A Variety of Captured Essences

Momma and Zuzu teamed up to draw a family picture. Zuzu's take on Emma, while lacking a fine touch, perfectly captured her essence.

November 27, 2018

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Perhaps the all-time greatest footnote, on the subject of not giving two shits. Thanks McWhorter.

November 27, 2021

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Took a nice walk by Chickie's Rock with Gretel today... she found a daddy long legs and some old soybean plants.

November 27, 2020

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Every day a new state certifies their election results, which feels like a new win every day. When Trump said that we were going to win and win and win and we were going to get so sick of winning we couldn't stand it, I don't think this is what he had in mind. Nevertheless I'm counting this as his fulfillment of a 2016 campaign promise.

November 27, 2020

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Colin Dickey, Ghostland- "Cities that are haunted seem to straddle past and present as though two versions of the same city are overlaid on top of each other."

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Zuzu picked an odd book for her bedtime story. Yes well, pleasant nightmares.

November 27, 2019

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James Agee joined us on this day in 1909. From A Death In the Family:

How far we all come. How far we all come away from ourselves. So far, so much between, you can never go home again. You can go home, it's good to go home, but you never really get all the way home again in your life. And what's it all for? All I tried to be, all I ever wanted and went away for, what's it all for?

Just one way, you do get back home. You have a boy or a girl of your own and now and then you remember, and you know how they feel, and it's almost the same as if you were your own self again, as young as you could remember.

And God knows he was lucky, so many ways, and God knows he was thankful. Everything was good and better than he could have hoped for, better than he ever deserved; only, whatever it was and however good it was, it wasn't what you once had been, and had lost, and could never have again, and once in a while, once in a long time, you remembered, and knew how far you were away, and it hit you hard enough, that little while it lasted, to break your heart.

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Mike Birbiglia is a for real genius, and not only because he said that cat pee smells like regular pee that took a crap. Maybe he's a genius in spite of saying that. I highly recommend his new Netflix special.

November 27, 2019

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Here are my characatures of the nominating process of the left versus the right.

The Left: Warren and Sanders are too extreme, the independent voters of Wisconsin want food of their table, not medicine in their body. They want $800 billion a year for defense, not free college in their minds. Biden's a dodderer, and a sniffer, and hugged people marginally too many people before they griped. Harris prosecuted drug cases as California's Attorney General, and had a nuanced view on the death penalty. Klobuchar? More like Klo-blah-char. No pizzazz, and hair spray reminds New York liberals of the ozone layer. Buttigieg is intelligent, would bring a generational shift, has a way of jamming the content of a book into a 20 second sound byte, has a wide array of interesting, pertinent experience, and has shown that he can appeal to the right, BUT he has 0% support of South Carolina's African-Americans, and a study showed 61% of them are put off by him being gay, so he's out. 

The Right: Who, Trump??? OK, TRUMP! TRUUUMP!!! USA! WALL! BUSINESSMAN! JOBS!!! NOT AMERICA SECOND! AMERICA FIRST! I SAID FIRST!!! DEFEAT EVIL! ISIS AND SOCIALISTS!!! JAIL OR KILL THE ENEMY!!! GUNS! NUKES! TRUMP! TRUMP! TRUMP! TRUUUUUUUUUUMP!!!

November 27, 2019

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The Hill- Ex-CIA chief tears into Trump: Mueller’s name will be revered in US history, yours will be scorned

Holy cow, that's a quote. It never ceases to amaze me how insecure, vulnerable, culpable, etc. Trump is, yet he puts it on full display for the world to see. He's an emotional wreck, and people think he's strong! It's mind-boggling. Has the world ever had a bigger clown??? And he thinks everyone's laughing at someone else!

John Brennan- "Your feelings of inferiority, insecurity, vulnerability, and culpability are loud & clear. You remind me of how many corrupt authoritarian leaders abroad behaved before they were deposed. Bob Mueller’s name will be revered in the annals of U.S. history; your name will be scorned."

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/418389-ex-cia-chief-tears-into-trump-muellers-name-will-be-revered-in/

November 27, 2018

Postscript- Like Bill Maher has said, Mueller shit the bed. But that quote does take us back to a time when that type of thing simply wasn't said, or needed to be thought of.

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A Politico article said that a third of Europeans surveyed had little to no knowledge of the Holocaust.

November 27, 2018

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I suggest watching Saving Capitalism on Netflix. My key takeaway- a study analyzing bills put forth between from 1982 to 2002 showed that bills that had no public support still had a 30% chance of becoming law... and even worse, bills that had total public support also only had a 30% chance of becoming law. The will of the voter is a statistically insignificant variable in regards to the creation of laws. An example of the power of lobbyists.

November 27, 2017

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This is an insane record I just found upstairs. That guy has "Dvorak" painted on his chest, and the two cartoon girls are saying, "sock it to me Dvorak," and "me too." I kind of think I should throw it away!

November 27, 2014

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It happens to be the birthday of pole vaulter, Charles Dvorak, born in 1878.

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Happy Black Friday Eve!

November 27, 2014

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Spent an hour yesterday with my nephew... pulling his ears, poking his nose, patting his cheeks, digging in his armpits, and moving his chin to make him talk. I'm trying to build up his tolerance to the annoying things in the world. And besides, he can barely open his eyes... there's no way he could even know it was me.

November 27, 2009

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Network was released on this day in 1976. See the addendum for text of the Howard Beale speech.

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Tragedy on this day in 1978- San Francisco city mayor George Moscone and openly gay city supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated by former supervisor Dan White.

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Carol was released on this day in 2015.

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Swedish astronomer, physicist, and mathematician, Anders Celsius, was born on this day in 1701, or as he would call it, 927.

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The documentation, Les Blank, join us on this day in 1935. Burden of Dreams is a masterpiece. I need to watch all of his films.

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Bruce Lee joined us on this day in 1940.

"Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own."

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Jimmy Rollins was born on this day in 1978, one of the greatest Phillies of all time. He played 15 years with the Phils (2000-2014) and ranks 1st in hits (2306), 3rd in runs (1,325), 1st in doubles (479), 3rd in triples (111), 9th in HR (216), 8th in RBI (887), 6th in BB (753), & 2nd in SB (453). He was a 3X All-Star, won 4 Gold Glove Awards, won the NL MVP Award in 2007, and was a member on the 2008 Phillies World Series champions. Defensively, he led NL shortstops in fielding pct. 4X. In his 17-year career (2000-2016), Jimmy had 2,455 hits, 231 HR, 511 doubles, 115 triples (leading the NL 4X), 470 SB, 936 RBI, 1,421 runs, .264 BA, .324 OBP, .418 Slg., .743 OPS, & 95 OPS+. Most importantly, without him saying that the Phillies were the team to beat in spring training of 2007, gave them the confidence to win five straight division titles.

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Other notable birthdays- Jimi Hendrix (1942), Bill Nye (1955)

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Baby Face Nelson, was gunned down on this day in 1934, about a year and a half after Dillinger.

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The playwright, Eugene O'Neill, left us on this day in 1953. His last words: "I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room - and God damn it - died in a hotel room."

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The Daily Wire- Leftists: To Save The Planet, Stop Having Children. Pat Sajak Has A Hilarious Suggestion.

I clicked this figuring it would be some dumbass thing, but it's on the money. If you want to save the planet by not having children, who are you saving the planet for? I'd add, EVEN IF the argument was sound, dumb people would still have kids, and we'd be left with generations of idiots.

http://dlvr.it/RKCr4L

November 27, 2019

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Vice- A Trump Supporter Donated $2.5 Million to Fight Election Results. Now He Wants It Back

"Stop the steal," huh? This bozo gave $2.5 million for it, and the fraud lawsuits were dropped. He's mad... but does the obvious even need to be stated?

This raises an interesting philosophical question. Is Trump the greatest con man ever because so many people are duped by him, or is he the worst con man ever because it's so easy to see through his schemes?

https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7azp3/a-trump-supporter-donated-dollar25-million-to-fight-election-results-now-he-wants-it-back

November 27, 2020

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Steve Martin- “I feel sorry for women I'll tell you why: Because so many men think they're into this kinky sex and I wouldn't have said that, but six months ago I met a girl and she was taking singing lessons. And her coach, an 84 year old guy, you’d think he'd be the last guy in the world to be weird but listen to this… He kept wanting her to sing from her diaphragm. I mean that would take years to learn that, wouldn’t it?”

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Lao Tzu- "A great man is hard on himself; a small man is hard on others." 

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Buckminster Fuller- "We are not going to be able to operate our Spaceship Earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. It has to be everybody or nobody."

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Voltaire- "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him."

Stolen by Easy Rider, but what isn't stolen?

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Hitchens- "Thus, though I dislike to differ with such a great man, Voltaire was simply ludicrous when he said that if god did not exist it would be necessary to invent him. The human invention of god is the problem to begin with."

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Chuck Palahniuk:

"We love drama. 

We love conflict. 

We need a devil or 

we'll create one."

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Huxley- "Man is so intelligent that he feels impelled to invent theories to account for what happens in the world. Unfortunately, he is not quite intelligent enough, in most cases, to find correct explanations. So that when he acts on his theories, he behaves very often like a lunatic."

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Sagan- "If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth."

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Vonnegut, Slapstick- "Why don't you take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut? Why don't you take a flying fuck at the mooooooooooooon?"

Addendum:

1.

Howard Beale monologue from Network.

We know things are bad – worse than bad. They’re crazy. It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is: ‘Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.’


Well, I’m not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get MAD! I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot – I don’t want you to write to your congressman, because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you’ve got to get mad. (shouting) You’ve got to say: ‘I’m a human being, god-dammit! My life has value!’

So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell: ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take this anymore!’

I want you to get up right now. Sit up. Go to your windows. Open them and stick your head out and yell – ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not gonna take this anymore!’ Things have got to change. But first, you’ve gotta get mad!…You’ve got to say, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take this anymore!’ Then we’ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first, get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take this anymore!’

2.

Myspace Blog 

November 27, 2006

My notes on "Failed States" by Noam Chomsky

Hi there,

I just read Noam Chomsky's "Failed States" and I took a bunch of notes. Usually I never look at my notes again but now, through the magic of this site, I'll try to make some use of them by sharing them with you. Here they are just blurbs but they're backed up very well in the book with more info and sources. If you have any questions I'll do my best to help. I put some videos at the end, for your pleasure. And please, feel free to click away now. (I'll never know.)

-There are 3 issues that endanger human welfare- nuclear war, environmental disaster, and the world's most powerful country making the first two more likely.

-Qualities of failed states (of which he includes the US)

 -inability to protect citizens from violence

 -disregard for domestic and international law

 -democratic deficit- democracy without substance

-Einstein and Russell- The choice facing the world is "stark and dreadful and inescapable; shall we put an end to the human race or shall mankind renounce war."

- Adam Smith (founder of our economic system)- "Vile maxim of the masters of mankind: ...all for ourselves and nothing for other people."

-The world regards us as having a negative effect in the world. We believe the polls show that the rest of the world is wrong.

-Convicted international terrorists (Posada and Bosch) that Bush pardoned allowed to remain in the US.

-The US and Israel are for the militarization of space

-Vasily Arkhipov- a name we should all know- countermanded an order to fire nuclear torpedoes when his vessels were under attack from American destroyers, during Bay of Pigs. Without him the world could be destroyed right now.

-Great quote- "Dismissal of scientific evidence on matters of survival, in keeping with Bush's scientific judgment is routine."

-Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population, had 75% view us favorably in 2000, 61% in 2002, and 15% after the invasion of Iraq, with 80% saying they feared an attack.

- "In response to Donald Rumsfeld's search for metrics to know if we are winning or losing the war on terror, Bergen suggests that "an exponentially rising number of terrorist attacks is one metric that seems relevant.""

- Dominant Muslim response to al Qaeda after 911 was hostile- the Iraq War caused a Muslim scholar who condemned al Qaeda to declare fatwa on the US. Oops, I made a mistake, but a very telling mistake. He didn't declare fatwa on the US, but rather on invading American forces. HUGE difference. No question that Bush is inspiring Islamic radicalism and terror. Many other examples.

- Wouldn't you assume that we'd never use nuclear weapons first? Our stated policy calls for us to use them first... expanded under Clinton.

-Downing Street Memos mention spikes of activity (our pre-war Iraq bombing) to try to concoct a pretext for invasion (when they'd fire back).

- Equipment for developing WMD (biological, chemical, rockets) were found in Iraq- equipment produced in the 80's thanks to US aid- after Saddam's worst crimes were known. These stores were under UN control, but they were looted. (We secured the oil fields but not the known nuclear material.

- Bush isn't concerned with the war on terror, as evidenced by his failing grades on much of the 911 recommendations... such as security upgrades for chemical plants. Other examples.

- A part of the government that tracks suspicious financial transfers (OFAC) had 4 employees tracking $ from bin Laden and Saddam and almost 2 dozen enforcing illegal embargo from Cuba

- Negroponte (our director of intel) was ambassador to Honduras when we used it as a base of operations for attacking Nicaragua... an act for which we were condemned by the world court- meaning we were convicted of international terrorism (illegal use of force). So, a terrorist is appointed to the #1 anti-terrorist position in the world.

- Mention of Gonzales' "quaint" Geneva Convention quote... ok'ing the president for torture. A Justic Dept. lawyer said, "The notion that the president can permit torture is like saying he has the constitutional power to commit genocide."

- "Universality"- the belief that we hold ourselves to the same standards that we hold other countries. In fact, we should hold ourselves to a higher standard if we are serious. By the way, we don't. He gives 1000 examples.

- Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International call for all countries to carry out criminal investigations into US officials carrying out war crimes and if the investigations say so, to arrest any official in their territory and begin legal proceedings. Wow, that's big. I believe this was news here for about 15 minutes... and only if you listen to NPR... communists.

-Falluja- many examples to show it's a war crime

-In Iraq, decline of the secular state, rise of the religious state

-Women had nearly equal rights under the former Iraqi constitution (based on French law), but it's worse now.

- Halliburton is the largest single recipient of Iraqi funds

- Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty- non-nuke countries get nuclear power for non-military use and nuclear countries take good faith measures to eliminate nuclear arms. Again, we should hold ourselves to the same standard we hold others to.

- Universality again, the Japanese knew we intended to bomb them, so they were right to pre-emptively strike us, right? And bin Laden and the Taliban knew we were going to strike them so that would make their pre-emptive strike on 911 OK, right? Preposterous.

- On Vietnam and the domino theory- "... successful independent development and steps toward democracy out of US control, might well have a domino effect, inspiring others who face similar problems to pursue the same course, thus eroding the global system of (US) domination.

- tidbits- 80% of the population of Italy opposed the war, 2% of Spain was for it, 95% of Turkey was against it and their government rejected our request to use their land- illustrating Washington's hatred of democracy.

- We supported the overthrow of Chavez in 2002 (democratically elected, by the way) and continue to support anti-Chavez groups in Venezuela. Imagine if Iran supported anti-Bush groups in the US- especially after they tried to overthrow him. Really, imagine our response. By that standard, what should Venezuela's response be?

- He gives a laundry list of monstrous leaders we supported- many times so we could overthrow democratically elected leaders. He sites a Reaganite author, Carothers, who contends that where we had less influence in the 80's (South America) they are more democratic and where we had more influence (Central America) they are less democratic. Carothers' analysis of our democracy promotion- we see it as a good thing if and only if it's consistent with our strategic and economic interests. If we can guarantee leaders that are sumbissive to us, democracy is a good thing. You might remember when Bush and his buddies were against democratic elections in Iraq. They were going to wait until a leader "emerged."

- Bush and his buddies don't tolerate media that isn't under US control- a criticism of al Jazeera is that it emphasizes civilian casualties... also they show taped messages of Osama bin Laden- "Which are apparently considered newsworthy in the Muslim world, as they are among people everywhere concerned with the threat of terror."

- If we really want Iraq to be a democracy, maybe we should listen to what the Iraqis think

 -80% strongly opposed to coalition troops

 - 1% believe coalition troops are responsible for any improvement in security

 - 71% get clean safe water

 - 47% don't have enough electricity

 - 70% say sewage system rarely works

 - 80% favor near-term US withdrawal

 - (this book came out a year ago, so you know it's worse now)

- Interesting... 61% of Lebanese object to Syrian interference in their country, and 69% oppose US interference.

- Background on Hezbollah- formed in 1982 as a response to an Israeli invasion that killed 16,000 civilians

- Reagan called 1985 a peak year of terror. Single Americans were killed in 2 separate incidents. Obviously terrible. Also that year a bomb was set outside a Lebanese mosque timed to go off when people left. 80 people died and 200 were wounded, mostly women and children. The targeted cleric got away. The bomb was traced to the CIA and Saudi intelligence operating with British help.

- A good thing- we are the leader in free speech in the world. Good for us.

- In 2004 household incomes failed to rise for the 5th straight year, the poverty rate increased for the 4th straight year, median earnings dropped 2.3%, 7 million more became so poor they couldn't buy food... all while funding for food stamps was cut for 300,000 and school lunched were cut for 40,000.

- Bush won the popular vote 51%-48% in 2004. Powell called it a mandate for pursuing an aggressive foreign policy . A Gallup poll showed that 29% believed that, where 64% believed Bush should emphasize programs both parties support. Sounds like a mandate for bipartisanship. By the way- if Gore would have had 1 or 2 percent more of the popular vote in 2000 and still lost the election, would he have a mandate?

- 1984 is heralded by the right as a mandate for conservativism. 1% of the population polled voted for Reagan because he's "a real conservative."

- Do I need to mention that our political campaigns are run by the same people in the advertising industry whose job it is to deceive? And we promote democracy elsewhere?

- Adam Smith- Interests of merchants and manufacturers is to "deceive or even oppress the public."

- Many polls sited that show 2/3 support for some sort of public health care, even if taxes are raised.

- concerning "moral values"... there was a poll taken around the 2004 election that asked people to choose the most important moral crisis facing the country. The results are not really representative of the conservative agenda.

 - 33% said greed and materialism

 - 31% said poverty and economic justice

 - 16% said abortion

 - 12% said gay marriage

- a different study showed Iraq at 42%, abortion at 13% and gay marriage at 9%

- We're the only western country with capital punishment and we're alone in the world with 2,225 juveniles locked up without possibility of parole.

- In 2001 a half of all bankruptcy filings were caused by health care costs. Republicans made it harder to file for bankruptcy that year.

- Satisfaction with health care is lower than in Britain and Canada- disregarding the 45 million who lack it altogether.

- As the Terri Schiavo debacle was happening, Tom Delay and his buddies were cutting $ from medicare- the program that was keeping her alive. "They were providing more instruction about their actual moral values and concern for the sanctity of life."

- Hamas' refusal to accept Israel's "right to exist" mirrors Washington and Jerusalem's refusal to accept Palestine's "right to exist."

That's all I got for you. Like I said, the book backs up all of these items. Let me know if you read it.

Postscript- I'm reading this nearly 18 years later and I'm surprised how well it holds up. I disagree with equating Israel and Hamas in that way, but it's an interesting thought.