9/11/06: ClarkCast 025 – Thoughts On 9/11

One thing I do is buy up knit winter caps and gloves when they get clearanced out of the stores after Christmas.I buy 20 dollars or so worth of that sort of thing and add it to our yearly clothing donations.I hang a grocery bag on a hanger in my son’s closet and keep the hats and gloves in that so I don’t forget where they are.That way when I clean out the kiddo’s closet every year I can’t miss ‘em.

And who do you think Mr. and Mrs. Every Day Average American are going to blame for that in November?

Well, if the R’s have anything to say about it: Bill and Hillary Clinton.

The bad news: some will buy it, hook, line and sinker. Again.

The good news: it will be the 30% Backwash.

The bad news: miraculously, the R’s will retake most of their most hotly contested seats by about… say, this is interesting… 51%-49%. Amazing how that will work. Again.

I get the ominous feeling that, after this election, two things will happen. One, we will be told that gosh, we were just not theocratic enough, racist enough, warlike enough or homophobic enough to “understand” the Red States. And that we’d better try to meet them halfway, if we ever expect to win elections, again.

Two, the rest of us may finally realize that the system no longer works.

lotus, if you can team up with some other fdl/netroots types and get a chance to meet with an aide for some citizen lobbying – you can get the aide’s card. not only will it have an email address – it will clue you in to how the email addresses formatted.

i suppose, you’re right, it’s not something that is easily done via spot light.

Please send all such email addresses to tsp [at] thespotlightproject [dot] org.

Thanks!

selise @ 146

ReneND @ 129

A question on SPOTLIGHT.

Would it be possible to add politicians(dem and rep) to spotlight? Have thought several times I should send this to so and so.

great thought! but, not just the politician, to be able to send a post to the appropriate aide…. oooweee!

Rene & selise, the problem I keep running into is that the two FL Senators (et al.) accept only “webmail” on their own forms at their .gov addies. That might be quite a snarl for Mark to unravel. I dunno — no tech expert here, that’s for sure.

Lotus is correct. The web forms that some political representatives require and the use of “logic puzzles” present quite a problem.

The initial intent was to include political representatives (and advertisers) in Spotlight. Its on the list and hopefully we will get this.

poormary:

I can e-mail you a list of fantasy/science fiction books that are recommended for kids. (It’s hard to find on-line, since the page that should have it has been rebuilt and is missing it. I pulled it from a page at another site. You can Google on lasfs “reading list” to find it.)

poormary, if your son’s a bit rebellious (or you are *g*) try a banned or challenged book from the American Library Association’s website. They have a place for young people to vote on their favourite banned or challenged book here, there’a a drop-down list — I laughed when I saw what was on it! And the last week of Sept is Banned Books Week, what timing!

Oops, I went looking for the linky can’t get through to their website. I hope it’s just busy before the big week.

Well put! I’ll want that lunch! Didja ger your Young Lady settled in at college?

Rayne @ 145

selise — heh. That’s my spouse, an INTP.

Another facet of that personality type is a tendency towards conflict avoidance; sometimes it’s not a one-on-one conflict in question, but an internal conflict. Could be that INTP’s might be more likely to be conflicted about the assessment that this is fascism? We’ve all suffered from one degree of cognitive dissonance or another under this administration, wouldn’t surprise me if this were the case since internal conflict between what we believe or desire and what we see is frequent and the gap widening. Perhaps for some of us the breach has been too wide to bridge for some time — has been since 2000 for me.

maybe, but i don’t think many people who know me would say i shy away from conflict (the external kind)… although, when i hit a brick wall, i do tend to step back and introspect until i think of another way to approach the conflict.

as for the internal, cognitive dissonance, kind of conflict… i’ve been through 2 big ones and each of them took several years to work through (and may continue as an on going project). the second one started 9/12/2001. the smaller ones are when my analytical/intuitive type judgement is far out of the mainstream – i tend to doubt myself with much second and third guessing.

so it takes awhile, but once i get my head around an uncomfortable or unusual idea – no more fence sitting. (i’m with you, NorskeFlamethrower. i just don’t think it is a one time deal, i’ve come to the conclusion that it is a constant struggle – that must include a struggle against our own authoritarian tendencies).

I’m a great thinker myself. Wonderful stuff, thinking. But they’s times you can’t think your way through, your have to live your way through, and I think I think we’re in ‘em.