Apt. 11D

Death Wish

I've had many discussions with friends about Terri Schiavo in the past few days. While there was little consensus about Terri's state of mind or the motives of her husband, most people agreed on one thing. They needed a living will.

So, what would I have in a living will? I've been working on a rough draft today. Some highlights:

If I'm in a vegetative state for a long time, then it's okay for me to die. But not too quickly. There must be much thumping of my chest by a cute doctor astradle my chest on a gurney. There also must be many attempts to wake me from my slumber by repeated viewings of Monty Python and selected movies by the Coen Brothers.

Since hubby may have alternative motives, like getting his hands on my iMac, there must be a quorum of all family members voting "aye."

If a quorum is found and the suitable chest thomping has occurred, then I don't want to take 14 days to die with chapped lips and sunken eyes. No, I want something more dramatic and glamorous. I want to be dressed in white and shot by mustachioed soldiers. Perhaps I can be posed with my arms up like a Goya painting. That would be good. I also like the idea of dying in motorcycle accident off a steep cliff a la Thelma and Louise. I'll even take the Marilyn Monroe special -- a bottle of pills, a highball, and a photo of the president. Well, not this president.

Just some ideas.

Has Blogging Jumped the Shark?

A lot of bloggers in the past couple weeks have expressed some fatigue with this whole business. They've either stopped reading the political blogs or felt that they had nothing new to say themselves. A few bloggers have been fighting amongst themselves jealous of the attention that others are getting from the media. A few bloggers have dropped off the radar all together.

Maybe I've been paying more attention to those posts, because my own energies have flagged lately. I've been more involved in the kids and arranging flagstones in the backyard rather than sitting in front of the laptop. The sun was out today, and the earth was warm and wet.

Bloggers, at least the political ones, need triumphs to keep up their momentum. There's no money or glory in blogging, so bloggers must be fueled by something else. Like the gotcha moments when they snag major media in errors or bias.

Some have hypothesized that in the future blogging will be eaten up by big media, interest groups, or politicians. Professionals will take the place of the amateur.

I'm starting to see another fate for the blogosphere. It's one where the personal blogs triumph. Those that write witty and small things about their cats and yoga classes and kids.

The political bloggers will tire of waiting around for an avalanche of hits and the perfect moment of finding the rare snafu. The personal bloggers always have new fodder for their blogs and have to invest less leg work in their posts. Also, I think blog readers will tire of reading the same opinion pieces over and over. If blog posts don't differ much from stuff their can find on the op-ed page of New York Times or in commentary by the Fox news, then why bother? Readers who turn to the blogs during their lunch hour at work might be looking for a laugh or entertainment instead of redundant thought.

I'll probably keep the political and personal balance here, but at the moment, I'm definitely tilting one way.

Spreading the Love

Nat Hentoff speaks out about Schiavo.

I've been reading Kevin Drum for the past couple of weeks, because he's had some interesting women guest blogging there and because he's been trying very hard to not dismiss the chicks and their style of blogging. These posts by his guest bloggers were excellent. By far the best line of the series was by Katha Pollitt:

Several people wrote to wonder why we are bothering with fuddyduddy old print when cyberspace is where the action is. So about blogging: I try not to spend all day reading blogs, which I could easily do, but the political ones I follow are mostly by women. Before the election, I read male political blogs obsessively, and still get a lot of useful information from them. But — how can I say this in a nice way? — I find that (present company and all my friends excepted! I am making gross and unfair generalizations here) the voices don't wear well: the range — of tones, of topics, of approaches to topics — is too narrow, and the mutual admiration society too exclusive: some blogrolls read like those interlocking directorates of railroad companies in the 19th century! There's too much boasting and crowing, too much scorekeeping, too much self-anointment as instant expert and public executioner. If I look at the blogroll and see only male blogs, I assume, perhaps unfairly, that the blogger is promoting a narrow view of politics and boosting his male network and his own career. What a fine point Boygenius made over on nogirlsallowed.com! Thanks for the plug, NumberOneSon!

Dreaded Memes

From time to time, bloggers feel compelled to post a list of questions and then pass them along the blogosphere. Like Rana, I'm pretty grouchy about the whole thing. I'm just not a quiz person.

Yes, I know that the memes are harmless and all. It does jog the memory about books that we used to love. These meme things are also good for the blog business, because it always involves linking to other bloggers. Passing the traffic around is what we're supposed to do. So, (grumble) I'll do my thing.

I got tagged for the latest meme by Anne Cunningham, and one of the questions amused me, so I'll answer that one.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Oh yeah. I read too much in those formidable years of middle school. So, like Jo(e), Gilbert Blythe of Anne of Green Gables was a big one. As was Mr. Darcy, Mr. Rochester, and Peter Parker. But my first big fictional crush was animated. Okay, he wasn't even a homo sapien. My first big fictional crush, when I was five, was on Underdog. Sick, I know, but it might explain some unfortuneate choices in boyfriends in my 20s.

Sunday Night Journal -- Learning Curves

Because my husband and I spent so long in graduate school, there's a whole swatch of life that we're experiencing for the first time. Little bits of knowledge that others with years of gainful employment picked up years ago. Like buying furniture.

Rather than harvesting other's castoffs from the back of apartment buildings, we're finally in a position to purchase the real furniture. We've been shopping around for a bunk bed for the kids. It took us four expeditions to different shops to get a feel for the prices and the quality of the various furniture shops. The ladder costs extra? We finally settled on one bed this weekend going for a solid, but slightly more pricey model. It took many hours while carting around the two kids to figure it all out.

Everything we're doing now, from scraping wallpaper to buying furniture, involves a steep learning curve. In our late thirties, we're babes in the woods of middle class life.

Ever Take a Stroller on the Subway?

The Pearl District in the heart of this perpetually self-improving city seems to have everything in new urban design and comfort, from the Whole Foods store where fresh-buffed bell peppers are displayed like runway models to the converted lofts that face sidewalk gardens.

Everything except children.

Families with children are leaving the city in droves, even as cities buff themselves up for the trendy childless. Wrote a year's worth of blog posts on that.

Does it concern you that families and nonfamilies are separating into different camps?

Blogging must be put on hold until Sunday. I'm sorry if I've been off my game for a while, but family matters have taken precedence.

Spreading the Love

Dan Drezner liveblogs a Brookings Conference on blogging. He's geeky, but he's cute.

And more on Schiavo. Both sides, according to my blogroll:
Tom DeLay hides behind Schiavo, by Josh Marshall.

Oh, more live Brooking blogging from Laura Rozen.

Andrew Sullivan offers interesting analysis of the conflicting messages of conservatives. States Rights v. God. (Of course, the conflict goes both ways. Both liberals and conservatives will carry the banner of states rights if it suits their purpose. I think the bigger conflict is between libertarians and social conservatives.)

The UK perspective.

OK, skimming the blogroll...looking for something from the other point of view, because I'm geeky, but cute, too....

Flip to The Volokh Conspiracy for links. They refer to Hugh Hewitt.

...crap... I have to go to bed... But a quick note to the 1,000 people who showed up here today by googling "shiavo." It's spelled sChiavo, folks.

Sorry. Personal matters are intervening. I must skip a day or two from blogging to figure out how to get a new $%#@ driver's license. I will return tonight or tomorrow morning. Laura.

The Politics of Schiavo

I'm supposed to be figuring out how to get a new driver's license, but instead am skimming the news articles on Congress, the courts and Terry Schiavo. I'm less interested in the ethical and medical matters revolving this case, and more interested in how Congress got involved, the partisanship around the matter, and just the general unusual politics of having Congress get involved so personally in the life of this one woman.

From this article in the Times, it appears that the Democratic vote in the House was split. The House and the Senate approved legislation to have a federal court review the case. Voting yes were 156 Republicans and 47 Democrats, while 53 Democrats and 5 Republicans voted no.

Both sides are using every congressional tool at their disposal.

The Democrats' refusal to allow the bill to pass without a roll-call vote prevented the House from taking up the measure early Sunday afternoon and sent Republican leaders scurrying to summon lawmakers scattered for the Easter recess back to Washington to provide a quorum.

House rules required that such a vote could not occur until Monday, so the Republican leaders suspended the vote until Monday morning so they had time to assemble at least 218 of the 435 House members.

The intensity of the feelings by political leaders and the unusual Congressional strategies are remarkable.

The mood in the Capitol was subdued as members of both parties gathered to plot strategy. Some said the atmosphere reminded them of a vote on going to war, colored by a life-and-death decision.

"I have been here 13 years," said Representative Donald Manzullo, Republican of Illinois, "and I have never seen anything like this before."

The session was extraordinary for a number of reasons, including its falling on a Sunday and in the middle of the Easter recess for Congress.

I just did a quick surf around the blogosphere. Instapundit points me to Sissy Willis who has some posts on the topic, including one post on a pro-Terry column in the WSJ by James Q. Wilson. Willis pointed to Virginia Postrel who was talking about congressional overreach on MSNBC, referring to Schiavo and the baseball hearings. So, the libertarians and the social conservative wings of the Republican party are in conflict around Schiavo. The small government types don't want gov't involved at all.

Leave the Gun. Take the Cannoli

OK. That title has nothing to do with this post. I just like that quote and am feeling a little nihilistic at the moment. See, I got my wallet stolen last night. I have no identity and no money and some little shit is going around the city emptying out the contents of my wallet at video arcades. Bastard. I would be quite happy to piano wire the dude and leave his body along an empty highway in Queens, so maybe that title has something to do with this post.