My Favorite Illustrator

Joost Swarte, a Dutch illustrator. Absolutely love his work. I was so excited to see this in today's NY Times Book Review, for a review of T. Coraghessan Boyle's new novel about Frank Lloyd Wright. It shows one of Wright's masterpieces, Falling Water, in western Pennsylvania, which I've been to. My partner and I visited Swarte in his studio in Haarlem, the Netherlands, a few years back, it was like visiting Mecca for us.

CA Court: Religious schools can discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation

This is the natural consequence of allowing religious exemptions to discrimination laws. School can expel lesbian students, court rules. (LA Times) California law prohibits businesses from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation. A state appellate court has ruled that a private Christian school could legally expel two students for having an allegedly lesbian relationship. The court reasoned that the school was not a business and therefore wasn't subject to the law. The girls' attorney is planning to appeal to the California Supreme Court.

No Mail on Saturdays?

Postmaster General: May need to cut Saturday mail delivery Yikes!

Snow Days

For everyone whose lives have been interrupted by the bad winter weather this week, a corrective: Nature's Way of Telling Us to Chill Puts things in nice perspective.

Coffee is Good

I always like to see an excuse to drink coffee. Coffee Reduces Risk of Dementia Maybe this explains why you always see so many older people drinking coffee.

Photo by javaturtle on flickr.

Change continues - Obama Reverses More Bush Policies

Obama has already made some great moves to undo Bush's policies. It's exciting to see a new announcement practically every day.

1. Obama Directs Regulators to Tighten Auto Rules. During the Bush years, some states wanted to pass more liberal laws than the federal government. The feds argued that federal law superseded state law in these instances. Now, Obama has enabled states to impose more strict regulations on vehicle emissions than required by federal law.

2. "President Obama repealed rules...that restricted federal money for international organizations that promote or provide abortions overseas, sweeping aside a pillar of the social policy architecture of George W. Bush’s presidency." Obama Reverses Rules on U.S. Aid for Abortion This policy has been batted about by Republicans and Democrats since Bush I, I believe. It was sad to see Bush 2 reinstate it. Now it's a relief to see Obama restore sanity to US aid in this area. From the NYTimes: "The restrictions Mr. Obama lifted on Friday barred the United States Agency for International Development from providing money to any international nongovernmental organization that “performs or actively promotes abortion as a method of family planning” in foreign countries, and covered a wide range of activities, including providing advice, counseling or information regarding abortion. The restrictions did not apply to counseling for abortions in the case of rape, incest or danger to the life of the pregnant woman."

3. I mentioned these earlier, but it's worth mentioning again, as this is a huge development. Obama Reverses Key Bush Security Policies "Mr. Obama signed executive orders closing the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, within a year; ending the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret prisons; and requiring all interrogations to follow the noncoercive methods of the Army Field Manual." An open democracy with a bill of rights should not have implemented these policies to begin with - it was embarrassing.

Here's the Washington Post's rundown of Obama's changes: Effort to Roll Back Bush's Policies Continues

US to World: Sorry for Interruption in Service

This is an e-mail making the rounds. I thought it was funny.

Dear World:

We, the United States of America , your top quality supplier of the
ideals of liberty and democracy, would like to apologize for our
2001-2008 interruption in service. The technical fault that led to
this eight-year service outage has been located, and the software
responsible was replaced November 4. Early tests of the newly
installed program indicate that we are now operating correctly, and we
expect it to be fully functional on January 20. We apologize for any
inconvenience caused by the outage. We look forward to resuming full
service and hope to improve in years to come. We thank
you for your patience and understanding.

Sincerely,
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Daily Show on Republican Reaction to Obama Presidency

This is just priceless.

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

Fox News Fear Imbalance

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

This is Change

I can't tell you how thrilled I was to read this headline this morning in the Washington Post: Obama Starts Reversing Bush Policies So exciting. Closing Guantanamo and tightening lobbying rules. Yeah!

Political Spectrum Quiz

My Political Views
I am a left social libertarian
Left: 4.6, Libertarian: 5.23

Political Spectrum Quiz

Inauguration Reaction - mini

My brain is fuzzy from a cold, but I have to say, it was mighty satisfying to see Bush ride away over Washington in that helicopter today.

Beyond the miracle of Obama's swearing in, another highlight was Obama's mention of "non-believers" in his inauguration speech. That's got to be a first. I'm not sure it outweighed the unpleasantness of hearing the homophobe Rick Warren deliver an invocation which was thoroughly drenched in thanks to God and Jesus and made you think this was a religious occasion. I totally resent the inclusion of ministers and prayers in official government ceremonies like this. (Moreover, all the religious figures featured in the inaugural concert and today's ceremonies were Christians.)

Moving beyond the crabbyanne-ness of that statement, I was very moved by the inauguration and I teared up at several points. I still can't believe Obama is the president. It's amazing.

It was very cold and damp here in the Washington area today, even with some sun, so I applaud all the people participating and watching in the cold for many, many, many hours. I watched from a warm living room, with easily accessible bathrooms and much food and drink.

Obama Inauguration Concert

Obama Inauguration Concert
Originally uploaded by Michael Foley Photography

I watched some of this on TV. I thought the production was very well run, from what I could tell. The lineup of artists was pretty amazing, although it was weighted in favor of genres I don't care for (soul, R&B, country). I thought it was quite moving at times. I loved seeing James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, and a number of others. Renee Fleming sang "You'll Never Walk Alone" from "Carousel," which always makes me tear up (sucker for musicals). And Beyonce's outfit was fabulous.

The weather in DC was warmer than it has been for the last couple of days, thankfully for the performers and audience. It was still gloomy, cold and damp, however. I was thinking that the Obamas are having the coldest weekend of their lives. Although they're used to Chicago weather, which sucks big time (I lived there for a number of years).

It was exciting just to see the beginning of the inaugural events and see the crowd's excitement. The setting in front of the Lincoln Memorial was wonderful and evocative. Shades of Martin Luther King Jr's famous speech, how far we've come since Lincoln freed the slaves, etc.


The Caucus Blog (NYTimes) on the concert, with photos

Although this event was supposed to be viewable by all for free on HBO, my mother couldn't seem to figure out how to watch it. Obviously, there was a flaw there somewhere. I don't know whether the feed wasn't available in her area, or what. It's supposed to be viewable on their website.

Yesterday, Fox News was already talking about when Obama's "honeymoon" will end. Sigh. Come on, Fox News, give us a little time to celebrate, why don't you?