Thoughts and musings (4)

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Okay, first thing I'd like you to do is read - or reread - the previous blog. (pause) That concludes the homework assignment.  Now we'll discuss.  I know that some of you are groaning when liberals like me are rehashing The Donald ad infinitum.  And yeah, that is me.  However,  I do respect intelligent Republicans and Democrats.   Lately, I've had a whole slew of people - George Will, David Cay Johnston, and Tony Schwartz  - in my blog list.  They are all Republican.  And they all despise The Donald.

I beg of you, please.  Click www.senate.gov and tell them to say NO to this 'health care' idiocy. Is what we have (ObamaCare) perfect?  Nah. But it's a damn sight better than Donald's Little Nightmare.

- Emily

Thoughts and musings (3)

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You can't not be a political being, even when you're announcing that you're not a political being.

-  Ali Smith

from The Paris Review

Sometimes, you're lucky enough to hit upon a bit of serendipity, a bit of luck.   I was reading an essay by Ali Smith, a writer of poetry and prose.  Ms. Smith is a bookish sort, or at least those are the feelings that you'll be left with after reading her conversation.  However, in the latter course of conversing, she talks of "political being(s)".  I thought about that, rereading the short line, and then smiled.  

How do we handle this brief life?  I see many people who are perfectly content with skimming the newspaper or the same in a computer, but after about five minutes, they move on to other areas of life.  Considering how hectic life is, it's understandable.  Ah, but now enter the Age of Trump.  I honestly don't understand how one can withstand this blithering fool and not carry a sign in front of the Capitol or city hall.

We all have one day less.  For god's sake, make it worth it.

-  Emily

Thoughts and musings (2)

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We all live in extraordinary times.  In 1997, the movie Ma Vie en Rose was out, but save for a few crusaders, this film was definitely not for the popcorn crowd.  In much of the United States, it still isn't. The difference is, though, is that much of the transgender community is now knocking, knocking, incessantly knocking.  Which is why it's so sad to see Transgender On Screen by John Phillips.   I had hoped I would come back having read a thoughtful book.  What I got, despite its dense read, was a decidedly unintelligent tome.

I will grant Phillips this:  the book came out in 2008, giving him a bit of breathing room.  However, when I consider Alain Berliner's masterwork. it's not easy to forgive Philipps.  What he tries to do - unsuccessfully -  is to slap Jacques Lacan's papers on it.  And when did Lacan die?  In 1981.  Shit, I wasn't out of high school yet.  I don't wish to go so far as some critics do by painting him with the 'cult of Lacan', but I do have to say that he was a man of his time - not ours.

- Emily