Jul 01 2009
The Supreme Court found in favor of the nutcase haters from the Westboro Baptist Church and its fundamentalist (and fundamentally unhinged) founder, Fred Phelps. This is a difficult post to write, but we that love the First Amendment must honor this proper decision.
These folks are, in my opinion, fundamentally hatred filled and also love the spotlight. But, as much as it grieves me, they have their right to spew their toxic bile.
Jun 29 2009
Well, only one installment in this subseries after this one, but it will be special. Tonight we will explore this class of drugs, what they do, and how they work.
This class of drugs also includes LSD, but that material is so culturally important that it will have a post of its own. Thinking about it, it may deserve two posts, so there may be two installment after this one. We will have to see.
Jun 26 2009
Happy Friday and welcome to the 9th in the Dog’s First Amendment Friday series. This series is following the syllabus for the class called The First Amendment and taught at Yale Law School by Professor Jack M. Balkin. As with the Friday Constitutional series this is a layman’s look at the Law, specifically the Supreme Court opinions which have shaped the boundaries of our 1st Amendment Protections. If you are interested in the previous installments you can find them at the links below:
“Originally posted at Squarestate.net“
Jun 23 2009
Sorry that I did not post last night. I have been tending to more important family things. I promise that I will post the next installment this coming Sunday. I am getting a very intrusive signal from PC Tools Antivirus. It will not let me go. I suggest that you not go to that site.
Warmest regards,
Doc
Jun 21 2009
It’s Father’s Day, a day which tends to distress me greatly.
father
O.E. fæder, from P.Gmc. *fader (cf. O.N. faðir, Ger. vater), from PIE *p@ter (cf. Sanskit pitar−, Gk. pater, L. pater, O.Pers. pita, O.Ir. athir “father”), presumably from baby-speak sound like pa. The classic example of Grimm’s Law, where PIE “p−” becomes Gmc. “f−.” Spelling with −th− (16c.) reflects widespread phonetic shift in M.E. that turned −der to −ther in many words; spelling caught up to pronunciation in 1500s (cf. burden, murder). Fatherland (1623) is a loan-translation of Ger. Vaterland, itself a loan-translation of L. patria (terra), lit. “father’s land.” Father’s Day dates back to 1910 in Spokane, Wash., but was not widespread until 1943, in imitation of Mother’s Day.
I mostly want to go hide somewhere, so I’ll probably try to get lost in something. Maybe create some graphics. Or watch some food shows on the telly.
Jun 19 2009
Happy Friday and welcome to the 8th in the Dog’s First Amendment Friday series. This series is following the syllabus for the class called The First Amendment and taught at Yale Law School by Professor Jack M. Balkin. As with the Friday Constitutional series this is a layman’s look at the Law, specifically the Supreme Court opinions which have shaped the boundaries of our 1st Amendment Protections. If you are interested in the previous installments you can find them at the links below:
“Originally posted at Squarestate.net“
Jun 17 2009
Jun 17 2009
Dr. Whitehead, Dean of the English Department in the Colleges of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas swung a pretty big stick in his heyday there. He was able to get important persons of letters to come and give free (well, at least to the public) readings of their material. Notable amongst them were Ken Kesey and Allen Ginsberg. Mrs. Translator and I went to both of those.
The fliers had been distributed around town for a week or two. They were pretty much generic, essentially saying “Famous poet to give reading at the U of A on such and such date at 8:00 PM”. Well, Mrs. Translator and I decided to go, as we try to be cultured individuals and I was very familiar with Allen from reading.
Jun 15 2009
The psychedelic amphetamines (and I include mescaline here, although it is a methyl group away from being a true amphetamine) are many and widely encountered in what are almost always now illicit settings. They (except for mescaline) are synthetic drugs, not found in nature.
These drugs are “true” psychedelics as opposed to the oddballs described here last week. Many of the oddballs are dissociatives, and the true psychedelics work by a completely different mechanism.
Jun 14 2009
By the beginning of the 14th Century, Italy was wracked by wars between rival religious and political factions, rival merchant states, and rival factions within these factions and merchant states. The “Holy” “Roman” “Emperor” Heinrich VII invaded, but failed to take Rome. And amidst this violent turmoil, Giotto reinvented art and launched the southern Renaissance, while Dante and Petrarch reinvented poetry. And also amidst this turmoil, and with his papacy threatened, Pope Clement V, under pressure from the French King Philippe IV le Bel, moved the papal court to Avignon, which was not actually in France, but was in the Venaissan enclave granted to the papacy by its Angevin clients. The next seven popes would be French, but not all Catholic nations would accept them. The Catholic Church again would be torn by schisms.
The 14th Century saw Europe torn apart and reinvented, and France was at the heart of it. The Black Death would kill perhaps eight million people, in France alone. Jews and lepers would be burned, on order of King Philip V. The Hundred Years War with England would rage. The Capetian dynasty would end. The Dukes of Burgundy, who controlled not only that modern French region, but also what are now the modern Benelux nations, sided with England, attempting to form a sort of middle kingdom, between the war-ravaged France and Germany. Under their patronage, Claus Sluter would launch the northern Renaissance.
In the 1330s, Pope Benedict XII began the massive renovation of the Avignon ecclesiastical palace, tranforming it into the grand Palais des Papes. In 1377, St. Catherine of Siena convinced Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome, which soon led to yet more schisms within the Church, including the election of an alternate pope in Avignon.
(Photo intensive, after the jump…)
Jun 14 2009
I believe that the so-called ‘writing block’ is a product of some kind of disproportion between your standards and your performance … one should lower his standards until there is no felt threshold to go over in writing. It’s easy to write. You just shouldn’t have standards that inhibit you from writing … I can imagine a person beginning to feel he’s not able to write up to that standard he imagines the world has set for him. But to me that’s surrealistic. The only standard I can rationally have is the standard I’m meeting right now … You should be more willing to forgive yourself. It doesn’t make any difference if you are good or bad today. The assessment of the product is something that happens after you’ve done it.
–William Stafford
(Warning: Graphics inside)