yankee republicans

Today, Pres. Obama signed a "fair pay" act into law, the first bill-signing of his presidency. There were mostly some high-up Democrats present, a nice old lady from Alabama, and the two female senators from Maine. (Yes, they're both Republicans. No no, not that kind of Republican, they're Yankee Republicans. Don't worry about it.)

The ceremony, and a reception afterward in the State Dining Room of the White House, had a celebratory feel. The East Room was packed with advocates for civil rights and workers rights; the legislators, who included House and Senate leaders and two moderate Republicans — Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both of Maine — shook Mr. Obama’s hand effusively (some, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, received presidential pecks on the cheek) as he took the stage.

The whole "presidential pecks on the cheek" language bullshit pretty much deflated the whole gender-equality tone for me--but I'm still totally psyched to see my ever-beloved senators getting such big air-time. Snowe's been around for a while, but Collins is still somewhat new (in senator years, anyway), only having been there a couple terms -ish.

Ok...after several minutes of google searching, then giving up and remembering I had read this great line about Snowe from slate.com...I found the article I was looking for. (I just gave google all sorts of hilarious search data, from "olympia snowe puppies roses" to "mainers send olympia snowe babies"...) Here is an excerpt from an article written in advance of the 2004 presidential election, entitled "Maine: The state that could go for Kerry and Bush." (For those of you unaware, this is a reference to the weird way Maine doles out electoral college votes. Nebraska does it, too.)

... But in Maine, entrenched Republicans and die-hard Democrats are outnumbered by independents, who make up 39 percent of the state's voters. And when that many votes are in play for each election, things get notably weird.

Maine, for example, has had independent governors for 12 of the past 30 years. H. Ross Perot had his best showings in Maine: In 1992, he won 30 percent of the vote, taking second place and beating hometown honey George H.W. Bush; in 1996, he won 14 percent. In 2000, Nader won 6 percent of the vote. (More on that later.) The 2nd congressional seat is currently held by a pro-life Democrat, but it was held by a pro-choice Republican as recently as 1994. And Maine is devoted to its senior senator, the moderate Republican Olympia Snowe. Every single person I spoke to in Maine was a fan—I wouldn't be surprised if they regularly send her roses and kittens and first-born children. "She really represents Maine," I heard, from Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike. Maine voters like Snowe's moderate politics—she's your typical Yankee Republican (one of the last of the breed), fiscally conservative and socially liberal—and they also admire her willingness, on occasion, to tell Republican leaders to shove it. "Olympia," they say, "doesn't just vote the party line."

...

The rest of the article is just plain gold writing. Definitely worth a read if you are ever trying to understand Maine--our people or our culture in general. (They even talk about the "Two Maines"...ooh, scandalous.)

the new ladies who lunch

An article from the NYT, about the girlfriends/wives/mistresses of well-to-do Wall Street dudes, who are now feeling the crunch of our economic meltdown.

I got a little angry over this part:

Dawn Spinner Davis, 26, a beauty writer, said the downward-trending graphs began to make sense when the man she married on Nov. 1, a 28-year-old private wealth manager, stopped playing golf, once his passion. “One of his best friends told me that my job is now to keep him calm and keep him from dying at the age of 35,” Ms. Davis said. “It’s not what I signed up for.”

Au contraire, girlfriend, that's exactly what you signed up for. Or did you miss the part about 'for better or for worse, in sickness and in health'?

Much like the "unexamined life is not worth living", I think the unexamined reasons for marriage result in a marriage not worth much at all. (Well, unless the only dimension of "worth" you concern yourself with is financial...)

clearly canadian

There is something deeply annealing about true winter weather--and having been raised on it year-after-year for a total sum that can be described in decades. And not just personally annealing. It forms inter-personal bonds, which in turn beget communities, the dynamics of which beget this nebulous thing we call sometimes call culture and sometimes call society. (Those unafraid of being labeled "new age" often dare to call it the collective consciousness.) And all of this is then turned around again into stamping the individual with a unique blend of self-identity (that as we all know, is not exactly entirely self-formed).

This is not a strand of humanity that can be learned after the fact, or through stories or any sort of second-hand interaction. This is a you've-either-got-it-or-you-don't type thing.

"so, screw california"

(uh oh...this new pandora thing makes my music references really easy to figure out sometimes...)

One theme I have increasingly become aware of as I have grown is that much of what we encounter on a day-to-day basis is "human-made". Rules, laws, mores--all constructed by us humans. (Realizing this as a kid could have been a ready salve for many an angst, but alas...)

When I first moved to Burlington, I wrote several songs. Full-fledged songs with words and chords and everything, that I still often sing in the shower or on walks, etc. (Someday I will make myself brandish them at an open-mic night somewhere...) One of them was about softly shaking my head on behalf of people that think they can run away towards some external idea and it would suddenly make everything internal better. My first chorus throws a jab at people romanticizing California. This evening I discovered someone else has put the same thing in a song, too. (...hence this blog post title...not my words, but this other song's...)

So, having poked plenty of scorn at other people clinging to social or personal constructs, it's only prudent to turn that same scorn on myself from time to time. This round is about relationships. Why do I think I want one? Do I really? And if so, and if I am fortunate to find one...who's to say it will last. These are questions which I once thought I had answers to...and now...I don't know. And what's more, I don't know if I ever will have the answers.

I want something to believe in. (Something personally constructed.) I need something to believe in. Can I give that to myself?...I don't know. I'm not sure what it would even be, this thing to believe in. This is an interesting bit of philosophy that I'm sure entire books have been written about over the past several hundred years. But maybe everybody just has to figure it out for themself.

I'm just gonna do what I gotta do (as John Legend--stealing Aretha's chords--would say...) Maybe constructs are just made to be broken, and you can only ever count on yourself.

"This next song, I don't know if you've heard it. It's a song about cheating. But it's a nice, sexy song about cheating. It kinda makes you wanna cheat. It's called, 'She Don't Have to Know'..." --John Legend at the end of a live track

(And despite myself and everything I stand for...I really like that goddamn song...)

no really, he's that awesome

(...more serious writing about "monastic aspirations" continues to be postponed, likely until the weekend, when this crazy week is behind me.)

Now is just a quick bit of wit, from two Maine natives expressing shameless admiration for one of our favorite sons:



And now...
"Goodnight, you princes of Maine, kings of New England."

two songs you MUST listen to

Spending Sunday late-night figuring out what music and Mathematica have in common. (Well, I already know what they have in common, but I need to figure out an articulate way to put it...) A perfect soundscape for such an endeavor, I figured, was the algorithmically-generated playlists of Pandora. I've been a huge fan of this site for a while now...but just tonight I created a new station based on the artist Rogue Wave. This may now be my favorite station in my account there...even better than some of the ones I've spent months tweaking to my every musical whim! I don't want to jinx anything, but I've been listening to this station for well over an hour or so now, and I haven't needed to hit the "next" button once...

Anyway, I came across two songs everyone must absolutely check out (and probably in this order):

"Elevator Love Letter" by Stars
"In The Morning" by The Coral

And might I suggest as a low tempo palette-cleanser:

"Crush the Camera" by Rogue Wave

You're welcome. ...back to work.


(so much for work... 11:27 pm update: just figured out how to put a classy sidebar on my blog listing my most recent Pandora song bookmarks. Oh, technology.)

monastic aspirations, pt. 1

For someone who is not remotely religious, and, has somewhat fallen off the spiritual wagon in the past year or so (for reasons of not having had anyone to talk Eastern philosophy with in a long time, not bothering to re-read favorite texts from said philosophy, and increasingly taking on more of a cold, mathematical view of the universe) I find I am oddly enough continuing to develop "monastic aspirations".

Someday I would really love to go vegan. I realize, however, that such an attempt would probably be doomed to failure because:

1. I can't eat soy, and not a lot of commercial foods aimed at vegans use sources of protein other than that. I would probably spend a lot of time in the kitchen as a mad scientist, trying to extract protein from other plant sources. (Actually, this doesn't sound so bad.) I've heard you can do it with wheat gluten.

...and then more earthly whining...

2. I like seafood.
3. I love yogurt (both for taste and protein) and cheese.

I can however, continue to iterate my diet towards a more vegan-esque makeup. The current thing I am working on jettisoning is milk. I don't really need milk. I use it in cereal and baking. These uses can withstand alternative substances. I've already written about how the rice milk from Full Circle pretty much sucks, and today I've got some more positive news. I finally found the little repository of alternative dairy-like beverages at Schnuck's yesterday. And was totally stoked to find they had almond milk. (They also had a few brands of soy and rice milk--even Rice Dream brand, which is, as far as rice milk goes, pretty good--but I am giving up on those two for obvious reasons.) They had one brand of almond milk, so I got a quart each of the two versions: original and vanilla. I have already gone all the way through the vanilla one. This stuff is good. Evidently they make oat milk, too. I am so trying it (even if I must trek to Urbana or even buy it online...)

I have more to write, specifically regarding grad school and love, but these will have to be writings for other times. I've got a lot to do today and should get to working on all of it...