Gratias tibi ago, domine.
haec credam a deo pio, a deo justo, a deo scito?
cruciatus in crucem
tuus in terra servus, nuntius fui; officium perfeci.
cruciatus in crucem eas in crucem "

"It was an act of cosmic mayhem known as a stellar tidal disruption. It removed any lingering doubt, astronomers said, that the reputation of black holes as star-destroyers is fully deserved."

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts,
And I looked and behold: a pale horse.
And his name, that sat on him, was Death.
And Hell follwed with him.

"Waken we must, or else life is half-lived in a numbness, and its beauty is shrouded in fog. With effort and resolve, we shall live awake and aware, unwilling to lie down and have our lives stolen from us. Our children will be safely off to meadows and streams of good health and creative joy. Our elders will be cared for and loved. Our workers will enjoy the fruits and securities of their labors in the world we are building one vote at a time."

"no sleeping in the house, the bedroom closed,
the kids' rooms too, you only go
to the couch and listen to television voices
calling as if to a lifeboat they don't
know anything about"

Random Name Generator: "The random name generator uses data from the US Census to randomly generate male and female names. Use it for screenplays, fake id's, car rentals, pick-up lines, books, prank calls, movies.
Give a random name to that special someone you meet at the bar.
Yours Truly,
Modesto Leppink"

Book of the Dead
By Garrett Doherty

If you die
look at your clone happy to appear,
always liking vague immortal things.
After you die he talks and talks about you
those who loved you don't talk.
After, the rose of Onlooking will ask more of you,
the constellations shift, transduce a couple hearts.
As soon as you go
a cousin inherits the red-checked mother-of-pearl shirt,
cracks your viola on the way down the stairs,
a little spit to cover it up.
After the christening your relatives are trying
to give away your rocking chairs, cans of pimento, the Knox gelatin
the same ones who sing to your body
Wind blows over what you saw.
In the sage plant a spider blinks for you;
a few paws twitch in the pet psychic's dream.
In the end your mother's hand
slips your umbrella under the wet leaves.
Sarah Strong, once your worst love,
remembers where her hair brush is
now that you're gone.
We'd all love like her if we could
the way she thinks of you once in a while
when she's hungry, in front of the refrigerator,
cool air falling onto her feet.

Elsewhere, experts around the world confirmed that moments after Ms. Jackson's right boob fell out of its housing, Western civilization fell as well.

Dr. Milton Campeaux of the University of Minnesota said that experts were surprised that Ms. Jackson caused Western civilization's long-awaited collapse.

'We all expected a Jackson to do it, but not Janet,' he said.

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it...
Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate....
Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Dr. Martin Luther King

Quotes from Dogs of War: "If she dies, his approval ratings will go through the roof."

THe Bear:

The Bear
By Dan Chiasson

In quiet, in the exquisite privacy of a cave, a bear
is giving birth. Outside the cave a steady rain falls
but here there are no echoes, only the sound
of her convulsing body and her babies' cries.
Her cubs are white, screaming lumps, eyeless until
she licks their eyes into place, bald until
she paints fur up and down them with her tongue.
It is a litter of five at least; it is hard to see
how many have burrowed under her soft belly.
Also, this is ancient Rome; it is hard to see through
so much time. It makes you wonder how many
other beautiful sights are hidden away in time,
a cavelike element famous for its dimness. Now she
and her cubs are emerging from the cave, leaving
one weakling behind. He is lame, and will not survive
this rainy night two thousand years ago. By now
he is vanishing into the floor of the dark cave,
even his newly painted fur, even his fresh eyes.
By now he's gone entirely from view.
All the caves on this hill are identical again."

Dean, Lobotomized - He shouldn't take that abuse from Diane Sawyer. By Timothy�Noah: "Seeing Dean beg for mercy over what was merely an untelegenic display of enthusiasm called to mind the last scene in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, when Chief Bromden finds McMurphy, and he's been lobotomized, all rebellion and mischief sucked out of him, and you don't know whether to rage or weep. If only Dean had taken a swing at Nurse Ratched before they wheeled him into the operating room."

The Earth Turned to Bring Us Closer by Eugenio Montejo:

The Earth turned to bring us closer,
it spun on itself and within us,
and finally joined us together in this dream
as written in the Symposium.
Nights passed by, snowfalls and solstices;
time passed in minutes and millennia.
An ox cart that was on its way to Nineveh
arrived in Nebraska.

A rooster was singing some distance from the world,
in one of the thousand pre-lives of our fathers.
The Earth was spinning with its music
carrying us on board;
it didn't stop turning a single moment
as if so much love, so much that's miraculous
was only an adagio written long ago
in the Symposium's score."

knot.magazine: "Cancer or not, we're all fucking around on the edge of a bottomless, black chasm talking about shit like what we're going to have for dinner.
We have the hot breath of a blood-thirsty beast on the back of our necks, and we do crossword puzzles and take scenic drives.
And I don't know whether all of that is a sign of idiocy or genius."

This Modern World: "Okay, let me get this straight...
George Bush wants to cut taxes while financing his various wars and nation-building efforts...
...and go back to the moon?
Every credit card in the national wallet is maxed out, and Dad suddenly has a midlife crisis and decides he wants to buy a friggin' moon rocket.
It's no wonder the neighbors think we're crazy."

The Website of the Former Healey Campaign: "Sorry I couldn't be here to save you $3 million.
I'm on vacation.
If you need anything, please contact
the office of the Lieutenant Governor.
You paid for it."

In the Soothing Glow of the Yellow McAlert: "In the Soothing Glow of the Yellow McAlert "

"BLIND, DEAF PEOPLE OBJECT TO BEING COMPARED TO BUSH ADMINISTRATION

Demand Apology From Paul O'Neill
After former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill likened President George W. Bush in his Cabinet meetings to a 'blind man in a roomful of deaf people,' representatives of the blind and the deaf demanded a prompt and total apology from the former administration official.

'Blind and deaf people have had a lot to contend with in the past, but this remark represents a new low,' said Lois Pankow of the Coalition for the Blind and the Deaf. 'To be compared to President Bush and his Cabinet is at the very least hurtful and quite possibly slanderous as well.'

While Ms. Pankow would not confirm that the blind and the deaf intended to take legal action against Mr. O'Neill for his remarks, she said, 'We are quite confident that any court would decide that being compared to the Bush administration has damaged the reputation of the blind and the deaf, perhaps irreparably.'

Moments after Ms. Pankow's statement, Mr. O'Neill released a statement of his own, apologizing for his comments: 'What I meant to say was that the Bush White House was like a roomful of monkeys banging away on typewriters, trying to write the complete works of William Shakespeare.'

But moments after his apology was released, a representative of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) blasted Mr. O'Neill for his new remarks, saying that they had 'defamed the reputation of monkeys everywhere.'

For his part, President Bush today released a statement comparing himself to 'rubber' and Mr. O'Neill to 'glue.'"

Where do they come from? The dust. Where do they go? the
grave. Does blood stir in their veins? No: the night wind. What
ticks in their head? The worm. What speaks from their mouth?
The toad. What sees from their eye? The snake. What hears
with their ear? The abyss betweeen the stars.

"We all know someone who, through a series of cruel fate-twists, wound up employed by a monolithic, soul-crushing behemoth of a corporation that has, over the years, so thoroughly eroded his self-confidence and sense of wonder that the only time he can muster enthusiasm for anything work-related is when he fantasizes about perforating his superiors and coworkers. Well, turn that frown upside down with The Shocking Mouse! Just imagine the grimace of delight that will spasm across his face when he emerges from a 90-minute Pre-Discussion Meeting with Marketing to prepare participants for the two-hour Post-Pre-Discussion Planning Roundtable later that afternoon, trudges back to his cubicle and, upon touching his mouse, receives a painful electric jolt! You’ll know you got him the perfect gift when you see him put his head into his hands and sob, overcome with the joy of the holidays. "