I celebrate the federal court in blocking most heinous aspects of Arizona's new Mein Kempf law. Last time states' rights was so inappropriately invoked was when certain southern states sought to keep slavery legal. Allowing law enforcement to demand to see peoples' papers, based on nothing more than a traffic stop and brown skin, is ugly, plain and simple. The fact that Gov. Brewer had constructed cattle pens within which to warehouse people pending deportation (no court appearance), says it all. She will now lose on appeal (all the way up) and then claim victory if the Obama Admin starts to heavy up on the border. Hey, it could be a jobs thing..... hiring lots of Border Patrol to drive around with the right-wing, gun toting vigilantes. What fun.

Well, Scott Brown, you can take your truck and shot gun and stick them where the sun doesn't shine, because in my book your failure to support Medicaid and Unemployment funding is one of the sorriest failures we've seen from Washington since W ran the budget into the ground while declaring "Mission Accomplished." Sure you're a Tea Party right-winger, but since when is it acceptable to dump on the little guys - the ones who don't have jobs, so you can cozy up to conservative business types, oil and the GOP fat cats who put you into office? If Martha Coakley hadn't been so god-awful ineffective running for Ted's seat, you'd still be in Boston bringing Deval Patrick his breakfast so you could be heard in the State House. And while we're on the subject of Ted Kennedy, what do you think he would have done with his vote on this issue? Have you earned the right to defile the memory of the man who occupied that seat for so many years - was known as the Liberal Lion of the Senate, and split hairs over one small appropriation bill as a budget buster while approving hundreds of millions elsewhere? Well, FYYFF. People in the Commonwealth who rely on you to fight for their needs want a ride on your little red truck. They want to get in that truck with you and drive on down to Washington and ask you what gives you the right to play god, to decide that this $100 million contributes to the deficit - and the needs of the 30 million or so you're cutting off from benefits are less important than bailing out BOA, the car companies, S&Ls and all the other bigwig fatcats you GOP people kiss up to while leaving the "little people" to be covered in oil and smothered - like gulls in the Gulf.

Let's see: If six pieces of fried squirrel cost $3.15, 30 pieces should be 5 times that cost, less a little discount for ordering a larger size, right? About $15.75...maybe something alluring like $14.99. But noooooooo! Not in the Colonel's universe, because at the KFC in my 'hood you can pay a little extra for 30 pieces....which is $16.29. More than 5 times the six piece cost by more than a half a buck. Upon pointing this out to the manager of the store I got a surprised and irked response while she took off her shoes to check my math. After counting her toes she pulled a Colonel Klink, "I don't set the prices managers do that." "Well, doesn't that seem strange?" I inquired. "Well, yes she responded. Would you like original or extra crispy?"




Thank goodness I didn't order from the "value menu," then I really would have been screwed. Then again, what the hell was I doing at KFC? I did almost ruin a new shirt with grease, and I think I left my eyeglasses there. I'll check tomorrow but I fear they will have been deep fried by then.

Spent most of yesterday morning in a dentist's chair watching parts of my left 12 year molar being vaporized by a drill. It's the weirdest sensation to be numb and to see and smell smoke coming out of your mouth, while a tooth that's been broken is drilled to naught and replaced with a crown. This is all somewhat ironic since I've been working on a project for Boston Magazine for the last two months selling profiles to dentists to run in the August "Best of Boston" issue. So I am thoroughly immersed in all matters dental, but came across a new one yesterday when I called a dentist in tony Weston, left a message, and he returned the call from Fort Bragg, NC, said he wanted a half page but that I would need to coordinate everything with his wife because he was about to get on a plane to Afghanistan where he would be ministering to poor people on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border. I casually mentioned to him that from what I'd been hearing he was heading to the epicenter of violence, and he casually answered, "Well, that's why we're going there. I'm with Special Forces." For the next six months he'll be drilling for democracy, trying to make friends by helping the indigenous population with hygiene and health; what we called in the Viet Nam era "winning their hearts and minds." In Nam more often than not we bombed the villages to make them safe, here, at least for now, it appears homeless kids in bombed out villages will have new fillings and clean mouths, which of course, will make them less likely to want to join Al Qaeda (?). Well, sometimes you have to separate the larger political context from the individual, and in this case, here's an army reserve Lt. Col., who has been activated, who has to leave his practice and family for six months and help poor people in a bad situation. So I wished the colonel well, told him to keep his head down, and assured him I would follow up on his behalf and create an ad that will help him when he comes back. "Funny," he said, "Everybody I talk to says, 'keep your head down, it's the big phrase now.'" Not so surprising to me, what else do you say to a suburban dentist about to go to the front? Have a nice day?


Actual footage of my dental experience:

For some reason HBO lines up half-hour episodes of In Treatment in two-hour blocks, I believe, so anyone who watches the whole two hours most certainly will end up as neurotic as any of the characters, or as Dr. Paul Weston- the shrink at the center of the show with as many problems as any of his patients. At one point in the recent past I thought that being a therapist would have been a great career path for me; I've enjoyed studying psych, co-majored in it as an undergrad and seem to have a bit of an innate understanding of personalities. But one thing the series brings to mind as episode after episode reveals the harsh emotional wear and tear of dealing with a young woman in denial of her own stage IV cancer, or a young boy who feels terminally un-loved, and the doctor's own travails over a malpractice suit, that this is no easy way to make a buck; there is no way to measure success, really, because you never know what will happen down the line and failure can all too easily be measured in gravestones. The thing to remember while watching In Treatment is that you're not watching Dr. Paul Weston - you're really watching a very capable Gabriel Byrne present a form of art that is meant to educate, amuse, involve and otherwise help fill the space between the dots while we all figure out what's ahead for us; whether our own personal series will be canceled, moved to another network, or renewed for another year.

It's all in the ratings, you know.

If it was anyplace other than Somalia, where the US Army was embarrassed 15 years ago in the infamous "Blackhawk Down" rescue attempt in Mogadishu that cost 18 US lives, I would say the outcome of this event is a forgone conclusion; that time is on the negotiators' side and it is to the US position's advantage to play out the drama as long as possible and then swap the hostage for some considerations for the captors. But there is danger in stringing it out too long, and after enough time has elapsed the hostage's well-being is at risk. In this context it is pretty clear to me that one night very soon US forces will open the proverbial can of whoop ass on these guys and teach them a lesson that will forever keep them away from US-flagged shipping. At least I hope so. Any resolution other than this is unacceptable and just further portrays the US as powerless at the hands of a band of criminals. Nobody feels that military matters are Obama's strong suite so it will be interesting to see how his administration manages this crisis. The world is watching and will take careful note of how this new "more reasonable" administration manages the denouement here, thus making it double important that the outcome not be in any way ambiguous, and the US not again be painted the "paper tiger" that Mao used to enjoy calling us. The only option is the military option and I am hoping he will use the military option to teach these criminals that they are not beyond the rule of law and that piracy on the open seas is punishable with extreme prejudice. Otherwise, consider this conclusion: Welcome to the 21st century where the mightiest nation can be held hostage by the poorest nation on the planet: Score at the end of seven innings: Somali Warlords 2, US Military 0. Not a good ending and one that would certainly invite a re-match.

Who killed JFK.

I was going to call this post "shamelessly exploitative," but decided on the above alteration of the NYT's famous motto: "All the news that's fit to print." Which is true, I guess, unless you live in Boston. Because it's clear the New England Newspapers unit of the Times Corporation: the Globe, Worcester Telegram and associated ancillary pubs is taking the heat for the NYT company's overall failure and is subject to closure, the Globe reports today, at the hands of those Yankees-loving wonks in NY who own them.

For the last two days the most important news in the land, according to the Globe, has been rumors of its own demise. They've broken out the big type, jump started the propaganda stream. They quote John Kerry, city and state officials, numerous plain Joes and Janes across the Commonwealth, about how losing the Globe would be an unrecoverable blow to New England as if Robert Frost had been found to have been from Europe or JFK was secretly from Brooklyn instead of Brookline.

Later this week Senator Kerry will begin hearings on the newspaper industry. This makes me wonder if he will propose some sort of supplementary payments (bailout?) or tax breaks for failing newspapers. Of course along with this comes the dyspepsia of thinking about the government and Fourth Estate joined at the umbilical cord. You really do have to wonder how free the press would be if the government had anything other than a hands-off relationship with the press. It would almost be a Constitutional issue for the government to take a position of any type in the newspaper business, and the precedent set in any "remedial" effort would lay groundwork for all types of media to wonder about getting help. There would be a stream of TV, Internet and radio entrepreneurs seeking to go on the dole, and the concept of an independent watchdog media would be history. (The current model of revenue coming from readers and advertisers is, itself, not without criticism. Advertising comes from the business community, which collectively is a stake holder in the viability of newspapers. Consequently some feel traditional newspapers have a "pro-business" slant.)

A private solution, such as the one the Globe's parent company accepted from a private investor is a much better way to go. Only recently a syndicate made up of retired ad agency head Jack Connors tried to buy the Globe. Maybe next time opportunity knocks somebody in Times Square will answer. Somehow, somewhere there is a business model that can make it work - and it needn't involve the government. It just requires capital and a fresh vision. It will be interesting to see what happens, and it will be good to see the Globe get back to reporting news rather than shameless self-serving propaganda masquerading as news.

In a perfect - nay, in a better universe, I would be in the midst of planning our annual trip to New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, last week of April, first week of May. And there's quite a bit there to behold this year, including some of my favorite local performers like The Iguanas, Neville Brothers, some guy named Neil Young, Jakob Dylan, John Boutte, Marcia Ball, Los Lobos and the Radiators, to name a few. Then there are those special foods and drinks you can only get at the racetrack there; little fried sacks of crawfish and sauce, wonderful mint and strawberry iced tea (which you drink a lot of) and of course - and not to be minimized, several brands of local beer including my favorite, Abita Amber. But the gods have conspired to take Jazzfest off the agenda this year; Jess is traveling on business (though actually may not on the second week of the fest), but all the same my impecunious position makes it really difficult to rationalize the expenditure, and I'm not sure it would work for Jess either given the tough month she has. It just might make more sense to buy a couple of CDs and a six of Abita, or maybe go to one of the local restaurants that specialize in New Orleans ambiance and cuisine.

We didn't live in New Orleans a terribly long time and losing our home in Katrina has made that era in our life especially bitter sweet. But there is an unmistakable draw to us still and tremendous affection for all the good that is there: good people, warm weather, and everything else everyone knows about; music, food and fun. Sadly those aspects of life in NOLA are frequently overshadowed by the poverty and crime and the ineffectiveness of city and state institutions that fail the people who could really use a hand. Out in Lakeview, where we had our home, I remember the breeze was often perfumed with the scent of flowers, or musty like the earth, and all about was an earthy sensuousness that aroused and delighted the senses.

I remember how taken aback I was last year riding in a cab down Poydras Street, one of the major streets in the CBD. We passed under an I-10 overpass and discovered a tent city of poor people, presumably still displaced from Katrina, and recently moved from their former Hooverville outside of City Hall. As President Obama has recently said, my feeling was that it was inconceivable that people in this "great nation" are homeless. George Bush, in my way of thinking, simply didn't care, ditto for Mayor Nagin and Governor Kathleen "drawing a blank" Blanco. New GOP hotshot Bobby Jindal, who replaced the former governor, is a rising right-wing star of the Sarah Palin post-Bush type: talks a good game but still is full of sound and fury. None of these people have helped the New Orleans poor and it is heart breaking to see humans living - well I was going to say like dogs, but all but the saddest stray lives better than these people. I certainly would like to visit and see that that blight has been taken care of in the last year, but even despite Brad and Angelina's best efforts, a new governor, that state still is more like the third world than the rest of the U.S. Scientists like to muse that New Orleans will probably break off and land in the Gulf soon anyway so one has to wonder whether rebuilding or evacuating is really the best longterm approach. (Me, I'd sell one nuclear submarine and fix the natural boundaries around the city so it would be protected from hurricanes and the sort of erosion that some say will eventually kill the city.)

New Orleans has never been easy but it always has held great beauty. I am sure its nickname "The Big Easy" is meant ironically because the only thing you can get there easily is trouble. This year we've talked a lot about the home we had to leave; I'm reading a Dave Robicheaux novel and watching movies to get my LA fix, but this year I'll have to settle for a bite from a muffuletta (in a moment of weakness we had several of the city's signature sandwiches Fedex'd to us) and an Abita Amber. No Big Easy fix this spring.

Amongst "my people" there is a saying that denotes yearning for the land from which we were disposessed, "Maybe next year in Jerusalem." Well, for me I might amend that to "Maybe next year in New Orleans." Add to that let's hope for a better life for the people who have had to suffer through some terrible times and a government's indifference and ineffectiveness. Laissez les bontemps rouler, baby! Maybe next year.....

Talk about boneheaded maneuvers. I didn't bother to check the expiration date on my passport so I was quite surprised when the Jet Blue check in clerk at Logan told me it had expired.....YESTERDAY and that we would not be able to board our flight for Cancun. And there we were, loaded to the gills for a trip to Mexico and me feeling like total shit. Not because I wasn't going to be able to go but predominantly because: A) It is an incredibly stupid thing to do, and B) I was really looking forward to spending time with my wife, relieving her of the stress of daily life, and enjoying time with her in a place we've previously visited and very much enjoyed. True, Jessica is a bit under the weather but she was soldiering on for this trip and I can not begin to say how badly I feel about this. I had recently checked my passport and made a mental note that it was not due for renewal for "quite some time." This is very uncharacteristic of me and hopefully not a harbinger of pending idiocy. Note: I did manage to go to the USPS this morning and apply for a new passport today. I hope to redeem myself somehow in the near future. I suppose getting a job, making a living akin to what I have in the past, and taking Jess someplace terrific would be a good beginning. But truth be told, she and I have grown closer and warmer in the last few months while I've not been working, and I would attribute a lot of that to an absence of a certain type of stress brought on by bad working conditions. Lesson to be learned: Except for the obvious financial repercussions, no job is better than bad job.