Tough Talk from a Guy in a Dungeons and Dragons Tee Old man: Let the people off the train first! Let the people off first! You know the rules! --1 train, 110th St
Young man: Sir, this is New York. There are no rules. You're living in a fantasy world.
You know how you could just watch a hundred Simpsons episodes just to see the creative way Matt Groening changes up the family rush to the couch part? I feel the same way about Red Meat titles. Here's a happy Sunday Red Meat for y'all who missed church this morning. Again.
Spent a long (but not long enough) weekend in Eugene, Oregon visiting my kids and hanging out with their friends. I love that I have children who can pre-sort the masses for me and cull out the best contestants. Almost without exception the people they like and respect are people I would want to count as my friends. And I was not disappointed. What a great time.
Of course, I'm fairly awash in post-visit blues. Not overwhelmingly, just normally. I like/love these two humans I helped usher into the world. They are (and I know this is not always the case with the fruit of our loins) my people. Bright, complex and funny. Full of intensity and ideas. Lovers of language and food and faraway places. In spite of my selfish moments of missing their presence close-by, I am delighted that they choose to take on the world in their very different but inspiring quests. Sigh.
I don't care if everyone has a fucking blog and it's all sooo trendy. The people at dailykos.com and wemakemoneynotart.com have enriched my life to the point that I can't imagine a world without this medium. You have to sift through a lot of shit but there are gems out there, people.
P.S. I almost forgot the inspirational Jesus of the Week site. This week's jotw (7.28.07) is as rich as always. Jesus the gymnast. Doing the crucifix. Oh...well, jesus, this is awesome.
A Meet the Press appearance offers insight into the source of misinformation so frequent in New York Times columnist Brooks' writing. His citation of Times reporter John Burns when asserting that postponing withdrawal would "prevent 10,000 Iraqi deaths a month" prompts questioning from fellow guest Woodward, if not from their "bulldog" host:Woodward: "10,000 dying"... where does that come from?Brooks: Well, A, it comes from John Burns. Second, it comes from the national intelligence...
Woodward: Well, no, he doesn’t say 10,000.
Brooks: Well, no, no, but it talks about genocide.
Woodward: Yeah.
Brooks: So I just picked that 10,000 out of the air.
Meanwhile, epidemiologists who have applied the standard tools of their profession to Iraq and concluded that the death toll under U.S. occupation is approximately 15,000 a month do not have David Brooks' access to the mainstream media discussion.
Once upon a time we could depend on the New York Times to be the last word in unbiased, hard journalism. Those simpler times are gone. While there may be much that the NYT still does well, the difficult work of ferreting out the truth is back to our own hunting and gathering. That's serious work. Maybe it always was/should have been up to us to investigate, but christ, it would have been nice to depend on a few professionals out there.
The Houston Press cover article this week is entitled "The Fantastic Foreskin." First of all, kudos to the clever writer who penned that. Anyway, the article is about circumcised men who feel that they are "missing something" and employ all sorts of weights and pulleys to "create" a new beanie for their little guy.
Hmmm. I am pretty adamantly opposed to circumcision, even though I succumbed to pressure and had my son circumcised twenty-odd years ago. (Actually, it was witnessing that procedure that cemented my opposition to this archaic and unnecessary practice.)
However, reversing the process seems problematic. Like making a turtleneck out of a scoop neck by stretching it. Seems like the end result would be...I don't know, ill-fitting.
Holy Shit
I was doing some research...okay, I was stumped on a NYT crossword puzzle clue (Will Shortz can shake his finger at me 'til it falls off–I'm okay with that.) and stumbled upon these two pontifical gems:461-468 A.D. Pope HILARIUS
In light of the recent reversion to the Me Catholic | You Heathen categorization of the world (thank your Herr Benedick), I yearn for simpler, more hilarious times.
468-483 A.D. Pope SIMPLICIUS
Another epiphenita
I have come to the conclusion that successful relationships, by that I mean mostly happy and somewhat long-lasting, are not primarily the result of love and common interests but of complementary dysfunctions. You find someone who can tolerate your nose-picking and whose toenail biting does not make you homicidal. Done.
Handmade
There's a site called The Letter Project based on the simple premise that everyone deserves to get a letter. No gimmicks, no advertising. Just some guy named Rick who will send you a letter if you ask him. Handwritten and unique. The only way you can "support" the project is to send Rick stamps. I so love this idea, I sent him some new lighthouse stamps with a letter of my own. Within the week I received a real letter. A truly lovely letter about what I wrote to him and his bike ride that day. I am moved beyond explanation by this uncomplicated gesture. I will write him back. Perhaps a greater tribute would be to make it my goal to regularly send handwritten letters to others...
State of the Nation
An idiot* monkey throwing his poo around still retains a modicum of cute. A retarded* ape with a machine gun, mowing folks down while throwing his shit around has rounded the bend to diabolical. Time to find Marlin, Jim and the big tranquilizer dart.
*let's not insult the regular primates, people.
A man writes to Dan Savage about his shameful sexual attraction to fat women. Dan Savage writes back and, among other things, tells him "You're a cowardly, hateful piece of shit." [5 July 2007]
I love Dan Savage.
You know, I do love me some trompe-l'œil and some Jesus of the Week. Somewhere in my stony non-believing heart, a happy little song is playing for this one. It's all about creating illusions to deceive perception. Yeah, that's the way Christianity looks to me...
What are these three ladies doing strolling pastThe frogs are back. This is the third night of relentless trilling. Now I know why we eat them.
I don't have cable, so I missed this special commentary Tuesday night (July 3, 2007) on MSNBC. But I do have access to YouTube. Watch this incredible response to Bush handing Scooter Libby his Get Out of Jail Free Card by Keith Olbermann. It's been so long since I've witnessed a mainstream television or print journalist be this honest (about anything, not the least of which is Bush's exponentially disastrous presidency), I could have wept. Some might say it's easier to criticize now that Bush's numbers are in the toilet...so how come we're not hearing much more of this? Like, every single day?
While I'm on my pinko commie fag liberal rant, go see Sicko. Really, stop pissing around about it and just go.
