Where the Wind Comes Sweeping Down the Plain....

As a native of the state that provided the most violent resistance to the Civil Rights Movement and that's the birthplace of the American Taliban, I'm weirdly relieved when some other member of the Union out-crazies my birthplace.

Oklahoma State Representative Charles Key and State Senator Randy Brogdon are in favor of starting a state militia to "defend against federal infringements on state sovereignty." Now even I will admit Oklahomans have suffered at the hands of Washington: the $1.5 million that Oklahoma received to help pay for school lunches must have been a bitter pill to swallow. And that $17 million for broadband in the Western part of the state? I'm sure someone in Tulsa is protesting by self-immolation as we speak.

But you would think the Confederate History Month resolutions that have been in the news would have reminded Key and Brogdon that armed resistance to the federal government has been tried before, and it didn't go that well.

Admittedly this hasn't even reached the planning stage, but Key is fairly confident a bill will be introduced in the next legislative session.

Nor have proponents of a militia clearly explained how the militia would defend Oklahoma against federal intrusions.

I suppose they could start by shooting mailmen delivering Social Security checks.

(Hat-tip to David Harnden-Warwick for this news story)

After Long Silence....

I'm back to posting, with the intention (sigh) of doing so on a more regular basis. My neglect of this blog was a pity, since the last couple of months were a great time to snark about the absurdity of American life: we've had shrieks of socialism! in response to a Republican health care plan that is a bonanza for private insurers and pharmaceutical companies.

And the conservatives who aren't totally distracted worrying about how they're going to look in those Chairman-Mao gray suits we'll all soon be forced to wear are panicking that the country will soon be defenseless. After all, Obama just negotiated a treaty with the Russkies that will leave us with only enough nukes to destroy all life two or three times, instead of the usual eight or nine. The treaty also has the shocking proviso that we'll only use nuclear weapons against countries we don't like,* so you can see why there's cause to believe the Republic is in its final days.

To compound Republican disappointment, they held a leadership conference in New Orleans this week.: I imagine some party donors found Bourbon Street a little tame compared to what they're used to.

In other news, Pope Benedict apparently doesn't consider raping children defying the doctrine of priestly celibacy. **


*Watch out, France.
**Maybe it's a variation on the college student belief that oral sex isn't really sex: if it's only with kids it doesn't count....

Of Computers and Capitonyms

I was in my gmail account moments ago and went into my spam folder. At the very top of the window was a link to a recipe for spam "fajitas."

The Way We Live Now

This morning I was searching for web sites that provided solid background on Adolf Hitler. I found a biographical sketch on a British website by a company called Spartacus Educational. On the left side of the screen was a column of Google-generated ads. The top three were:

"Meet Jewish Singles."

"Earn a Political Science Degree."

"Get German Citizenship."

Oh, That'll Satisfy the Angry Mobs....

Goldman CEO bonus only $9 million in nod to public ire

Because $9 million is such a paltry sum....

Just ask someone who really understands money. Like Michael Steele.

Misleading Headline of the Week

Sarah Palin to Speak at Faulkner Dinner

Unfortunately it's just a benefit at an Alabama school called Faulkner University and not an academic conference on old Nobel-prize-winning Billy.

That's too bad. I was imagining the Q&A after the speech:

Question: "Does Benjy in The Sound and the Fury ever remind you of Trig?"

Answer: "Trig is beautiful and adored by us and I'm sure the Compsons felt the same way about their little blessing."

Question: "How many stream-of-consciousness novels by writers influenced by the French Symbolists have you read?"

Answer: "All of them."

After Long Silence....

Oy. It's been a month since I've blogged. That's a new record even for me. In my defense I've been busy with some Globe book reviews, and in my librarian life I've been taking a distance ed. class on archival materials that in terms of intellectual excitement is right up there with watching ice melt.

But speaking of library work, one of the things I'm supposed to keep up with are efforts to ban books. And I learned of one such campaign recently. It seems one of the good people of Culpeper County Virginia have successfully bullied, I mean persuaded, the spineless idiots, I mean officials, of the local school district to stop assigning the definitive edition of Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl to their students. Apparently the definitive edition includes Anne's struggles with her own burgeoning sexual desires and even what this protesting parent called "homosexual themes."

I'll have to admit I'm shocked: a teenage girl confused about sex? And confiding her feelings to her diary? That never happens.

Nevertheless, I support this parent in her effort to keep the youth of Culpepper County unspotted from the world. By keeping that edition of Anne Frank's diary out of the schools, she saved the young from corrupting influences.

Because the movies never deal with teen sexuality. And I'm sure none of these kids have ever seen an episode of The L Word. Or Will and Grace.

Ever.