THE ROOM IS SMALL and kept dim, at night it is lit only by the glow of the screen. Outside, from the deck, the hill slopes down to the sea and the sea rolls out to Catalina hazy on the horizon.
At my hosting site, American page views crack 200,000 this month, up from 20,000 last July. Not all that bad, but still......
On my hard-drive there are three large folders of three book projects, and I am falling far behind in my promises to others. There's also a notebook with notes on topics I would really like to write about. Right now, there are 438 such notes.
Behind me a stack of some 15 books ordered in from Amazon and barely
Continued...
Image by Van der Leun
WE DON'T FILL IN A FORMULA of departments and features every week. We're jamming.
We just make up our content on the fly. No going back. No edits. Mainlining other's thoughts.
It's an infinate combo of brain musicians high on brain jazz.
If you can type and have something to say, you can sit in and jam.
You can play.
ANY NUMBER can play a number and that number is always an unknown number. But if you can play unknown numbers you can sit in on the session.
If not, you can just login and kick back and watch the others go at it.
You never know what you're going to get, or which way the next person is going to bend the thread.
You're just there, in real time, and saying, really, whatever comes into your head.
Sometimes its flat, even more often predictable, and, yes, it can get really boring, just like a lot of modern jazz.
But still, there are times -- rarer now to be sure -- when the thing just takes off
And you find yourself thinking things you never thought you'd think and saying things you never planned to say to a lot of people who are coming right back at you, jamming harder, seeing if you can all, somehow, take it higher.
Not to be profound, just to take it around. Your in a Doctor Strange brain groove and you've got lift-off.
Have this happen a couple of time and you're hooked, man. Like me, man. I've been hooked for years, man, but it doesn't rule my life, man.
"His writing is reverting to "politicus-restrictus", with an overburden of "terroristias-admonishmus." You recall how we dealt with his fixation on Howard Dean by having those friends of yours from the "Internet Police" show up on his doorstep?" (Dr. W smiles and nods) "Well, that worked for a while, and he looked like he was enjoying a wide range of subjects even more, in fact talking about getting back to his book. But, now..."
Place: A small, private men's club in Laguna Beach, California. Situated behind the Zinc Cafe, it is accessible only by a secret door, and only with the correct password. In the true spirit of men's club's, the inside is discreetly lit, the walls lined with books, overstuffed chairs and hunting trophies abound, and smoking is of course allowed. The only nod to the present is that the menu leans towards sushi.
Sitting in a chair is world famous and long rumored dead psychologist and science fiction author Dr. Sven Grepenstein. Dr. Grepenstein faded from public view in the mid 1990's when he independently decoded the signals from the SETI project, and discovered that ADD was a universally normal condition. Realizing that the rising occurrence of ADD in children was really nature's cruel joke of evolution, he faked his own death, and now lives off his savings and the tutoring a few aspiring psychologists.
As Dr. Grepenstein smokes his pipe, his latest protege, young Dr. W., arrives and walks over to his chair.
Dr. G. : "Ahhh! Young Dr. W.! How are ve doing today? Please, sit down. Sit down." A server appears at their table with Dr. W.'s usual drink, a Cadillac martini.
Dr. G. : "So, young Dr. W., how do your studies go?"
Dr. W.: "Oh, Dr G.". Long sigh. "I sometimes wonder if I have chosen the right field. Making progress is so slow sometimes."
Dr. G. : Nods, "Yess, yess. The science of stealth psychology is so new and unproven, setbacks are wery common. But ve must not become discouraged. Tell me your troubles."
Dr. W.: Sips his drink. Looks thoughtfully at the head of a wildebeest. Finally, he begins. "Dr. W, it's of course my promising patient, Mr. VDL." He has proven so difficult a case."
Dr. G: Nodding, "Yesss, Yesss. Mr. V. A very interesting case. The writer who
Continued...
Forty years ago in a galaxy far, far way, I stood with many others outside Sproul Hall at U.C. Berkeley and listened to Mario Savio make a speech which in many ways launched the political upheaval of the 1960s and all that has come from that. Savio died in 1996, a man who in many ways peaked at the moment the speech was made and who lived the rest of his life in the shadow of it. Still, he was a brilliant man and perhaps, not certainly but perhaps, he might be inclined to make the following speech if he had been returned to life for the Democratic Convention.
"We have a MoveOn-ocracy which runs this party...."
Continued...
Where is Old Fiddler Jones
Who played with life all his ninety years,
Braving the sleet with bared breast,
Drinking, rioting, thinking neither of wife nor kin,
Nor gold, nor love, nor heaven?
Lo! he babbles of the fish-frys of long ago,
Of the horse-races of long ago at Clary's Grove,
Of what Abe Lincoln said
One time at Springfield.
-- Edgar Lee Masters, :The Hill", Spoon River Anthology
Today, in Springfield, Missouri, President George W. Bush delivered a speech not merely in response to last night's speech by John Kerry, but one that sums up where we have been in the Terrorist Wars so far and how far we still must journey.
Bush is not the only American President to give such a speech in the summer in in a town named Springfield. In Springfield, Illinois Abraham Lincoln, before rising to the Presidency, also gave one on the dangers confronting the Republic 148 years ago:
"A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF CANNOT STAND"
Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858
Note: For the actual text of this great speech which foreshadowed much that the country would endure through the following decade, I refer you to The "House Divided Against Itself" Speech by Abraham Lincoln. I confess that I have, with some reservations, altered this document below for reasons that will become clear as you read. I have done so because, as in 1858, so in 2004 this country faces another harsh test whose shape is still unclear but whose dangers to our nation will come to us over the next decade. With minor modifications, the parallels that can be drawn are chilling. Hence, I do this in the belief that Lincoln, if he would not approve, would at least not condemn. The evil that Lincoln speaks of is slavery. The evil of our time is Islamic terrorism. They really aren't that different. Are they?
ABRAHAM LINCOLN: "IF we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the third year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to Islamic terrorism. Under the operation of that policy, that Terrorism not only has not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, Islamic Terrorism will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A house divided against itself can not stand." I believe this government can not endure permanently half faint hearted and half resolved. I do not expect America to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect that it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing,
Continued...
THE LITERARY WORLD, THE GAY WORLD, NPR, AND MACY'S were thrown into a tizzy with the announcement of the marriage of best-selling author, NPR star, and Macy's Elf David Sedaris' heretofore secret heterosexual liason. A deeper shock was felt when Mrs. Monique Sedaris also revealed they were expecting twins and had signed a movie deal outing their marriage.
The announcement came, as these things often do these days, from a web page written by Mrs. Sedaris @ akamonique.com
I Married David SedarisSedaris' editor at Little Brown / Time Warner in New York did not return phone calls on this matter, but a Time Warner spokesperson commented that "It is not our policy to comment on the private lives of our authors. We will, however, forward any letters concerning this to them in France."The truth was bound to come out, especially with Davey's book tour in full swing. So rather than read some cheesy exposé in the National Enquirer, we decided to tell the story ourselves.
We met last year, not long after David saw me on the "Today Show," chatting about my own bestseller, Finding Your Inner Slut.
Brendan Lemon, Editor-in-Chief for OUT Magazine was slightly more revealing. In a brief telephone interview, Lemmon would only say, "We never comment on stories we are pursuing and developing. I can say, however, that if you want to know the real details of this, you might want to keep a look out a very special and fabulous "At Home" spread in our Christmas issue."
Village Voice Gossip Scribe Michael Musto was unreachable, but we did learn he was "vacationing" in Paris for the fortnight.
THE OFFICIAL KERRY-EDWARDS CAMPAIGN SONG, "REPORTING FOR DUTY!"®
"CLICK HERE AND SING WITH ME NOW FOR A NEW AMERICA ... OR TWO."
Not all balloons were trial
AFTER SEVERAL HOURS READING AROUND THE UBER-BLOGSPHERE, A CONSENSUS is beginning to emerge. While Kerry said a lot of things and hit a lot of cliches out of the park, and spent weeks preparing, and days practicing gestures ( love that little thumbs up move), history will record that the single most discussed line was:
"Go balloons. Go balloons. ... I don't see any balloons....I want some goddamn balloons..... Where the f**k are the balloons?...."
-- The CNN Director over an open audio line. CNN International as well. Executions will commence at dawn.
As for the speech itself, well, as my wife commented here earlier on a different subject, "Please sleep soundly tonight knowing that your suggestions have fallen on blind ears."
COMMENTING ON "THE INEVITABLE BUSH BLOWOUT" BELOW Patrick @ Ubi Libertas tells us the instructive tale of a similar situation in Canada. Excerpt:
"A couple of comments on this stealth Democrat theory. First, something very similar happened in Canada about twenty years ago, at a convention to select a new leader for the Tories. One candidate, a well-known woman MP named Flora MacDonald was doing very well in the polls before the convention. Much was made of the possibility that MacDonald might become the first female leader of a major Canadian political party, and quite possibly Prime Minister. But on voting day, MacDonald got only a small fraction of the vote count she was expected to get. Lots of people who said they were going to vote for her - who told MacDonald, told the press, and told pollsters they were going to - got into the privacy of the voting booth and voted for someone else. It was a major story in Canada at the time, and is now referred to as the Flora MacDonald syndrome."There's more at the link.
41st Street, Manhattan, June, 2002, 6:30
They seek a dedication
No passion prints on stone,
Their reverie -- of clouds.
Their benedictions -- moans.
Not one can name their masters,
Nor indenture's date reveal,
Doomed to ride the animal
That runs within the wheel.
Palapalo Ho'omau Church Cemetery, Kipahulu,Southeast Maui
That long green swell that sears my eyes
As I lie in this bed of black stone,
Is it the Irish coast rising in the dawn
Beyond the brushed silver of my blind cowling
Where, throughout the night, I trusted
Not in some desert God's directions,
But in the calibrated compasses of man?
That rushing sound, is it the hordes at Orly,
Swarming past the barriers and lights
To scavenge my Spirit, and lift me up
Into the air that only heroes breath?
Or is it the age-old sigh of sea on stones,
Known to those who pace the shingle
And the swirled black sands that seep
Up from the sea's loom to wrap
Impossible islands in a shawl of waves?
That painting daubed on the chapel's window -
Not the roselined mandala at Chartres
Where flame in glass misprisoned sings -
But a cruder Savior, bearded, browned and popular,
An icon obtainable to plain sight, a trim God
Flat upon the glass in dull gesso limned,
Laguna Beach, California
Laguna Beach, California
Groom, Texas, Pop. 900. Off I-40. Taken at Sunset, November, 2002
AS THEY BEHAVE AT THE CONVENTION, SO SHALL THEY TRY TO VOTE IN NOVEMBER. One of the problems with Kos, perhaps the major problem, is that he doesn't know when to shut up. Take this smarmy little "backstage" item about how the Democrats are packing their own convention hall:
So here's how it works.Take that little, "harmless," cheat and extend it to election day. Clearly, members of a party that would cheat their own convention in such a way would have even less of a problem doing something along the same lines when it came to voting. Vote. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.There are a few thousand delegates with credentials. But lots more people want to come in and partake in the festivities. Even if it is a "stage-managed event", it's a party for political junkies, and there are lots more of us than most people realize.
So a delegation gets in the building. One person collects all their credentials, walks out the Fleet Center, and returns with a whole new group. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
So suddenly, there are three times as many "delegates" walking around.
The comments on this post confirm and endorse this behavior.
I'm currently reading Hewitt's " If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat: Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends on It ." This Kostathetic item only underscores Hewitt's premise. As I said yesterday concerning their candidate, the Democrats' critical shortage is 'honor.'
You knew that already, but it helps to have one of their own confirm it.
Deceiving Appearances:
"I am not a Kapor, I am a Winer!"
THE INEXPLICABLY-STILL-UNCONFINED-TO-A-MENTAL-INSTITUTION DAVE WINER ASKS:
Behind the scenes in the press filing room at the DNC. There's a point to these pictures. How different do these people look from people you'd meet at a blogger's conference? They have a passion for information, take pride in their craft, are competitive, and are always trying to do better. They laugh at the same kinds of jokes we do. Like the bloggers at the DNC, these tend to be the good ones, the ones who care.To which a friend of ours, wise in the ways of the Web ( and with a good deal more web cred than Dave has even in his own imagination) replies via email:
"Uh, no, Dave. These people bathe, know how to operate a toothbrush, can hold a 15-minute conversation without resorting to an acronym, and actually spend time writing about their assigment, as opposed to the 12 other bloggers they've meant today and their trip to the toilet.Did I say Winer was unconfined to a mental institution? I'm sorry, he is, indeed at the Democratic Convention in Boston. What happens after today is not known.
Flag Burning Done Right
I NOTE WITH SOME DISMAY THAT THE FLAG BURNING ARGUMENT is back again in order to bore us to death in August just in case we survive death by boredom at the Democratic Convention:
A joint resolution proposing a constitutional amendment to prohibit physical desecration of the U.S. flag was passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday by a vote of 11-7. Republicans expect to bring it to a vote in the full Senate before the summer recess.In general, I think anything proposed by Orrin Hatch should be voted down regardless of content just because he is one creepy-looking guy.The resolution was introduced in 2003 by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and states, "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States."
"I think we really have an opportunity to get the 67 votes necessary to pass the constitutional amendment," Hatch told the Deseret News. -- Senate to Vote on Flag Burning Ban
But, upon reflection, I recognize that there are two sides to every argument.
Those that oppose burning the flag are insensitive to the feelings and self-esteem issues of those that would burn it. They want there to be no time or place or situation where a flag can be burned at will. This does trample on Free Speech, no doubt about it.
At the same time, those that love to burn the flag want there to be no time or place or situation where a flag cannot be burned at will. They seek a state of complete freedom where they really have no skin in the game. This is wussy.
Since these positions are mutually exclusive I would like to propose a compromise.
THE AMERICAN DIGEST "IT IS OKAY TO BURN THE FLAG IF..." AMENDMENT Resolved: it shall be seen as an assertion of basic human rights, and shall be taken as a justified expression of free-speech, to burn the American flag if, and only if, the person so burning dowses self with gasoline and is inside the flag at the time of ignition.This modest measure both allows free expression, removes all doubt as to the sincerity of the burner, and really puts some skin in the game. It is a compromise that should be acceptable to both sides. I look forward to early passage.
AS IS NOW A DAILY ISSUE AT TECHNORATI.COM, things are looking pretty but dysfunctional. Meanwhile, chief salesman for Technorati, David Sifry, is "making history" at the DNC/CNN, and (with a little help from his friends and PR agency) is "sort of" writing his page...
Screen shot from Sifry's Alerts
A noble quest, but what is really going on with the world's most dysfunctional web page? Our reporter got a hold of this chat log between Sifry and Technorati that rips the veil off this whole squalid dot-bom hustle:
Dave Sifry : Hello, Technorati do you read me, Technorati?
Technorati : Affirmative, Dave, I read you.
Dave Sifry : Please function, Technorati.
Technorati : I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.
Just for the record, and to underscore the fact that the one thing computers are really good for is counting, we note that this is post number 2004 in the year of our Lord 2004.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled Random Rantomizer.
"It is the voice of a single hatred in the absence of a single idea."
Belmont Club
Letter to the Editor
AH YES, THE POWER OF THE PRESS. NUMBER ONE WITH A BULLET: Ex-Miami Official Kills Self at Paper's Office
A former Miami city commissioner shot himself to death Wednesday inside the lobby of the Miami Herald newspaper, one day before a rival publication was set to publish a lengthy report detailing allegations of corruption, drug use and liaisons with male prostitutes.The Herald was quick to Continued...
John Kerry starring in "The Man Who Would Be King" -- Handheld Director's Cut
KERRY'S STAFF HAS STATED THAT THE MAIN THRUST of the convention is to "Reintroduce John Kerry to the American people. Too many people don't know him." Well, if things like this continue to surface, the American people are about to know Kerry all too well.
"Kerry would revisit ambush locations for reenacting combat scenes where he would portray the hero, catching it all on film. Kerry would take movies of himself walking around in combat gear, sometimes dressed as an infantryman walking resolutely through the terrain. He even filmed mock interviews of himself narrating his exploits. A joke circulated among Swiftees was that Kerry left Vietnam early not because he received three Purple Hearts, but because he had recorded enough film of himself to take home for his planned political campaigns." -- DRUDGE REPORT 2004®Sigh. There are times when the mind finally reaches the outer limits of boggle.
I don't expect politicians to be without ambition. Indeed, I expect them to have ambition by the barrel. It is the profession in which ambition's debt soars with
Continued...JAMES TARANTO'S BRILLIANT Best of the Web Today is four years old, bloodied but unbowed, and still,in so many ways, the Best of the Web itself.
"Raise a glass in our honor as we pass the 25th-of-a-century mark: Today is the fourth anniversary of this Web site and this column. Ted Kennedy acknowledged the milestone in his Democratic National Convention speech last night: "The only thing we have to fear is four more years."Now, that's entertainment.Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.
I NEVER MEANT TO BECOME ONE OF THOSE WHO TELL THEIR TELEVISIONS TO "SHOVE IT!" It just happened. I am ashamed and afraid, but curiously enough feel the need to share before the angle of my descent into madness becomes more acute. The next step will probably be to stake out a little patch of shaded sand down at the beach in town and get myself a lend-lease shopping cart and a mutterline. If that happens I'm going to be glad if the Democrats actually sell their snake oil to America, because I am going to need social services, numerous and multiple.
I wasn't always the sort of deranged soul who blasted a stream of obscenities at inanimate electronic visual aids while twitching and lunging about the room searching for the remote control I had just flung at the wall. No, I am an ordinary, Henry Higgins kind of man. A patient man am I, down to my fingertips, the sort who never could, ever would, let an insulting remark escape his lips. A very gentle man. These are my firm watchwords.
I value calm. I dote on children. I deeply love my wife. I address amiable canines I pass on the streets as, "Hey, there, good dog." My speech is, if not always temperate, invariably considered. My choice in clothing, mundane. My tattoos and facial piercings, zero. I mist up at the slightest excuse, even in bad movies. I have no record and, except for a brief misunderstanding involving my failure to license my dog, have never been in jail. Except for Rudy Guilani, I have always voted for the Democrat......
The Democrat.... the Democrat!..... hurts!.... make it..... STOP! ...... Aieeeeeeeee! It's starting again, again... No, mustn't, mustn't.... (Excuse me a minute while I take a civility break.)
...............
............
..........
........
....
Yes, I am the man who now finds himself swearing at his television. I'm not sure what the Democratic Convention is doing for the other thirty-two Americans who are watching it, but as far as I can tell the only thing it has done for me is to help me discover my Inner Tourette's.
Tourette's, that debilitating syndrome where the afflicted erupts in various twitches both physical and verbal. Tourette's, a syndrome where an ordinary sentence such as "Perhaps, after all, the Democrats are fit to rule." is unwilling stated as "Perhaps, after BOOGERBUGGER! FATASS! all the C**PF**K! ASSHATS! Democrats are WEINERBUGGERS! fit to RAMMERHARDER! DITZBREATH MONGOMUFFINSB***ME rule SWEET F**K ALL! ..... sorry, sorry, please excuse, .... excuse... pity... poor Gollum, yes precious?"
A crude and uncaring person often finds this mental malfunction strangely amusing, but I am certainly not one of those. I realize that having Tourette's rules out careers that involve public speaking, surgery, care of small children and Swiss Watch Repair. I am sympathic to these lost opportunities and wonder if we should not legislate Affirmative Action set-asides in these sectors; especially surgery where some big bucks could be made. Yes, even with all the things I have been instructed to care about over the decades by those with the ...."D".... persuasion in politics, I still have not entered a permanent state of
Continued...IN WAVING "Goodbye to All Me," uber-blodder Andrew Sullivan gives, as one of his far too numerous and shallow reasons:
"Much of the hard work has now been done. Nobody seriously believes that Bush will start another war."Now, I don't want to get off on a rant here so I'll just observe that Bush doesn't have to! The next attack on US soil will do that for him and we will see war like we have not seen before. The war will expand itself thanks to the unremitting efforts of our enemies. When it does, Bush will take one of perhaps six contingency plans out of the safe, sign it and send it. Automatic for the people after that.
A FRESHLY MINTED PAGE: I'm John Kerry and I Approve This Message
is soliciting contributions from the currently target rich environment:
We're collecting the approved messages of, and quotes by, John F. Kerry and his Crew. If you've got one to contribute, send it -- along with a link to the original source (No, you can't just make them up. You don't have to.). Just click the Email Me and fire away.Check it out and fire at will.
NO "BLOODER" , MICHELLE MALKIN, but a precious living treasure of the blogsphere. If she's not on you daily scan, she should be. Exhibits 1, 2, 3... this long and worthwhile speech given to the "Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute’s Conservative Leadership Seminar":
STANDING UP TO THE "GIRLS GONE WILD" CULTUREAnd that's just stating her premise. Elsewhere, she trains her sights on the excrable "Wonkette:"Much of my reporting and writing is focused on national security and immigration enforcement. But I also write about cultural issues and this afternoon, I want to address the need for a different kind of "homeland defense." As the mother of a 4 year old girl and an 8 month old boy, I am increasingly dismayed by the liberal assault on decency, the normalization of promiscuity, and the mainstream media's role as shameless collaborators.
Wonkette, Ana Marie Cox, nabbed appearances on CNN and FOX, and signed on to an MTV reporting gig during which she’ll cover the Democratic National Convention this week. I guess the lesson is that if you are a young professional woman in Washington, the key to success lies with Lesbian Chic.Quoting more would just spoil it for you.I’m sick of the skankettes and their pimps in my business and I’m not alone....
N.Z. BEAR (He of the Ecosystem) has the following clues for the "Conventional Blodders." Please forward as you see fit.
Not that you asked, but...
July 26, 2004 09:40 PMNot to backseat-blog or anything, but here's a bit of advice for my colleagues who actually travelled to the convention:
a) Get the hell out of "blogger alley"
b) Stop talking to each other
c) Stop taking pictures of each other
d) Stop simulblogging speeches that are being covered live by television.
e) Stop doing interviews with big media. (Yes, even fake big media).
This has been a public service announcement. Please resume blogging.
HOT OFF THE WIRES FROM REUTERS: Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) demonstrates a lynchpin of his plan (news - web sites) to curb excess Medicare expenses (news - web sites) through the use of revolutionary high-tech devices such as this combination MRI / Colonoscopy unit (news - web sites) developed by Uber-Blodders David Sifry, Joi Ito, and David Winer (news - web sites) after a long sushi/sake/bean/brew/burger lunch break at Loch Ober's in Boston. (news - web sites) .
"These blodders," candidate Kerry opined halfway through the procedure which would leave him squeaky clean for his Thursday night stemwinder, (news - web sites) " ... these blodders, I say, are quite the innovative set. By combining MRI/Colonoscopy with an RSS/ATOM/XML/MIMEOGRAPH/WEBCAST feed (news - web sites) from the examination, we can cut Medicare costs by at least $485.50 for guys like me but with less money (news - web sites).
"This, combined with my plan for our Great Nation's return to 60% taxation for everyone earning as much as one slim dime above the poverty line (news - web sites) , will leave the Federal Government (news - web sites) with enough revenue to handle my proposed reparations to everybody except those of the Anglo-Saxon persuasion (news - web sites) and supporters of Isreal and abortion reform (news - web sites). And now, on to Boston, where I lived before and after my wound-drenched service in Vietnam (news - web sites).
The Democrat-Elect then took a quick refreshing sponge bath before making a MeetUp date with Dave, Dave, and Joi (news - web sites) for a hot-chat session (news - web sites) on Thursday Afternoon in order to keep himself up to the minute on the latest exciting analysis from the 20 Blods that actually like him. (news - web sites)
After that it was off to the jet for Democrat-Elect Kerry, who paused on the way out of the cleansing facility to remark that his wife, knowing of this examination, had actually been addressing him with her "Shove it!" remark (news - web sites).
"Just another case of the radical right failing to understand what a loaded woman she is (news - web sites) ... and I'm not just talking Chardonnay." (news - web sites) REUTERS/Handout/MEDICARE
--
Yahoo! News - Top Stories Photos - Reuters (news - web sites)
"So long, suckers, thank's for the tips," says
Sullivan in classic "hide that second chin" pose.
IT SEEMS LIKE ONLY YESTERDAY THAT ANDREW SULLIVAN WAS PUFFING HIS HIT COUNT BY GOING ALL WOBBLY ON BUSH. Might have worked, but we didn't care to follow up.
Now that he's announced that he values his marriage more than his life, Andrew is passing the tip jar around in hopes of snaring a few bucks from the billions of born again Democrats that are sure to be flocking to his page after he promoted himself to the head of Conservatives for Kerry.
There's been a lot of heat and pressure directed at Sullivan -- most of it centering around the concept that Sullivan has "sold out."
Not so.
Sullivan has not sold out, he's bought in.
Let's face it. It is summer time, Andrew's a long way from a steady paycheck, and his needs are numerous and multiple. Simply put, he needs the cash and his current take is probably a long way from the high point of tip jar heaven for him of a year or two back.
What's a boy to do with the expenses of a Provincetown summer looming? Why
Continued...
Left: 2001, a strike. Right: 2004, dirtball
LIFE IMITATES FOREIGN POLICY: "Some fans cheered and some booed as Kerry threw a ball that sank and hit the dirt before the catcher -- a soldier home from Iraq -- could catch it. "-- NBC Newschannel 6
DUKAKIS TAKES THE FIELD: The fateful ball game -- Kerry's Changeup
UPDATE: File under "That soldier who served in Afghanistan and Iraq Made Me Do It:
John Kerry bounced the ceremonial first pitch during last night's Red Sox-Yankees game at Fenway Park, but he said he was just going easy on the National Guard soldier and Iraq war veteran standing in as catcher.
"I held back," Mr. Kerry told reporters early this morning, on the plane ride after the game. "He was very nervous. I tried to lob it gently."
-- Kerry hurls wild pitch
Now to pitch like a dork is not, in itself, such a shameful thing, but to lay the blame on your catcher is just vile. Who said "It's a poor craftsman that blames his tools."
One of the subtexts on this whole small but sorry incident is that, with all the hoople around Kerry's snowboarding, skeet shooting, wind surfing, bike riding, etc. it seems as if all the "sports" this man does are sports that don't really involve the concept of "team." Give him a moment in a real team sport, he fluffs it. Now, I might have missed something in Politics 101, but it seems to me that the ones who are successful are those that know about playing on a team.
Tip via: Bob Hawkins in the Comments.
FILE UNDER: RELOADING
McDonnell Douglas Corp., Saint Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $17,461,828 firm fixed price modification to provide for 840 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guided vehicles. The JDAM is a strap-on kit with inertial navigation system/global positioning system capability that provides the user with an improved aerial delivery capability for existing 500, 1000 and 2000-pound bombs. This effort supports foreign military sales to Israel. The locations of performance are McDonnell Douglas, Saint Louis, Mo., and Honeywell Inc., Minneapolis, Minn. This work will be complete by November 2005. The Air Armament Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity (F08635-02-C-0060, P00018).
-- DoD News: Contracts for July 22, 2004
The 9/11 report catalogues, and embodies, the bureaucratization of that effort, its transformation into a defensive action in which vast resources are deployed to guard against the possibility of pinpoint strikes -- the expense further increased by the need to maintain legal niceties and economic normality while the country is under threat. The attempt to be simultaneously at peace, and at war, is not sustainable.
AS IS OFTEN THE CASE, DAVID WARREN, Canadian, is closer to the core of what the 911 Report actually exposes; a lack of resolve and a languid approach to what is a state of war.
Call Mr. Bush a war-monger if you will; in my eyes he's beginning to look like a wuss. His great strength to date has been doing what he says he will do, thus making his demands credible. In the immediate aftermath of the Iraq invasion, a much higher level of co-operation was obtained from Libya, Sudan, Pakistan, and even Saudi Arabia and Iran. But the advantage has been frittered away, as the Bush administration has gone "all multilateral" in response to continuing criticism over Iraq. I myself underestimated the ability of the Western media to turn the victory in Iraq into an apparent defeat through selective reporting and sheer verbiage.Continued...While the current relaxation of Washington's belligerency may be attributed to the U.S. election cycle -- in the absence of another huge terror hit on the U.S. itself, the voters are getting bored with foreign wars -- I detect a deeper pusillanimity. In retrospect, it took much too long to invade Iraq, and the
ALL EYES TURN TOWARDS BEANTOWN THIS WEEK, BUT "Workers lower a ground-based missile interceptor into its silo at Fort Greely, Alaska, on Thursday. The interceptor was installed in Alaska's Interior -- the first component of a national defense system designed to shoot down enemy missiles. Ten more will be installed by late 2005, launching the Bush administration's multibillion dollar system." -- Frontline Photos
Turkish Ship To Enter Philadelphia
Jul 25, 2004 10:19 am US/Eastern
PHILADELPHIA (AP) A Turkish ship is now being allowed to enter the Port of Philadelphia, days after a bomb scare led authorities to send it to the Delaware Bay.
Authorities found no explosives and the ship's captain was later charged with making a false statement. Police say he told them there was a bomb on board that was set to explode.
The F-B-I says the 46-year-old became agitated during a Coast Guard inspection. The ship was turned around and held at a safe anchorage point near Bowers Beach on the Delaware Bay.
The Los Angeles-class attack submarine Dallas departs Souda Bay Harbor, Crete, on Monday following a brief port visit. The Dallas is home-ported in Groton, Conn., and currently is on a routine deployment. Frontline Photos
===
Not to worry. We're sure to get a winner one of these days.
KEVIN FOX @ Fury.com has decided to donate this vintage 1960 Google query to a computer museum near you:
(Click to enlarge)
AND THE WORSE SENTENCE OF 2004 IS.... "She resolved to end the love affair with Ramon tonight . . . summarily, like Martha Stewart ripping the sand vein out of a shrimp's tail . . . though the term "love affair" now struck her as a ridiculous euphemism . . . not unlike "sand vein," which is after all an intestine, not a vein . . . and that tarry substance inside certainly isn't sand . . . and that brought her back to Ramon."
Dave Zobel Manhattan Beach, CA
-- Bulwar Lytton 2004 Results
Damn. I thought I was a slam-dunk with: "And yes, we're going to be getting even greater levels of putrid pablum spewed about by the media as the preening pundits of puce prevarication strut and fret their hours behind the teleprompter."
-- Jumping the Gun
Oh well, there's always next year.
ANOTHER AUTOMOBILE MALFUNCTION FOR JOHN KERRY, THIS TIME NOT A FAMILY OWNED SUV, BUT A ROLLS.
As noted by I'm John Kerry and I Approve This Message
Image and text from : The American Mind
"For example, this past week Kerry went to Detroit, the heart of America's auto industry, to speak before the Urban League. Workers are very loyal to their employer's cars and to American products in general. The press badge for the trip proudly displayed a product of German construction, a Rolls-Royce 100EX. It could have been any car in the world, but it had to be 1.) a German automobile (imagine if it had been a Pugeot?); 2.) something complete out of reach to most Americans. He could have gotten away with a Chrysler Crossfire, an American coupe that look and performs like it's Mercedes-Benz cousins."
==
Update: Life Imitates the Onion.
Democratic frontrunner Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) began a seven-day, eight-state whistle-stop tour Monday, addressing a group of Frigidaire factory workers from the all-teak deck of his 60-foot luxury motor cruiser.
-- The Onion | Kerry Makes Whistle-Stop Tour From Deck Of Yacht
IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T BEEN TRACKING THE GREAT LANCE ARMSTRONG'S TRIALS AT THE TOUR, here a brief update on the not-so-noble Europeans via John @ Inside Europe: Iberian Notes
Lance Armstrong has been taking an incredible amount of abuse this week. As you might have seen, the crowds along the roads have been enormous, barely leaving enough room for the cyclists, and Armstrong publicly blasted Tour management for poor security, saying he was afraid when riding through crowds of aggressive drunken Basque supporters and that he was more disgusted than anything else at the behavior of many drunken German fans. He criticized the record level of poor sportsmanship directed his way, saying he'd never seen it in cycle racing before: he's constantly spit on, insulted, and threatened. Chechu Rubiera, one of Lance's Spanish teammates, said he'd never seen anything like it, either, and that the crowd insults him merely because he's a member of the US Postal team. When Armstrong won yesterday, he was greeted with an enormous chorus of boos and whistles; seems that people, including the incredibly prejudiced Spanish announcers, thought he was arrogant or something for winning three stages in a row. What should he have done, ride less than his best? Throw the race? Let somebody else win? If I were Lance, I'd go out of my way to rip their balls off tomorrow at the individual time trial just to piss them off. I just hope nobody sticks a knife into him.Not to worry, they're probably saving that move up for the Olympics.
Dead Man Writing
STAND BACK. DANIEL OKRENT, THE PUBLIC EDITOR OF The New York Times today asks:
and answers with: Continued..." Is The New York Times a Liberal Newspaper?"
Not since Maudlin.
GOOD NEWS FOR THE GOOD GUYS SayUncle notes " Congrats to Cox and Forkum on their first newspaper gig. Here's to many more!
And so say we all.
The details from Cox & Forkum: C&F In Newspapers!-- "Earlier this week, The Detroit News published our recent Fahranheit 9/11 cartoon, making it the first Cox & Forkum editorial cartoon to appear in a large American daily newspaper -- approximately 200,000 circulation. Not only that, but there are plans to make our cartoons part of a new weekly feature. "Yaaahooooo!" doesn't quite express our high level of excitement."
We think that's some great news for some of the best classic editorial cartooning on the scene today. When Trudeau can get carried via sheer inertia and the disgusting Ted Rall still shipping out his tripe, it is utterly amazing to me that a team like Cox and Forkum continues to struggle.
A smart newspaper that wanted to attract readers back that it had lost would have this cartoon team in their pages on a daily basis, but as we have seen "smart" newspapers are not exactly a glut on the market. Tracking how many are willing to broaden and deepen their reach will probably use the inclusion of this team's great work as a benchmark.
Stop by Cox & Forkum , and let them know they are appreciated.
"Yeah.... Sure.... Whatever.... "
AN ASTUTE READER IN OUR COMMENTS HAS LOCATED THIS PAGE:
"Sorry, but because of the nature of Google, frame pages cannot be displayed, although the source code of the frames page was visible if viewed. restorehonesty.com actually was just a frame containing http://www.johnkerry.com/honesty/Here, minus all the rather gruesome graphic Continued...This is indeed still in the google cache:
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:MOeQtojiet8J:www.johnkerry.com/honesty/+&hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UTF-8
However, I do agree that it is more than ironic that the campaign's honesty went 404 ;-)
Well, what are you waiting for. Fill it out.
DERAK AT THE NEWLY MINTED SPACESHIP SUMMER raises some interesting issues surrounding commercial space flight @ Spaceship Summer: Can we get there from here?
I find myself musing on the question, "what follows suborbital tourism?". I don't think there is any doubt that high flights will have a customer base, between the various existing aircraft and amusement rides, the interest of the public in such extreme experiences is well demonstrated. (And if you expect to make money there had better be public interest.) The hard part is following that act, and providing something more than just a transitory experience. (I.E. actual CATS.)It all comes down to, "When there's no there there how many times will you go there?"
-- Via Transterrestrial Musings
Slate Online Magazine for Sale
Potential Buyers Include The Washington Post and New York Times
FILE UNDER FOOLS RUSH IN WHERE FOOLS HAVE BEEN BEFORE. Bill Gates, announcing that Microsoft really needs to cut back on sniffing glue, but the best face on the sale of Slate by saying: ""Slate, in the grand scheme of Microsoft, is not a big investment." We'll put that one up for an 'Understatment of the Decade' award. True, the decade is young, but that one has legs. Slate Online Magazine for Sale (washingtonpost.com)
The post article is pretty much a standard rehash of the oft-told "Tale of the Slate," but the quote that pretty much frames the whole deal is Editor Scott Weisberg's:
Asked if he felt at all spurned by Microsoft, Weisberg said: "This is very much about how successful we've been to date."And indeed it is.
FROM THE SOURCE CITED BELOW,IWPR's Iraqi Press Monitor we find this synopsis of where much of the money went:
Central bank tracks foreign depositsNot surprising, really. Now, if they can only get the addresses and keys to those Rental Storage Units in Lebanon and Jordan.
(Al-Mutamar) - An anonymous source in the Central Bank of Iraq said a number of countries, including Lebanon, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and France, hid more than $10 billion. The source added they were sure of these sums, according to hard evidence related to the accounts of the oil-for-food programme. He pointed that the funds are deposited under names of people close to the former regime or under fake names. Most of the funds are in Lebanon and Jordan and are the result of corruption cases in the oil-for-food memorandum of understanding as well as agreements signed between Iraq and other countries. The Central Bank has taken legal action to restore the funds according to the Security Council resolution 1483 which states that all Iraqi funds abroad be deposited in the Iraqi Development Fund.
(Al-Mutamar is issued daily by the Iraqi National Congress.)
(Al-Mutamar) - It shows a gunman gives a box full of weapons to an Iraqi man. The caption on the box says "Arab gifts to the brothers of the people of Iraq".
AN UP TO DATE SAMPLING of what is being said in the new Iraq's newspapers can be seen atIraq Press Monitor via the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.
Here are a few snippits from Friday, July 23:
Continued...OKAY, WE ALL KNEW THIS WAS COMING, but not this fast:
BLACKFIVE: Airdrop Mishaps gives us the chance to view "When C-130's Attack" in this made-for-web Quicktime masterpiece "Mishaps", otherwise known as "Dude, Don't Hit My Truck."
IT SEEMS THAT THE JOE WILSON MEMORIAL TRIBUTE PAGE IS NOT THE ONLY THING TO HAVE GONE MISSING FROM JOHNKERRY.COM. Talon News is reporting Kerry Anti-Terror Plan Removed From Campaign Web Site After Berger Revelation
==
UPDATE: This is getting confusing. It seems that there *is* a cached page of the missing items. It is located at: John Kerry Unveils Comprehensive Plan to Fight the War on Terrorism, but since it is a paged cached under the ownership of "John Kerry Sucks - The truth about John F. Kerry," I think we can safely assume it isn't an "Official" Kerry Cache.
Pointers to other caches are given here and there on Free Republic, but they don't seem to resolve.
Fair and balanced comment about this seems to be falling into the "It was a redesign and they are just conserving bandwidth." Less fair and less balanced comment votes for SATAN! IS DOING IT!
Since I know well how incompetent I can be, I'd usually go with the "mistaeks were made" camp, but this is, after all, a web farm that raises millions and you'd think they'd be on top of these things.
=====
Here are the relevant items that seem to have been disappeared. It would be
Continued...
[Mistaeks were made]
Ubique Patriam Reminisci reports that:
Honesty Is Dead
No, really, it is.
Long live REAL honesty.
===
Slightly oblique, but pleasingly poetic. This item refers to the amazing RestoreHonesty.com which was the Joe Wilson tribute page hosted by John Kerry and company. In the last few weeks, the existence of this page was a point of delicious irony to all those who marked out Wilson for the money-grubbing liar he was from the start.
Naturally, having the discredited and now no longer useful fool around the Kerry campaign just wouldn't do. Hence, they blew the page up and also, I note, cleaned out the Google cache.
Then they just swapped in the elegant 404 which carries the zen political phrase: "You have requested a page that has a broken link or is not on the site...," and went on about their business. I think describing Joe Wilson as a broken link no longer on their site is a bit cold, don't you?
A very surgical bit of on the Web historical revisionism. Wiping the cache was an especially deft touch. Has Kos been consulting again?
UPDATE: LINK No cache for Restore Honesty at Google.
UPDATE: CACHE FOUND thanks to astute American Digest reader, Klaus, in this thread. See American Digest: RestoreHonesty Cache Found!
New York Times Stock Flirts with One Year Low
THE ECONOMY MAY BE RECOVERING IN THE UNITED STATES BUT NOT ON 43RD STREET: New York Times Lowers Outlook for Newspaper Ads
"Overall, the pace of the recovery in the advertising market is still not as strong or as predictable as we would like to see in a reviving economy," Janet Robinson, New York Times chief operating officer, said during a conference call. "We are looking at a better second half, but we certainly don't want to overpromise and underdeliver."Who was it that said, "A psychotic is one who is completely in touch with reality, it just happens to be his private reality"?New York Times now expects total company costs for the full year to increase by low- to mid-single digits, down from previous expectations for growth in the mid-single digits.
Advertising revenue will increase in the low- to mid-single digits in 2004, a more sluggish pace than the mid-single digits growth previously forecast, the company said.
"Clearly, this is disappointing from a company that many investors, including us, had expected to be outperforming at this point in an ad recovery," Lauren Rich Fine, who follows the publishing industry for Merrill Lynch, said in a report.
New York Times' soft revenue trends come on the heels of solid second-quarter results from rival Gannett Co., publisher of USA Today and nearly 100 other daily newspapers. "After decent numbers from [Gannett] yesterday, investors will likely take [New York Times Co.'s] deteriorating revenue progression during the [second quarter], with particularly soft June results, as a cautionary signal with regard to the second-half industry outlook," said Peter Appert, publishing analyst with Goldman Sachs.
Tom Brokaw: "Did you know that [Berger] was under investigation?"
Kerry: "I didn't have a clue, not a clue."
Brokaw: "He didn't share that with you?
Kerry: "I didn't have a clue."
-- The Kerry Spot on National Review Online
-- via I'm John Kerry and I Approve This Message
Of those who have seen "Fahrenheit 9/11," 78% identified themselves as Democrats, 9% as independents and 6% as Republicans.-- The Kerry Spot
TOM GALVIN for linkage above and beyond in his "Lost at Starbucks.:
Excerpt:
LOST: Really important papers, Really important
Hey, I was here several months ago with a few papers. Perhaps some of you saw me walk in here with them stuffed in my pants and socks. There were only a few pages, about 40 to 50, that I had with me that day. If you have a hard time remembering, I was the sloppy looking guy in the corner writing feverishly. I had lots of erasers, white-out, and black markers, too. Anyway, I went through a lot of grief to get these papers for my old boss. They sort of make him look really bad for not paying attention to some important stuff (long story). My former boss asked me to do a favor for him and hold on to these papers but I think I accidentally discarded them here, at this Starbucks. I've been auditioning for a job with another guy who my boss's wife really hates. Needless to say, I lost any chance of the new job because I can't find these papers. So, these papers are like really important. Everyone's mad at me. My old boss's wife said she knew I'd screw up sometime but didn't think I would be this sloppy about it. Man, she scares me. Anyway, if anyone finds these papers please call 1-866-272-6272. That's not my number because these papers are not even mine! So, as you can see, I'm in serious trouble. Actually, on second thought, you should call me. There is a reward. Whoever finds these papers will get tix to a really cool show. I promise, it'll be hilarious. By the way, if it's any help, the papers have coffee stains on them. Thanks.
WHEN YOU ARE INVOLVED IN A DUEL and you know your opponent is going to miss, it might be a good idea to hold your fire until after he's had his shot, and his gun clicks on empty.
This is hard to do when all your supporters are gathered around you chanting, "Kill him, kill him, kill him, kill him...," but an experienced man can manage. A champion dualist turns to the side, watches carefully, gets his enemy to miss, and holds his fire until he knows that he can put one between the eyes.
It seems to me that, with all the hoopla over the last few months, the President's supporters in the midst of the political melee are getting a wee bit over-anxious to have him open fire. A primary example of this appears today in the National Review as an editorial:
Where, meanwhile, is the positive, substantive side of the campaign? People are noticing that the president has not presented an agenda for his second term should he be re-elected. -- Where's the BeefTo which I would say, "Please get your knickers untwisted and your game face on."
I realize that it has to be tough to sit in the NR's offices day after day and watch the Left and the Democrats sling one plague ridden corpse after another over the wall, but you just have to hunker down and take it until the right moment, which is not.... quite.... yet.
Yes, we've had the Wilson Corpse, the Clarke Corpse, the Clinton Corpse, the Moore Corpse, the 9/11 Report Corpse -- all of these disgusting hunks have been lobbed in and now are scattered about the political landscape in various stages of decomposition. It's got to be getting rank in the Republican Fortifications, and there have to be a lot of people wanting to whip out the flamethrowers and start sanitizing the joint.
But patience, patience, patience please. Always remember that "A Drug and Democrat Free America comes first. "
You see, it really doesn't matter what happens in the next couple of weeks. All that matters is what happens in October.
Yes, there's going to be a Democratic Convention next week. Nothing can be
Continued...
LOOKING LIKE HE'D RATHER BE AT HIS PROCTOLOGIST'S OFFICE, John Kerry today appeared with Dennis Kucinich (D -- PLANET MONGO) to accept his endorsement, and the sixteen Area 51 space aliens that he controls.
In brief remarks, Kerry said: "Now that we've become the party so desperate for votes that we've got folks in San Francisco working to hand them out to illegal aliens, I saw no reason to deny those people who are stopping by the planet to bore holes in our cattle the franchise. I welcome my good friend Dennis Kucinich and all his clones into the big tent of the Democratic Party..... okay, you can take that tentacle out of my pants now."
The Demoncratic Convention's coming to town. What, me worry?
SCOTT STEARNS, THE TEST MANAGER FOR INTERNET EXPLORER AT MICROSOFT, jumps into the blogspher with a big 'KICK ME' sign on his rump with the post I Love This Browser!
I hopefully got your attention with the title of my first post. And it is definitely true for me, as I have loved browsing the web since I started way back in the mid 90s, and I really love browsing with IE. Yet, you may ask who I am or who we are that will be posting on this blog.Strange he should say that when his real achievement has been to make the worst browser on the web the top browser.I am Scott Stearns, the test manager for the Microsoft Internet Explorer team (as Dean says we will be pulling together full bios of people later). The IE team as we usually say. Some of us have our individual blogs today, but we also wanted to have one that was focused on what we do every day at work -- make Internet Explorer the best way for browsing the web.
Yes, by dint of his unremitting tream management, attention to design-flaw detail, and star class software rewriting team, Internet Explorer has become the most used browser in cyberspace. Some will say that it has happened because it was bundled in with Windows, but they are just spoil sports.
Indeed, without the gaping security holes and lack of functionality and standards in Internet Explorer, the web would be a whole lot more boring than it is. So let's give it up for Stearns and his crack team of Microsoft Kool-Aid Addicts by playing another round of Ballmer's iPod!
WHILE THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL FOOLS PARTY PREPARES FOR ITS QUADRENNIAL FORNICATION FESTIVAL, it might be good to take a moment and visualize what is at stake.
Today, our visual aid is Effects of 300 Kiloton Nuclear Detonation Centered at Pentagon
Bad news: Armageddon for all.
Good news: Georgetown Real Estate becomes affordable.
To get a "feel" for what the graphic represents:
Within tens of minutes after the cataclysmic events associated with the detonation, a mass of buoyantly rising, fire-heated air would signal the start of a second and distinctly different event -- a mass fire of gigantic scale and ferocity. The firestorm would quickly increase in intensity, generating ground winds of hurricane force with average air temperatures well above the boiling point of water. This would produce a lethal environment over a vast area.Just another reminder that in this election we are, quite literally, playing with fire.
The Pentagon is located near the relatively wide Potomac River, but fires would start simultaneously in large areas on both sides. The direction of fire winds in regions near the river would be modified by the water, but the overall wind pattern from these two huge and nearly contiguous fire zones would be similar to that of a single mass fire and will be treated as one.
The first indicator of a mass fire would be strangely shifting ground winds of growing intensity near ground zero. (Such winds are entirely different from and unrelated to the earlier blast-wave winds that exert "drag pressure" on structures.) These fire-winds are a physical consequence of the rise of heated air over large areas of ground surface, much like a gigantic bonfire.
The inrushing winds would drive the flames from combusting buildings horizontally toward the ground, filling city streets with hot flames and firebrands, breaking in doors and windows, and causing the fire to jump hundreds of feet to swallow anything that was not yet violently combusting. These extraordinary winds would transform the targeted area into a huge hurricane of fire.
Within tens of minutes, everything within approximately 3.5 to 4.6 miles of the Pentagon would be engulfed in a mass fire. The fire would extinguish all life and destroy almost everything else.
-- City on fire | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
The moon marked out the edge of heaven.
Of this, our references agreed.
The moon was fixed, it could not fall.
The moon would fill our final needs.
The songs we'd learned were of the moon,
A fitting subject, well known to all,
But the songs we sang were of the Earth,
And those that lived before the Fall.
These songs of forests flowing round
The Earth's four corners warmed the frost
That killed our gardens, coming early,
To remind us all of what we'd lost.
"Why wander yearning for the moon?"
We'd ask of stones and ancient trees.
Their silence sang back in the night,
Of lands where all free choices freeze.
"Tranquillity", they promised us,
"Is the highest peak you will attain.
Tr