Sunny today but only slightly above normal temperatures. I didn't do anything outside today and, if the rain the weather people predict will come in tomorrow, I won't do anything outside tomorrow. However, I got some stitching done on the pillow case I have on the hoop. I also cleaned out a notebook and transferred the list of possible books to acquire and read. As I am reading or listening I write down citations or references for later. Sometimes I simply decide that I won't pursue the item. Other things are more interesting. In the process I also tidied up my table caddy so I can easily find things again. It is also a baking day: cornbread to go with the beans and sugar cookies for a late snack. All done now and I am back to reading and cleaning out my e-mail.
First up: Charles Eisenstein's essay on his substack: Machines Will Not Replace Us. I can sympathize with his sentiments. I realized long ago that one of the reasons I like crochet is because it is the only kind of needlework which hasn't made the shift to machine work. There is something about thee pattern of looping threads and pulling thread through the loops that isn't easily mimicked by machines. Also hand stitched pieces have a substance to them that machine made pieces don't have. They are simply flimsy. But I have noticed the same decline in quality of many of the new books coming out. A couple of days ago David Kaiser, who has written a new book on Presidential State of the Union addresses, noted that those addresses we're once designed to propose a program and persuade the audience to support that program. Biden's State of the Union did some of that but it was also constructed around "sound bites" designed for our 24/7 news media which doesn't do depth very well (or at all).
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Happy St. Patrick's Day. Partly cloudy today and a bit below normal temperature--only in the 30s.
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It is cold again and we have flurries with it. There was also a pulse of snow yesterday. I don't expect any of it to stick around.
The "government shutdown watch" has recommenced on the news. I haven't seen much change in the attitudes of either side. We pretty much ignore the news. The "new" news, same as the "old" news. And the "analysis" is the same so why bother.
Caitlin Johnstone posted this depressing piece. It is depressing because it is very accurate.
David Kaiser provides a good overview of the Israel/Palestinian situation with a dollop of history as well. He says something I have thought and our politicians don't want to think: what we think doesn't matter much with the Israeli government. Advice, such as what our government has been giving, is worth its weight in gold. Our government has a problem. It has supported Israel for the last 75 years but now Israel is embarked on a course U.S. policymakers don't agree with. Part of the problem is political because we have a large and vocal population of Palestinian-Americans who still have relatives in Gaza and the West Bank under increasingly difficult (to put it mildly) circumstances. And part of the problem is moral--our politicians expel a lot of hot air on notions of equality, democracy, justice but their actions in both foreign and domestic affairs goes against those high flown sentiments. The U.S. has one lever of influence but our politicians have refused to pull it: the gargantuan amounts of aid we send to Israel.
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