My Brother Has His First Paid Publication

It's part of an anthology titled Wildthyme in Purple. I haven't read it yet, but my past experience with his writing has been favorable.

The Proposal

Having first gathered at 30th Street Station and then rallied against postal cuts at the Main Post Office, the crowd was now settling down at the municipal workers' union hall for the indoor part of Philly's Occupy the Dream event. A man came in front of the podium and activated the Occupy movement's "people's mic" by calling out, "Mic check!" The crowd responded in line. And a second call-and-response: "Mic check!"--"Mic check!" He commenced his message -- which I'm fairly sure was not part of the organizers' program for the evening -- by saying a woman's name, and followed this with, "Will you marry me?" She didn't reply via "people's mic," but was smiling broadly, and a moment later he was at the back of the room with her and it could be observed that they were kissing.

And so it was that I not only witnessed a marriage proposal in person for the first time in my life, but also took part in it.

Quote of the Day

"Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." -- Abraham Lincoln in his first State of the Union address, 3 December 1861. Quoted in John Nichols, _The "S" Word: A Short History of an American Tradition... Socialism_

Political Mechanics 101

I don't know why so many people seem to have trouble with the basic political mechanics I explain in this comment I wrote in response to a story on NPR's Morning Edition today:

Julie Rovner is 100% wrong when she says helping Romney beat Obama is "exactly the opposite" of what his conservative opponents want. On the contrary, they presumably know he's more conservative than Obama, and therefore prefer, should he win the nomination, that he go on to win in November. I often make exactly the same argument when I tell fellow progressives it's not disloyal to criticize Obama from the left, since this can only help him with centrist voters.