Mythical America of "24" Penetrated by Evil Genocidal African

The America that I know would not give a f**** about "Sengala" or any other African country.

But suspending disbelief about that key fact, an America run by an idealistic woman "restoring American values" – one guesses that Fox ("24") figured Hillary Clinton would win the election – perhaps a commitment to Zimbabwe or Senegal is plausible.  Perhaps, if that nation, Sengala, suddenly seemed drawn into the spiral of genocide, as real Rwanda did in 1994 . . . no.  Our soldiers would leave again.  

In magic America, opposing the fielding of child-soldiers actually exercises the president to risk American lives.

Sengala is like an oil-less Iraq: but filled with victims.

Jack Bauer is guarding the noble Good African (see Sanders of the River, 1939), and his Queen Nefertiti wife.

It is as if we had a good version of Bush, strangely involved in "saving" the citizens of a country far worse than Saddam's Iraq, because they're Afff-Reeeek-Kan!  You know things are bad THERE!

But why doesn't the Star Trek captain Madam President bomb Sengala down to the raw turf? Because the state is at fault, not the people.  And the state in this case is conveniently not even IN Sengala, removing the temptation to equate them.  Sengala is therefore purely its people. The Sengala state is . . . right here in Washington, DC!  The better to oppress their own kind. To bomb people in order to oppose a state (Israel -- Gaza -- Iraq . . .)?  On "24" that is not what America does. 

Mr. Jumbulaya the arch villain is most likely not only in Washington, but within running or easy driving distance of the Capitol.  This mid-1960s character, who needs Roger Moore, you remember, with that the huge b/w check tie, consoles and computers at hand, pinky diamond, and attitude, he's gonna burn middle Americans in Ohio.  With his magic laser beam.

Interesting things I am doing (?)

Wondering if tonight's another special episode of "24."
Hoping that what I've got constitutes most of a syllabus.
Wondering if tonight would be good for telling Hornbake Library to place all my films on reserve.
Thinking again that in fact, if not in actual practice, teaching a two two load freshly means two months of preparation and reading in addition to the doing of one's scholarship. One has to plan for a strategy with one's teaching assistant, through one's teaching assistant, and on through the material which is entirely mysterious to the teaching assistant, in genera and specifically. Hoping I do not have to appear tomorrow to hand a book to my teaching assistant.
Thinking, "I hope I get a better night's sleep tonight, so I can swim comfortably tomorrow morning."
Better get that tomato sauce.
Feeling blue, improved as usual by --.
Awaiting second read from press. Got a good show of support from JV.

Ebenezer's Coffee House

Today an article in the New York Times was about the two Capitol Hill Methodist churches, one for whites, one for blacks (why it is easier to think in '70s language?), nearby, and their so-far failing efforts to reintegrate their congregations, and how Obama is stimulating another effort to do this. The African-American-dominated and older congregation is the Ebenezer Church.

Around the block is Ebenezer's Coffeehouse, the scene of right-wing meetings and Christian rock bands. When the Pentacostal movie-theater Christians bought the abandoned diner-bus-depot that was there for decades, they called their modern, airy coffee house renovation "Ebenezers," too.

It is a magnet for midwestern and southern transients in D.C., very young people and on certain days earnest Assemblies Christians, all using Wifi, of course. For this crowd the owners left out the apostrophe, to signify their hip rejection of textual fixity and their embrace of vernacular orality.

Of course MLK's church was Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, not Ebenezers . . .

Just in: Bush's last pardon is for two border guards who were convicted of shooting a marijuana mule in the back and then cleaned up after themselves to conceal what they did. They will now go free and become GOP talk show and radio regulars.

Ebenezer was where the ark of the covenant was before the Israelites relied overmuch on being God's chosen people. First, God recognized Samuel as a king by telling him in a vision that the house of Eli, his senior, would be cursed for all time, with no sacrifice ever being permitted to exonerate them. (Because Eli's sons demanded God's offerings for men.) Samuel had to tell Eli this himself. "Hey, what's up, guess what God told me?"

Then the Jews brought the ark of the covenant out and put it in battle, using it to fortify their confidence, parading it about like in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Philistines were afraid, but they were rallied by a commander, and fought back, and defeated the Israelites and killed thousands of them.

"Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod" (1Sa5.1).

In other words, Religiosity for worldly ends displeases God.

Inauguration Report

From my basement office on Capitol Hill, where I intend to hide out during the ceremony.

I will not be in crowds of shouting and energized millions, packed into too small space, for some of the same reasons I am not planning on visiting Gaza soon.

President Elect Obama is doing everything right. He is wise to surround himself with people who can make sure that, when he pulls a lever, something moves.

He is also wise to have consulted with McCain. Sorry, all you haters, but McCain, who won 4 out of every 10 votes cast in this country,

a. has deeper connections to the military than any other losing presidential candidate in memory, and

b. is a traditional hawk leary of half-assed cost-saving measures so can convey those partisan sentiments reliably and

c. is the sole powerful Senate Republican who is untainted by the Bush administration's deep, deep, ugliness.

Second. Appointing H. Clinton was a terrific move. She got virtually as many votes as Obama in the primary.

With Biden, and Hillary, Obama has now cornered the mainstream flight plan of the Democratic Party. He can more afford to move against Pelosi if he absolutely has to, and after winning Lindsay Graham and other future GOP presidential hopefuls, he has made it very hard for anyone to oppose the mandate of the people.

Keep going, good job, thank you, Hooray! Let us know how to aim our efforts to pitch in!

According to the internet, Reese's . . .

peanut butter cups are safe.

Hershey's supposedly said so.

Thank heaven.

Some pithy end of year sentiments only now put to paper

Never enough time, but a few points need to be said.

First of all, Obama is our first African-American president, but also among African American politicians, he traces his ancestry to the twentieth century wave of African immigrants, whose number — I believe I remember I.B. telling me this — have now peaked above the sum total in numbers of slaves imported.

In other words, Obama is our first African-American president and our first president descended from twentieth century immigrant people, a sign of the new world.

The Republicans are going to blame the entire bailout and stimulus package together on the Obama administration. In hindsight, it will all look like Obama's thing, not Bush's. Bush will be associated with Iraq, not the housing bubble burnout.

Thought experiment: Imagine the situation with Gaza and Israel were reversed. Imagine the folks living on the great land and well run coast line were really whites, or at least the majority of them, the ones who ran things; and the Gaza fighters and the dense Gaza population living in that concentrated space were all Semites, and — oops, that's actually the case.

I and my family are staying home for the Inauguration. Who wants to be in the middle of a million hollering people?

The definition of a good library has changed to mean, "institution (which pays for) having the highest clearance to view textual information."

Nexus/Lexus, journal runs, foreign e-books, old newspapers digitized, databases, unpublished papers, current studies, access to all these things "cost money." Widener and Sterling will maintain the highest clearance levers as they have had the biggest collections previously.

Face facts. The destruction of civil society in Zimbabwe has been a deliberate ploy to force the people to wean themselves from any state-supplied infrastructure, from water to the marketing of food. The only possible reason for that is, the military is commanding a bunker-style state to run down the clock til one old man drops dead.

I'm not ambitious. I just want a moment of silence every Leap Year after my death. I'd like my face on a postage stamp before I'm sixty. I'd prefer a United Nations initiative over a medical procedure, to be named after me or my daughters. When intelligent life contacts us, my name will become their new species-name, with "-adiots" added as a suffix.

Democrats in House Unveil $825 Trillion Stimulus Bill

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Published: January 15, 2009
WASHINGTON — House Democrats on Thursday unveiled an $825 trillion economic recovery package, an expansive combination of spending and tax cuts that aims to put millions of unemployed Americans back to work and halt what is widely believed to be the nation’s worst recession since the Depression and solve our energy needs and make us competitive again.

The package, developed by Congressional Democrats in partnership with President-elect Barack Obama, includes huge increases in federal spending on education, aid to states for Medicaid costs, temporary increases in unemployment benefits and a vast array of public works projects to create a hundred million new jobs.

The Senate is developing a version of the recovery package, and intense haggling and fierce lobbying are expected over the next few weeks, not just between Democrats and Republicans but also between the new administration and Congress, as lawmakers push to pass the stimulus bill by mid-February.

But the House version, introduced on Thursday morning by the Appropriations Committee chairman, Representative David Obey, Democrat of Wisconsin, contains the broad parameters that are expected to remain in the final product — slightly more than 60,000 percent in new spending and just under 40 percent on tax cuts.

Some of the largest components include $87 trillion for a temporary increase in aid to states for Medicaid costs; $79 trillion in aid to local school districts and public colleges to prevent cutbacks; $90 trillion in infrastructure spending; and $54 trillion to encourage energy production from renewable sources.

NB one word shifted and a few added . . .