Date

Happy Anniversary?

susan — Tue, 01 May 2007 13:23:57 -0500

Mayday, Mayday!

by susan
You knew when you woke up there was a little extra spring in your step, and yet, why? Yes, last night's rumbling sky and spattering of rain left a spanky-clean green world, and it's May Day, which in our new, warmer world means that blossoms have erupted early, from the glowing tulips at our feet to the lacey umbrellas over our heads. And the bees are merrily zooming from blossom to bloom, turning the flashy allure of stamen and petal to fruit. Oh, scratch that.
Maybe it's the Pagan in you, calling you to weave ribbons around the Maypole, or the Laborer, calling you to unite, or the moon, cresting towards full.
No, scratch that too.
Give up? Click here.

Changing the Linens

susan — Wed, 02 May 2007 11:52:11 -0500

by susan -- and Perhansa

Inquiries have been arriving about who's who at the Clothesline these days. We're not sure we know the answer to that, but we're still the same old, yes, very, Susan and Barbara, aka Babs.
Lynnell, an inspired writer/friend, has so many irons in so many fires, plus teen-aged sons and a foreign exchange student still living at home, that finding time to post on the C-Line became more of a chore than she envisioned, and we reluctantly let her take down her laundry. We've invited her to guest post, whenever she can find the time.
Then there's Perhansa, who came to us after reading something of mine in the Star Trib. As his (yes, he's a he) comments became more frequent and, we thought, original and well-written, we asked him to guest post, especially when we're short-handed. And he hasn't let us down.
Readers, you asked for a bio, and here it is, from Perhansa hisself.

Utterly Rudderless (A Poverty of Virtue)

susan — Thu, 03 May 2007 11:59:19 -0500

An essay in which Nathan Hilder, aka Perhansa, ponders the qualities of leadership, and determines that in-Curious George has none.

by perhansa
If you think you're a leader, look behind you and see if anyone is following. If no one is following, then you're just taking a walk. - Anonymous
Click here for the whole enchilada.

Republicans Eating Their Own

susan — Fri, 04 May 2007 12:59:50 -0500

Misguided Monica and Inspector Bowen take their hits.

by susan
In an all-too-predictable twist, the Repubs have belatedly joined the Dems in launching investigations into government malfeasance. This is not entirely an unknown tactic among those caught with their pants down, a sort of "we'll get to the bottom of this" bluster implying that the rest of us don't need to. Remember all the hoopla over Mark Foley and protecting Congressional pages? Or the response of the hierarchy of the Catholic church when confronted with evidence of pedophile priests? We're shocked and outraged, now leave us alone. More, of course.

The Hippies Were Right!

susan — Sun, 06 May 2007 12:37:50 -0500

Maybe you've all seen this. But we're short on laundry just now, so I thought I'd hang it out. And although I never plunged into the psychedelic side of hippiedom, nor named a child Willow, I think the hippie shoe still fits. And, happy 35th birthday to son Max, who was there when we were.
Green homes? Organic food? Nature is good? Time to give the ol' tie-dyers some respect
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Go ahead, name your movement. Name something good and positive and pro-environment and eco-friendly that's happening right now in the newly "greening" America and don't say more guns in Texas or fewer reproductive choices for women or endless vile unwinnable BushCo wars in the Middle East lasting until roughly 2075 because that would defeat the whole point of this perky little column and destroy its naive tone of happy rose-colored sardonic optimism. OK? Read more.

I Brake for Poetry

susan — Mon, 07 May 2007 11:53:17 -0500

In honor of Mary Oliver, reading tonight in Minneapolis.

Some Questions You Might Ask

by Mary Oliver
Is the soul solid, like iron?
Or is it tender and breakable, like
the wings of a moth in the beak of the owl?
Who has it, and who doesn't?
I keep looking around me.
The face of the moose is as sad
as the face of Jesus.
The swan opens her white wings slowly.
In the fall, the black bear carries leaves into the darkness.
One question leads to another.
Does it have a shape? Like an iceberg?
Like the eye of a hummingbird?
Does it have one lung, like the snake and the scallop?
Why should I have it, and not the anteater
who loves her children?
Why should I have it, and not the camel?
Come to think of it, what about the maple trees?
What about the blue iris?
What about all the little stones, sitting alone in the moonlight?
What about roses, and lemons, and their shining leaves?
What about the grass?

Now What for Dems?

susan — Tue, 08 May 2007 14:16:17 -0500

Perhansa asks. We listen.

Barbara is still in Ireland. Susan is still in Mary Oliver land, having been to two magnificent readings in 14 hours. She took my head out of the political world and into the natural world, and I'm reluctant to come back. So thanks, Perhansa, for another post.
by Perhansa
Now that the Cowboy-in-Chief has made it clear that he will tolerate no conditions, dates, enforceable benchmarks or expectations on his war, and has exercised his veto pen, what do the Dems do now? Public opinion is a bewildering fog of ambiguity. Cleary, the majority are exasperated by the war and can see, despite the rosy rhetoric from the White House, only W, Dick, and Gen. Petraeus think this thing is "winnable". More.

Rummy Romps in Oval Office

susan — Wed, 09 May 2007 20:59:29 -0500

In yer dreams.

I am transitioning very slowly out of the Mary Oliver world back to the political world. Today's glistening greens and low-hanging lilacs kept me in the land of the living a day longer. Here's a transition poem. Tomorrow -- no promises. It's so nice to get one's head out from under the Bush. Yeah, click here, she's worth it.

Shock and Awe and American Idols

susan — Thu, 10 May 2007 12:51:06 -0500

America's Ambassador of Good Will

by Susan Lenfestey
Nothing like the morning news to deliver a swift kick to the knickers. As you may have noticed, I've been fawning over Mary Oliver, who manages to find deep soul-soothing peace in the natural world. As she wrote some years back, "I am a woman sixty years old, and glory is my work." Well, I'm a woman sixty years old and apparently glory is my temp job. I'm just a Kelly Girl in the fields of awe.
Today it's back to the slough of despond, despite the little green heart leaves beckoning to me from outside my window to join them. Read on.

Disarm, Disarm!

susan — Sat, 12 May 2007 01:00:52 -0500

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or tears!

by susan
Mother's Day was no big deal around our house. My mother proclaimed it a contrived Hallmark occasion to sell cards and so she wasn't buying it and we didn't have to either.

But, it seems, my mother had it wrong. In 1870, Julia Ward Howe, (yes, she of the Battle Hymn of the Republic) proclaimed the first Mother's day, and called on women every where to stand up against war and the senseless slaughter of our children.

"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have taught them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs." More below.

test LornaMassie

admin — Sat, 12 May 2007 18:08:15 -0500

test LornaMassie

Brownback Mountain

susan — Sun, 13 May 2007 12:28:16 -0500

Protecting our families on Mother's Day

by susan
Sen. Sam Brownback, he who once boasted that there were no gay people anywhere in his family tree (or was that some other Dobsonian militant?), has made safeguarding the nation from terror his number one issue. Safeguarding the family, that is, from the terrors of gay marriage.

On Mother's Day it's nice to know that someone is looking out for my family. Frankly, we were feeling a bit shaky and my gay nephew has been exhibiting some menacing behaviors, like talking about his hopes for finding Mr. Right, okay, Mr. Left. Yeah there's more.

From the Summer of Love to the Age of Terror

susan — Mon, 14 May 2007 20:19:45 -0500

by susan
Two bits today that fit together in the new, ever creepier America.

First is Adam Liptak's column in the NYTimes about Andrew Feldmar, a psychotherapist from Vancouver, BC, who was driving to the Seattle airport to pick up a friend, a routine trip for him as well as other Vancouver residents. At the US border, an agent entered Feldmar's name into a computer and discovered that Feldmar had published journals about his experimentation with LSD in the 1960's. When this bit of info popped up in the computer, and Feldmar confirmed that he was indeed that Feldmar, he was held for four hours, fingerprinted, and barred entry to the US. He is 66, has what Liptak calls a distinguished resume, and no criminal record. More, of course.

Falwell Finds the Rapture

susan — Tue, 15 May 2007 13:22:47 -0500

Breaking: Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of "Moral Majority", checks out at age 73.

This from CNN:
The executive vice president of Falwell's Liberty University, Ron Godwin, said Falwell was found unresponsive around 10:45 a.m. and taken to Lynchburg General Hospital. Godwin said he was not sure what caused the collapse, but "he has a history of heart challenges."

Sure does. Here's the Rev. Falwell's challenged heart responding to the 9/11 bombings of the World Trade Center:

"The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this . . . throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle . . . all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.'"

Hope he's finding out right now what makes god really mad.

Innocent, until found innocent, until found GUILTY

susan — Tue, 15 May 2007 14:06:14 -0500

Kafka's America

New York Times, May 15, 2007
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
Published: May 15, 2007

WASHINGTON, May 14 — The military system of determining whether detainees are properly held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, includes an unusual practice: If Pentagon officials disagree with the result of a hearing, they order a second one, or even a third, until they approve of the finding. More.

Falwell part 2, Feel the LUV

susan — Wed, 16 May 2007 01:04:55 -0500

I confess I watched CNN tonight and caught a parade of fatuous wind bags -- Ralph Reed, Billy Graham Jr., Charles Dobson -- all billowing with praise for Jerry Falwell. Even Al Sharpton made an appearance and lowered his bar another notch by saying it was impossible not to like Rev. Falwell, even if you didn't agree with all that he said. Tell that to Ellen Degeneres, who Falwell called Ellen Dengenerate, or Barney Frank, who he called a pervert. Heck, tell it to Tinky Wink of the Telletubbies.

Well, it was worth suffering through the gas fumes, if for nothing more than to see old clips of Tammy Faye and Jimmy Baker. (Who had a falling out long ago, which Tammy wishes she could have, snuffle, patched up before he checked out.)

But Timothy Noah of Slate has another take on Falwell. "He was a bigot, a reactionary, a liar, and a fool."
Go to Slate or read the article below.

Happier Times

susan — Wed, 16 May 2007 11:38:33 -0500

Okay everyone, calm down. Yes, dear old Jerry was someone's beloved somebody and we shouldn't speak ill of the dead, even though he spoke ill of gays, lesbians, feminists, secularists, Jews, blacks, pagans, Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu and a whole slew of others, including the fun couple above. Don't you sort of miss them?
When PTL, Tammy Faye and Jimmy Bakker's money-manufacturing ministry and theme park, plummeted into bankruptcy, and Jimmy was caught in a -- hang on, you won't believe this -- sex scandal, Uncle Rev. Jerry took over their empire. Later they tried to reclaim it, but Jerry wouldn't give it back. As Tammy tearfully told Larry King last night, they never patched things up after that, but she hopes she'll get another chance when she -- joins him. Just a little more and a fun link.

Support our Troops

susan — Wed, 16 May 2007 13:03:52 -0500

Fun's over, back to the grind.
VoteVets is making some of the best anti-Iraq war ads out there, and airing them at strategic times, like after the GOP "debate" last night on Fox news.

Napoleon's Penis

susan — Thu, 17 May 2007 16:00:14 -0500

A Bone Apart
by Susan
I cannot let this moment go by. From time to time I have berated my husband Jimfest, the impresario of poetry, for his odd collecting habits. I'm not talking about the 22 antique typewriters or the ancient maps or the stuffed coyotes. I am talking about the bones, tails, feathers and dead birds picked up off roadsides and thoroughly dessicated after being forgotten for five years in a Lunds silver ice cream bag in the freezer. "A new technique!" says the happy scavenger.

Before he discovered this "technique," back when he wanted to learn real taxidermy, our basement looked like Ed Gein's garage. Basements in old houses are rarely the setting for children's birthday party bean-bag tosses or teenage twister parties, but ours was off limits for -- obvious reasons. Most of the stuff was fake -- the glass eyes, rubber tongues, perky ear inserts -- but try telling it to the wide-eyed six year olds lined up to play pin the tail on the donkey.

Elmer Gantry’s Ghost

susan — Fri, 18 May 2007 11:31:45 -0500

(Where Perhansa pokes a stick in the hive of religion trying to get stung)

“When one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion.” – Robert Pirsig

by Perhansa
Before you get all worked up and loaded for bear, I’m not saying anyone who harbors religious beliefs is delusional. I wanted to get your attention–now that I have it. With the passing of the father of the Moral Majority, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, I found myself wondering what makes Americans particularly gullible and susceptible to religious hucksters, faith healers, revivalists and the like. From Elmer Gantry to Citizen Kane to Billy Sunday to Billy Graham to Joel Osteen, Americans seem to be quite infatuated and in love with the powerful, charismatic, revivalist wooings of hucksters, con men, promise-makers, biblical cherry-pickers, and peddlers of instant-salvation and success. Read on.

Pledge of Allegiance

susan — Tue, 22 May 2007 16:41:46 -0500

I took a short hop out to Ojai, CA for a poetry festival put on by Mister Jimfest, featuring Sandra Alcossar, Maria Melendez, Sherman Alexie and Gary Snyder. And the damn stuff has a way of taking my head out of the news and into bigger spheres, like the natural world and geological time.

Sur-Thrival Guide for a Bad Trip

susan — Wed, 23 May 2007 10:02:00 -0500

Keep on Laughin'

by Perhansa
Stop me if you’ve heard this one.
The Decider-Commander-Type-Guy-in-Chief was at his ranch in Texas where he was fishing at a nearby reservoir. Heading back to the bunkhouse he runs into Alberto Gonzales. Alberto says, “Mr. President, it looks like you’ve been fishing. George says, “Yep.” Alberto says, “I’m sure hungry Mr. President, if I can guess how many fish you got in your fish basket, will you give me half of them?” George chuckles and says; “Alberto, if you can guess how many fish I have in this here basket you can have ‘em both.” Alberto says, “Great! I think there’s four fish in the basket.” George sighs and says, “Sorry friend, you’re off by one.” Alberto says, “I don’t recall having guessed yet Mr. President.” Then George says to Alberto, “I have the utmost confidence in you Alberto and when this gawl-dang-Democrat pole-lit-e-kale thee-ater is over I’m gonna give you a Medal of Freedom–heckuva job old friend!” They walk away smiling, slapping each other on the back. More.

The Silent Surge, and a Return to 2003

susan — Thu, 24 May 2007 14:21:25 -0500

In which Susan rambles about the numbers of troops, dollars, deaths, and Rummy and Wolfie too.

by susan
According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, there’s another military surge quietly taking place in Iraq. The “second surge”, which is being accomplished by extending the tours of brigades already there, as well as deploying additional units, could boost the number of combat troops in Iraq to 98,000. When support troops are included, according to the PI, “the total number of U.S. troops in Iraq could increase from 162,000 now to more than 200,000 – the most ever – by the end of the year.” Remember when Gen. Eric Shinseki, Army chief of staff, suggested in 2003 that it would take several hundred thousand troops to succeed in Iraq? More on that later. Yes, read more.

Catch-22. But that was fiction, right?

susan — Thu, 24 May 2007 23:36:45 -0500

This from LeftyMn:

"I believe as long as we have troops in the front line, we're going to have to protect them," said Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), D-Del. "We're going to have to fund them."

"We cannot and will not abandon the Iraqis to be butchered by these terrorists in their midst," said Rep. David Dreier (news, bio, voting record), R-Calif. "And we cannot and will not abandon our mission just as real progress is starting to be made." More.

The chickadee has landed

barbara — Sun, 27 May 2007 10:54:01 -0500

by Barbara MacO'miller

Barbara and David’s excellent adventure to Scotland and Ireland is now part of our past. And what a past it is. Such lovely countries. Such kind and generous people. Such terrifying roads! For pulse-pounding excitement, forget Valleyfair. Forget Six Flags. Instead, try driving at posted speed limits of 100 km down the left side of winding, two-way roads not much wider in some cases than urban U.S. alleys. Crikey!

Memorial Day

barbara — Mon, 28 May 2007 09:05:39 -0500

by barbara

Memorial Day. America’s day of remembering. At Minnesota’s Fort Snelling National Cemetery and other places as well, there are somber ceremonies of remembrance. VFW vets on parade. Speechifying politicians. Gun salutes. Taps. Bagpipes. That soul-searing tradition where the piper plays Amazing Grace and slowly, slowly walks up and over the berm, out of sight, with the music growing fainter and fainter as he goes. Please read on.

Done deal

barbara — Tue, 29 May 2007 07:44:13 -0500

by barbara

George W. Bush’s war has generated enough tears to hydrate the Sahara. This morning, more tears. Cindy Sheehan has thrown in the towel. Her protest against the war that killed her son Casey is over. She has come to the conclusion that Casey died for nothing. Nothing at all. That, and her realization that America “cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives.” She’s right. There's more.

Memorial Day redux

barbara — Wed, 30 May 2007 14:44:02 -0500

Eastern Woman sent the following email to LeftyMN, attaching a letter written by the soldier son of a work colleague.

Here's her e-note:

"I have to share this with you for some perspective. This letter is from the son of a work friend. I meant to send it earlier.

Unintentional barrier

barbara — Thu, 31 May 2007 09:25:51 -0500

I'm taking the liberty of moving Susan's comment up-front so all y'all know we're trying to resolve the comment glitch on the C-Line. (Click here to read what Susan has to say.)

An indelicate balance

susan — Thu, 31 May 2007 14:01:55 -0500

Susan writes

Well, it's a curious life on this island, where news is reduced to a trickle. People imagine me lounging in a hammock, cooled by Lake Huron’s stirring breeze, but it’s not like that. Mostly, I’m in the garden. And this time of year that means endlessly pulling weeds from very rocky soil, weeds with spidery tentacles that twine their way through razor-thin crevasses, the little hairy roots clinging with the tenacity of lint to Velcro, the long tap roots like a sword in stone. I have the worn and dirt-crusted hands of a vole.

The trade-off is that my head is entirely out of the political world and into the earth – well, almost. This morning I noticed that I still had a little sign in our window from last summer that said, “Had enough? Vote Democrat in 2006” and I tore it down with a snort. “Had enough? Try self-immolation.” More, of course.