Friday, January 06, 2006

 

Poem of the Day

Le temps perdu

Devant la porte de l'usine
le travailleur sudain s'arrête
le beau temps l'a tiré par la veste
et comme il se retourne
et regarde le soleil
tout rouge tout rond
souriant dans son ciel de plomb
il cligne de l'œil
familièrement
Dis donc camarade Soleil
tu ne trouves pas
que c'est plutôt con
de donner une journée pareille
à un patron?

—Jacques Prévert, Paroles

 

A waste of time

Before the factory door
the worker suddenly stops
the fine weather has tugged him by the vest
and as he turns
and looks at the sun
all red all round
smiling in its sky of lead
he winks
familiarly
So tell me Comrade Sun
don't you find it
rather stupid
to give such a day
to a boss?

Thursday, January 05, 2006

 

Unbalanced news

One of the greatest imbalances of reporting in the American media is the lack of coverage of labor and labor issues. Norman Solomon in his latest column suggests
Daily newspaper editors: Just about every paper has a "Business" section, where the focus is on CEOs, company managers, profit reports and big-time investors. But a lot more readers are working people - and a daily "Labor" section would be a welcome addition to the newsprint mix.

Public radio executives: As a counterpoint to the daily national program "Marketplace," public radio can widen its news repertoire by developing a show called "Laborplace."

 

Happy Holidays in Iraq and elsewhere

Stars and Stripes, the Defense-Dept.-authorized newspaper for the military, performed the admirable task of relaying holiday greetings between overseas military personnel and their loved ones. But no Merry Christmas about it. It was Happy Holidays all the way. Not a peep from the Religious Right that I've heard.


I should add, however, that their Letters section was filled with Christian frothing. The letters just weren't aimed at Stars and Stripes.

 

Critical Distinction of the Day

There are differences between felons and whistleblowers, and we ought to wait 'til the investigation occurs to decide what happened. —Democratic Sen. Charles Shumer of New York, commenting on the investigation into the domestic spying program

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

 

Niche Market of the Day

Identity Restoration Coverage. It seems so metaphysical. Incredible that you can buy insurance for this! It should really take off as privacy becomes a thing of the past.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

 

Holiday hiatus halted

It's hard to end my vacation. The news is just as appalling and I haven't gotten any smarter, which promises that 2006 is likely to be another annus horribilis, as the Queen would put it.

When I began this blog, I'd intended to write till the end of the presidential campaign. Now I don't seem to be able to quit. What I dislike about it is that it is remarkably like work, only without the remuneration. One of these days maybe I'll fix the remuneration problem, but I don't know how to mask the work, which gives me hives. When Freud said that "Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanity," he could not have had blogging in mind.

On top of that, you get no respect. In Kentucky, presided over by the corrupt Governor Ernie Fletcher, they don't want to let bloggers get any nearer to the politicians than can be avoided. According to the AP,

State officials are telling [Mark] Nickolas, the operator of the bluegrassreport.org blog, and his fellow bloggers that they aren't journalists and won't be granted press credentials, access to the House and Senate floors or the Capitol entrances generally closed to the public.
....

Nickolas, who regularly attacks Gov. Ernie Fletcher and other Republicans, agreed he's not an objective journalist. But he also does original reporting about state government, digging into records and raising questions about politicians.

Another blogger said,

"They told me they wanted proof that somebody has a — what did they call it? — a tangible work product," Adams said. "All you need to do is pull up my site and hit 'print,' and you've got it."

"Tangible work product" indeed!

Anyway, I did not totally waste my time while I was away. I can now ask "How's your wife?" in Greek and have discovered that my dog suffers from Stockholm Syndrome, as do so many.

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