Bush the Sausage Maker*
Posted on July 13, 2008 in Accountability
Dubya says that history may yet treat his administration kindly, but a poll of historians thinks his is the worst presidency ever.
The greatest president, I dare say, is the one who can fix this mess.
Doggy
Posted on July 2, 2008 in Cats Dogs
We now have a [[Boston Terrier]], a sad-eyed gentleman with a [[brindle]] coat who very quickly learned that the cats outranked him. Fiona showed him by slapping him on the nose when he tried to lick her which cat and dog owners know to heinous. Later he snuffed up one of her cat treats which led to yet another disciplining. Boadicea took her time in approaching him, but now seeks to go nose to nose which Drake does not permit: he turns away and shakes when she stretches toward him. Overall, he’s a nice guy but more Lynn’s pet than mine. The cats have sovereignty over my lap.
Genius and Mediocrity
Posted on July 1, 2008 in Originality & Creativity
Romantics often tell the story of creators who went against their parents’ wishes and undertook the life of an artist. Greatness, we are told, often comes from this sort of adversity. What the art pundits do not speak about is the origin of mediocrity. It lies in enduring the attentions of superficially supportive parents who ridicule. This may be impossible to overcome.
Watch the Skies
Posted on June 30, 2008 in History
One hundred years ago today occurred a mystery. The sky over [[Tunguska_event|Tunguska, Siberia]] seemed to split and knocked over thousands of trees. Scientists have their theories (the best ones involve either an asteroid or a comet) but the case file remains open.
Democrats Have a Right to Be Proud
Posted on June 4, 2008 in Campaign 2008
Hillary Clinton is in her exit strategy now that Obama has cinched the nomination. I’m proud of the fact that my party, the Democrats, have fielded as their frontrunners an African American and a woman. In response, the Republicans have offered us another geriatric white man who sold his soul to Bush just so he could have the nomination. For the record, I supported the African American from the beginning. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at his success. Perhaps America isn’t the racist and sexist country that I dreaded it was.
It’s OK with me if Hillary does not release her delegates until they have voted at the convention. Her supporters have worked very hard and deserve to see the fruits of their efforts be recorded as history. I just ask that they support Obama as Lynn and I have been ready to support Hillary as the nominee. We have a lot of damage to undo. Hillary could help by becoming the Secretary of Education. That “no-child-left-behind-just ruined” policy ranks as one of the Bush Administration’s principle disasters. Clinton is the best person to fix that. I don’t want her wasted as Vice President.
[tags]Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Democrats, Democratic Party, racism, sexism, election, primaries[/tags]
Flaxen Mustard Groves
Posted on May 30, 2008 in Biomes Weather
The hills have already changed to their autumnal yellows and browns even though it is still spring. Only a few green protestors among the wildflowers press through the canopies of the fields. Last week, a strange sight: a late season rain falling on flaxen mustard groves, dead for the year. No hope of resurrection for the local plant life so much if not all was wasted.
Antidepressants Could Have Given Him the Same Results….
Posted on May 6, 2008 in Strange
Bill of Human Castration Information (http://www.eunuchinfo.com) writes:
Today I’m a calmer, more rational person. I’m also fatter, and probably less healthy. All in all, I’m happier for what I’ve been through. I think I’ve become a better person than I was before all this.
Sounds like the side effects of Prozac, to name just one psychopharmaceutical.
[tags]strange, odd, eunuch, castration, depression, antidepressants, eunuchs[/tags]
Agnostic Creed
Posted on March 9, 2008 in Agnosticism
Brian Kane has posted P.Z. Myer’s nicely worded Atheist Creed.
Still, same old problem that troubles all thinking along the theist/atheist rift: certainty.
My agnostic creed isn’t a creed at all, but just a simple statement of fact:
I don’t have the answers to ultimate questions and I can live without them.
[tags]Agnosticism, atheism, religion, spirituality[/tags]
Dream
Posted on March 8, 2008 in Dreams
By chance after an especially hard “support group” meeting, I came home and picked up the blue loose-leaf binder that contains the poetry that I wrote while I was manic and during the first months of my stability. It wasn’t as bad as I had dreamed it, though I can’t see how I could create the like now.
Lately, both as I wake and as I sleep, I remember a dream of driving south on the Coast Highway, looking to my right and seeing a large, rocky island of cormorants, drenched by the ocean. I want to get to that island and I do my best to will myself there, but every time I start to glide there, I am brought down, sometimes at the base of [[TARDIS|a blue police box]]. I take this as an emblem of my thwartedness to write fine things anymore. The island is beyond my abilities.
The White Blossoms
Posted on March 4, 2008 in Daily Life Neighborhood Prose Arcana
Tonight, beneath the white blossoms of a purple plum tree and an electric lamp which hummed away the silence, I stood. Not a very interesting story to tell, but the moment was thick with the immediate presence of the night and the white corners of the condos.
Coat Weather
Posted on March 3, 2008 in Neighborhood Santiago Fire
Rabbits have begun to appear in the coyote brush that fringes Portola Hills. I saw three on a short walk around Concourse Park in the fog yesterday. In the spring, they will breed more, and then the offspring will discover that the burnt-out district is quite free of predators. So this year will be a good year for rabbits, at least until the bobcats, the coyotes, and the hawks find places to hide or to perch.
It was foggy until this morning. The hills are bright green where the grass is coming back, a pale green where they were sprayed with a hydroseeding compound, and brown in the places where neither Nature nor Humankind made provision. People still come to gawk: on my Saturday afternoon walk in the park I saw a cluster of tourists led by a man who was pointing. The rabbits paid them no heed. I just hurried home, holding my coat close.
High winds made it coat weather even with the sun.
