Look At The Shiny Object

Ken AshfordBush & Co., Election 2006, IraqLeave a Comment

Billmon:

QUESTION: Do you believe that the biggest drag on the Republican Party is the situation in Iraq?

THE PRESIDENT: I believe that the situation in Iraq is, no question, tough on the American psyche . . . no question this is an issue, but so is the economy. And I believe there’ll be — I still stand by my prediction, we’ll have a Republican Speaker and a Republican leader of the Senate. And the reason I say that is because I believe the two biggest issues in this campaign are, one, the economy. And the economy is growing.

George W. Bush
Press Conference
October 11, 2006

Translation: "Iraq is the central front in the global war to save civilization from the Islamic Caliphate, but you, the voter, should focus your attention on the fact that the civilian unemployment rate is one tenth of a percentage point lower than it was a month ago. God bless America."

Armey Vs. Dobson

Ken AshfordGodstuff, Republicans, Sex/Morality/Family ValuesLeave a Comment

Dick Armey, former House Majority Leader from 1995-2003) is a conservative and a Christian.  He was one of the architects of the "Republican Revolution" of the 1990s, in which Republicans were elected to majorities of both houses of Congress, and the chief author of the Republican Contract with America.

And he’s had it with James Dobson and the Christian Conservative movement.  Excerpts from the letter:

As Majority Leader, I remember vividly a meeting with the House leadership where Dobson scolded us for having failed to “deliver” for Christian conservatives, that we owed our majority to him, and that he had the power to take our jobs back. This offended me, and I told him so.

In a later meeting Dobson and a colleague came into my office to lobby against a trade bill, asking me to stop the legislation from going to the House floor. They were wrong on the issue, and I told them no. Would you at least postpone the vote, they asked? We have a direct mail fundraising letter about to go out to our membership, they said.

I wondered then if their opposition to the bill was driven less by their moral compass and more by the need to rile their membership and increase revenue. I wondered then, if these self-appointed Christian leaders, like many politicians, had come to Washington to do good, but had instead done well for themselves.

***

And it continues today…

Nowhere was it more wrong, with more disastrous policy ends, than in the Terri Schiavo intervention. While her case was heartbreaking, our Founders created a government built on checks and balances, not a nation run by an arbitrary and imperial Congress. Congress cannot simply override our entire state and federal legal system to intervene in one person’s situation. It was truly a chilling act.

***

Freedom works. Freedom is a gift from God Almighty, and we have a responsibility to protect it. Christians face a temptation to power when we are fortunate enough to have a majority of support in Congress. But government can never advance a faith that is freely given, and it is corrosive to even try. Just look at Europe, where decades of nanny-state activism— including taxpayer support for churches and for religious political parties— have severely eroded the faith. In America today, too many of our Christian leaders fail to recognize the temptation to power and the danger it holds for our society and our faith.

And so America’s Christian conservative movement is confronted with this divide: small government advocates who want to practice their faith independent of heavy-handed government versus big government sympathizers who want to impose their version of “righteousness” on others through the hammer of law.

This, of course, has always been my beef with the Dobson and other members of the Christian Right.  It’s not their religious tenets or the strength or nature of their faith.  It’s that they attempt to USE government to foist their beliefs and tenets on others.  That, in my view, is morally corrupt, and unAmerican.

Iraq: We Can’t Win

Ken AshfordIraqLeave a Comment

How bad can things be for Bush when his own commission designed to assess Iraq gives him the bad news that Bush’s goals are unachievable?

Here’s what Bush said yesterday in the Rose Garden two days ago:

And so Iraq is an important part of dealing with this problem. And my vow to the American people is I understand the stakes, and I understand what it would mean for us to leave before the job is done. And I look forward to listening how — what Jimmy Baker and Lee Hamilton say about how to get the job — I appreciate them working on this issue because I think they understand what I know, and the stakes are high.

Well, here’s what Baker and Hamilton concluded:

A commission formed to assess the Iraq war and recommend a new course has ruled out the prospect of victory for America, according to draft policy options shared with The New York Sun by commission officials.

Currently, the 10-member commission — headed by a secretary of state for President George H.W. Bush, James Baker — is considering two option papers, "Stability First" and "Redeploy and Contain," both of which rule out any prospect of making Iraq a stable democracy in the near term.

More telling, however, is the ruling out of two options last month. One advocated minor fixes to the current war plan but kept intact the long-term vision of democracy in Iraq with regular elections. The second proposed that coalition forces focus their attacks only on Al Qaeda and not the wider insurgency.

Instead, the commission is headed toward presenting President Bush with two clear policy choices that contradict his rhetoric of establishing democracy in Iraq. The more palatable of the two choices for the White House, "Stability First," argues that the military should focus on stabilizing Baghdad while the American Embassy should work toward political accommodation with insurgents. The goal of nurturing a democracy in Iraq is dropped.

No links to al Qaeda.

No WMD.

Torture and rape exists, and MORE Iraqis civilians are being killed now than under Saddam’s regime.

Nurturing of democracy is unachievable.

ALL the reasons for going into Iraq are now debunked.  Which is why we see this trend:

2005828179816054706_rs

Fun Facts

Ken AshfordRandom MusingsLeave a Comment

The novel "Gadsby" does not use the letter "e".  This was deliberate on the part of its author, and next to impossible (try it sometime!).  Here are the first 2 paragraphs:

If youth, throughout all history, had had a champion to stand up for it; to show a doubting world that a child can think; and, possibly, do it practically; you wouldn’t constantly run across folks today who claim that “a child don’t know anything.” A child’s brain starts functioning at birth; and has, amongst its many infant convolutions, thousands of dormant atoms, into which God has put a mystic possibility for noticing an adult’s act, and figuring out its purport.

Up to about its primary school days a child thinks, naturally, only of play. But many a form of play contains disciplinary factors. “You can’t do this,” or “that puts you out,” shows a child that it must think, practically or fail. Now, if, throughout childhood, a brain has no opposition, it is plain that it will attain a position of “status quo,” as with our ordinary animals. Man knows not why a cow, dog or lion was not born with a brain on a par with ours; why such animals cannot add, subtract, or obtain from books and schooling, that paramount position which Man holds today.

The Wikipedia entry about Gadsby also doesn’t use the letter "e".

The “On Golden Pond” Diaries

Ken AshfordPersonalLeave a Comment

Ogp_1 Two weeks ago, I had a birthday.  I barely noticed it.  I don’t think I’ve even gotten around to opening my presents yet.

My blogging these past two weeks has been light and/or lazy — largely relegated to "cut and pastes".

The reason for that is simply this: I’m directing a show.  And we open tomorrow.

Stained Glass Playhouse is mounting "On Golden Pond" the next three weekends.  I’ve provided a link to their website for reservation information, but if you click it, you’ll see that the "current show" is "1776".  This is indicative of some of the headaches that this production has encountered.

I haven’t blogged about the directorial experience largely because I’m too busy dealing with it.  Besides, some people can write "kvetch" and be very entertaining; when I try it, I feel like it comes across as whining.

To be sure, this production has provided its share of headaches.  For one thing, our producer had heart bypass surgery, occupying his time as well as those of his son (the lighting designer) and wife (costumer).  A dearth of backstage volunteers has led to a doubling-up of tech roles — our props person became our lightboard operator, and I stepped up to design the sound (and operate the sound board).  Our running crew IS, for all practical purposes, the cast … and the set, which I really am pleased with, was essentially built by two guys.

(Oh, and I’m also playing one of the roles for one performance [on October 28].  Guess I better learn those lines.)

Then you have to deal with everybody’s conflicts and, worse, their egos.  You have to deal with people wanting to direct and/or tech-direct, which is a particularly dicey issue because (on the one hand) you want need people to contribute as much as possible, yet (on the other hand) there needs to be someone in control and someone with the vision. 

So you pick and choose your battles, fighting only the battles that it makes sense to fight.  And if you choose not to fight, you’re stroking the egos of the disgruntled, which is okay too.  But in general, what you end up doing is a mixed bag (depending on the person and/or circumstance) of cajoling, demanding, encouraging, appeasing, bribing, motivating, insisting, blah blah blah. 

Not that I’m complaining about people.  That’s the nature of most community theaters or, for that matter, most small groups of people in any pressure cooker.  But all of that stuff, on top of actually — you know — directing, is an exhausting process.

But my part is over (for the most part) and tomorrow I get to hand off the show to the stage manager and get my sleep back.

And finally, last night — the last rehearsal sans audience (we have an invited preview audience tonight) — I realized that we actually had a show.  That’s a good feeling.  It also feels good to look realize that, if I were able to go back in time (facing all the same dilemnas I faced these past few weeks), I wouldn’t have done anything differently. 

I’ve directed before (college and non-professional off off Bway), but it’s been a while, and this experience has reminded me of a few things about the directorial experience, advice which I pass on to new or future directors:

  • Accept reasonable limitations.  You’re not, for example, going to have a cadre professional actors to cast from, and an unlimited budget.  Get over it.  It doesn’t mean the show will be atrocious, simply because your ideal wish list will never get fulfilled.
  • Once you’ve accepted the limitations, push for the best and don’t compromise until you have to.  True satisfaction in any situation comes from knowing that you did your absolute best, despite whatever obstacles get thrown in your way.  So do your best, and insist on the best from the people around you.  But then…
  • Accept reasonable limitations, Part Deux.  At some point toward the end of the rehearsal process, you’re going to have to accept that he or she is just not going to say that line correctly (or perhaps, say it at all).  You’ve given the note at least 10 times, and you know that they understand the note.  But — for whatever reason — they just won’t do it.  It could be due to their limitations as an actor, or their arrogance as an actor (which amounts to the same thing).  At some point, you have to stop wasting your time.  Don’t bother writing down (yet another) note about it — accept that you lost this battle.  In truth, it’s only one or two seconds out of a two hour show.  And you’ll discover that you’ve made a mental note about that actor, which will be filed away for future casting decisions.  (Ugly, but true).
  • Your title is "director"; not "dictator".  Listen with an open mind to suggestions that people offer.  In fact, create an environment where suggestions are welcome.  Just because you are creative doesn’t mean that you’ve cornered the market on creativity (in fact, you may have creative tunnelvision).  Important: "listening" does not mean "accepting".  It means that you will make an effort to understand the suggestion, so that you can adequately give it full consideration before you accept (or reject) it.
  • Once you’ve made a decision, ignore second guessers.  This is not a contradiction of the point above.  Being open to suggestions is one important aspect, but once you’ve made a decision, stay with it as long as it continues to make sense.  There will always be plenty of people to second-guess your decisions (and, as an actor, I’ve second-guessed directors plenty of times).  But ultimately, you have to realize that you have spent countless hours thinking about and considering the show, whereas your "critics" are often making snap judgments and they don’t know (or care) about the big picture.  They haven’t considered how their suggestion affects other aspects of the show.  They haven’t been in the production meetings you’ve been in, or had the conversations you’ve had.  They haven’t been in your head.  And if they stew because you didn’t adopt all their suggestions, let them.  They’re only raining on their own parade.
  • It’s supposed to be fun.  Some people do community theater strictly for the applause, and feel put out by anything that leads up to achieving it (like, you know, rehearsing).  I think that’s unfortunate, because the process should be just as enjoyable as the end result.  But unfortunately, rehearsals often FEEL like "work", and performances FEEL like "play" — that is inevitable.  However, just because it is inevitable doesn’t mean you should surrender to it.  Make rehearsals fun.  No, you don’t have to become moralle officer.  And this DEFINITELY doesn’t mean being less productive.  But if the actors and crew feel like they’re coming every night to a funeral, they’re not going to give you their best.
  • Yeah, praise works too.  The natural inclination of directors is to see and fix things that don’t work.  This often (incorrectly) gets interpreted by the sensitive actor as a negative criticism.  And it’s true, most of your notes will be, for lack of a better word, "negative".  Fixing problem spots is, of course, your raison d’etre, but the problem is that it stifles improvization and innovation.  So, be sure that when an actor does something on their own initiative (and it’s GOOD), or they take the note and implement it — let them know (in notes or with a laugh or whatever).

That said, I can only hope that audiences (a) come and (b) enjoy the final product.  Everybody has worked hard, and I think it has paid off.

Headline We Expect To See

Ken AshfordBush & Co.Leave a Comment

NEW YORK YANKEES PITCHER CORY LIDLE CONFIRMED AS PILOT OF NYC CRASHED PLANE; PRESIDENT BUSH ANNOUNCES PLANS TO INVADE SHEA STADIUM

[Joke explained for the baseball-impaired: Shea Stadium is home to the New York Mets]

Thingamajig Thursday

Ken AshfordRandom MusingsLeave a Comment

The brainiacs at Mental Floss have a new feature: Thingamajig Thursdays:

The idea here is that I’ll be taking a close look at some interesting thingamajig – or thingamabob, if you prefer – and letting you know the real name for it so you can appear a tad smarter than the next guy, who’s still foolishly calling the thingamajig a thingamajig.

So far, they’ve done aglets (the metal or plastic thingamajig at the end of your shoelace), the whammy bar (the thingamajig on an electric guitar that makes it go "waaah"), marshalling wands (those orange lighted cone-shaped thingamajigs that grounds crews hold in each hand at airports to tell the planes where to park), The Brannock Device (that metal thingamajig that measures your foot, commonplace in every shoe store in the world), and rowels (those pinwheel thingamajigs that spin at the back of a cowboy’s boots).

Mswi0633Today’s Thursday Thingamajig are those rubber finger pad thingamajigs that you wear on your finger in the office when you are turning (or counting) pages.  Guess what they’re called?

Rubber Finger Pads.

Booooring.

So Mental Floss is opening the floor, inviting people to contribute their own name.

I Hate NPR Pledge Week

Ken AshfordPopular Culture2 Comments

They make me feel so guilty.

They KNOW it makes me feel guity.

They USE that knowledge to make me feel MORE guilty.

They READ MY MIND ("We know you keep meaning to pledge, but you simply haven’t had a chance.  So right now — while you’re thinking of it — while you’re listening — why don’t you pick up the phone and give $10, $20, or whatever you can afford?")

And I STILL don’t pledge.

And they KNOW I don’t, so they make me feel guilty.

I understand that they have to do what they have to do.  And I don’t doubt there sincerity or their need.  But still, I hate NPR Pledge Week.

UPDATE:  "Liberal Girl" in the comments makes me feel more guilty now.  She’s right, of course.  The way to NOT feel guilty is to write that check.  I intend to.  I always intend to.

Public Speaking

Ken AshfordBush & Co.Leave a Comment

The Talent Show guy looks at Bushie’s press conference from this morning:

"The — you know, I — obviously I’m listening very carefully to this debate."

"And now all of a sudden, people are saying, you know, ‘The Bush administration ought to be going it alone with North Korea.’"

"Somebody said he said, ‘Well, you know, cut-and-run isn’t working.’ That’s not our policy."

"My point was: Bilateral negotiations didn’t work. you know, I appreciate the efforts of previous administrations. It just didn’t work."

"What ends up happening is that, you know, we say to a country such as North Korea, ‘Here’s a reasonable way forward.’"

"They could — you know, they say the world is about to fall apart because of the United States’s problem."

"If North Korea decides that, you know, they don’t like what’s being said, they’re not just stiffing the United States"

"This isn’t, you know: Oh, please stand up and say something. "

"I am, you know, amazed that this is a society which so wants to be free that they’re willing to — you know, that there’s a level of violence that they tolerate."

"And it’s now time for the Iraqi government to work hard to bring security in neighborhoods so people can feel — can feel, you know, at peace."

"But I, you know, talk to people like General Casey. "

"I, you know, I stand by the figure a lot of innocent people have lost their life."

"You know, I haven’t seen Baker’s report yet. "

"I believe that, you know, you empower your generals to make the decisions — the recommendations on what we do to win."

"And I think the characterization of, you know, ‘Stay the course,’ is about a quarter right."

"It’s important for the folks to understand that we don’t continually shift our goals based upon, you know, polls or whatever."

"And I believe the diplomacy is, you know, we’re making progress when we’ve got others at the table, you know?"

"It’s a joint statement that talked about economics and that, you know, we won’t attack North Korea."

"You know, one of the most meaningful moments of my presidency came when a Japanese mother came to the Oval Office to talk about what it was like to have her daughter kidnapped by North Korea."

"You know, we want to make sure what we understand what Republicans knew and what Democrats knew in order to find the facts."

"And I believe yesterday he said that if somebody on his staff, you know, didn’t tell him the truth, they’re gone."

"But I think when they get in that booth, they’re going to be thinking about, you know, how best to secure the country from attack and, you know, how best to keep the economy growing."

"And, you know, there’s just a kind of law enforcement mentality that says: Well, we’ll respond after attack."

"I think it’s very important that no one question the patriotism or, you know, the loyalty to the country."

"And so I wouldn’t necessarily characterize these countries’ positions as, you know, locked-in positions."

"You know, speaking about books, somebody ought to add up the number of pages that have been written about my administration."

"And this is the — this is about the fifth time I’ve been asked this type of question and, as you know, there are some things that I wish had happened differently."

"If somebody’s not trying to sneak in to work — in other words, coming through in a way where they’re showing a temporary worker, you know, pass, where they’re not using coyotes to smuggle across, where they’re not, you know, going through tunnels — it’s going to make it much easier for us to do our job."

"And you’ve got urban areas like El Paso or, you know, Southern California where people have been able to sneak in and — by use of urban corridors."

"I went down to Arizona, the Arizona sector, and saw a place where there’s literally neighbors abutting the border, and people would come — you know, a hundred of them would rush across the border into a little subdivision and the Border Patrol would catch two or three and 97 would get in."

"It will certainly help stamp out all these illegal characters that are exploiting human beings; you know, these coyotes that stuff people in the back of 18-wheelers for money."

Saving the best for last…

"You know, nobody’s accused me of having a real sophisticated vocabulary; I understand that."

Yeah…I know.

Not What We Think

Ken AshfordBreaking NewsLeave a Comment

It has the earmarks of an accident…. but you always wonder.

061011_nyfire_hmed_1ph2

5806 UPDATE: Looking like the pilot was a pitcher for the New York Yankees — Cory Lidle.  The plane was registered in his name, and his passport was found on the street below.

ANOTHER UPDATE:  I note from the Cory Lidle link above that the Yankees placed Cory Lidle on their "bereavement list" on August 18.  A "bereavement list" is described in the Baseball Glossary:

"A player who is grieving (due to the death of a family member or friend) can be placed on the bereavement list with league permission. He must stay on the list for at least three days and be activated within ten days. His roster spot can be filled by another player."

This Foley-Hastert-gate Thing Is Just Getting Weird Now

Ken AshfordCongress, Godstuff, Republicans, Sex/Morality/Family ValuesLeave a Comment

So what a second.

House speaker Dennis Hastert has met this morning with an evangelical leader who knew al-Qaeda’s Abu Musab al-Zarqawi “when he was nobody”?

An evangelical leader who has counselled Saddam Hussein, Muammar al-Khaddafi, Slobodan Milosevic, Liberia’s Charles Taylor, and Tom Delay?

And they discussed whether or not Hastert should resign?

UPDATE:  Weirder and weirder.  The evangelical that Hastert met with was this guy that I wrote about a week or so ago.

Bizarre.

An Actor’s Death

Ken AshfordPopular CultureLeave a Comment

Veteran stage and screen actor Gene Janson was starring in Gore Vidal’s The Best Man at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Greenhouse Theater.  He played a fictional U.S. President; his character dies halfway through the play.

Janson didn’t make it that far:

Mr. Janson was 20 minutes into the show… when he put his head in his hands. When asked if he was OK, he replied no. He was rushed to Lincoln Park Hospital and died soon afterward, with members of his family surrounding him. He had suffered a heart attack.

More from Playbill.

Call it the Irene Ryan syndrome. (Irene Ryan, better known as "Granny" from The Beverly Hillbillies suffered a stroke during a Broadway performance of "Pippin" and died several days later).

Death of the Cursive

Ken AshfordEducationLeave a Comment

I agree with Ezra:

This Washington Post lament over the decline of cursive instruction aside, I’m hard-pressed to come up with a subject nearly as useless as script writing. In elementary school, stylized penmanship was a big deal. By high school, the teachers had asked that I stopped using it because it was harder to read. Glad I learned that.

In any case, the decline of cursive seems inevitable and healthy. Class time is finite, and it’s hard to make the case that much of the time that used to go to penmanship shouldn’t now be spent on typing.

Yup.

Then again, if you write in cursive (or even if you don’t), you can still use your keyboard to write longhand.  That’s right — with a little work and 9 bucks, you can have a font for your keyboard which is your handwriting!  Read how.