Why look at reality when the diversity BS smells so good?
Continued...Unknown photographs from when Adams was, if only for a few days, an urban photographer.
Continued...
In The Cascades
Above the trail to the summit
Clouds climb the mountains --
Hands through water, fingers of rain,
Smoke in dreams, as steps accumulate,
Placing first one foot, then the other,
Pacing out the rip-rap of the years.
Below the snow ghosts swirl behind
Drifts of leaf-shimmer, billowed veils
Of wind whose whispers echo back
Across the distant silence singing
To the tempo of the breath:
"Once only, once only, only once."
Above the stream in the ravine.
Watched by sentinels of stone, of fir,
Of trees so tall their tops dissolve
Into the breath of the mountains.
Ebony glints of ravens' wings
Banking into green on darker green.
Below it's all been settled long ago.
Only on foot, step by step,
Can you climb up, beyond,
And out of time -- except for the weight
You carry on your back; gossamer
Thread spinning down into the Labyrinth.
At the crest, looking back, looking below,
Herds of mule deer graze beneath the pylons
Where a survey crew measures the steel river,
For a grid of concrete and copper cables
Feeding the Matrix coiled along the coast.
Above, the mountains' shoulders shatter the rain.
WITH EVERY PASSING DAY, I FIND IT HARD TO REMEMBER what I loved about the Democratic Party. I did, I think, love them once. I must have since I voted for them for most of my life in local, state and federal elections. Doorbelled. Demonstrated. Got "Clean for Gene." Voted the ticket.
Now I just sit and watch a once great party dissolve like an Alka Seltzer in the ocean. The latest Mystery Play to be acted out in congress by what passes for the leadership of the Party is a classic case of "Send in the clowns." Censure out in the open and "impeachment" whispered in the wings. Kirkpatrick in today's Times gets close to the nub of the stupidity when he notes: "Republicans, worried that their conservative base lacks motivation to turn out for the fall elections, have found a new rallying cry in the dreams of liberals about censuring or impeaching President Bush."
But Kirkpatrick doesn't really fathom the depths of this rumbling electoral disaster for the Democrats. He stops at the obvious observation that it will "energize" that ever-popular "base" journalists like to whip out as shorthand for "Everybody that will vote in one direction no matter what happens."
TWO STORIES CAUGHT MY EYE YESTERDAY. The first was your standard New York Observer media humm-job on the current "I've got a new film coming out" movie celebrity; in this case our current contender for the Black Robert Altman award, Spike Lee.
Ah, that dependably outspoken Spike Lee -- Career Transgressor, Professional Edge Walker, soothsayer of race in the United States today, the Al Sharpton of the Silver Screen, the Maya Angelou of the movies. In an aptly titled article, Spike's Pique , Lee out-Moore's Michael Moore with his determination to find a big lie about the New Orleans' flood and make it bigger still. There's no doubt about it. When it comes to race hustlers in the United States, Spike runs with the big dogs.
Mr. Lee said he'd be including in his documentary the conspiracy theory that it was the U.S. government who bombed the levees.
Here's the thing," he said. "Even today, a large part of the African-American community of New Orleans thinks that those levees were bombed. Now, whether that is true or not, that should not be discounted." He rattled off past government trespasses: 1927's Great Flood of Mississippi, when the levees were, in fact, blown up; the flooding of the Ninth Ward during Hurricane Betsy in 1965; the Tuskegee syphilis experiment.
IS WAR ALWAYS POPULAR in America? Not since the Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress had to gain support on the home front if it was to defeat the British. John Adams estimated that only one-third of the population was in favor of the Revolution at any one time, one-third was opposed, and one-third was neutral. Some of this depended upon whose army was closest.
I was out at a bar and a concert the other night. One of the party showed up, bellied up to the bar, ordered a drink and, getting it, raised his glass and said: "Here's to the 33% popularity rating." Some polite assent was noted, but I somehow forgot to touch my glass.
"I don't think popularity has much to do with it now," I said. "Getting elected may be about 'popularity,' but once you're in and can't run again it's about doing what you want with the power you've got. By my count there can't be any change in the administration or its policies until late January, 2009. I make that about three years. Three years. A lot can happen. For instance, he's got two justices on the court.
Continued...Signs 10 to 3: The obsession with the firing of 8 US attorneys in Washington that will now spin off into the Suponena/Congressional Investigation Parallel Reality : Panel OKs Subpoenas in Attorney Probe
Sign 2: Replacement of US Soldiers Killed in Iraq Body Count with Washington Fired Attorney Body Count as NY-WashPo-Times obsession. (The "It's more important to "Get Bush" than win the war" syndrome.)
And the number 1 sign that the Surge in Iraq is working is.... Hillary's going to stay in Iraq if we'll only elect her President (Clinton Sees Some Troops Staying in Iraq if She Is Elected ) and that's a promise! She was for the war in Iraq before she was against it and that was before she was for it... or was it after? ... or last week? ... or tomorrow? Hard to keep track.
You know, for somebody with a "smart" political attack team, and who claims to be "web-savvy," she doesn't seem to have gotten the YouTube memo.
"Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St Paul
Give me Christ
or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don't like children anyhow
I've seen the future, baby:
it is murder ...."
Neo looks at the career of one of our greatest poet/songwriters, Leonard Cohen. Quite rightly she sees the voyage and the vision and the uplift of the man. But poets do not always write, as evidenced here, in the affirmative. Sometimes they don't report to us on the condition of their souls, but the condition of our souls.
Here's one of Cohen's masterpieces, The Future, as performed in Finland and intercut, briefly, with an interview with him. The Finnish subtitles make it all the more disturbing as Cohen brings us his prophecy with a kind of easy shrug.
WHEN I LIVED in Manhattan, I never needed to know when winter officially arrived. I could count on one particular coworker to announce it. The official date changed every year, but he never failed to signify it by dropping by my office first thing in the morning, a Starbucks commuting coffee mug in his hand, and saying, "Boy, oh, boy, do you believe how cold it is? Damn!"
Having just peeled off watch cap, ear muffs, scarf, gloves, and a ten pound top coat, I could -- while watching the sleet moving horizontally across the windows -- say with some conviction, "Yes, as a matter of fact, I do believe how cold it is."
With this exchange, the first of a daily ritual that would be repeated between us for months without variation, I knew that winter had been declared open.
In New York City, there are really only two seasons -- "Winter" and "Road Work." Winter was cold and
Continued...ONE SUMMER DAY OUT ON MARTHA'S VINEYARD many summers past, I was chatting with an old Times' hand who had a little cabin on the strand. "The problem with the Times," he said then, "is that they even publish the boring stories. I think we've not only got an ME [Managing Editor], but a BE too."
"A BE?"
"A Boring Editor. Somebody tasked with making sure that there's enough boring stuff in an issue to make it an issue of the New York Times and no other."
The traditon of the BE goes on today, as most of those who no longer read the Times will note from time to time.
A classic example of boring by design and utter predictability is today's Tale of Two Headlines.
I really love newspaper stories that let you know, right away, that you are about to read pure blather. Today's example comes from the always faithful fountain of blather, the Washington Post:
"It was a summer day in 2003, when Iraq was still filled with the half-truths of occupation and liberation, before its nihilistic descent into carnage." ( Anthony Shadid, "Washington Post Foreign Service")To which a commenter at Pajamas Media replies, "Silly me. I thought it was filled with mass graves, torture arenas, frequent attempts at genocide, and psychopathic, delusional leaders. I believe that nihilistic carnage might be an improvement."
-- or -- "If I'd Given One of These to Both My Ex-Wives, I'd Be a Bigamist Today."
Salamander Tongue Is World's Most Explosive Muscle
The greatest burst of power from any animal muscle comes from the tongue of a tropical salamander, scientists have announced.The giant palm salamander of Central America (Bolitoglossa dofleini) captures fast-moving bugs with an explosive tongue thrust that releases over 18,000 watts of power per kilogram of muscle. That shatters the previous record of 9,600 watts per kilogram, held by the Colorado River toad.World's Fastest Moving Muscle: Salamander Can Shoot Its Tongue 50 Times Faster Than an Average Eye Blink!
You know, as these become more widespread in our cities, attendance at singles bars of all persuasions could approach absolute zero.
Or, we could just set up a fund to send these salamanders to where they'd do the most good. For instance, this guy. He's in more dire need of a giant palm salamander than any white man in history.
Continued...
Confused about global warming? You should be. The always much-vaunted Experts can't even agree on whether or not more sunshine is a good idea: "Daylight Saving Change: Energy Boon or Waste of Time?"
Getting in the religious mode in which you are either a "Believer" or a "Non-believer?" Hey, you gotta believe in something and, with the cheapening of God, it really is about time the human race got back to its roots and started arguing about the "Weather Gods."
You just know things are going well in Iraq when the current "End of the World As We Know It" argument is getting all the traction in the puny minds of men.
The morphing of "Global Warming" into "Climate Change" is a brilliant stroke since, well, there's always some climate change going on somewhere. That sly semantic shift alone is good for a couple of decades worth of sturm und drang studies and useless programs costing billions. You can believe what you wish about Global Warming, but what is beyond argument is the fact that the Global Global Warming Funding Scam is here and not going away. Too many people have mortgages to pay and kids to put through college.
What's the take-away from this Oscar award winning line of bullshit? "Everybody argues about the weather, but nobody knows anything about it."
THE PRESIDENT MISSED THIS GOING IN, and he continues to miss it going out: Bush concerned about message to Mideast over ports.
"I'm concerned about a broader message this issue could send to our friends and allies around the world, particularly in the Middle East," Bush said.
I, for one, am not concerned about the message. Bluntly put, the message is that Americans -- through their elected representatives -- are, for once, united. They are united around the fact that, when you get right down to the nub of it, they simply do not trust Arabs and Muslims. We are, after all, at war with the culture and the religion.
Is it an irrational and emotional position? Of course it is. Wars bring out the irrational and emotional. Is it any the less true? No.
Continued...FROM "THE HELPING PROFESSIONS:" A social worker finally snaps
One of the less grisly excerpts: "It's so refreshing to meet a woman who cares so much about her child for once! You're right, honey. The Bible DOES say that homosexuals are an abomination to God. Tell me, what does the Bible say about punishing your toddler for crying by sticking him with your dirty syringe needles, thereby infecting him with HIV and hepatitis? I know the Bible says "spare the rod and spoil the child", but I don't remember anything about sparing infectuous diseases and spoiling the child. Perhaps you were reading the New International Version?"
I love gloating little news squibs like this:
GUATEMALA CITY - Mayan priests will purify a sacred archaeological site to eliminate "bad spirits" after President Bush visits next week, an official with close ties to the group said Thursday. "That a person like (Bush), with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is an offense for the Mayan people and their culture," Juan Tiney, the director of a Mayan nongovernmental organization with close ties to Mayan religious and political leaders.That's a classic bit of blather served up by the guileful for the clueless.
The takeaway is that it would be an 'affront' and somehow 'unclean' for the President of the United States to place his feet on the "sacred lands" of the Maya; that to do so would somehow imbue such sites with "bad spirits."
Oh really? Let's review....
Headline of the Democrats' hot new press release: SENATE DEMOCRATS ANNOUNCE JOINT RESOLUTION TO TRANSITION THE MISSION IN IRAQ
"Transition the mission." Has a nice lilt to it, doesn't it?
Beats "Let's cruise to lose," or "We'll pout until you pull out," or "Trick or treat... smell my feet... give me something good to eat."
Yes, this is probably number 13, or 14, or 15, or 16 in the Dems attempts to run without running, but at this point who is counting. Their attempts to fully manage failure will continue. As they say in the National Parks, "Once a bear gets hooked on garbage there's no cure."
IT'S THE FASHION SENSATION that's sweeping the nation....
Continued...Ode to a Robe by Robert Fulghum. Alas, it happens to be my robe and I miss it.
Really Great Moments in Photography: What happens when you take a photo at the right angle? - A Slideshow (Scribd)
Everyday in every way, Wonkette brings new meaning and depth to the C-Word.
Kudlow to Hillary, It's the Economy, Stupid: "Try to imagine the United States imposing capital controls. And try to imagine the United States trying to deglobalize from the world economy. That’s as dumb as well, nationalized, socialized healthcare, or seizing oil company profits." (Kudlow's Money Politic$)
"The first time I got blown up, I had to remind myself to get up and look around for the trigger man or possible gunmen set to take advantage of the confusion. I felt like I was floating through a world where time stood still. There's something about looking directly at an artillery shell and seeing it vanish with a sharp crack and rush of dust and debris that changes you." (More @ Acute Politics )
Evil Fiction: Orson Scott Card eviscerates Steve Berry's The Alexandria Link: "What Berry is providing is pure propaganda -- the propaganda created by terrorists and murderers to 'prove' that Jews 'deserve' to be blown up by suicide bombers." (Civilization Watch)
My Back Pages: David Goines wraps up his memoir of the seeds of protest in the 60s. " I learned that the only way to get power is to take it. Nobody is going to give it to you willingly, no matter how nicely you ask. The law changes to recognize shifts in political strength; it does not promote those shifts. Had we stayed within legal avenues—avenues defined by our adversaries—we would never have gotten anything in the Free Speech, civil rights or antiwar movements. There is no redress of grievance for those whose only remedy is the law."
Pay me now for not kill you then.
FOR AN INSANE THUG WHO HATES THE JEWS, Iran's president has certainly learned and lived the meaning of hutzpah. Not content to play nuclear brinksmanship with a world that could reduce his country to a glowing puff of cosmic flatulence in an afternoon, Ahmadinejad now wants to get paid for all those years Iran didn't build a nuclear weapon.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the West should compensate Iran for its past suspension of nuclear research as a way of building trust.-- Iran demands nuclear compensationAs the article notes, "Iran's suspension of uranium enrichment two years ago - the basis of his call for compensation - had been voluntary." But really, why should that make any difference to the mind set of this man and his whole demented cohort?
This is straight from the Yassar Arafat Playbook. First you threaten to kill a lot of people and drag an entire region of the world into chaos and war.
Continued...
ONE OF MY CORRESPONDENTS WRITES FOR ADVICE:
I've decided to load my new 15 exabyte iPOD with the sum total of human knowledge but this dang USB 2 interface is giving me fits. According to a UC Berkeley study I read about, the total of all human knowledge, music, images and words amounted to about 12 exabytes as of 1999. I figure the extra 3 exabytes will future-proof me what with all the crap that has been circulating since then. I still have a few questions about using the thing, but I figure I can just look that stuff up once I get it mostly loaded. Think I should have gone with the chrome model? I heard they finger print like crazy.Any suggestions?
"It's a hundred and six miles to the Oscars, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses." -- The Blues Brothers...
WHEN I MOVED TO SEATTLE I declined the opportunity to get cable TV. As a result I shall miss seeing our annual "Superbowl for Girls" (AKA: The Oscars) this evening. Still, in this besotted society just opting out of the Oscars doesn't mean you can opt out of being bludgeoned by them. The tsunami of BS surrounding this fornication festival of preening plutocrats grows higher and sweeps across our land with more devastation every year. Think of it as a Katrina of Cornpone.
Having proven itself to be politically impotent in the last two national elections, Hollywood still likes to strut its stuff when it comes to the realm where it is still pre-eminent -- pretending. And like all other industries that deal in the lower pleasures, they are very good at pushing their product. Although they
Continued...
Nobody has ever died from a cartoon. If the worst thing the Nazis ever did had been to draw cartoons of death camps instead of putting Jews in them, six million Jews would be alive today. When was the last time any country decided to kill a Muslim anywhere in the world because they felt insulted? But the Muslims have created a new international law called the "insult law." This means they have the right to kill you whenever they please, and you have no right to do anything about it. If a Muslim were walking down a street in Israel with a picture of an insulting cartoon in hand, no Israeli would threaten his life. They would be too busy celebrating the fact that it was a cartoon and not a bomb. -- Jackie Mason and Raoul Felder: The ironies of the cartoon jihadHat tip to JC for the pointer.
LET'S LOOK AHEAD TO THE AFTERMATH:
With the THREE 6 MAFIA scheduled to serenade the clotted cream of our culture tonight at the Oscars with their moving ode that, as one critic delicately described it in the program for tonight's festivities, "... celebrates the innate difficulties of being a member of an eternally oppressed minority entombed within the adamantine walls of our hermetically sealed urban prisons and forced, forced, against his will and all that's holy, to require several females to offer up their bodies to the oppressor for small change, and to return that tainted lucre to him so that his life of oppression may continue for one more day in the plantation that is America (AKA: "You Know It's Hard Our Here for a Pimp")," one wonders exactly what songs THREE 6 MAFIA might be called upon to perform as an encore at the after parties should they win.
Checking the group's impressive catalogue it could be one, or more, or perhaps all of the following masterpieces:
I'M A MAC USER and, unless the world ends, I always will be. Since switching to Macs over five years ago I've probably saved months of my life in not having to dick around with Windows issues on a daily basis. I've saved years of time helping my friends dick around with their Windows issues by saying, "Sorry, I don't do Windows."
It is a surprisingly calm and virus/worm/spyware free existence running a Mac. You really never have to so much as think about it. But therein lies the hidden flaw, of course, and since nature always sides with the hidden flaw, it is wise to still stay on your guard.
That's why I tire of the standard Applesque blather when it comes to security problems. The most recent is this emission from a "security expert" just after Apple released an OSX security update with 20 patches.
But, in general, according to Thomas Kristensen, chief technology officer at security firm Secunia, it is unlikely there will be a deluge of viruses targeting the Mac.Really? Let's look at that logic. Malware slime, as we all know, is generally not in it for the money but for the attention. With every pimply Malware writer working overtime on subverting Windows that leaves the field pretty crowded. How long will it take for one of these people to get the bright idea that by screwing up Windows he's just another slob, but by putting the worm in the Apple he's making history?"Malware writers love to reach as many people as possible," he said. "They don't want to spend their time creating a virus that targets 1 or 2 percent of users. They prefer Windows, which represents 97 percent of users." -- Apple Patches Mac OS X Security Flaws
So keep an eye on those email attachments .... even if you do own a Mac. We're bound to get a winner someday.
BECAUSE SOMEBODY'S GOT TO KEEP TRACK OF THIS STUFF: "Disaster Looms" - Results [Some] of about 66,600
Manmade disaster looms in B'baria town
UN: Disaster if Israel cuts PA funds
Liberian disaster looms
Diwalwal disaster looms, says government
UN Warns Disaster Looms In Africa
Disaster looms around corners of Snowmass Canyon
Disaster looms in lake, experts warn
Water tragedy [AKA: "Disaster"] looms
Disaster plans swirl as the season looms
Deficit disaster looms
Another Disaster Looms in Marinduque
Drought disaster looms in Kenya
Disaster Looms with the Ending of the Quota System
Disaster looms in Mauritius textile industry
Disaster looms for Taiwan separatists
Kyoto disaster looms
Disaster Looms for Megacities, UN Official Says
Disaster looms for Israel
Disaster looms, but no one seems to care
MICHAEL TOTTEN, reporting from Iraq, takes you on a chilling tour of one of the holding sites for Abu Ghraib during the Saddam regime. His report, The Head of the Snake, ends with these words:
The hardest thing to see was the cell used to hold children before they were murdered. My translator Alan read some of the messages carved into the wall.No sense in saying the obvious. The pictures and words that come before say it all."I was ten years old. But they changed my age to 18 for execution."
"Dear Mom and Dad. I am going to be executed by the Baath. I will not see you again."
10,725 people were killed in this one building alone. All died during torture. Formal execution actually took place in Abu Ghraib.
I'VE BEEN MEANING TO WRITE something other than my typical cheap shots at the Moonbat Tribes of Seattle, but new blogger "AskMom" has beat me to it with: The Genesis of the Norg.
Of course, having a family that has lived here for generations, she has a bit of a jump on me. Still, the essay will turn a lot of the things you think you know about Seattle on their head:
Seattle, the Stealth City that, dare I say it, rules the world from within a Volvo limo with smoked windows and the very finest in fleece upholstery.Other places have small pockets of communal culture, little remnants of company towns or Utopian villages clinging to viability in the modern world. In Seattle, the commune has morphed with the modern city and subsumes everything that pokes into it.
Consider that Seattle is home to three of the first-est, biggest, most successful cooperatives on earth: REI outdoor equipment, Group Health Cooperative Health Care, and Puget Consumers Co-op, a grocery supplier. Accept that three of the most smotheringly uniform retailers ever to gladden the hearts of Wall Street -- Starbucks, Nordstrom, and Costco -- were born and are cherished here. The operating system that drives and unifies the world's computers is written here at Microsoft. Remember, when you consider what a small world it is, that without the Boeing Company it would be a much more disconnected one. As you decry the reality that everyone from Timbuktu to Kokomo is reading the same chunky meaningless bestseller, notice that it's Amazon who sells them.
"Spring is in the Air"
PLUS CA CHANGE, and so forth:
One of the two or three streaks of light on our horizon can be perceived in this: that the moral breakdown of these papers has been accompanied by a mental breakdown also. The contemporary official paper, like the "DailyNews" or the "Daily Chronicle" (I mean in so far as it deals with politics), simply cannot argue; and simply does not pretend to argue. It considers the solution which it imagines that wealthy people want, and it signifies the same in the usual manner; which is not by holding up its hand, but by falling on its face. But there is no more curious quality inits degradation than a sort of carelessness, at once of hurry and fatigue,with which it flings down its argument--or rather its refusal to argue.It does not even write sophistry: it writes anything. It does not so much poison the reader's mind as simply assume that the reader hasn't got one." -- LIBERALISM - A SAMPLE, Utopia of Userers, et al by Gilbert K. ChestertonA nice little summation of our current run of "leading" newspapers even if it is almost a century old.
More to the point of how Chesterton means more at this moment than in many decades is what comes next in a comment that prefigures the "new" media.
A long while ago, before all the Liberals died, a Liberal introduced a Bill to prevent Parliament being merely packed with the slaves of financial interests. For that purpose he established the excellent democratic principle that the private citizen, as such, might protest against public corruption. He was called the Common Informer. I believe the miserable party papers are really reduced to playing on the degradation of the two words in modern language. Now the word "comnon" in "Common Informer" means exactly what it means in "common sense" or "Book of Common Prayer," or (above all) in "House of Commons." It does not mean anything low or vulgar; any more than they do. The only difference is that the House of Commons really is low and vulgar; and the Common Informer isn't. It is just the same with the word "Informer." It does not mean spy or sneak. It means one who gives information. It means what "journalist" ought to mean. The only difference is that the Common Informer may be paid if he tells the truth. The common journalist will be ruined if he does.
YES, THIS YEAR'S OSCARS continue their transformation into the nation's most over-hyped fornication festival. The only suspense to be found in this struggling ritual will be whether or not transparent codpieces will be on display during the endless pre-show preening. But just in case you were distressed that bitches would not be included with all the hos, rest assured they will be represented. Hollywood is nothing if not multi-cultural.
Oscars viewers to hear word "bitches" in songLOS ANGELES (Reuters) - There will be no F-word but the word "bitches" will be heard during the first-ever rap performance at the Academy Awards on Sunday.
At the request of the Academy and ABC, which is broadcasting the Oscars show, the authors of best song nominee "It's Hard Out There for a Pimp" from the film "Hustle & Flow" have substituted less offensive words for the song's profanity-laced lyrics. "As long as the Academy approves it, it's cool," said rapper Jordan "Juicy J" Houston, a member of Three 6 Mafia, which wrote the song for the film and will be performing it. But he said he was told by actress Taraji P. Henson, who performed the song in the film, and will sing onstage with Three 6 Mafia, that the show's producers were letting her keep the word "bitches," in the chorus. "Taraji said the Academy told her she can say 'bitches,"' said Houston....Aaron Rosenberg, lawyer for Three 6 Mafia, said it was a milestone for the Academy to recognize hip-hop's influence on American culture and the group is extremely sensitive to decency concerns after the baring of Janet Jackson's breast during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show.
"They worked hard to clean it up as much as possible without compromising their artistic integrity," he said.
That's comforting. After all, where would our culture's largest annual display of Bitches, Pimps, Hos and Dicks be without their "uncompromising artistic integrity?"
This year, more than ever, the Academy will bend over backwards.
====
He was looking kinda dumb with his finger and his thumb
And the shape of an "L" on his forehead.
Well the years start coming and they don't stop coming.... -- Smashmouth, AllStar
Probably the only person that doesn't know John McCain will never be President is John McCain -- and that includes his campaign staff and his family.
He showed up smiling at David Letterman (who looks more and more like "The Joker" without the makeup with every passing week) to "announce" that he was indeed running for President just as he has been every day for decades. Large applause followed by a national shrug. "Never happen. Vote him off the island. Next."
But yet he once had everything going for him, didn't he? What happened? What happened is that the country, as far as John McCain goes, woke up and took a long look. It has had a long chance to take this long look and decided, "Nope." But was too polite to say why.
Following Ann Coulter's saying of one of those things you "can't say in America," the Edwards campaign is looking to cash in, "I say we fight. Help us raise $100,000 in "Coulter Cash" this week to show every would-be Republican mouthpiece that their bigoted attacks will not intimidate this campaign."
And why would "every would-be Republican mouthpiece" seek to intimidate the Edwards Campaign? "John was singled out for a personal
Continued...THIS POSTING IS HERE to remind me that all men are mortal. It is private and personal and you will be very, very sorry if you violate that privacy and click on the "Continued..." link.
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"With grim crocodile tears, grim the MSM grimly reported that the grim United states grimly passed the grim milestone of grimness in the grim war in grim [Afghanistan] as grim American grim casualties of grimiosity grimly reached the grim number of [500].
"When grimly asked why the grim MSM grimly gives grim front (grim) page grim-prominence to such an out-of-grim-context number while grimily ignoring non-grim grim-type other grim news about grim-positive grim developments since the grim surge grimly started working with grimness or, indeed, why the grim MSM never reports on grim grim milestones of any other grim conflicts or grim armed grim forces (especially those of the grim enemy), the grim MSM just looked grim." - Ephemeral Isle: Grim Reporting
"I'm not home a lot, so Michelle is usually willing to give it up." - Barack Obama in Entertainment Weekly
Michelle Obama ... on their upcoming vacation: "We're going to Hawaii to visit Barack's grandma" -Playbook 24/7 - Politico.com
"When Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats spent a week holding the people's chamber under house arrest, they made plain a political vulnerability beyond drilling. To achieve greenhouse gas goals in the out-years, they are willing to risk a slowdown now in the American economy. How else can you interpret what happened this week? These Democrats aren't environmentalists. They're enviromaniacs." -Wonder Land - WSJ.com
Academy award winning actor George Clooney is set to host a fundraiser for Barack Obama in Switzerland next month. - CNN
Giving you the skinny on race:
"White people spend a significant portion of their time preparing for the moment when they will be offended. They read magazines, books, and watch documentaries all in hopes that one day they will encounter a person who will say something offensive. When this happens, they can leap into action with quotes, statistics, and historical examples. Once they have finished lecturing another white person about how it's wrong to use the term "black" instead of "African-American," they can sit back and relax in the knowledge that they have made a difference." - Being Offended - Stuff White People Like #101
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"The Chronicle's announcement pushed the number of layoffs and buyouts this year above 7,000. (There are more, of course, because some papers have not said how many people have been laid off or have accepted buyouts.) Adding in the cuts at the Chronicle and the Modesto Bee, about 17 percent of all layoffs/buyouts this year have been in California."File under "Who says there's no good news?"
"The shamans of contemporary linguistic taboos have adopted nigger, faggot, cunt, and the other forbidden words as passwords, emblems of group membership -- and membership, as American Express has been at pains to remind us, has its privileges. No one outside the shamans' circle is permitted to speak the password; it's an arrogation of a jealously guarded status. He who dares must be cut down, ground into the dust, and forbidden ever to speak at all, to any effect, in any context. For as in all systems of nymic magic, the word is deemed congruent with the thing: the taboo words are at the root of the shamans' power. Failure to enforce the taboo would risk the loss of the group's privileges and immunities, laboriously amassed over the decades of exploitation of others' guilt." -Francis W. Porretto - Eternity Road
The two women married in Canada, obtained identical tattoos and picked out adjoining burial plots with the expectation that they would be together till death and beyond. Then one of them fell for someone else, and without getting a divorce, entered into a Vermont civil union in Stowe with the new woman. Now the woman who says she was left behind -- Laureen Wells-Weiss -- is alleging that her estranged spouse committed bigamy.
"On the official website of the United Church of Christ, where there's something called UCC FIRSTS: A Journey through Time -- a list of the historic achievements of the various Congregationalist and German Reformed churches that joined to form the denomination in 1957. The items run from John Winthrop's 1630 prayer that the Massachusetts Bay Colony "be as a city upon a hill" to the 1995 publication of "the only hymnal released by a Christian church that honors in equal measure both male and female images of God." - The Death of Protestant America: A Political Theory of the Protestant Mainline by Joseph Bottum
HOUSTON -- Gasoline prices rose to a record-high four expletives per gallon Monday, a rate of fuel-price-related cursing not seen since the 1979 energy crisis sparked a nationwide obscenity boom.
"My point is that any discussion of Obama's "skinniness" and its impact on the typical American voter can't avoid being interpreted as a coded discussion of race." - When "skinny" means "black." - By Timothy Noah - Slate Magazine
"If Senator Obama is as exercised about "outrageous" profits as he says he is, he might also have to turn on a few liberal darlings. Oh, say, Berkshire Hathaway. Warren Buffett's outfit pulled in $11 billion last year, up 29% from 2006. Its profit margin -- if that's the relevant figure -- was 11.47%, which beats out the American oil majors. Or consider Google, which earned a mere $4.2 billion but at a whopping 25.3% margin. Google earns far more from each of its sales dollars than does Exxon, but why doesn't Mr. Obama consider its advertising-search windfall worthy of special taxation? - What Is a 'Windfall' Profit? - WSJ.com
"It's clear that in Marin and its environs, Republicanism has become thoughtcrime. This is serious stuff. This is -- if I may use a phrase that has become tainted with controversy -- Un-American. And the only way I can think of to combat it is for individuals to speak out and come out. They may find, as I did, that there's some unpleasantness but that the vast majority of friends and family stick by them, and the ones that don't aren't the finest of the lot. - neo-neocon - A plea to the closet Republicans of Marin: come out, come out, wherever you are
1. The bank account is about to be overdrawn. We can't deposit our way out of this problem.
2. Your bedroom is a mess. You can't tidy up your way out of this problem.
3. I'm hungry. I can't eat my way out of this problem.
4. We're out of food. We can't go grocery shopping our way out of this problem.
5. We are disgusting, fat tubs of goo. We can't exercise our way out of this problem. - Etcetera and so forth @ House of Eratosthenes
"When we are incapable of finding "one good thing" to say about Bush or Pelosi or even someone in our personal lives, we've surrendered reason to repellent hate; the hate owns us. At that point, we are no better than the person we abhor; we may be worse."- Eizabeth Scalia Let's Debate, Not Dehumanize
"When such an overarching absolute standard is rejected -- as it has been by aggressive secularism, atheistic, reductionist, and materialistic to the core -- we can only enforce a form of unity through coercion and power. Inner moral dictates must be subjugated to coerced conformity. It is "acceptable" to hold "values" which are at odds with the secular societal standard -- as long as these "values" are never acted upon in speech or behavior. We may believe abortion to be morally abhorrent -- but must never act to restrain it; we may hold homosexuality to be morally wrong and believe gay marriage to be a threat to a core foundational institution of society -- but to verbalize thus is "hate speech", and "intolerance", and "ignorance." Our unity is the unity of the gag, a multicultural muzzle which celebrates the superficial, elevates the insignificant, tolerates the intolerable -- and punishes the moral. Our unity is the unity of relativism, a superficial solidarity where everything is acceptable but absolutes, where anything is tolerated but truth. Such unity strives for the lowest common denominator, maintaining its forced cohesion by the will to power, destroying in its enslaving solidarity the very soul of freedom and the heart of true human harmony." - The Utopia of Relativism | The Doctor Is In
More to this than meets the eye. Much more. Zombietime took a little stroll through a San Francisco Street Fair and reports back with many pictures from Up Your Alley 2008. So, if you wish to see what passes for acceptable pubic display in San Francisco these days, click the link. Warning. Not work safe. Not child safe. Not safe at all. It is far beyond anything you can imagine. Pretty damning, actually, on all levels: Up Your Alley 2008
"You might not think that dealing with the ongoing plague of disintegrating parachutists might not be the most important problem of our modern age, but it is one that will grow in size and intensity as the baby boom generation ages. This generational cohort, stuck as it is in a perpetual adolescence, will refuse to grow gracefully as previous generations did and will spend an inordinate amount of time doing things any normal person would think beyond the physical capacity of someone of that advanced age. But the baby boom, for whom life means never really having to grow up, will try to deny the biological effects of time passing and as a result of this denial the skies over this our Great Republic will soon fill with dentures, limbs, pacemakers, walkers, bifocals, AARP membership cards, and the occasional veteran of the Summer of Love raining down upon an unsuspecting populace like so much unwanted space debris. Things will definitely get uglier hereabouts before they get any better, folks." -The Passing Parade: Cheap Shots from a Drive By Mind
"Obama should know that for all his own talents, it is rare to have someone with his meager law record selected as Harvard Review Editor, or hired at the University of Chicago Law School, or after a mere two years in the Senate, a presidential candidate. The point is not that his race explains his success, but in America alone it either was irrelevant to it, or, more likely, a great force multiplier. - Works and Days
Calif. Prison Giving Inmates Free Condoms A union representing prison guard supervisors is opposed to the distribution of condoms. The union said that condoms can be used as places to hide drugs or weapons. "They can put stuff in them and use them to throw at staff or other inmates," said Chris Gold of the Prison Supervisor's Union." Ah, isn't that sort of the idea?
Jobless rate rises to 4-year high of 5.7 percentStill somewhat behind the 75 year unemployment high of 24.9 percent set in 1933. But where there's Obama there's hope.
"Here comes the orator! With his flood of words, and his drop of reason." -- Benjamin Franklin 1735
"When the young leader spoke eloquently and passionately and denounced the old system, the press fell in love with him. They never questioned who his friends were or what he really believed in. When he said he would help the farmers and the poor and bring free medical care and education to all, everyone followed. When he said he would bring justice and equality to all, everyone said "Praise the Lord." And when the young leader said, "I will be for change and I'll bring you change," everyone yelled, "Viva Fidel!" - Letters To The Editor - Letters to the Editor - inRich.com
A man who was found with his head severed by a chainsaw was fighting to stay in a block of 70 flats in Hampshire cleared for redevelopment. David Phyall, 50, was the last tenant at the Atlantic Housing Ltd housing association flats in Eastleigh. His body was found by police on 5 July, who said his death was not suspicious.
"You have your sub-bullshit, your opti-bullshit and your supra-bullshit. We get snookered by this blend time and time again, because we have a tendency to say: I know the sub-bullshit is true; I do not agree with the supra-bullshit, but compared to that the opti-bullshit is believable. And so we believe the opti-bullshit, the bullshit calibrated to the optimum degree of self-reproduction. We will repeat the opti-bullshit to people we know. And if anyone dares challenge it, we will treat the challenge as a challenge to the sub-bullshit. Anytime the sub-bullshit is demonstrated to be true, which it will be, we will take that as further proof of the opti-bullshit, and become more convinced of the validity of the opti-bullshit ... which we haven't even tested, or observed anyone else testing." - House of Eratosthenes
"As much as legislators and founders of states ought to be honoured and respected among men, as much ought the founders of sects and factions to be detested and hated; because the influence of faction is directly contrary to that of laws. Factions subvert government, render laws impotent, and beget the fiercest animosities among men of the same nation, who ought to give mutual assistance and protection to each other." - David Hume, Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary, Part I, Essay VIII, OF PARTIES IN GENERAL
Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards is pulling the plug on a scholarship program he started at an Eastern North Carolina high school -- a program he once promised would be a model for the nation under an Edwards presidency. - newsobserver.com | Edwards ending college programNow we know he knows he's kaput. No use throwing good money after good.
"Obama Launches LowRoadExpress.com" - Advertising Age - Campaign Trail
Time managing editor Rich Stengel said he was proud of the Obama puff piece, and that he hoped it would help to redefine the boundaries of journalistic drivel. "When the American people cast their vote this November, this is the piece of fluff they're going to remember," Stengel said. "Not the ones by Newsweek, Harper's, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The Economist, Nightline, The Wall Street Journal, or even that story about lessons Obama learned from his first-grade teacher we ran a month ago." -'Time' Publishes Definitive Obama Puff Piece
"I don't share the beautiful people's revulsion for suburbia. It's just decent people making a living for themselves, and maybe having a patch of grass to play touch football on. Many people do hate suburbia, the whole idea of it, and wish we were all living in concrete