There’s a big difference between what I expect to happen during today’s elections and what I hope will happen, with most of my expectations focused on the federal elections and my hopes on the local and state elections here in Colorado. Here’s a quick rundown. Feel free to add your own hopes in the comments. Full story »

Today is a day for politics and all that signifies. I suppose, as dark as the times have been of late, we might be forgiven if we approach the polls with a bit of cynicism. Certainly many of our very greatest poets have shared our misgivings over the political forces that shape our lives and dictate our opportunities, including my personal hero, William Butler Yeats.

If you’d like to bolster your perspective, I recommend a quick trip over to The Agonist, where Bruce Jacobs has a Poem for Tuesday that’s exceptionally salient for the task ahead. Full story »

I don’t want to vote. That fairly well disgusts me, because i believe voting to be a responsibility and one that i’m both happy and proud to fulfill. Not that i take it too seriously. I once voted for Frank Zappa, and another time for the Communists (because they nominated two women and my other choice was Bill Clinton). In 2008 i voted for a Senate candidate who proudly noted that his campaign spent $400. I felt he represented spare change i could believe in. And one time i drove forty minutes to vote against George W. Bush even though i knew it wouldn’t matter, but i did it anyway. I generally look forward to the act. But now, it just seems pointless. Depressingly pointless.

We need a hell of a lot more than a rally to restore sanity.

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The Black Ryder is touring the U.S. right now as the openers for The Cult. We’ll be hearing more about them on S&R later this month. In the meantime, here’s one of their tunes, “Sweet Come Down.”

This video could be straight out of a Cormac McCarthy novel.

“I am not fit for this office and should never have been here.” Who said it? Full story »

Intelligent, civil discourse died this political season. It has been slain by a ruling class eager to make us fear what we don’t know, to hate whom or what we do not understand. And that class, consisting of perhaps 400 individuals or families, has succeeded beyond its most selfish dreams.

Come Tuesday, voter turnout will be low. Pundits will offer reasons: mid-terms draw fewer voters; voters are too busy; voters are turned off by “complicated” issues; voters can’t find the truth amid the shouting and naysaying. Or no one really gives a damn.

The House and Senate may switch poles from blue to red; it will not matter. Discourse is dead.
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Last Friday, I received one of those automated calls that has in the last two months given me the illusion of having lots of friends. This one was about a Tennessee politician named Ty Cobb, and what a miserable Democrat/alleged human being he was, and why I should vote for his opponent, Sheila Butt (real names, I promise).

I found the experience confusing for several reasons. First, I assumed Ty Cobb was a great, but dead, baseball player, and given his penchant for sharpening his cleats to maim second basemen and his all-around foul disposition, I always assumed he was a Republican. I mean, he had balls. Second, I haven’t lived in Tennessee for five years, so I’m getting twice as many of these calls as my fellow Connecticutters. Some people might think that’s unfair, but to me it’s glorious. Full story »

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Palau is one of those “Oh yeah” places.

Palau? “Oh yeah, that’s where they had the Survivor thing several years ago.” “Oh yeah, that’s where they shipped those terrorists from Gitmo.” Or if you’re of another generation, “Oh yeah, that’s where U.S. intelligence messed up in WWII and a three day mop-up turned into a three month hand to hand battle and 12,000 men died.”

Palau lies just above the equator underneath the Philippines in what is known as Micronesia. To get to Palau from Chicago requires five flights. To Houston, Honolulu, Guam, Yap and finally Korer, Palau. 29 hours. Korer is not quite the end of the earth, but the boat to the end of the earth leaves from there. Once every two months, a supply boat from Korer goes to the tiniest of the 18 or so Palaun states, Sonsorol Island, 400 miles south and home to only a few dozen people. Full story »