From Van der Leun at American Digest, comes a lovely rebuttal to T.S. Eliot's cautionary verses about mankind (us) wrecking our own civilization. An excerpt:
"We told our children that any child could grow up to be President. And then we made it come true.
"We had car shows, boat shows, beauty shows and dog shows.
"We ran robots on the surface of Mars by remote control.
"Our women came from all over the world in all shapes and sizes hues and scents.
"We actually believed that all men are created equal and tried to make it come true.
"Everybody liked our movies and loved our television shows.
"We tried to educate everybody, whether they wanted it or not. Sometimes we succeeded.
"We did Levis.
"We held the torch high and hundreds of millions came. No matter what the cost. ..."
Included at the end, is this powerful insight from another titan, Carl Sandburg:
The People Yes
The people will live on.
The learning and blundering people will live on.
They will be tricked and sold and again sold.
And go back to the nourishing earth for rootholds,
Col. Robert Neville turned me on to this lovely slice of musicana (his bride is Japanese, and, like him, I share a love of that culture). Its title is misleading. It's NOT about food. The real title is "I shall walk looking up." Here are some of the lyrics:
I shall walk looking up so my tears won't fall remembering spring days on this lonely night
To my lasting regret, I only spent 3 months in Japan, and only in Tokyo, having been stationed at Pacific Stars and Stripes for the short remainder of my military obligation. How I wish I could have had just one glimpse of the landscape captured in the picture posted here. And that's just one microscopic snippet from an amazing cornucopia of amazements hardly to be imagined in such a small country.
As it was, I had a heckuva good time in Tokyo, however brief. Best memory: Two Japanese high-school boys who attached themselves to me and Anne, a fellow soldier, in hopes of improving their English. They took us here, there and everywhere around Tokyo, filled with delight and pride. They introduced us to an extraordinary Italian restaurant, which was roughly the size of compact car, at which the food was prepared behind a bar the relative width of a two-by-four. The cuisine probably would have been sneered at by anyone whose only experience with Italian food consists of a greasy pizza at Pizza Hut, but the boys thought it was the bee's knees.
At 3 a.m. one night, after a long pow-wow during which Anne and I patiently transcribed pages of Rolling Stone magazine (with which the boys were endlessly fascinated), we wandered out in search of sustenance. NO ONE bothered us. NO suspicious and/or dangerous characters lurking in dark doorways. We did encounter one gentleman, dressed in khaki pants, a polo shirt and Dockers, who had a Doberman pinscher on a leash. Anne, a dog lover, exclaimed and petted the pooch, but our escorts were suddenly curt, and dragged us away. Turns out the guy was a gangster. How could they tell? He parted his hair in the middle.
When they found out I was being shipped out, they plied me with presents. Lovely, plummy desserts their mothers made, a beautiful teacup and saucer, and an amulet to bring luck.
Wherever you are, Hideki and Tetsuo, I wish you every happiness.
*****************************
My dear Colonel, what a lovely tribute as you and all Australians bid farewell to summer, readying for winter's long, quiet adagio. No accident that "hope springs eternal."
Autumn fulfills, with redolence of scent that promises new birth someday; Each breath is crisp, and all is fulfilled -- the year has given us all we need. Eat and be nourished from what we have saved. Summer is gone; her fruits fill us up. We fiddle for now, for life is a dance.
Winter is filled with its own romance. Life falls to slumber, in cold dissonance. We wait, and we wonder, in hope that one day the new day we wait for is brilliant and gay, For each day we hunger for, day after day, is only a hope of a hitch on the post of another good day. And good days are precious, in winter, we know.
When Spring comes, Spring sings.
Spring is all possibilities. Spring is daffodils, demanding their consciousness. Well, daffodils have their own say to say. And what they have to say is, We are spring.
What other plant dares to push up out of the cold ground than these?
"Three laptops, 4 fans, a load of washing on, both ipods in their stereos and firing, third stereo on (cannot be asked to work out the turntable bit but), printer going on some cases I’ve been saving to read ... and I do believe I am overcome with the will to do some ironing.
"And neighbours over the road and next door all lit up as well. The Hour of Power is cheering me up."
(Me too, mate. Take THAT, carboweenies. Hahahahaha!)
"The Wall Street bonus system needs overhauling because what happened at AIG is not an isolated incident. It is commonplace to pay bonuses even when there is no evidence that there is an equivalence between the bonus and the work performed. The bonus is paid to keep them from leaving.
"It amounts to extortion, because by paying employees twice, first for work done poorly, second for cleaning up their own mess, corporate managers, employees, and directors in effect conspire to fleece the stockholders, in this case U.S. taxpayers who own 80 percent of AIG shares. Contracts arranged through a conspiracy are not valid, and we should not hesitate to set them aside.
"The bonuses paid under the terms of those contracts are much more than a pimple on the face. They are a malignant tumor." (emphasis mine)
"(I) have passion to my homeland, I love it, I love Afghanistan, I love its people, I love to fight against any troubles with steps and pen, I love to fight for the freedom of speech, for liberation of my country from terror, I love to work for human rights and democracy in my country. I can’t stop whatever I can do to my country, many years being as refugee in other countries and away from it I felt and realized how much important was it. The direction to which Muslims turn in praying, for me is Afghanistan. Wherever I am I turn to Afghanistan to pray."
(From a speech given by blogger Nasim Fekrat of Afghan Lord, on winning a Freedom of Expression Award in Siena, Italy.)
It's heartening to know Nasim is out there fighting the good fight. I only hope he can do something about the blue ghosts sitting at the left of the photo.
Sorry, guys. No testosterone fix for you on this post. (Though, no doubt, my girl is lovable.)
The government of Iran is holding her for ransom for no particular reason. As they have held lots of other non-babe journalists. And plenty of other non-babes.
Iran is working on nukes, most diligently. Even the Obamanaught has acknowledged it. Basically, Iran's reason for developing the weapon of ultimate destruction is to destroy all thought that does not agree with it.
Mostly, to get rid of natural impulses, babe- and guy- and guy-and-babe-wise-natural-impulses-wise. English-speakers will understand this, but let me put it in plainer words for you Islamic neanderthals:
(And I know you're reading it, because I keep track of stats, you idiots -- every time I post an Islamic Babe, you flood my site, @#$%$% hypocrites) --
YOU THINK YOU ARE 'PURIFYING' YOUR WOMEN, AND, BY EXTENSION, YOUR WHOLE CULTURE.
WHAT YOU ARE DOING IS KILLING SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT.
Just had to get his name in the title of this post, and here's why:
"The Federal Government [Australia] will begin trawling blog sites as part of a new media monitoring strategy, with official documents singling out a website critical of the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy. ...
"Whirlpool has strongly criticised Senator Conroy's plan to filter internet content and his handling of the Government's $15 billion national broadband network. It is a community-run forum devoted to discussing broadband internet access."
If I mention Conroy's name in not only the post, but the title and label section as well, his goons and their web-trawlers will be sure to see it.
Get this, Con-man: ANY attempt to censor, influence, "filter," whatever, the Internet, is going to be met with extreme displeasure, to say the least.
Thatisall.
(Via Tim Blair -- please check out his whole post)
Mark Steyn gives a bracing overview of the "human rights" free speech situation in Canada.
But this is no time to get complacent! Attention, "HRC": just because some of us Yanks are a little distracted right now by other things, doesn't mean we don't have our eye on you kreepy kommissars.
Hmm. I'm getting ready to send teabags to all my elected representatives. Wonder what kind of symbol might be appropriate to send the "HRC" ... muzzles, perhaps?
"We now have a pandemic in its infancy that will dwarf any physical virus that ever reared its ugly head, whether natural or man-made. It doesn't have a name yet, but I feel I should have that dubious honor, since I'm the first to discover it.
"Let's see ..... swine flu has been taken, as has mad cow disease. I'll get back to that later."
"As an aghast world — from China to Chicago and Chihuahua — watches, the circus-like U.S. political system seems to be declining into near chaos. Through it all, stock and financial markets are paralyzed. The more the policy regime does, the worse the outlook gets. The multi-ringed spectacle raises a disturbing question in many minds: Is this the end of America?"
Heh -- you gotta love the first comment:
"if it's the end of america then it's the end of the world, including canada, so look out. We'll cross the border in roving packs, steal your women and your beer."
Okay, a lot of people like to snipe at First Lady Michelle Obama's fashion sense. Well, at least she didn't show up at any events of state wearing a chapeau like THIS:
And she was never seen in a, er, creation like THIS one sported by the wife of the president of Cameroon. Tim Blair's caption reads thusly: "Pope Benedict XVI chats with Cameroon’s President Paul Biya. The building in the background is actually a hat, below which Biya’s wife Chantal is slowly having her spine compressed:"
(Top photo credit: bluefly.com; second photo, news.com.au)
What began as a chance remark by Santelli has resulted in a Web site. Check out reteaparty.com. Please show up to a Tea Party nearest you, and register your pledge.
For more info, go to instapundit.com and type in "tea party" in his search bar.
Seen on a sign at the recent Cincinnati Tea Party: "Tar. Feathers. Washington, D.C. Now."
Okay, so we're all pissed off about the fat cats. Why?
Because we know they've been doing stuff behind our backs for YEARS, now, sucking off our money, vampire-wise, and getting away with it. Only now, with the financial crisis happening, do we pay attention.
"On Tuesday, Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J) wrote to Treasury Secretary Geithner, asking him to "use every legal means available" to stop $3 billion in previously disclosed retention payments to brokers at the new joint venture being formed by Morgan Stanley and Citigroup's Smith Barney unit.
"These payouts constitute misuse of taxpayer money and are an insult to hardworking families who are saving every penny," wrote Sen. Menendez.
"Morgan responded in a statement that the payments aren't bonuses, but loans that won't start paying until 2010 and cannot be kept in full unless the broker stays at the firm for nine years. "The program is necessary because our financial advisers are being poached by competitors," the statement added."
____________________________________
"Our financial advisers are being poached by competitors."
____________________________________
Let me repeat that:
"Our financial advisers are being poached by competitors."
**********
Before you rage off about how stupid that is -- and let there be no doubt, it IS stupid --
THIS is what we're up against, finance-wise, crisis-wise, world problem-wise:
WE'RE IN A WORLD OF HURT BECAUSE THE ECONOMY NOW DEPENDS ON SOMEONE BEING SATISFIED WITH A BIGGER SALARY THAN SOMEONE ELSE, TO KEEP THE WHEELS PROPERLY GREASED.
**********
Whaddafuh are "credit default swaps?"
"Leveraged buyouts?"
"Crappola that is nothing more than smoke and mirrors?"
Whatever happened to I pay you X for Y? Cash on the barrel-head?
**********
Grieve, my rat-brethren. Grieve now, while you still have a soul. For sorrow cleanses, and renews; but Mammon asks its own tribute, and will not accept a substitute. Make yer choice.
"While it's hard to blame a parent for wanting to safeguard their children from harm - my girls have been raised with at least half of this list - I think most of us have moments when we wonder whether we're turning their childhood into something between a gilded cage and a padded room."
Or, why Andrew Bolt sez it's easy to turn white into black:
"(T)he purpose of science classes is not to teach students the scientific method:
"A HIGHLY regarded international test run by the OECD has been accused of ideological bias for eliciting students’ BELIEFS about the environment and sustainable development, rather than KNOWLEDGE OF THE UNDERLYING SCIENCE of issues such as greenhouse gases and acid rain… "
(emphasis mine)
So, just to get things straight: Science has as much to do with FEELINGS as with objective fact. And, as we all know, FEELINGS are objectively measurable.
Deafening silence, for the most part, from the MSM.
I visited that fair city once upon a time. Sleazy, in a seedy and tiresome sort of way. It was as if it were a forgotten corner of some store, filled with dust bunnies, but desirable as the First Experience With Another Country. It only took an hour or so to want to run from the endless vendors of sub-rate crap, not to mention the purveyors of such titillations as shows featuring people having sex with donkeys. A heartily forgettable place, but benign, overall, crime-wise.
Now, it's a charnel house. Ah, but the 25 or so people killed occasionally nowadays in Iraq are infinitely more worthy of attention than 1,000 in just two months.
"Dig the cute little moppets who want to kill Jews for their birthday. The alleged 'honour' of Muslim 'men' lays between their Mothers, daughters and sisters legs. There is no respect for 'women and life' amongst the Arab Muslim people. That’s nihilism. There are 'commercials' on Arab TV glamourising female and male homicide/suicide bombings.
“And now for a word from the makers of Preparation H and our sponsor: Hamass!”
All of you Islamists, off-the-rails leftists, enablers of destruction of reason (and the um, beneficiaries, therefrom) of all stripes:
This is the way the world ends, to quote T.S. Eliot. And YOU did it. (If it happens. Which I will fight against with my dying breath.)
You've actually done it. You've legitimized murder for Some Animals, But Not Others. Listen to the death knell of humanity, and all we hold dear. Look on your mighty works, and despair. (Percy B. Shelley) Your OWN pitiful existence is about to end at your own hand.
While I'm on a quotation roll, here's Abraham Lincoln: "People are about as happy as they want to be." Tell me something -- are you happy, now?
I'm not about to be destroyed, either by the likes of you, nor anyone else with such a mindset. It's my duty as a caring human to tell you there IS a way out. If you're interested, I'll share.
Otherwise, you're toast. And you are NOT taking me along with you.
Can I have some peace and quiet?
-
I am so tired of hearing politics, just let me sit here alone for a
few minutes;
No bashing or criticizing.
Just let me sit here and hear nothing.
...
Don’t panic! This blog has changed
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My heart sinks. I have to master a new blogging system, and hope that it
works. You see, the new blog will show only one…
Can't keep the guns and the money
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Looks like yesterday's meeting was just another failed attempt to break the
deadlock. The "agreement" the political leaders reached is practically
worth no...
On hiatus
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I've run this blog for a long time. Especially by Internet standards. But,
as you may have noticed lately, I'm just not updating the site on a regular
basi...
The Lynch List, 09-Jul-2012
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First: Equality of Opportunity is a much-abused buzz-statement. I have
argued in the past that this is a codeword for Equality of Outcome, and
been critici...
THINGS ARE MOVING - AGAIN
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The WSJ’s Peggy Noonan checks US election numbers: The polls are tightening
and no one is sure why. A Reuters/Ipsos poll through…
(image credit: realmusicpeople.com)
(image credit: Xinhua)
(image credit: monstersandcritics.com)
"Three laptops, 4 fans, a load of washing on, both ipods in their stereos and firing, third stereo on (cannot be asked to work out the turntable bit but), printer going on some cases I’ve been saving to read ... and I do believe I am overcome with the will to do some ironing.
"And neighbours over the road and next door all lit up as well. The Hour of Power is cheering me up."
(Me too, mate. Take THAT, carboweenies. Hahahahaha!)
Meanwhile, just in time for Hour of Power, Mount Redoubt in Alaska erupts.
Carbon .... allgghhhhhmmm ....