It is always interesting to note when Ursula La Guin gets a letter to the editor published.  Nothing all that remarkable — you understand she is opinionated.

But, passing past her letter, we get to this item.  Interesting.

Smashing pumpkins
My neighbors had some jack-o-lanterns out on their front porch and last night someone came along and smashed them. I have to wonder what they were thinking.
“These people have jack-o-lanterns, but we don’t, so let’s even up the score card, by making sure they don’t have what we don’t have.” Result: no one has jack-o-lanterns. This seems to the same brand of thinking of the Occupy movement in which people protest the wealthy: “These people have something we don’t have, so let’s take it away from them.”
I find it difficult to argue against the wealth of, say, a Steve Jobs; a Mark Zuckerberg; a Bill Gates; or even a Jed Clampett who had the good fortune to own a piece of property that produced oil.
Why do the Occupiers think they should benefit from the good work or fortune of others? When we get rid of the rich all we have left are the poor.
We live in a country that was built on the idea that everyone is guaranteed an equal opportunity, not an equal result. Abandon Portland, all ye who Occupy here.
DAYTON TURNER
Southeast Portland

At first I thought this writer was hitting upon the reasonably good rock band, popular in the 1990s, headed by Billy Corrigan.  But no, Turner was referring to actual smashed pumpkins, and making an analogy between that and the ideology of the “Occupy Wall Street etc” groups.  It is a false ideology.  Ignoring anything one way or the other about the merits of what he believes the Occupiers stand for and against, he is wrong about what smashing pumpkins is all about.

“These people have jack-o-lanterns, but we don’t, so let’s even up the score card, by making sure they don’t have what we don’t have.” Result: no one has jack-o-lanterns.

Whether these people have jack-o-laterns or not does not figure into the equation.  It is similar to the act of smashing postal boxes — done to and by people who have postal boxes.  Why do youths smash pumpkins?  It’s an anti-social activity, to be sure — they probably don’t quite have a reason for it worked out.

The inevitable free weekly alternative piece about Occupy Portland — from the Willamette Week — the Portland Mercury went with a silly parody piece poking fun at the suburbs.  Much of the Occupation — which I guess sits at the core of Trustafarians and Gutter Punks — may well hate it — as they complain that the media focuses on every minor incident, but this is likely a true portrait of the thing.  Meanwhile, the Oregonian moves on from minor incidents to more major incidents of the problems this sort of quasi-experiment in sorta-utopian government set up is experiencing.

Frankly, if I were “Occupy”, I would wind this encampment up, and plot my next thing.  Sure, keep those small marches to points of financial interest going and your Friday Patriotic rally with Storm Large and whatever… just think of something different, because I think the encampment has achieved all the dent it will achieve, and everything beyond this is just counterproductive.

And the cats… studded … and not.

“What’s the point of this?  The “1 percent” at Wall Street are just laughing at it.  They’ll be deposed of, the cities will pluck them out for sanitation violations or something, and that’ll be the end of it.”

“You’re from Arizona?”
“Yeah.  Insane.  There’s this photograph of the Occupy Tempe, and it’s small, as you imagine… and like, they’ve been put under barbed wire with storm-troopers guarding them.  Intimidation tactics.  What are they so afraid of here?”

And I saw a small group of, like, 5 people march to a bank.   One sign of note: “The Banksters Fear [—]Bucks.”  I don’t remember what preceded “bucks”, but I am certain this wasn’t the Ron Paul fan contingency of the movement hawking Liberty Dollars.

“I hope this just continues to spread out… out… into West Linn, into Eastern Oregon… just one encampment after another… til it all gets Road Warriory against The Man”.

And the beat goes on… Turn to KBOO and indymedia for the latest, I guess.

Way back in the year 2000, I watched a political program put on Public Access tv in support of the anti-gay ballot initiative, Measure 9.  The fundamentalist Christians were seen bantering about on the falling Western Civilization and all that, and they used as their example in the march toward our destruction from the gays…

The Fox sitcom Normal, Ohio.  And they literally stated “We’re losing to John Goodman.”

I don’t believe they ever re-calibrated their doomsday calculations when the sitcom was cancelled after a mere handful of episodes.  But I guess a slew of new gay things have filtered into the media.

I thought about this when I saw that the Playboy Club was cancelled after three episodes.  Because here was a show that had been batted around to some commentary — what did this show mean to feminism?  Gloria Steinem was asked for comment — she reserved judgement and then delivered a negative verdict.   And was this show a haliography of Hugh Hefner, who was claiming all sorts of things about breaking down racial barriers — the show including one black woman talking about her breasts breaking the color barrier — really bad dialouge?

And was this commentary recalibrated after the public passed a judgement of “meh”?  I guess not.  Mad Men continues with new episodes, with apt commentary on the changing sixties, and its pale imitations just fall by the wayside, don’t they?

There something odd about this appearance on “Meet the Press” that I just couldn’t put my finger on.

Also on NBC: Harold E. Ford Jr., a former representative from Tennessee, and Jack Welch, former chairman and chief executive of General Electric, participate in the political roundtable, talking about the death of Qaddafi, the presidential race and job creation.

Interesting.  Jack Welch.  Former Chairman and Chief Executive of General Electric.  It’s good to bring on people from outside, strictly speaking, the narrow Washington beltway of elected political figures — even if it’s that realm of “Politics is business by other means” industry.  And I guess he’s a good counterweight to Harld Ford, the former Democratic Leadership Council head — urging the party shape up and move to the center, to the center, to the center.

And you know, some in the “Occupy” Movement may want to get on tv — on one of these Sunday shows, perhaps — but maybe they’d risk having someone or other assert leadership roles from that — so it’s just as well it’s Jack Welch versus Harold Ford.

But… Jack Welch.  Huh?

In June 2011, when Piers Morgan asked him “You’re a Republican, right?” Welch replied “Yes, absolutely.”^[19]

Okay.  Good for him.

Also… his company, General Electric, during his tenure… bought NBC, the network that was interviewing him as an expert on matters.  Weird.

It could be worse.  We could be harping back on the Birther issue again.

“Now is not the time to spend up to $50 million dollars of the taxpayers’ money to buy nearly 3,000 acres of beachfront property on a Caribbean Island,” said Rep. Doc Hastings, (R-Wash.), ranking Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee. “We can’t afford a price tag for a new park in St Croix, just as many Americans will never be able to afford a visit there.”

All right.   Kind of a legitimate debate on how one conserves natural resources, and when they get into the realm of people actually being able to see and use this spot or that spot, as opposed to… if I’m guessing right, what Doc Hastings really wants to do is allow Exxon to rip this “beachfront property” out for Oil Exploration.  Anyway, Democrats vote for it; Republicans vote against it — and since the vote was that last Democratic Congress, I guess it passed.   But here’s the strange way this gets played out on the Internet.

Because, in Obama’s mind, he’s above the other historical presidential retreats like Camp David.
Now.  I have to pause on this one.  Because I can not make heads or tails of the Obama caricature this commenter is using.  Baroccoli.  Obama is made green, and then Made out to look like broccoli.  I wish I could call this “racist”, but that would be giving it too much credit.

because Obama is a pile of smoking hot dog **** and should be thrown out of office.
I imagine this is just a repeat comment which can be used for questions like — “Why hasn’t Obama been on Jay Leno lately?”

Because I gave him the money for a job well done. Say good bye to your stupid constitution.
That one is the mock George Soros one.

This is a national park, a national historic site. Not an island retreat.
Or was it an accident that you phrased your question in a misleading way,,,,yeah right,
It’s like calling everything “Socialism”, basically.

There’s a line in this “National Anthem” which is… weird.
all hail the messiah           obama obama    the path to the new    socialist motherland           our savior our savior           obama obama
All right.  And it goes on for “give him your money and your guns”.  Standard and trite.  But I don’t know what this line is:
the leader more famous      than Lindsay lohan
Yeah, I think.  The President.  Should be more famous than Lindsay Lohan.  Shouldn’t he?

That was then.  This is now.  Can Doc Hastings do away with the pesky sea lions — just one of the many pets running around claimed by Radical Environmentalist?  Note a bit of liberal bias in the final sentence

The sea lions are named after German naturalist George Wilhelm Steller, who described them in 1742. They are among the largest sea lions. Males can weigh more than a ton.

That tends to make the sea lions “cute”, like how you make the Panda Bear the the face of global warming.  I should we should quit with the differentiations and amass all creatures into a giant dump-heap of carbon.

2 guys I once heard debating Nader versus Gore last year, who occasionally go at it on items of liberal politics and the usefulness of the Democratic Party.

The Nader supporter:  What do you think of “Occupy”?
The Gore supporter:  I think it’s great.  And I saw on Fox 12, of all places, a respectable listen from the people there.

I have not had a chance to peak into talk radio.

Saturday at Pioneer Square we had an odd confluence of things.  Some Vietnamese protesting China, alongside some people activated against Genetically modified food — who have been promoting this for a while, alongside “End the Afghan War” alongside “Wake Up America”, a couple of “End the Fed” signs, alongside someone wearing a Ben Franklin costume.

“This is the best organized demonstration we’ve had for a long time.”
“Yeah, it’s college kids…”
“That’s who was involved in them in the 60s and 70s.  ‘Cause they have more at stake.”

And the question continues: when this slides away, blurs into the scene at Pioneer Square… then what?

Hm.

Fellure has formally campaigned for President of the United States in every presidential election since 1988 as a member of the Republican Party.^[1] He asserts on his campaign website that his platform based on the 1611 Authorized King James Bible has never changed.^[2] As a candidate, he calls for the elimination of the liquor industry, abortion and pornography, and advocates the teaching of the Bible in public schools and criminalization of homosexuality.^[1] He has blamed the ills of society on those he has characterized as “atheists, Marxists, liberals, queers, liars, draft dodgers, flag burners, dope addicts, sex perverts and anti-Christians.”^[3]

In 1992, Fellure filed to run in the New Hampshire, West Virginia and Kansas Republican primaries. By November 1991, he had spent $40,000 of his own money on the campaign, and he sent a King James Bible to the FEC as a copy of his platform.^[4] Regarding the 1611 English version of the Bible, translated by 47 Church of England scholars at the request of King James, he said, “God wrote it as the supreme document and final authority in the affairs of all men, nations and civilizations, for time and eternity… It shall never be necessary to change it.”^[4] He received 36 votes in the New Hampshire primary and complained that President George H.W. Bush and commentator Pat Buchanan were receiving all the media attention.^[5]

During the 1996 presidential election while running for the Republican Party presidential nomination, he criticized former President George H.W. Bush as a man “responsible for inestimable damage toward the destruction of this sovereign democratic constitutional republic [who] continued to water the seeds of international, Satanic Marxism to the exclusion of our national sovereignty”.^[3] He added that President Bill Clinton “merely shifted into overdrive the socialistic, Marxist New World Order agenda.”^[3] In the general election, Fellure received one write-in vote in Idaho.^[6]

He again ran in 2000,^[7] and in 2004, challenged incumbent President George W. Bush for the Republican Party nomination. He was the only candidate to appear alongside Bush in the North Dakota caucus, as he met the Federal Election Commission requirement of $5,000 in receipts. He lost all 26 delegates to Bush.^[8]

I had thought the Prohibition Party was basically controlled with an iron grip by James Hedges.  I wonder how this guy managed to lead an insurrection into the party.

Hm.

The ten voting Prohibition Party convention delegates and a few guests met for the National Convention, which began on Monday at the Holiday Inn Express in Cullman. Tuesday featured a short greeting from Cullman Mayor Max Townson, followed by addresses from Libertarian consultant Stephen P. Gordon, Ballot Access News publisher Richard Winger, and Eunie Smith of the Eagle Forum.

Gordon, who previously worked as the e-Campaign manager for the 2008 Bob Barr presidential campaign, jokingly commented that his speech “stunk”. He opened his address with the joke that “the way to pick out the libertarian at a Prohibition Party function is that I’m the one wearing the Jerry Garcia tie.” He discussed how third party candidates could utilize new media to their advantage, but avoided any ideological topics.

Winger, an expert on election law, discussed ballot access and the history of the Prohibition Party. He notably explained how the party had cost the Republicans presidential victories in the elections of 1884 and 1916, which forestalled the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment by Republicans, who wanted to do away with the alcohol issue. Gordon later commented that Winger’s speech was well-received by the audience.

After Winger’s speech, the convention broke for lunch. Afterwards, Smith, the widow of former Congressman Albert L. Smith, Jr., focused on immigration and education in her address. When asked about the Eagle Forum’s participation in the fight against alcohol, she commented that the group was focused on more pressing issues such as gambling.

Sounds exciting!