Web Log Archive, March 4th through March 17th, 2007
Saturday, March 17th, 2007
"...why
should we hear about body bags, and deaths, and how many, what day it's gonna
happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it's, it's not
relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"
Barbara Bush, March 18th, 2003
Friday, March 16th,
2007
The 39th Anniversary of the My Lai Massacre
"The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honour. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information. The Baghdad communiques are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows. It is a disgrace to our imperial record, and may soon be too inflamed for any ordinary cure. We are to-day not far from a disaster." T. E. Lawrence, "Lawrence of Arabia", August 22, 1920
Thursday, March 15th, 2007
Caesar: The Ides of March are come!
Soothsayer: Aye Caesar, but not gone.
'Blarney'
has come to mean 'deceptive or misleading talk, especially flattery'. The
word derives from the Irish village of Blarney,
wherein stands the Blarney Castle
wherein (or, more precisely, whereon) rests the Blarney
Stone which, by legend, imparts the 'gift of
gab' to anyone who kisses it.
Cormac MacCarthy had the massive Castle built in 1446; it was an undertaking
underwritten by means of MacCarthy's extravagant (but unfulfilled) promises to
the English Royals of his day. Today, we might refer to such insincere
communication as 'glad-handing' or 'shining someone on' or,
simply, 'tellin' 'em what they wanna hear'!
Wednesday, March 14th, 2007
Albert Einstein was born on this day in 1879
"The suspensions were imposed by Principal Richard Leprine, who said the students were punished not because of what they said but because they disobeyed orders not to say it!"
Tuesday, March 13th, 2007
I'll bet you didn't know that the word 'boycott' entered our language because it was the surname of a Mr. Charles Boycott (1832-1897). It seems that Mr. Boycott was the reviled representative of a consortium of English owners of Irish farmland in the 1870's and 80's. Word is that he was a mean old stinky who refused to lower the rents on his hard-put Irish tenants who, in retaliation, organized to abstain from any and all business dealings with him.
Monday, March 12th, 2007
"It
is better to be looked over than overlooked!"
"When women go wrong, men go right after them."
"I consider sex a misdemeanor; the more I miss, de
meaner I get."
"Sex is like bridge: if you don't have a good partner, you better have a
good hand."
"You can say what you like about long dresses, but they cover a multitude
of shins."
Mae West
Sunday, March 11th, 2007
"That
a person like [Bush], with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United
States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is
an offense [to] the Mayan people and their culture. [The] spirit guides of the
Mayan community [have] decided it [will] be necessary to cleanse the sacred site
of bad spirits after Bush's visit so that [our] ancestors [can] rest in peace."
Juan Tiney, Mayan NGO Director, Guatemala City, 3/8/07.
Saturday, March 10th, 2007
Osama bin Laden was born fifty years ago today, in Saudi
Arabia
Don't Take Anything
Personally
Nothing others do is because of you.
What others say and do is a projection of
their own reality, their own dream.
When you are immune to the opinions and
actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.
From The
Four Agreements, by Miguel Ruiz:
Friday, March 9th, 2007
"...our armies do not come into your
cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators. It is the wish not
only of my King and his peoples, but it is also the wish of the great Nations
with whom he is in alliance, that you should prosper even as in the past when
your lands were fertile. But you, people of Baghdad are not to understand
that it is the wish of the British Government to impose upon you alien
institutions. Therefore I am commanded to invite you, through your Nobles and
Elders and Representatives, to participate in the management of your civil
affairs in collaboration with the Political Representative of Great Britain so
that you may unite with your kinsmen in the North, East, South and West, in
realising the aspirations of your Race."
From a Proclamation signed by F. S.
Maude, Lieutenant-General, Commanding the British (occupation) Forces in Iraq, March,
1917
Thursday, March 8th, 2007 Happy Birthday, Patrice!
Wednesday, March 7th, 2007 Happy Birthday, Dawn!
From Letters to the Editor:
Dear Editor,
My girlfriend and I had been dating for over a year
when we decided to get married. My parents helped us in every way, and my friends encouraged me. My girlfriend? She was a dream!
There was only one thing bothering me. That one thing was her younger sister. My
prospective sister-in-law
was twenty years of age, wore tight miniskirts, and low cut blouses. She would regularly bend down when near me, and I got
many a pleasant view of her underwear. It had to be deliberate. She never did it when she was near anyone else.
One day little sister calls and asked me to come over to check the wedding invitations. She was alone when I arrived.
She whispered to me that soon I was to be married, and she had feelings and desires for me that she could not overcome and did not really
want to overcome. She told me that she wanted to make love to me just once before I got married and committed my life to her sister. I was
in total shock and could not say a word. She said, "I'm going upstairs to my bedroom, and if you want to go ahead with it just come up and
get me."
I was stunned. I was frozen in shock as I watched her go up the stairs. When she reached the top, she pulled down her
panties and threw them down the stairs at me. I stood there for a moment, then turned and went straight to the front door. I opened the door and
stepped out of the house and walked straight toward my car. My future father-in-law was standing outside. With
tears in his eyes he hugged me and said, "We are very happy that you have passed our little test. We could not ask for a better man for our
daughter. Welcome to the family!"
The moral of this story is: Always keep your condoms in your car.
Tuesday, March 6th, 2007
"I
do not like broccoli. And I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my
mother made me eat it. And I'm President of the United States and I'm not
going to eat any more broccoli."
"I have nothing but contempt and anger for those
who betray the trust by exposing the name of our [CIA] sources.
They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors." George H.
W. Bush, former head of the CIA and the 41st President of the United States, in
a speech delivered on April 26th, 1999.
Monday, March 5th, 2007
"Andrew
Giuliani said he would not participate in his father’s campaign, saying
his devotion to becoming a professional golfer within three years allows no time
for distraction."
Sunday, March 4th, 2007
"A liberal is a conservative who has been arrested." Tom Wolfe, from The Bonfire of the Vanities