Pax Nortona – A Blog by Joel Sax
From the Land of the Lost Blunderbuss
Month: November 2006
O.J. Won’t Get to Do It
Posted on November 20, 2006 in Celebrity Publishing Scoundrels
Everyone is pulling out on OJ
Human Rights for a Gasser?
Posted on November 20, 2006 in Atrocity Justice Occupation of Iraq
Saddam should serve as a living exhibit of the fate of murderous dictators, not as a quickly buried corpse.
The Poisoned Muffins
Posted on November 20, 2006 in Strange
How nice of this woman to let Sandra Day O’Connor know that the muffin she sent her was deadly.
Barbara Joan March, a 61-year-old Connecticut resident, was sentenced last month to 15 years in prison for mailing letters “containing either a baked good or a piece of candy laced with rat poison” to the nine justices, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and another bureau official. March’s bizarre scheme is detailed in a government sentencing memorandum filed in U.S. District Court, a copy of which you’ll find below. According to an indictment, a note to O’Connor (which accompanied the spiked treat) stated, “We are going to kill you. This is poisoned.” March placed the names of various acquaintances (former classmates, an ex-roommate, a former co-worker, etc.) on the letters she mailed, in an apparent bid to mask her identity.
Leaf is Leaf, Skin is Skin
Posted on November 20, 2006 in Attitudes Satisfaction
For me, it is very important to keep the separation, to remember that leaf is leaf and skin is skin.
Headlights in Santiago Canyon
Posted on November 19, 2006 in Driving
I saw a pair of headlights about a quarter mile ahead of me. I checked my position: the double yellows were on my left as they should have been.
The Trail of a Brontosaurus
Posted on November 19, 2006 in Blogging
Some people don’t realize that the trails they leave when harassing you on the web make it as easy to track them as a brontosaurus. A mostly quiet battle here, my friends, but as some of you know from my email, one that is starting to fire my resolve. Their threats and their lies are rumbling in the muck. I’ve got a boat.
Thanks to the people from across the continents who have lent me their eyes, heard my grief in however muted form.
Holding Back
Posted on November 17, 2006 in Disappointment Mania
Lately I’ve been holding back regarding my feelings on this blog, largely due to accusations that I was becoming obsessed with my illness and situations relating to it. This is funny because I spend most of my days doing crossword puzzles, going to the gym, reading, and not writing or talking to much of anyone except the guys I meet in the gym. And our talk is about the two Ws: workouts and the weather.
I’ve realized, suddenly, that I am dealing with people in mania. Such folks are very good at appearing sane. Such folks are very good at running you down in histrionic bursts. Such folks panic when you appear to be on to them. No, I am sorry. No details. That would be to name names and violate confidences.
I must always be checking my own sanity in this. Currently, I would call it slightly depressed from the waves of hostile energy coming my way from just one source. I have email to show the outrageous overreaction of this individual. I’ve forwarded it to those who should know. And yet, despite the strength of the evidence, I still feel beaten down by the person. Is this obsessing or is this merely acknowledging what I feel at this moment? Only a few minutes ago, I was doing crosswords. Then I got up, went to the computer, put up the tips about bipolars over the holidays, and felt the feelings that I have now.
I’m not entirely in control of the disease. No one is, though some would love to think so. It has beaten me down many times and right now, in this moment, it is pulling at me. So I will finish this article and wash the clothes that I need for the gym. I should have done that an hour ago.
It would not surprise me if the person in question freaks at the sight of this and uses it to fire up an attack later. Ce la vie.
Bipolar for the Holidays
Posted on November 17, 2006 in Bipolar Disorder
Here’s an abbreviated version of recommendations from WebMd concerning how to help your bipolar relative get through the holidays without being excessively triggered. (I wish I’d had this two weeks ago.)
- Be direct
- Think about what’s worked in the past and what hasn’t
- Offer to help
- Pare down the guest list
- Change the venue
- Think about limiting alcohol
- Offer a place to go during a party
- Don’t forget about your own needs
Friday Anteater Blogging – Dallas Newborn
Posted on November 17, 2006 in Xenartha
The Dallas Zoo is greeting the arrival of a newborn baby anteater. You can check out the video of the pup here. And if you have a good name for it, you can go here.
I suggested Spout.
Who needs cat or squid blogging when there are anteaters combining the best qualities of both?
Campus Police Out of Control
Posted on November 16, 2006 in Accountability Violence
A video of UCLA police tazering a man for not having his identification card at the UCLA library.
Cops and their toys.
Who Runs Foreign Policy?
Posted on November 16, 2006 in Foreign Relations Reading
Implicit in such media coverage is the idea that the real legitimacy for U.S. war policymaking rests with the president, not the Congress. When I ponder that assumption, I think about 42-year-old footage of the CBS program Face the Nation.
The show’s host on that 1964 telecast was the widely esteemed journalist Peter Lisagor, who told his guest: “Senator, the Constitution gives to the president of the United States the sole responsibility for the conduct of foreign policy.”
“Couldn’t be more wrong,” Sen. Wayne Morse broke in with his sandpapery voice. “You couldn’t make a more unsound legal statement than the one you have just made. This is the promulgation of an old fallacy that foreign policy belongs to the president of the United States. That’s nonsense.”
Lisagor was almost taunting as he asked, “To whom does it belong then, Senator?”
Morse did not miss a beat. “It belongs to the American people,” he shot back — and “I am pleading that the American people be given the facts about foreign policy.”
The journalist persisted: “You know, Senator, that the American people cannot formulate and execute foreign policy.”
Morse’s response was indignant: “Why do you say that? … I have complete faith in the ability of the American people to follow the facts if you’ll give them. And my charge against my government is, we’re not giving the American people the facts.”
Morse, the senior senator from Oregon, was passionate about the U.S. Constitution as well as international law. And, while rejecting the widely held notion that foreign policy belongs to the president, he spoke in unflinching terms about the Vietnam War. At a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Feb. 27, 1968, Morse said that he did not “intend to put the blood of this war on my hands.”
And, prophetically, Morse added: “We’re going to become guilty, in my judgment, of being the greatest threat to the peace of the world. It’s an ugly reality, and we Americans don’t like to face up to it.”
