and, of course, him.

Riane Eisler, who published her book on “cultural transformation” The Chalice and the Blade a quarter of a century ago, has an op-ed piece in today’s paper about Mothers Day and caregiving.
I read The Chalice and the Blade when it first came out, during my tumultuous feminist years, when I was devouring everything I could find about the evolution of the female of our species. Not The Descent of Man, nor The Naked Ape, but The Descent of Woman.
As one reader who reviewed Eisler’s book wrote:
Based on the work of the remarkable archaeologist Marija Gimbutas and many other scientists and scholars, Riane Eisler discusses Truth after Truth of our world’s wonderful Prehistory in which, rather than the caveman Lie, our ancestors were peaceful, highly artistic, compassionate people who loved and celebrated all Life and worshipped the Goddess. The remains of their cities prove that they lived communally with no slaves and no signs of war for 2000 years until the cruel, bloody invasions of the peripheral, nomadic Indo-Europeans. Our “civilization” has ever after been based on the Dominator model: a history filled with wars, slavery, murder, rape, violence; men dominating women, children, and other men; in which values of compassion and peace are set aside or suppressed.
I have been taken to task before by other female bloggers for “as they see it” advocating matriarchy. But that’s never been my point. My point always has been that we need to dismantle the patriarchy and build it into (or maybe re-build, if we believe Eisler’s and Gimbutas’ research) an egalitarian society that values the peaceful and compassionate nature of the female archetype, that maintains an infrastructure that supports the role of the person-nurturing “mother-figure” as much as it supports the goals of the achievement-oriented “father-figure.” Please note that I am not referring to actual gender-based qualities but rather to archetypical ones.
As Eisler states:
The work of caregiving in families, whether it’s done by women or men, is not even included in measures of economic productivity, such as gross domestic product (GDP). The GDP does include, however, work such as building and using weapons, making and selling cigarettes and other activities that destroy rather than nurture life.
That’s the point.
There is enough statistical evidence to support the fact that women and the role they continue to play in our nation today are still a long way from being valued. As Eisler reports in her Mother’s Day article today:
In our wealthy nation, millions of mothers – largely former middle-class women who devoted most of their lives to taking care of others – face an old age of poverty. They are twice as likely to be poor than older men.
Despite all the rhetoric about motherhood and apple pie, our economic system does not support mothers or other family members who do the work of caregiving. It does not reward this essential work in a way that helps put food on the table or a roof over our heads..
In the Scandinavian nations, as well as in France, Germany, Great Britain, New Zealand and other industrialized democracies, there is paid parental leave, and California recently enacted such a law. In other industrialized nations, there are government subsidies for childcare and home elderly care.
Some critics claim that such policies will encourage people to stay home and not take outside jobs, and will lead to a high birth rate. But nothing of the sort has happened in nations with such policies that are friendly to caregivers.
The Scandinavian nations have a low birthrate, prosperous economies and high rate of women in elected positions (in Finland, both the president and prime minister are women).
The lesson from this is that only when caregiving is valued can we realistically expect more caring social policies.
Keep in mind that “caregiving” does not just mean giving birth to and raising children. As Eisler points out,
High-quality caregiving is essential for children’s welfare and development. Community investment in caregiving will pay for itself in less than a generation. Consider the enormous community expense of not investing in good childcare – from crime, mental illness, drug abuse and lost human potential – to the economic consequences of lower quality “human capital.”
Women are still the main caregivers. Professions that entail caregiving, such as childcare and elementary school teaching, where women dominate, are lower paid than professions that do not involve caregiving, such as manufacturing and engineering, which are predominantly male.
And, as a woman, whether you consider yourself a caregiver or not, you will one day be an older woman — maybe even a very old woman. An article in my local paper today by Korky Vann of the Hartford Courant (for which I can?t seem to find a link) states:
According to research from the International Longevity Center-USA, an aging-issues think tank, and the AARP Foundation, women older than 65 are twice as likely to be poor as men older than 65.
A number of factors contribute to the financial difficulties older women often face, including: Women earn less than men. Women are more likely to work as unpaid family caregivers. Women are only half as likely as men to have private pension, and their pensions are only half as large.
Vann’s article cites a report that recommends changes in public policy, such as initiating retirement credits for unpaid work such a caregiving.
And, having children aside, you might wind up where I am, caregiving for your parent (certainly something I believed, in my younger days, that I would never do). What goes around, comes around. And, when it goes around again, maybe I’ll move to Sweden — especially if Bush gets re-elected.

From Sojourners website:
Did you know that Mother’s Day was suggested as a day of peace in the United States by Julia Ward Howe who protested the carnage of war in her bold proclamation of 1870? Decades later in 1907, the first Mother’s Day observance was held at a church service honoring the memory of Anna Reese Jarvis in Grafton, West Virginia. Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, organized women during the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions and to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors.
Mother’s Day Proclamation
— Julia Ward Howe, 1870
Arise all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: “We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”
From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says “Disarm, disarm! The Sword of murder is not the balance of justice.” Blood does not wipe out dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each learning after his own time, the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.

I

The title of Paul Krugman

I took my digital camera into the not-yet-completed town park adjacent to my building this afternoon. I know that I’ll never take photos as good as Shelley’s but it was a perfect day to give it a few shots. Too bad I didn

In his No Utopia, Jim Culleny does his take on Paul Krugman’s piece on “Matter of Emphasis.”
A good place to start: look up “deceit” in the dictionary and you’ll find the picture of a right-wing Republican apologist in front of a backdrop of logos of major TV news corporations. Then look up “seducible” and you’ll find a group photo of 70% of the U.S. population. If we could only get it into our heads that once a government knows it can get away with creating lies to hype a “good” cause it’s only a matter of time before it cranks up its lie-making machine to hype any cause.
Owning to the tenor of the times and the effects of two great mishaps (the 2000 election and 9/11), in practical terms, whatever “is” was before the truth became a sound bite– will be a mystery wrapped in an enigma cloaked in a photo-op of the president getting tail-hooked onto an aircraft carrier wearing big goggles and a top-gun suit, then being greeted by a sea of cheering troops, and finally giving a speech about how the war is …sort-of… over. It was a moment made for TV, literally.
And this quote on No Utopia deserves repeating:
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the president,or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile,but it is morally treasonable to the American public.”
— Theodore Roosevelt, 1918
And so does this:THE CONSTITUTION …have you ever read it?

If you’re not sure, this sure should make it so — the following from an article by Joe Vecchio at the Democratic Underground: (Thanks to Steve James for the link.)
Free Inquiry magazine recently printed an article by political scientist Dr. Lawrence Britt, who studied the fascist regimes of Germany, Italy, Spain, Indonesia and Chile. In this article he points out fourteen “identifying characteristics” of fascism. They are:
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military
Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.
6. Controlled Mass Media
Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security
Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed .
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
Vecchio’s article includes lots of other very disturbing facts and some equally disturbing accurate observations, such as:
The “war” has since come and gone quickly, and the ones that perpetrated it are basking in the glow of victory, as a bunch of drunken, low-class thugs might celebrate kicking a homeless man to death. The river has long since caught fire, but instead of racing to put it out and trying to fix the problem so that it doesn’t happen again, we seem to be enjoying it. In fact, we’re sitting on the pier roasting weiners and singing songs. Do we worry that the fire is going to burn our own houses down sooner ot later? Nah, that’d never happen to us.
And meanwhile, just one more reason to be seriously concerned about just where Bush’s head is at.

Yes, that’s Crone, not crane. Check out Klondike Kate’s Aurora weblog, not only for magical photos of the Aurora Borealis, but for her wild but true stories of life on the edges of the ice. She’s smart and smart-mouthed and has lived long and hard enough to have some wisdom-stimulating experiences.

This from his weblog via Betsy Devine:
…if you want to know what’s on heavy rotation here in Burlington, it’s undoubtedly the What I Want to Know (Dance Mix).
The Georgia Dean for America group (gaforhowarddean@yahoo.com) writes:
“You asked for it, so we created it