the bounce
of raindrops
on the basketball
lifting the hammer
the old carpenter’s hand
stops shaking
credits: “the bounce” – Frogpond XXIII:3 (2000)
“lifting the hammer” Mayfly No. 30 (2000); A New Resonance 2: Emerging Voices
In re Tom Delay: Scrivener C.E. Petit joins Prof. Bainbridge’s plea for consistently-applied ethics,
confessing to be “one of those weirdos who actually expects enforcement of ethical standards on
those who have (or seek) power, which is why I distrust pure-market solutions to anything.” Non
sequitur or not, we weirdos concur in both sentiments.
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Citing Leon Panetta’s quote that (in Election 2004) “the party of Roosevelt became the party
of Michael Moore and Fahrenheit 9/11,” Schenectady (NY) Gazette columnist Dan DiNicola, best
known for his movie reviews, says “If you are a traditional Democrat, you know that you are not
a Michael Moore liberal, even if you liked his movie.” [Dan did, and reviewed it here.] DiNicola adds
that “the contingent of Hollywood liberals” has been greatly damaged by this election. He concludes:
[I]f Hollywood liberals want to gain some cachet with the American public, they need
some ‘gentlemen’ spokesmen. Considering the dismal turnout of voters between 18 and
30, perhaps shrill rhetoric works only with Americans who do not get to the ballot box.
The Gazette is only available online by subscription. However, the entire article can be seen here, by
by scrolling to Reply 5. (“Hollywood liberals need more gentlemanly tone,” Nov. 21, 2004)
Tom Patterson of the Vanishing Voter Project has done an interesting study on what made first-
time voters go to the polls in 2004. First-Time Voters Propelled to Polls by Personal Contact
(Nov. 11, 2004). One finding is that, of Americans who had been eligible to vote in previous
presidential elections but voted for the first time this year, “Roughly one in seven — 14 percent
— of these first-time voters said that celebrity involvement affected their decision to cast a ballot.”
Finally, we are sorry to report that Bekah’s offering of “Some haikus [sic] inspired by the MPRE“
did not receive a passing grade from the Bard Review Board. See Comments. (Via Schaeffer Underground)
update (10 PM est): In what may prove to be a futile step at mitigation, Bekah has retitled the above-referenced
post: “Some hastily written, fake haiku-ish rubbish inspired by the MPRE.”