Left of the Dial

Harry Potter: The Real Inspiration

I know, I know, I know. A lot of people think J.K. Rowling...appropriated Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea, or Diana Wynne Jones' Charmed Life or several other candidates.

But I think we all know where she really found her original inspiration.

The very spit and image. 

[HT: the wondrous BeatlePhotoBlog]

America Hell No

You know, I call recall a time when conservatives liked a strong America, rather than actively wishing, rooting, acting for a greatly weakened one. Oh, 2008, where did you go? (And what could possibly have changed since then?)

In Britain, Jon Cunliffe, who will become deputy governor of the Bank of England next month, told members of Parliament that banks should be developing contingency plans to deal with an American default if one happens.

And Chinese leaders called on a "befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world." In a commentary on Sunday, the state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua blamed "cyclical stagnation in Washington" for leaving the dollar-based assets of many nations in jeopardy. It said the "international community is highly agonized."

Here's the thing: I think most of the radicals on the far right in the House are honestly too stupid to realize that what they're doing amounts to treason, and perhaps that makes all the difference. But the fact that they can look at this:

And not run in horror?

As Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote:

It is not so much the behavior of the lone idiot that matters, but the tenor of the crowd around him.

If a patriot can stand in front of the White House brandishing the Confederate flag, then the word "patriot" has no meaning. The Nazi flag is offensive because it is a marker of centuries of bigotry elevated to industrialized murder.

But the Confederate flag does not merely carry the stain of slavery, of "useful killing," but the stain of attempting to end the Union itself. You cannot possibly wave that flag and honestly claim any sincere understanding of your country. It is not possible.

Stupid, racist, hateful, greedy, some combination of them all? Whatever the truth—and I'm sure it varies by person—it makes them terrible, terrible people. And a far greater threat to this nation than Osama bin Laden ever was. 

Congratulations, Jefferson Davis. You still haven't lost quite yet. 

How about half-full faith and credit? Quarter? An eighth?

Man. I'm so old, I can remember when "the party of personal responsibility" at least pretended to be just that, rather than openly advocating for the United States of America to become a deadbeat nation, and therefore blow up the world economy and kneecap our grandchildren. 

Those were the days. Man, I miss 2010. 

You know, it's funny. I hear a politician compare the world's largest economy to a family budget and I think, "my good golly, but anyone who doesn't realize how utterly different those two things are, how facile it is to compare the two, is simply a compete and total ignoramus." And then I wonder why there's anyone who graduated high school who doesn't think the exact same thing. And I don't like the obvious answer. 

"lyrical dissonance"

So Max had to bring a short piece of music, roughly thirty seconds or so, into her first college computer class—some sort of music programming course—and explain why she liked it. It could be just a small excerpt from a longer piece; the entire thing didn't have to be 30 seconds long. Most kids brought in a current pop hit, or a bit of a video game theme, or a snippet of classical from a movie soundtrack.

She brought this.

(That should have started at about 3:06, and her clip ended around 3:42.)

This is what she said about the piece:

"The lyrical dissonance of this clip adds a layer to the song not present in either the words or instrumentals alone; while the lyrics are despondent, hopeless -- 'broken heroes,' 'no place left to hide,' -- the music sounds just the opposite -- not just hopeful, but triumphant.

"Together, they could indicate that things may seem now like it can never get better from here, but that in fact there is still hope, that the narrator and Wendy will someday 'get to that place where [they] really want to go' and 'walk in the sun,' no matter how bleak the future seems now."

If I may just take a moment to say? That's my girl.