acCid3nt 0f b1rt4

just this once
nevermore and only
unless because
because well
you know
what if I didn't

what if I didn't take that chance
and I was left
yet again
hanging in the wind
the cold
the emptiness of being
me
alone
as usual

and then again
I feel that I'll change
I don't
I don't have any reason
for that feeling
maybe it's just hope
that shit I won't abandon

even on the edge
so far away now
so far away



On Wikipedia, it goes like this:

"The artist is nothing without gift, but the gift is nothing without work." - Émile Zola

Either way, I'm still one lazy, unmotivated sumnabitch... Catch freakin' 22, eh.

Silence

I'm so fucking messed up. I mean, sure, most of us are to some extent. I know that. I'm just more so and further along then most "normal" crazy people.

Even explaining that makes it seem enormously apparent.

C'est la fucking vie.

I can't help this longing
...
and I wanted to believe ...

I need a white wave.
I need ...

ego distended

...in vainglory
emptied of all but life's shade
...gladly let go by the way

sadly informed
...of madness in grey
and spectral colors

...lonely for all
and slept in
...unatoned, bereft

seduced by others'
...realities long lost
vacant and unadorned

...simplicity answers
mocking
...in the know and smug

lest somehow
...somewhere
......everything falls into place

and I breathe again
...still yet to sample
the silence of forever

On the Ebb

Of a course and so it matters
and now so sorely so
that lost in shreds and ghostly tatters
disjointed ideas
ebb and flow of colors prime

Limping forward, pulling free
towing me along
a question, hard, once heard howling
screaming out
its same unanswered song

A darkness piercing brightly
in fullest emptiness
here, take this
what is left 'me
I did not seek its kiss

Through eyes ripped wide
and wrinkled shut
through purpose lost
a tuneless rut
In timbre, hue and what I feel
though ringing true
yet far from real

As all those
timeless
faceless
moist and empty dreams
I recognize in everything
the goal of all my schemes

Escape away 'til sunrise sets
reality's great weight
upon my neck
And opens up the gallows' door
falling away
the scrawl of Love's face
fallen away

Not yet
arise
get up
meat needs turning
bread is on the rise
the wine is fit to drink

Another sun and moon
have their stories to tell
their song still left to sing

True . .

. . and False.
Whilst true that many lifelong habits - both those with which I'm good and those I'm still to kickin' - do hold prominence in my daily being, it is even more accurate to say that those habits from the first half have been built up or whittled away to form the background on the canvass which is the evolving critter that be me.

So, I totally get where dude was coming from. I just ain't locked down with it, eh.



By the way, clickin' the pic takes you to the same place that it does when clicking on it from the iGoogle home page. If you don't use it yourself, it's just one of dozens of distractors you can add to your own.

/unpaid-shill

Son of Sam Cooke

I think I need this
Saturday night head clearing
Time to get some sleep

Saturday sans Sun

But it's only 6:30 in the AM, so that'll change soon enough.

Apocrypha

less absent than common sense
apocrypha on the lips
tips of tongues and spewing
regularly imbuing small lives
with larger self impressions

holding court in absentia
delayed gratification becomes anathema
when what one wants
is only never to be thought the other
apocrypha lends credence to one's claims

echoing elements of others' tallest tales
longing (though of course not showing it)
for the admiration of one's own
an acknowledgment that one is all alone
and still steadfast denial, rebuttal of the same

in subtle ironies missed too often
still plays, whole scenes, brief captions
formulating plans for local domination
of the world which is not everything
except for all that matters anyhow

apocrypha elucidates the simplest
clearest sign of life, la joie de vive
too powerful to bear aught but a wink
a nod
a shrug of the shoulders as the moment passes
eternal
ephemeral
esoteric and surreal but

all too common in our own and only world


Have a beauty day, eh.

Porn Bush

Well, it sure don't grow on trees.

*
*
*

By the way, if you click on the pic, it'll take you to the explanation via der Spiegel.

"...some people . . don't have maps..."

Well. There ya have it.



I guess the point is that, assuming that she's at least 18, of course, I'd do her.

NEXT!

I'd say "poor kid", but she'll probably be rich in no time.

{sigh}

Hmmm... I just thought of something else. Maybe I'm being optimistic (call little miss sunshine, eh) but, maybe this child will see herself being a complete and total freakin' stereotypical idiot, and decide to maybe take her self a little more seriously. I'd say her odds are 30-70 in favor.

{shakin'head}

cogito ergo. . uhm... What?

Der Doctor is in Da House! Or he was on this topic back in his school daze 'tany rate, at which time he chose to take to task teh Science, as well as its more (IMO) obfuscatory opposite in the arena of Explanations, Religion. It seems that the good Dr. Zaius has a bit of a problem with how both of them utilize the Unknown as a source of their surety.

Hmmm... Perhaps a wee example is in order.

95% of what is around you is unobservable by any form of scientific instrumentation, according to science. Our model of the universe only accounts for 5% of what we can observe with any instrument known to man.

It is not a matter of some unseen force might be possible in your mind or imagination - it is a matter of some unseen force must exist, or science itself is talking through its hat.

This substance could be anything; we don't know what it is. This would mean that it is entirely possible that a vast portion of the universe may be made of large quantities of invisible Cheez Whiz - Or to use a phrase that might have a bit more irony, according to the Big Bang Theory, it is possible that at this moment that we are surrounded by "invisible pink unicorns."

Well, say I in my atheistical indignation. Poppeycock! Balderdash!! Gibbering Ginormities!!! You're misapprehending what it means to be seen! Science can undoubtedly be utilized to observe the unobservable. It just needs, for soothe, to utilize that most imaginative of unimaginary artifacts of existence; Mathematics. With numbers, which can never lie (though paradoxes might they multiply,) one, or any, and eventually many, an otherwise unobservant assayer of the modes and forms of empirical reality (errm, toi et moi, et al who would for that matter) may decipher and discern at both the most microscopic and creatively cosmic of levels that which is both true and sound and inevitably to be found to be the whole, wide, vast and sure expanse of All Reality.

We just ain't gonna do it before Tea*

And yet, I am just a softy. {sigh} There's little, . . hell, who am I trying to kid? . . There's no chance of me using said tool on my own. When it comes to math, I'm quite illiteratively, all thumbs. None the, others can, have, and will do so further in the future, and folks such as I are generally able to follow along. At least we are when given respect for our intellectual limitations, rather than the abusive utilization of those same which the Religionists must employ in order to survive despite their delusional, though often sublimely beautiful, drivel. That's simply part of the nature of teh Science. It takes Training, and dedication, but not even a scintilla of teh Faith is required. (Though, for folks in need, such a thing has inarguably proven helpful in getting us through some rather tight spots. Again, at least IMO.)

Whilst scientists, like Shamans and Witches and Priests (oh my!), are merely human and, thus, subject to each their own quirks of personality in the exposition of what they've experienced relativistically as individuals, the by laws of Science have evolved in gross opposition to the essential elements of Religion.

Religion says that no knowledge is new. Well, if it is, then it supports (somehow, don't know. we'll work that out later) the previous Gospels (Edicts, Prophecies, What have yous) which were laid down and set forth in the Past. If it contradicts what has been established, then it is wrong. (Even if we change our minds later, and forget to tell you, but instead just act like we'd always known and had said this all along.)

Science says that knowledge is available, if we, or any sentient beings, can develop the methods and tools necessary to ascertain it.

The most fundamentally hallowed proposition of Religion is that Truth® has been revealed in the past.

The most elementally important tenet of Science is there is always more to know.

Ahhh, well. As I commented on the good Dr. Zaius' site, "There is no God. Science doesn't say so. I do... " The ellipsistical is, as I hope I've established in this rather manic** rant, essentially unimportant. But if you got a kick out of reading my rejoinder to the Doc's post, then I highly recommend clicking on over to read this post's impetus.

And, regardless of disagreements, whether well-writ or poorly, I do gladly say "Thanks Doc!" for giving me blog fodder for a drizzly Sunday afternoon.

* Eh, I think I've a British reader or two left "in da house". (Alright. Enough of that phrase. Promise.)

** I used to be fairly certain of it when I'd say that I'm not manic-depressive. Just madly so. Que sera, sera, eh. I've always heard that the manic phase was, despites its desperate after-effects, a state of high creativity. Maybe assuming such proportions to my situation will help to me gettin' my lazy arse to writing more stuff and more frequently. Please, don't to be counting on it. Hmmm, or ag'in it, for that matter.

{-;

S & T o I

It's Just The Normal Noises In Here

i'm spiraling down
and outta control
up's comin' the ground
oops
missed
hit a hole

so farther I sink
and longer I fall
reach out
grab a link
to try and forestall

these black dog days of august

I Keep Forgettin' . .

. . that I too have wings.


Especially when I get to feelin' as such.



Thanks to all y'all, my wings.

Enjoy!

sin scan

i wish i had a mirror
a projector
a still life juxtaposer

not unreal
faked in electrons
drawn on ether

reality
shining forth
from within my head

when in rome
why don't the romans notice
its not important
anyway

it's just what I wish
what i want

but we've already established
that
that means nothing

at least not
so far

Just sayin'

angular sensations
of ruby red pulsations
where love's gone dry

in over-rotten divets
of earthen sunken riv'lets
that once held hope

for sun to come and bathe one
but not in such a lingerin'
as that which seared the dream

only time
only freedom
only
only
only
everything

nothing comes of waiting
in void of fresher baiting
old hope peeks in

lost counting holding open
the class devolved not moping
for what can't be found

when blinding is the weather
of azure sky together
the blackest of the starless nights

only hope
only freedom
only
only
only
time to fade

to nothing
to see here
move along
move along


Well, maybe, maybe not, eh.

L8

Theftage for the Sincerity of the Thought

starting over . . again

down
trundling
lazy as she goes

two turns on the
big wheel
hang it all

as the river flows
so dies
the dream long passed chance

and, believe it or not, that's a Good Thing.

Not been in much of a bloggin' mood of late. No worries though. Is just cuz I'm sucked into a book's universe. I'll be back after - or more likely during - the sadness of its ending.

L8!

Opportunity Lost?

Walking such a jagged edge is a danger on its own. The risk of collapse would seem a fatal one for a vehicle with a life-span of a mere 90 days; especially when the wee mechabugger has already survived 10x that long in its explorations of the red planet.

As it turns out though, a less controllable, natural occurrence - one which has previously helped prolong the Mars Landers' mission - could well be the final Decider on this N.A.S.A mission's timetable. When the Martian winds rise, lifting dust to soar at sunlight blinding heights, the outer limits of Opportunity's ability to maintain its electrical functions may finally be reached.

Mars Rover Struggles to Weather Severe Dust Storm

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 21, 2007; Page A02

The hardy Mars rover Opportunity is struggling to stay alive amid a severe and long-lasting Martian dust storm -- posing the greatest threat so far to the unexpectedly long-lived vehicle.

The series of dust storms has blocked 99 percent of the direct sunlight that the rover needs to generate power, and on Wednesday, the panels were generating only 148 watt hours -- barely enough to keep the vehicle functioning. Without power to warm its electronic instruments and computers, the rover would grind to a halt for good.

"We're rooting for our rovers to survive these storms, but they were never designed for conditions this intense," said Alan Stern, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

There's still a chance she'll make it through this storm, though the odds do finally seem against it. None the less, here's to a job well done, and hope for more to come.

Shrubbie's Choice

I rarely even bother arguing how much better he'd be if he'd just choose reality for a change. Dude, and too many others on The Hill, are so deep in denial as to the real problems with our "Democracy" that, as is the case with a whole lot of folk, my frustration levels have entered the nausea zone.

Will Impeachment, even of Cheney, take place?

I doubt it.

Will the next president, still most likely to be a Democrat, really work towards restoring balance to the interests which get served by Washington?

I really doubt it.

Will the average citizens, middle class folk who've got A LOT but could always use more, get sick enough of losing meaningful protections of their interests, rights and opportunities that they'll demand our politicians start putting them before the interests of those at the top of the economic food chain.

Not yet, is my guess.

I don't quite see us entering into a Matrix-esque world, or even any kind of 1984ish nightmare. I do see more wars, an ever-widening gap between Rich and Average (not to mention, poor!) and an influx of refugees from the results of power politics and global climate change which are Bound to overwhelm the resources of this once incredibly adaptive country.

THEN I think we'll see those other changes. You know; once it's nearly too late.

Classic(al) Paranoia

I clicked over to Tube central for something else, a little George Carlin medley, and accidentally ended up on this page.

Didn't think I was gonna like it. I mean, who could possibly have any reason to slam dear ol' Pacobel?

Enjoy. I definitely did.

So, How's that Online-Dating thing goin'?

I wait too passively. It's a fairly simple concept to occupy one's self with other stuff while waiting for what you can't do any more to effect.

I'm finally getting better at that.

Sun rising hotly
Sweat beads on shoulders and brow
Time wasting away

is it easy?

if not then fuck it.

I'm not doin it

i'll let it slide. let it go. let it be.

without me.

Anyway, it doesn't matter anyway.

any way.

All I do is want Want WAAAAANT!!!!!!!!

it's easy

even though

it doesn't help

anyway

. . wise hungry fool

Zen matters an a
'ssociative disorder
learning how to play

{blowin'smoke}

Dante Shakespeare

I hope, therefore I am glad that I am.

We Can Stop Their Spying Eyes

And the Electronic Frontier Foundation has just the form to counter BIG MONEY's* Lobbying efforts against such a Constitutional necessity.

Tell Congress to Investigate the NSA Spying Program

Over five years since it first began, the NSA's massive domestic spying program remains shrouded in secrecy. Recently, the Bush Administration announced that it has let the shadowy FISA court review the program, but that's not enough -- the President must abide by the law and answer to the traditional court system, Congress, and the American public. Use the form below and demand immediate Congressional investigations.

Three federal courts have already rejected the government's bogus arguments and allowed cases to go forward regarding the secret surveillance. With its back against the wall, the Administration has finally conceded that judicial review should be involved at some level.

That's welcome news, but the President is still trying to dodge meaningful oversight. While claiming that the secret FISA court orders legalize the program, the Administration has refused to let anyone else see the orders and confirm key details about what they permit. EFF is skeptical that they actually satisfy the strict requirements of current statutes or the Fourth Amendment, considering the broad program of dragnet surveillance alleged in our case against AT&T for its role in the program.

Congress must do its job and help uncover the truth about the program. Take action now to protect the checks and balances that define our democracy.

* I call out "BIG MONEY" here because the folks for whom Bu$hCo is working don't care about the details of how their bought-boy's (and girls, of course) go about their business. They just want their ability to run their business around the world and as they see fit. Screw any Liberties, Rights, Freedoms which don't curtail the consumers' ability to spend Spend SPEND to the end.

To be sure, Under capitalism man exploits man. And under Communism it is just the reverse. That's what you get with any system which isn't regulated via Reason and constant Refinement as the system evolves.

namaste

How To Help Congress End the War

Just another quickie to follow up on yesterday Feingold post.

This is the Progressive Patriots Fund newsletter from last night. Excellent stuff and I def did sign on.

L8

Today I am chairing a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Congress's constitutional power to end a war. It's far past time for the war in Iraq - one of the greatest foreign policy mistakes in our nation's history - to end and for our troops to be safely redeployed. Because the President has abdicated his responsibility for far too long, it is now up to Congress to get our country back on track.

But I can't do it alone. I need your help to demonstrate the public support for using the "power of the purse" to force this administration to begin to redeploy our troops from Iraq. I hope you'll join me by co-sponsoring my resolution to redeploy our troops.

Click here to sign on as a citizen co-sponsor

While I will vote for the non binding resolution being offered against the so-called "troop surge" - as I already did in Committee - we all know that much more needs to be done. Congress holds the purse strings and if the President continues to move forward with his failed Iraq policy, we have the responsibility to use that power to safely redeploy our troops from Iraq.

Today's hearing will help inform my colleagues, and the public about Congress's power to end a war and how that power has been used in the past. I will soon be introducing legislation to use the "power of the purse" to end what is clearly one of the greatest mistakes in the history of our nation's foreign policy.

Click here to sign on as a citizen co-sponsor

Our open-ended presence in Iraq encourages the insurgency, and adding more troops with no end date in sight only adds more fuel to the fire. There is no higher foreign policy priority than making America safer and getting our nation back on track by redeploying our troops out of Iraq. Once again, I hope you'll consider co-sponsoring my resolution. As always, thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Russ Feingold
United States Senator
Honorary Chair, Progressive Patriots Fund

P.S. I've recorded a new video podcast on Congress's power to end the war using the "power of the purse" – be sure to visit our website to check it out!

---

Living in the Pre-UK

I read a little about this discovery towards the end of last year. Now we get more details and, as is always the case with anthropology and archaeology, now there's even more to wonder about.

Cool.

Ancient complex discovered near Stonehenge
By Thomas H. Maugh II, Times Staff Writer
3:02 PM PST, January 30, 2007

-----
The henge, about 1,400 feet in diameter, enclosed a series of concentric rings of huge timber posts. The team now knows that the posts mimicked Stonehenge in all particulars save one — its orientation.

Stonehenge is aligned with sunrise at the summer solstice and sunset at the winter solstice. The henge at Durrington Walls is the exact opposite, aligned with sunrise at the winter solstice and sunset at the summer solstice.

The evidence from the houses indicates that there was a massive mid-winter celebration marking the solstice to complement the summer celebration at Stonehenge.

The team excavated eight houses at the site and magnetic anomalies indicate that there are at least 25 more nearby, Pearson said. "My guess is that there are many more than that," he said. In fact, the entire valley appears to have been densely populated, he said.

The relatively flimsy wattle and daub walls of the houses are long gone. What remains are the densely packed clay floors. "These are the first ones we have found with intact clay floors from this period," Pearson said.

"The houses are virtually square, no bigger than the average sitting room — about 14 feet by 14 feet," he said.

They feature a central fireplace, an oval hearth sunk into the floor. Slight indentations around the walls mark the location of timber fittings for box beds and a dresser that stood opposite the door.

[Hop on into the Way Back Machine folks]

Feingold

From a Senator who won't run for President but, in my opinion, has the most integrity for that august position of anyone on the Hill.

Breaking Another Iraq Taboo

----

Americans are not looking to Congress to pass symbolic measures, they are looking to us to stop the President's failed Iraq policy. That is why we must finally break this taboo that somehow Congress can't talk about using its power of the purse to end the war in Iraq. The Constitution makes Congress a co-equal branch of government. It's time we start acting like it. We have a moral responsibility, as well as a responsibility to the brave troops whose lives are on the line, to end the war. We can and must force the President to safely redeploy our troops so that we can get back to focusing on those who attacked us on 9/11.

Tomorrow, I will be chairing a full Judiciary Committee hearing entitled "Exercising Congress's Constitutional Power to End a War." This hearing will help remind my colleagues in the Senate and the American public that Congress is not powerless - even when it acts that way. We have the power to stop the policies of a President that continue to hurt our national security. Soon after tomorrow's hearing, I will introduce legislation to do just that.

Now go read what he's up against...

On So Many Levels

Retro got me shakin' m' noggin' at some crazy 80's goofballery (err, thanks? lol!) but while on teh 'Tube, I quickly found another variety of Crazy to cleanse my musical palette.

Enjoy!

Shiny Baubles

'Twas gold which brought twin towers
down
from wings of steel
aluminum
through kerosene fueled clouds
'Twas gold, though black and crude

'Twas naught but heavy
empty wealth
which to this day resounds
in halls of power
trading blood
for oil

And still is that
which brings us all
to ground beneath dark soil

Time
in steady cadences
6 billion now abound
within our own lone sacks of skin
our own accounts
accruing

less than nihilist
disregard
does all this sorrow
engender
resolve for what
can not
come next
defers concerns
for Peace on Earth

Gold distracts believers
shiny baubles
luring thought away
leaving devotions secure
for the delusional
to entertain themselves
while shadows
close upon
everyone

----

I'm sorry that I can't capture the painting very aesthetically. After 5 attempts (this time around) on my little 300kb phone-cam, I finally decided that this would have to do.

It was a gift from a wonderful no-longer-red-state blogger buddy o' mine. Well, her husband is the painter, so I s'pose I owe the Skimmer the apology for my poor presentation of his excellent work.

Regardless of all that, many are the times I've sat pondering this painting as I sit at my computer, wondering of what to post, or who to read next. Abundant are the thoughts which go through my mind on what the colors mean, why the fade below, the separation from the blue skies above? Often I sadly imagine those damned planes flying into the scene, obscuring again the amazing achievement of human artifice which both brought them into being and, then more tragically (and recently too,) brought both those towers and the illusions of invincibility of a great nation crumbling to the earth. Changed forever.

I'm more of a lyricist than a poet so I tend to make my poetry without any standard metrics guiding it. I write and re-write each line as they come to me, and then work the whole to flow as feels most relevant to whatever theme they're describing. All I'm getting at is that I know that's a bit "unskilled", but it came to me and feels right as a description of a majority of my thoughts whilst viewing the painting.

I hope, though the thoughts are indeed sad and not resolved, that the poem manages to effectively convey my feelings about the painting, as well as on the state of my nation and the world of folk at large.

namaste

Ehren Watada: American Hero

Here's another one of those Op-Eds I'd like to share in full.

If anyone reading here made your way to D.C. on Saturday, please feel free to share your experience or a link to your own blog about such.

Good mornin' all!

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Watada points out our responsibilities

By JOE COPELAND
P-I COLUMNIST

If Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada has some extra hope this morning about ending the Iraq war, Americans can take a little credit. Toward the end of last week, the 28-year-old officer who courageously refused orders to go to Iraq was hoping for good turnouts in anti-war events planned for Saturday in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.

After four years of quiescence in the face of a wrongly launched war that has gone from "Mission Accomplished" to what a top commander finally confessed is a "dire" situation, Americans ought to demand a change of course. Change requires more public involvement than voting out a few congressional incumbents. National protest organizers hoped for up to 300,000 people to march Saturday.

Watada has had the courage to point out citizens' responsibilities. As he awaits a court-martial beginning Feb. 5 for acting responsibly and refusing to serve in what he regards as an illegal war (he volunteered to go to Afghanistan instead), Watada is allowed to travel up to 250 miles from Fort Lewis. He has been telling groups in Seattle, Tacoma and elsewhere that citizens have the power to end the war.

His honesty isn't surprising, and asking people to take responsibility doesn't at all go beyond what Watada expects of himself. When most of the country was still following President Bush's post-Sept. 11 admonitions to go shopping, Watada decided to enlist in a delayed-entry program while he wrapped up studies at Hawaii Pacific University.

As we went to war, Watada believed the false talk about imminent danger to the United States and weapons of mass destruction. His views changed as he read up on Iraq in preparation, as he put it, to be a better leader of troops under his command. Instead, the growing knowledge led him to become the only commissioned officer known to refuse Iraq duty, acknowledging from the start that he might have to carry the imprisonment that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other practitioners of civil disobedience felt was their responsibility to accept in calling attention to wrongful government policy. In Watada's case, the prison time could be as much as six years.

Watada talks about a small group that regularly protests in Seattle. But, he asks, "Where are the other 600,000 people in Seattle?"

More than anything, I wanted to know from Watada what he thought others of us should be doing. He starts with where his journey began: learning about our country's actions. Then there is the matter of doing something. Action certainly started with the November elections (although, as Watada points out, the turnout means only a limited number of people sent any message).

Without more pressure on national leaders, it's not safe to assume they will change the country's course. The Iraq Study Group's bipartisan recommendations to start withdrawal planning got tossed. Generals seem willing to complain publicly about missteps, but only after they have their pensions. Unless better in the way of preventing needless deaths of U.S. troops and Iraqis is demanded by the public, members of Congress likely will settle for -- at best -- resolutions of disapproval for the war's escalation. Non-binding resolutions will just draw snarling dismissals from Vice President Dick Cheney. But maybe members of Congress think they can satisfy voters by saying, see, we told the president what a mistake he was making.

Watada said, "No longer can we say, 'Oh, the Democrats will take care of it. Or, the peace activists will take care of it' " and simply go about our lives.

Staffers to politicians have told him that their bosses listen to the public. "But you know what, if it is the same person calling over and over," the call is very easy to dismiss, he said.

He thinks more individuals need to speak up, and organizations -- churches, labor unions, student groups and faculties -- need to lend their voices. And he thinks the public should tell big donors to speak on their behalf and demand the media go beyond their "lazy and inadequate attempt to cover the news."

As someone occasionally shocked by the behavior of fellow Vietnam war protesters, I wondered how a conscientious young soldier of this generation looked at street demonstrations: Will protest lead to the kind of divisions and lack of regard for U.S. troops seen during Vietnam? "That is why knowledge is first and foremost," Watada said. "We need to come together as Americans." We need to understand, he said, that simply being there is inflaming rather than improving Iraq.

Watada is idealistic enough to expect a lot of people to act. He has been disappointed in the amount of attention his case has received in most of the media. But, he said, "I think my stand and my case have raised the level of awareness and thinking about what we are doing in Iraq and what our soldiers are being forced to do."

Beyond knowledge, though, is action, whether it is writing a letter, making a call or getting out of our chairs to make our views known.

Joe Copeland is an editorial writer and member of the P-I Editorial Board. E-mail: joecopeland@seattlepi.com.

Philosphical -v- Empirical Knowledge

If I don't promise myself to be brief, I'll end up saving this as draft and not be able to share something I think is very important vis-a-vie some comments regarding the "Smokers' Weak Point Identified" article on which I posted*.

The comments which prompted this post were both logical and sensible in their call for caution, or their expressed revulsion at the idea of hacking our brains to keeps us from doing other, perhaps less damaging or repugnant, things to our bodies.

While I've really no disagreement with either of those admonitions, I don't really think that anything in the article suggested anything like what they were cautioning against. I probably should have been more articulate in my presentation, but since I wasn't then, I hope that I can be so now, and perhaps clear up any misunderstandings. Of course, it's quite possible that there weren't any of those. Caution is after all an exemplary feature of any research involving the understanding of a biological structure as complex and extraordinary as the brain of Homo Sapiens.


I feel the need to start with a reminder that the man in the article had accidental damage occur via a stroke which destroyed a portion of his brain. Annihilating that part of the brain is emphatically not what the findings suggest as a cure for the addiction to smoking which ensnares millions of people, just like me, the world over. My excitement is that the episode, well documented and supportive of previous discoveries vis-a-vie the brain's architecture, provides knowledge of the results of our brains' components in a direct and extraordinarily definitive manner. Similar occurrences are what gave rise to the research discussed at the end of the Guardian article which I quoted in full.

This is knowledge without which we would continue to be utterly in the dark about the physiological processes which make so many folks be as we are when it comes to giving up Cancer Sticks and other deadly addictions. (I'll leave Dr Dawkins to argue - quite convincingly, IMO - that religion fits in that category quite well.)

I've stated before my understanding that Philosophy can only illuminate so much, and when it fails to provide readily apparent conclusions, a failure it must always face to some extent, it leaves our fantastically intellectual capacities open, in the form of our imaginations, to the perversions of Religious Beliefs; results of fear out of our ignorance which, whilst naturally evolved to console and defend (and entertain?) our psyches, have the ultimate result of keeping our minds from securing the empirical reasons for the "demons" which confront us.

As with removing tonsils, an organ which, once along the path of human evolution, was required for staving off infections, but has since become (possibly during our rising from quad to bipedalism) more a cause than a cure for such phenomena, occluding biological functions may or may not be the Best Thing for everyone.

The findings in the Science study give me hope because they give us knowledge beyond the philosophical realm of educated guesswork. They provide actual empirical evidence which can be considered in order to supply more efficacious means of treatment for folks who Will Die or, at the very least, lead horribly infected lives because "praying for strength" is a placebo which quite simply, and via ubiquitous demonstrations, is absolutely worthless to so many of us.


They say necessity is the mother of invention and it's readily apparent that we often have need for crutches to get us through a time of healing. I think its easily agreed that the invention of crutches follows from the necessity of their function. Just as aspirin (or analgesics in general) dull pain so that we can be more relaxed and allow our bodies to heal naturally with more effectiveness, it's my great hope, my belief even, that drugs which may result from this line of research will provide folk the time and release from philosophical pain we need to Do the things we know that we must, naturally and of our own - often extremely tenuous - Free Will.

namaste


* Silly Humans is my original, and still primary, blog. It's the place where the referenced post can be found.

. . . it was only a kiss . . .

So I had this dream where I kissed my friend, lightly, on the lips. No biggy, right? She asked me, "why?" and kissed me again, the same way. Then again...

I got cold sweats and woke up.

There's nothing there. Not like that anyway.

I'm back to thinking 'bout goin' to the UU church my sister attends. I simply need more friends...

A State of Trance

Whilst my clubbin' buddy would look at me aghast and wonder just what the hekk I've been smoking, this show from Wolfgang's Vault is taking me to just such a groovy internal place.

Shake, Oh! Shake It Sugaree!

If'n you need a little more assistance trippin' down memory lane, here's some pics of a nearby show on the same tour.

Thanks again to mi 'migo Jack for turnin' me on to this site. You'll need to provide an eddress to check it, but the only drawback seems to be that they'll then let you know, once a week so far, when more good stuff is available.

Enjoy

Google Goodies - Fantastic Photos

I've made Google my Home Page because of all the neato little gizmos you can add. There're the typical Headlines and Scores and such, but my favorite part is the Tabbed Pages.

This picture is from a gizmo called Interesting Photos of the Day which I've included on my Fun Stuff tab. The gizmo cycles through presumably random Flickr photos and clicking on the currently showing pic takes you to that photographer's photostream.

Thats how I found this following scene from any of thousands of incredible fantasy novels. Click on the pic to see it really large. I would totally love to be in that space.

Happy Humpday all. . .


++++++++

Unless otherwise noted, all posts on this site are cross-posted from Silly Humans. All posts from SH won't necessarily be on here though. Just - I don't know - randomly and as I feel like or have the time at the time of posting.

For now.


{-;

Diversity Days

Happy Marting Luther King, Jr Day!

So many people roll their eyes at this "bank holiday". We (yeah, sometimes I've a done it too) shake our heads and proclaim it just another silly reason for kids to get out of school, or teachers to do even less than so many folks (emphatically NOT including me) seem to think they do. MLK Day is one holiday which the children of Trickle-down Ronnie's legacy do shrug off as hardly worth their time to acknowledge, much less have personal cause to celebrate.

With this new research, as presented via the WaPo by Shankar Vedantam, the empirical evidence that Diversity within our great America Melting pot is both desirable and efficacious towards our long-term health and growth, continues to pile up.

Businesses, Politicians and Reactionary Fundamentalists take note:

In Boardrooms and in Courtrooms, Diversity Makes a Difference
By Shankar Vedantam
Monday, January 15, 2007; Page A02

*****
Cedrick Herring has just completed his study. He found that companies that are more diverse have more customers, a larger share of their markets and greater profitability. In fact, when Herring puts his numbers on a graph, he finds a linear relationship between diversity and business success, meaning that as diversity increases, those business indicators increase in step.

"Those companies that have very low levels of racial and ethnic minorities have the lowest profits and the lowest market share and the lowest number of customers," he said. "Those that have medium levels do better, and those that have the highest levels do the best."

Herring got his results by obtaining data about diversity levels and business performance from about 250 companies. He verified the information with independent statistics from Dun & Bradstreet Corp. and documents filed with the federal government. The 250 companies are representative of all U.S. businesses with more than 10 employees -- from the restaurant down the street that employs a dozen people to multinational corporations with thousands of workers. Herring found the same relationship between diversity and business success whether a company was large or small.

While Herring's study points to the benefits of diversity, it does not directly address the contentious question of how it should be achieved.

As a good scientist, he is cautious about the result and says it does not prove that companies do better because they are diverse. What the study shows is a correlation between diversity and business success. While diversity could be the cause of better business outcomes, it is also possible, for example, that companies that are successful to begin with do a better job of attracting and retaining minorities.

[For the whole of the article]

Rather Than Remove All Doubt . . .

A Praise Post

Everybody's doing it, so why can't I?

Ooops. That's of the Cranberries (another, slightly lower key, favorite.) This post is to pimp Jimmy Eat World's Bleed American*.

Again.

This group of (then) twenty somethings made a record back in '01 which still makes me feel my age of 41 (spelled t.h.i.r.t.y. o.n.e.) and which I just can't seem to hear or recommend enough.

A Praise Chorus
...

I'm on my feet
I'm on the floor
I'm good to go

I wanna always feel like
part of this was mine

I wanna fall in love tonight

---Chrimson and Clover
---Over and over (repeated behind chorus)

Our House in the middle of the street
Why did we ever meet
Starring in my rock-n-roll fantasy

Don't don't
Why did we ever part
Kickstart my rock-n-roll heart

---(end C & C)

I'm on my feet
I'm on the floor
I'm good to go

I wanna always feel like
part of this
was
mine

I wanna fall in love tonight
I wanna fall in love tonight

I wanna always feel like
part of this
was
mine

I wanna fall in love tonight
I wanna fall in love tonight
I wanna fall in love tonight

Even though I know I ain't nowhere near freakin' ready to fall down that rabbit hole again, this is one of those bands that keeps me wanting to get back to wanting it.

Favorite cuts have gotta be:

-- A Praise Chorus (See above)

-- If You Don't, Don't

If you don't know, why would you say so...
( no shit, eh.)

-- Sweetness -

I was spinning free with a little sweet and simple numbing me.
What a dizzy dance.
This sweetness will not be concerned with me.

-- Bleed American

(I bled the) greed from my arm.
Won’t they give it a rest now?
(Fuck You, George Bush! Fuck You Fuck You Fuck You Fuck You Fuck You FUCK YOUUUUUU!**)
Salt, sweat, sugar on the asphalt.
Our hearts littering the topsoil.
Tune in and we can get the last call.
Salt, sweat, sugar on the asphalt, our hearts littering the topsoil.
Sign up it's the picket line or the parade.

-- Your House

If you love me at all, don't call.

-- Middle - Also one of my favorite videos evah. I all too often feel like the kid a'wanderin' thru and not connected to the revelry.

Enjoy!



* All lyrics as I interpret them or as found on this site.

** errrummm.. Sorry. My little interjection always seems to fill the gap in the lyrics, there. :)

So Long, and Thanks for All the . . . Beatdowns?

Cowher resigns to spend more time with family
Associated Press

PITTSBURGH -- His was the best known jaw in the NFL, a jutting block of granite that perfectly reflected his toughness and passion for winning.
----
Cowher resigned Friday after 15 seasons as the Steelers' coach, a job he probably could have held for life -- or, at least, for as long as the 23 years predecessor Chuck Noll held it. The Steelers immediately began searching for a new coach for only the second time since 1969, a span when other NFL teams have had as many as 15 coaches.

Cowher was one hell of a competitor and I remember being totally bummed when Pittsburg hired him back in the day.

The Brown's needed a head coach as well at the time (actually the year before) and, even though dude was from the Burg, he had both played and coached for Cleveland. Browns' fans knew him. We loved his sideline to sideline energy and in-your-face but on-your-side bulldog style and most people were completely stumped by the hiring of Bill Belichick to replace has-been but great guy - and former Pittsburg Defensive coordinator - Bud Carson. Not a few folks 'round these parts think a Cowher hire may have helped prevent He Who Shall Not Be Named* moving the team to Baltimore. I ain't one of them, but it's all part of the Lore of Woe and Lamentation** which has become part and parcel of being a Brown's fan nigh these past 40+ years.

Ahhh, well. That's all I've really got to say on the topic, other than to wish the Chin a pleasant retirement and to thank the Rooney family for their dedication to rational salary expenditures and loyalty to people who exemplefy what is good and honorable in the world of professional sports. Cowher's reign o'er the Black and Gold has been the longest of any head coach in the last several decades. That's something incredibly unusual during my lifetime, and his record surely indicates that such has been a Good Thing for both the city of Pittsburg and the NFL as a whole, IMO.

Salute! And don't let the door hit ya in the ass on yer way out, ya bum!

{-;


* Art Modell, in case you're wondering. I just like to play with the silly religious emotionalism inherent to Fandom. I really can't be holding grudges, especially when the old man had a least one sound and rational point in making the BAD BAD BAD BAD Move. {sighhh}

* Thanks for putting "lament" in m' noggin, AIF. {-;

Understatement of the Year . . . Already!

Ho Ho ho ha hahahahaha . . . Ohhh . . . Excuse me while I finish laughing my ass off.

Pope Benedict XVI prayed at a New Year's Eve service at the Vatican City in Rome that 2007 would bring the world "peace, comfort, justice." But he cast a cold eye on some secular New Year celebrations, saying such social "rites" are "often carried out as an escape from reality."

As if it needs the emphasis! LOL! Thanks Bene. Way to get the new year bouncing with irony ya silly ol' Homo.

Okay. I may just be a bit slap happy, as I just got in from a 3 hour drive back from a fantastical "social rite" of our own in Detroit. I was just checking headlines to chill out before hitting the sack and simply had to comment on the Papal Delusionist's little contribution to 2007's birth.

What a wonderful world!

Happy New Year everybody!