Web Log Archive, November 13th through November 26th, 2005

Saturday, November 26th, 2005

"I have been attacked very personally, continuously since Friday evening."

Friday, November 25th, 2005     The Dreaded Season Is Upon Us! Stores Open At 5:00 AM!

"Ultimately, one loves one's desire, not the desired object."  Fred

"Television commercials are constantly making the case that we should not - must not - be content with what we have...[offering] innumerable ways that spending money can remedy the situation. In that sense, much of media keeps stoking the hot coals of unthankfulness - dismissing what we already have as woefully insufficient." From Norman Solomon's Thanksgiving column.

Thursday, November 24th, 2005       Happy Thanksgiving!

Guess what? We're winning, after all! "In recent days, some administration and military officials have made positive-sounding comments about a possible withdrawal."  Like many people, I had been duped (by the left-wing media) into believing that all this could drag on for decades. But quiet progress has been made and, suddenly, Victory appears to be within reach! 

Some things I love about the Holidays! Yes, and it all begins, officially, tomorrow!

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2005

Gee...and I thought those photos of Alfred E. (featured on the front page of the Newspaper of Record) finding himself locked in, in China, showed that he has a sense of humor. He was downright cute! I mean, I don't remember when he looked so comfortable (and in character). He showed he could take a joke, fer the luv uv Jesus! Reminded me, it did, of that Alfred E. Smith Dinner in 2000, with Gore, where he demonstrated precise comedic timing as he told the audience that he and (Conservative commentator) Bill Buckley had "...a lot in common. Bill wrote a book at Yale. I read one."
Ah, but leave it to a bunch of mean, uptight people (like this hideous Bernard Goldberg person...he, the author of a book about 'liberal bias' in the news...huh?) to ruin the mood. UGH!

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2005   Forty Two Years ago!

This just in from the What Would Jesus Do Department: Sorry, lady, but rules is rules!

Aldous Huxley, also, has been dead just forty-two years.

"The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity." Yeats

"Since 'understanding stops action', as Nietzsche observed, we can moderate the fierceness of this conflict by understanding the media that extend us and raise these wars within and without us."  Marshall McLuhan, 1964
Christ! No wonder nobody knew what the hell he was going on about! 

Monday, November 21st, 2005

All over the Blogosphere this past weekend, though not yet all over (what used to be called) the 'Mainstream Media', is the "L" word. Even while continuing to talk of "staying the course" and Victory, the Administration has already made plans to withdraw all American ground forces from Iraq before Election Day, 2006. Reality has, once again and not for the last time, triumphed over ideology. Or, as an anonymous Marine officer is quoted as saying, "We can lose in Iraq and destroy our Army, or we can just lose."

Sunday, November 20th, 2005     Happy Birthday, Halle!   Happy Birthday, Meghan!

Ya know? I did think it was pretty stupid (even for the Alfred gang) to 'strike back' at Representative Murtha's speech by likening him to Michael Moore. I mean, look at it this way: to lots of folks (as in, tens of millions of 'em...maybe even half the country), Michael Moore is a brave man...a hero, even! So if that bee-brain Scott McClellan (Alfred's spokesperson, who wouldn't clear his throat without permission), was hoping to sway public opinion (which, I must assume, is, after all, the point of saying anything from the Press Secretary's podium), this was a poor 'likening' to make. It was, in fact (and it could be argued) more likely to gain followers for both Michael Moore and for Representative Murtha. While Blame-America-Firsters (like me) might stand and cheer what Murtha said last Thursday, he was hardly anyone with whom we might have felt much in common before then. Murtha supported nearly (though not) every military adventure (under Republican and Democratic Administrations alike) and (here's where I gag) even voted in favor of a Constitutional Amendment to outlaw desecration of 'The Flag'! [As if there's even such-a-thing as 'The Flag']
So it's only more evidence (though certainly none was needed) that the Alfred Gang. is so isolated that it can do no more than preach to the choir and comfort the converted. In this case, however, there is evidence that even the converted choir reacted less with comfort than with consternation.
And so, even this old Pinko must commend the President for his politically astute comments this morning from China: "Congressman Murtha is a fine man, a good man who served our country with honor and distinction as a Marine in Vietnam and as a U.S. congressman. I know that [his] decision to call for an immediate withdrawal of our troops...was done in a careful and thoughtful way." 

Saturday, November 19th, 2005

"...it was gross and morally wrong, but not a health risk."

Friday, November 18th, 2005    Happy Birthday, Dan!

"I like guys who've never been there that criticize us who've been there. I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and send people to war and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done." Representative John Murtha

This just in from the It Takes All Kinds Department:  "After alerting other women who worked in the office to her discovery, the clerk and other women found the fake air freshener which was positioned on a shelf about three feet away from the toilet in such a way to photograph anyone who may be using the toilet."  We Ain't Comin' Out

Whose woods these are I think I know,
His house is in the village though.
He will not see me stopping here,
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer,
To stop without a farmhouse near,
Between the woods and frozen lake,
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake,
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep,
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

         -- Robert Frost

Thursday, November 17th, 2005

Well...I made an ass of myself last night...not for the first time, I know, and, surely, not for the last. About 6 PM, the Internet went down. That is, the Comcast cable connection went down. Now...I know that it was a problem with Comcast because at about the same time the Internet went down, the cable TV was this-way-and-that-way also. The latter malfunction was certainly not a tragedy. I don't need, after all, to learn the update on feared-white-sex-slave Natalee Holloway although it would have been interesting (in a ghoulish way) to view clips of that bizarre piece of rhetorical mendacity delivered last night by Veep, the Creep, to a well-screened audience.

Anyway...long 'bout 11 PM, the Internet had still not come back up (but the modem lights had returned to normal) and, although I had set up an old computer and connected to AOL via the phone line, a cyber-form of  delirium tremens was setting in. So I called Comcast...fully expecting to hear a painfully-polite but unknowledgeable voice in an Indian accent. I did not expect to receive any useful information or suggestions as to how to re-establish my broadband connection. I was only calling to confirm what I thought I knew: that there was a local outage. See, for me, talking to Comcast conjures a kind of road rage. I have to restrain myself from directly insulting the poor slob who has to answer the phone for that dirt-bag Company! And...it's been a long time since calling Comcast actually accomplished anything!
So...imagine my surprise when a young man, not painfully polite, and with a comfortable American accent took my call! From his cadence and timbre, it did even seem---at the outset, like he might have a few  working brain cells. But I'd been fooled this way before. I mean, if he's answering the phone for Comcast...how smart can he be?
Anyway...over my sarcastic objections (I told him I was a High School graduate), he persuaded me to walk through the tedious routine about powering down the modem and the router. And I did walk through it--being a jerk to him the whole time. When the routine had been completed...guess what? The connection came back up!  
So I told him that I was happy to be wrong and, after thanking him heartily, hung up. 

"...Americans must ask themselves every day whether the troops who are risking their lives in Iraq are doing anything more than postponing the inevitable." Today's NYT Lead Editorial

Wednesday, November 16th, 2005

The Transcontinental Musical Collaboration (TMC) continues and evolves! Today I sent off the first set of files to be downloaded (uploaded?) and played with (and to) in a studio in Toledo, Ohio. I'll post something from the collaboration as soon as I get permission from the guy whose songs they are...a Mr. DC Papke.
And meanwhile, here on the left coast, I've added a delicious third-part harmony to my latest project. I gotta say, singing with myself is lotsa fun but soon there will be someone else singing with me on this track: this, part of an 'intra-coastal' collaboration. ;-)

Tuesday, November 15th, 2005

But Too Late For Halloween

Monday, November 14th, 2005

I have recently discovered two dependable Bush-bashing sites: 1) http://www.trueblueliberal.com/ and 2)  http://www.truthout.org/

And then, if you didn't already know (and even if you did), there are seven or eight sites devoted to his simian similitude. Here are just three (of the many hundred) side-by-sides:

Sunday, November 13th, 2005

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover:
 if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city." Pat

"Not their love, but the impotence of their love keeps today's Christians from burning us at the stake."  Fred

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