September 2007 archive

Sep 02 2007

“I mean, she’s a woman. Why would I not vote for a woman?”

“Well, I hope you’d vote for the best candidate, regardless of gender or race.”

“She is the best candidate. She’s smart, she knows how to play the game, she has visibility, she’s been through shit and survived, she’s someone who would have made it on her own, without her connection to her husband. I really believe that – she’s made me believe that.”

“What do you think about what many liberals are saying, the ones who write on the blogs I frequent? That she’s a corporatist, that she takes lobbyist money, that she’s beholden to big money?”

Sep 02 2007

Jesters, Fools, and the Big Wheel

Once while out engaging in wood oven pizza consumption, and beerage at our local micro brew with the spouse and his nihilistic, libertarian friend, from his days as a fly boy, we got chatting about relationships and I asked Mr.Undercovercalico why he married me. He said: because you are a smart ass. My epitaph. Actually, the truth does not hurt.

Sep 02 2007

The End of the End of the World

According to one way of telling this story, the world began in 1641 with the following words, as translated from the Latin:


Some years ago now I observed the multitude of errors that I had accepted as true in my earliest years, and the dubiousness of the whole superstructure I had since then reared on them; and the consequent need of making a clean sweep for once in my life, and beginning again from the very foundations, if I would establish some secure and lasting result in science.


— Rene Descartes, 1641


The world ended — again, on one way of telling this story — as follows:


On or about December 1910, human nature changed.


— Virginia Woolf, 1924


In this essay I want to explore the meaning of those two passages, and to think about where we stand now in relation to them.  Let’s ask what we should do after the end of it all, here at the end of the end of the world.


(Pictures, too!  Below the fold.)

Sep 02 2007

Pissing People Off

I still got it.

Evidence in this thread.

Sep 02 2007

25 best things ever said

(re-posted from dailyKos)

Given some of the other diaries up today, I thought this would be a nice addition.  Add your own favorites in the comments

They aren’t in order, but I’ve saved my favorite for the end

Sep 02 2007

Love is really this simple…

i found this in my e-mail this morning… sent to me by my friend, 4Freedom.

She told me to take my time, and read it slowly….

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds,
“What does love mean?” The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined.

See what you think:

Sep 02 2007

Nothingness and Being

Someone once asked me what Taoists believe.  I don’t know what Taoist’s believe.  I can only know what I believe.  It’s not like we have churches or need people to tell us what the writings mean.  The mental game we’re playing here is to figure it out for ourselves.  There is no accomplishment in blind obeisance to someone else’s interpretation.  I think I can say that all Taoist are on the same page up to just about here.

The first chapter of the Tao te Ching (loosely, Book of the Way…and yes, we have a book)  tells us we are on our own when it comes to interpreting existence.  That certainly includes the meaning of the words in the book.  Several parts of the book discuss the futility of trying to teach the Tao to anyone else.

But I digress…

Sep 02 2007

Here’s what gets me

(Also posted at Truth & Progress)

There are a lot of Christians in this country. And they spend an awful lot of time griping about things. Some of them think Jews should leave the US if they don’t feel like celebrating Christmas. Which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense if you think about it.

Some of them think people like me should rot in hell, after we die a horrible death. Preferably in a concentration camp. 9/11 was our fault.

God tells them these things through a special hotline. I get a lot of prank calls too, but I usually just hang up.

Milk and honey on the other side, hallelujah.

Sep 02 2007

Here’s what gets me

There are a lot of Christians in this country. And they spend and an awful lot of time griping about things. Some of them think Jews should leave the US if they don’t feel like celebrating Christmas. Which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense if you think about it.

Some of them think people like me should rot in hell, after we die a horrible death. Preferably in a concentration camp. 9/11 was out fault.

God tells them these things through a special hotline. I get a lot of prank calls too, but I usually just hang up.

Milk and honey on the other side, hallelujah.

Sep 02 2007

Interrobang ?!?…….

Sep 02 2007

ThreadBare: The Inaugural

ThreadBare is a word-association-inspired invitation to use the ‘threads’ of conversation to:

1. use the concept of an ‘open thread’ to open hearts, open minds, and open cans of whoop-ass (sparingly, and only where appropriate.  cans of whoop-ass are always on the table). 

2. bare your
  soul, if
  you choose.

feel free to discuss personal issues, preferably your own.

3. discuss,
analyze,
and hopefully
  rejuvenate

areas you feel or see as ‘worn thin’, whether personal, societal, site-related (issues, please…not ‘issues’), or miscellaneous.  toss around some ideas.  we’ll try to keep them in the air for you.

4.  start an online mosh pit

lets bump.  lets get sweaty.  lets all groove the same beat for a moment, and be people together, and be.  there’s no use fighting it, the internet has become…IS…its own plane of existence.  lets be that plane’s hottest dance club.

Sep 02 2007

what if Iran is NOT the target?

http://www.dailykos….

i was going back and forth with ek over the outcome of a strike on Iran in clammyc’s diary. here’s what ek said:

given the current correlation of forces we can not win. Iran closes the Gulf.  We can’t prevent this. They cut off our forces in Iraq.  We can’t prevent that either.
Gas goes to $12 a gallon if you can find it.  Global depression.
Bleak enough for you yet?

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