Required Reading, Required Thinking

To my faithful (and few, and treasured) readers, I apologize for the long gap in posts this week. I have two good reasons. 1: I have been at my parents' house in the mountains since last Friday, and I am consciously taking a break from my normal non-stop internet-bound life. 2: I am deeply absorbed in reading a book that I hope all of you will seriously consider reading, Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil: My Life and Times in a Racist, Imperialist Society by Inga Muscio (who also penned another book that has changed my life and worldview, Cunt: A Declaration of Independence). It is hereby placed on the Cara Politica Required Reading list, with an asterisk especially for my dear White readers.



I am only on page 16 of the hefty little book, and it has already made me think more about things that really matter than anything I've read this year. I am in the process of grieving (more) for the deeply hurtful racist history of the United States and re-learning the cultural storylines that make up my White identity. I am feeling inspired to push harder and do things differently. I haven't gotten to process it all yet, but you'll hear from me when I do. In the meantime, I'll say it again, please read this book! Thank you so much to Rachel V. for reminding me to read it now.

It's out of print (crime against humanity), so I ordered my copy from Biblio.com, an Asheville-based bookseller and great alternative to Amazon and other far-away shippers for new and used books. Holler at me if you want to discuss further and/or borrow my copy when I'm done!

I Love a Good Infographic

This one comes courtesy of Talking Points Memo intern Erik Hinton. It's so wonderfully visually informative, but so disgusting. Can't...look...away...

April 23: 200 barrels per day.

April 24: 1000 barrels per day.

April 28: 5000 barrels per day.

May 27: 12,000-19,000 barrels per day.

June 10: 20,000-40,000 barrels per day.

June 15: 35,000-60,000 barrels per day.

Required Reading

Please check out this great post today from Mike Lux on OpenLeft, one of my favorite progressive blogs. Based on the idea that progressives value community and compassion, it offers a unique perspective on the ever-more-radical conservative movement in this country and is hereby official Cara Politica required reading.

Mike Lux has the best analysis of what it means to be a "progressive" of anyone I know or have read about. Luckily for me, Mike falls into the "people I know" category. I worked during Summer 2008 at Progressive Strategies, the D.C.-based political consulting firm that Mike founded. I already identified strongly as a progressive when I started interning there, but my time at Progressive Strategies gave me a more concrete understanding of how to put my values into action, how to find out what is going on in the progressive movement (including how and which blogs to read), and how to talk about politics.

Among Mike's many achievements is a book called The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be that outlines progressive principles and tracks the movement through history and into the present day. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone even mildly interested in politics or community change. Bonus: I performed some of the research that is included in the book!