Month of Lovers: Lady #24

I'd trust her implicitly 

And think she may own Synchronicity,

But she'll best avoid publicity 

If I end these poems on this note of simplicity. 

And so we reach the conclusion of this "Month of Lovers" on ToddSeavey.com, a necessary retort to some very ignorant critics erroneously calling me an undateable jerk last year -- including the Washington Post, which some folk, more sensitive than I, might consider reason in itself to feel put-upon.  

But like Socrates, I have always known that in some sense no harm can befall a good man.  I have never been out for money, glory, or universal acclaim -- just the assurance of always being able to sleep with a sound conscience, something which I suspect many of my critics have never done -- and something I dare say makes me just a little bit dangerous (when necessary) by the sold-out standards of most media and politics types.  I think you know that when the time comes for someone to say that the Satanist cyborg transvestite is in the right, and the bipartisan consensus forged by the heroic spilling of the blood of America's most popular movie star is wrong, you can count on me. 

So, say any nasty thing you like, creepy-looking hag-duo of the Washington Post gossip column (or Tourette's-like Moe Tkacik of City Paper, or numerous others) -- I was still in the right, protecting potential fellow-victims as yet unknown and probably helping a substantial number of them by putting my little public warning on record…which is the sort of thing good people will stoically do, even when hated and feared by the very world they have sworn to defend.  

Speaking of which, let us turn our attention to the exciting philosophical and political upheaval across the world in March's entries, though maybe some prose (just plain prose) about current or future romantic activities will find its way into the mix, too -- either here or on Twitter or Facebook.  Collect 'em all to find out!

Month of Lovers: Lady #23

I learned the hard way that little of her persona is real,
Yet I once dreamt of making her home my home.
I think Asperger's may have queered that deal
And makes her say "marsh land's my favorite biome."

Nerd note: Am I just reading into this sequence from the recent Big Bang Theory episode "The Love Car Displacement"?  But no more of that.

Month of Lovers: Lady #22

It's a little odd that I've dated only a few libertarians,
One who briefly worked for the Drug Enforcement Administration,
And, as if to further prove I'm just drawn to contrarians,
This one, who had worked as an intern for the Clinton Administration.

Month of Lovers: Lady #21

She's a spunky dynamo,
And if I get this wrong, I suspect she'll let me know.
She's a sorta politico,
And if spirit physically embiggened, she'd really be due to grow.


Jamaican culture addendum (since this lady, who was not my ex of Jamaican ancestry, ended up going to Jamaica with me): Austin Petersen pointed out to me this amazing video of a "demon child" soothed by reggae.

Month of Lovers: Lady #20

It's all about art with this dame,
The painting, the sculpting, some crazy thing with flames.
Has some weird friends, but I learned to like 'em:
Poets, dancers, and some with hair just like Lydon.

Month of Lovers: Lady #19

Even the brainiest ones
Sometimes admit they had witchy beliefs in youth.
As an adult, she's still fun
But now discards beliefs for which there's no proof!

Month of Lovers: Lady #18

I suited up for our big trip to Vegas,
And I think she deliberately dressed like a pricey whore.
Fine with me -- it stays there, I guess.
The gamblers, they can gawk, but later on, I see more.

Religion note: Oddly enough, this one later converted to Mormonism -- a thought sure to go through my mind when I see Parker and Stone's stage musical The Book of Mormon in six days. 

Month of Lovers: Lady #17

I'm not convinced she's truly a nerd,
Though she uses Jedi tricks on my people.
Whips out her Star Wars action figures,
And our resistance...grows...feeble.

Manhattans Project note: And speaking of people's most sacred beliefs, tonight at the monthly social gathering I host for media and politics people at Langan's (47th just east of 7th), frequent attender David Russell will be the "guest of honor," allowed to make his case for a few minutes in favor of: Catholicism and collectivism.  (I am a diplomat, clearly, for all the good it does me.)

Month of Lovers: Lady #16

Never thought I'd date a disgruntled postal worker,
And from the start things were fraught by her resistance.
Y'know, in retrospect, the most miffed I ever saw her
Was when I caused her to walk an overly long distance.


Schedule note: And if you dislike government bureaucracies, you can gripe about them tomorrow night (Mon. the 21st) at Langan's (47th east of 7th) from 7-10pm at our monthly Manhattans Project gathering of people interested in politics and/or media.

Month of Lovers: Lady #15

Wasn't trying to start a fight or anything, 
But this one got a tad volatile.
Both wanted it to be enlightening, 
But she soon wanted to crush me to molecules.

Month of Lovers: Lady #14

She was a beatnik in France, non?
Zee black clothes, zee jazz, zee art -- just so!
And her interest in science, it would -- 'ow you say? -- grow!
And zat helps make her zee kind of lady zat, well, I like to get to know.

Politics Last Week, This Week, and Next Week

 •This past weekend saw me in DC for the Republican Liberty Caucus (timed to coincide with the slightly larger but less philosophically accurate CPAC), affording me the chance to bond with Dan McCarthy of American Conservative (who readers of this blog may recall as the paleolibertarian voice to my right-libertarian voice in combat with Kerry Howley's left-libertarian voice in Reason a couple years ago, though now I can think of nothing but the debt), Chuck Moulton, Norm Singleton, Tom Walls, New York City Councilman and Thor fan Dan Halloran, and many more (with brunch cameos by Paul Taylor, Elizabeth Terrell, and even a couple non-libertarians the next day).  Surely, victory is at hand, or at least strange anecdotes.

•This clueless passage from a Washington Post piece that notes Ron Paul won the straw poll at CPAC -- but is still a CPAC "loser" because of his limited appeal -- summarizes part of Paul's speech in a way that shows how hard it is for a libertarian to get even someone as savvy as WaPo politics writer Chris Cillizza to understand (even at a basic grammatical level, I suspect) what we're saying:

...odd pronouncements such as "Government should never be able to do anything you can't do"...

Paul means "...anything you don't have the right to do to each other as individuals," though I suspect Cillizza thinks Paul was saying "Government should not do the impossible."

•Tomorrow the Washingtonian mountain comes to the Manhattanite Mohammed, as the writers affiliated with the conservative Phillips Foundation gather here to listen to Jay Nordlinger, Heather Mac Donald, and other speakers on media topics -- including me on how to comport oneself on TV (based mainly on my experience as a producer).  And a cute libertarian has moved here permanently, I see -- but no more about that for now.

•This coming Monday (Feb. 21, 7-10pm) brings the monthly Manhattans Project social gathering I host at Langan's bar-restaurant (47th just east of 7th), which will have as its contrarian guest of honor David Russell, who will briefly make the case for Catholicism and collectivism.

•Even Russell's most papist arguments will not stop me from feeling a small pang of sympathy for Mormons one week later, though, when I attend the stage musical The Book of Mormon from the creators of South Park.  Yes, Mormonism is insane and I look forward to seeing it mocked, but I have long felt that people who just take it on faith that a carpenter rose from the dead -- and will similarly resurrect them one day -- calling some closely related sect nuts is clearly the pot calling the kettle heretical. 

•And speaking of combating biases, I liked this carefully thought-out Jacob Levy post (and the resulting comments thread) about bias in academia, even if it may be too dismissive of the prior John Tierney piece on the topic.

•In the more popular encouraging-biases department, I only just realized that three years ago on my blog I reviewed a book (as a mere addendum to a review of a book by Jonah Goldberg) that was an awesome, pretty darn libertarian, overview of the rise and fall of history's major empires, written by none other than Amy Chua, now famous as the "Tiger Mom" author who has left us all, even Euro-American adults, frightened that we may yet be raised by East Asian women (Tracy Quan calls her the Eastern Hegemommy and gives me a shout-out in the process).  Small world.  Small world periodically conquered by Asians.  The Goldberg and Chua books were both projects overseen by Adam Bellow, as is the recent Goldberg-edited Proud to Be Right, containing my "Conservatism for Punks" essay.  You really ought to purchase that so that you will understand.

Month of Lovers, Lady #13

Ah, luck be a lady tonight!
Or at least don't get too kooky tonight!
My mellowness-craving nerves can't always handle the fright,
But a warm-hearted, fairy-like lass, she does none of it from spite.

Month of Lovers: Lady #12

Her mom at one time dated a famous rocker, 
And part of her inheritance, besides brains, is those good looks --
I mean those of her dad and hot mom, who I believe made this daughter -- 
Though I must say, the slight resemblance to the rocker, sometimes it spooks.

Month of Lovers: Lady #11

She wrote a Valentine to her Dad once,
After decades in flux.
Always felt his absence dearly,
And that may be the crux.