I am a Waffle

I guess I kind of think I could live with any one of the Democratic candidates.

And Huckabee reminds me a little of Dr. J and Plimco’s dad, which makes me feel kindly towards him, even though he doesn’t deserve it.

Sweet “Betsy”

I could listen all day to BR-549 singing “Sweet Betsy from Pike.”  I just love the way they say “Betsy” compared to all the other words in the song, which they let breathe naturally–first growing great big and then fading away.

But they sing “Betsy” like two short spikes of poetry.

I just like it.

I get used to hearing my name like it’s just something ordinary.  But I love hearing it poking out like a tiny spur in a sweet song.

Oops, I Support Terrorists!

Thanks to Tennessee Republican Party person Bill Hobbs, I have discovered that I’m a supporter of terrorism.  It’s kind of complicated to follow, but stick with it.

I am a person.  I gave $35 to Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) when I went to their tasty and suspiciously well-run informative fund-raising breakfast.  Perhaps I should have been suspicious when a non-profit group invited me to anything of any sort and even more suspicious when their agenda said that their breakfast would take an hour and it did!  Only an hour.  Very, very sneaky of them, if you think about it.  How can a girl not have good feelings towards a group that promises to only take an hour of her time and then sticks to it?  Don’t those TIRRC folks know that here in America, when a non-profit group invites you to be trapped in a room with them while they’re raising money, they keep you in that room as long as they darn well please?

Anyway, according to the fine folks over at the New English Review,TIRCC employs one Kasar Abdullah, who, according to them, was once the president of the Muslim Student association at Tennessee State University (another institution I support every time I shop, since my tax dollars go there–oops, again).  Now, everyone knows that Tennessee State University is and has been a hot-bed of terrorism, with known terrorist alumni such as Oprah Winfrey and Wilma Rudolph and advancing such terrorist causes as desegregating higher education here in Tennessee.

Okay, so you follow so far.  I gave money to TIRCC, which supposedly employs Abullah, who supposedly was the president of the Muslim Student association when she was in college.  The Muslim Student association supposedly gets money from Saudi Arabia, which proves that Abullah is attempting to infiltrate the United States and change us all into radical Muslims and I support her in this cause because I gave money to TIRCC.

Now, I could use similar lines of “reasoning” to prove that Bill Hobbs is a racist, because he once worked for Belmont University, which started life at the Ward-Belmont College, there on land once owned by the slave-owning Adelicia Acklen, but if I even suggested that, you’d hear hollering about how just because someone takes money from an institution tangentially associated with slavery doesn’t make one a racist and on and on about how unfair I am towards poor, put-upon Bill Hobbs.

But Bill Hobbs wants to link approvingly to some article about how Muslims are slowly infiltrating our country in some slow-ass effort to change our culture?  No problem with that, apparently.

He says:

The website New English Review has an important article about the growth of the Muslim population in Nashville – and the troubling connections of some local Muslim organizations to radical Islamists.

And so I ask, publicly, here and now.  Bill Hobbs, why is this article important?  And what are these troubling connections?

Because, I read that article and find it to be just a step removed from the the Lincoln-Kennedy assassination connections–a lot of coincidence, manipulated facts, and trumped-up connections. And I have to wonder if the Tennessee Republican Party is really going to advance social policy based on beliefs and connections no more reliable than a child’s game of telephone.

I mean, really.

Much Love for Mrs. Wigglebottom

I want to learn to be more like Mrs. Wigglebottom, who was happy enough to go for her walk and happy enough to turn back when I realized I should have had gloves and a hat.  She was happy enough when the folks were here and is happy enough to be back to her routine now that they’re gone.

I tend to stand in the stream of time, looking backwards at all that’s gone past, upset that I didn’t hang onto it longer, didn’t make more of it, didn’t live it differently.  Or looking forwards and imagining a flood rumbling down towards me, terrible events I can’t control racing to overtake me and sweep me away.

Mrs. Wigglebottom stands belly deep in this same water, stomping around, splashing, biting at the splashes, and barking in delight when the water hits her face.  She can’t swim.  She tries, but she sinks like a stone.  She trusts that I will drag her back above the surface for as long as I am able and that, after that, things will go some other way.

She doesn’t fret about that other way.  She doesn’t look upstream for any other reason than to see where she must put her foot next.

I don’t understand people who see their dogs like their kids.  I don’t think they’re wrong; I just don’t see it.  My dog is nothing like a person.

That’s how she saves me, regularly.

To her, I think, I am a person she keeps company with, and though she could happily keep company with any number of people, she likes keeping company with me.

But for me?

She escapes words.  And, as a person constantly chasing one letter with another, it shakes my perspective, constantly, to interact so regularly with a being who has no words.

I try to be mindful of her, taking one step after another, raising her back leg when it hurts her and going forward on three.  Curling up on the couch, always one part of her touching you, or under your feet, here at the desk.

Nothing like me, but constanly modeling a way I could move through the world.

I don’t know.  I thought I had something more profound to say, but I don’t.

She’s just such a good dog.

Law & Order

I happened to catch the original Law & Order last night.  They’ve made some changes.  Fontana’s gone.  Good riddance, really.  Some dude who looks familiar but I can’t place him is in.  He’s like a less genius eccentric Bobby and they tried to give him some backstory, but it’s Law & Order so who cares?

The nice thing about him is that his acting style meshes well with the guy who plays Green and so Green seems to have nice, rich contours, even without being any different, just because he’s given some room, if that makes sense.

And I love seeing Jack McCoy as DA.  Love it.  The new ADA I like too, but it’s only been two episodes and I’m already tired of seeing him whip out the Blackberry of Doom.

Anyway, I’m interested to see how it goes.