Tales of Jonathan

I want to follow politics. But now, finally I've been forced to admit to myself that there's simply no story out there to follow. Not even Jon Stewart can excite my interest at this point in the meaningless wind down before the eventual coronation of Barak Obama as the democratic nominee.
We're entering a true dryspell. McCain's VP? Who could possibly care? Anyone misguided enough to vote for McCain after he's spent 4 years shilling for Bush's phenomenally phailed policies - especially the ones he himself denounced 8 years ago - shouldn't care. Unless the VP is satan himself, it won't affect their vote. (Insert appropriate Dick Cheney joke here.) Anyone who changes their vote to a horrible prez candidate because they like the VP... Well, let's just say it's hard to use a voting machine through the straitjacket. It can't much matter.

Obama's VP will be a fairly traditional selection I think, if only to counter all the complete lack of tradition to the dem's primary season. So, no go Hillary. No to Richardon, who should have been the strong candidate with gravitas based on his picture-perfect resume, but instead played an off-the-wall goofball. No to Edwards, just because a 1-term senator won't cut it.
My money's on a swing-state governor we haven't heard bandied about just yet, nor will we much before the choice. So, all the time wasted on speculation and horse-racing that contest won't even remotely approach useful.

So, now's a good time to read some science fiction instead....

It isn't true that you never forget. Part of the reason I haven't written for four years is because I didn't write for one. Part of the reason I didn't write for one year is that I didn't write for three months, and so on. By which logic, I can't ever stop typing again for so much as a millisecond or all will be lost. But I digress.

Anyhow, I tried to type a few words over the past few days. Let me tell you, my screen screamed in agony. I was that bad.[Fear alert: maybe I've always been that bad and just didn't realize it. Maybe now I'm good enough to know just how terribly putrid and terrible a writer I am. Reason #1 why Clarion kills more careers than it launches - blissful ignorance of our shortcomings hath its motivational advantages over the alternatives.]
I hope to continue the experiment. If you're my friend, don't wish any self-knowledge on me for awhile...

I wrote a word! Yes, I did. It was me! Yeeha!

It is of such simple victories that celebration must be built. Si?

Yes. yes, it's great that Democrats have finally decided to neutralize the religious advantage Republicans have been able to claim all these years. I admire the strategic genius of embracing the religion issue with full heart. I believe that Hilary and Barak are truly two religious people who see the admonitions for social justice, compassion, and mercy which lie at the heart of all religion.

I think this strategy will help the Democratic party show its soul, win back the Reagan Democrats and build a working majority of people who don't hew strictly to either Milton Friedman or James Dobson's straight and narrow.

Yet, I worry this whole embracing of religion thing is turning into a runaway train. Tonight, Clinton and Obama competed to be holier than thou in a vaguely circus atmosphere of confession before the leading religionists of the US. ("The holy spirit visits me every night in the bathroom." "I have holy spirit toothpaste." "When I say the pledge of allegiance, I deliberately stutter so I can repeat 'under god' 7 or 8 times." etc.) Only McCain was seemly enough not to show up. As a secular American, I'm tempted to switch my vote to him - if it weren't for just about every issue and policy position he holds dear, I would.

Then there's this reference from a CNN article:

Clinton has told interviewers that she has felt the presence of the Holy Spirit on many occasions, and that she believes the resurrection of Christ is a historical fact

Talk about your dynasties! She isn't running as the successor to her husband, she's running as the next George W. Bush!

Okay, that's not fair - though it was my initial reaction. I do not, repeat do not want a president who thinks they're touched by God. Hubris does not a great commander-in-chief make. If no prophet said that, they pretty much all hid it in the subtext. As to the historical veracity of the resurrection - there's more evidence that his descendants are living in France. There's more evidence that the historical Jesus didn't exist. There's much more evidence that virgin birth for humans - pathenogenesis - may be possible (in the future in a lab).

The first Clinton was right. Be a person of faith, make it clear that you are and that you're genuine about it, but don't subject anyone to the details. What can be accomplished the other way? Alienation of those who are differently religious, or sounding non-presidential to those who apply reality-based metrics to what they communicate and share with the vast public.

Senator Clinton just led her followers in a chant of "Yes, We Will!"

I wouldn't normally mind someone appropriating such similar phraseology and sentiments as her competitors' "Yes, We Can!"

But...

But the good Senator has been accusing Obama of plagiarism (as we all know) for his speeches that borrow phrasing - often attributed - from Governor Deval, a participant in his campaign.

Oh, the hypocrisy. Oh, the sanctimonry. Oh, the (presumably intentional) irony.

Don't mess with Hilary. She'll dust you, and then use your victory speech to rub the salt in your eyes.

There's been a massive meat recall of 144 million pounds - the largest in history, we're told. Evidently, this was sparked by secret video taken of downer cows - cows too sickly to even stand - being prodded into the abattoir and thus into the nation's meat supply. Two slaughter house employees are being prosecuted for animal cruelty.

I'm glad of the recall in that downer cows are prohibited from human consumption for a reason. The risk that those animals were suffering from some disease that can be passed along to humans is real (if also not really likely). For our health, the recall was the right thing to do. When the rules are broken, and the evidence of such is incontrovertible, the consequences should be clear and immediate. Also good. The employees caught on tape definitely fit my definition of illegal cruelty. Their prosecution is right.

So why am I uncomfortable? It took me awhile to comprehend my feelings of uneasiness over this recall, and especially the two employees being prosecuted. Here's the problem as I see it: This massive recall over downer cattle being put into the meat strongly implies that the meat that hasn't been recalled is free of the remains of downer cattle. Yet we know that's not true. In fact, animal groups have been talking about the problem of downer cattle for years. This incident the Humane Society caught on tape is almost definitely a fairly commonplace occurrence. This recall suggests that any tinge of downer cattle is being scrupulously purged from the nation's meat supply. The American consumer is being conned.

Sending the two employees to jail is a bit like jailing the grunts who abused prisoners at Abu Graib. The higher ups may not have ordered their cruelty directly, they may not have even expected it (though I believe they did), but they certainly created a culture and circumstances and possibly even incentives that encouraged the cruelty to take place. The two are guilty, but they're also scapegoats, whose prosecution decreases the chances of addressing the bigger problem.

I know this recall is a win for animal welfare and human safety. But I'm not in the mood for celebrating just yet...

Labels: Meat recall, vegetarian

I read a book co-written by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston. Ooo. Ouch. The first fiction novel I read in the past year and a half had to be the worst one ever written in the English language. Just my luck.

I'm not being fair. I bet thriller, and especially techno-thriller, fans loved this work. It did many things right, including good pacing, the fate of the Earth in the balance, and characters who aren't too well-developed so the action isn't slowed at critical points to consider the gray-shaded morality of real life, etc. The problem I have is that I'm part of the audience Mr. Card developed by writing a very different thing. Science Fiction, at its best, is full of ambiguity, characters, complex alternate worlds, and all sorts of things that would interrupt the movie-like experience of a great page-turning thriller.

Aaron Johnston wrote this book, which I should have known because I've never heard of him. Not only has he already had a better career than I will ever have as a writer, he'll have continued and future successes.

The problem comes from having Orson Scott Card's name on the cover. Anyone - by which I mean me - buying this book expecting a novel worthy of Card's previous body of work (by the measure of those who value the aspects that made Card's work great), would be sorely disappointed.

Note to self: Don't buy two-author books in the future where the more famous one is the writer I like. Lesson learned.