Living the Bubble Life in Miami

The “great” American signer Jimmy Buffett wrote and sang of Margaritaville, a place where oblivion was the default position. Why Mr. Buffett is often referred to as “great” defeats me, but as he has a recording contract and I do not, I’d better leave this question alone. Indeed, I'll consider his oblivion.

Some nights ago, I was sitting at Sundowners, a bar/restaurant in Key Largo in Florida. I was the designated driver, hence no margaritas for me, but the setting was perfect, the food ambrosia, and even the plain iced water was nirvana. I watched, mesmerized, as the sun dipped into the ocean. It was good to know that, at my venerable age, I could still see a distance of 93 million miles.

My wife and I had been visiting our eldest daughter, who works for the Miami City Ballet. She was raised to think independently, but she has taken the idea too far: we did not tell her to have such thoughts 5,000 miles away from us. Nor did we expect that she would embrace a “bubble existence” in this city.

Still, her decision meant we could attend a performance at the interestingly named and fabulously comfortable Arsht Centre. I have witnessed my fair share of ballets over the years but would make no claim to being a connoisseur. However, my wife is. In her view, MCB can rival any ballet company in the world.

What astonished me was the audience. Maybe they weren’t as sophisticated as those attending Covent Garden or La Scala. Maybe there was spontaneous applause after an extraordinary solo or duet, when the piece had not ended. But the Miami audience dressed to kill. Men in jackets and ties, women in beautiful cocktail gowns, children dressed so smartly. I felt a little embarrassed as I was in slacks and a (very smart) T shirt. In my 30 years of visits to Miam, the dress code has always been casual or ‘down’. What has happened here?

Our visit coincided with Spring Week, which now seems to last a month. Coming back to the hotel on our first night, four young ladies sat in the Lounge, each one more beautiful than the other. I asked my wife whether I might have a chance of getting a date with one of them if I was forty years younger, fifty pounds lighter, and sixty times as funny. It took her no time to reply, “Not so much.”

At this time, Miami Beach is more replete with pulchritude than normal. Pretty girls and good-looking boys abound. The attraction is sunshine, the beach, and each other but, perhaps, subliminally, they seek the bubble existence after the rigours of college.

So there has been little conversation about the economy or Obama’s European trip. However, the decision by the Iowa state legislature to lift the ban on same-sex marriage attracted much attention. Not to be outdone in publicity, the Vermont Governor vetoed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, setting the stage for an override vote in the legislature. Thus, these two states will be the centre of attraction for Miami Beach’s substantial gay community, gearing up for the Gay Pride Parade.

CNN, too, seem to have caught the bubble mood. After the Obamas’ tour of Europe, I expected some close analysis, but last night, a deadly serious Wolf Blitzer introduced a section on Michelle Obama. Was this related to her duties as First Lady, or FLOTUS, as they like to call her here? Not really. The piece was devoted to Mrs Obama’s wardrobe and the way she covered her upper arms.

Before I am accused of mockery or cynicism, I happen to think that a society that is willing to take on awkward topics like same sex marriage, abortion and even creationism has to be applauded. As Aaron Sorkin wrote, “America is an experiment in advanced citizenship.” The political debates in UK seem sterile and passive by comparison. Nevertheless, I am relieved the talking heads on Newsnight are not getting involved in Mrs. Obama's wardrobe.

Miami Beach may lack realism but it certainly has life. I regret that my daughter has chosen to live here, rather than stay in UK. For the sake of an extra hour or so in an aircraft, I might have preferred that she had moved to Portland or San Francisco. However, when one is young and the world still resembles an oyster, when total reality has yet to hit, when annual sunshine --- give or take a hurricane or two --- is the staple diet, maybe the bubble that is Miami Beach is not so bad.

"Pain" And "Suffering" As Distinct Concepts: The Waterboarding Memo Set To Music

What starts of as a novelty music video quickly becomes much more. In setting the waterboarding memo text to music, Jonathan Mann makes plain the linguistic gymnastics required to separate the "pain" and "suffering" of waterboarding from the "pain and suffering" of regular torture. Remember, "The waterboard is simply a controlled acute episode,/ lacking the connotation of a protracted period of time/ generally given to suffering." All clear?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJSXbA9j0Js&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]


[via Boing Boing]

Meet Your Next President of Texas: Mr Chuck Norris

Yes, folks, you read that right. Get excited: when Texas declares independence from the liberally decadent United States, its first leader will be the star of Missing in Action, Delta Force, Chuck Norris Meets the Martians, and, of course, Walker: Texas Ranger.

A poll by Research 2000 this week found that Republicans in Texas are now evenly split on "independence", with 48 percent favouring secession from the US and 48 percent opposing. Weak-kneed Democrats pull the overall figure for independence down to 35 percent, but we're sure Mr Norris's support for secession, backed by a few well-placed kicks, will start changing minds.

Norris launched his Presidential bid in March on the highly-esteemed political talk show, The Glenn Beck Program. After plugging his new book, Black Belt Patriotism: How to Reawaken America, and declaring, "Jack Bauer would last 5 seconds against Walker", Norris declared:

We could break off from the union if we wanted to....I may run for president of Texas.

Norris says that the remark was initially a "quip", but a week later, he got serious:

From the East Coast to the "Left Coast," America seems to be moving further and further from its founders' vision and government....[But] anyone who has been around Texas for any length of time knows exactly what we'd do if the going got rough in America. Let there be no doubt about that. As Sam Houston once said, "Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may."

So how about a President Norris? The mega-superstar writes, "That need may be a reality sooner than we think."

And for you liberals/radicals/socialists who don't think this is a serious prospect, you might not only wake up to an independent Texas but one on your doorstep, kicking your butts for Norris's "second American Revolution". Let me just remind of the title of Chuck's 1985 blockbuster:

Invasion USA

Winning the Culture Wars (Part 2): Stephen Colbert Parts the Gathering Storm

Related Post: Winning the Culture Wars - How the “Gathering Storm” over Same-Sex Marriage was Defeated

"Did you know that if all 50 states approve same-sex marriage, straight marriage becomes illegal?"

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Winning the Culture Wars: How the "Gathering Storm" over Same-Sex Marriage was Defeated

Related Post: Winning the Culture Wars (Part 2) - Stephen Colbert Parts the Gathering Storm

A couple of weeks ago, British newspapers engaged in some silliness over Obama's America. The Daily Telegraph declared, "America's religious Right has conceded that the election of US President Barack Obama has sealed its defeat in the cultural war with permissiveness and secularism." The Observer announced two days later, "Barack Obama brings truce in culture war".

This false truce was exposed last week during the Tea Parties which, beneath their surface complaints over taxes and Government spending, were founded upon social, cultural, and even racial positions. The coding of "American values" signalled the confrontation of decadent "liberal" enemies.

Yet, even as the demonstrations were taking place, a significant episode was being played out on the Internet. In that battle lay not consensus but a victory for the dangerous "liberals", one that would have been hard to conceive even 20 years ago.

The story begins with this video, "A Gathering Storm", from the National Organization for Marriage:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp76ly2_NoI[/youtube]

The "clouds are dark" warning, with the prospect of gay couples invading the living room, is all too familiar to me from 1980s America and, after I left the US, in the 1990s phony crusade against "political correctness". Even last year, the passage of California's Proposition 8, declaring the only acceptable union was between a man and a woman, indicated that Obama's America would not relinquish long-held prejudices.

This time, however, the unexpected (at least to me) occurred. Within hours, there was a Web-based counter-attack. The "Gathering Storm" video was pilloried in comments (most of them calmly and civilly put) and in a series of YouTube rebuttals and parodies:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJGR8YDd_lU&feature=related[/youtube]

On Twitter, the political columnist Anamarie Cox and other mischievous folk began circulating the message, "Suck it @nomtweets!". The National Organization for Marriage's latest scheme, "2M4M" (Two Million For Marriage) was taken over by the "real" 2M4M (Two Men For Marriage).

By the time Stephen Colbert anointed the satirical dissection of the NOM campaign (see separate blog and video), the political signs had been posted: the doors to same-sex marriage are no longer bolted. Following the lead set by Massachusetts in 2004 and then by Connecticut, Iowa and Vermont had begun the process of legalisation, and in New York, Governor David Paterson announed that he would be introducing the measure. Even in Utah --- Utah, perhaps the most socially-conservative state in the US --- the governor said he would support same-sex unions. Prominent Republicans like John McCain's campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, are publicly asking the GOP to abandon its opposition.

None of this is being written with the complacency that the Storms  are gone forever. Cultural fears and invocations of "tradition" can always be summoned to hold the line against advances in civil rights. But, even at a time of economic crisis, there is cause for celebration of a new American politics --- in tone and technique --- that is bringing not dark clouds but a bit of tolerant sunshine.