hermionesviolin: young black woman(?) with curly hair and pink sunglasses, facing away from the viewer (every week is ibarw)
I remember reading something which argued historical numbers that a Democratic victory (regardless of the candidate/s) was inevitable, but I appear to not have saved the link.  Expandnot necessarily a mandate )

Expandrace, etc. )

ExpandProp. 8, etc. )

Some of the first stuff I was reading about Rahm Emmanuel, I thought, "Hey, he sounds like Josh Lyman."  Turns out Josh Lyman was actually based on him.  And we all know Matt Santos was based on Barack Obama.  Heh.

On the topic of life, art, imitation thereof... via justhuman: President Barack Obama being introduced to the Stargate Program and:
Europe flames America's recent WIP starring an OMC named Obama <--- funniest shit ever. Keep reading the comments at least until you get to Canada's comments. If you're into ironic meta, there are two rants from comm members about how off topic the post is ... in [livejournal.com profile] fanficrants
And from the Onion: ExpandYou've probably already read these. )

via ann1962: "Fifty things you might not know about Barack Obama" (telegraph.co.uk).  Hi, I would like citations.  Expandexcerpts )
hermionesviolin: young black woman(?) with curly hair and pink sunglasses, facing away from the viewer (every week is ibarw)
Rest and Bread ("Prayer")

Psalm 34 and a bit from a Zaleski book about the instinct to prayer.

Laura Ruth talked about how she volunteered as a poll worker yesterday and one hour before the polls closed, the machine the completed ballots get fed into stopped working.  So they hand-recorded 1600 ballots.  She said 300 ballots passed through her hands, and she prayed over each one.  She invited us to think of a moment from today or yesterday which felt like prayer for us.

I talked about seeing post after post from all these people I know after the election was called, and that surge of positive energy -- that more than "having a Democrat in the White House" is what really makes me happy going forward.  I said I hadn't seen that in, well, ever -- I was a teenager during the Clinton years, and that was just "yay, prosperity, happy," and the 2000 election I was a senior in high school and then I've spent the last eight years surrounded by unhappy liberals.  I mean, lots of people have been excited about Obama for a while now, but this is different.

"Voter turnout best in generations" -Independent.co.uk

"Year after year after year after year having to choose between the lesser of who cares.  I'm trying to get myself excited about a candidate who can speak in complete sentences." (The West Wing)
It's not going to be easy.
All of your roadmaps are wrong.
-Velveteen Rabbi
***

The first time I got choked up was reading the metro on my way in to work this morning when I hit this on page six: "Even in reliably red states where Barack Obama had little chance of winning, unprecedented numbers of registrations and early votes were tallied, and election officials predicted a record turnout in places where neither candidate even bothered to campaign." -AP

***

I didn't watch any election coverage last night -- in part because I kept saying I was going to bed.

CNN of course showed clips of the speeches.

Barack and Michelle hugging and kissing multiple times... they looked so much like they wanted to be able to rest, but they also looked so in love with each other, and so happy.

Obama's victory speech [AP text] Expandexcerpts and commentary )

***

CNN showed less of McCain's concession speech [AP text; CNN video embed] than they did of Obama's victory speech (as expected), but they did show the clip of, "The American people have spoken.  And they have spoken clearly."  He sounded so... "sad" is the best word I can come up with.

It was a good concession speech.  I was talking with HBS-Mike later in the day and commenting on how encouraging it was that both candidates emphasized in their speeches the importance of all of us moving forward together -- not papering over the differences, but not encouraging divisiveness either.

***

GMA had various older African American persons talking about Obama's victory, and one woman talked about the fact that "these steps were built by slaves."  I actually cried at that point.

[livejournal.com profile] the_red_shoes has posts like Langston Hughes' "Let America be America again." and "I, too, sing America."

***

JadeLennox posted: "The Corner is never classy. Except when they are."

The Corner writer was at "Congressman Charlie Rangel's block party celebrating the election of Barack Obama."  He writes:
Why was I, a John McCain voter, there? A bit of personal history. I was born in 1964, and on the day I was born the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Prince Edward County in Virginia had to reopen its public schools. The county had closed the schools because they decided it was better to have no public schools at all than to have to admit black kids into them. Here we are, just 44 years later, with an African-American president, a president elected with the electoral votes of that very same Commonwealth of Virginia.

I voted for John McCain because I admire him immensely as a person, and agree with him on many more issues than I do with Senator Obama. And I ask a rhetorical question: Can we McCain voters, without embarrassment, shed a tear of patriotic joy about the historic significance of what just happened? And I offer a short, rhetorical answer.

Yes, we can.
***

ExpandProp. 8 & etc. )

+

Keith Ellison, the only Muslim member of Congress (and from Minnesota, yay for my midwestern "flyover" state!), got re-elected with a 71% vote. Higher than my own Congressman, Jim Oberstar, at 67%.
-from a locked post

***

A lovely political cartoon and another post from Andrew Sullivan:
05 Nov 2008 01:19 pm
The Healing Has Begun!

Words you don't hear every day from Hugh Hewitt:
An excellent roundup from DailyKos.
***

I forgot to mention last night that Katie's polling place had "I Voted" stickers AND a bake sale -- including "sushi" (Rice Krispies® treats with Swedish fish).
hermionesviolin: CJ Cregg from the West Wing, sitting in her office looking thoughtful/concerned (Claudia Jean)
I have never been in love with Obama like most of the people I'm surrounded by have been, but posts like the one I linked to last night made me want to vote for Obama, and all the positive energy I'm seeing on my flist/StalkerPin makes me happy Obama won.  I honestly hadn't seriously thought ahead to the-day(s)-after-Election-Day (though I was inclined to think Obama would win the election), but I am so tired of people being so unhappy (and cynical).  Not everyone's happy about tonight's Presidential results, though, and to quote JadeLennox:
one country, different opinions, can we be gracious in either victory or defeat? No more moving to Canada jokes, Jesusland snark, or mockery of rednecks and pregnant teenagers?
***

Moi posted a YouTube embed of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech (full version, plus a snippet of his "I have been to the mountaintop" speech in a second YouTube embed).  In the first one, I was struck by how many biblical allusions there are in it.  I thought, "Wow, could you get away with that these days?" -- and then I thought: "How many listeners will even recognize those allusions?"

One line I was struck by, given the current context: "We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote."

***

I'm not going to go looking for CA Prop. 8 results until morning (I really am going to bed after I post this), but this post (via ann1962) made me happy.  I am a deep believer in personal connections making more of a difference than systemically imposed anythings.
hermionesviolin: (self)
Prof.B had Joe Navarro as an invited guest today and yesterday.

At like 10:30, Prof.B. says to me, "Do you want to see an interrogation?"  Sure.  And then of course I was interested in the debrief.  And then we moved to lunch.  (I was expecting Spangler, but we went to the Faculty Commons, so I ate lunch on the department dime -- though as economists will tell you, there's no such thing as a free lunch, and my opportunity cost was actually high 'cause I'd been excited about Spangler pasta and the FacCommons has classy food which tasteless me is less a fan of.  And at one point I actually got to contribute -- I brought up the "negotiating from a position of weakness" section of Max and Deepak's book.)  I got back to my desk around 2:00.

Nicole was wearing her "Elitists for Obama" t-shirt.  I love that it looks like a very down-to-earth college t-shirt.

Edit:

Nicole got put on the spot to be the interrogatee. Someone was joking that actually this was a ruse and they were gonna interrogate me. I said, No, I still work for Prof.B., so the power dynamics are different, because if he gets on my bad side I can ruin his life. Nicole said, "I love that your sense of the power dynamics is: He can't get you too upset with him."

In the aforementioned "negotiating from a position of weakness" conversation, someone mentioned Gandhi, and someone mentioned that he had the power of the world media, and Navarro mentioned that Gandhi was trained as an attorney, which I had forgotten about.

Navarro talked about how you can change the power dynamics just by standing up. I was thinking later about how often I'll stand up when I'm at my desk and people come to talk to me, how I'll stay standing when I'm in B's office, and wondering how much that was subconscious.

/edit

***

I got dinner at Mr. Crepe.  Super Avocado Crepe = v. yummy (though I wasn't clear that there was actual avocado in it).  The chai latte, however, was really weak/watery -- which problem I also had the last time I ordered a hot chocolate there.  Sigh.  (The chai latte also had a huge amount of bleh foam.)

After dinner I was craving chocolate, so I went to CVS.  Where they still had half-price Halloween candy.  (Though srsly, candy makers?  I already knew about Chocolate Skittles, but your newest Hershey's Kisses concoction is candy corn?)

***

I went to econ class tonight for the first time in like a month instead of finishing reading Abington vs. Schempp for tomorrow's class.

Expandtopic: competitive and non-competitive markets )

***

When FUH was leaving for the day, he said, "Have fun tonight."
I laughed and said I was going to grab dinner, go to class, check the internet when I got home at like 10:30, and then go to bed.
He said, "Maybe it'll be decided by 10:30."
I said, "But the polls on the West Coast will barely have even closed at that point, so you'l just have the really inaccurate exit polls."
He said, "But if he wins Pennsylvania and Ohio..."
I was like, oh yeah, although there are some western states in play this election, all the big swing states are on the East Coast.

We got out of class about 9:15, and a woman in my class said, "Sununu lost New Hampshire."  I was unclear as to whether she'd been getting text message updates or what ('cause class starts at 7:35, and not all the NH polls are even closed yet at that point).

kurukami linked to a nice map of the United States, color-coded by poll closing times (calibrated to Eastern Time).

I enjoyed the flurry of flist posts this morning about the midnight NH voting.

(via friendsfriends) an explanation of why America still uses the electoral process.

[Lexington] Two cheers for American democracy: A good way to pick a president [Oct 30th 2008. From The Economist print edition]
hermionesviolin: (hipster me)
Change and freedom are both excellent rewards for voting, but so is free ice cream.
-ilanabean42

Also: sex toys.

My state's gonna go blue as far as the Presidential election, so I want to vote 3rd party (that seems so weird to say given that I have 6 parties to choose from), but I'm really not excited about any of them.

I read stuff criticizing Obama, and part of me is really easily swayed.  In part because I really enjoy being contrarian (and I'm surrounded by left of center folk in just about all my spheres), but there's also the fact that I'm so hesitant to commit myself to actually being pro-anything because I'm always so conscious of the (potential) criticisms.  So I'm in my comfort zone when I'm criticizing (or not involved).  I'm some sort of lazy maximizer [Google: maximizer vs. satisficer].

But then I read stuff like [David Post, November 2, 2008 at 10:38am] Why I'll Be Voting for Obama and I feel like, "Yes!" and part of me really does want to be excited about Obama for President.

Andy Bryan (Enter the Rainbow) attended an Obama rally and wrote:
Two moments of the rally were most profound for me.  [...] The second moment was when he was contrasting one of his positions with McCain's position, and the crowd started booing. He kind of cut us off, saying, "You don't need to boo, just go vote." I had read about him saying that before, but to experience it made an impact on me. The crowd did not boo any more after that. By way of comparison and for what it's worth, Governor Palin did not stop the crowd at her rally from booing.
This struck me particularly because on CNN AM I'd seen clips from a McCain rally, and hearing the crowd boo in response to criticisms of Obama really bothered me -- not because it brought to mind accusations of hateful/violent things said by attendees at McCain-Palin rallies, but just because I don't like that emphasis on attacking the opposition (I complained about this during the RNC); and yes I know this sounds dissonant with my critique-stance, but I feel like there's a legitimate difference between "booing" and, y'know, actual critiquing.

liz_marcs linked to this macro from PunditKitchen, which I enjoyed.

from my housemate's flist: Les Misbarack ("One Day More") [YouTube]

***
the earth is a hard place to imagine
if you start from scratch
-from "Black Straw" by Don Domanski
Expandgym )

It's funny, when I'm feeling so tired/unfocused/motivated... I forget that Getting Shit Done really does help me feel better.  (Though I do think I needed the weekend to take a break from work and get some rest.  And I am rly looking forward to going to bed tonight.)

CallunaV recently said:
I suspect it's different for everyone, and my issues =/= your issues and so forth, but I feel like most of us are not so incredibly short-sighted and self-indulgent that we would squander our work time just for the hell of it. It's because we hate the work, or we hate the person we're working for, or we're afraid we can't do it, or we're afraid that doing it will make us feel horrible, or we don't want to face what comes next when it's done, or we're angry that we have to do it in the first place...things that aren't reasonable, so we don't admit them to ourselves a lot of the time, which makes everything more frustrating: why am I playing this solitaire game I don't even like instead of doing what I need to do when A: I know I need to do it, B: I don't actually dislike it, and C: I know I'll feel good when I'm done? Why? Why?
It was really useful to me to have that articulated like that -- because, yeah, there are real reasons I get avoidy, even when I know I'm being irrational.


wtg, DST, it was srsly dark out when I left work.  I kinda like it, though.  Walking across the river with all the lights -- it's... "romantic" has connotations I don't intend, but it makes me think of being downtown or something in winter with all the positive connotations of the Christmas season (stuff like Handel's Messiah).

----

I never did get to finishing last week's update post.

ExpandWed-Sat )
hermionesviolin: black and white photo of Emma Watson as Hermione, with text "hermionesviolin" (hermione by oatmilk)
ExpandMA down-ticket races )

ExpandMA Q1 & Q2 )

Expandthird parties and stuff )

Expandcollage for change :) )

Expandpartisanship? )

(found on friendsfriends) [livejournal.com profile] rwday made a post I really liked on the "Copy this sentence into your livejournal if you're in a heterosexual marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow." meme.

+

ExpandNewsweek article on same-sex marriage )

online quiz seen via [livejournal.com profile] ann1962: Expandmy body gets 33 miles per gallon )
hermionesviolin: black and white image of Ani DiFranco with text "i fight fire with words" (i fight fire with words)
Page 5 of today's metro was "Lawful prostitution? San Fran considers it." It's an AP article -- though the metro stops after, "Some form of prostitution is already legal in two states. Brothels are allowed in rural counties in Nevada. And Rhode Island permits the sale of sex behind closed doors between consulting adults, but it prohibits street prostitution and brothels." I did not know that about Rhode Island :)

***

Mark Puelo's column informed me:
If passed, Question Two would be stricter than current law by requiring those under the age of 18 who are caught to enroll in a mandatory drug prevention program and perform up to ten hours of community service. Besides paying the same $100 citation as adults, minors could also face up to $2,000 in fines should they fail to complete the substance abuse prevention training, and their parents held liable if they don't pay.
Blah. I was all stoked to vote Yes on Question 2. I hadn't realized it makes the law even stricter re: youth.

It's probably still an improvement on the whole. Opening paragraph: "On Election Day, voters in Massachusetts have the opportunity to remove the criminal penalties associated with possessing one ounce or less of marijuana. In place of possible arrest and jail time, Referendum Question Two creates a system of civil penalties for adults with a fine of $100 and the immediate loss of the contraband substance."

***

Speaking of Massachusetts ballot questions... I need to decide how to vote on Question 3 (greyhound racing).

Amusing thing about Question 1 (income tax): Jen after RED last week said she's from NH (no sales tax, no income tax), and she would vote against adding it in NH but also against taking it away in MA.

Edit: via davis_square: "http://www.imagineelection.com/ If you fill out your address in the top left corner, the site will show you what your ballot will look like November 4." Commenters point out that it's not entirely accurate (and point out the more complete WhereDoIVoteMA.com for Massachusetts residents). Apparently I have 6 party choices for President. I feel like I should actually look into these -- since Massachusetts is going to go blue regardless. (I really hate the electoral college system, but on a personal level I am comforted that my vote for President doesn't count, because that significantly reduces my stress level.)
hermionesviolin: image of Zoe from Firefly with text "Big. Damn. Heroes." (big damn heroes)
I saw Amy's post when I got home from morning church and didn't know what it was about until I actually clicked on the comments.

Kita posted:
"Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian," he said. "But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, 'He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.' This is not the way we should be doing it in America."
-Colin Powell
[livejournal.com profile] ann1962 posted:
If you aren't reading Jack & Jill Politics, you really should. They are doing some of the best analysis of the election.

A reader of theirs found the photo of the Muslim mother at her son's grave that Colin Powell referenced on Meet the Press this morning when he endorsed Obama.

He teared up when he was speaking of this family's loss. I now see why.
The first GoogleNews search result I got was this -- has embedded MSNBC video excerpt, transcript, etc.

The bit Ann mentioned comes immediately following the bit Kita quoted; Powell says:
I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards--Purple Heart, Bronze Star--showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way.



I'm not entirely sold on "Yes We Can" as a campaign slogan, but I'd been wanting to post this poem since I saw it on the flist recently, and this seems as good an excuse as any.
God Says Yes to Me
by Kaylin Haught

I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactly
what you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it even okay if I don't paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I'm telling you is
Yes Yes Yes
I emailed this to Laura Ruth after Maria reposted it, and in our conversation about it I said, "I am anal-retentive enough that the lack of punctuation bothers me -- though I know that the line breaks are often functioning for the punctuation and that anyway it's a poem not an essay."

She replied, "Oh, you make me laugh!"

*glows*
hermionesviolin: black and white photo of Emma Watson as Hermione, with text "hermionesviolin" (hermione by oatmilk)
I saw a lot of clips (and heard some of the pundits) on CNN AM this morning, but I still wanted to read a full transcript (completionist, what?). I did a GoogleNews search for "presidential debate transcript" and this is the first one that came up.

SCHIEFFER: By now, we've heard all the talking points, so let's try to tell the people tonight some things that they -- they haven't heard. Let's get to it.
Haha. Yeah, good luck. Though it did actually feel substantive -- though not much particularly new. ExpandRead more... )
hermionesviolin: (self)
Expandgym )

***

Monday, Laura Ruth emailed the UCC clergy, cc-ing me and Keith, saying in part "I will be in Israel on two Wednesdays in Oct - the 22nd and 29th. Please would you celebrate communion? There is a fixed liturgy that you'd need to read. Keith [redacted] and Elizabeth [redacted] will set up, and they and others will clean up. Keith can lead the service."
    So when she saw me helping to set up before service today she thanked me (as always -- and she's always so really genuinely grateful, which always kinda throws me) and then said, "Did you like how I volunteered you to help?"  I laughed and said yeah of course it was fine -- said that my initial reaction was kind of "Hey!" but that I know being volunteered for stuff is kind of how churches work.
    I asked if it's really UCC policy that you have to be ordained to do communion.  I said 'cause after my "Way to volunteer me" reaction, I was like, "What, I can't do communion?"  'Cause at Cambridge Welcoming we take the "priesthood of all believers" seriously and anyone can do communion.  The first time Tiffany asked me to lay read, she asked if I would also be willing to help with communion -- which has a responsive liturgy.  I was like, "Uh, okay..." 'cause I have a very low theology of communion, so to me it primarily functions as a marker of being in communion with that community I'm with, which I don't always feel -- which I've mostly gotten over and now I just take it, value of going through the motions and church as social and yadda yadda, but I have totally argued (discussed) with more than one pastor about communion.
    Anyway, she said that the it's up to the congregation and that it was one of the first things she asked when she started here, and they said they wanted a clergyperson to do it, and she asked if that would be true of this midweek service as well, and they said yes.

Later, either Laura Ruth or Keith said we needed to go get the communion elements.  I joked that I really did have a low theology of communion 'cause I'd been looking around thinking, "Is there anything else we still need to do for setting up?" and the lack of communion elements on the table didn't even register.

Rest and Bread ("Light")

In the Welcome, Laura Ruth said, "Some of have spent all day working, and some of us have spent all day worrying."

Psalm 4

I was particularly struck by:
4. When  you are disturbed, do not sin;
ponder it on your beds, and be silent.
7. You have put gladness in my heart
more than when their grain and wine abound.

Sacred Text: Matthew (salt of the earth, light of the world)

Keith did the Reflection and pointed out that Jesus was saying to the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed: YOU are the light of the world.  Not all the big-shots.
    He quoted from John Winthrop's "City Upon a Hill" (of course!).  When he said, "wee must be willing to abridge our selves of our superfluities, for the supply of others necessities," I thought of Wesley ("Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.").  I enjoyed "wee must delight in eache other."  Also "rejoyce together, mourne together, labour, and suffer together."  And if we do all this, "the Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us."

Laura Ruth (and Keith) do the Invitation, Words of Institution, and Prayer of Consecration, but then we pass the bread to each other, saying, "This is the bread of (new) life."  Jennifer got all wide-eyed that she had to give it to Laura Ruth (when you're at the end of the semi-circle, you give it to the presiding person who started).  She said, "This is the cup -- I mean, this is the bread of life.  This is not a cup of the new covenant."  I said, "It's all a big metaphor anyway, so it doesn't really matter."  Laura Ruth turned to me and looked mock-scandalized.  I put my hand to my mouth and said, "Oh, was I not supposed to say that out loud?"

***

via itsabigrock: http://www.csmonitor.com/patchworknation/
Gee, big shocker I have always lived in "Monied 'Burbs."  ("Campus and Careers" is Franklin County, not Hampshire County -- even though the latter contains Amherst, South Hadley, and Northampton.)

No post-class discussion tonight so as to allow people (like the prof) to watch the debate.  Laurel and I were like, "Yeah, we still won't get home in time to watch it."  [Class gets out at 9:35, and you still have to walk from the div school to Harvard T and then we still have to take the T home.]

People were watching it in the lounge, so while I waited for Laurel to go to the bathroom I saw part of the "Talk about your opponent's running mate" bit.  Obama opened with saying that Palin was a capable politician.  SNAP!  He also said that he was in agreement about special needs being an important issue and yadda yadda, and that advocates agree that you need increased funding for that, and how can you accomplish that with a spending freeze?

On our way to Harvard T, Laurel and I talked about class and then she talked about her undergrad and her current lack of career direction and thus and such and we ended up getting to talking about religion.  She describes herself as spiritual but not religious, which I always forget about.  I think of her as . . .  "anti-religious" is overly harsh, but it's the closest term I can come up with.  But she's not only personally seeking, she's actually rather ecumenical.  She's not Christian (nor did she grow up Christian), but she does Wednesday night dinner with the Lutheran-Episcopals [MIT?] (except not this semester 'cause of this class).  Heart!  10:25 we finally pulled ourselves apart.
hermionesviolin: (hard at work)
This should have been posted last night, but I was too tired when I got home from class to finish it. So all the "todays" &etc. remain as if it were posted Wednesday night.

-----

Expandgym )

***

Ed Rollins (R) was on CNN AM and said that neither candidate was inspiring, which was what he thinks people want, that it was a lot of Senate floor talk. That sounded exactly accurate to me.

I avoided the liveblogs last night, but I just about hurt myself laughing reading this one [Will Wilkinson]. (I don't know what the "transvestite" line at the beginning is about, and I'm choosing to ignore it. It's a libertarian blogger, so a lot of the economic stuff &etc. may rub my liberal flisters the wrong way. It gets better as it goes along. The timestamps are Central time zone.)
Expandexcerpts )
Daniel Drezner summed up:
In the end, both candidates put forward mainstream internationalist positions on most issues related to national security, stressing the prudent use of military force, working in concert with allies and insisting that America could still be an active force for good in the world.

What was odd was that this hopeful vision of America's role in the world clashed badly with their rhetoric on the global economy. When talk turned to economics, the rest of the world was viewed as a scary, scary place.
***

The power went out shortly before noon (and stayed out for a half an hour).

Ian went and got lunch (tofu stirfry!) and was hanging out by my desk chatting while the power remained out. (It's hard to do much work here without our computers, and we FAs were still gonna wait until about 12:30 to head to lunch in order to miss the student rush.)

I forget how we got on it, but Ian said, "You're not worried about getting electronically outsourced?" I said the amount of person management I do...

Talking about how people are forever asking me where something/someone is, Ian said, "You like it. You could be all passive-aggressive [mimes turning his head down and away as if sitting at a desk avoiding someone] but instead you [demonstrates how I'll perk up and say, "How can I help you?" -- I didn't nitpick that what I actually say is, "Can I help you?"] I've seen you." I said yeah, I totally love being helpful. (I didn't mention that it connects to my being a control-freak, but that might have been implied.)

I said if someone could develop a Marauder's Map, that would be great. Ian asked, "Marauder's Map?" I said yeah, from Harry Potter -- it's a map of Hogwarts, the school, and it'll show you where anyone is on the school grounds, as a dot on the map with their name.
He said he's the only person who's never read one word of Harry Potter. I said my mom read them to my younger brother when they were first coming out in England and I was doing homework on the computer in the other room and got sucked in.
He said, "You're a geek, I know," in this tone of like, "You don't have to defend yourself, it's okay." I said I'll get militantly defensive about other stuff (I didn't specify, but of course Buffy was what immediately came to my mind), but I wasn't getting defensive, just explaining.

[Dude, you can get it as a screensaver!]

***

I used the phrase "marginal utility" at lunch, and MaryAlice said, "You are taking an econ class." She said she recognized the phrase, but she wouldn't have thought of it to use it.

She said something about Chinese buffet night, and I restrained myself from saying, "AT THE CHINESE BUFFET, WATER IS ON THE HOUSE." (ref. this Dinosaur Comics, and musesfool's subsequent tag)

***

How have I not learned to just be proactive ALWAYS when it comes to work stuff? It always works out better that way. Sigh.

***

I got to Rest and Bread early and walked into the church office to make myself useful. Laura Ruth introduced me to Jamie, the new church administrator (I think), and said, "Elizabeth is..." I thought, "I see you searching for a phrase appropriate for public company" -- because when she introduced me to Meck at brunch a few weeks ago, she used the phrase "church whore," among others -- and she ultimately finished her sentence to Jamie with: "resident church whore." I laughed. She continued: "She frequents all the houses of worship up and down the street." (This is an overstatement, because there are at least six distinct faith communities on College Ave. and I'm only affiliated with three of them, but I LOVE that phrasing.)

At one point while we were setting up I said to Laura Ruth, "Am I allowed to ask you how you've been, or would that be too distracting?" She said yes at the moment that would be too distracting -- but the short version is that she's doing great.

Rest and Bread ("Welcoming the Stranger")

In the Welcome, Laura Ruth said, "We know each other some," but that we don't know all parts of each other -- which in light of Sunday at CWM I read as a subtle nod to National Coming Out Day &etc., whether it was intended so or not.

She said when thinking about welcoming the stranger, we have to ask ourselves, "Who is stranger, us or them," which I thought a nice pun.

The Psalm was Psalm 120.

The Sacred Texts were from Deuteronomy ("...love the stranger") and Hebrews ("let mutual love continue ... entertained angels unawares").

Reflection:
Laura Ruth talked about welcoming the stranger. She talked about how encountering strangers brings newness into our lives and that can be disruptive and threatening.
She said that prayer is about curiosity, not control. (I forget exactly how that related, but I liked it.)
She talked about the "entertained angels unawares" thing and said that one way we can react when we encounter the stranger -- even when it's that crazy guy in the park yelling -- is to think, "Maybe it's Jesus" (I thought of that bit in Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies I think it was, where talks about making a conscious effort to just when she takes the dog out for a walk to see Jesus in the face of every single person she encounters -- or maybe it's just the first person she encounters? but I think it's everyone). She said that Jesus is pure holiness, . I have issue with this because thanks to Old Testament classes and stuff, I can't help thinking of "holy" as "whole," and we are (as she said) broken. [By the time service was over, I had forgotten about probing about this -- and I couldn't stay too long anyway, as I had class -- so I'll be emailing her about this.]

(In other news, Laura Ruth made me an official, computer print out, clip-on, nametag.)

***

Today's mail included:
* my voter registration confirmation (though "I Vote You Vote - a project of the non-partisan American Democracy Institute" says, "Sorry. We can't confirm Elizabeth [redacted] is registered to vote in Massachusetts." -- I suspect they're just a little behind)
* a $36.75 refund check from RCN
* my American Red Cross donor card (I'm O Positive!)

***

Yom Kippur began at sunset tonight. If I've hurt you, or you think you've hurt me, please let me know.
hermionesviolin: black and white photo of Emma Watson as Hermione, with text "hermionesviolin" (hermione by oatmilk)
So, Congress approved the revised bailout bill.  I haven't been following the econoblogging so much this week 'cause I felt like in all my reading about the bailout &etc., I was comprehending and retaining so very little.

This amuses me.

Our Coming Recession Posted by Kevin Drum on 10/03/08 at 2:02 PM -- on how government spending could help alleviate the recession.

    Other links I've had lying around: ExpandRead more... )
hermionesviolin: black and white photo of Emma Watson as Hermione, with text "hermionesviolin" (hermione by oatmilk)
Over lunch yesterday, MaryAlice mentioned Sarah Palin's inability to name a Supreme Court case other than "Roe v. Wade" (Katie Couric interview).  I haven't seen any of the Couric interview -- I've been kind of busy, and while I have downtime at work, playing video is weird (especially since I don't currently have speakers, so I have to use headphones).

Last night I saw [livejournal.com profile] thelastgoodname's post where she modified a meme to say, "if you think you know something about US History and Politics, post info about ONE Supreme Court decision, modern or historic, that you disagree with," pointing out that that's what Palin was actually asked.

Honestly, asked to name any Supreme Court case off the top of my head, I would pretty much blank.  I can think of "Brown vs. Board of Education" and "Engel v. Vitale," and that's about it.

I think partly it's compartmentalized somehow.  I mean, I've referenced "Heller" in casual conversation, but it didn't occur to me when trying to name SCOTUS cases off the top of my head.  (I read another case around the same time as "Heller" and I am completely blanking on it.  *pokes around LJ*  Oh yeah, the habeas corpus one -- "Boumediene v. Bush.")

On friendsfriends today, I saw another post.  This post also cited [livejournal.com profile] liz_marcs' post where she mentions that, as a commenter on the ontd_political post pointed out (and here I'm quoting liz_marcs), "the Supreme Court handed down Exxon v Baker, which screwed over the state of Alaska...and Palin even issued a press release about it."

***

In blogsurfing... Privacy and Abortion Posted by Kevin Drum on 10/02/08 at 12:39 PM.  Commenters counterargue on a variety of points.

VP debate

Oct. 2nd, 2008 10:35 pm
hermionesviolin: black and white photo of Emma Watson as Hermione, with text "hermionesviolin" (hermione by oatmilk)
I got home from CAUMC group about 9:50pm Eastern.  I pulled up CNN.com to catch the remainder of the VP debates.  ExpandRead more... )
hermionesviolin: black and white photo of Emma Watson as Hermione, with text "hermionesviolin" (hermione by oatmilk)
ExpandRead more... )

Edit: Ian's take:
Obama won the debate hands down. McCain won relatively easily on content, except the undecided 20% don't decide on content unless there's a major gaffe. They care about persona and style and body language. McCain was AWFUL -- he came across as the grumpy old grandpa no one wants to talk to at Thanksgiving, even though he's really smart and has a zillion stories. Obama came across as confident and much more of a person you'd like to hang out with. Same dynamics as Kennedy-Nixon 1960 and the first Gore-Bush 2000 debate, the one that lost Gore the election (even though he handily won the debate on content).
Edit2: FactCheck.org on the debate

And Brad DeLong quotes Frans de Waal:
A confident alpha male chimpanzee would never show studied indifference. I have seen such behavior only in males who were terrified of their challenger.... A self-confident alpha male just approaches his challenger and sets him straight, either by attacking him or performing a spectacular display of his own. No avoidance of eye contact: he takes the bull by the horns. It rather is the hesitant or fearful alpha male who avoids looking straight at the other
hermionesviolin: black and white photo of Emma Watson as Hermione, with text "hermionesviolin" (hermione by oatmilk)
Rep. Paul Kanjorski, (chair of the capital markets subcommittee of the House's Financial Services Committee) was on Squawk this morning [video link, summary piece (Politico)] and said the bailout bill was basically done (about 42-45 pages, most everything each side wanted is in there, there's broad agreement, if they work Saturday and Sunday they could have this bill ready for business on Monday) and said that the presence of the presidential candidates wasn't "disrupting" the process, but was slowing it down, said that they (the people writing the bill) know what they're doing, and that the candidates should go back and do what they're supposed to be doing.

So I laughed when I flipped over to CNN and Douglas Holtz-Eakin (McCain senior economic advisor) said that McCain was gonna go to Washington and help "jumpstart" the process.

[In blogreading today, edited to add this post from Daniel Drezner, dated yesterday.]

Expandselections from yesterday's blogreading )
hermionesviolin: black and white photo of Emma Watson as Hermione, with text "hermionesviolin" (hermione by oatmilk)
I can b-school osmosis the psychology stuff, but I think I'm just not wired for economics.  Have I retained any of what I've read on this?  Not much.

I've retained that most people think the 700-plus-billion-dollar bailout is a bad idea.  And that banning short-selling isn't a useful idea.  And that lot of folks don't buy the blaming of the "repeal" of Glass-Steagall.  Oh, and Megan McArdle is skeptical of hindsight regulation.

Expandreading list )

One thing that's been throwing me in chatting with lefties has been the idea that we should let Wall Street fail (they deserve it after all, and hey, if these companies are too big to fail, isn't the middle class too big to fail as well? shouldn't we get some sort of bailout -- I bite my tongue on the fact that "saving the middle class" isn't that simple, nevermind the fact that much/most of the middle class is not exactly teetering on failure, because I know the statement is intended partially tongue-in-cheek) as if this wouldn't have any sort of ripple effect.  I mean, I'm usually the one advocating heartless pragmatism (just war, ends justify means, etc.) and not being beloved by the Left for it.
ExpandI quote Megan McArdle a lot )
Things I might be able to retain include Tim Carney on what the heck AIG is (via Megan McArdle).

***

Ten National Security Myths (The Nation - September 17, 2008)

***

I finally read Maureen Dowd's "Aaron Sorkin Conjures a Meeting of Obama and Bartlet."  I'd been resisting, 'cause I don't like Maureen Dowd.  Not gonna lie; I wasn't impressed. 

There's a lot of filler, and while there are a few good lines it's mostly not that compelling.

And Bartlet's attack on Palin . . . where to even begin?  Oh, I know, with "It's not bad enough she's forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too?" because where the fuck did THAT come from?  Point out a double standard?  [Which Bartlet does, in his "black daughter" bit.]  Yes, go for it.  But we know nothing about Bristol and [Googles] Levi or their relationship.

[livejournal.com profile] jennyo takes the opportunity to comment: "I also note that 30 Rock has a lot of shippy RPF [...]  This once again suggests that of all fandom fights, the "ZOMG RPF IS WRONG!" is still a rather dumb fandom fight."  I would argue that pr0ning up celebs is a bit different from the gen/shippy RPF that mainstream media is able to get away with.

If we're gonna talk West Wing professional RPF, I prefer The Onion's "Aaron Sorkin Announces New 'West Wing' Animated Series At SorCon" (hat tip: wisdomeagle).

***

This from the Tues. Sept. 23 metro made me giggle:
The owner of a San Francisco wine bar was doing a brisk business with an organic wine imported from Chile: Palin Syrah. But after a certain nomination last month, sales have dried up.

"It was our best-selling wine before [the V.P. announcement]," Chris Tavelli, owner of Yield Wine Bar, told the Serious Eats blog. But since then sales have plummeted. Because wine drinkers in San Francisco really are that petty.
***

InstaPundit:
OBAMA SUPPORTER John Althouse Cohen on "How Obama Lost Me."

Plus, Mike Rappaport on why he's not supporting McCain.

Don't people wind up feeling this way every four years? Which isn't to say they're wrong. As for me, I haven't liked a candidate enough to be actually disillusioned by one in . . . well, ever, really. The good news is that the guy you don't like usually fails to live up to your fears almost as much as the guy you like fails to live up to your hopes. . . .
The Mike Rappaport piece ends: "Update: Since Glenn has linked to this post with the statement "why [Mike Rappaport] is not supporting McCain," I thought I should give readers a couple of other blog posts on the subject with additional reasons.  Here are three of many, and there are others on this page."  Reading them is something of a surreal experience.

***

Starbucks Does Not Equal Savvy
What we talk about when we talk about experience
By Michael Gerson | NEWSWEEK
Published Sep 20, 2008

Here They Go Again
Rovean tactics alone do not win the Republican Party elections. This is a center-right country, and Democrats ignore this at their own peril.
By Jonathan Darman | NEWSWEEK
Published Sep 20, 2008

Who Cares Where Spain Is?
The debate shouldn't be a chance to play gotcha. What the candidates know about the world is less important than how they think about it.
By Richard N. Haass | NEWSWEEK
Published Sep 20, 2008

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