Channeling Harry Truman

...is basically what President Obama will need to do to win reelection.

That may be easier said than done, though.

Obama is probably hoping for the same outcome, but the times are much different in 2011 than they were in 1948. In the late 1940s, both parties had liberal and conservative wings. Today, our parties are polarized with the Republicans unified behind an established conservative orthodoxy. Certainly there are differences of degree between candidates like Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and the long shots in the field. There are also divisions in Congress between the Tea Party freshmen in the House and establishment Republicans, as the recent debt-ceiling debacle has made clear. But these fault lines are nowhere near as wide as the gulf between Taft and Dewey.


And the Senate Democrats seem incapable of helping the President out.

Reminder to Self

OK, OK.

It's been a bad morning thus far. It's all uphill from here.

On the Outskirts- Vol. 1

Let's see if I have this right.

So Tulane professor Melissa Harris-Perry goes all Gap Band and drops a bomb on white liberals in The Nation magazine accusing white liberals of racism because white liberals are abandoning President Obama when they didn't abandon President Clinton.

Salon columnist Joan Walsh pens a rebuttal to Harris-Perry and pulls the "I have a black friend" card. I guess. Oh, and the black friend happens to be Harris-Perry...

Harris-Perry comes back with a "Oh no she din't" rebuttal.

And then it becomes a free for all.... David Sirota puts in his two cents, for example. There are many others.

The only thing missing was the "food fight" call.

None of these criticisms seem quite right and none of them seem quite wrong. I'll go back and read the posts and have a better informed commentary in a future post.

Full of WIN!

Thanks to Jesse LaGreca aka MinistryofTruth over at Daily Kos.

Surf over to "The Great Orange Satan" for additional pictures and commentary of the Wall Street protests.

Ain't Nothin' Goin' On But the Rent- The Response

I had long forgotten the name of the song that was the reply to Gwen Guthrie's dance classic Ain't Nothin' Goin' On But the Rent.

Here it is.

An old skool hip hop classic response song. The 12" housed up version.

Who I Be

I'd prefer that my first blog post be an eloquent yet brief autobiography/statement of purpose written in only the best prose (think James Baldwin's introduction to Notes of a Native Son).

If I even attempted to do that then the damn thing would never get written.

That can come later.

Right now, I'll settle for a  few pithy bullet points. Just to get this virgin post out of the way.

1. My middle initial is E. What the "E" stands for will be the topic of a blog post in the near future.
2.  I received my BA from Loyola University-Chicago in 2006. I majored in Classical Civilization. I had an "almost major" in English and "almost minors" in philosophy and anthropology. ("Almost major/minor" = I was a class short of an actual major/minor).
3. Occupation: unemployed and looking. And that is a job.
4. Vocation: Reading, writing, editing, and now this blog.
5. Why Cynosarges?  My favorite philosopher is the ancient Greek Cynic philosopher Diogenes and the Cynosarges was the location of Cynic teaching. The gymnasium was also located just outside the city walls of Athens and, in a sense, it's an appropriate metaphor of the psychical distance that I fell from the black and gay communities.

In this space, I'll discuss pretty much anything that comes to mind. But especially:

1. Books. I love to read and I love reading the "Dead Old White Guys". A goal of mine: to read the St. John's College Reading List within the next two or three years. The complete works of William Shakespeare. The Christian Bible from Genesis to Revelation (in fact, I want to read all of the major works of sacred literature). The complete works of James Baldwin. I love reading dead and living black and gay literature and as soon as I can find good lists on the net, I'll post 'em.
2. Politics and History.I've followed politics most of my life. You will follow politics and history with me.
3. Michigan Wolverine football. I was born and raised in Detroit and given the usual sorriness of the Detroit Lions (although that seems to be changing in 2011), I am a Michigan Wolverine fan going back to the days of Bo Schembechler and Ricky Leach. Even in these dark days of late for the Michigan football program, my love for U of M is as undiminished as my hatred for the Ohio State Buckeyes.

OK, that's enough for now. The very first time is usually painful and better when it's over with.

I'm done.