David Seaton's Blog | Talking Points Memo | January 18, 2009

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Week of January 18, 2009 - January 24, 2009

America's mosaic (maps and discussion)

January 23, 2009, 4:55AM

Today, instead of pontificating, I'd like to ask readers opinions and conclusions after perusing the maps that I've stuck on here below. They are a map of the 2008 election results, county by county, a map of "purple America" from 2004 and a map of American's median income from 1999 (I haven't found more recent maps, but I imagine they wouldn't be dramatically different). Please take a look:

On a wing and a prayer: a course in miracles

January 21, 2009, 3:32PM

La Virgen del Rocio

One night a jet airliner explodes at 30,000 feet over the Atlantic and all alone, one passenger, strapped into his seat, finds himself falling like a stone out of the sky from amidst the flaming wreckage.

"Saint Francis save me!" he cries out in anguish.

Suddenly he finds himself suspended in the air some 20,000 feet over the moonlit ocean. "Oh thank you Saint Francis!" he exclaims, his heart overflowing with gratitude.

Out of the darkness of the night a deep voice asks him, "Is that Saint Francis of Assisi or Saint Francis Xavier?".

We leave him thinking over his reply.

Yesterday I compared Obama's inauguration to the Spanish custom of parading images of the Virgin Mary around the street of parched villages to break severe droughts. I must assure readers that I meant no disrespect to Our Lady by this, only indicating the faith and fervor of the devotees gathered in Washington.

Although I am no longer a Catholic, if I ever really was one, I have, since I was a tiny child, an enormous and awed affection for and devotion to Mary. In any tight spot I would be most likely to mutter a Hail Mary, probably proceeded by a "Bismallah" and with a hearty "Hari Ram" for a chaser. I am ecumenically superstitious to a fault and fully understand and empathize with those faithful who packed the Mall in Washington yesterday.

The Night of the Living Un-Bush

January 20, 2009, 12:40PM

...with Barack Obama, the man is the message. Mr Obama inspires not because of anything he says, but because of who he is. (...) People know that Mr Obama looks nice and speaks well, that he is black, that he opposed the Iraq war and that he believes in dialogue. They know, above all, that he is not President Bush. Gideon Rachman - Financial Times

Symbols are of great value in troubled times.

In Spanish villages during long droughts, ancient images of the Virgin Mary believed to have miraculous powers are traditionally taken out of their alters in the churches and carried around the villages and their surrounding fields in a slowly swaying, majestic, incense-fumigated, procession: all in the hopes it will rain.

The invoking of one Romanesque Virgin from the northern province of Asturias, in particular, "Our Lady of the Cave" (la virgen de la cueva), is considered especially effective. Every Spanish schoolchild knows the song, "¡Qué llueva, qué llueva! La virgen de la cueva".

Our Lady of the Cave is aided in her beneficent labors by the fact that Asturias is one of the rainiest regions in the entire Iberian Peninsula.

Today, we have inaugurated the Presidency of Barack Obama and the whole world, not just America, is waiting for it to rain.
http://seaton-newslinks.blogspot.com/

Israel, America's tragic looking glass: some notes

January 19, 2009, 3:42PM

John Ging is an ex-Army officer who worked in Rwanda during the genocide and was in the Balkans when ethnic cleansing took place. As one of the UN's main men on the ground in Gaza, he says the current Palestinian situation is the worst he has ever encountered... Irish Times (hat to P. Weiss)

As the waters of this unspeakably criminal tsunami momentarily recede and we can briefly assess the damage, push aside some smoking rubble, count the victims and simmer in our impotent rage, I'd like to share with you some of the material I have collected during these few days during which we have had our noses rubbed in so much, and such indigestible, horror.

When I began to work with the Internet in the mid 90s, I soon discovered the beauties of the collage of illustrative quotes from authoritative voices, complete with links.

Standing on the shoulders of giants, as it were, I even made a modest little business out of sending these collages to corporate clients with my comments attached and the buzz the comments produced led to my writing a weekly column in a major Spanish newspaper. I guess I'm another one of those little Internet stories.

So instead of pontificating about the horror of Middle East, today I'll take a step back, revert to default mode and do a collage with minimalist comments of mine own attached.