This is priceless!

After I admonished Mr. Ether not to write a post about "Joe" "the Plumber", I have to indulge in some hypocrisy and post a link to Rick Sanchez's slapdown of Sam the War Correspondent, as reported at Crooks and Liars.

Bookstore Soapbox, Again

This article appeared on the front page of our evening newspaper yesterday:

As recently as six months ago, Madison's independent bookstores seemed to be bucking the national trend that has reduced the number of shops from 4,500 in 1993 to 2,700 this year. But store owners like Sandy Torkildson, co-owner of A Room of One's Own, are now noting that Minneapolis has lost nearly all its independent bookstores and fear that Madison could go the same way.

As Star Books prepares to close, there is plenty of concern among local bookstore owners over several unnerving trends they say are undermining their businesses, including a massive consumer shift to online book buying, easy access to information on the Internet, corporate booksellers, rising rents and increasing competition for people's time.

Spending your dollars within your community makes a difference. It's true. And if there is not an independent bookstore in your community, is there one nearby that you could shop at before turning to the corporate store or the internet? Most bookstores can special order just about anything, if you're able to wait. Same with record stores. And if you do turn to the internet, are you buying from an independent business?

A few independent bookstores in and around Madison: A Room of Ones Own, Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative, Prairie Books (a sweet, well-stocked little book store on Main Street in Mt. Horeb), Paul's (used) Books on State Street.

On the internet: Powells, BookSense (a cooperative of independent book stores; you can find out here where your nearest indy book store is located or buy a gift card that is good at any BookSense store anywhere in the country.)

Locally owned businesses keep communities economically healthy.
They also give communities their unique flavors.
Ignore your independent bookstores, and they will certainly go away.

Time's A-Gettin' Hard

There's an old Lee Hays song that goes like this:

Time's a gettin' hard, boys, money's gettin' scarce
If times don't get no better, boys, gonna leave this place
Take my true love by the hand, lead her through the town
Sayin' good-bye to everyone, good-bye to everyone

This past weekend I ran into a friend whom I hadn't seen in a while. (The school year makes hermits of all of us.) We have kids the same age and we've socialized over the years. We exchanged pleasantries, "how are yous?" and so forth, and then she told me that their family is moving to another state at the end of the summer. I said something inane like, "Wow. That's big." She went on to tell me that her husband has been unable to find work for over a year, that they have not been able to keep up with bills, that if they stay here they will have to sell their [very modest] house ... her husband got a job in another state and so they feel they have no choice but to go.

This is a family that was pretty settled here, not upwardly mobile or transient the way many younger professionals seem to be. Their kids have grown up here. They've put down roots.

That could very well be us, if not for the fact that I have so many years invested in my school system. My husband was laid off from his job for a good quarter of the last year. He works for a high end custom remodeling company, and clients were simply not signing their contracts, deciding to postpone projects. What does it mean when people who are comfortably well off get cold feet over spending money?

This is what I see when I begin to look around my immediate circle: Two of my siblings either unemployed or under-employed. Significant teacher lay-offs in my district (that's a first in my 20 years with this district). My neighbor unable to find a job.

Granted, this is viewing the world through a very small lens, but I think it implies a much greater problem than anyone seems to be talking about. What is keeping us afloat right now, aside from the "everything's fine" mentality? Is it the flood of cheap crap from Asia? Living on credit?

The jobs are going out the window, as is so articulately described in this article.

Nearly 80 years after the Great Depression, there seems to be a tendency to almost romanticize it, and certainly a lack of awareness as to how bad it really was. I see the signs, and I am frightened and saddened for my children's future.

Just askin' ...

I can't help but notice a hierarchy of coolness in the lefty blogging world. It bugs me sometimes, but it seems to be a natural human tendency, and I don't worry about it a whole lot. I've never been one of the cool people, I never will, and to paraphrase my hero Howard Zinn "what's wrong with being number two?"

But this is really getting my undies into a bundle, and I need to vent. Why is it, on so many blogs in the upper echelon of lefty coolness, that when they link to a bookseller it is almost always Amazon? Amazon donates primarily to Republicans! Yes, to those Republicans -- not the nicey- nice, touchy-feely, pro-choice, anti-war, cuddly bunny Republicans. The ones who wish they could diddle pages (not the kind you get from Amazon) and demonize homosexuals. The ones who cozy up to the Christian Right.

What gives? Do they not know? Do they think there aren't viable alternatives? Do they not care?

Today I am venting in particular about Crooks and Liars. But This Modern World and Bob Harris link to Amazon as well, on a regular basis.

Crooks and Liars also has an advertisement for Marriott Hotels on their site. Apparently you can get a special "Crooks and Liars" discount. The problem is, according to The Hightower Lowdown, that Marriott International made total political contributions of $230,000 in 2006, 82% of which went to support the very crooks and liars that that site skewers!

I have a problem with that. A big problem. I believe that their high visibility in the progressive blogosphere makes it important -- no, imperative -- that they put their money (and ours) where their mouth is. No exceptions. They do not need to advertise for companies whose policies are ruining our country (not to mention Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Colombia ...)

If you are reading this, and you have personal connections with any of the aforementioned blogs, please feel free to pass along my concerns. Thank you.

(I want to quote Ed, from the comments section: "Every dollar you spend is a vote. When you buy Republican, you vote Republican. Where you do or don't spend your money probably has a greater impact than how you vote at the polls." Bingo! You have to vote with your wallet. And your feet. I probably will not be visiting those blogs so much anymore.)