nostalgia, in song form

All the snow has turned to water,
Christmas days have come and gone.
Broken toys and faded colors
Are all that’s left to linger on.

I hate graveyards and old pawn shops
For they always bring me tears.
I can’t forgive the way they rob me
Of my childhood souvenirs.

Memories they can’t be bought and
They can’t be won at carnivals for free.
Well it took me years to get those souvenirs,
And I don’t know how they slipped away from me

Broken hearts and dirty windows
Make life difficult to see.
That’s why last night and this mornin’
Always look the same to me

I hate reading old love letters,
For they always bring me tears.
I can’t forgive the way they rob me
Of my sweetheart’s souvenirs.

Memories they can’t be bought and
They can’t be won at carnivals for free.
Well it took me years to get those souvenirs,
And I don’t know how they slipped away from me.

Souvenirs by John Prine

NFL draft update

Well the Niners picked two more players I’d heard of (for a total of three).

With the 20th pick in the third round, they picked WR Brandon Williams of Wisconsin. I actually went to a Wisconsin game this year (vs. Indiana). It was probably Williams’s best game of the year; he had over 100 yards and two TDs. He’s way too small for the NFL but is mad fast and, at least, could probably be a good return man. He might eventually be a solid #3 or 4 receiver.

With the third pick in the fourth round they picked Penn State semi-option QB Michael Robinson. I was totally a Michael Robinson fan while he was at Penn State, even during his crappy junior year, and he was just fantastic last year as a senior. Of course, fantastic as an option QB hardly translates to WR, but he’s an incredible athlete and Mike Nolan is a fan of the trick play so maybe he can help out there. I’m sure he throws better than Brandon Lloyd, or whoever the Niners used for those plays last season.

Overall, looks like a solid draft for the 49ers.

I’m no economist…

John Kenneth Galbraith, one of the great minds of our time, passed away yesterday.

Those of us with progressive agendas, including those who believe the use of economics in the law need not only play into the neoconservative agenda, owe a great deal of gratitude to Mr. Galbraith. He will not be forgotten.

Here’s a picture of Galbraith with Indira Gandhi in 1963 (from the Times article):

(I like this place much better with pictures. Hopefully, along with more music, books, and movies, more pictures in the future as well.)

songs, songs, and more songs

one thing i used to do on my old blog was quote song lyrics that i like. it ended up seeming really dorky to me and i was picking really lonely song lyrics, which was sort of depressing.

nonetheless, i enjoyed doing it and am going to start doing it again. i will enjoy writing here more if i do that and it will help me to shift some of the focus of the content here away from politics, which, no matter how depressing the lyrics i choose are, will always be more depressing.

to that end:

Barefoot in the evening dust,
Ask the bronze girl who she trusts
To win the human race for us.
And does she cry herself to sleep,
Or will she in the morning speak
Of golden dreams and gypsy freaks,
Who in Pandora’s canyon roam,
And teakwood treasures of her own
To light a stately pleasure dome.

Cedar Laurels by The String Cheese Incident

math?

By the way, if you’ve never read Arundhati Roy’s September 29, 2001 editorial in the Guardian (London), The Algebra of Infinite Justice, you really should.

Some of the specific issues in the column are period-specific, but the overall criticism of the Bush administration and its view of the United States’ place in the world is as relevant today as it was in 2001. (After all, 9/11 “changed the world”.)

I’ve noticed that my posts here have gotten a bit politics obsessed. I’m sure that’s partly due to my own absence of a social life, a situation that will likely continue until the end of June. Nonetheless, I do hope to get back to writing about music, movies, and books, which along with law and politics, and the goings on in my life, are the subjects I would like this blog to cover.

So, I’ll say this here: The new Built to Spill album, You in Reverse, is amazing. Perhaps their best album yet. (I know you Built to Spill lovers would like to kill me for saying that, but so be it. I really really like the new one.)

Let’s do it once…

secret bush

I highly recommend this post on Daily Kos outlining the heretofore unrivaled secrecy of the Bush Aministration. Worse than Nixon, the post says.

Not that this discussion should surprise anybody. The Bushies have been super-secretive from Day 1, starting with the Cheney energy meetings. (Although I think it outrageous that Scalia didn’t recuse himself in that case, I’ve always felt that that failure pales in comparison to the horrible things that must have gone on in that meeting between Cheney and his big energy buddies determining “national energy policy.”) So, that they’d be extra-secretive about things governments are normally secretive (i.e., national security, police-type work, etc.) is hardly a surprise.

But this is no ordinary secrecy about such things. They are SO MUCH WORSE than any prior administration that, as Daily Kos points out, “Bush easily surpasses even Nixon as being obsessed with secrecy.”

I’m sort of past the point of getting mad or excited about all this, but, frankly, that makes it no less offensive. I’d also like to think the midterm elections will make it harder on Bush, but I tend to believe that even a Democratic majority would be unable (and perhaps unwilling) to really take him on. The fact is, if the administration refuses to share any information on what it’s doing and refuses to follow acts of Congress and decisions of the courts, there is really nothing anybody can do. Bush has his oligarchy, his cabal of advisors, and his ideological and self-serving agenda and ain’t nobody gonna take that away from him. [sigh]

NFL Draft

With the sixth selection in the 2006 NFL draft, the San Francisco 49ers select:

Vernon Davis, TE, Maryland

I’m extremely pleased with this pick, especially considering AJ Hawk went #5 to the Packers. I think the Titans made a bold, and good, move to pick Vince Young at #3, though, contrary to reports, I think that means they’re keeping Ground McNair for one more year. It’s too bad for the Raiders, though. Good pick at 9 for Arizona to pick up Lienart. He will immediately challenge Kurt Warner for the staring job. I’m still completely unsold on Reggie Bush, but I’m surprised he fell to #2, even with the contract issues. If he turns out to be even 75% as good as he’s billed, this will be a huge blunder for the Houstons.

I’ll comment again when the 49ers draft again at 22 with the Redskins’ pick, which they got from Denver.

Update: Here it is:

With the twenty-second selection in the 2006 NFL draft, the San Francisco 49ers select:

Manny Lawson, Linebacker, North Carolina State.

They desparately need an outside linebacker, so this seems like a good pick (Lawson is the fourth OLB selected after AJ Hawk was the first OLB taken at #5). I know nothing about the guy. According to Sportsline.com, Lawson played end at NC State, where “he struggled to consistently pressure the quarterback.” He is a great athelete, had great workouts (uh oh). On the other hand, he’s never played LB before and he is projected to be possibly no more than a special teams player as a rookie (though probably a pretty good one, which the Niners could use since they’ve blocked like two punts and kicks total in the past thirty years). It strike me that the transition to LB will be easier for him on the Niners because they play the 3-4, but what do I know.

Overall, I’d say pretty good first round. The Niners are out of the second round (traded their pick to Denver for the Lawson pick), but they pick again late third round with (again) Washington’s pick. Perhaps another comment then.

Two straight days

For the second straight day (and it’s only 10:30am here), this blog has set its record for most hits (okay, so that’s about 20 today and was 11 yesterday). Hooray. [Wow, I'm mad popular today. Total was 64 for 4/28 GMT, by far my new record. Most are referenced from my pinged comment on Think Progress's Duke Cunningham/hooker post (comment #10, if you're looking for it there, but it's also the post just below this one).]

I am currently getting an error message, the source of which I have yet to identify. I think it’s got something to do with the various “widgets” (as WordPress calls them);- I must have something set up wrong. [FIXED! I accidentally dragged the Delicious widget onto the sidebar.]

Post a comment if you read this (sound.as.language gets much credit for being the only one to comment on my previous request for visitors to post comments).

WSJ reports that Duke Cunningham likes hookers.

and it might not just be duke. i’m glad our legislators are so classy. some moral high ground.

read the Wall Stret Journal article here.

and the Think Progress blog entry on the subject, including additional sources.

More appropriate than usual: Let’s do it once…

and the horse he rode in on

Yesterday, the following comment was posted on the anti-Rick Santorum website Santorum Exposed:

“Fuck Santorum and the horse he rode into town on.”

It prompted this response:

“See? He’s right, first it’s man on man, and then man on horse!”

(Both of these comments are appended to this blog post.)

I’m glad some people still have a sense of humor about politics, even when bigoted assholes like Santorum are involved.

By the way, though I certainly support Bob Casey, Jr.’s candidacy to replace Santorum as Pennsylvania’s junior senator, I really really really really wish they could find a pro-choice Democrat to run for the seat. Were Santorum not so patently horrible and evil, I would be less comfortable with Casey. But sometimes it has to be “win at all costs”.