Marcus' World

March Madness Report

Once again I've won the Banks-Ip household NCAA March Madness pool.  I predicted Florida-OSU in the final, which is an orthodox formulation.  That wild woman Helen envisioned a North Carolina-Oregon finale.

I have OSU winning it all against Florida, but that's sentimental since Ohio State lost so badly to Florida in the football championship game three months ago.  I'm not nearly as much of an Ohio State fan as I was growing up.  Nevertheless, that football game hurt. 

In an apparent belief in karmic justice, I hope OSU wins this time around. But even if Ohio State loses, I can't wait to enjoy my pool victory outing to ChikaLicious!

Democracy for DC!

Major Marty Stroodler has an interesting thread going about the lack of full federal representation for residents of the District of Columbia.  This was prompted by Bill's take on the issue a few days earlier.  Although Marty has promised a "series" of perspectives on this topic, right now Bill and I are the main participants.

Helen and I lived in Washington DC for two years, and it was discomforting to realize that our US Congressional "delegate" had no voting authority on the floor of the House, and that we had no senators at all.  During those years, I became a fan of "retrocession"--rolling most of the District back  into Maryland, as  per the  original plan.   Keep a "federal quarter" along Pennsylvania Avenue, where no regular citizen could maintain an official residence, and the problem is solved.

Pleasure of the President

MarkD's response to my last post was spot on.  The US attorney purge orchestrated by Attorney General Gonzales is certainly not "trivial."  My own revulsion at the death penalty--which Gonzales facilitated vigorously in Texas, in his pre-purge days--caused me to minimize the gravity of this scandal.

In Congressional testimony today, Gonzales's former chief of staff Kyle Sampson contradicted Gonzales's claim that he was not very involved in the purge.  So one of them has to be lying, and my money's in Gonzales.  On the other hand, Sampson did support Gonzales's contention that these were proper firings because the eight attorneys involved failed to sustain the "pleasure of the president." 

With any other administration, Republican or Democratic, this might be believable. With the Bush administration, it's not.

But as the nation's legal foundation withers, at least we can still laugh.  Leave it to Matt and Jill to point out the great absurdity of the phrase "pleasure of the president."

Time for Gonzales to Go

The clock is ticking for our current attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, who never realized that he now represents the people of the United States rather than only President George W. Bush.

I haven't liked Gonzales ever since I learned how callous he was about the frequent use of the death penalty in Texas, when W was the governor.  He rubber stamped decisions that led straight to the executioner's chamber, despite having the opportunity (and cause) to slow down the train.

So in that light, this matter of firing US attorneys because they were not sufficiently loyal to the President seems trivial.  But whatever it takes--it's time for Gonzales to go.

Five Blogs

Jane, inspired by the Liminal Librarian, is curious about the five non-library blogs that librarian bloggers read regularly.  In thinking about this today, I realized that my perusal of the blogosphere has contracted over time.  I just seem to visit the same few places again and again, so obviously I need to get out more.  But I can barely cobble together a list of five blogs, if we count those I used to read regularly but have let slide (see # 4 below).

Here goes:

1. Ezra Klein--The delightful and educational blog of the current writing fellow for the American Prospect
2. Before--The idiosyncratic and infrequently updated web log of one of my oldest friends, Bill Cash.
3. Huffington Post--A meta-blog led by the one and only Arianna Huffington
4. PressThink--NYU professor Jay Rosen's  activist perspective  on the evolution of the media.
5. T. Scott--This one's pushing it, because Scott's blog has maintained a strong focus on librarianship  of late. But back in the day, he would write about anything.

Four Years Later, No End in Sight

While Washington is consumed with the political shenanigans of our hapless Attorney General, we have entered the fourth year of our futile occupation of Iraq.  Much of what has transpired--the lack of WMD anywhere in the country, a protracted and bitter occupation--was evident in 2003, despite contrary claims by the administration.

On WMD, here's Director Mohamed ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency before the United Nations on January 27 2003, less than two months before the war began: "We have to date found no evidence that Iraq has resumed its nuclear weapons programme...However, our work is steadily progressing and should be allowed to run its natural course."  Of course, inspections were aborted prematurely so that the war could begin.   

On the protracted occupation, I once again recommend reading "Blind into Baghdad" by James Fallows. This article is more than 3 years old, and it was already clear then that Iraq was a "debacle."

I'm not even sure why I'm writing this, except to express my continued outrage at a terrible war that has wrecked many families (US and Iraqi) while making the world less safe.    

Ahh...Youth

I'm turning 30 Sunday--not very old, but somehow I feel older.  As the day approaches, I've realized that I've totally lost my earnest idealism.

At the NYU School of Medicine right now, many students are outraged because pharmaceutical companies manipulate the drug information they receive.  One student even wrote to the Curriculum Committee that he was "sick to his stomach" about the deceit of the companies.  So some of the librarians are thinking about how to work with students who desire honest drug information.

That's all good.  But in talking with my colleagues, we all noticed the "gulf between the years" as we read the student's email.  It was hard not to smile at his naked idealism. I could easily envision myself writing such a message several years ago, and I know I would never write it today.  It's too absurd! Too patently naive! 

But...the kid is right.

So where has the passion gone? After a few lost battles, most people reluctantly come to terms with the fact that there are many deeply wrong things in this world which are almost impossible to change.  Sure--you can sign a petition, march in a rally, call your Congressional representative, or send money to the activist group of your choice.  You can do all of the above, repeatedly. Humans will still be inhuman to each other, and powerful interests (not just drug companies) will still work to maintain their own advantage at the expense of the common good.

That's pretty dreary; I promise not to sadden our idealistic students with this bleak assessment.  Now that I've reached the "Big 3-0,"  I'm trying to reclaim some of my idealism while tempering it with a dash of "wisdom." 

Small victories matter; that's the wisdom.  The folly of youth is in wanting to fix everything instantly, with one  bold stroke.  But the glory of youth is in actually believing this is possible.

March Madness

The NCAA men's basketball tournament roared to life tonight. As usual, Helen and I have a private pool going on.  The loser treats the winner to dessert at ChickaLicious. So there's really no way to lose.

I'm not sure why we've stumbled into this tradition, but it's fun. We pay much less attention to college basketball than college football. So when the brackets roll out, we look at the seeds and hope for the best.  Helen gets very anxious game-by-game whenever the team she picked is losing; I simply look forward to dessert.

Bartleby the Scrivener

In high school, we read Melville's novella "Bartleby the Scrivener." Bartleby has his own Wikipedia page today, but this was not true when Melville wrote the story in 1853.

For this who have not read it--It's the tale of a scrivener  (law clerk, in essence) in New York City who only does the work he wants to do.  "I prefer not to" is Bartleby's usual response to direct requests from his superior.  And Bartleby often retreats into a deep reverie that nothing can penetrate.  His boss never fires him, because he has a great deal of pity for Bartleby (which results in assigning an unfair share of work to Bartleby's fellow scriveners.)  Bartleby sleeps  at the office, and by all accounts never leaves.  Eventually the boss moves to another building to get away from Bartleby, leaving the remote man alone.  After that point, tragedy ensues.

It's a sad tale, although quite funny in the earlier passages.  During high school my friend Bill and I had no idea what to make of this odd story.  It was absolutely absurd that somebody would act like Bartleby. At the time I filed it away as just one of those things you have to read in order to graduate.

Last night I attended my monthly book club, at McNally Robinson  Booksellers in SoHo. There on the shelf was a handsome stand-alone edition of Bartleby.  I tried to resist, but soon I was engrossed. What a fascinating account of someone who is not equipped for the rigors of this world! What an ode to New York City! (At one point Bartleby's boss is standing at the corner of Canal and Broadway, perplexed about what to do with him.)  I started the novella before the club meeting, and gulped all the rest down afterward.

In high school, the New York place names meant nothing to me.  Although that knowledge enriched my reading last night, this is a universal tale.  Sure--somebody like Bartleby is never likely to exist, and if he did no supervisor would be so kind to him.  But there's a sweetness to Bartleby that almost seems precious.  He certainly brings out the best in his boss, which is no small feat for anyone:

"But when this old Adam of resentment rose in me and tempted me concerning Bartleby, I grabbled him and threw him [the Adam, not Bartleby!]. How? Why, simply by recalling the divine injunction: 'A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another.' Yes, this it was that saved me."

Thought Showers and Political Correctness

In my reading tonight, I came across the phrase "thought showers." This is the Northern Ireland substitute for the more militant  "brain storm."  Because of that particular origin, it is easy to say that "thought showers" is an example of political correctness gone amok.

Although thought showers have an unpleasant connotation of rain plopping on your head, that's still better than being mentally stormed by awesome new ideas. So I'm with the Northern Irish in this battle over rhetoric.

I'm of a mixed mind about politically correct language.  Words really do have the power to hurt and demean--As I'll teach the children, "Sticks and stone may break our bones, but words can also hurt us."    People who say that alternatives to offensive words are just "politically correct nonsense" fail to acknowledge this truth.

And yet, the users of politically correct terms ("vertically challenged, "physically challenged", et. al) easily become dogmatic and self-righteous.  It's a badge of honor to know the politically correct term of the month, and the orthodoxy of the crass is replaced by the orthodoxy of the pious.  Or, the wannabe pious--people who use coarse terms in private but know the code to follow in public. 

At least the uncouth non-PC people are honest.