Flowers In Hitler's Grave, Plus Factoids

Huffington Post- George W. Bush Made This Portrait Of His Dad And Himself

Nice to see the guy working out his demons.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/10/george-bush-painting_n_6134250.html

November 10, 2014

...

It's nice to see that the comedy team of Crapo and Boozman will be returning to the Senate.

November 10, 2022

...

I was just watching The Outsiders with my kids. It starts off with Ponyboy asking Dallas what he feels like doing, and Dallas says, "Nothing legal." Zuzu asked if that meant breaking the law and I said yeah. Gretel said, "Oh you mean like if you put maggots in somebody's orange juice? That's illegal almost everywhere. It's in Weird But True." I guess I'll take her word for it.

November 10, 2021

Postscript- That's still her go-to factoid!

...

Laurence Tribe counts Trump at 0-12 on his election fraud lawsuits. Don't you think they would start with their best arguments first? And they're trying to overturn tens of thousands of votes. It's the Throwing-Spaghetti-at-the-Wall Theory of Democracy.

November 10, 2020

...

Bob Dylan- It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

While preachers preach of evil fates

Teachers teach that knowledge waits

Can lead to hundred-dollar plates

Goodness hides behind its gates

But even the president of the United States

Sometimes must have to stand naked

November 10, 2020

...

Gretel just told me that if somebody doesn't like somebody else, and that person dies, it would be nice to put flowers at their grave. 

Me- That would be very nice.

Gretel- But you didn't do that.

Me- I don't know any bad people who died.

Gretel- Hitler.

I took a minute to laugh and gather my thoughts.

Me- Are you suggesting that I am not a good person because I never put FLOWERS on HITLER'S grave???

She tried to deflect, calling me a baby and some other nonsense. Nevertheless, I persisted.

Me- Do you think we should buy plane tickets, travel to Germany, spend our money to buy flowers, and visit HITLER'S grave, the CHANCELLOR OF THE THIRD REICH, for the soul purpose of decorating his grave with those flowers???

Gretel- No. 

Me- Good.

Gretel- Bugs ate him.

Me- Yep. 

Gretel- He's poop and pee now.

Me- Bug poop and pee?

Gretel nodded.

November 10, 2018

...

I've been listening to the audiobook Bob Woodward's Fear. Saw him on Bill Maher last night and he ruined the ending. He said the two years ago he asked Trump, "What is real power?" And Trump said, "Real power is, I don't even want to use the word, fear." 

That's the beginning and end of Trump's story right? Number one, he wants to be the fearful ruler. Number two, any power over him (i.e. the law, therefore Congress and law enforcement) causes him fear. 

Like Obama or hate Obama, he did try to appeal to the better angels of our nature, to steal a phrase from Lincoln. Trump appears to see the world as a Hobbesian nightmare where might beats right, everyone is out for themselves, authority trumps wisdom, get what you can take, and there is constant fear of violent death. An unhealthy mind.

November 10, 2018

...

The thing that gives our lives meaning, our consciousness, seems to have no clear evolutionary necessity. Pleasure and pain could be reflexes. It's the most important thing in the world, and so far science seems to have no understanding of it. - paraphrasing Robert Wright, from Sam Harris's podcast

November 10, 2017

...

I've been at my job nearly 10 years and only got three gashes in my head. This latest one barely even qualifies as a gash, so that's pretty good, right?

November 10, 2017

...

There's a lot of talk about how Trump will discriminate against minorities, but I don't see the problem. People who voted for Trump ARE the minority.

November 10, 2016

...

Gretel saw a picture of Trump tonight and very politely told him to "stop yelling", over and over. It really captured her imagination. She kept asking earnestly, "What's wrong with him? What's wrong with him?" 

I said, "Gretel I'll tell you the truth. I don't know what's wrong with him."

November 10, 2016

...

I admit it, I've finally seen the light. It doesn't matter that Trump is racist, sexist, xenophobic, vindictive, etc. It really doesn't. What matters is that he's an existential threat.

November 10, 2016

...

Emma wrote a filthy note in the memo section of a check the other day. This got me thinking, what's the funniest thing you could write there? I'm going with, "This is a bank robbery!"

November 10, 2015

...

I just got my highest score ever for a scrabble word- 203 for FOOTPACE across two triple words with the P on a double letter. (Please pardon my narcissism... it'll pass.)

November 10, 2012

...

Is it just me or does it seem quaint that people still resign over affairs? Feels like we're living back in the times before there was a mass-shooting every month.

November 10, 2012

...

Martin Luther joined us on this day in 1483.

"Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree."

...

On this day in 1823, John Adams signed off a letter to Thomas Jefferson with, "In the 89th year of his age still too fat to last much longer, John Adams."

...

Winston Churchill was born on this day in 1871. It's hard to imagine him as a baby.

"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."

...

Russell Johnson, who played “The Professor” in the U.S. television series “Gilligan’s Island,” flew 44 combat missions as a bombardier during World War II. He was born on this day in 1924.

...

Star of Shazam, Sinbad, was born on this day in 1953. I remember commercials for that movie crystal clear.

...

Neil Gaiman was born on this day in 1960.

"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."

...

Tracy Morgan was born on this day in 1968. What is it with him? He's the most hilarious guy, but does he even say funny things?

...

Kiernan Shipka joined us on this day in 1999. A shocking scene.

...

Arthur Rimbaud joined us on this day in 1891.

"I believe I am in Hell, therefore I am."

...

Ken Kesey left us one this day in 2001. 

"You can't really be strong until you can see a funny side to things."

...

Norman Mailer left us 6 years to the day later.

"I don't think life is absurd. I think we are all here for a huge purpose. I think we shrink from the immensity of the purpose we are here for."

...

Huffington Post- Funniest Yahoo Answers Of All Time

-"How is babby formed?????"

-"Why are the holes in cats fur always in the right places for the eyes?"

-"My British friends: is meeting Queen Elizabeth the equivalent of lining up to see Santa at the mall?

-"I got an emperor penguin and he has a fever... what do I do?"

-"Why won't Abe Vigoda return my phone calls?"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/10/funniest-yahoo-answers-of_n_352018.html

November 10, 2009

...

New York Magazine- Fantasyland

Excellent analysis of the election miscalculations by Frank Rich. "(The Republican Party is) an isolated and gated community impervious to any intrusions of reality from the “real America” it solipsistically claims to represent."

http://nymag.com/news/frank-rich/gop-denial-2012-11/

November 10, 2012

...

Ebaum's World- 28 Things You've Probably Never Thought About

Great list! I often think about a lot of these things. Not this though- we judge ourselves by our intentions and others but their behavior. And how about the fact that if you properly shuffle a deck of cards, that order has never been seen before?

More to follow.

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/84349737/

November 10, 2014

...

New York Post- The one scenario that could still get Hillary into the White House

So here we are, 20 faithless electors away from Clinton becoming president. Don't let yourself think about that too long. What are the odds? OK, zero. But it's possible. More possible- 20 write in Pence, taking Trump under 270, and then I believe the house votes on the top three with the most electoral votes.

I don't say this lightly, there have been distinct fascist undertones coming from Trump at every turn. I'll bet I agree more with Trump on policy than I do with Pence, but I'd welcome Pence over Trump. We could be taking a turn we can't return from. I think Pence is misguided and wrong in the foundation of his beliefs but i suspect he's a good person.

This is self-evidently better than a wild-card, thin-skinned, possible psychopath, in charge of the most powerful military the world has ever known. Imagine how many times the word "revenge" has crossed his mind since he won. Let's make it happen.

http://nyp.st/2fnb1bq

Nov 10, 2016, 4:39 PM

Postscript- No doubt they should have picked Trump. People don't elect the president, they elect electors to elect the president on their behalf. And if the people pick a psycho...

...

Change.org- Electoral College: Make Hillary Clinton President

I've said there's a zero percent chance of this happening. I also recently believed there was zero percent chance of Trump becoming president. So I'm abandoning my instincts in this new topsy-turvy world where zero percent equals 100 and I'm passing this on. How about this argument:

"So why not use this most undemocratic of our institutions to ensure a democratic result?"

https://www.change.org/p/electoral-college-electors-electoral-college-make-hillary-clinton-president-on-december-19

November 10, 2016

...

Washington Post- Postal worker recanted allegations of ballot tampering, officials say

Think there is any evidence to sway conspiracy theorists from their conspiracy theory?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/postal-worker-fabricated-ballot-pennsylvania/2020/11/10/99269a7c-2364-11eb-8599-406466ad1b8e_story.html

November 10, 2020

...

New York Times- Covid-19 Live Updates: U.S. Hospitalizations Top 61,000, a Record

Nice work everyone. Keep breathing in each other's faces.

https://nyti.ms/32xCfq4

November 10, 2020

...

Kurt Vonnegut, Slapstick- "I cannot distinguish between the love I have for people and the love I have for dogs."

...

Martin Luther again- "If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write."

...

Mailer again- "The mark of mediocrity is to look for precedent."

...

Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments- "Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent."

...

Steven Wright- "A fool and his money are soon partying."

...

Oscar Wilde- A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction.

...

Sagan- "The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff."

...

Ken Kesey, again- "The answer is never the answer. What's really interesting is the mystery. If you seek the mystery instead of the answer, you'll always be seeking. I've never seen anybody really find the answer. They think they have, so they stop thinking. But the job is to seek mystery, evoke mystery, plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom. The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer."

...

Campbell- "All the gods, all the heavens, all the hells, are within you."

Addendum 

Neil Gaiman again, from American Gods:

I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not.

I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen - I believe that people are perfectable, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkled lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women.

I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state.

I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste.

I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like martians in War of the Worlds.

I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman.

I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumble bee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself.

I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck.

I believe that anyone who says sex is overrated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too.

I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system.

I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.