eladsinned

I think I am allowed to conclude, as a fact established by modern history, that everyone, or nearly everyone, in a given set of circumstances, does what he is told to do; and, pardon me, but there’s not much chance that you’re the exception, any more than I was. If you were born in aContinue reading

D’uhccuse…!

He’s just saying there’s nothing wrong with that. Well, they look like a white crowd to me. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but it is pretty monochromatic up here. No surprise in terms of the ethnic nature of the people showing up. Nothing wrong with that. But it is a fact. I thinkContinue reading “D’uhccuse…!”

The More Things Change…

From a former jar-head friend now working in Afghanistan as a contractor: About the only thing you really need to stockpile is patience because it’s a military/government project, where the sad but common saying is “f–k up, move up”. You’d be astounded at the incompetence and how deep and swift it can flow through hereContinue reading “The More Things Change…”

cowardice

This is a little embarrassing. I thought I might write my way out of here. Setting messages in virtual bottles adrift in the electronic ether. Someone would find one, send out a search party. I would finally join society, whatever that meant. I had an idea of what it was, gleaned from a lifetime ofContinue reading “cowardice”

The Sacred and the Vulgar

Armistice Day has become Veterans’ Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans’ day is not. So I will throw Veterans’ Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don’t want to throw away any sacred things. –Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions

Lone Wolf Tickets

A question. Has anyone yet attempted to leverage yesterday’s tragedy at Fort Hood into a defense of the Patriot Act’s “lone wolf” provision? Maybe the question is not if, but when. I’m thinking of starting a pool.Of course it may not be necessary. Yesterday* the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to extend three provisions: roving wiretaps;Continue reading “Lone Wolf Tickets”

Blockhead, Insomniac Olympics Sparks, I Wish I Looked a Little Better (1983)

Narrative Blowback

Has the media’s recoiling fascination with the Angry White Mobs of health care reform’s roadshow crippled that effort and stalled the Obama administration? Marshaling evidence to that effect, liberal codger E.J.Dionne, for one, draws the only relevant conclusion: there is no such thing as a “liberal media bias.” In giving the “tea-baggers” all that sneeringContinue reading “Narrative Blowback”

Oblivironia

That’s my suggested word for oblivious to irony. An example. Republican Congressman Eric Cantor, in Israel as part of a 56-member Congressional contingent summoned by AIPAC, repeating a theme developed there to criticize US foreign policy: “I’m very troubled by that, because I don’t think we in America would want another country telling us howContinue reading “Oblivironia”

Summer ends over a weekend here, usually right about now. The grey cloak shrinks the sky, the fall chill shrinks the skin, my spirit lets out a pathetic whimper, but, as if by design, I’m returned the energy I’d thought, as every year, lost for good to one last August. Doors will reopen this Sunday,Continue reading