Sugarpoet

Party Like It's 1899

2010-02-21T19:40:00.001-05:00

So you Republicans had your little ideological keg party this weekend - where you former frat boys and your ilk got drunk on your looney "philosophy" and congratulated each other for a single victory of any import, as if that were some kind of crushing blow to an administration scarcely more than a year old that came in on the heels of an economic apocalypse. You did your song and dance about this allegedly new and allegedly populist movement, that is really just a loose confederation of the same old fringe crazies - anti-tax anarchists (one of whom crashed his plane into a federal office building to demonstrate the clear-headed reasonable nature of his compatriots), anti-reality Christian evangelists (who believe they'll be rich like the guys who run the GOP if they can just insert "Jesus" into every phrase of the Constitution), and of course the rich guys who run the GOP (who think successful marketing is somehow equivalent to successful policies but should know you can't really make a Gucci bag out of polyeurethane) - only even louder and more shrill.
Hello? We had eight years of your laughable-if-it-wasn't-so-catastrophic leadership. Eight years of you running this place, running us right into the ground. And now you're going to make this about Obama? You think progressivism is the cancer? You think high quality health care for all, equal opportunity, clean air and clean water, the right to control your body and express your mind with impunity, and an end to an expensive and illegitimate war that involved torturing people, is a cancer? Who are you people?
I say you are the terrorists. You have been trying to blow up our civil institutions and our culture for years now because you don't like people of color, animals or trees, women in the workplace, and sex. And I will tell you this - we, the real Americans - will not be cowed by you any longer. Enjoy your tea party and take lots of pictures, because in a few years all that's going to be left of you is a dried pool of Earl Grey and some crumbs from an orange cranberry scone (or coke and cheetos as the case may be), you wankers.

Global Population Speakout

2010-02-20T12:18:00.001-05:00

There are 6.8 BILLION humans and counting. We are projected to hit 9.2 billion by 2050. There are 300 million of us in the United States and if everyone else on the planet lived the way the average American does, we would need several more planets to accommodate our consumption. Even if we restrict our consumption, reduced pollution, and improved the efficiency of production, we would still need to feed and house 450 million people by mid-century. Population pressure in critical third world ecosystems has led to a high rate of deforestation and species extinction, without relieving the dire poverty in which these large populations live. Without some miracle technological cure that will turn human consumption and pollution into something useful to the planet, we need to reduce our numbers to sustain our species. How do we do this? According the Center for Biological Diversity:

Through the empowerment of women, education of all people, universal access to birth control, and a societal commitment to ensuring that all species are given a chance to live and thrive, we can reduce our own population to an ecologically sustainable level. This will decrease human poverty and crowding, increase our standard of living, and sustain the lives of plants, animals, and ecosystems everywhere.

The human population crisis may not be a favorite topic for environmentalists, but it's an essential one, since our growth is fueling the planet's, and therefore our, undoing. So let's talk about how we can serve the fundamental human drive of creating the next generation without undermining its very survival.

Coal Ash Blues

2010-02-04T14:49:00.000-05:00

I live in Manhattan so I don't have the same uncomfortably intimate relationship with coal ash that say Roane County or Widows Creeks residents do. But what I know about the environment is that we all share in it, both its bounty and its ruination. We are connected - and not in an ephemeral or mythical Avatarian way but in an actual physics-chemisty-biology way - mostly by air and climate, but also by soil, water and contiguous ecosystems. We need to regulate coal ash and New York representatives share no less responsibility in this fight than do those representatives near coal ash disasters. We must find a path to living sustainably in harmony with nature or we are not going to survive. One world, one way.

Send a message to your representative about coal ash regulation today.

It's a Little Fishy

2009-12-16T09:20:00.000-05:00

Just say no to fish oil supplements. According to A Fish Oil Story in the New York Times today, fish oil is made from menhaden which are crucial to Atlantic coastal ecosystems - they keep water clean by filtering out tons of algae and are the base of the food chain for hundreds of other species. Support the Atlantic coast - get your Omega-3's from food sources or flax seed oil!

Windy City

2009-12-04T11:10:00.000-05:00

Humans are going to keep demanding more and more energy - that is a fact of modern life that is not going to change. How we get that energy is changing and right now one of our best options for clean, renewable energy is wind. Especially in a place like the Cape, which experiences powerful winter storms and gusts for much of the year, wind turbines like those from the proposed Cape Wind project can supply a large amount of energy with no emissions and minimal environmental impact.

I was initially concerned about the impact on wildlife that the turbines and cabling of this project would have. After reviewing the commentary by Save Our Sound and some local groups who are all supported by wealthy beach property owners (NIMBY types), I feel that the benefits to wildlife overall outweigh the harm that will come to some, even with mitigation. The opponents to the wind farm appear to be self-interested (and in some cases, hypocritical) while the proponents of Cape Wind, like the UCS, Greenpeace, and Sierra Club, have serious environmental advocacy credentials and care deeply for wildlife and ecosystem preservation.

Our needs for energy are not diminishing. We have to seize on solutions that are clean and renewable. Right now and for the foreseeable future, the answer is blowin' in the wind (and the sun and the sea).

Oh Wilderness

2009-09-30T15:21:00.000-04:00

What I wrote to Obama and Vilsajk about Colorado's plan to develop their wilderness: "Wild places and the animals that inhabit those spaces are crucial to all Americans, regardless of the states or states in which they lay. Wilderness plays an important role in our environment, history and national identity, science and technology, and almost every other facet of American life. Colorado has long had both large tracts of undeveloped land and a tendency to want to exponentially increase development across their state. These ecosystems are fragile, beautiful, and vital to all Americans, not just a few businesses, vacationers, and retirees who want to harness that land for their own short-term and self-serving purposes.
I strongly urge you to reject Colorado's plan to allow further development of wild areas. We have to come together and protect what little wilderness and wildlife we have left. Our children are counting on us to bequeath them purple mountains majesties above the fruited plain--not a stretch of Walmarts, condos, and parking lots--from sea to shining sea."

The quiz everyone (I know) will fail

2009-08-28T00:41:00.001-04:00

Not as much fun as a cosmo quiz perhaps (unless you're Sheryl Crow or
Al Gore, then it's nirvana), but it will make you feel the same way
after you take it (namely guilty: for lying on something nobody knows
about but you and scoring badly anyway). If anyone gets only one
earth, let me know. You won't win a prize, but you may be able to
write an eco-stunt book/blog.

http://www.myfootprint.org/en/

Elegy for the North Woods

2009-08-26T10:26:00.023-04:00

Last Wednesday around eight thirty in the morning, I went for my typical weekly self-flagellation (also known as running the loop in Central Park). Leaves, twigs, and even large tree branches littered the drive, turning the road's black pitch into something like the rain forest floor. The scene was almost beautiful. I thought to myself, "That was some storm." Then as I rounded Lasker Pool, the weight of the storm literally revealed itself in century-old oak barring the way. Crews were already trying to clear the felled tree and signaled me to turn around. I shrugged and turned, warning oncoming cyclists and runners about the obstacle.

As I headed around the bend at 110th street, near the entrance of the great hill, I realized the full import, the catastrophic devastation that the lightning, rain, and wind of the night before had wrought. Trees of enormous girth and height had fallen all over the North Woods and in the glades on the northern sides of the Park; an entire canopy had seemingly collapsed. My heart seized and I felt like crying. Trees are not people--this I know--but at that moment, they felt like family. When one has so little green space, trees become sacred. I had just lost some essential part of myself.

Some of the more than two hundred trees that came down last week date back to the original construction of the park. Olmstead himself planted one fallen giant, a chestnut tree, near a favorite new playground that is now closed. Some trees managed to stay upright but their branches deserted them, giving them the appearance of charred apocalyptic ruins.

Wood chippers and log rollers hum and buzz all over the park now, a logger's paradise. For the rest of us, the northern end of Central Park is like the scene of a gruesome battle, a painful reminder of life violently torn from us, without yet the hopeful signs of life born anew. Maybe next spring we will see the sprouts of the seedlings and each green bud will fill us both with the promise of grand elms, pines, and sycamores to come and the memory of those grand stanchions from which these new trees will rise. For now, there is empty space where once was our shade, our history, and maybe even a little bit of our soul as a city.

Please help Central Park clean up from the storm and plant new trees by donating online. Also, see my central park photo album for pictures of Central Park in the fall, spring, and winter.

On the Nexus of Health and Care

2009-08-13T09:42:00.001-04:00

Gawande, et al, just wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times about the health care situation where he is trying to re-introduce the data and analysis that he so excellently laid out in his New Yorker article, The Cost Conundrum. While I agree with his point about finding new efficiencies and eliminating inflated and ineffective care, I have my doubts still that we can accomplish an overhaul of our medical system without some more rational rationing of care than we currently have. Let's face it - there is rationing right now. Doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies are doing the rationing, and generally not on the basis of what will benefit society as a whole, what is fair, or even what will benefit those who do receive health care. Apportioning of health care services is based on some combination of first come/first serve, ability to pay, proximity to health care centers, and severity of condition. The "system" prefers crisis to prevention, focuses on the cash-rich end-of-life phase, and does not always take into account the longevity of the patient or quality of life when providing expensive services.

Recently a doctor friend of mine complained that he was performing million-dollar work-ups on immigrants who have come to New York explicitly for our health care. As I think one can extrapolate from this article, we should not provide million-dollar workups to anyone, regardless of their immigration status. We should also not use hospitals and emergency rooms to deliver palliative or remedial care. I'm not a doctor but I have been to many doctors (who generally ask few questions, order a battery of tests, and frequently have no or the wrong diagnosis), had many (often useless) tests and numerous procedures (of questionable value), and visited the ER more times than I liked (when an after-hours clinic would have been more appropriate). I'm only 37 and relatively healthy, so what gives?

We need better primary physicians who listen to patients and their bodies instead of relying on technology to implement their art, and work with specialists to deliver total health care to a patient before illnesses spiral out of control and require crisis (expensive) medicine. We need to be able to stay with a physician we like regardless of health plan changes. We need to have information automatically transferred when we do change primary care providers or are sent to specialists. We need to be able to speak to our doctors on the phone after hours or be able to visit an after-hours clinic if we have urgent but not emergent medical problems (for instance, my daughter had what appeared to be an allergic reaction late one night and we had gotten Benadryl into her before the EMS arrived but they insisted we take her all the way up to Columbia Pres - by ambulance - for a workup). Most of all, as Gawande et al also demand, we all deserve a medical culture that works to make people as healthy as possible, rather than making rich those few who are gaming the system. Because health is not a bigger house, an iphone, or a meal at Per Se - health, like justice, is a basic human value so essential to the proper functioning of our society that we cannot subject it to the vagaries of the marketplace.

Announcing the Project Footlight Festival Winter 2008

2008-12-06T13:52:00.001-05:00

What: Musical Theater Festival
When: 1/30/09-2/7/09
Where: Dixon Place Theater at 161 Chrystie Street in downtown NYC
How: Submit application (fill-in PDF) by 1/5/09

How do you beat those inevitable winter blues that will settle in shortly after the inauguration? Don't pin your hopes for entertainment on the New York Times's coverage of Obama's first 100 days; join Dixon Place for our annual musical theater festival, now called Project Footlight. This year we will pair eighteen musical theater writers � nine composers and nine librettists � give them a theme and a week to brainstorm, write, rewrite, cast, rehearse, and produce a single ninety-minute musical in our brand-new, sparkly theater on Christie Street. Jump into this wild experiment, this bubbling cauldron of ideas, for seven days of hair-raising, mad-cap adventure that could only happen at Dixon Place.

The Project Footlight festival is a camp for emerging musical theater writers that focuses on the developmental process and the art of collaboration. The festival asks participating artists how we unify a work across a collection of different artistic perspectives while always mindful of the audience. We especially encourage those composers or writers from other genres and those pushing the boundaries of musical theater to apply. In keeping with the laboratory environment of Dixon Place, Project Footlight seeks to attract and cultivate new voices in musical theater while sponsoring a unique work of art.

Project Footlight will begin on Friday, January 30 and will end with two shows, one on Friday, February 6 and the other on Saturday, February 7 in the new Dixon Place state-of-the art theater located at 161 Chrystie Street. The festival will pay all artists a stipend and provide directors, actors, a pianist, and rehearsal space. New York City metro area artists, either composers or lyricists/bookwriters, interested in applying should submit the completed one-page application by January 5, 2009. We will announce acceptance into the festival the following week.

Dixon Place, founded in Ellie Covan's living room in 1986, is dedicated to supporting the creative process by presenting original works of theatre, dance, and literature at all stages of development. An artistic laboratory with an audience, we serve as a safety net, enabling artists to make challenging and questioning work that pushes the limits of artistic expression. Dixon Place is a local haven for creativity, as well as an international model for the open exploration of the process of creation. We are now holding performances in our new theater, which the New York Times recently called �astonishing.� 2009 is an exciting year to be a part of Dixon Place, the new Project Footlight festival, and the downtown theater scene.

The Battle for My Shredder's Soul

2008-10-21T12:48:00.001-04:00

Recently, my beloved privacy bodyguard, a crosscut medium-duty shredder from Staples, died. The product was still in purgatory (or maybe on life support) until last rites were finally performed when the customer services representative at Staples said that the product was no longer under warranty (1.8 year old product, 1 year warranty) and it would not be worth it to fix the poor thing. I asked, dutifully, if Staples recycled their short-lived shredders and the representative replied curtly, "No." I hung up but continued to battle for my shredder's soul in an email to Staples. Their reply:

"I appreciate the time you have taken to contact Staples, Michelle. I am sorry to hear your Staples Shredder is not working properly. Staples shredders are backed with a 1 year full warranty and a 10 year cutter warranty, which is the similar or longer than most competitors warranties, so I assure they are not made to be a throw away product. Unfortunately Staples does not currently offer a recycling program for shredders specifically. However it may be able to be recycled under the technology recycling program."

Of course, Staples' technology recycling program does not cover shredders (which I guess are not technological enough to qualify). Additionally, they charge you ten dollars to voluntarily get rid of their waste, which I find outrageous. Never mind that I spent a $100 on a shredder that lasted less than two years (with shockingly moderate use I might add) but now I have to throw my unfortunate office product onto the heap, where it will still be in a 1000 years. Why, Staples, why?

Why the Iraq War Still Matters

2008-10-15T00:28:00.001-04:00

All the talk about Iraq these days, what little of it there is, briefly alights on the fantasy of the surge and departs as if Iraq is a one-dimensional issue, like abortion or gay marriage, that can be addressed through a simple declarative statement. Before the surge, most Americans no longer supported the Iraq War and thought history would judge it a mistake. Now despite its ongoing costs and continuing bloodshed, albeit decreased from a year ago, Americans seems to view Iraq favorably, or more likely, not at all.

First off, let's not forget about, as Sarah Palin might say, "the" death. There has been a lot of it, surge or no surge, to little or no effect. They think that about a million Iraqis, including the 500,000 that died in the Iran/Iraq war, died under Hussein's 2- year rule. But there are estimates that put the Iraqi death toll for our war at 1,220,580. The American military's death toll is 4,174 and we have had more than 8,000 serious injuries. The war has cost more than $650 billion and may cost two trillion more(it costs us $430 million now every day just being there). As to decreasing terrorism worldwide, there is something known as the Iraq effect which is basically an overall increase in not only attacks but in the number and strength of terrorist groups - it's only a matter of time before we suffer another attack here (remember there were 8 long years between the attacks on the WTC). All over the world we have lost our good will and our partners in resolving conflict; even in Iraq, they want their supposed liberators out, out, out. According to a recent Gallup poll in Iraq:

"71% of Iraqis said they think of the coalition forces in Iraq mostly as occupiers and just 17% said they think of them mostly as liberators."

There is no justification for not ending this war in a timely, and if possible, responsible, manner. Even if the surge reduced Iraq's violence, we are still over there, spending good money after bad and sending young Americans sometimes to an untimely death. What qualifies as victory in a situation that never should have been in the first place? How can we leave if all the political will in our country is focused on toxic mortgage securities? Why do Americans care more about a middle class tax cut then about a war we recklessly launched, incompetently waged, and interminably conduct?

John McCain wants to wage perpetual war for perpetual peace, but he is a warrior and war is all he knows. We need a man of peace, one who thinks before acting, one who considers changing conditions in the world when formulating policy positions, and one who is willing and able to restore honor to America. I just wonder if we will choose what we need when we are always so focused on what we want during the thirty seconds of advertising between scenes from Survivor.

We need to keep talking about Iraq during this election. Forgetting about a war does not make it disappear. Tell them we won't die or pay for George Bush's hubris anymore.

Ourselves, Our Daughters

2008-10-15T00:27:00.001-04:00

I wrote this to swing voters in Missouri and Ohio on behalf of Planned Parenthood:

I have a 20-month old daughter and the outcome of this election is very important, on so many levels, not just for me but for her. I worry that if our country elects another anti-choice candidate like George Bush, which McCain is, he will continue the relentless replacement of federal jurists with men like Samuel Alito and John J Roberts. The may overturn Roe v Wade, and possibly Connecticut v Griswold, and God forbid that my daughter is in a position in 15 or 20 years, while these jurists still control the courts, that she cannot obtain safe and legal reproductive health care. I worry that my daughter will not have access to birth control, when the time comes (hopefully later than sooner!), because McCain and Palin will staff the FDA with fundamentalists who will block reproductive medicine, not based on science but on their wrong-headed beliefs. And I worry that despite what I teach her at home, her classmates will have no idea how the reproductive system works or how to prevent themselves from derailing their lives in high school because McCain/Palin think that teaching about abstinence is the only kind of sex education that is acceptable. So I worry, and I cross my fingers for an Obama presidency in 2008. Not just for me, but for my daughter.

Bring Your Baby to Work Day

2008-10-10T18:09:00.000-04:00

I just posted this comment on a Motherlode (new parenting blog on the Times) post about the two presidential candidates' positions on national family issues:

Clearly, most businesses do not believe that child care, flex work schedules, maternity leaves, and other similar programs that benefit mostly mothers are in their interest. I wonder exactly how John McCain intends to convince businesses, especially small ones, that they should pay for these programs themselves when the benefits are no doubt remote and indirect? Most companies see workers as fungible and discount the cost of turnover, so arguments like "give a woman maternity leave so that you don't have to pay for replacing a valuable employee" is unlikely to be effective.

Any benefits of the Family & Medical Leave Act are social and macro (unlike addressing the health insurance issue, which has a direct impact on any given company's bottom line) and therefore require government intervention. Especially in this economy, we cannot leave such a sensitive issue up to companies that will be tightening their belts and shedding employees anyway. The critical aspect of expanding these programs is how to do so in a cost-effective manner that will not hurt corporate competitiveness in the global marketplace and will not cost the taxpayers more when we are already saddled with so much debt.

As for the family values of the particular candidates, parading a special needs baby at crowded, brightly lit event after event is a pretty clear indication that Sarah Palin does not think women need assistance in balancing work/life (heck, have the baby on the plane if you have to!). McCain never noticed his wife's prescription drug habit, though she was charged with the care of their very small children. Ambition first, family last.

Who Says 'Shout Out' During a Debate?

2008-10-02T00:33:00.000-04:00

I posted this comment to the blog entry "Palin Meets Test" on the New York Times:

She sounds like a hometown little league announcer - I fail to understand the media's love affair with her "style." Her constant use of colloquialisms and that terrible scripted Midwestern lilt is soooo irritating. I am beginning to think her hilarious but disastrous performance in the Couric interviews was a ploy. The McCain camp knows she has reasonable political debate skills - meaning she knows how to obfuscate and evade where she does not understand and like the question, speak forcefully if insubstantially, and spin stock phrases over and over again - and wanted the bar as low as possible to create undue enthusiasm for Palin post-debate. The media, as usual, just goes along. They probably feel bad for "mistreating" her after the Couric catastrophe (correct me if I'm wrong, but those were Palin's words that sunk her during that interview, right?). (Sigh). Nothing ever really changes. She embarrasses me as a woman and an American. It's like she thinks she's running for head cheerleader.

Conversations in a Red State

2008-09-23T00:32:00.000-04:00

Below are some random musings from an email that came out of a (rather heated) conversation with the unnamed relative about Barack Obama's crazy pastor versus Sarah Palin's crazier pastor, Sarah Palin's own pre-wedding pregnancy, Palin's views on choice, and her position on the overfishing problem (hint: she doesn't think there is one, really). PS - I added a few more notes and links than exist in the original email, which I thought I would mention just for sake of truthiness.

The Reverend Wright versus Wasilla Assembly of God Thing

A lot of socially important black people in Chicago belong to Trinity Church (which is Church of Christ, ie Congregationalist, which is predominantly white nationally) - Oprah belonged for some time as well. Wright follows something known as black liberation theology, which was developed during the Civil Rights era to draw blacks from the Muslim faith back to church. I personally am not a fan of this philosophy but feel that most evangelical thought - on abortion, gay rights, sex education, evolution vs creationism, etc - is much more scary because it actually has an impact on our laws.

I agree that Wright is a nut but I don't think Obama adheres to Wright's nuttier beliefs whereas Palin does adhere to the nuttier beliefs of the Assembly of God congregation. Pastor Ed Kalnins, who has been a friend, mentor, and minister to Palin all of her life said after her assumption of the vice presidential candidacy, "She will take our message to the world!" According to Salon, a pastor named Howard Bess said of her,

"The evangelicals were trying to take over the valley. They took over the school board, the community hospital board, even the local electric utility. And Sarah Palin was in the direct center of all these culture battles, along with the churches she belonged to."

Obama did eventually resign his membership officially in May but I think he had not really attended in some time because he apparently was not present for those incendiary sermons which have so angered everyone (Obama was in Florida when Wright damned America). Palin also resigned her membership in the Wasilla Assembly of God (which is a division of Penetecostal faith) but has maintained a close relationship with the church. No one has asked her to renounce them despite the fact that pastor Ed, "preached that critics of President Bush will be banished to hell; questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted to heaven; charged that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq were part of a war "contending for your faith;" and said that Jesus "operated from that position of war mode". (from a Salon article about Bess and Palin).

Like Mother, Like Daughter

BTW, Palin eloped in 8/29/88 and her son was born in 4/20/89. That's less than 8 months - oops! Dubious that he was conceived on the day they were married and then born prematurely.

Feminist for Life?

Also, her views on abortion are as follows: Palin has called herself "as pro-life as any candidate can be"^[176] and has called abortion an "atrocity."^[177] Palin supports a constitutional amendment to make abortion illegal in all cases, including rape and incest,^[178]^[179] except if the life of the mother is endangered.^[180]" Her views on sex education aren't much better, but at least she will allow discussion of birth control (whatever that means).

All the Fish in the Sea

With regard to commercial fishing as in all things us versus Mother Earth, Palin deprecates science and environmentalism: "I do not want to see us return to the days when ADF&G (Alaska Department of Fish & Game) decisions were based too much on science promoting environmentalist politics." Basically wherever someone wanted to protect wildlife or fish stocks, she would attack it as "personal agendas of federal fishery managers."(Interestingly, the source document for these quotes used to be located at www.palinforgovernor.com/Position%20Papers SarahPalinOnCommercialFishing.pdf is no longer available).

I Think I'm James Carville

2008-09-16T23:10:00.001-04:00

I filled out a survey for the Obama campaign today and said this in the comments field:
I think the campaign should focus on the historic twin pillars of American culture - sacrifice and innovation - that will heal our economy and environment, and reposition America as a global powerhouse. Forget about critiquing McCain & Palin - leave that to us bloggers - get back to Obama as an active positive. Remember, Kerry mostly ran as the anti-Bush and look where that got us. People need more than "I am not like him," they need "I am a leader." And Obama has everything a great leader needs in spades: an inspiring, articulate rhetorical style; an easy grace with others; intellectual curiosity and a lightning acumen; and a commanding presence of body and mind. That is why I chose him over Hillary Clinton in the primary - even though it broke my heart not to vote for a woman - because I believe he has the stuff to beat McCain and remake the American presidency into an institution of which we can all be proud once again. I love Obama - let everyone else love him too.

The No Twilight Zone

2008-09-15T15:38:00.000-04:00

Faced with a bizarre barrage of odious press releases, emails, backroom comments, and rally speeches from the McCan't campaign, Jason, James, and I decided to launch a blog to discuss our mutual nausea (and hopefully provide some relief to ourselves through expiation). From now on, all political sugarpoet posts will go onto The No Twilight Zone as well (anything baby, musical, opera, or tech-related will publish solely on sugarpoet). Progressives and pragmatists, give yourself a big hug...visit notwilightzone.blogspot.com for some regaling rants and snappy snippets on the race of our lives.

Misery, Thy Name is Sarah Palin

2008-09-10T23:52:00.002-04:00

Sarah Palin...governor to a backwater state, mayor to a backwater town, lover of lipstick-smeared dogs on ice, hater of polar bears, one-time media darling and scourge of America. As a voter, my penultimate question to Palin (after asking first, "Why are you here?") is "Why do you hate women, and especially mothers?" Actually, this is more of a question I would put to the Republican Party. Palin claims she can balance her newborn special needs baby with first a cross-country no-holds-barred presidential campaign and then one of the most demanding positions in the world (and possibly the most demanding if McCain's 72 year-old body does not hold out). According to an aide, Palin fuses mothering with governing:

�She�ll be with Piper or Trig, then she�s got a press conference or negotiations about the natural gas pipeline or a bill to sign, and it�s all business,� Ms. Burney, who works across the hall, said. �She just says, �Mommy�s got to do this press conference.� �

By holding herself up as both the paragon of motherhood and the ideal state executive, Sarah Palin is essentially saying that both are not full-time jobs. She is insulting stay-at-home mothers, some of whom have sacrificed career and money to care for their own children, day in and day out, twenty-four hours a day. She is also insulting working mothers, who must daily battle exhaustion, guilt, and separation anxiety in an uneasy compromise between two jobs. And finally, she is insulting women who have forgone motherhood for careers, a great sacrifice in its own right (Condoleeza Rice comes to mind as an example). Take it from someone who tries to do some piddly consulting work here and there and take care of a perfectly healthy and wonderful eighteen-month old - you cannot work and take care of a baby at the same time without the assistance of another caregiver. You cannot balance the baby on one knee while you balance the budget. You cannot breastfeed while composing important legislation. You cannot resolve the Georgia-Russia crisis during naptime. You cannot take care of baby at the very same time you are doing something else, because caring for a baby is full-time employment.
Please somebody tell Sarah Palin to stop holding up her position as a working mother as a qualification for the highest office in the land. Whether it's her knocked-up teen daughter or giving a speech while her water breaks and then waiting to fly back to Alaska to seek medical treatment, or her plundering of tiny Wasilla's budget or trying to use her clout to get her sister's ex fired (and then getting caught), aka Troopergate, she's not doing well at either the mother or the governor thing. Maybe there is a woman out there that can manage a family of five with one still in diapers, and learn how to lead an entire nation with a complex bureaucracy, a squabbling Congress of an opposing party, a multi-front war, an economic crisis of deep and scary proportions, and many rogue nations itching for a fight. But the woman who could balance these monumental tasks is not Sarah Palin. To say that this feat of the imagination is even possible for her is a grotesque lie and an affront to women everywhere.
The pig has lipstick and the lipstick is a really ugly color.

CAP is up!

2008-05-30T14:19:00.002-04:00

And running. Finally, I can get my life back! Want to see what all the fuss is about? See Citizens for Animal Protection's new site at cap4pets.org. Joomla 1.5, Groundspring for donations and email marketing, EventsList for calendaring, etc.

Baby Stuff

2007-10-13T15:47:00.000-04:00

Below are lists of baby stuff - one of items I appreciated during these last harrowing months and one of the not-so-appreciated. My perspective is one of cash-strapped, pseudo-environmentalist, space-limited obsessively-attached new parent. Loved and Liked:

Slings and Carriers - Ergo Baby Carrier (great as a backpack for later), Wrap Slings (especially for the beginning because your baby is small and testy and wraps let you carry her in a variety of positions) - look at kangaroocorner
Toys - Whoozit and Whoozit Water Mat from Manhattan Toy, Lamaze musical inchworm, Musical Shakers from International Playthings, Edushape Blocks, Early Years Stacking Cups, Children's Factory 4 x 4 mat (so they don't bang their head learning to crawl), little things to chew on that are easy to clean and you stuff in a diaper bag (like the Bristle Buddy or plastic keys), rubber duckie
Baby Books - Anything with textures (Fuzzy Bee, Zoo's Who, Dog, Quack Quack, B is for Bear), A Picnic with Monet, The Art of Colors, Colors by Priddy, Olivia, Why is Blue Dog Blue?
Parenting Books - Our Babies, Ourselves (this changed everything for me), The Baby Book, Baby 411 (good in the beginning to quickly look stuff up)
Hygeine/Medical - Mustela facial wipes (for their gross neck cheese), California Baby sunscreen (no PABA), Burt's Bees Shampoo Bar, Red Cross nail clipper, First Years aspirator, Feverall suppositories (check with doctor before using)
Feeding - the Medela Pump-in-Style pump, Playtex Drop-ins 4 oz with slow nipple, the Boppy pillow, Bebe Au Lait nursing cover, freezer bags (Lansinoh or Medela), Svan high chair
Clothes - Gap (best fit for larger babies and wear very well), Under the Nile (organic)
Linens - Swaddle Designs organic receiving blankets, fleece or lambswool pads, Under the Nile organic burpcloths, hooded towel
Diapering - Diaper Dekor diaper disposal system, Seventh Generation diapers (these are sized quite a bit more trimly than the listed weight indicates), Burt's Bees diaper rash ointment, 4-sided changing pad (need straps to come from underneath pad rather than from the top of the pad - I also recommend getting a cover because baby waste tends to erode the vinyl), travel diaper mat
Strollers - a fold-up stroller like the Maclaren for the subway (you may not need this for a while if your baby remains lightweight - mine got hefty fast) and a substantial stroller for the long walks which will form the basis of your only exercise for months (I like the Bugaboo, which is expensive but has high resale value and is really good for when they're first born because it can be used in place of a bassinet)
Carseat - SunshineKids convertible carseat (even if you live in NYC and have no car, you will have an occasion for a carseat and this one folds, will last their entire childhood, and can go on an any airplane but it is heavy)

Not so much - I get a little preachy here, please forgive me but I have nowhere else to put negative energy these days:

Arm's Reach Original Co-Sleeper - if you decide to go with co-sleeping, try having the baby in the bed with you first. Then if that doesn't work out, put them in the bassinet of your big stroller or the crib in your room. Abby wouldn't sleep in the co-sleeper and it's really a separate surface anyway, so you might as well put the baby in a crib or bassinet if you can't have him or her in the bed with you.
Baby Bjorn - I used the Bjorn a lot for a couple of months but you can only use the carrier for a short time because of the weight window and it's pretty expensive.
Wipe Warmer - these things are a stupid waste of energy (plus they have a filter in them that gets really nasty) - baby does not need warm wipes.
Ring slings and pouches - I found that Abby, because of her reflux, would not lay on her side in a sling after she was a couple of weeks old. Wrap slings or rebozos really allow so much more flexibility for positioning that once you get the hang of tying them, they're much more useful than rings slings or pouches.
Infant car seat - these contraptions are completely useless after eight months if your baby gains weight rapidly (as mine did) - better to get a convertible with a body pillow if you really need to have a car seat.
Crib bumpers - even if you use a crib, crib bumpers are a waste of money, albeit often a beautiful, irresistible one, because they have to be removed at six months (they can use the bumper to climb out of the crib). The dust ruffle is a necessity for some cribs where the bottom part of the crib is all machinery.
Wooden blocks - Baby is virtually guaranteed to strip the paint off the blocks within seconds once teeth start arriving. Maybe the paint is non-toxic, but it's disconcerting to see green paint chips on your baby's tongue. Besides, baby probably won't stop at removing the painted surface and will continue on into splintering the wood. Much as I hate plastics, plastic blocks are the way to go for a real mouther such as my kid.
Baby gyms or entertainers - I know people love these but I feel that they take up a lot of space, are fairly unattractive, don't hold much sway with baby for long, and are a substitute for entertaining your baby yourself (which is not the anti-thesis of fun I always thought it would be).
Expensive clothes - they grow out of and utterly ruin everything in two seconds. Buy everything on sale and not far in advance since you may not be able to predict their growth well.

Abigail Rose

2007-02-28T18:48:00.002-05:00

From Getting Big

You may have noticed that I haven't posted anything to this weblog in like...a little more than nine months. Interestingly, that amount of time neatly coincides with the amount of time it took me to bring Abigail Rose into the world. After nine months of nausea and vomiting, and nearly twenty hours of labor, I finally delivered a healthy 6 pound, 13 ounce girl on January 30. As I recently told a friend, Abby is adjusting to life on planet earth and Jason and I are adjusting life on planet Abby. She of course has her own website and blog at abigailrosenyc.com - hopefully she will be a more prolific blogger than I.

Sex, Lies, and Brochures

2006-04-24T16:58:00.000-04:00

Today I participated in the Planned Parenthood Campaign Against Fake Abortion Clinics by sending the following letter to my congressional representative. You can support the campaign too by going to Planned Parenthood and filling out the email form.

I am writing as your constituent to urge you to support H.R. 5052, the Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women's Services Act, sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney.

Abortion is a legal procedure that the majority of Americans support. Unwanted pregnancies are a serious social problem, particularly for low income and working class families. They reinforce the cycle of poverty, contribute to crime and abuse, and create an enormous, but entirely unnecessary, roadblock to women's equality. These so-called crisis pregnancy centers want to silently undermine women and families, in the name of moral and religious principles that have no basis in fact or law. CPC's are not legitimate providers of health services, and are violating FTC, HIPAA, and other trade, privacy, and consumer regulations by giving patients non-medical, scientifically inaccurate propaganda without providing services advertised. Furthermore, they receive government funding, and because these groups often have religious affiliations and purposes, they are breaching the constitutionally mandated division between church and state. Crisis pregnancy centers use practices that are unlawful, unconstitutional, and un-American. Please support HR5052 and help women get the information they need to make an informed, conscientious decision.

Why is it so hard to photoblog?

2006-04-12T16:21:00.000-04:00

So I can send emails to my blog, but not pictures from my cell phone. Just when technology gets you a little closer to everything you want in life, it bitch slaps you and says, "Not!"

Wars Bush Doesn't Want to Fight

2006-01-06T13:34:00.000-05:00

There are a lot fights to pick on this planet (and apparently, we should call everything a "war" because there's that lovely imagery of a violently, fiery death so important to propaganda). But the war on consumerism is one fight for which Georgie Porgie is not itching. According to Thomas Friedman in this week's op-ed, that's because Bush is a sissy. Sadly, I know many of you out there will not be able to read this article, so I'll just quote liberally:

As we enter 2006, we find ourselves in trouble, at home and abroad. We are in trouble because we are led by defeatists - wimps, actually. What's so disturbing about President Bush and Dick Cheney is that they talk tough about the necessity of invading Iraq, torturing terror suspects and engaging in domestic spying - all to defend our way of life and promote democracy around the globe. But when it comes to what is actually the most important issue in U.S. foreign and domestic policy today - making ourselves energy efficient and independent, and environmentally green - they ridicule it as something only liberals, tree-huggers and sissies believe is possible or necessary. Sorry, but being green, focusing the nation on greater energy efficiency and conservation, is not some girlie-man issue. It is actually the most tough-minded, geostrategic, pro-growth and patriotic thing we can do. Living green is not for sissies.

As usual, nameless relative and I do not completely see eye to eye on the problem (though at least we agree that environmental degradation is a problem). His/her response to the article is along the usual Republican fault line (no pun intended) of personal responsibility:

I quickly reviewed this and do agree with him. Our mayor in his inaugural address asked that we practice conservation -- it was the centerpiece of his speech. Also even Bill O'Reilly continues to make a big push about conserving energy and has asked that people not drive on Sundays. Is anybody listening to these people? At the end of the day it does not matter what our leadership says -- it has to be a personal effort that each person takes on. I am beginning to see more and more people getting rid of their SUV's and buy station wagons. While not huge that is a step in the right direction. I drive very little so it does not matter. Having no commute really saves on energy.

While I agree that a personal effort on every individual's part is very important, we need vast changes at the national level if we hope to rescue ourselves from our impending predicament. Recycling here and there and not driving one day a week is not going to do it. Most people need to be taking public transportation or walking in most of the country - right now, very few places have the infrastructure in place to accomplish this. Agriculture uses incredibly unsound practices to deliver a boatload of food that Americans do not need (in fact we throw away millions of pounds of food per year). Protien sources are all too cheap - if all beef indisutrialists used natural techniques (grass-fed cows raised to full maturity before slaughter, no hormones or anti-biotics, free range), beef prices would skyrocket and people would eat less of it. Same with grain, milk, eggs, pork, etc. Consumer packaging, particularly of food (even organic stuff), is incredibly wasteful. The food we make contains highly addictive elements like corn syrup, which means that people will consume much more packaging and eat more calories than is necessary (also making themselves fat and paradoxically malnourished at the same time). Cities allow for too much suburban expansion - suburbs are land-intensive, cannot avail themselves of high-density infrastructure, encourage wasteful behavior (lots of storage space which means people will collect more stuff, use of lawn care products and too much water, etc). We have all these electronic devices that contain mercury, lead, PCD's, and dioxin that we just dump willy-nilly, whether here or elsewhere in the world. Manufacturers are never responsible for disposing of all the waste from which they profit - some companies, like HP, have taken it upon themselves to recycle or reuse things like ink cartridges, but it's not mandatory which means most companies won't do it.

The bottom line is that we have a consumer-based culture from which the individual citizen cannot be expected to substantially escape on his or her own. If there is a massive information campaign about conservation and individuals do not respond, then conservation laws are our only choice (imagine if we said, we leave it to your conscience whether you can steal from or kill your neighbor - some people wouldn't take anything or wouldn't kill, but quite a few people would). One method for imposing individual conservation is gas taxes, but we can't implement high gas taxes unless we give people an alternative method of transportation. Also, companies must be held responsible for their own waste, period. If they cannot make products profitably when paying for the true costs of manufacturing these products, then we don't need the products. For instance, drink manufacturers should be responsible for reusing or recycling their drink containers, instead of a city or a locality having to dispose of them (this would force manufacturers to come up with innovative ways to reduce their waste creation and it would also increase prices, which might reduce consumption). With regard to gasoline use, many companies relocate out to the suburbs, which causes some incredible commutes. Therefore, companies that want to relocate out to the suburbs to save money on facility costs should pay a commuter fee, which could be calculated on the number of workers they have. And we should make it extremely unprofitable for car companies to make SUV's - right now, the converse is true. The Hummer should not even be legal.

At our current rate of burning up the planet, whether in a few decades, or a century, there's going to be an apocolypse of a fashion, except without any rapture, and those of who are left will be living like Mad Max. But even if we accept that our past dooms us (and most of us naturally do not accept this proposition), we can slow down our demise significantly through conservation. If women with ovarian cancer can suffer through a course of incredibly painful IP treatment for an additional 16 months of life, we can all find the courage to build some subways, dismantle our outlying suburbs, reduce the availability of junk food, regulate our agriculturalists and manufacturers more heavily, and maybe even get rid of some of our cars for a few more years of humanity's existence, right?