1 post from 2006

...to start blogging. Situations in Iraq, Iran, North Korea, and the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have the Bush Administration looking more powerless and disorganized than ever. If George W et al were traveling a path of intentionality a la Ronald Reagan, one could still fathom sincere loyalties. Nowadays the Right's agenda depends on cynicism for the direction and superstition for the strength. However else you may have responded to Reagan, you couldn't pity him–at least not while he had his hands on the levers of the state. With George W, pity is not only a reasonable emotional response, but perhaps the only one that right wingers and leftists might at times share.

In the July Artforum, Bruce Sterling writes that not even Faulkner could get any more Southern gothic than what he calls 'the red state crowd.' This was brought home when I read that one of Ken Lay's old pals, former Houston Mayor Bob Lanier, frightened guests at Lay's memorial service when he collapsed with a cry and had to be rushed to the hospital. Christ, I thought, can this melodrama be real? When will it end? And will it further drive up prices at the pump? That's the thing. These people's emotional lives inform their exercise of power, whether they realize it or not. The thought of the Bush/Cheney-Lay/Delay-axis having feelings does not comfort me.

Anyway, here we go.