent out their body parts."

while resisting to the urge to hit us over the head with the shame we ought to feel as Americans. It packs enough of a wallop on its own.

This week in Design That I Want

Like every other woman in my housewares-purchasing demographic, I'm predisposed to love the brainchildren of James Dyson, inventor of the bagless vaccum cleaner, on account of his intensely charming accent, but his latest stands on it's on... two legs? four sides?

According to New Scientist, Dyson and his colleagues have filed a patent application to completely overhaul your kitchen:

"The Dyson team say the trouble with today's kettles, toasters, juicers, food mixers and coffee grinders is that each type of gadget tends to have a different space-hogging design... That means users must leave a large "footprint" around each appliance so that their handles and controls can be reached easily.

Their answer, given in patent filing US 2009/0095729, is a simple one: make all free-standing gadgets like kettles, toasters, juicers and food mixers in the shape of tall cuboids that can easily be pushed together on a worktop, with no wasted space between them. As the controls could be recessed in their flat lids or on the front panels, no space-wasting side access is required. The patent also suggests connecting the appliances together - presumably using a common power supply."

Brilliant!
Granted, this may have an especially unique appeal to me, given that my current kitchen is a supreme mess, housing three years of tenants' bake and cookware, spices, and gadgetry, so this vision is... a vision to my countertop-surge-protector-weary mind. All the same, I can't be the only one delighted at such an idea. US Patent Office, please expedite this patent approval so that cubist toasters and coffeemakers can jump-start consumer spending.

Just as long as you stand, stand by me

There aren't enough swine flus or international economic collapses out there to harden my heart against this beautiful little paean to globalization:

An exceptionally talented street busker in Chicago lays a base track of vocals and guitar of "Stand By Me," which travels to New Orleans for backup vocals and percussion from "Washboard Chaz," and then from the Netherlands to an Indian reservation to the Congo and beyond, with another musician contributing at each stop.

Playing For Change | Song Around The World "Stand By Me" from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

More on the "Playing for Change" project behind this goose-bump-inducing video, including other global collaborations, at www.playingforchange.com.

Major in Religious Extremism, with a minor in Land Usage

An interesting piece from the Sunday Times on reforming the American university.

Much of the arguments focus on restructuring PhD programs and better regulating departments, which, while probably necessary, would likely require the hiring of additional oversight administrative staff (unlikely in these times of budget cuts) or demand that academics, opposed to the policies themselves, act as enforcement officers (less likely, still.)

But, one innovative idea that I like quite a bit:

"Abolish permanent departments, even for undergraduate education, and create problem-focused programs. These constantly evolving programs would have sunset clauses, and every seven years each one should be evaluated and either abolished, continued or significantly changed. It is possible to imagine a broad range of topics around which such zones of inquiry could be organized... Consider, for example, a Water program. In the coming decades, water will become a more pressing problem than oil, and the quantity, quality and distribution of water will pose significant scientific, technological and ecological difficulties as well as serious political and economic challenges. These vexing practical problems cannot be adequately addressed without also considering important philosophical, religious and ethical issues... A Water program would bring together people in the humanities, arts, social and natural sciences with representatives from professional schools like medicine, law, business, engineering, social work, theology and architecture."

As a product of an interdisciplinary program, I'm obviously partial towards them, but this goes far beyond the liberal-artsy offerings of my undergrad education (religious studies and politics? and history? Hold on to your hat!). A couple years out, one of the major criticisms my peers and I have of our education was how unprepared it left us for the practical demands of our early careers ("what's a pivot table?"), yet I don't think any of would be quite willing to trade the immersion in ideas, reading, and writing, either.

I could certainly get behind the approach of pairing coursework in business administration and theology, especially as it relates to the study of a single critical issue. That sort of program would graduate students with the same "learning how to think" skills as a liberal arts program, but also conversant in a number of useful fields.

And more importantly, as the author notes, the world itself is interdisciplinary. It follows that our students ought to be, as well.

I believe Savanna

Dahlia Lithwick, in her inimitable way, had me both shaking in anger and cringing in sympathy for plaintiff Savanna Redding in her (Lithwick's) account of oral arguments in front of the Supreme Court in the case of Safford Unified School District v. Redding.

The briefest of backgrounds - Savanna Redding, then 13, was strip-searched (that term is vague, so let us be clear: forced to expose her private parts to school administrators) in pursuit of the contraband ibuprofen she was alleged, incorrectly and by a classmate of dubious motives, to be carrying. As anyone who has ever been a preteen girl can easily imagine, the experience of being stripped by school system bureaucrats without being allowed so much as a phone call to her parents*, proved scarringly violative to Redding. A former honor student, she dropped out of school shortly after the incident.

If you don't find this is hilarious, you must not be on the Supreme Court. Because Breyer, Thomas, Scalia and Roberts, at least, found the topic to be a Laff Riot - reminiscing about their own youthful locker room hijinks and giggling over the word underwear. Their disrespectful treatment of Redding's experience, in contrast to the Justice Ginsberg's apparent empathy and frustration during the hearings, prompted Liza Mundy, Lithwick's colleague at Slate, to wonder where the hell are the women:

"That Ginsburg was the only judge who seemed to understand what Redding went through is a stark reminder that judging also involves reacting as a human being, and that this is why we need women human beings as judges."

At the risk of being reductionist, I think Mundy is absolutely right, and I hope more women take notice of yesterday's hearings. The spectacle of a vicious, all-male Senate Judiciary Panel grilling Anita Hill during the 1991 Clarence Thomas confirmation process prompted a wave of outrage expressed not only in "I Believe Anita" buttons, but in the election of four new women to the US Senate a year later. There's only one voter in the selection of the next Supreme Court Justice or Justices, but I hope he's been paying attention.


*According to Lithwick, Savanna Redding was asked after the arguments "what she'd have wanted the school to do differently. " After having seen her case through so many levels of the judiciary and having her humiliation mocked in the most public of settings, by the supposedly most eminent and sober legal minds alive, her response breaks my heart: "'Call my mom first,' she says."

Stateless by choice

Robert Kaplan has a thought-provoking and sobering question up at TheAtlantic.com: "Do the Palestinians Really Want a State?"

Brief, lucid, and disturbing, the dispatch grimly assesses not just the familiar immediate barriers to peace - Israel's rightward tack and new foreign minister who, in Kaplan's deft phrase, "makes the right-wing Likud prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appear like the centrist he isn’t," the intransigence of Hamas and the impotence of Fatah - but a possible structural explanation that might forever forestall a two-state peace:

"New communication technologies allow people to achieve virtual unity without a state, even as new military technologies give stateless groups a lethal capacity that in former decades could be attained only by states. [Johns Hopkins professor Jakub] Grygiel explains that it is now “highly desirable” not to have a state—for a state is a target that can be destroyed or damaged, and hence pressured politically. It was the very quasi-statehood achieved by Hamas in the Gaza Strip that made it easier for Israel to bomb it. A state entails responsibilities that limit a people’s freedom of action...

.... the most tempting aspect of statelessness is that it permits a people to savor the pleasures of religious zeal, extremist ideologies, and moral absolutes, without having to make the kinds of messy, mundane compromises that accompany the work of looking after a geographical space."

And, as Kaplan notes, allows Hamas to benefit from the license that the world community extends to the terrorist elements of an oppressed and displaced people, but not the violent tendencies of an established state.

You stay classy, George W Bush

I missed this nugget in present tense a couple weeks ago, but just caught the link in a sidebar on the NYT today:

"Speaking... to an audience of 2,000 people in Calgary, Canada, [George W. Bush] was, predictably, asked about Cheney’s remarks [that Obama's actions were increasing the risk of a terrorist attack] and said of his successor:

“He deserves my silence. I love my country a lot more than I love politics. I think it is essential that he be helped in office.”

No kidding. I'm not sure whether I'm more surprised by the sentiment or the elegance with which it was expressed, but... classy, W. No April fooling.

Special eggs

Miriam's Kitchen in the news! All over the news!

In my humble opinion, Michelle couldn't have chosen a more worthy organization - or a more fun volunteer experience... the crazy-pressure-cooker, vegetable-peeling, egg-cracking 6 am breakfast volunteer shifts at Miriam's are at the top of the list of things I'll most miss about DC.

I'm so glad she chose to shine a spotlight (and, to get a little saccharine, shine the amazing light of her presence - seriously, read the end of that Post article and tell me it doesn't bring a lump to your throat) on Miriam's Kitchen, which is such a model for treating guests with dignity and as whole human beings.

And having seen, even in a small way, how much Barack's candidacy and election has meant to the Miriam's "regulars" over the past year, I can't even imagine the impact she must have had serving there.

Also, if you're in DC, you should make like Michelle and get involved.

My tax dollars at work

USA Today has a feature this morning on "orphaned" pork projects - earmarks on the '09 budget added by members of Congress who have since been voted out of, or left, their seats.

There's no question that the story's author wants us to be totally disgusted - he leads with the amount designated for projects by the Disgraced Mssrs. Larry Craig and Rick Renzi - and he seems to have no trouble whipping his commenters into a fury.

The irony is that the interactive list of the orphaned earmarks (like most earmark lists), is comprised, on the whole, of unobjectionable public spending on worthy organizations and smart policies.

Like the purchase of a mobile mammography unit in Ohio, or the funding of a Minnesota center for substance abuse and parenting treatment services. Or the development of an electronic, Colorado-wide law enforcement information-sharing network and of programs in Kansas for pre-school and school-age children with autism and sensory integration delays.

In fact, heretical as it might be, I would argue that these kind of projects represent the best type of government spending, even the best parts of the American tradition: providing direct services to our neighbors in need, and harnessing technological, environmental, and policy innovation to improve everyone's quality of life. In other words, if you believe the government has a legitimate role in collecting and distributing funds for the public good, whence the outrage at this kind of targeted, small-bore spending? Americans so frequently complain that the government doesn't "care about the little guys," but this is what it looks like when it does.

Personally, having just written my annual check to Uncle Sam yesterday, I actually found the experience of reading the earmarked list to be a real pleasure - rather than imagining those hard earned dollars dumped into the bottomless AIG pit, I can instead see my taxes as a part of the life-saving early detection of a tumor in a Cincinnati woman, or of the hope of parents in Wichita whose autistic kindergartener has been taught a new way to communicate. A donation, if you will, to my fellow citizens, or a contribution to an American ideal.

Death of a Newsman

Denver loses an institution as the nearly 150-year-old Rocky Mountain News publishes its final edition today.

There is so much speculating, rumor, and innuedo in the publishing business these days that it's a shock to the system to read the straightforward account of how quickly and abruptedly the RMN staff received the news.

On a meta-level, the dissemination of this news in blog form is a poignant post script.
The spare account read like nothing so much as a script for a play. Which, given the emotion of the actors, is fitting and incredibly moving:

"Q: Reporters said they’ve been working hard all week on Saturday stories: Can we have one more day?

A: No."

Yisrael Beiteinu, but their home, too

An excellent Richard Cohen column on the recent success of Yisrael Beiteinu as it relates to the meaning of Israel: A Question of Values.

I don't actually know any American Jews who support Avigdor Lieberman, the "Israeli Le Pen," as he's been so brilliantly tagged elsewhere, at least not on the issue of Israeli Arabs (on the issue of civil marriages and divorce reform, yes, wholeheartedly, but politics always makes for strange bedfellows), but Cohen makes the fair point that the obligation exists to condemn rather than ignore.

His words also sound an echo, I think, for America in general:

"The issue of Israel's Arabs is complicated. They are not Jews, yet they are expected to be loyal to a Jewish state. They are Arabs, yet they are expected to stand by while their fellow Arabs are pounded -- as in Gaza -- by Israeli guns.

Yet, in an odd way, Israel's Arabs ought to represent the best of Israel. They can vote. They hold seats in parliament. They have more civil rights in Israel than they would in any Arab nation. They ought to be a point of pride. Their civil liberties, their standard of living, their political participation ought to show the world what sort of country Israel is."

The high art of reality television

My lack of familiarity with the terms of art in fashion means I have little capacity for trenchant analysis on the subject beyond "wow, pretty."

But images from Leanne Marshall's Fall 2009 showing last week at NY Fashion Week keep popping up on the internets and.... wow. so pretty.

I adore how accessible her design is, and how her rise seems to point to a streak of meritocracy in the fashion community that I wouldn't have believed existed - her garments that are so stunning not because of some esoteric "genius," but because they seem to reflect countless hours of study and work on shape and structure.

Perhaps I'm so enamored of her gowns (and coats! oh, the coat!) because it's a gorgeous celebration of detail and hard work, because it gives such a lovely form to wonkery.

Or maybe it's just that her collection is... wow. so pretty.

Also, three cheers for beautiful models who don't look like they need to be force-fed sandwiches!

More Fall 2009 collection here. More Leanne (including the final collection that won her the Project Runway title, with that gasp-inducing bridal gown) here.

Well, that's a relief

The 2012 or 2016 challenge that wasn't...

Or maybe just isn't yet, since far be it from me to dismiss a capable technocrat (which Jindal has proven to be in Baton Rouge) based on poor presentation skills. But for now, I'm firmly with Karen Dalton-Beninato at HuffPost - Tim Calhoun called, and he'd like his stilted, rigid gesticulations back.

Ms. GMU and the Real Virginia

In case the McAuliffe/Moran gubernatorial primary doesn't speak loudly enough about recent cultural and political shifts in the Old Dominion, might I offer Ms. George Mason 2009: "Reann Ballslee," alter ego Ryan Allen, 22 year old senior from Goochland.

The Post has more on this great story and how it reflects on the changing Mason community - which, as my friend Emily in their admissions department notes, "has a great Pride Alliance- tons of straight people join and are very active."

Ryan's experiences also remind me a lot of my time at UVA, and the phenomenon where kids who came from small or rural towns across Virginia (like Goochland, or Lebanon, from where one of the students quoted in the story hails, or Emporia, or Roanoke) ended up being the most vocal advocates of queer acceptance, or sexual assault survivor rights, or other progressive issues.

It's an interesting wrinkle to the conversation about where Virginia is heading politically... we so often discuss shifts in terms of geography and population (NoVA vs. RoVA), but there's also a significant element of generational change at play when it comes to the politics of "the real Virginia."

Sugar fix

I'm basically just running an Atlantic.com fanblog around here, but write what you know, eh?

And if there's anything else I know, it's the DC cupcake scene, which is why I'm over the moon about the inimitable Corby Kummer's column in this month's issue about cupcakes, in which he gives highest marks to my personal favorite Beltway treat.

Even better is the video of Corby and Jennie Rothenberg-Gritz taste testing frostings here at the Watergate. I'm linking, not embedding, so you'll visit TheAtlantic.com's Podcast site, which is as dense with rich, premium content as the frosting on a Baked and Wired cupcake.

I'm okay, you're okay - to a point.

In the penultimate post of a fascinating back-and-forth between Ross Douthat and Ta-Nehisi Coates on marriage and the traditional family, Ta-Nehisi summons a strikingly succinct and compelling defense of a liberal attitude towards nontraditional families:

"Social conservatives are interested in encouraging one model, and stigmatizing all others. I'm interested in encouraging practices and stigmatizing others. I'm interested in encouraging active involvement in your child's school, and stigmatizing ignoring the teacher's phone calls. I'm interested in encouraging fathers to put in as much manpower as they can summon, and stigmatizing those who walk out. "

This is truly a brilliant framing, and I find it very useful. Despite my progressive and feminist politics, I do have enough of a conservative streak to get uncomfortable that acceptance of nontraditional families might be misconstrued as support for irresponsible choices. As a great example, this op-ed by an Alexandria teacher about teen pregnancy, published in the Post in December, is the kind of thing that should haunt anyone interested in gender and family policy. I think the "stigmatize the behavior, not the model" might be the rallying cry for progressivism without relativism, as it relates to the American family and far beyond.

Relatedly, my appreciation for all musings Ta-Nehisi are well-established, and Ross' moderation of thought, if not ideology, continue to make him the mostly eminently readable social conservative in the blogosphere, in my opinion. The entire back and forth, back and forth, and forth, is really a terrific conversation. The sight of two writers climbing out of their respective echo chambers to engage in a tough conversation is a rare and beautiful thing.

Be mine, be mine

An oh-so-sweet, (and highly recession-appropriate), V-Day feature from New York Magazine:

Joan and Carlo here are my favorite.

Also at New York Mag, chocolate covered bacon and Demetri Martin round out a 2/16 issue that totally hits the sweet spot.

I prescribe a conversation with a medical professional

Maybe if he had gone with another whipping boy (Restless Leg Syndrome is a popular one) I wouldn't find this quote from Sec.HHR-aspirant Phil Breseden so irksome:

"Over the years, we've bought into an assumption that everything that can be called "health care" is somehow on an equal footing with everything else. But that's not common sense.

If you need an appendectomy, it is vital and life saving. Most people would agree that if you are pregnant, you should have a doctor making sure the mother and child are as healthy as possible. But if you have a cold, there is not the same moral imperative that the public sector provide the latest decongestant to clear your head.

... we have in America a very efficient and flexible economy, and business has of course found ways to capture as much of this new money as possible. What my mother called heartburn and took Pepto-Bismol for is now acid reflux disease, and the little purple pill is a multi-billion dollar product. "

But he did, and because I recently underwent anesthesia and swallowed a garden hose for what his "mother called heartburn" (and spent, despite my amazing employee health plan, a Benjamin out of my own pocket for the privilege), I'm going to call bullshit.

I have no problem with tough talk, or with an approach to health care reform that asks recipients of government money to "get a little skin in the game," as he puts it. What I do have a problem with is ignorance, particularly the assumption that patients seek care for treatable conditions because they're wimps. Especially when most medical experts, and an increasing number of companies, know that getting treatable conditions treated early is one of the best ways to bring down sky-rocketing costs.

In other words, you leave acid reflux untreated - call it a "tummy ache," say, and do a shot of Pepto every now and then - for enough years, you end up with Barrett's Esophagus and adenocarcinoma. And you know what's a real expensive bill for Medicare to foot, Phil? Cancer.

The rap on Breseden is that he's an industry insider. I don't object to that out of hand, especially if giving the industry a seat at the table means avoiding Hillarycare 2.0. But it's not out of line to demand a Health and Human Resources Secretary that understands more about health care than cost-cutting and one-liners.

Masters of the craft

Holy mackeral!

I just saw an internet ad for this film "Coraline" today - apparently a stop motion animated picture featuring the voice of Dakota Fanning (aww, Dakota Fanning) - but hadn't heard anything about it otherwise...

But, wow, if you want to be inspired that magic is still being made in Hollywood, check out this incredible behind-the-scenes slideshow at Wired.com. The sheer amount of imagination, creativity, and painstaking work that went into creating a visual wonderland out of objects like popcorn, puffs of cotton, and kitty litter is just breathtaking.

It puts such a smile on my face to know that, recession or no, there's still a small corner of the universe where nothing (including knitting the wee mittens below on .02 inch needles) is too absurd in the pursuit of pure enchantment.

A VA Spot for Tammy Duckworth

I've been disappointed that this Tide of Talent that's swept into the Capitol with President Obama left behind Major Tammy Duckworth, whose compelling narrative - a double amputee veteran of the Iraq war - is rivaled only by her well-regarded work as director of Veterans Affairs in Illinois.

It's hard to deny that Gen. Shinseki was a better choice for VA Secretary, and the once-encouraging chatter about a possible appointment for her to Obama's vacated Senate seat didn't exactly... well, we all know how that one ended.

In any event, I'm thrilled to hear that she's been tapped for Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs at the VA. Her Congressional testimony during the Walter Reed hearings reveals an impressive command of the bureaucracy surrounding treatment for disabled veterans, I think - it's a great signal to our servicemembers and vets that they'll be in such capable hands.

"That's right, woodchuck chuckers..."

And sometimes the headlines just speak for themselves:
Groundhog Bites NYC Mayor

Although I might add that I love the vaguely threatening, mafioso-esque quote from Bloomberg: "If Chuck embarrasses us, this is going to be a very long winter for the Staten Island Zoo."

Damn straight. Don't think Mikey's shy about breaking some small mammal kneecaps.

But baby, it's cold outside

I'm a little delayed here, but since we're getting another dusting in Washington this morning, I'd just like to highlight Eugene Robinson's Defense of Snow Wimps from last week:

I, too, am happy to poke fun (or lean on my horn, should I happen to be behind the wheel) at my fellow Washingtonian when a few wayward flakes slow traffic to a crawl. But I very much appreciate Robinson's defense of our defensive winter impulses in the face of Midwestern/New England braggadocio, and his geography lessons for the Capitol's new Chicago transplants (ahem, dismissive Barack):

"Washington, unlike Chicago, is situated at a meteorological and geological borderline. The nation’s capital is where north meets south and piedmont meets coastal plain. Chicago is where north meets farther north and flat water meets flatter land. These distinctions have consequences. Chicago is far enough north that winter precipitation is likely to be pure snow, and if it’s snowing on the Northside, it’s almost surely snowing on the Southside as well. Washington’s winter storms tend to bring a bit of everything, depending on where you live -- snow, rain, sleet, freezing rain. And, yes, ice. The streets can be fine around the White House and utterly impassable just a few miles away... when the street is covered with a smooth, reflective sheet of ice, as it was this morning, I doubt that even Todd Palin could manage it in one of his “snow machines.

Merci, Eugene, for pointing that out in such a polite and edifying way.
Far more gracious than my usual "yeah, but one time they didn't close the schools and a girl fell on the ice and died!" argument.

The Doctor is in

There is nothing about this article in the LA Times today that I don't love -

Jill Biden is going back to work as a community college professor, now at Northern Virginia Community College, making her the first "Second Lady" to hold a paying job while her husband holds the office of the Vice Presidency. I really enjoyed a Washington Post feature shortly after the election that talked about Jill Biden's pursuit of her doctorate, and her use of her maiden name to avoid bias among the review committee. Apparently she's still using the "he's a relative" line to deflect questions from her students about her famous husband, but after recent moments in the spotlight, it might be a little harder to avoid the attention.

The article also delves into the issue of the doctor honorific for non-medical academics. I have to say, I'm entirely in agreement with the Time writer Amy Sullivan quoted in the story - while I generally find it grating to hear PhDs insist on a title reserved for physicians, hearing "Senator Joe Biden and Doctor Jill Biden" announced at the Inauguration was certainly among the most cheer-inspiring moments of the ceremonies.

Also, Lynne Cheney "earned a doctorate in English with a dissertation titled "Matthew Arnold's Possible Perfection: A Study of the Kantian Strain in Arnold's Poetry" ?! No kidding. That must have made it a little difficult to bear all the Rovian contempt for fancy-pants intellectuals.

Entertainment, convenience, and dim sum?

A star turn for my favorite metro-area Jewish institution! Wyatt Cenac recommends 6th & I to the Obama family:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Obama's New Church

Daily Show Full Episodes
Funny Political Videos

Important Things With Demetri Martin
More Funny Videos

They would have fit right in at my Rosh Hashanah multicultural service there, I'm just saying. Also, sometimes Steven Breyer drops by, so they could talk shop over lox.

Like, a person of awesomeness

As a post-script to last month's ruminations on cross-cultural dating, this piece on Jewcy about an ill-fated 14 year old interfaith love affair is the best thing I've read all week:

"Since I’d experienced deli food, I decided that I was fairly worldly and down with the whole “Jewish thing” anyway. And maybe it would have gone fine if I had just excitedly explained to his mother that you can make rugelach with almost anything."

Nicely done, D-Pat.

At first blush, at least, I like this choice a lot - admittedly, my knowledge about Senator-designate Kirsten Gillibrand starts and ends with her defeating an [alleged] wife-abusing bully for her House seat in in 2006, but she's looking like a sane, savvy conclusion to the media circus that has sprung up around Hillary's replacement.

The gun advocacy is a little less than thrilling, but in this Obama-y age of post-everythingness, I sort of love the idea of a member of the Blue Dog Caucus representing New York in the Senate.
I think it sends an interesting message that the Democratic party's inclusiveness transcends geographical convenience.

Guerilla knitting!

Seriously:

"A growing global movement of guerilla knitters, who stitch their handmade creations onto trees, poles, street lights and other objects in the public domain."

The best part is the image - positively Seussian. We have to bring this movement to DC.

www.randomactsofcongress.blogspot.com

A little cross/self promotion:

Check out Steve and my newest project, Random Acts of Congress. It's our attempt to combat all those negative stereotypes about the crooks on Capitol Hill by highlighting the good guys: Congresspeople who do good things.

We hope you'll visit, and help us by sending your tips and stories to congressdoesntsuck@gmail.com. Thanks!

This one's for you, Pop.

Bill Simmons bestows "The Marisa Tomei Suddenly Getting Naked in Every Movie Award for "The Most Dumbfounding Ongoing Occurrence," earning him the Ben Stiller Award for Remarkably Accurate Springsteen Depiction to Hilarious Results:

As a lifelong Bruce Springsteen fan, the Super Bowl ads for his performance next month never stop flooring me. Don't they know how the man is wired? He can't bang out three songs without sprinkling one autobiographical story in there, and he certainly can't just go away without returning for an encore, right? (Note to the NFL: After Bruce finishes his set, hog-tie him to one of the uprights or else he's coming back out for three more songs. Just trust me. You don't want Bruce wandering back onto the field with his guitar like Shooter in "Hoosiers" and getting bowled over by a safety.) Look, Bruce might be telling the NFL, "Don't worry, I won't tell a story. I'll just sing my three songs and get out of there." But he won't be able to do it. You watch. We're gonna get a moment like this after the second song.

"Tampa Baaaaaaaay! (Crowd cheers.) Is anyone alive tonight??? (Crowd goes crazy.) Super Bowl Forty-Threeeeeee!!! (Crowd goes crazy as Bruce turns somber.) You know, when I was growing up, the only thing my dad hated more than me was my guitar. (Crowd hushes.) He was always saying, 'Bruce, I wish you never got that danged guitar.' So one day I was playing it in my room, my dad was watching Super Bowl Three between the Jets and … uh … uh … I think it was the Colts. Big man, was it the Colts? (Clarence says, 'Yeah, boss. The Colts.') Well, turns out my dad had a ton of money on the Colts … and they lost. But I didn't care. I was just up in my room strummin' my guitar. Then Dad came upstairs, and I remember asking, "Hey, Pop, who won the game? And Dad got mad and broke my guitar over my head. He busted me up pretty bad, I needed 589 stitches to close the wound. From then on, I knew I needed to start watching football. And so I did. (Dramatic pause.) This is 'Darlington County.'"

A particularly practical post

More interesting appointments news:

Cass Sunstein to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. I'm not ashamed to admit I'm a little disappointed - I had been holding out unlikely hope for a Supreme Court appointment - but I think this an interesting symbolic choice.

I loved Nudge, and read it as, among other things, an argument for government and corporations to conduct their interactions with citizens in a straightforward and accessible way. And yet while regulatory inefficiences are a whipping boy for commentators, policy groups, and both parties - that lame, oft-repeated joke about the Gettysburg address being 286 words while government regulations on the sale of cabbage total 26911 leaps to mind - precious few people are willing to actually do anything about it. It will be an absolutely fascinating experiment to see what happens when someone with a background in behavioral economics and policy design takes the helm of the executive branch's regulatory body.

Sunstein's acceptance also kicks my already-ample respect for him up considerably. One could easily argue that OIRA is a step down in prestige and glamour from the University of Chicago law school, and I think this post signals a true eagerness to put his preaching into practice in the most down-to-brass-tacks possible way.

Those are going to be some damn-well attended health press conferences

Well, if this isn't going to distratch political-appointment-dilettantes like me from the Leon Panetta choice, I don't know what is...

The conjectures have reached fever pitch: has Team Obama officially offered the job to Sanjay Gupta, the would-be dreamiest surgeon general ever (with due respects to C. Everett Koop's sweet beard)? Howard Kurtz says yes.

Fingers crossed, ladies.

Barack Obama is an Aaron Sorkin Character

The king is dead, long live the king

I know, our capacity for outrage at the crimes and misdemeanors of the Bush administration is used up, they're out of here in 14 days and counting, a New Day of Hope is Dawning, all that.

You should still read Cullen Murphy and Todd Purdum's "Oral History of the Bush White House," though, because:

a) a remarkable number of insiders were willing to testify to them, and the competing memories, interpretations, and agendas of those surrounding the 43rd President are fascinating

b) it's a well-organized retrospective of the tumultuous Bush near-decade, including the outrages you haven't even thought to think about in years (the 2001 stem-cell address, anyone?), and a sobering reminder that turning a new page won't be nearly as easy as it sounds.

c) wow, so it turns out that the most left-wing, wild-eyed, mouth-foaming conspiracy theorists were, uh, right:

"(Richard Clark:) That night, on 9/11, Rumsfeld came over and the others, and the president finally got back, and we had a meeting. And Rumsfeld said, You know, we’ve got to do Iraq, and everyone looked at him—at least I looked at him and Powell looked at him—like, What the hell are you talking about? And he said—I’ll never forget this—There just aren’t enough targets in Afghanistan. We need to bomb something else to prove that we’re, you know, big and strong and not going to be pushed around by these kind of attacks.

And I made the point certainly that night, and I think Powell acknowledged it, that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. That didn’t seem to faze Rumsfeld in the least. "

Jesse White for Senate!

Nothing to brighten a rainy Tuesday like a bit of soap-opera theatrics on the Hill, and the Senate's refusal to seat Roland Burris today (the Blago-pick) is rife with it. Mostly I feel sorry for the fellow, and he seems to be conducting himself through this sideshow with a modicum of dignity.

But, by far the best part of this ordeal is the persona behind the drama's current act: Jesse White, the Illinois Secretary of State who refused to certify Blagojevich's appointment. This guy is fabulous - a Chicago pol who actually cleaned up corruption, and a former paratrooper, schoolteacher, and minor-leaguer for the Chicago Cubs. Here's my favorite part of the biography:

"While he's the first African-American to serve as Illinois Secretary of State, Jesse White is probably just as well-known for founding the Jesse White Tumblers. It's an organization that tries to keep youth out of trouble through athletics. White, who turned 73 in 2007, often has appeared at parades and sporting events with his tumbling team."

Fantastic! Note to whoever eventually resolves this fiasco: could there be a better choice?