death by shopping...

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500 is chastising Wal-Mart for allowing a death on Black Friday in one of their stores.

"This incident was avoidable," said Bruce Both, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500, the state of New York's largest grocery worker's union. "Where were the safety barriers? Where was security? How did store management not see dangerous numbers of customers barreling down on the store in such an unsafe manner?

Avoidable? No kidding! Death by shopping... that has to be seen as some kind of sick indication of our society... Wal-Mart should not be given a free ride on this, but seriously, this could have happened a lot of places from the little I've seen of Black Friday shopsotic behaviour. Can the deal be that good?

green gloves...

are oh so nice.



Thanks to Ken for tuning me to a The National, a band that yields existential metaphysical feelings....

The Blame Game...

I have always been fascinated with America's love of casting blame, especially in such a Christian society. This week's Bagehot column in The Economist tells us that Britain has a similar finger-pointing complex. I could devolve into my own thoughts on the matter, but honestly, Bagehot couldn't really be more right on: at length:

As well as vengeful and primitive, the kind of blame swirling around Britain is also, in its way, naively optimistic. It contains a fairy-tale idea of the future: if the guilty are identified and punished, it (whatever it is) will never happen again. Delicate judgments about risk—such as the risks of taking a child into care versus the risk of leaving him with his parents—will never again be miscalibrated; emergencies will never yield mistakes; criminals will never outwit the authorities; the tastes of editors will never lapse. There will be no accidents and no human error. (In a way, blame is an inverted form of deference: it implies a faith that the authorities and experts and leaders could be impeccable.)

There is even, perhaps, a faint trace of magic in the blame syndrome. Somehow, subliminally, blame may seem to mend not only the future but the past too. Finding and removing an offender can sometimes make it feel that his crime has been not only avenged, but undone; that time has been expunged.

None of which is to deny that blame can be useful. Indeed, it is morally vital: to excuse individuals of blame, to separate actions from consequences, is to deny their autonomy. Blame is a key component of progress. If it is not attributed and accepted where it is due (as it may well be for some of those well-meaning outsiders involved in the Baby P case), failings go uncorrected. Blame is one of democracy’s gifts and virtues; a society without blame and accountability is doomed to stagnation and misrule.

But an excess of blame—blind and unthinking as it often seems—can be as dangerous as a deficit of it. Vitriolic blame can wreck morale in institutions such as hospitals (or, indeed, in social services). It can inhibit decision-making and worthwhile risk-taking. And it can be both intellectually lazy and delusional. The wrong kind of blame reflects a false, dangerous simplification—and a false, childish hope.

Interesting ad...

While perusing the weekly delivery of The Economist (oh, that bastion of true liberal sensability, I know!), I stumbled across a very interesting ad on page 47.
The ad below is not the exact one from the mag, but is eerily similar and, therefore, makes this whole campaign more disturbing. See if you notice anything at all odd about this ad campaign for Korea Air...


Maybe it is just me, but I immediately saw a mushroom cloud in the imagery. Just about the last thing I can imagine the marketers wanted me to think about when deciding whether or not to fly Korea air and possibly drop in on Seoul for a visit...
I may be crazy, but how did this get through the ad approval chain?

OMG! Obama is a Muslim...

Or so this beefcake of a pastor from Wichita is wont for us to believe. I found this kind of amusing, until I realized that this guy just got some time on CNN (CNN!) for his whack job actions... Wow.

Unfit parents...

Former Madisonian Dan Savage appears on today's NYT Op-Ed page with a column on the success of hate amendments. He decries the approval of these amendments in Florida, Arizona and, remarkably, California. Savage points out, however, that despite how horrible these amendments to a state's constitution are, the looming issue may well be the approval in Arkansas of an "unfit to parent" intiative.

That state’s Proposed Initiative Act No. 1, approved by nearly 57 percent of voters last week, bans people who are “cohabitating outside a valid marriage” from serving as foster parents or adopting children. While the measure bans both gay and straight members of cohabitating couples as foster or adoptive parents, the Arkansas Family Council wrote it expressly to thwart “the gay agenda.” Right now, there are 3,700 other children across Arkansas in state custody; 1,000 of them are available for adoption. The overwhelming majority of these children have been abused, neglected or abandoned by their heterosexual parents.

Savage offers more on what may lie ahead in the "pro-family" groups, as they find another issue with which to lambast the "other." I am completely confident that I am on the correct side of this issue, but I admit, with each successive new law and amendment I quiver at the lack of compassion and understanding that undergirds our American society.

Most ominous, once “pro-family” groups start arguing that gay couples are unfit to raise children we might adopt, how long before they argue that we’re unfit to raise those we’ve already adopted? If lesbian couples are unfit to care for foster children, are they fit to care for their own biological children?

The loss in California last week was heartbreaking. But what may be coming next is terrifying.

This may seem completely preposterous, and unlikely to pass, but these groups have been able to put some ludicrous issues on the ballot (i.e. Colorado's human at conception amendment). And to think that these issues won't continue to be exploited by hate mongers is to be naive. This is just another point against a corrupted religious society, whereby tolerance, equality and love are pushed aside in the name of fear-mongering, discrimination, and clean-old-fashioned hate.

Don't fret my Elephant friends...

The Donkeyman knows about a place where you can always find some lovin. It is important to point out, however, that despite Mel-Anon's strong desire, Daviess County did not win the title for strongest support of McCain (Kosciousko won). The DC maintained its' silver spot, but gave away a golden opportunity by giving away 7 points from '04.

Inequal offenses..

Today's NYT OP-ED featured a disturbingly odd piece by Dowd.

How could the White House be classy when the Clintons were turning it into Motel 1600 for fund-raising, when Bill Clinton was using it for trysts with an intern and when he plunked a seven-seat hot tub with two Moto-Massager jets on the lawn?

How could the White House be inspiring when W. and Cheney were inside making torture and domestic spying legal, fooling Americans by cooking up warped evidence for war and scheming how to further enrich their buddies in the oil and gas industry?

How could the Lincoln Memorial — “With malice toward none; with charity for all” — be as moving if the black neighborhoods of a charming American city were left to drown while the president mountain-biked?

How can the National Archives, home of the Constitution, be as momentous if the president and vice president spend their days redacting the Constitution?

Good ole Glenn Greenwald does a much more thorough job on deconstructing the lunancy that poses as balanced journalism, but I felt compelled to post the text here. I don't understand how one could argue oral sex is even remotely congruent to running roughshod over the Constitution. But, of course, I don't understand this crap either.

I have been driving from Madison to Indianapolis this evening, so I must have missed the fact that Rahm Emanuel has accepted the chief of staff position in the Obama administration. I don't know if he really thought about it much, but I think this is a fairly solid choice. Rahm isn't going to shake up the world, but he does know enough of the inside baseball to give a good solid nudge to the process when need be. He is in many ways the prototypical fixer... which is what any CoS worth their salt is at the core.

Sarah Palin voted earlier this morning in her hometown of Wasilla. When asked if she voted to re-elect convicted felon Ted Stevens she said:

“I am also exercising my right to privacy, and I don't have to tell anybody who I vote for, nobody does, and that’s really cool about America also,”

Right to privacy, Sarah? Is that in the Constitution? In them there penumbras? How far does this right to privacy extend?

E-Day...

So, at long last election day has arrived. It seems like only ten years ago that we got started on this campaign, and now the day for casting the final ballots has arrived. I hope to be able to follow the results and news as the day progresses, but given my workload today, I probably won't be able to put much thought into it until this evening.

Some of the things I'll be watching:

1. Can Obama tilt North Carolina or Indiana? Even more intriguing is the thought of North Dakota, Montana,

2. Will all of the early votes (63% of 2004 total votes) in Georgia put the state in play? Will all of these new votes translate into an upset in the Senate race, potentially pushing Chambliss out the door?

3. Will Virginia really break for Obama by more than four points?

4. How many voter fraud accusations will be made?

5. The biggest bellwether will likely be Ohio, which very recent polls seem to be showing a tightening race. McCain's ground game has ratcheted up in Ohio over the past week, so this could significantly effect the race.

6. Ballot initiatives. A Californian hate amendment, abortions being outlawed in South Dakota, etc.

7. Will Steve Kagen hold off John Gard in Wisconsin's 8th? This may not be of national import, but I did some door knocking up that way this past weekend, so I'm interested to see how it turns out.

8. How many times will I check election coverage at work today? O/U at 23.

9. How many EV's will Obama end up winning? O/U 340.

10. How many Senate seats will the Dems control (including Leiberman) after today? O/U 57.

11. How many House Seats will the Dems control after today? O/U 260

I think I would take the over on #8 and #11. #9 is really tearing me up, as one minute I'm thinking the early votes and organization will drop a sick total for Barack, like 385. The next minute, I get worried about the reliance on young voters and other constituencies who have historically high flake rates. Oh hell, I'll take the over and look like a fool when he doesn't break 300... As to number #10, I'm going with the push at 57, as I just not convinced Chambliss will lose, and Kentucky has been re-GOP-ified recently.