Web Log Archive, July 9th through July
22nd, 2006
Saturday July 22nd, 2006
Sonnet: At Ostend, July 22nd 1787
How sweet the tuneful bells' responsive peal!
As when, at opening morn, the fragrant breeze
Breathes on the trembling sense of wan disease,
So piercing to my heart their force I feel!
And hark! with lessening cadence now they fall,
And now, along the white and level tide,
They fling their melancholy music wide,
Bidding me many a tender thought recall
Of summer-days, and those delightful years
When by my native streams, in life's fair prime,
The mournful magic of their mingling chime
First waked my wond'ring childhood into tears;—
But seeming now, when all those days are o'er,
The sounds of joy, once heard, and heard no more.
William Lisle Bowles (1762-1850), from Fourteen
Sonnets, published in 1789
Friday, July 21st, 2006
Oh Deer!
A few weeks ago, the deer attacked my tomato garden so now, with the plants
mostly recovered and having set dozens of blossoms...and green
fruit, I'm ready for 'em (the deer, I mean)!
At left: covered and barricaded last night!
At right: this morning.
I may be dumb...but I can still outfox a deer!
Funny (or maybe not so funny), deer don't eat tomatoes (or, at least, I've
never known them to eat any of my tomatoes). They like the leaves
of the plant. But...by far the most attractive morsel to these animals (of
anything that I've ever tried to grow) is a
sunflower.
Q: What's the yellow cup for...on
the top of the stake?
A: It's to keep someone (like
me, for example) from impaling himself.
Thursday, July 20th, 2006
I'm still waiting for someone in the MSM
to note the 'irony'...the in-your-face hypocrisy...of a man responsible for the
deaths of tens of thousands of already-born non-combatants...who vetoes
a bill because he does not "support the taking of innocent human
life..."
There he was, against a backdrop of parents with their from-a-frozen-embryo
("Snowflakes")
offspring...not even one of whom would have been denied life had this
bill been law at the time of his (or her) adoption.
"The bill would have allowed federal
funding only for stem cell lines made from embryos that were destined for
destruction, not adoption."
LA
Times Editorial
Wednesday, July 19th, 2006
Sticks and
Stones
"The
New York Times and The Washington Post reported
the word in Web
stories. On CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News, MSNBC and USA TODAY, the word was
excised in videos and Web stories (though an audio clip with a warning at
USA TODAY included it). The Times and the Post said they'd publish
the word today; USA
TODAY will not."
Few things can be more important than protecting our Pledge
of Allegiance from Activist
Court rulings!
Tuesday, July 18th, 2006
According to the National
Safety Council, the lifetime odds of dying as an occupant of a bus are one in
86,628.
The lifetime odds of dying as a passenger on a plane are one in
5,704.
The lifetime odds of dying as a motorcycle rider are one in 1,159.
The lifetime odds of dying as an occupant of an automobile are one in
283.
Q: Does this mean that
that busses are (86628/5704=)~15 times safer than planes...and that planes are
(5704/1159=)~5 times safer than motorcycles...and that motorcycles are
(1159/283=)~5 times safer than cars?
A: Of course not, but the
lifetime odds of dying are one in one.
^_^
Monday, July 17th, 2006
Did you ever wonder what Al Gore's signature looks like?
Yeah, well...if yer like me, probably not;
but Maggie went to a Marin
County book signing and, in return for buying the book, got him to sign it.
click to enlarge
Sunday, July 16th, 2006
It's now been seven years since JFK,
Jr. crashed his plane.
"He who permits himself to tell a
lie often finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at
length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it and truths
without the world believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of
the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions."
Thomas Jefferson, 1785
Saturday, July 15th, 2006
''I wasn't really trying to feed the
dumb animal. I was just throwing stuff at him to get him to move and one of
those things happened to be a fish.''
Jeffrey
Bush
Friday, July 14th,
2006 Happy
Birthday, Alexander! Happy Birthday, Ridgway!
"On the last day of January 2005, Steven D. Green, sat in a
Texas jail on alcohol-possession charges...an unemployed 19-year-old high school
dropout who had just racked up his third misdemeanor conviction. Days later, Mr.
Green enlisted in a soldier-strapped Army, and was later assigned to a
star-crossed unit to serve on an especially
murderous patch of earth."
July 14th, 'Bastille Day', is a National
Holiday commemorating the start of the French Revolution. The Bastille was a
prison in Paris which held only seven captives on the day it was stormed by an
angry mob in 1789.
Thursday, July 13th,
2006 Happy
Birthday Big O!
"Those who pursue the higher life
of wisdom, who seek to live by spiritual principles, must be prepared to be
laughed at and condemned. Many people who have progressively lowered their
personal standards in an attempt to win social acceptance and life's comforts
bitterly resent those of a philosophical bent who refuse to compromise their
spiritual ideals and who seek to better themselves. Never live your life in
reaction to these diminished souls. Be compassionate toward them, and at the
same time hold to what you know is good. When you begin your program of
spiritual progress, chances are the people closest to you will deride you or
accuse you of arrogance. It is your job to comport yourself humbly and to
consistently hew to your moral ideals. Cling to what you know in your heart is
best." ---Epictetus, 55-135
Wednesday, July 12th, 2006
“People should not have to drive
through the turnpike tunnels with their fingers crossed!’’ Mitt
Romney
"Instead of [recognizing] a communal
environment where everyone sacrifices some level of personal preference for the
greater good, people increasingly behave in public as though they have no
relationship with each other. The shift comes as more Americans trade silence
for a constant barrage of electronic media.
Any
place becomes everyplace and every place is the same."
Andrew
Wood, Professor, San Jose State University
Tuesday, July 11th, 2006
It's Seven Eleven!
"Sometimes Mother would not eat
dinner, and I'd ask her why.
She would say she wasn't hungry, but later I
realized there was only enough food for one."
June
Allyson
"...Bush told Larry King (in a
weekend interview, [with] the bemused Laura at his side like
a tranquilized terrier) that U.S. citizens don't
have to worry about a missile attack from North Korea." BuzzFlash
Monday, July 10th,
2006
Happy Birthday, Judy!
"If these same strategists had
been around in 1932 during the Depression, they'd probably have urged President
Hoover to run for reelection on the strength of his economic policies."
Rosa
Brooks
Sunday, July 9th, 2006
"North
Korea is a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while
starving its citizens. States like these...constitute an axis of evil, arming to
threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these
regimes pose a grave and growing danger. We'll be deliberate, yet time is not on
our side. I will not wait on events while dangers gather. I will not stand by as
peril draws closer and closer. The United States of America will not permit the
world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive
weapons." State
of The Union Address, January 29, 2002
Q: Is your policy consistent between the way you have dealt with Iraq and the
way you have dealt with North Korea?
A: "These problems didn't arise overnight, and
they don't get solved overnight. It takes a while."
Press
Conference, July 7th, 2006
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