Beware The Man

We should see some really provocative art and hear some good music being created over the next five or ten years.

That’s what happens during Big Change and Conflict.

The most interesting thing to watch will be whether or not any of it gets recognized in all the electronic noise we live in today. And how do you measure if any great art or music IS recognized? Commercial success?

Strange times.

You can find me. I felt some sparkles that were a bit unusual in terms of spectrum and intensity.

This is almost spot-on. 🙂

I DO believe that the neocon argument for killing hundreds or thousands of Iranians is off the table, provided they (the neocons AND the Iranian leaders) don’t do anything suicidal, which I firmly believe Men of Power are not. And that Obama is not a moron.

Look at these people. I don’t care that it’s a joke. They’re people.

…because I feel old.

Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson on the same day. I had Farrah’s iconic poster on my dorm wall, as did everyone surveyed at a work baby-shower today, and I’m 50, Jackson’s age. I pretty much grew up with him. Right along side with him in our increasingly media-soaked universe.

And so I came home today and picked up my latest copy of SI, and had a very pleasant cry over the story of Mallory Holtman and Sara Tucholsky, whose names you might not recognize but whose story you might. It’s beautiful. All that is right in the species.

I watched it happen in my own Dad, the gradual softening from strict disciplinarian father to cuddly lovable grandfather, and I’m glad it is happening to me, too. I’m very soft and emotional these days. The simple things matter more. It is a fantastic thing. To love and be loved. To laugh. To do the right, simple thing.

Update: I liked the Jackson 5 stuff, obviously, being a contemporary, but I never thought he produced that level of genius until Thriller. Which was undeniably a musical seminal moment, which means culturally, too. A darned big deal. I suppose I would agree that Farrah’s poster was slightly less important in the Grand Scheme of Things, but that poster, too, had a big impact on the culture. I can’t explain exactly what it was at the time, for me, probably (likely?) teen hormones just MAY have had something to do with it.

I think the important thing to remember is that every Corporate Person I asked today in a large group had or was no further than 1 degree of separation from knowing someone who had the poster on their wall. The women said their men had one. 100%.

RIP, Farrah and Michael.

Update 2: Oh, and sorry, Farrah, for dying hours before Michael on the same day. You got ripped off in the Legacy Dept.

Update 3: I’m almost positive that my roommate is responsible for the poster, which is not insignificant in the financial times in which we lived.

Sheesh, boy, wow!

Though the smart money was on something along these lines from the beginning. Too weird not to have an “affair of the heart” in mind. Not even a low life corporate hack like me disappears from the job without telling anyone where I am. And I’m not, to say the least, running a state.

I feel sorry for him. Love happens. Monogamy was invented when “’til death do you part” was a blissfully short 20-30 years if you were lucky, and death freed you.

He also showed me a lot of personal guts in terms of the levels of confession he reached.

All that being said, the GOP REALLY needs to take a good long hard look at some of their “family values” planks. There are votes out there in them thar hills, for a political party who pledges to leave us all the fuck alone in our personal lives if we’re not doing harm to the public at large. The Dems could use a bit more of this attitude, too.

Sad. I’m entirely capable of holding the simultaneous thoughts in my mind that I can disagree with someone politically, in this case virtually across the board, while respecting them and liking them personally.

I think I might like The Gov. of the great state of SC based on his presser. I sure do have a lot of respect for his wife, who blessedly wasn’t standing by his side while he spilled his guts, even though she’s willing to forgive.

I hope they can work it out. Based on the e-mails, I know it will be difficult. But I also know from my own life-experience that it can be done.

Update: I don’t give a shit who anyone loves, fucks, or marries, including gay people, polygamists, you name it. (I suppose I draw the line at human-animal marriages, but just barely. What do I care? I like animals. Unless the person is married to a damn insect, I’d probably enjoy having them to dinner, all other things being equal.)

Mostly I think government should be out of the marriage and sex/body business.* Period, full stop, end of story. My eyeballs tell me people are almost snowflake-like in their individuality on the matters. This is one of few absolute realities of life: You can’t legislate nor politicize at this level of human complexity and be a sane society. Gotta let people figure it out for themselves this far down in the weeds. The dude (Sanford!) was pen pals with his lover for 8 years, and finally couldn’t help it. (I’m going to speculate here, since it would be irresponsible not to, but I’ll take 3-1 she’s MY idea of beautiful and quite smart.)

For some people, including Republicans, 8 days is enough, as is 8 minutes. Give the guy a break. The man was in love (still is, I’d bet), and unless and until you’ve been fully loaded–imagine getting hit in the carotid–with the drug in Cupid’s arrow (Little known: Yes, Cupid’s arrow has pharmaceuticals in it), you have no idea how absolutely weird, stupid, and irrational it can make a person (yes, that means you) behave.

Update 2: I just heard on the Maddow show that one of things Sanford most enjoyed was having a beer without cameras around, people looking over his shoulder, recording every word, or something along those lines. This came from a SC local reporter.

I like him even more.

*Update 3: I call it, “freedom for all.”

Update 4: It’s a fascinating story. The Rude Pundit checks in with a viable but slightly less charitable take than mine, and Amanda points out some of the weird cultural stuff surrounding the whole ordeal, with typical insight and wisdom.

…are very smart and funny, so there’s that, too.

….yes, and yes.

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to what the proverbial “next generation” (or two) will face, and I don’t think it is going to be pretty.

I can’t remember who said it, but it was a beaut, and went something along the lines of, “The only good reason to blog is out of spite.”

So there’s that.

It seems most people would wonder about this from time to time, regardless of marital status.

I know I’m against “settling” for a spouse/SO, but the definition changes over time. For many years, I would “settle” for no less than Cupid’s-arrow-full-blown intoxicating romantic love, since I’d had a taste.

Then I got older and wiser, saw that form enduring was a very rare thing, indeed, and now I suppose I would settle for a nice woman who didn’t much care what I did, thought, or said, loved me anyway (and I her), and had lots of cash. I mean, who doesn’t settle? ONE person is going to do it for you, forever? I don’t think so.

So things change over time. But being alone, at least in my context of having lots of folks to love, is not the worst thing in the world.

Update: What do you know. Amanda, tackling the same subject, with far more eloquence and smarts than I ever could. She even references one of my Personal Gospels, Against Love, by Laura Kipnis, a classic in the brilliant polemicist’s art. Funny, smart, and true.

Good thing nobody reads me.

So, just to add a post and pass along some better wisdom, I’ll cover considerable ground here.

Obama on IraN?* *flagrant late edit Yes. (Why don’t more conservatives try to elevate Larison to some sort of high-profile position?) This odd tension amongst the right between “supporting the protesters” and, “bombing the crap out of them” is just plain psychotic.

For a shorter version, go here. (Glenn’s typically incisive but longer linked post is, as almost always, worth a read.)

The idea of Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the Button is so laughably insane it frightens the snot out of me. Those are the words of a politician, not a mother, and she put her kids out in front of the media (Look! My knocked up daughter didn’t listen to the abstinence shit I was allegedly preaching, and she’s getting married, the right thing to do!) in the first place.

Family values and all.

Can’t remember if Heywood planted this one in my head, or if I saw it myself and thought exactly the same thing. This one about a sicko mutilating neighborhood cats. Too gone to worry about. As Heywood and IOZ frequently point out, I think correctly, the world would be a lot nicer place with about 3 billion fewer people on it.

Speaking of IOZ, read him more often.

Radley has some funny on a dog who put people in jail, such a genius said dog is. Beware The Man. Radley is an Official Beware The Man National Treasure award recipient.

If you want to know what is going on in Iran, you might want to check out Andrew’s blog. Kudos to Andrew. When he locks in on a topic, he’s a monster of the good variety.

Nice fucking “regulation” on Financial Man, Mr. President. Like Kevin, I’ll hope the premature reports are inaccurate. Sadly, they rarely are.

I dunno. Just seems to me lately like I’ll be able to watch much of the revolution on a piece of furniture. Whether or not it comes is now moot, the only sensible bet is when, and the correct wager on that is, “It happens over a decade or two.” When people in Iran are complaining about The Man, The Man is On The Run.

So I watch, listen, read, and hope it doesn’t get all the way to my door.