Ideological State Apparatuses

One way of understanding how the groundwork for the current Republican party and Administration was laid: Faith, Family and America's Future

Ten Years Later: "All-Star Day Daydreaming"

cryptonaut-in-exile: All-Star Day Daydreaming

I'd like nothing more than for Blake and Amelia's first big league game to be at Fenway one summer between 2011 and 2013 ... that first site of a ballpark in the sunshine after coming out of a dark tunnel, while holding their dad's hand -- that's a feeling I can't wait to give them.

Haven't done one of these Ten Years Later posts in a while, so flipped back to July, 2008 and it turns out I only posted once that month and it was about baseball and fatherhood, two things still very much on my mind. The latter all the time, the former reaching a fever pitch here at the All Star break with the Sox looking like they're going to battle the Yankees down to wire, with both built to make deep playoff runs this year.

We didn't make it to Fenway with the kids until this summer, about six years behind schedule, but it was worth the wait. We saw a terrific game -- the Sox won 6-0 behind homers by J.D. Martinez and Bogaerts -- and had the added bonus of being able to go with my brother's family.

This may be the last photo taken where I'm still taller than my son :P

The kids got to go with their aunt, uncle, and cousins to their first game at Fenway.

Baseball-wise, it's been a heck of a summer. The Red Sox are raking and have a 4.5 game lead at the All Star break. Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez have been electric, and I've seen more grand slams this year than I can remember seeing in a while. Mookie and Bogaerts in the week leading up to the break, no less. I always have an excuse why I'm behind on my Doctor Who blogging and my reading; for a while it's been the fact I run pretty much everyday, and that's a big chunk of my free time, but we've also got the MLB season pass so I only miss the Sox games when they play Baltimore and Washington due to the ludicrous blackout situation here in North Carolina, a state without a big league team.

Speaking of the DW blogging, I've got a bunch of skeleton posts for classic and new series stories in my drafts folder that'll get another pass and get published eventually, but it's likely the next to go live will be a reaction post when the new series starts up in the fall.

On the anniversary of 9/11

On the anniversary of 9/11: 

For me, 9/11 will always be a time of tremendous fear, stifling conformism, forced patriotism, and vicious nationalism. Which is why I’ve always found the claim that Trump represents a new authoritarianism, even fascism, to be so fanciful and false. There was a moment in the recent memory of this country when dissent really was stifled ... [W]hen intellectuals and journalists and academics dutifully—and shamefully—performed their parts in the Gleichschaltung of the moment, instructing the unreconstructed among us to understand that we were living in a new age when all the old truths no longer held. Thankfully, the intensity of that moment didn’t last too long—the fiasco in Iraq did it in—though we’re still living with its consequences today. But, yeah, when I hear about the unprecedented authoritarianism of Trump, I think to myself: either you weren’t around after 9/11 or you were part of the problem. -- Corey Robin

My kids -- 6th graders -- learned a little bit about the September 11, 2001 attacks again yesterday. Some of their teachers lost family and friends at the World Trade Center. They were moved to tears by the accounts they heard. They've learned a little bit about 9/11 each of the last couple years at school. Which, is OK ... here comes the "but," but they don't learn nearly enough and I'm afraid they're getting entirely the wrong lesson out of what they are taught.

I remember where I was. I, too, will #NeverForget. (Here it comes again ...) But, I know that 9/11 is also the anniversary of the U.S.-backed coup that overthrew the democratically elected government of Chile in 1973. Even though I don't remember where I was that day -- I was, after all, only 2 years old -- in terms of what it means to be American, to understanding our place in the world and how things got to be the way they are, knowing about Allende is, at the very least, as important as paying tribute to the victims of the 2001 attack on us. Yet, I doubt many 6th graders have ever heard about Allende at school, or have a good understanding how the memory of the victims of the 2001 attacks is used to justify 16 years and counting of war on Afghanistan, how it whitewashes what we've been doing in Iraq and around the Middle East since. Never mind what the self-proclaimed "leader of the free world" had been doing in the Middle East prior. Have they heard the phrase "they hate our freedoms" yet? I don't know, but the thought they probably have is chilling. Chilling, because I know they haven't been taught that our wealthy elites are the ones who demonstrably hate our freedoms and exercise the power to do something about it. And, just as importantly, American oligarchs, like their Russian confrères, hate the freedoms of anyone in the world that stands in the way of their ability to maximize profit.

Allende supporters. Image via Wikipedia.

N.B.

HELLO pic.twitter.com/B2YADtlg5l

— Erin G. 👩🏼‍🌾 (@ErinGoudreau) September 11, 2017

Listen to Supes

This 60 year old poster should go up in schools today. http://pic.twitter.com/FtkxOi9HJS

— jared nieters (@jarednieters) November 11, 2016

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Monopoly is tedious. We can introduce our kids to better games!

Stop playing Monopoly with your kids (and play these games instead): https://t.co/3QvjFpqYO2 http://pic.twitter.com/j90FLJokzU

— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) March 7, 2016

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Dog Will Show You How

i have so much respect for this dog http://pic.twitter.com/Qp0GS4M1I4

— libby watson (@libbycwatson) January 26, 2016

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Questions worth asking: "Nobody seemed to react to it much at all. Why was that?"

Hullabaloo: We need to do nuance

Image via Biotical

' ... During the interview Adkisson stated that he had targeted the church because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of major media outlets.'

I didn't see a lot of people showing solidarity with the folks who were killed in that church for their religious and political beliefs or declaring war on the people who held such ideas. Nobody seemed to react to it much at all. Why was that? 

July 27 is anniversary of the 2008 attack on liberal church by a conservative ideologue. For context, digby's post was published shortly after the attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and several months before the Charleston shooting. Not once in all the coverage of Charleston did I hear reference to this shooting, despite the similarities in motivation. This shooters hatred may be somewhat more diffuse, incorporating liberals and gays, as well as blacks:

Inside the house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly. [Knoxville News Sentinel]

Two died and seven were wounded in the attack on the TVUUC. Let's remember the heroism of Greg McKendry (who died because he deliberately stood in front of the gunman to protect others), as well as John Bohstedt, Robert Birdwell, Arthur Bolds, Terry Uselton, and Jamie Parkey, who restrained the gunman. Remember, too, that Linda Kraeger was the other life lost in the attack.

Remember. And keep asking: why is it ever socially acceptable to vilify liberals, atheists, gays, blacks, or any other group? Why do media outlets that routinely give white supremacists, theocrats, fascists, and other hate group representatives a platform continue to enjoy broad support? Why are there still Confederate flags flying anywhere?  Why are there textbooks used by public schools that claim white supremacy and slavery were only side issues in the Civil War while utterly ignoring Jim Crow and the KKK?

Maybe, just maybe, if we stop teaching kids to hate, and giving cover to their hatred when they're adults, we can all get on the same page and work towards justice for all.

New ☆ Tweet from @KalvinMacleod

Adulthood is just seeing how much you can get done while tired.

— Very Hungry Kalvin (@KalvinMacleod) June 13, 2015

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New ☆ Tweet from @DanMentos

"Son I need to tell you about the birds and the bees" Dad I'm 18 "I know but-" I'm going to my room *room is covered in honey and bird shit*

— dan mentos (@DanMentos) May 18, 2015

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Confederacy of Dunces

Confederate flag photo upsets Chapel Hill students | abc11.com

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WTVD) -- Concerned parents told ABC11 Monday that a photo posted to the social media site Instagram has upset many students.

The picture was allegedly taken by an East Chapel Hill High School student. It shows two girls waving confederate flags. The person who posted the picture included the caption "South will rise."

Under that, someone commented "Already bought my first slave."

The school confirmed to ABC11 the photo was taken in Gettysburg during a school trip focused on the Civil War a few weeks ago.

Update: I saw a comment on the ABC11 post about how the person who posted "no, no" was one of the girls in the photo, who was horrified that people started posting racist stuff and didn't realize what that flag signified to some people. I think it's very possible OP didn't mean to make a racist statement, only to show a picture from their class trip. I also assumed the comments shown were by friends or fellow students, and represented a common attitude. This may well not be the case.  Again, I think it's important the school be very careful about it addresses this with the students, and doesn't hold them accountable for what more explicitly racists commenters on their post said.

Disgusting. Stupid. But ... does the school need to be involved in disciplining the kids who are in and took this picture? My first thought is this is something the kids' friends and parents should be able to deal with. That it happened on school trip and now East Chapel Hill High looks like a neo-Confederate enclave to the rest of the country, so they've got their reputation to consider.

I highlighted in the screengrab because what I'd have liked to have seen happen is for the kids's peers to have schooled them, publicly so that when the picture came down, we'd know it was because they were truly ashamed. I bet you would've seen the 'likes' come off as people realized what fools they looked like.

Hopefully, the lesson was learned.

As a parent raising kids in North Carolina, I hope we're teaching our kids to be the ones with the courage to publicly say "no, no" if (it's NC, so more likely when) they have classmates that do stupid crap like this some day.

Amelia Earhart's Last Words

Last Words - Futility ClosetFutility Closet: 

May 20, 1928

Dearest Dad:

Hooray for the last grand adventure! I wish I had won, but it was worth while anyway. You know that.

I have no faith we’ll meet anywhere again, but I wish we might.

Anyway, good-by and good luck to you.

Affectionately, your doter,

Mill

This blog's 15th blogiversary is coming up soon ... it's had me going back and surfing the archives again. The exercise gets me thinking, "If this blog outlives me, what will it say to my kids about their dad?"  (It also reminds me I'm never as clever as I sometimes think I am, nor do I always communicate what I intend very well. ~groans~ )

My daughter is named Amelia, in part, because I hoped that tiny baby would grow up to be her own woman -- with the courage to explore, and to live her life to make herself happy.

She's 8-years-old now. I hope she knows already, and I never let her forget, that whatever adventure she chooses, I'll fight for her. If it's worth it to her, then it's worth it to me. I know that.

Religious upbringing impairs critical faculties

Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Backgrounds

Image via Parent Information Center

Abstract
In two studies, 5- and 6-year-old children were questioned about the status of the protagonist embedded in three different types of stories. In realistic stories that only included ordinary events, all children, irrespective of family background and schooling, claimed that the protagonist was a real person. In religious stories that included ordinarily impossible events brought about by divine intervention, claims about the status of the protagonist varied sharply with exposure to religion. Children who went to church or were enrolled in a parochial school, or both, judged the protagonist in religious stories to be a real person, whereas secular children with no such exposure to religion judged the protagonist in religious stories to be fictional. Children's upbringing was also related to their judgment about the protagonist in fantastical stories that included ordinarily impossible events whether brought about by magic (Study 1) or without reference to magic (Study 2). Secular children were more likely than religious children to judge the protagonist in such fantastical stories to be fictional. The results suggest that exposure to religious ideas has a powerful impact on children's differentiation between reality and fiction, not just for religious stories but also for fantastical stories.

A Visit to House in the Horseshoe #LivingHistory

NC Historic Sites - House in the Horseshoe: 

In spring and summer, bright flowers surround this plantation house named for its location on a horseshoe bend in the Deep River. The house (ca. 1770) was owned by Philip Alston, whose band of colonists seeking independence from Britain was attacked here in 1781 during the American Revolution by British loyalists led by David Fanning.

Took my son for a long-ish drive out of Fuquay into the back country (some Triangle residents may be cocking an eyebrow thinking Fuquay is 'the back country') to see a Revolutionary War battle re-enactment at the historic Alston House out in Sanford, NC.  I'll let the links tell the story but, in brief, Alston house was the site of a skirmish between Fanning's Loyalists and a Patriot militia led by Philip Alston. The house came within a straw cart's breadth of being burnt down in the battle. Alston's militia surrendered though, the house was spared, and remains today as one of the few houses where a Revolutionary War battle was fought that still stands.

It was a beautiful summer day; the weather cooperated splendidly. Hot in the sun, there were plenty of great old trees around the property providing shade and a steady breeze to keep us from overheating. Born in Connecticut, I'm not easily impressed by colonial era housing and historic markers with dates like 1761 affixed. They were a dime-a-dozen in our neck of the woods. Heck, my father lived in one of those old houses for a while, complete with low ceilings, bowing floors, and latches on the doors. This house, while not spectacular, is in a scenic location, is generally well-preserved -- it was the house of Governor Benjamin Williams (1799-1802, 1807-1808) -- and has the distinguishing characteristic of being riddled with musket ball holes.

The friendly and knowledgeable support staff and the re-enactors deserve hearty congratulations for putting together an informative and enjoyable event. We had a great time and so too did the large crowd out at the house for the day.

The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances - "You lot! Lots to do. Save the world. Beat the Germans. And don't forget the welfare state!"

The Empty Child - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Season 1, Story 9 (Overall Series Story #164a)

Dr. Sandifer has posted about this two-parter recently, so this is bound to end up being sort of reaction to not only the episode but to his take on it as well. Which may mean I'll just be sort of sitting here nodding my head in agreement, wondering what I might possibly add. Not to steal his thunder, but basically what I'm going to be trying to work through and around is how this episode, Moffat's first writing for the series, deals with the theme of sexual freedom. So, I suppose as a good a place as any to start to is with the question, "Is that really a good idea for a show that's ostensibly for children?"

Is this the guy you want teaching your kids about sexual freedom?
Yes, actually.

If the story of this episode and it's conclusion is really about sexual freedom, being open and honest about your emotions and desires might be another way to phrase that, then part one is basically the flirting. Here the atmosphere is set, the champagne poured, so to speak, but we don't have all the information yet, maybe a hunch about the stuff that matters, and Capt. Jack Harkness does at least disclose that he's, in fact, a con man before the real peril ratchets up.

But back to the question I started with. Yes, it is a good idea, because while the subtext of sexual desire and freedom is there -- and not very subtext-y when Rose is aboard Capt. Jack's ship -- it's not steamy or anything, it's the kind of awkward boy/girl stuff that the kids like the ones sitting around the table at Nancy's air-raid dinner party will already have started coping with. For kids at the upper end of the tween years (call it 12-14 or so), in other words kids who we can reasonably expect will want to watch this, it's wholly reasonable for them to be exposed to entertainment that isn't sexually graphic, but openly acknowledges that there are those feelings and there are different ways to handle them. Some healthy, some unhealthy, but the first step in deciding which is which is to acknowledge and accept them. Then, it's a matter of being smart about them.

Not to turn this into Don't Be a Teen Mom Theater, because it's really not. This story isn't an after-school special movie of the week. What's happening here is far more subtle. The plot here deals with a group of homeless kids trying to survive the Blitz, while an alien tech-infected young boy serves as a sort of zombie stand-in to provide the source of the creepy that powers all the darkened homes, alleyways, and hospital wards. In other words, it's another Base-Under-Siege story, where London is under siege by the Nazis, and this group of homeless kids is under siege by a spooky gas mask-faced zombie kid, who could actually be the larger threat. Let's just have it in the back of our minds that Nancy's relation to the Empty Child may not be what it's billed, and the introduction of Capt. Jack tell us the human side of this story suggest there's another level to think about beyond the mechanics of breaking the siege.

There's also the meta level of this whole having-dance-be-a-metaphor-for-sex thing, because this is the series telling us that the Doctor we're seeing is the PG-rated Doctor, but what we're being told about a Doctor who "dances," well, that's not exactly our classic series Doctor, that's the Doctor in the R-rated movie who gets the girl. Torchwood will eventually be the adult version of Doctor Who, so they're not going that far here, but RTD & co. are flirting with mature themes in a way that the classic series never touched as far as I recall.

Before turning to part two, and apropos of nothing, let's observe Eccleston for a moment.

Marxism in action or a West End musical? *ponders*

So, one of the things I do while I'm watching these is try to pause and capture a still at a moment that strikes me as significant in some way. In doing this, I noticed that it's often quite difficult to capture an image of Eccleston, even in a scene where he's smiling, where he doesn't look a bit dark and sinister. Like in the one above I've captured just before he makes kind of a funny face to hit the comedic beat. But the funny face he pulls, when I try to get it, it doesn't look so funny. Absent of context, I'm not sure what emotion we'd label this face with but 'I just made and airy wisecrack to lighten the mood' is probably not the first that comes to mind.

Eccleston just cracked a joke, makes a 'funny' face.

Next episode, when he gets to celebrate the "Everybody lives!" moment (so, yeah, spoilers) that face looks like a villain's "Everybody dies!" face. In a way, it's kind of cool, that effect. The Doctor is alien and Eccleston, in thin slices, I think gives loads of subconscious not-the-emotion-you-were-expecting data for our minds to process. My hunch, it's the reason fandom didn't connect with him the same way they would with Tennant down the line. Just an observation after clicking rewind and pause a bunch of times in player.

---

The Doctor Dances - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Season 1, Story 10 (Overall Series Story #164b)

"Are you my mummy?"

Nancy needs to tell the Empty Child, that yes, she is is his mummy. Otherwise those nanogenes the Empty Child is commanding are going to re-write humanity in his distorted image.

She does. She tells him and her honesty, her willingness to be be a young, single mother in 1940s London, is what saves the world.

A surprising number of the individual images in this one are  dead sinister.
Image via doctorwho.tumblr.com

I'd forgotten how explicit Moffat had been in making it clear that "dancing" means "sex". You really can't call it subtext at all. Humanity is going to go out into the universe and dance with lots of other species, the Doctor tells Rose. Capt. Jack is, after all, a 51st century guy. Why should our hangups be his?

The Doctor and Rose do ending up dancing in this one, even though there first go at it is interrupted by Capt. Jack. I mean they dance dance, of course, not dance-is-code-for-"dance"-dancing, just regular dancing to the Glenn Miller Orchestra. But it seem clear what RTD, Moffat & Co. have done here is prepare us for the fact this is 21st century Doctor Who we're watching and this Doctor can dance if he wants to.

The structure of the two-parter, sort of by necessity, means the first episode is rising action with no resolution, and the second half gets to tie up the loose ends but is falling action, which leaves it feeling a little less visceral than the first. The other tricky navigation here is the Doctor-Rose-Jack dynamic, where it's a little unsettling to see the Doctor seeming to take a backseat to the more square-jawed, generically handsome Jack Harkness, and get called out for being a bit jealous. Jealousy is an emotion that's attractive on exactly nobody; the Doctor may have tweakable ears and a big nose but he's the star of the show and -- while we want to like Jack -- as fans of Doctor Who, we expect the Doctor to be the leading man in the TARDIS.

We've see the Doctor hailed a few times in the new series, think the cheering throngs in "The Next Doctor", and that's something I think we feel can be cathartic. There's only so much of that we can abide though before it's schmaltzy. The Doctor's joy at having a day where everybody lives though, in the privacy of his TARDIS with Rose, that feels right.

Because lying to kids about science and calling it education is tantamount to child abuse.

Old Earth, Young Minds: Evangelical Homeschoolers Embrace Evolution - David R. Wheeler - The Atlantic: 

...  [W]hatever their reason for homeschooling, evangelical families who embrace modern science are becoming more vocal about it -- and are facing the inevitable criticism that comes with that choice. "We get a lot of flak from others for not using Christian textbooks," Warton says.

I added the "Trust, but verify," speech bubble after trying to cram in a response to the injunction on the wall in the background: "Trust in the Lord ... except when it comes to science, history, ethics and morality, or anything relating to matters of fact. But, apart from those things, knock yourself out."

Parent of child killed by a semi-automatic weapon wishes killer had an automatic weapon instead?!

Parents Of Massacre Victims United In Grief, Divided On Gun Control - Courant.com: 

James Mattioli, 6. 

Mattioli, one of the Sandy Hook parents, said he thinks the political left has tried to make the public believe that the semiautomatic Bushmaster rifle used in the killings was a fully automatic machine gun, which puts out a spray of bullets when the trigger is pulled once and held. "I'll tell you, I wish it had been, because it would be quick and over and I wouldn't have to deal with the nightmare of what it actually probably was," Mattioli said.

I don't know what to make of this. James Mattioli was one of the kids killed in the massacre. His father has testified that "the left" has tried to make the public think the Bushmaster is a fully automatic weapon ... something I have never seen in my reading of the coverage ... and wishes the killer actually had used a fully automatic weapon?!  So his son could have been shot more? So more kids could have been shot even quicker.

I can't imagine the grief of those parents. That said, I can't imagine wishing the killer had a fully automatic instead, no matter how much faster (and therefore more mercifully?) it would have enabled him to kill my child.

I don't understand. I want to empathize. I want to understand. We have to be able to to talk to each other to solve the problems we face as a society, but that statement ... It makes me want to cry, not talk.

Don't even get me started on the peanut gallery that cried out "Shall not infringe!" when asked by another parent why they needed semi-automatic weapons with high capacity clips. "Shall not infringe!" does not answer the question. Lawrence O'Donnell explains.

[Update: Thanks to +Ben Hibben for being willing to take up the discussion, and for making some elucidating comments, over on G+]

Papercraft is not this dad's strong suit. #StormtrooperFAIL

Source: Uploaded by user via cdogzilla on Pinterest

Well, I tried. But once one storm trooper's head is irreversibly damaged, there's no point continuing.

"All you need is paper and an x-acto knife," they said, "piece of cake," they said.

Go ahead and have at it if if you think it's so easy ...

Tennessee, where it's still 1925 and we have to fight the same battles over and over. #secularism

Tennessee School Officials Post Ten Commandments in County Schools:

1925 may as well be 2012.
Image via TN History for Kids! (Where Darwin's theory is still controversial!)

This community cares nothing about its children because they would rather throw taxpayer money toward fighting an unnecessary legal battle instead of spending it on the children in the district. It’s irresponsible and selfish. Residents should be ashamed of their elected officials.

Absent accountability, theocratic goons will continue to abuse their authority. Sadly, none of them will lose their jobs or face punitive damages that would dissuade other proselytizers from trying the same thing. The residents should be ashamed, but they're not, maybe but for an isolated few. Secularism isn't understood, never mind appreciated as an American value, because -- in  large part -- the public schools those kids' parents went to failed them.

Jamestown, TN, where this is playing out, is about 80 miles, from Dayton, TN. More than close enough to the site of the Scopes Trial that these people should know better.

Where's Clarence Darrow when we need him?

Rick "America's Worst Governor" Scott: sacrificing the 1st Amendment on the altar of the 2nd.

The Plan to Muzzle Doctors Over Guns | Mother Jones: 

Doctors have long been permitted to ask patients about other risk factors, like smoking and drinking (and patients, of course, have long had the freedom to lie about their bad habits). But asking about guns is different, say backers of the law, which could cost offending doctors their medical licenses and a $10,000 fine.

Hey, Floridians, doctors aren't trying to take your guns away; they are trying to make you aware of the risk factor you have brought into your home. They'll probably put it much more delicately than the facts warrant: if you are a parent that keeps a gun the same house as your child, you are an irresponsible, dangerously ignorant parent.

Funny, isn't it, how these same clowns who pretend to be so concerned about a "government takeover of health care" are the ones most in favor of the government taking over health care and preventing doctors from having open and honest conversations with their patients?

School rejects 3-year-old because parents are gay, but is happy to accept federal funding.

School rejects 3-year-old because parents are gay | Albuquerque News - KOAT Home: 

To shroud your kids in ignorance,
fail to prepare them for the modern world,
and send them forth as bigoted regressives,
to ensure the world never changes for the better.

“Same gender couples are inconsistent with scriptural lifestyle and biblical teachings,” and "Home life doesn't reflect the school's belief of what a biblical family lifestyle is.” 

The letter also says since the school is private, it is free from "excessive government interference in matters of religion." 

Oh really. Free from government interference, but happy to take $60,000 in federal funds this year.

That's our tax money, folks. Funding intolerance, bigotry, discrimination, and (no doubt) shoddy education.

Parents, you're better off sending your kids someplace else anyways. That school sucks.

Federal funded bigotry from my home town, Albuquerque. This one hits home: towleroad.com/2012/07/nmnoho…
— Neil Patrick Harris (@ActuallyNPH) July 31, 2012