I regret to announce that on this evening, Twain the 1st, of Left-side Quarters, has passed away. The black rectangle is a token of solemnity. Twain was a good Betta-Splendens, of the Veil-tail variety, red with a blue streak in one of his chin whiskers (I’ll know the correct terminology for a fighting fish’s anatomy, one day). He was very well for the few weeks he lived at this residence, until yesterday when he ceased to be lively… Perhaps he was depressed by the loss of the bubblenest he’d been buliding, when his water was changed. Perhaps he was traumatized by that event.. though the other two underwent the same treatment. As of yesterday, after his water change, he wasn’t even responding/flaring at the sight of Abra nor Rhine. Those two, by the way, have been super active since yesterday, and continue to be so. Twain…. is sadly gone. But he will be remembered. And his empty home will again one day be filled.
mountains and molehills…mountains and molehills…
slated in
mused at 9:43 am
i’m up late again. i don’t think i should be… i was sitting here a little bit and wondering what kind of mood i’m in. i’m not sure.
Twain seems rather unhappy today. really unhappy. won’t even pretend to fight with Rhine and Abra. Those two, on the other hand, are all over the place. Maybe they ate all of Twain’s energy.
What kind of mood am i in?
i suppose this is the type of thing that i might be able to contemplate—or at least fall asleep doing so—from the blankety-goodness of my bed. and that would be the healthy and sensible thing to be doing anyway..
old habits die really hard. or not at all.
Abra’s soooo awake today. And Rhine keeps wanting to start something. maybe Twain will be okay tomorrow. He was the wellest of them all, for the whole beginning, and til now.
things change/fluctuate/rise and decline.
heh. it occurs to me that this might be one of those types of entries i was talking about earlier today in an email… where it seems like there’s absolutely no substance or information, and it seems entirely pointless to have written and as if there were nothing to have written of anyway. but then months/years/whenever later, when i come back across this, i’ll realize it does reveal something about my character/personality/thinking-style… and very much does it reveal my mood, after all.
good enough for me. goodnight.
A friend directed me to this map you see here of the 2004 US Presidential Election Results and a Map of Pre-Civil War Free vs. Slave States. 
He also directed me to this very informative and I’m sure completely comprehensive and scientific chart of the average IQ by state, and the candidate they voted for. I asked a friend how Hawaii could have beaten us geniuses in Maryland, and he reminded me that Stitch is there to break the curve. *edit: the makers of said chart pointed to a possibly more reputable chart. if someone finds more factual evidence toward this end, i’d be interested to hear/see it.
and another friend brought this one to my attention: Greg Pallast’s Kerry Won I don’t know if that’s supposed to be exhilarating or extra depressing. Not that it should necessarily be given a lot of credence, but it is out there. And that site directs on to Democracy Spoiled, a grim account of ballot spoilage. Greg Pallast concludes:
Several friends have asked me if I will again leave the country. In light of the failure — a second time — to count all the votes, that won’t be necessary. My country has left me.
and Part II: smattering of IM and spoken responses I had from friends regarding the election results:
(19:58:29) cxxx: but yeah, our country is split pretty much down the middle on issues.
(19:58:45) cxxx: good luck to bush for keeping all of us happy for the next 4 years.
(3:19:29 PM) Mxxx: its a dark day in america
(3:21:12 PM) Mxxx: notice how bush gets elected and the clouds roll in
“Reagan was a really bad president. he’d sleep through his cabinet meetings. but at least he’d have cabinet meetings. this president (Bush) just held his first cabinet meeting in three months!”
I will tell you that I believe my grumpiness about this whole thing is slowly beginning to wear off. blogging is form of therapy, after all. ‘doesn’t mean I won’t be having more politically-charged material here for a while yet. maybe even scattered through the next four years. hey, worse things could happen.
A friend brought this site to my attention. I think it’s excellent
I do wish my neighborhood looked more like this. Instead, it’s actually pretty full of Bush signs… although there are a few heartwarming Kerry signs.
I wonder when my disappointment and disdain and frustration and disgust for this whole situation is going to wear off. Or at least turn productive. It’ll have to turn productive.
*this article began at 11:09. i’ve come back to it occasionally and added to it in the subsequent hours
whatever differences I felt with the elder Bush were over what was the right policy. There was much he ultimately did that I ended up admiring. ... But what troubled me yesterday was my feeling that this election was tipped because of an outpouring of support for George Bush by people who don’t just favor different policies than I do – they favor a whole different kind of America. We don’t just disagree on what America should be doing; we disagree on what America is.
I came across this post as I was reading this post.
Given the current (and past few years) state of this country and notably the state of Ohio, and between the Ohioans who voted for Bush and the Ohioans who voted for/almost voted for Nader/no one.. I’m just not sure where to draw my faith in the American public and in their goodwill and sensibility.
“The glass is half-full”—nearly 50% voted for against Bush/for Kerry. Well yes. That’s fine. But it seems to me that we took over Iraq because of a handful of ‘bad people’ and the power they had (which is all a whole bunch of crap, btw. That invasion is one of the most unjustified crimes every committed by any government anywhere.).. Here, 50% of the country is in full power throughout the House, Senate, and sitting comforably in the Oval Office… and they’re crazy. They don’t believe in equality. They don’t believe in shades of grey. They don’t believe in accepting others for who they are, though it may be different and even weird and unattractive to theirselves. Nor do they believe in global warming.
They do believe that terrorists “hate freedom” and that we were saviors in Iraq and that 52% could be any sort of a mandate of heaven—and that Bush could be a good President scratch that, they believe that Bush has been a good president.
Despite an utterly incompetent war performance in Iraq and a stagnant economy, Mr. Bush held onto the same basic core of states that he won four years ago – as if nothing had happened. It seemed as if people were not voting on his performance. It seemed as if they were voting for what team they were on.
“They hate us because we don't know why they hate us."—Bill Maher
True for the Middle Easterners and true for the rest of the world and true for the half of us who voted against Bush, despising the other half because they clearly don’t get it.
Remember back in the day when we kept ‘colored’ people as slaves? When schools were segregated. When interracial marriage was disgusting and mixed children were abominations. When only white men could vote and own land. When birth control or even avoiding sexual intercourse at a particularly fertile time of one’s monthly cycle was considered sin.
Well back in the day nothing. Many of those things are still considered morally right (segregation) and morally wrong (birth control) by Americans today. And other Americans who think they’ve achieved something by growing past those things and striving toward unity and equality, turn around and say “gay people? gay people getting married!? abomination!” and “abortion? who cares about someone else’s circumstances and the health/safety of the mother and what are shades of grey and extrenuating circumstances? evil!”
At least if people want to believe these things and behave this way, let them not pledge “one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all.” Cuz it’s all such very much crap.
Is it a country that does not intrude into people’s sexual preferences and the marriage unions they want to make? Is it a country that allows a woman to have control over her body? Is it a country where the line between church and state bequeathed to us by our Founding Fathers should be inviolate? Is it a country where religion doesn’t trump science? And, most important, is it a country whose president mobilizes its deep moral energies to unite us – instead of dividing us from one another and from the world?
Divided indeed. This map shows the breakdown of voting results by county.
Counties won by less than 5 percentage points:
Bush 162
Kerry 131
I think that shows remarkable division!
All that said… the glass is half full. Because we survived all of that and I was born and I’ve always loved being mixed and no one dares call me an abomination (let’s not start) and so maybe (slowly and dumbly) even the current crop of Americans will grow up and find something new to suppress and be afraid of.
Besides. My father’s American. And there are others—even many—who embody what many of us envision as the idealistic and worthy/worthwhile true-to-claim Americans. There’s hope as long as that.
Faith.
read Thomas L. Freidman’s ‘Two Nations Under God’
also glance at these other articles (relevant to this post and the past few):
- Bush, an unemotional profile.
- The Day the Enlightenment Went Out, by Garry Wills
- War? Jobs? No, Character Counted Most to Voters, by Kate Zernike and John M. Broder
- On the Avowed Left Coast, a Feeling of Being Left Out, by Dean E. Murphy
- and as previously mentioned, though the president will unfortunately be the same, changes in the ranks will happen: Who Comes, Who Goes, Who Stays in a New Bush Council, by Steven R. Weisman
- America’s Shifting Reality, by George F. Will
- When Will Grown-Ups Be in Charge?, by Marc Fisher
- The Once and Future Hope?, by Richard Cohen
found through the textdrive forum and through amenroma.com
Electing to Leave: A reader's guide to expatriating on November 3
“Should one candidate win, those who opposed the Iraq war might hope to find refuge in France, where a very select few are allowed to ‘assimilate’ each year. Assimilation is reserved for persons of non-French descent who are able to prove that they are more French than American, having mastered the language as well as the philosophy of the French way of life. Each case is determined on its own merit, and decisions are made by the Minist?re de l'Emploi, du Travail, et de la Coh?sion Social. When your name is published in the Journal Officiel de la R?publique Fran?ais, you are officially a citizen, and may thereafter heckle the United States with authentic Gallic zeal.”
Wonkette Answers: Where to Now?
“We sort of hate to pack so we’ll be headed somewhere closer to home: The state of denial.”
slated in
stuff at 3:40 am
A smattering of IM responses I had from friends regarding today’s election results:
(13:26:53) Gxxx: fuck!
(13:33:52) Gxxx: i wanna smack all those stoopid kids who didn’t want to vote
(13:50:42) cxxx: I’m just so frustrated.
(13:51:01) cxxx: last night I almost cried. fucking idiots considering what they think is “moral”
(14:00:29) cxxx: if the main issue that affected the results of this election were due to difference in people’s opinion about the war or economy, I probably wouldn’t be as upset.
(14:00:48) cxxx: but to think that close-mindedness and homophobia are the main causes…
(14:00:51) cxxx: that’s just retarded.
(14:10:08) Cxxxk: can i give up hope yet ...
(14:13:15) Cxxxk: fuck kerry
(14:13:39) Cxxxk: im about to cry
(14:14:06) Cxxxk: im near tears
(14:14:34) Cxxxk: :(
(14:16:17) Cxxxk: its dumb how they clap every 2 minutes ...
(14:16:39) Cxxxk: fuck eveyrhting ...
(14:52:19) Cxxxk: so what are we gonna do?
(14:52:34) Cxxxk: about bush
(17:08:24) Mxxx: morons
(17:08:28) Mxxx: idiots
(17:08:32) Mxxx: dumbasses
(17:08:39) Mxxx: all of them
(19:32:55) axxxa: think of it this way..the republicans hold the house and the senate…if kerry was president nothing would get done anyways
I’m back from my walk with Dad.
I began this post as a reply back to Mark’s comment from the previous entry, but it turned out considerably more rambly than i’d expected.
While reading Mark’s reply I ate a yummy apple that we picked up on the way home from Pennsylvania yesterday. Somehow, that feels relevant in a way.
Talking with my Dad always restores my general faith in the world. Not that I ever really give up.. but I do fume myself into a good bit of narrow-mindedness and carelessness. It’s usually pretty conscious and deliberate, but my father manages to convince me to be nicer and relax more, anyway.
I kind of said it earlier but I’ll say again: I love hearing good thoughts from good people.. and I love when people contemplate out loud—even often when I disagree with those contemplations. In this case, Mark, I thoroughly agree with what you’ve said.
I do often wish that I could take snapshots of my conversations with my father and share them with others.. that’s only partly because my Dad’s the most reasonable and intelligent man alive. More than anything it’s cuz very big and very small things, and very general and very specific things can get talked about openly and with serenity and passion, yet without offense.
However, if you ever were to hear a snapshot of a conversation between my father and I, much of it would be of my whining and bigoted accusations of certain groups and types of people and beliefs and practices.. Truthfully, it’s much more a talking style than my true beliefs. I can only talk so candidly and unabashedly with extremely few individuals..and that’s with trust in them that they know and trust me to be more reasonable than I often assert.
This has become a bit more of self-explanation than observation on today’s election results and the influencing factors and subsequent reactions.. Maybe it’s informative anyway.
One thing back on topic that I will say, is that I don’t think a 52-49% split or anything near that is ever a good thing for an organization. I realize that getting a two-thirds majority out of a country is pretty next to not-happening, but it’s pretty amazing (and somehow I feel that it’s not totally reasonable and not the most secure or best of situations) that everyone could accept a decision that a clear nearly-50% of the people firmly oppose.
My father reminds me that we were in Gettysburg yesterday. Our great great great great great (I tried calculating it out.. I think that’s about right) uncles fought and many died for this country in complete division. I guess today wasn’t so dramatic, in the greater scheme of things.
And the stars will keep shining and the trees will keep growing (until Bush completely kills our environment and atmosphere, anyway) and the results of this election may be of little interest to our grandchildren in history classes 40some years from now. But it does still matter.
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