Pax Nortona – A Blog by Joel Sax
From the Land of the Lost Blunderbuss
Insert a Trite Metaphor for A Corral
Posted on April 11, 2005 in Roundup
This roundup covers the period from 3 April to 9 April 2005.
I admit it: I’ve been slow. Desparately slow. I’ve been loitering in the slurry of my own thoughts and reading very little outside of a couple of dog-eared books. It’s quaggy ground that I move over as I reflect on who I am. What I have written bores me and it would bore you, too, if I were to share it. You can’t write without passion for the subject. And I think I’ve seen this all over the blog world lately. People tra-la about Spring and their grandchildren, but you get this sense that they are tired, desparate for movement in their lives. “All the lonely bloggers, where do they all come from?”
Does Eleanor Rigby have her own web site?
Politics
- Mark wondered just how committed American conservatives were to helping Mexico become more democratic:
- Mark also catches American conservatives plotting impeachment for those judges who did not vote the DeLay Way on the Schiavo case.
- Billy exploded about the attempts to bully the Judiciary:
- Randy excoriated The NY Times for sloppy journalism.
- Max beheld the importance of Social Security
- Francis fumed about the immorality of the Bush Administration.
I’m curious to hear what American conservatives have to say about a situation where the democratic choice of the Mexican people wouldn’t be to their liking. I can already guess what the right-wing radicals running the govenment are going to say, and do: pabulum, and nothing.
Impeachment of judges for failing to do as Congress wishes is a direct threat to overthrow the system of government, which was designed to have three co-equal branches. So much for the independent judiciary, the elected-for-life judges, who need not fear reprisals by those in power because of the lifetime appointments they receive.
Bush’s goonish threats to Social Security and Medicare provide the outlines of a liberal counter-offensive. Let the fate of the public sector stand or fall on its most popular programs. They can be the locomotive to restore funding to a wider array of useful public initiatives. The tax cuts threaten all programs, notably Social Security and Medicare. Defend Social Security and Medicare, and you defend all programs.
Culture
- Jeremy might have something here:
- alley rat performed a public service:
- Robert and Teresa both remarked on the Little Boy exhibit in Japan.
- Brian deplores what happened to Starbuck’s maple oat scone when economists reworked the recipe.
- Luminous began to celebrate National Poetry Month.
The Archons realized that if society on the whole didn’t condone actual slavery anymore, they’d have to disguise slavery in some other form that could be accepted, so they created the Myth of Efficiency, and now nobody knows they’re slaves anymore
In an attempt to get an idea about sexual priorities, I performed a scientific study in which I Googled “bigger penis”, and then I Googled “better cunnilingus”. To my total lack of surprise, the first search produced nearly a million hits and a long list of ads on the right; the second search produced125,000 hits, many of which appear to be related in some way to a Nina Hartley instructional video (where would we be without Nina?).
Religion
- Kris was shocked by the late pontiff’s endorsement of Opus Dei:
What in the world was this pope thinking in giving legitimacy to an organization founded by a man who praised Hitler?
Personal
- Natalie stood up for enthusiasm:
- Hamburger Lad’s daughter posed a question for him:
- chari declares
- Susan was selected to speak about blogging on a student panel.
- Stu boasted 500 visitors per day. Congratulations, Stu.
- Joe G. granted an exclusive interview to his domestic partner in which he stated he would take a vacation from his usual examinations of “Quakerism, religion, and spirituality.”
- John sensed that it was time for change:
- shelli does not recommend the “bad tooth diet”.
Cynics and realists generally do not trust enthusiasts. They suspect them of being obsessed, brainwashed or plain silly. When I am being cynical, I’m suspicious too. But when I am enthusiastic I am myself. Tell me your enthusiasms and I’ll tell you who you are said the oracle; tell me your troubles and we’ll be here for the next 50 minutes for the next ten years said the shrink.
As I was leaving for work yesterday–planting a kiss or two upon each member of the family–I don’t consider the frogs part of the family–Bunnah asked the question, “Where do kisses go?
My new matra [said zen-like]: Be the Drag Queen. Feel the Drag Queen. [oom]
I decided the time had come to wrap up the ragged edges of my poetry writing, moving all the ‘finished’ but unpolished poems into my work-in-progress folder. There’s more than enough material there for another book, when the poetry particles flow once more. As they will.
Visual Art
- etherealfire: Naked Garden
Poetry and Fine Prose
- maria: Waterside
- michael: Hermit
- Nancy: The Dark
Among the throng of college rowers, I felt like a pasty troll on furlough from a shady world in which one’s nose is close to the ground by default. These young women and men appeared extraterrestrials, guests from another, light-filled world, given how tall and broad-shouldered they were, not to mention the sparks of light that seemed to fall from their manes and the heels of their feet as they walked around the parking lot between the boats.
