tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34937662011-04-21T16:56:17.396-07:00Lunchan invitation to lunch
HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT?
when I only have 16 cents and 2
packages of yoghurt
there's a lesson in that, isn't there
like in Chinese poetry when a leaf falls?
hold off on the yoghurt to the very
last, when everything may improve
Frank O'HaraEsmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.comBlogger321100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-62414444282550344042008-10-17T10:34:00.000-07:002008-10-21T17:44:30.895-07:00The Media love (elite) Crackpot EconomicsHow else to explain the attention poured on "Joe the Plumber" after the last presidential debate? He didn't express one idea you wouldn't find in the most tendentious essays on the Wall Street Journal's editorial page, or spouted on air by faux populist like Limbaugh and O'Reilly. In other words, in giving "Joe" so much attention and air time, the media isn't providing a rare forum for the "Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-4811682932257438162008-10-12T08:15:00.000-07:002008-10-12T12:05:15.916-07:00It's the end of the world! (I hope.)Or, more exactly, it is the end of the world as we've known it; as both a financial and social era.I may be one of only a very few Americans to, despite the losses to my retirement account, the new caution of my customers, and the flat-lining of my home's value caused by our current financial crisis, feel inspired to hope and optimism, but I am. (Harold Bloom, Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-32877501925438167762008-08-30T10:47:00.000-07:002008-08-30T11:16:43.611-07:00What was missing from Obama's speech?An overall theme and, still, a positive reason for his presidency.There was no "New Deal." No "New Frontier." No "Bridge to the 21st Century". Not even a "Thousand Points of Light" or "Compassionate Conservatism" expressed in specific, new policies like "No Child Left Behind" and "The Faith Based Initiative."While watching it, I really liked the speech -- but Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-42505137485787045802007-03-04T10:24:00.000-08:002007-03-04T13:43:22.931-08:00This week the media punditocracy has been quick and fulsome in its condemnation of distasteful (and quickly removed) comments, by anonymous posters of no power, position or influence, on the liberal blog, Huffington Post. But their coverage and criticism of the distasteful, hate-mongering and highly public language of an extremely influential and well establish conservative -- Ann Coulter -- at Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-11935199171826008032007-03-02T06:39:00.000-08:002007-03-02T06:53:55.217-08:00Many political observers are amazed by Rudy Guliani's apparent strength among "social conservatives" in the Republican party. The CW is that support will diminish or disappear when those conservative voters know more about his record.But I suspect Rudy's conservative Republican supporters DO understand his record, and may just be making the same mistake many Democrats made in 2004 -- choosing Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-22005936270199707172007-02-24T06:02:00.000-08:002007-03-01T16:51:15.408-08:00The establishment pundits who indulge in over-the-top criticism of "netroots" aided activism need to own up to their self-interest.Supporters of Internet initiated and supported grassroots efforts -- for Dean in 2004, Lamont in 2006, etc. -- base their support in a candidate's willingness to address issues that are not being adequately addressed by established politicians, or, their opposition toEsmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-33187390187207897982007-02-22T15:45:00.000-08:002007-03-04T13:46:28.650-08:00In an interview yesterday with ABC News, Vice President Dick Cheney said that the Murtha and Pelosi plan for Iraq validates the al Qaeda "strategy.""The al Qaeda strategy is to break the will of the American people, knowing they can't win in a stand-up fight, try to convince us to throw in the towel and come home and then they win because we quit," he said.Al Qaeda wouldn't be around to boldly Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-1137879543619142312006-01-21T13:38:00.000-08:002006-01-21T13:42:46.710-08:00What's wrong with this message?"To retreat before victory has been won would be a reckless act -- and the president and our party will not allow it." Karl Rove Karl Rove is out and about again rallying the (Republican) troops for this year's election. As the above quote indicates, the plan is to run, again, on staying the course and pursuing "victory" in Iraq. But the problem with that strategy Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-1137788135520605412006-01-20T11:23:00.000-08:002006-01-20T13:27:00.876-08:00The South-obsessed D.C. establishment strikes again -- choosing Virginia's newly elected Democratic governor (and great hope of establishment moderates who still think there's a "New South" in which the party, with enough pandering, can prevail), Tim Kaine, to give the Democratic response to the President's State of the Union speech. Kaine is a bright, well-spoken technocrat, who represents some Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-1137706389804307142006-01-19T13:30:00.000-08:002006-01-19T14:11:06.536-08:00Speech Maker in ChiefAs the administration gears up for the State of the Union, I have some thoughts on President Bush as a speech maker -- that go beyond the usual complaints about his difficulties with the language or the usual compliments for his "regular guy" style.Commentators often note how comfortable Bush is with the language of (Evangelical) "faith." But less noted, and in light of his Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-1137619711672746812006-01-18T13:27:00.000-08:002006-01-18T13:28:31.690-08:00Joshua Green in the current Atlantic (January/February 2006) invites us to be surprised by the bumper crop of returning Iraq/Afghanistan veterans who are currently planning a run for political office. But in comparing the greater, more immediate political participation of today's returning Iraq vets (and yesterday's WWII vets) to the veterans of Vietnam he overlooks some basic facts. The average Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-1091624122586434782004-08-04T04:42:00.000-07:002004-08-04T05:55:22.586-07:00It's been a long time since I posted here. Re-reading my past entries, I am struck by many things -- but first of all I'm struck by the fact that my posting ended just before the start of our war with Iraq. I was, it appears, struck dumb by that event.
In the best of times, I am not a fast and facile writer. So perhaps, under any conditions, my decision to start a blog was ill-considered -- I Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-892383322003-02-17T05:46:00.000-08:002003-02-17T05:51:20.000-08:00THE FAILED WORLD LEADER
Whether Bush is the worst president of all time, as some have recently asserted, only time can tell, of course. But, I don't think it is too soon to say he is, so far, a failed president.
The lack of cooperation from the UN, the worldwide demonstrations that took place over the past weekend, and the widening rift between the U.S. and Europe all have one cause; Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-862886092002-12-19T14:00:00.000-08:002002-12-19T14:00:54.033-08:00SCREWING THE NEXT GENERATION
The Bush administration’s recently reported hope to remedy what they see as “a rising tax burden on the rich and a declining burden on the working poor and middle class,” by flattening tax rates and raising taxes on low wage earners, is as economically short-sighted as it is immoral.
The wealthiest 1% of earners pay the largest share of total income tax because Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-852213842002-11-28T11:31:00.000-08:002002-11-28T14:14:35.000-08:00Andrew Sullivan, in his piece in Salon this week on the violence surrounding the Miss Universe contest in Nigeria, takes an opportunity to, one more time, exploit heart-rending tragedy for disreputable purposes: As a stick with which to beat a petty partisan drum.
Animosity and horrific violence between Muslims and tribal, often Christian, groups in Africa has a long history. Including a Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-843634832002-11-11T06:53:00.000-08:002002-11-11T07:06:48.000-08:00Is The Success of the Conservative Revolution the Beginning of the End of the "United" States?
That is an extreme question, I know. But, I wonder, with Liberalism vanquished, how long this always rather impossible "union" of diverse states, values and interests that we call the "United States" can really hold together?
Someone recently suggested that in raising this question, in light of the Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-841154702002-11-06T05:58:00.000-08:002002-11-06T05:58:19.040-08:00Well, this time, at least, the people spoke.
What they said was that they are afraid. Afraid of freedom, afraid of the world outside our borders, afraid of their bosses' threats to take away their jobs, afraid to stand up for themselves, and, perhaps most of all, afraid of each other.
I don't think you can blame the Democratic "leadership." Or the media. Or, even, the lies the Republicans Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-839297992002-11-02T12:28:00.000-08:002002-11-03T05:21:20.000-08:00ANDREW SULLIVAN IGNORES REALITY
“Should I feel guilty because I'm glad he's dead? If I feel like liberal democrats are American traitors, isn't that a logical response?” Posted 10/29/02, on Lucianne.com
What does it mean for a democracy, built as it must be on faith in ordinary human nature and capacity, when ordinary citizens begin to routinely entertain the notion, if not simply assume, Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-800312482002-08-09T09:19:00.000-07:002002-08-09T09:24:39.000-07:00This letter to the New York Times, in response to an op-ed suggesting that a solution to the current problems of the stock market would be to encourage workers to invest more money in their retirement accounts, makes some points that I think are germaine to the current corporate scandals, and points up some of the consequences of an increasingly powerless, unorganized work force:
To the Editor:Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-799366682002-08-07T07:15:00.000-07:002002-08-07T07:17:18.000-07:00The news from the Mideast is, day by day, becoming more unbearable. True friends and supporters of Israel are weeping at the misery and devastation Sharon's policies are bringing to its streets and shops and universities -- no one and nowhere is safe, not even the babe in his mother's arms or the joyous celebration of a wedding party.
Sharon sows wave after wave of high-tech destruction on Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-786854312002-07-08T06:37:00.000-07:002002-07-08T06:37:42.413-07:00It's a truism of conservative thought that this country is in dire need of more religion in public life. But, what if the religion most commonly practiced is debased, flaccid, self-serving? With no moral vigor and no ethical base? This thought occurred to me while reading a report in the Houston Chronicle on the executives of Enron that contained this quote from Ken Lay; "Good will ultimately Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-783094402002-06-28T05:37:00.000-07:002002-06-28T05:37:17.583-07:00My recent lack of postings reflects the fact that this is one of the busiest times of the year for the small business I run with my husband. The computer has been occupied with clearing away a backlog of data entry and the personal time I've had to devote to thinking, reading and writing has been limited.
But, by next week my schedule should open up. I plan to spend a bit of that extra time Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-779353602002-06-19T07:49:00.000-07:002002-06-19T07:51:12.000-07:00Some thoughts for our times:
“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.” - Thomas Jefferson, 1814
“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-778442352002-06-17T06:42:00.000-07:002002-06-17T09:45:53.000-07:00My printer isn't working. It's an HP Color Laserjet that always makes a big production out of getting itself started in the morning. Lots of whirling, grinding, calibrating, honks and whistles and groans -- before it finally flashes its little "ready" sign. The whole production is too drawn out and pretty annoying. But this morning, no production at all. Dead silence. No lights, no whistles, no Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-774999602002-06-08T07:54:00.000-07:002002-06-08T13:05:04.000-07:00Mark Morford, in his SFGate column yesterday, touched on something that I have been thinking about too; the strange vulnerability President Bush projects. Although he did not use that word exactly, he did describe, accurately I think, the phenomenon:
"...there they are, trying so hard. Especially Bush. Look at that earnest, constipated, caught-in-the-headlights expression. Trying trying trying. Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-773731372002-06-05T06:26:00.000-07:002002-06-05T06:36:10.000-07:00"I tolerate with the utmost latitude the right of others to differ from me in opinion without imputing to them criminality. I know too well the weakness and uncertainty of human reason to wonder at its different results. Both of our political parties, at least the honest part of them, agree conscientiously in the same object--the public good; but they differ essentially in what they deem the Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-771004712002-05-29T07:05:00.000-07:002002-06-05T10:32:59.000-07:00What is it with the Republican haste to mythologize and canonize their Presidents? Reagan barely stepped from the political stage before his fellow Republicans started campaigning to re-name half the country in his honor and slap his amiable mug up on Mt. Rushmore. With George W. Bush, the campaign to place him among the immortals started the moment he stepped into office, and then, after 9/ll, Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-770210452002-05-27T05:32:00.000-07:002002-05-27T06:55:59.000-07:00Does it strike you that the endless conservative condemnations of all things "liberal" that fill our airwaves and editorial pages have devolved into something amazingly like those silly magazine lists of "What's Hot" and "What's Not?"
Anything a pundit or braying talk radio host personally finds objectionable -- from ill-conceived lawsuits to questionable pre-adolescent fashion choices -- gets Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-769602132002-05-25T08:26:00.000-07:002002-05-25T16:50:22.000-07:00From the conservative Washington Times:
"The Bush administration issued a spate of terror alerts in recent days to mute criticism that its national security team sat on intelligence warnings in the weeks before the September 11 attacks."
We don't hear much anymore about how "the grownups are now in charge." Is it any wonder why?
by esmeEsmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-769575222002-05-25T05:58:00.000-07:002002-05-26T06:47:42.000-07:00"Often this poet, strolling through the noisy splintered glare of a Manhattan noon, has paused at a sample Olivetti to type up thirty or forty lines of ruminations, or pondering more deeply has withdrawn to a darkened ware- or fire-house to limn his computed misunderstandings of the eternal questions of life, co-existence and depth, while never forgetting to eat Lunch his favorite meal..."
Frank Esmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-761922012002-05-05T12:56:00.000-07:002002-05-25T13:50:22.000-07:00still testingEsmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493766.post-761921212002-05-05T12:53:00.000-07:002002-05-05T12:53:59.260-07:00TestEsmensehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141557318700033479noreply@blogger.com0