PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE....

I've always lived by the motto:

Learn from the Past
Plan for the Future
Live in the Present.

So, that's how the information is going to be posted here.

It is way too easy to be overwhelmed.

It's difficult to keep all the characters defined in this universal soap opera of rightwing ideology.

But, we'll try to provide a "Cliff Note" for each of the characters, and then start connecting the dots on the web.

Each section will be labeled:

PAST
PRESENT
FUTURE

For reference purposes.

Where the dots connect, that's what will show the true timeline and influence at work.

There will also be information dumps. Just the information posted with followup links.

The WayBackMachine will be your friend.

BLOGGING “GIVE ‘EM HELL, MOLLY IVINS”

GRACE CATHEDRAL
1100 CALIFORNIA ST
SAN FRANCISCO

It's a small cathedral, compared to St John the Divine in New York. Intimate.
It has a lightness to it.

I'm here - about two hours early. The musicians are setting up ('testingg...tesssting'...)
Big, windy storm outside.

There's a labyrinth located both in the garden area and one in the very back of the cathedral.

The organ - oh, the sound of a true throated organ. Nothing like it - filling the building.

I've staked out the electrical outlet next to the small chapel - the Aids Interfaith Chapel.

The altar piece is remarkable.

Now is the time to walk the labyrinth.
There is no one here.
I'm coming back and walk it when not involved in an outside event.
Been promising myself to do this for quite some time.

This space overwhelms the normal human body - I suppose that's what is intended on this 'grand scale'

Here comes the harpist, in from the rain, wheeling her covered harp to the front.
And the rain keeps streaming down.

Ahhh - I'm sure this is how the first bicycle or automobile owner must have felt when they went on out into that real world with their brand new contraptions.

Something will usually go wrong with it.
You didn't bring the part or the tools to fix it.
No one nearby knows a thing about it.

Welcome to blogging of the Molly Ivins Fest.
We're wandering about, trying to grasp that ephemoral 'Wi-Fi' signal.

Really. There's none available within the cathedral.
So, there's one intrepid soul with his nifty cellphone-on-steroids,
braving the horizontal rain just outside the door to grab a signal from the
nearby hotel in order to beam his pictures and info out to the world.

Hence, the reason this entry is posted about 3 hours after the event.

The harpist is warming up - tuning -

A few people have walked the labyrinth - it gets a bit tricky when more than one goes down the path. They have a 'docent' who has people enter at one minute intervals - to cut down on the jam.

There was one person taking advantage of the fact that he was walking it alone - extending his arms out with palms up, gathering the energy as he walked.

It's a pretty powerful spot.

The dress is casual - even by San Francisco standard.

You can hear the streetcar go by - looking out from the doorway, it's a classic San Francisco Corner cityscape during a storm.


If you want to hear the speakers, you need to sit right up front. They have them over-miked-echo chamber...I'll listen to them when the video is up on the web.

So far, I just couldn't see dear Molly sitting through it without wiggling in her seat.
It's very solemn. Very.

"Damn...Loosen UP!" I do believe I hear wafting thru the rafters...

This should be a celebration - with guffaws and music, and handshakes and community.

BlueTooth. CellPhone. UH oh....big no no - ringtone in the cathedral.

Five speakers.
They really need to break this up a bit.

A person with a Pot and a Spoon is now going to lead a meditation.
*Bang!

I wonder how Molly would meditate.
I would chance to guess it would include a nice, cold long-neck.

A majority of the group enter the labyrinth and start the walk...."they don't know if they are coming or going" popped into the brainpan. It was the visual.....the harpist provided
a nice background mediation all her own.

So, that's how it went.
The weather kept the turnout very low, but the ones there were there for a reason.

Let's get to work.

Time to string some stinkin' chickens....

What does that mean?

Facts, and more facts.

Tracking those stinkin' chickens and bringing them home to roost.

As a reminder - this is the article that Molly wrote that inspired this website:

Published on Friday, November 5, 2004 by the Boulder Daily Camera

Don't Mourn, Organize

by Molly Ivins

AUSTIN, Texas — Do you know how to cure a chicken-killin' dog? Now, you know you cannot keep a dog that kills chickens, no matter how fine a dog it is otherwise. Some people think you cannot break a dog that has got in the habit of killin' chickens, but my friend John Henry always claimed you could. He said the way to do it is to take one of the chickens the dog has killed and wire the thing around the dog's neck, good and strong. And leave it there until that dead chicken stinks so bad that no other dog or person will even go near that poor beast. Thing'll smell so bad the dog won't be able to stand himself. You leave it on there until the last little bit of flesh rots and falls off, and that dog won't kill chickens again. The Bush administration is going to be wired around the neck of the American people for four more years, long enough for the stench to sicken everybody. It should cure the country of electing Republicans. And at least Democrats won't have to clean up after him until it is real clear to everyone who made the mess. In some circles, that will be seen as sour grapes. But in Texas, we've been losing elections to the demagogic triad of God, gays and guns long enough to be pretty cynical about how it works out. I'm sure millions of Americans voted for George W. under the honest impression that he stands for moral values — family, patriotism, faith in God. I'm sure it's the Democrats' fault that such a silly ruse is allowed to stand. What Bush actually does stand for is nicely summed up by a rather common news story that got stuck on the business pages lately. In September, Merck & Co., the huge drug manufacturer, pulled Vioxx off the market. Vioxx was a popular pain-killing, anti-arthritis drug, but Merck said it was putting patients' safety first. A new study from the Federal Drug Administration showed high doses of Vioxx triple the risk of heart attack and sudden cardiac death. From there, the story bifurcates — it takes two directions. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa revealed that the FDA had tried to silence the author of the study, Dr. David Graham, associate director of science in the Office of Drug Safety. Grassley said the FDA first sat on Graham's study and that then he was "ostracized" and "subjected to veiled threats and intimidation." The Wall Street Journal followed the other fork, finding internal memos from Merck showing that company officials may have been aware of the dangers of Vioxx as long ago as 1996, including a memo apparently instructing its sales reps to "dodge" the question when doctors asked about the cardiac record of Vioxx. In short, we have a toothless regulatory agency in the pocket of the industry it is supposed to patrol. We have an administration-wide contempt for science and plain facts. And the allegation against the folks at Merck is that they were making such enormous profits on a drug that killed people that when they knew or suspected it was killing people, they kept right on selling it. When the information that Merck had known for a long time about Vioxx and heart attacks became public, the company's stock fell by 9.6 percent. That's the system George W. Bush stands for: where a corporation can knowingly kill people for profit and, when it finally comes out, everyone knows the penalties will be so light the company doesn't even lose a tenth of its worth. Hey, just a little bump in the road. We sure don't want any of that terrible, burdensome government regulation to control that kind of behavior, do we? We sure don't want an FDA that listens to its own scientists and acts promptly, do we? We sure don't want anyone to sue these monster corporations, do we? I bet if it were possible to compare the odds of an American getting killed by a negligent regulatory agency and rapacious corporate behavior versus an American getting killed by a terrorist, it would turn out we need to be a lot more scared of rank greed and its enablers than we do of terrorists. And that's not counting what the corps. (pronounced corpse) steal and mess up. So, fellow progressives, stop thinking about suicide or moving abroad. Want to feel better? Eat a sour grape, then do something immediately, now, today. Figure out what you can do to help rescue the country — join something, send a little money to some group, call somewhere and offer to volunteer, find a politician you like at the local level and start helping him or her to move up. Think about how you can lend a hand to the amazing myriad efforts that will promptly break out to help the country recover from what it has done to itself. Now is the time. Don't mourn, organize.

To you, dear. Visit us often. We are going to need a guardian angel.