Insert a Trite Metaphor about a Corral

Posted on July 16, 2004 in Roundup

How mud goes round in the mind — what a swirl these monsters leave, the waters rocking, the weeds waving and green here, black there, striking to the sand, till by degrees the atoms reassemble, the deposit shifts itself, and again through the eyes one sees clear and still, and there comes to the lips some prayer for the departed, some obsequy for the souls of those one nods to, the people one never sees again.

— Virginia Woolf

Two items seemed to gobble up the most attention among bloggers: the rapidly-denied Bush plan to postpone the elections in the event of terrorist attack and the defeat of the Federal Marriage Amendment. Many of us look through the long tube of summer towards the November elections, wondering if the outrages of the last four years will come to an end or if the Bush Leaguers will make yet another outrageous attempt to keep power as I did on Bastille Day.

This roundup covers the period from 9 July to 15 July 2004.

Politics

Mileah was happy to see the FMA go down to defeat:

we know the real reasons they were trying to amend the Constitution which has only been done seventeen times in our history. The real reasons are to a) get the news cycle off of the war in Iraq, b) paint Kerry and Edwards into a corner, c) satisfy George W. Bush’s conservative base, and d) to keep people who love each other hidden in the dark through the force of federal law.
Jack disputed Mark Kleiman’s assertion that a second Bush term would not be a disaster because of constitutional protections:

We no longer live under the Constitution of 1787. The basic devices that the founding generation believed would keep the Executive out of the most serious mischief have largely been eroded. For example, Congress no longer puts up much of a fight when it comes to foreign affairs, and that is particularly so when the President and Congress are of the same party.
Jeanne d’Arc talked about another way which we are failing our service people:

By nature, most of us would rather die than kill another human being, which is a glorious thing to know about human nature, but not a terribly useful trait in battle. The Army had to do something about that little problem — and did. After WW II, they altered training to “play down the fact that shooting equals killing,” and create a soldier who could shoot without thinking, because thinking would leave time “to consider the humanity of the man he is about to shoot.”
Jeremy faced down a common argument:

One of the biggest arguments for those who claim that no matter how much you detest Kerry, you should vote for him, is that withholding your vote because of idealism is selfish. Not voting for Kerry (which they equate with keeping Bush in office), as comfortable as you are with that decision, will result in suffering for lots of *other* people, therefore if one wants to be morally proper, one will vote for Kerry.
Manda thought she understood the real reasons why the White House was thinking about cancelling elections in the event of a terrorist attack:

If I were wearing my tin-foil hat, I would think that a terrorist attack right before elections would, if anything, increase voter turnout, something that Republicans never like since higher voter turnout almost always helps the Democrats.
Rob caught the Clear Channel censoring anti-war ads.
Michael doesn’t like our present system:

The problem comes when a third party candidate does gain a large number of votes: the major party closer in belief to the third party loses many of its voters. Nader drew thousands of votes from Gore in 2000, and Perot helped defeat Bush in 1992 by splitting his base.
Evano reveals that Bush practiced torture at Yale. (For real!)
Elkit declared that she was on a no CARB diet.

Culture

Denise recounted a panel discussion about the competition between blogs and big media:

Susan Mernit asks whether anyone besides journalists cares about blogging vs. journalism. The panel all shake their heads no.
Marc honored the heroic and martyred Mexican journalist Francisco Ortiz Franco and contrasted him to American journalists such as

Beltway pundits from the right and left who have never done a day’s real reporting, airhead broadcast reporters playing an endless game of “gotcha” with equally vapid elected officials, newsroom phobias over “advocacy” reporting, a New York Times unwilling to name celeb-reporter Judith Miller in its “mini-culpa” over having become Ahmad Chalabi’s primary apple polisher, or L.A. Times chief John Carroll sending out harrumphing memos warning that wacko creationist groups have to be given equal weight with scientists and then publicly bloviating against Fox News for essentially doing the same thing.
Coup de Vent went down to London and observed how things were changing:

I was on a number 91 bus in the centre of town (London) when two young white women again draped with England flags were shouting racist comments at the mainly Asian and black travellers on the bus. They were not women to mess with. Anyone would have come out of an argument with them in a sorry state. One of them tried to make collusive contact with me as the only other white woman. When I declined the offer she started shouting about hating lesbians and gay men and threatened to throw me under a bus.
Stu wrote:

did you know that a hamburger packs the same heat of combustion as the heat of explosion of an equal mass of TNT? And did you know that in Britain, sausages are called bangers? Think of junk food places as training grounds for fat terrorists, or why do you think Richard Reid was so chubby? Maybe that’s why Ashcroft and the Department of Jackboot Security regard Michael Moore with such thinly veiled suspicion?
Brian marked the 35th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11:

And if you ever dare to suggest to me that “it was all a hoax”, I will personally seek you out and spit in your face.
Susan had something to say to readers:

if the point of view conflicts with the story being read because of the personal experience brought into the reading, there is new information being learned about a different point of view. Thus, as readers, we have just expanded our knowledge about human nature.
Nancy found the translation of a Tamil song her husband sang to her a little lacking:

‘chot khaana’ literally means to eat a wound, but the ‘real’ meaning is to be wounded. ‘Jigar’ literally means liver, but is generally interchangeable with the heart — in its emotional sense, not the organ. You can call someone your beloved liver, or your liver-friend — just substitute ‘heart’.
Randy gave us the full dose of Emerson.
Debora watches her friends climb in the Blogosphere.

Religion

Luminous found herself listening to a Catholic rant against same sex marriage:

I felt very alone on that July 4th morning, sitting there in the same pew in the same Catholic Church that I’ve known for so long. The deacon at the altar was speaking about the importance of solidarity and community, and with every word, I felt more and more isolated.
doug thought about how churches get off the track:

If the purpose of Sunday morning is the worship of God, I’d have to say, based on eleven years as the pastor of three different churches the answer is no. Sunday morning is not a time of corporate worship. The reason, as pretty much any candid pastor will tell you, has to do with worship committees (official and unofficial ones) and what’s popular in a given congregation.

Personal

maria was diagnosed with subclavian steal syndrome:

The neurologist I finally saw today didn’t think I was crazy, or even having a panic attack, when I described what happened to me during that episode I had a couple of weeks ago when I felt that it was lights-out, curtain-down time for me. He said that, in fact, that’s what it was – at least as far as the primitive brain was concerned, which deprived of blood, due to constriction in carotid artery leading to it, figured that its shift was over.
Jenny and Ellen are attending a wedding.
Roberta wrote:

I’ve never understood the context of others whining about loneliness and isolation. I’ve never understood it because I welcome time alone. But I guess I’ve never really experienced how isolation can feel, despite the fact that over the years many visitors have often said to me, “How can you bear to live here? How do you endure the isolation, the solitude?” I have never felt that this locale is isolated or buried in something called ‘solitude’, that is, not until this morning.
Irene found herself feeling stressed:

I know I’m stressed out when I find myself browsing in a magazine shop, even though I hate women’s magazines! I’m feeling like I just want to buy something, anything, to distract myself and make myself feel better. The part of me that’s still sane is like, “What are you doing here? No, you will NOT buy any, you nincompoop! You don’t even like them!!!”
Bittersweet is ready to yell at her coworkers:

I tell them and tell them and tell them not to change things in a certain part of the records system or the reassessment process will not work.

They tell me they won’t and then they go ahead and change things anyway. And then deny it.
Kimber had to take Ian to the Emergency Room:

It seems that while John thought Ian was in the bathroom playing in the sink, he was actually trying to get a bottle of window paint open. When he couldn’t get the plastic ring off, he went and got my sissors (mental note: find a new hiding spot for sissors) and tried to cut it off. He gouged his thumb pretty deep and started bleeding. He tried to get it to stop by washing it and putting bandaids on it but wasn’t having a lot of luck. So, rather than tell Daddy he had cut himself doing something he knew he wasn’t supposed to do, he snuck upstairs and hid in our bed.
Treesong had one of those conversations:

I recently had one of those conversations with a friend that would make any sane person want to jump off of a bridge. He was the one experiencing the moment of existential crisis, but somehow it felt like everything that he was saying had been on the tip of my tongue too. The only difference is that his heartache had given him the courage to say it!
Tracy is moving.
Billy wrote about a client who was on his way to Palmdale.
Caterina got in trouble because of her name.
Bill talked about his experience as a Texas gardener.
Robert had food on his mind:

I was hovering around the big pot of cantaloupe-orange nasturtiums that’s sitting on the deck railing (while the deck is under repair), very conveniently positioned for gathering the new pale-green nasturtium seeds to use in my salad; sliced like micro-onions, they add a crispy zing, sort of a cross between watercress-horseradish and something completely unknown.
Leigh is back from her trip through the Badlands.
Kris stumbled back into the blogging world.
Kate mused about the gigantic sunspot coming into view:

the last couple of days, there have been many M-class and a few X-class flares from this smaller and larger sunspot and there haven’t been many great images resulting. Not only that, most of these explosions were not originating with the big sunspot, but the little one on the other side. I wondered if the big one could be shooting through the core of the Sun — out the other side?
Kathryn reflected on right-brain/left-brain issues and organization.
chari gave someone the finger.
zhaf is looking for motivation.
Rachel reflected on life one year and one week after moving to Israel.
Mike spoke bluntly and truthfully about his life:

Perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea to have [my wife] recall the past because, when I wandered into the kitchen for some tea a while later, I found her slicing at her wrist with a large carving knife. The wounds were relatively superficial but, nonetheless, it’s always a hassle.

Poetry

Michael: Random Acts of Poetry
Seraph: Meditation at Lagunitas
greg: In Heat
Daniel: A Sense of Play

Photos

Coup de Vent: Fresh Veggies
John: Life in Lincoln
Andrea: Vertigo

Missing Bloggers

Recent Reading

The Anatomy of Insects & Spiders: Over 600 Exquisite Forms by Claire Beverley and David Ponsonby
Mesoamerican Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs of Mexico and Central America by Kay Almere Read and Jason J. Gonzalez
In the Palm of Your Hand:The Poet’s Portable Workshop by Steve Kowit
Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry by Billy Collins
Wheelock’s Latin, 6e and Workbook for Wheelock’s Latin, 3rd Edition, Revised

Buying books through these links does put a little money in my pocket. Thank you!

Petitions & Appeals

Web Links

The question is not

Does being have meaning

But does meaning have being?

— Kenneth Rexroth

Pax Nortona – A Blog by Joel Sax

From the Land of the Lost Blunderbuss

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