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Insert a Trite Metaphor About A Corral

Posted on July 23, 2004 in Roundup

…no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavors to establish.

  — David Hume

square073.gif As if we all needed a breather, most bloggers skipped politics this week to focus on the silly and the trivial — the silly and the trivial which does no damage to the world as compared with silly statements made to the effect that we went into Iraq because Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and that Bush is an honest man.

This roundup covers the period from 19 July to 22 July 2004.

Politics

  • Jack reminded us of the supremacy of law over the actions of the president, even in time of war:

    We do not, in short, have a situation in which Congress has no power to legislate on the matter of captured soldiers, or on the behavior of the land and naval forces towards them. And because torture is an offense against the law of nations (as recognized by several international agreements to which the United States is a signatory), it also has power to define and punish torture.

  • Jeanne took Ahnold to task for his “girlie man” remarks and had a few things to say to the Democrats who wimped out:

    the problem is that homophobic, misogynist crap can’t pass without comment any more than racist remarks can, without consequences. Oppressed people must stand up and defend themselves every time they’re knocked down. A better response to Arnold would be calling him on both sides of his garbage: We expect our leaders to be grownups, not bullying little boys, or children who blame everybody else for their own failures.

  • Paperweight found a few men who could teach the Gubenator a thing or two about real as opposed to superficial manhood:

    In my quick tour of the biographies of the male Democratic California legislators, I also found a farmer, a former Jesuit priest who worked with the poor, a man who spent time working with the International Red Cross to help refugees, and a couple parole officers.

  • Rob was both banned and censored for criticizing Bush.
  • Aurora was astounded at the reasons people gave for admiring Bush:

    There must be something in the food or water that is rendering a good number of Amerikan citizens utterly and inescapably stupid. Were people always this stupid, or am I only noticing now because I am old enough to care?

  • Mileah saluted gay soldiers who “are good enough to die for your war but are second class citizens in your America”.

  • Evano thinks that Thomas Friedman should stay on vacation indefinitely.
  • LQ laughed about Bush’s desire to be known as a “peace president”: “It’s a little too late for that, Mr. President.” Sure is.
  • Randy asked if Edwards is the friend of trial lawyers, does that make the RNC the friend of toxic polluters, drunk drivers, and others who are sued for cause?
  • Allison thinks she sees the beginning of the end for Cheney.
  • Kris thinks that the case for Bush’s desertion during Vietnam is solid.
  • Robert commented on the efforts of the Bush Administration to obtain the extradition of Korean War defector US Army Sgt. Charles Robert Jenkins. Why all the fuss “when nothing at all had been done about the abductees themselves for decades”?

Culture

  • Seraph had several questions about critics of poetry, including “How good can a critic of poetry be if he/she can’t write good poetry?”
  • Denise ridiculed a particular culture industry:

    We’ve been marinating in the Internet for more than a decade, and the music industry still doesn’t know what its business model is. And not for lack of suggestion, either.

  • Jody asked:

    Someone explain to me where this idea came from that no one prior to their 18th birthday shouldn’t have any sexual feelings, at all, ever, for any reason, and most definitely never express them, in any manner, shape or form, until such time as they marry someone of the opposite gender some ten to twenty years after the onset of puberty?

  • Liz wasn’t impressed with the female to male speaker ratio at BlogOn. (How come nobody asks about the nontechie to techie ratio at these events?)
  • Lauren thought about race:

    When I think about race now I know that sometimes being in the minority sucks, and that it is sometimes very empowering. I cede that many of our policies regarding race, while still needed, do provide cannon fodder to the vocal groups who believe that race-based initiatives are condescending (or so they say). And finally, I think that it isn’t up to me to define the nature of another person’s existence.

  • Elkit noted a certain assumption of Americans:

    it never ceases to be funny to me how many people think that I must be familiar with The Sound of Music, since I’m German.

  • Medley would love to hang her clothes out on the line, but her homeowners association won’t allow clothelines.
  • Jeremy got caught up in the excitement about a mystery animal roaming about Maryland.

  • Deb revealed a twisted new speculation: buying the life insurance policies of the terminally ill.
  • Stu caught people getting it wrong regarding an alleged “photo of Saturn taken by the Cassini spacecraft”.
  • Andrew thinks the imprisonment of Martha Stewart “means something”.

  • Michael wondered just how useful a new website designed to help the homeless will be:

    Yes, all you homeless people with laptops and modems, now you have your own website . . .

Religion

  • doug thought back to issues that have haunted him since his youth:

    What is a human soul? Why do we have one? Why is it in need of salvation? Is salvation itself something more than a divine rescue operation? And how does spirit fit in with all of this? The christian subculture, at its popular Sunday best, provided little in the way of answers.

Personal

  • Roberta wrote about her fear of thunderstorms:

    As the thunder rumbled and crashed overhead, I asked, “What makes thunder?”


    The minister responded. “That is God working with his lumber. He is building more houses for newcomers.”


    Not exactly a comforting thought in my twisted mind. I remember thinking as I listened to the rumble of lumber, one board against another, “I hope that one of those new homes that are so rapidly being constructed, is not for me. I much prefer living here.”

  • Maria described what she called a “brain photo shoot”:

    It started like all photo shoots, with the selection of the appropriate wardrobe. The MRI technician presented me with faded blue baggy pants, a standard issue paisley hospital gown (with the prerequisite opening in the back), and, for the accessory that no gal should be without – especially as she slithers through a tube that serves as the dancing floor for a rave for some very energetic magnets – a pair of persimmon-colored earplugs.

  • Bill thinks that Stephen Hawking got his inspiration for black holes from owning a beagle:

    the beagle is substantially similar to a black hole….If you leave … say … chicken parmesan in the styrofoam container from Olive Garden on the kitchen counter and turn your back to fill the beagle’s dish with water, the beagle grabs the container off the counter and eats the leftovers.

  • Tracy is moved in:

    I decided against putting anything in storage. Instead, I tossed out whatever couldn’t be placed. I am now, officially, a minimalist. I’m not sure exactly what that is, but it sounds kinda kicky. And it sounds pompous as fuck, which appeals to me at this time in my life.

  • Brian said it is official: four weeks after his surgery, he’s bored out of his skull. (In times like this, Brian, real men write poetry.)
  • M. Luminous found herself worrying about her family’s legacy of Alzheimer’s Disease.
  • Kathryn‘s husband bought a painting he thought more valuable than she did:

    I suppose I should admit that my engagement ring was purchased with the proceeds of the sale of a painting I would not allow out of the back of the closet.

  • Bittersweet said something that I am sure makes sense to programmers and software engineers (Oh Lynnikin….):

    Today was one of those days where whatever I touched went magically well. I suddenly worked out how to build a simple SQL query in access, after a flash of brilliance on the way home last night, I wrote the entire progression rules for the part time Bachelor programmes this morning and this afternoon I worked out how to change the standard letter K has been working on for the past couple of weeks

  • Victoria mourned the loss of her karate instructor:

    Paul DeLeo, a 60 year old man I have taken karate with two or more times a week for the past four years died suddenly during karate class on Monday night. Because I was just back from vacation and exhausted I had opted out of going. My karate buddy here at work, Mike, taught the class. He said they had just finished warm ups and were on the floor stretching when Paul began to make funny noises. And from there it turned into a nightmare.

  • Mike shook his head at life:

    It began last weekend with a middle-aged, mildly psychotic woman walking five miles to the seedy side of Cape Town, spending an afternoon in a shebeen (informal tavern) frequented by West African refugees and drug dealers, being saved from being hit on before being served dinner in a run-down tenement by three brothers (an artist, the artist’s apprentice and the guy that did the cooking) and, sans money, walking back home at midnight through Cape Town’s lawless streets, where armed hijackers lie in wait in every driveway.

  • Ellen didn’t get much sleep on her flight back to Bosnia.
  • Marylou began a series about growing up on Whidbey Island.
  • Maya is back! And she blames her absence on feeling good:

    actually it’s not a bad thing, contentment. it should be great to write about it too and the sooner i do it, the better for me. it may not stay around here long enough for me to remember how it feels …

  • chari ooopsed:

    When I jumped up, I stomped on The Princess’ foot. She kicked out, bopped a TV table that had a red, raspberry candle in a small votive jar on it. Of course, the votive jar up-ended and landed in a quickly-spreading pool of blood-red wax. Right on our fawn-colored carpet. Fuck me.

  • Treesong finds his life filled with paradoxes.
  • Jill got the job even though she said “shit”!
  • Bill has been busy dealing with his mother’s illness.
  • Caterina enjoyed a little time visiting Silly Con Valley even if it wasn’t “a city where the first topic of conversation was not real estate”.

  • Leigh described her week as taking her “over the moon”.
  • Kate is choking on smoke from fires.
  • Jenny shared another “Day in the Life”.
  • Grey Bird won $300 at a casino.

  • Irene is on vacation in Malacca and she’s not going to blog about it!

Photos

Poetry

Missing Bloggers

Recent Reading

Petitions & Appeals

Web Links

I have managed to put everything into place by being silent about it.


  –Ludwig Wittgenstein

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