Your God/Your Supernatural/Your?

Sunday

Today,
The sea has its own religion;
It is as blue
As an acori bead
I rubbed in my hand.

I think
Of swimming out
for miles
and miles
in prayer.

I think
Of never struggling back
In doubt.

As though
In a world like this
Love starts over and over again.

-Primus St. John

Hmmm....

Tunnelvision

Get Back

A.

I've checked out for a while. Mostly because of the nice weather this summer and a lot of great things happening around town. I'll be back. Until then...



Thoughts?

Slow Education

A.

Sarah Palin resigned because of ethic issues?

"Max Blumental reports on The Daily Beast that Sarah Palin may have quit her job today because she was trying to avert a major, yet-to-be-disclosed corruption scandal. The gist of the rumor is that an Alaska building company called Spenard Building Supplies (SBS) was awarded a contract by Palin to build a hockey arena in Wasilla, AK, and in return, SBS helped construct Palin’s home"

Courtesy of Think Progress

B.

Hedo Turkoglu breaks off contract talks with the Trailblazers:

"The Oregonian has learned that free agent forward Hedo Turkoglu has rejected an offer to sign with the Trail Blazers and has ended negotiations with the team."

C.

Silver Jews - Bright Flight {2001} - "Slow Education"
Courtesy of The Hype Machine

College Cost Reduction & Access Act

A.

Everyone should look into this federal student loan repayment option:

"One of the big perks of the 2007 College Cost Reduction and Access Act is the Income-Based Repayment program. Taking effect next Wednesday, the IBR allows college graduates with federal loans, including Staffords, Grad Plus, and Perkins, to lower their loan payments if they have enough debt compared to their incomes. (If it takes more than 15 percent of what you earn above 150 percent of the poverty level to pay your loans off in a standard ten years, you’re in.) For most borrowers, the program reduces payments no more than 10 percent of their earnings."

"One of the big advantages of the program is that the term of the loan is capped. So as long as you make qualifying payments under IBR for 25 years, the rest of your debt is forgiven, no matter how big it is. If you work in public service – say, as a teacher or in a government job – the balance of the loan is forgiven after only 10 years."

Here is an article about this in the Christian Science Monitor .

Here is a website set up to explain IBR, but you have apply through your lender.

I think the federal government could do more about student loan debt but this is a good start. This is also an example of what happens when Democrats are in charge.

A Topic

A.

I stretch out for a nap in my little hut.
In the fields, frogs chant their songs
And the birds in the bamboo grove sing along.

~ Ryokan

B.

Get rid of the Vice President?

"Given that the office is at best worthless (most v.p.'s) and at worst a threat to the republic (Cheney), why don’t we simply get rid of it? Obviously, having someone ready to take over in the event of a president’s death is a necessity."

~ Matthew Yglesias in this months Atlantic Monthly

C.

More summer happy jamzzz:

LAKE

Check them out next week at Holocene on Thursday.

Backed Out On The Cause

A.

2009 PDX Pop Now!
Rotture
July 24th-26th
Free & All-Ages

Ah Holly Fam’ly, Animal Farm, Au, Autistic Youth, Benoit Pioulard, Breakfast Mountain, Chamber of Commerce (Blue Cranes + Paxselin Quartet), Church, Cull, Daniel Menche, DASH!, Deelay Ceelay, Don Hellions, Explode Into Colors, Fear No Music, Fist Fite, Grouper, Guidance Counselor, Inside Voices, Jeffrey Jerusalem, Laura Gibson, Lightheaded, Luck-One, Magic Johnson, Menomena, Morning Teleportation, MY-G, Nice Nice, Nucular Aminals, Nurses, Peter Broderick, Pierced Arrows, Purple Rhinestone Eagle, Red Fang, Rob Walmart, Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside, Strength, Tara Jane O’Neil, Teeath, The Andrew Oliver Sextet, The Estranged, The Mint Chicks, The Minus 5, The Old Believers, The Quick & Easy Boys, The Shaky Hands, Thrones and White Hinterland.

B.

I dedicate this song to September of 2007



C.

"The form of ''Anil's Ghost'' is that of a river with tributaries feeding into it. Anil's adventures with Sarath are the main channel. Investigating an archaeological site, they find a burned skeleton among the remains. The evidence points to violent death and to the body's having been moved from somewhere else. Since the site is closed and guarded by the army, this would be the first specific evidence of the government's long-rumored black operations."

~ Richard Eder reviewing Michael Ondaatje's Anil's Ghost in 2000.

I highly recommend this book. It highlights the complexities of a country most often overlooked because of it's proximity to India and Pakistan.

D.

"Thirty years from the revolution, the core question of this election was: Must Iran stand apart from the forces of economic and political globalization in order to preserve its Islamic theocracy?"

Roger Cohen on the money again discussing the current situation in Iran in relation to the 1979 revolution.

hmmm

A.

Lindstrom & Prins Thomas - Lindstrom & Prins Thomas II {2009} - Cisco
Courtesy of The Hype Machine

B.

"THAT First 100 Days hoopla seems like a century ago. The countless report cards it engendered are already obsolete. The real story begins now. With Iran, universal health care, energy reform and the economic recovery all on the line, the still-new, still-popular president’s true tests are about to come."

~ Frank Rich in the New York Times discussing why Obama will not have a summer vacation this year. He can't leave D.C. like Bush did for most of August during his presidency.

C.

From Me To You

A.



The NIAC relays word today from a friend in Iran: "Until it's clear what the fate of the new elections are, we will chant 'Allah Akbar' three times every night - once at 10:00, 11:00, and midnight."

~ Courtesy of the Huffington Post live blog about the crisis in Iran.

B.



C.

The Shaky Hands - The Shaky Hands {2007} - Whales Sing
Courtesy of The Hype Machine

It wouldn't be summer without The Shaky Hands