thisland

My daughter is 17 months old. I am starting to investigate schooling options. The situation in the District is a disgrace.

This is the capitol of the richest country on earth. There are only 3 public schools that teach at grade level. More money is spent per child than any other city in the country, and the facilities are in a shambles, the schools are unsafe and our kids graduate uneducated.

In response we have one of the most successful public charter school programs. 52 charter schools and 24% of the students attend them. But still, only 2 are teaching at Grade Level.

So what are the options? A parent can spend $20,000 a year plus and send there kid to a private school. But not everyone, me included, has that kind of money and to especially spend it on preschool for a 3 year old. Or we can move.

I have opted to work on an effort to start another Charter School. A Chinese immersion IB program in DC. The group lost the funding last year. But I am working on this years effort. The more I dig in the more disgusted, devasted and depressed I am.

I can't believe that here in the Washington, DC we cannot provide our kids with a decent, let-alone good education.

George Bush's approval rating is at an all time low, down to 38%. And yes, I am happy the tide has turned. Those weak-willed members on the hill, are finally saying we should start to pull out of Iraq. Maybe the protesting worked, maybe all the talking worked, maybe people have just have woken up.

HEY couldn't they have woken up one year ago? Why couldn't they see what a bunch of scumbugs this administration was then? Why did we have to go so FAR down the rabbit hole, in debt, and in danger?

Seems like Bush is down to his core supporters. And America has turned to this side of sane again. But why couldn't they have seen what was so plain to me and the rest of urban, liberal America one month and one year ago.

How did the Republican party coopt the poor, the middle-of-the-road and the heartland. Did the dems do such a bad job? Was that 13% so afraid of change, stupid, or what, I just don't know. Couldn't they foresee the 2000th dead soldier last year? We knew the WMD was a scam. We knew Cheney and Rove were profiteers.

What has happened now to change the country. I am flabbergasted. I am mad. But I am glad that we are at least back to some sort of sanity.

I am beginning to think that the momentum is building, that this country may be headed back towards sanity.

ANWR was taken off the table. Meirs didn't make it. Scooter is on the outs. Intelligent Design was defeated in Dover. The war is becoming more and more unpopular. The oil companies are being brought in for profiteering.

And our (oil) President's approval rating is down to 39%.

Hello out there - Hello you 12% of America. Couldn't you see this coming. Couldn't you have woken up a year ago. We have three more years left of this monkey and his administration. Couldn't you see it coming.

How far have we come, to be here, in 2005? Do men and women truly have equality?

Let's ask Romantic Mary, a divorcee looking for love on the internet. She's smart, she's sassy and she's single. And she knows what she wants - a man.

Her site boasts many features - I highly recommend browsing it. She also has publised an essay entitled "On Being A Princess - My Search for Chivalry Today".

Romantic Mary clarifies, up front, that the relationship she seeks "is not strictly egalitarian in the usual sense of the word". Um, okay. That's a bit of a double negative.

the usual sense:
e·gal·i·tar·i·an adj.
Affirming, promoting, or characterized by belief in equal political, economic, social, and civil rights for all people.

This is not strictly egalitarian, according to Mary:

For instance, I'm asserting my need to be a princess (with final decision-making power) in any relationship I'd have. I'm clear and up front about this need from the beginning. The gentleman who dates me would be clear and up front about his desire to get to know me on my terms.

... and those rights that being in a not strictly egalitarian relationship provides:

Just as getting married means for most people giving up the right to choose to have sex with someone else, dating me means giving up the right to choose to act against my wishes unless you opt to stop dating me. But within my wishes you'd still have a lot of freedom to make choices about many things.

Here's another sense of the word egalitarian

Antonyms:
authoritarian, autocratic, despotic, dictatorial, intolerant, totalitarian

In her essay, Mary paints a pretty picture of gender roles in history:

One reason that tales of knights slaying dragons for princesses are positive ones for us is that the knights seemed so eager and willing to do what the ladies needed. Whether she was a princess with a problem or a damsel in distress, a gentleman would rush to her rescue just because she was a woman. Many of us may recall a story in which a line of suitors came, one by one, before a marriageable princess. Each gentleman hoped to win her hand and was willing to prove his worthiness in whatever way was called for. No challenge was too silly or too dangerous. A man expected to be tested.

Oh dear, how I wish for those times! When a man was a man and a woman was...a piece of property that couldn't vote and wore a very uncomfortable whale bone corset. Yeah!!! Suck it in, bitch.

Mary has a serious case of female phantasm or as I call it, wanting your cake and eating it too. You see this all the time in chick lit - sassy independent woman esnares independent, charming, handsome rich man who's emotionally unavailable into marriage. Mr. Darby. Mr. Big. And so on.

And don't get me wrong, men have their sicko fantasies too. The hooker with the heart of gold, anyone? Sometimes these fantasies intersect. Like in "Pretty Woman", one of the highest grossing romantic comedies of all time.

I know it's not nice to take pot shots at a sad woman who is clearly funneling her madness into an outlet and rationalizing to herself that she won't end up with 15 cats. But, seriously, you know what ruined your idea of chivalry, Mary? Love did.

In Stephanie Coontz's book "Marriage, a History" she delineates how marriage has changed (taken from a Newsweek interview):

Coontz traces the evolution of marriage from Paleolithic times. Throughout human history, people married to arrange child rearing, pass on property and organize life. Until relatively recently, most of these alliances were not legally sanctioned but rather informal arrangements accepted by society at large. The choice of partner was rarely left to the couple; parents and other respected community elders made the match.

In the Western world, that model held until about 200 years ago, Coontz says, when the idea of marrying for love emerged. Those who bemoan the current state of marriage should blame the Enlightenment emphasis on self-fulfillment and the pursuit of happiness. It took a while for the love revolution to have its full impact.

Some other barriers had to be knocked down first: inequality between men's and women's roles, little social mobility, unreliable birth control and harsh penalties for illegitimacy.

These are strange, confusing times indeed. Queens are getting hitched! Woman are having premarital sex like men do to! Hell, you can even pick your gender!

Total fucking chaos of free will. With so many choices out there, must we really revert to sylvan versions of romance?

It's not easy to navigate it all the time, Mary. I know. Trust me, I know. How do you let a man be man and remain a woman and still have so many choices? It's unchartered territory. I know a few that are doing it. But most still operate on the old code in a new world. Doesn't seem to be working if you ask me.

But you either suck it up and operate with the opposite sex on truly egalitarian terms or hold your breath until Prince Charming comes along to whisk you away into oblivion.

RELATED:

• Chivalry isn't all it's cracked up to be

...research showing that men who supported chivalry also generally believed that women are not as competent and powerful as men and that their place is in the home.

Image of Jessica Simpson's twin via cityrag. Romantic Mary courtesy of metafilter.

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From: REDACTED@yahoo.com
To: REDACTED@hotmail.com, REDACTED@yahoo.com, REDACTED@hotmail.com, REDACTED@yahoo.com
Subject: sick of mainstream rap
Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2005 10:29:45 -0800 (PST)

it really sucks how hip hop gets a bad rap nowadays. (no pun intended) all these mainstream artists fucking up the artform for those that have a true love for it.
i really think 50 cent and the slew of imitators that he has spawned or bit from have brought the artform to a new a low. i can't believe kids look up to these fools.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051110/music_nm/life_snitching_dc

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Upon reading the article here was my reply:

Hey REDACTED,

I am really torn on 50 cent. I think he has so much potential. Case in point is his rap on the Game's "Hate it or Love it". It's a morality tale in 30 seconds on par with the film "City of God" - probably the most important film to have been made in the last ten years.

Here they are:

Yea
Let's take'em back
Uh huh

Coming up I was confused
My mama kissing a girl
Confusion occurs
Coming up in a cold world
Daddy aint around
Probably out committing felonies
My favorite rapper used to sing
Check, check out my melody
I wanna live good so shit I sell dope
For a four-finger ring
One of them gold ropes
Nana told me if I passed I get a sheep skin coat
If I could move a few packs
I get the hat
Now that'll be dope
Tossed and turn in my sleep that night
Woke up the next morning
Niggaz done stole my bike
Different day, same shit
Ain't nothing good in the hood
I run away from this bitch
And never come back if I could

Jay Z sings about his own drug dealing past on Kanye West's song "Sierra Leone" that he's figuring if he sell kilos of coke, he can sell CDs and that "he had to get off the boat so he could walk on water" referring to selling drugs to get out of the ghetto. The song is about taking responsibility.

I am seeing a real social consciousness evolve from these rappers. It gives me hope.

I am a pretty ambitious intelligent person who is trying to get in the film business. I look at these guys as taking opportunities and making the most of them, and that path not always being glamorous, but there isn't a lot of hope in the ghetto. I imagine I would much rather rise out by selling drugs, than getting some shitty service job that pays min. wage and never leaving.
Thug life is a dangerous thing to glamorize for sure. I was really pissed when that feud broke out between 50 and the Game and someone was shot outside a radio station. So juvenile! But they publicly made up, and it didn't spiral into the days of Tupac and Biggie.

The "no snitching" policy is born out of many factors: there is no real government presence in the ghetto except for the cops, the schools are falling apart and have little or no after school programs, and the nuclear family is broken by single parenting and working full time jobs. These kids find protection, what they feel is unconditional love and self esteem from their peers. Of course they are going to be more loyal to them than to the government.

We need to be doing more positive things for the ghetto - like putting real money into schools, not just prosecuting the kids that are already lost.

I am going to go see "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" this weekend.

Hollyweird

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And here was his reply:

if i were to compile a list of the 100 greatest rappers of all time 50 cent would be nowhere near that list. shit he wouldn't even make it into the 200 hundred spot. i'm sorry but that example of rhyming that you copy and pasted doesn't really prove anything. all it proves is that 50 cent has therhyming ability of a kindergartner. and that's what i mean when i say that him and all of his imitators havefucked up the artform as a whole. they have dumbed rapdown so much it's not even funny. you want to hearskillful MC's? well you're going to have search beyond MTV and the radio.

and yes i do understand that:
making it out of the ghetto is a hard struggle that most times leads to nowhere. most kids (in the ghetto) don't have too many options besides dealing drugs, gangbanging, or sports. the system was designed to keep them down... i understand all of that and am sympathetic. that's not what i was speaking out about at all.

i'm speaking out about how rappers like 50 cent, Jahrule,Lil' Kim, Nelly, etc... they are a plague to hip hop. because everytime you turn around they're doing stupid crap for publicity to maintain their "hard" image.

and that's not keeping it real, that's keeping it wrong. they're supposed to be role models yet they act like a bunch of idiots. all the while slandering the artform of hip hop. that's just my two cents, from someone who has had a deep love and admiration for this artform ever since he was in the 3rd grade.

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So there you have it. I maintain that 50 Cent has a lot potential to be a voice of a generation and his current, pervasive popularity (A.K.A. MTV) is a necessary component to fulfill such a role.

I will post a review of the film next week. Hopefully, 50 stepped up to the plate and made a film that examines, not just glorifies thug life...

RELATED:

• 50 Cent's billboards yanked after protests
• A shooting in a Pittsburgh multiplex Wednesday night has resulted in a death, and the removal of the 50 Cent film thought to have incited it (via defamer)

# posted by Hollywierd @ 11:49 AM 0 comments

SCOTT MCCLELLAN: There is nothing wrong with the light bulb; its conditions are improving daily.

R: You're not answering the question.

SM: Any reports of its lack of incandescence are spin - pure politics. Illuminating rooms is hard work. That light bulb has served honorably, and anything you say undermines the lighting effort.

R: It's my duty as a reporter to ask these hard hitting questions.

SM: Why do you hate freedom?

* Shamelessly ripped off a joke that appeared in my inbox this morning...

Today, a gaggle of high schools kids with picket signs marched down Wilshire Blvd. between 18th and 19th in Santa Monica. They were having a blast and they were outraged - not whiny, not angry. A truck HORN went off in appreciation. A woman in her forties smiled, perhaps remembering her own youth.

I think the tides are changing. I haven't seen anything like it before.

In 1999, I went to a march in high school when I lived in Seattle. It was at an auditorium for Martin Luther King Day and it was lame. A bunch of over-the-hill Liberals spewing their causes into a microphone. No clear message. Nothing to incite. This and a couple of factors (college experiences like alcohol and boys, and oh yeah, learning) led me to turn away from politics.

That is, until I picked up a New York Times with the headline that Congress gave Bush the full power to go to War.

My bosses, who are 72 and 52 years old, asked me the other day why haven't the kids stepped up like they did in the 60's?

Well, that's what I am doing right now, writing this blog.

And this is what these kids did today.