Steve said "it cloned my usage" which, when taken out of context, sounds funny however not as funny if you say "it cloned my weasel". Is that judgmental?

Song lyric from zefrank
"Did your invisible baby
drink some invisible potion
or did you just cover it
with some invisible lotion"

Winter color out today.
Not cloudy, not cold,
just the quality of light.
Autumn leaves.

Jeff's 16 year old nephew is in the hospital with brain damage after getting hit by a van. Brings me back to Rachelle's accident. Cars kill and maim us, make us weak and flabby, damage the planet, makes us do bushiness with crappy countries, yet its like a god given right to drive one (I am no exception). Not to mention all the god-damn money we spend on them. They also bring us to Key West in the winter, Nova Scotia in the summer, California at christmas.

If it's brown your in cider town.

Visiting kid's work places.
"That appliance over there simulates a lower intestinal track"
"That old bent over apple tree was a pain to pick because many of its branches are on the ground"
"Try the carrot juice"
"The geese come up from the river into the parking lot and hiss"

Compassionate upright monkeys doomed to worry?
From listening and understanding someone's struggles to trusting that it will turn out all right? Answer next time on Dr. Phil, if you dare look him right in the eye.

arrggggg...when the flow goes down, go down, when the flow goes up, go up.
Its all about the flow.

Damn, I showed no mercy to my soul but I did show it whose the boss(and its not Tony Danza). Take that you ephemeral container of my essence !

Crazy work day, may the lord have mercy on my soul.

Hackneyed and described every which way New England autumn foliage makes the off ramp from 95 North onto 4/225 look pretty cool.

The crappy new IP phones here at work remind me of a joke.
Dick: "The food at this restaurant stinks"
John: "Then why do you eat here?"
Dick: "Large portions"

Siren song of fog reluctantly left behind,
wonderful obscuring,
all enveloping fog.
The fog has left it's gift although
hard pressed to put into words.
I miss that fog again.

I smell my pencils after sharpening.

Go ahead, leave a comment.

While the average programmer (OK, me) might be wondering if Oracle 10g really will provide the scalability needed for his employer to prosper....

The number of individual E. Coil bacteria that the average programmer (me again) excretes in one day averages between 100 billion and 10 trillion.

Its taken the United States much longer to excrete 300 million people (that's not me, I am only responsible for two) by October 2006.

Take that USA !

Borrow from Sunday to play Saturday.

There are four or five trees outside my window at work. There is no breeze at all and leaves are falling of their own volition a few at a time. Whether they are yelling Wheeeee or Oh my God I can't hear through the glass that has on it drops of rain pointing towards the center of the earth. The landscaping crew cleaned up today but by now you would never know it (unless the lawn mower tire tracks in the grass give it away to you). The sky is grey however still several shades lighter than the air conditioning equipment on the building across the way.

I found this article an interesting way to look at something, I do every day, a little bit differently.

Interlude: Meditation of the Week:

"To the angry driver, wish peace.
To the speeding driver wish patience.
To the aggressive driver wish compassion.
To the hesitant driver wish skill and confidence. "

All hours wound,
the last one kills.

2007 Dodge Ram SRT10 "This truck could be more politically incorrect only if it ran on whale oil and panda tears. "

A Prairie Home Companion from American Public Media: "The Mexican migrants are living the lives of our ancestors and we know it. Lives of hard work, outside the mainstream, lives that would feel hopeless except for powerful family loyalty and faith. So we have some empathy for these dark mysterious figures in our midst."

What a howlee learned in Hawaii 2006.

My son sent me home with a couple
of hundred to deposit for his
dream of an apartment
with friends.

I returned to much more
however my dream is still
hiding around the corner.

The tarrot lady asked
me for a hug and
I smelled her hair.

The sarong brushed my ankles
keeping away mosquitoes.

The sun exposes and darkens
my skin.

Maw, Maw...How tall was that cliff
I jumped from....120 feet.

Hey Pa....wha?

H_O_W I_S I_T ?

Man in Space
by Billy Collins


All you have to do is listen to the way a man
sometimes talks to his wife at a table of people
and notice how intent he is on making his point
even though her lower lip is beginning to quiver,


and you will know why the women in science
fiction movies who inhabit a planet of their own
are not pictured making a salad or reading a magazine
when the men from earth arrive in their rocket,


why they are always standing in a semicircle
with their arms folded, their bare legs set apart,
their breasts protected by hard metal disks.

Uva uvam videndo varia fit -

A grape changes color in seeing another grape.

Things I learned in Gettysburg 7/4/2006

My father snores gently.
Some people can not understand Bill Buckner.
Some people want to be treated as adults.
War porn.
July in Pennsylvania is hot and
makes you pee rust.
To get out of the damn car.
Cousins work.
Best time to drive is at night
if you want to get somewhere.
Question the accepted view of everything.
Glad I went.

Eternity is a long time, especially towards the end.

Hug
by Ron Padgett

The older I get, the more I like hugging, When I was little the
people hugging me were much larger. In their grasp I was a rag
doll. In adolescence, my body was too tense to relax for a hug.
Later, after the loss of virginity-which was anything but a
loss-the extreme proximity of the other person, the smell of
hair, the warmth of the skin, the sound of breathing in the
dark-these were mysterious and delectable. This hug had
two primary components: the anticipation of sex and the plea-
sure of intimacy, which itself is a combination of trust and
affection. It was this latter combination that came to character-
ize the hugging I have experienced only in recent years, a hug-
ging that knows no distinctions of gender or age. When this
kind of hug is mutual, for a moment the world is perfect the
way it is, and the tears we shed for it are perfect too. I guess it
is an embrace.

A Prairie Home Companion from American Public Media:

"I locate the martini glasses, which had been used for fingerpaints, and I chill them, and I shake up the gin and vermouth in a pitcher of ice, and put on a Sinatra CD, and word gets around. The neighbors come over. They've been slaves to the brutal schedule of their children's social, educational, spiritual, recreational and therapeutic activities, with scarcely a free moment for themselves. 'How about it?' I say. 'Lock the little buggers in the laundry room and let's party. If they get put into foster care, so be it.' I pour us each a stiff drink and slap some beef on the grill, and we have ourselves a whee of a time. "

"It was on this day in 1893 that the verdict was announced in the trial of Lizzie Borden, who had been accused of murdering her father and stepmother with an ax. She was found not guilty."

Fathers day, 2006 or
What we believe but cannot prove.

Hours describe the circle
in one minute describe
the seconds in three
hundred sixty degrees.
Church equals marriage,
civil union for everyone else.
Horny is the flange of life.
Animals in commercials say what?
I hope to be alive to see what's next.
Twenty four years ago I yelped o'God
and twenty two ago I saw stars.
Now its me that wears purple.
Hey, Hey, Hey.

Off the Record
by Ronald Wallace

In the attic I find the notes
he kept in college
over forty years ago: Hooray
for Thanksgiving vacation! he wrote
in the margin of Psych 102.
And for a moment I can see him there,

feel the exuberance surge through
that odd cell of his body
where I am still
a secret code uncompleted, a piece
of DNA, some ancient star-stuff.
And then I find a recording of me

from 1948, when he was twenty-two
and I was three, and I can see,
from my perch up on his shoulders,
him stopping at the gaudy arcade,
plugging his lucky quarter into
the future where we'd always be.

Maybe imagination is just
a form of memory after all, locked
deep in the double helix of eternity.
Or maybe the past is but one more
phantasmagoric invention we use
to fool ourselves into someone else's shoes.

It is not my voice I want to hear
on memory's fading page, on imagination's disk.
It is my father's in the background
prompting me, doing his best
to stay off the record, his hushed
instructions vanishing in static."

May twenty fifth two thousand and sixth.

Change.

There are times change comes like water on stone

other times

it is found between the hammer and anvil.

What I have learned today - May twenty fourth two thousand six.

There are bugs that communicate by vibrating plant stems.

That the stress of commuting is hard to measure.

I am strong however it is not easy.

The Writer's Almanac from American Public Media:

"I told him that in Mexico the poor say
that when there's lightning the rich
think that God is taking their picture.
He laughed."

A Prairie Home Companion from American Public Media: "Young people are pessimistic enough these days without their elders complaining about things. Shut up. Life is pretty good when you grow up. You own your own car, you go where you like, and you sing along with the radio or talk to yourself or chat on your cell phone. You pull into the drive-up window and order the Oreo Blizzard. What's not to like? "

Sheldon VanAuken's book A Severe Mercy

'It is, I think, that we are all so alone in what lies deepest in our souls, so unable to find the words, and perhaps the courage to speak with unlocked hearts, that we don't know at all that it is the same with others.'

Unsolicited advice
is always
self serving.

The Writer's Almanac from American Public Media: "The word 'Easter' comes from an ancient pagan goddess worshipped by Anglo Saxons named Eostre. According to legend, Eostre once saved a bird whose wings had frozen during the winter by turning the bird into a rabbit. Because the rabbit had once been a bird, it could still lay eggs, and that rabbit became our Easter Bunny. "

When someone invites you to a burn pile at their place make sure you ask if everything is all ready in the pile. If not you are in for a hurtin pile of work.

The Writer's Almanac from American Public Media:

'We Bring Democracy To The Fish' by Donald Hall

It is unacceptable that fish prey on each other.
For their comfort and safety, we will liberate them
into fishfarms with secure, durable boundaries
that exclude predators. Our care will provide
for their liberty, health, happiness, and nutrition.
Of course all creatures need to feel useful.
At maturity the fish will discover their purposes."

Dating at 50.

OK, wait a minute.
I am supposed to do what?
wait a minute.
OK.
That can't be right.
I don't want to do that.
that's ridiculous.
No way.
o' fuck.

New Moon

The crone rises
and sets unseen.
I rise and set
unseen.
Perhaps as the moon
fills
so will I.

The Writer's Almanac from American Public Media: "Eugene McCarthy said, 'Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it's important.'"

The Writer's Almanac from American Public Media:

"Poem: 'Trees'

by W. S. Merwin from The Compass Flower. Macmillian Publishing Company. Reprinted with permission.

Trees

I am looking at trees
they may be one of the things I will miss
most from the earth
though many of the ones I have seen
already I cannot remember
and though I seldom embrace the ones I see
and have never been able to speak
with one
I listen to them tenderly
their names have never touched them
they have stood round my sleep
and when it was forbidden to climb them
they have carried me in their branches"

A Prairie Home Companion from American Public Media: "The Republican Revolution has gone the way of all flesh. It took over Congress and the White House, horns blew, church bells rang, sailors kissed each other, and what happened? The Republicans led us into a reckless foreign war and steered the economy toward receivership and wielded power as if there were no rules. Democrats are accused of having no new ideas, but Republicans are making some of the old ideas look awfully good, such as constitutional checks and balances, fiscal responsibility, and the notion of realism in foreign affairs and taking actions that serve the national interest. What one might call 'conservatism.' "

Ides of March - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Tu quoque, Brute, fili mi!"

Kill Your Television--The Zen of Television: "For an avid television viewer, their period of zen is sitting in front of the TV screen for hours. This is their life. The buddha says: 'Learn to let go. That is the key to happiness.' Letting go means ridding oneself from desire and want. The television shows all the things we don't have and tries to light the fire of consumerism. The TV says, 'Buy a new car,' 'Buy microwave french fries,' 'Buy Pepsi,' and 'Buy Coca-Cola.' The Zen of Television does not want to let go. It wants you to hold tight . . . to keep watching . . . and to desire the things you don't have. The buddha says: 'Joy comes not through possession or ownership, but through a wise and loving heart.' "

A Prairie Home Companion from American Public Media: "But torture is something else. When Americans start pulling people's fingernails out with pliers and poking lighted cigarettes into their palms, then we need to come back to basic values. Most people agree with this, and in a democracy that puts the torturers in a delicate position. They must make sure to destroy their e-mails and have subordinates who will take the fall. Because it is impossible to keep torture secret. It goes against the American grain and it eats at the conscience of even the most disciplined, and in the end the truth will come out. It is coming out now. "

Amen !

The Writer's Almanac from American Public Media: "Ulysses S. Grant said, 'The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can and as often as you can, and keep moving on.'"

"In creating goals, you create your future by outlining your destiny. When you choose your goals using your head and heart, you take the first step in manifesting what you want. You grant your own wishes every time you achieve another goal."

Sagittarius November 22 - December 21

You’ll run out of your secret ingredient of love halfway through baking a batch of lemon squares this week. Thankfully, you’ll have enough hate and jealousy on hand for an infinite number of desserts

"Poem: 'Manners' by Howard Nemerov from Trying Conclusions.

Manners

Prig offered Pig the first chance at dessert,
So Pig reached out and speared the bigger part.

'Now that,' cried Prig, 'is extremely rude of you!'
Pig, with his mouth full, said, 'Wha, wha' wou' 'ou do?'

'I would have taken the littler bit,' said Prig.
'Stop kvetching, then, it's what you've got,' said Pig.

So virtue is its own reward, you see.
And that is all it's ever going to be."

Monty Python: The Philosopher's Drinking Song


"Immanuel Kant was a real piss-ant who was very rarely stable.
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar who could think you under the table. ..

David Hume could out-consume Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine who was just as sloshed as Schlegel.
There's nothing Nietzsche couldn't teach 'ya 'bout the raising of the wrist.
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed.
John Stuart Mill, of his own free will, after half a pint of shandy was particularly ill.
Plato, they say, could stick it away, half a crate of whiskey every day!
Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle,
And Hobbes was fond of his Dram.
And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart:
'I drink, therefore I am.'
Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed;
A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed. "

"A storm is coming, Frank says / A storm that will swallow the children / And I will deliver them from the kingdom of pain / I will deliver the children back to their doorsteps / And send the monsters back to the underground / I'll send them back to a place where no-one else can see them / Except for me / Because I am Donnie Darko. "

"The great irony of the heating and cooling industry is that those same visionaries who helped give us duct tape were shortsighted about their widespread use of cancer-causing asbestos. Had they known then what they know now, they could have used special fire-retardant duct tape in its place. We live, we learn, and duct tape helps hold the lessons of life together."

"Heisenberg gets pulled over by the police:

Police Officer: 'Do you know how fast you were going?'

Heisenberg: 'No, but I know exactly were I am!'"

Kahlil Gibran on Love:
When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say, 'God is in my heart,' but rather, 'I am in the heart of God.'
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfil

Valentine's Day Poetry - Love isn't always pretty. By Robert Pinsky:
"N.V.N.

There is a sacred, secret line in loving
which attraction and even passion cannot cross,
even if lips draw near in awful silence
and love tears at the heart.
Friendship is weak and useless here,
and years of happiness, exalted and full of fire,
because the soul is free and does not know
the slow luxuries of sensual life.
Those who try to come near it are insane
and those who reach it are shaken by grief,
So now you know exactly why
my heart beats no faster under your hand."

The Writer's Almanac from American Public Media:

"You've traveled this far on the back of every mistake,
ridden in dark-eyed and morose but calm as a house
after the TV set has been pitched out the upstairs
window. Harmless as a broken ax. Emptied
of expectation. Relax. Don't bother remembering
any of it. Let's stop here, under the lit sign
on the corner, and watch all the people walk by."

How To Watch the Winter Olympics - Winter Games women, beloved and less so. By Dana Stevens and Seth Stevenson: "How was your watching (of the Olympics)? Did you catch any of the women's biathlon? Those targets they shoot at are so small and uninteresting. It would be a much more entertaining sport if they were shooting at 78-year-old attorneys."

BobHarris.com: "If you're innocent, you shouldn't mind a shotgun blast to the face "

Theme From Red Dwarf by Jenna Russell
"It's cold outside; there's no kind of atmosphere
I'm all alone, more or less
Let me fly, far away from here
Fun, fun, fun, in the sun, sun, sun
I want to lie, shipwrecked and comatose
Drinking fresh mango juice
Goldfish shoals nibbling at my toes
Fun, fun, fun, in the sun, sun, sun
Fun, fun, fun, in the sun, sun, sun"

"The world is so exquisite, with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. Far better, it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look Death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.
-- Carl Sagan, Billions and Billions p. 215"

There Is No God
by Penn Jillette

I believe that there is no God. I'm beyond atheism. Atheism is not believing in God. Not believing in God is easy -- you can't prove a negative, so there's no work to do. You can't prove that there isn't an elephant inside the trunk of my car. You sure? How about now? Maybe he was just hiding before. Check again. Did I mention that my personal heartfelt definition of the word "elephant" includes mystery, order, goodness, love and a spare tire?
So, anyone with a love for truth outside of herself has to start with no belief in God and then look for evidence of God. She needs to search for some objective evidence of a supernatural power. All the people I write e-mails to often are still stuck at this searching stage. The atheism part is easy.
But, this "This I Believe" thing seems to demand something more personal, some leap of faith that helps one see life's big picture, some rules to live by. So, I'm saying, "This I believe: I believe there is no God."
Having taken that step, it informs every moment of my life. I'm not greedy. I have love, blue skies, rainbows and Hallmark cards, and that has to be enough. It has to be enough, but it's everything in the world and everything in the world is plenty for me. It seems just rude to beg the invisible for more. Just the love of my family that raised me and the family I'm raising now is enough that I don't need heaven. I won the huge genetic lottery and I get joy every day.
Believing there's no God means I can't really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. That's good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have to try to treat people right the first time around.
Believing there's no God stops me from being solipsistic. I can read ideas from all different people from all different cultures. Without God, we can agree on reality, and I can keep learning where I'm wrong. We can all keep adjusting, so we can really communicate. I don't travel in circles where people say, "I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith." That's just a long-winded religious way to say, "shut up," or another two words that the FCC likes less. But all obscenity is less insulting than, "How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you can ever say or do." So, believing there is no God lets me be proven wrong and that's always fun. It means I'm learning something.
Believing there is no God means the suffering I've seen in my family, and indeed all the suffering in the world, isn't caused by an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn't bothered to help or is just testing us, but rather something we all may be able to help others with in the future. No God means the possibility of less suffering in the future.
Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-O and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have.

"Poem: 'Change' by Louis Jenkins from The Winter Road.

Change

All those things that have gone from your life, moon boots, TV
trays, and the Soviet Union, that seem to have vanished, are
really only changed, dinosaurs did not disappear from the earth
but evolved into birds and crock pots became bread makers.
Everything around you changes. It seems at times (only for a
moment) that your wife, the woman you love, might actually be
your first wife in another form. It's a thought not to be pursued.
... Nothing is the same as it used to be. Except you, of course,
You haven't changed ... well, slowed down a bit, perhaps. It's
more difficult nowadays to deal with the speed of change, dis-
turbing to suddenly find yourself brushing your teeth with what
appears to be a flashlight. But essentially you are the same as
ever, constant in your instability. "

A Prairie Home Companion from American Public Media: "If you learn nothing else from great literature, at least you learn that the nicest people are capable of the darkest deeds. If you don't know that, then you are not a functioning adult. Perfectly lovely, well-behaved children active in church groups suddenly show up in the paper, accused of heinous crimes. Blame it on secular schools, if you like, or video games or high sugar consumption. But it may be that the thermostat was kept too high. Heat relaxes the inhibitions, and soon you start to think about stealing from your mother and getting hopped up on happy dust. It doesn't matter that you went to Sunday school regularly. The heart wants what it wants.

So chill, children. Put on a sweater. When tempted, go outdoors and lie in the snow and make angels. "

Frank Gelett Burgess

"If in the last few years you haven't discarded a major opinion or acquired a new one, check your pulse. You may be dead."

SHIPOOPI
(c) 1957 M. Willson
Well, a woman who'll kiss on the very first date
Is usually a hussy
And a woman who'll kiss on the second time out
Is anything but fussy
But a woman who'll wait till the third time around
Head in the clouds, feet on the ground
She's the girl he's glad he's found
She's his Shipoopi
Shipoopi! Shipoopi, Shipoopi
The girl who's hard to get!
Shipoopi. Shipoopi, Shipoopi
But you can win her yet.
Walk her once just to raise the curtain
Then you walk around twice and make for certain
Once more in the flower garden
She will never get sore if you beg her pardon
Do re me fa so la si
Do si la sol fa mi re do
Squeeze her once, when she isn't lookin'
If you get a squeeze back that's fancy cookin'
Once more for a pepper-upper
She will never get sore on her way to supper
Do re me fa sol la si
Do si do
Now little ol' Sal was a no-gal
As anyone could see
Lookit her now, she's a go-gal
Who only goes for me
Squeeze her once when she isn't lookin'
If you get a squeeze back, that's fancy cookin'
Once more for a pepper-upper
She will never get sore on her way to supper
Do re me fa sol la si
Do si do
Shipoopi, Shipoopi, Shipoopi
The girl who's hard to get
Shipoopi. Shipoopi, Shipoopi
But you can win her yet
Shipoopi

New Poll Finds Mixed Support for Wiretaps - New York Times:

"The poll, conducted as President Bush defended his surveillance program in the face of criticism from Democrats and some Republicans that it is illegal, found that Americans were willing to give the administration some latitude for its surveillance program if they believed it was intended to protect them. Fifty-three percent of the respondents said they supported eavesdropping without warrants 'in order to reduce the threat of terrorism.' "

AUTHOR: Benjamin Franklin (1706–90)

QUOTATION: Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Avocado

Scoop the pit out
Let dry for 2 to 3 days
Place flat bottom down in water.
It will split and
when a strong root extends
place in dirt.
25% successful.

Patriots lost to Denver why?

"I got my haircut"
"I drank to much before halftime"
"I didn't bring by game face"
"I wasn't focused"

They didn't play so well.

January 21'st

Pulled up to the driveway,
asked if he was OK?
He said yea and added he would call tomorrow.
We exchanged our goodbye's, thanks and Love You's
and he went into the house
now guarded by someone else's
gray car.

1971 Plymouth Satellite

The jonquils jumped up
on the way to Fogland.
They knew what we knew.
WEEI on the FM converter
and
Spanada with hot apple cider.
Dear God.

BobHarris.com: "I hereby justly declare that God Almighty, the Infinite and Unknowable, Creator of All That Is Beyond Comprehension, is cheating on his diet with a tuna sandwich at the moment. He also bats left-handed but throws with his right, loves the ketchup-flavored Twisties snacks you can buy in southeast Asia, and hasn't played the banjo in almost a year."

BobHarris.com: "Oh -- and here in Australia, the film went into living rooms unedited, complete with every last S-word, F-word, 10-letter C-word, and 12-letter M-word.

Hmm. And yet Oz has lower crime, poverty, and divorce rates than the U.S. How is this even possible? I thought those words had magical powers to destroy minds. Hmm. The very fact that one of Australia's major broadcast networks has no compunction about this, and yet I'm expected even by many people who are open-minded by the standards back home to bowdlerize my use of these words to the level of baby talk, tells me that tomorrow Australia will be destroyed by America's powerful Republican god.

If not, then obviously all this decency shit is fucked."

The Writer's Almanac from American Public Media:

"Poem: 'Despond,' by Jim Harrison.

At midnight in his living room a man
is angry at a fly that is bothering him.
How can this be?

A man is angry at things
that never happened
and never will happen.

He's angry at the woman he'll never meet
because she refuses to meet him
because, not existing herself,
she has no idea that he exists.

He's frying potatoes that don't exist
at sunset. The frying pan is a black sun
and out the window in the gathering dark
the ocean looks so heavy that it might fall
through the earth and join another ocean.

At dawn he wakes. There's a fly in the room
but perhaps it's a miniature bird. Magnified,
the sound is the basso rumbling of the universe
the peculiar music galaxies make when they fray
against each other. He sleeps again, his hand
on his dog's heart which says don't be angry.
She senses the steps of the last dance saved for us "

"Never use the word 'relationship.' You can say 'marriage' or 'romance' or 'partnership' or 'living arrangement' or 'hubba hubba ding dong,' but the word 'relationship' is like the hissing of vipers. If the romance or marriage needs help, the answer almost always is Have More Fun. Drop your list of grievances and go ride a roller coaster. Take a brisk walk. Dance. Take a trip to Duluth. Read Dickens. There is almost no marital problem that can't be helped enormously by taking off your clothes. "

"I wear the chain I forged in life. I made it link by link, and yard by yard. I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it."

In a solar system of dead rocks, snowballs, and gasbags, Earth was a theater, a rotating stage upon which a thin green scum of organic life acted out countless, continual scenes whose content, whether explicit or oblique, was almost wholly sexual. The colors, the smells, and the sounds of organic things had evolved as sexual attractants, created to keep the trillion romantic plots moving toward a trillion, more-or-less happy endings.

I Enjoy Your Pain - Men, women, and the pleasure of punishment. By William Saletan:

"More evidence that men are vindictive: Brain scans show that when somebody they dislike suffers pain, men "but not women" show a) zero activity in empathy-related parts of the brain and b) a surge of activity in pleasure-related parts of the brain. In the study, disliked people were those who had behaved selfishly in a game. Interpretations: 1) Men are born mean. 2) Men are made mean. 3) Men are deeply ethical and reserve empathy for those who deserve it. 4) Men do women a service by instinctively punishing cheaters. "

Crappity Crap Crap on a Crap Cracker !!!

A Tiny Revolution: I Enjoy Canada: "Is your entire f*cking country on crack??? Are all you Americans out of your cotton picking minds??? Are you completely freaking delusional? Homicidal? Psychotic? Have you lost any shred of a moral compass? WHAT IN THE NAME OF JESUS H. CHRIST ON A CRUTCH IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!!!"

This Modern World: "Fear drives out reason. Fear suppresses the politics of discourse and opens the door to the politics of destruction. Justice Brandeis once wrote: "Men feared witches and burnt women."

Manny Ramirez demands to be traded from the Red Sox. After being initially rebuffed, he politely asks to be traded. He later begs to be traded, pleads to be traded, and fakes a terminal illness and says his dying wish is to be traded. When ownership still refuses, he issues a statement saying he 'loves playing for the Red Sox and hopes to finish his career in Boston.'"