Blogblah!!! » today’s thought

February 24, 2009 (updated)

laocoon — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:43:42 +0000

THE TWITTER FEED WAS LUNATIC!

An Obama Speech Live Blog by Andrew Sullivan

LiveBlog of speech by Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo

“Progressives” LiveBlog Obama’s speech at Daily Kos

ABC.com LiveBlogs the speech with Twitter Twist

I didn’t bother to watch — I don’t have TV at home now, and I didn’t want to go out — but that doesn’t matter as much as the blogosphere and CW reax in tomorrow’s papers, for which I am not going to wait up. If I have anything of substance to say, I’ll do it after digesting some likely bloated pontificating by pundits of all stripes.

DID TUESDAY MAKE ME LOOK FAT?

Historically Carnival has been a last hurrah before the Christian season of Lent40 days of fasting and penitence beginning on Ash Wednesday. But its roots reach at least as far back as ancient Rome’s Saturnalia, a hedonistic winter celebration of Saturn, god of the harvest.

National Geographic

A Saturnalian Moment in Brazil

I haven’t heard from my son, who lives in New Orleans, about his experiences, but I’ll give him a couple days rest before I make him talk to me on the phone. I did notice a tweet from him about missing the Vieux Crew ball, but I’m not all that sure I want to know what goes on at the Vieux Crew ball. Compared to my children, I’m not nearly as mature. In fact, compared to most people, I may not be that mature, but that’s another matter.

Blogblah

I didn’t celebrate Fat Tuesday this year. Something about me being a recovering alcoholic and knowing better than to go to slippery places if you don’t want to slip, but that’s 12-Step insidery stuff that I hate to foist on you Earthlings (AA term for non alcoholics). I really don’t ever remember being all that worked up about the start of Lent because I never really observed Lent. Advent also escapes me, among other things. Lent is kind of like Ramadan, isn’t it? A long period of fasting and penitential character building? Sorry, I’m already a character and it’s something of a ramshackle building, but I rather feel comfortable in it. I put my feet on the table and eat over the sink and no one complains as long as there’s plenty of wet cat food available. And “penitential”? Me? Whifff. Besides, I can resist anything but temptation. Why would I deliberately set myself up to fail before the Almighty? So, this year for Lent, I’m giving up ritual and cant. How’s that?

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.

ISAAC ASIMOV

I READ THE NEWS TODAY, OH BOY

Minnesota Still Without Senator

Former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-MN, has strung out last year’s election and is still going and we’re not yet to the appeal level. I don’t think most people believe he has a chance of being successful in this challenge to Al Franken, but that’s not the immediate point. If he strings it out, as he’s done so far, it is one less vote for the next big bill, the budget resolution, universal health care, whatever, and one more Republican that’s needed to break the filibuster deadlock at 60-40 in the U.S. Senate. Meanwhile, his legal position becomes more and more attenuated and ludicrus, as this day’s entry in the soap opera demonstrates.

This is about topical politics, but I’m not linking to any one particular headline, but I must admit to being puzzled by GOP decisions to oppose Obama as a bloc. Let’s take U.S. Rep. Mary Fallin, R-OKC, who voted against the stimulus bill along with her caucus. Trouble is that the stim bill includes beaucoup money for Oklahoma, including a HSR system that will go from Tulsa through Oklahoma City down to Dallas and from there to either San Antonio or Houston. Seems like this will create 100s of Oklahoma jobs and pour millions into the local economy. Unemployment is rising and those with jobs are crazy afraid and she votes against funding unemployment checks? She voted against a tax cut for 97.36% of her constituents? What’s next? Put Tinker up for closing? What the hell is she thinking? I mean, really? (The link in this paragraph will take you to her constituent access page where you can send her an email asking such questions, if you’d like)

Chairman of the Bored

SINATRA SPEAKS!
Muffy, he says there’s a lots of cool cats in Minnesota, but I still think I smelled a rat. I watched a robin and a mockingbird fight for nesting space in my back yard today. I think I like the jay fledglings the best, but you enjoy what you can and endure the rest, I suppose. I think something’s wrong with him, Muffy. He’s been waking up too early and getting up even when I cuddle in. That’s just not right. I’m pretty sure the boy’s just not right, but that’s what makes cats the rulers of the universe, isn’t it?
Mel Brooks had it right: it’s good to be king.

February 19, 2009 (updated)

laocoon — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 06:39:24 +0000

Vintage RayBans

AH CHOO! SNIFFLE SNIFF
Today’s LongRydeHome is an evocative note about Spring planting and working in the ground. I admire the sentiment, but can’t join in. I’m having an allergy day from hell. My eyes feel like they are bleeding and not just oozing water. My ears feel not just stopped up, but filled with concrete. My throat is almost closed and is raw from coughing up phlegm and the occasional post nasal drip. I am miserable. I haven’t had a good respiratory breath through my nose since I woke up at 7 this morning, and I’ve filled up half a wastebasket with tissues. It’s midday and I’ve not left the house, although I’ll soon make a foray out to buy more cigarets. You want to know what it’s like to be an addict? That’s what it’s like. No matter how miserable you are and no matter how irrational and self destructive, you do what you have to do to get your next fix.

TODAY’S THOUGHT

Proverbs 17:9

One who forgives an affront
fosters friendship,
But one who dwells on disputes
will alienate a friend.

It is easier to know wisdom than to act wisely, I find. Please forgive me if I toddle and stumble while I’m trying to learn how to walk the walk.

Blogblah

February 16, 2009

laocoon — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 03:04:38 +0000

UPDATE:

TV Network Founder Beheads Wife?

And you think your divorce was bitter? This guy founded a Muslim television network to bridge cultural gaps for Muslims in the United States. He called police to tell them where the body was: at the office. I find this kind of Sharia culture attitude towards women offensive from my cultural perspective. In fact, I find it mind-boggling. So much for steak and blowjob day for you, mister.

Gotta lite?

SMOKE ‘EM IF YA GOT ‘EM
My packs of Winston cigarets FORMERLY said “no additives”. It doesn’t say that any more. Neither do other cigarets, like American Spirits. The government made them put chemicals in my smokes. Yeah, that’s right. The government made them put chemicals in my cigarets. So the cigarets will go out. If you don’t keep puffing on them until the end, they just go out and you have this half a cigaret roach stub sitting in the ashtray. It’s so the old duffers like me don’t go to sleep with a cigaret in our hand and burn up the house. Meanwhile, zillions of us who will never burn down any house or bed have been forced to consume additional potential carcinogens and pathogens on top of the already risky product we consume. The Nanny State gone wild! Almost enough to make me a libertarian. Oh, and the tax on each pack increased just in time for the Great Depression. What the hell are we supposed to do for our noir films about this era if everyone stops puffing? Can you even imagine a Beat Generation without cigarets, even if a lot of them actually were clove? If they want millions of us to give up our ciggies, they better legalize pot first. Just sayin’.

Chariman of the Bored

SINATRA SPEAKS!
OMG, Muffy, the house smells so bad I can’t stay inside most of the time. My human has this little fire he carries in his mouth and it leaves stink everywhere he goes. It scares me when he coughs because who will feed me if he croaks? I guess I can always eat his face and that’ll get me through a little while, but after that? Can you imagine a cat dumb enough to carry a smoking fire in their mouth that makes them cough every morning and night? We are so obviously superior beings to the humans.
More proof that cats rule the world.

GROWNUPS BEHAVING BADLY

In this YouTube hit video, a Chinese woman throws a hissy fit when she misses her flight out of Hong Kong airport. The kicker: it worked! She got a free flight to Los Angeles.

I READ THE NEWS TODAY, OH BOY

Historian rank presidents; W = 36/42

Bashing the Arts via Stimulus Bill

TODAY’S THOUGHT

Blogblah says: Never turn down an opportunity to be kind.

February 15, 2009 (updated)

laocoon — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:25:00 +0000

Looking on

VALENTINE’S DAY
I had a lovely Valentine’s day weekend. I ran the gamut of emotions: content, happy, joyful, ecstatic, blissfully asleep. I ignored the troubles of the world and focused on the moment. I cooked a couple of meals, steak and salad Saturday night. I received in abundance validation and emotional fulfillment. Did some interesting things like antique shopping, thrift stores, book stores, coffee. Stress free and full of laughter and intimacies.
By comparison, my blogging buddy Flibbertigibbit vents a bit about Valentine’s and relationships and flirting and that whole boy-girl thing.
MindOverMary posts with passionate kindness and urgent wisdom in a lovely essay that made me admire my sister even more than ever.
Mom-A-Tron, aka RebL, gives us a lesson in green valentines that, I must admit, express a far more true and everlasting valentine than the pink and red crap we seem to favor.
LongRydeHome had a weekend full of trauma (a trip to the ER) and drama (a personal feud gone all bloggy) and despite the fact that MCARP shows up in a great many of her episodes, he has nothing whatsoever to report at 3:40 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
Sweet mystery of life.

I READ THE NEWS TODAY, OH BOY

gay agenda/Sally Kern

Broken Penis Syndrome

The End of All Marriages?

A BIT OF OLD BUSINESS

TODAY’S THOUGHT

Those who are kind reward themselves
But the cruel do themselves harm.

Proverbs 11:17

SINATRA SPEAKS

Chariman of the Bored

Muffy, it was a lovely weekend. Nothing better than having not one but two humans doing your bidding. I out-thought them at every turn. If one got tired of petting me, I went to the other one and said I’d never been petted in my life. One to let me in and one to let me out. LUXE! SCORE! The best that neither one knew the other one was feeding me. I don’t even care about the blue jay and the mockingbirds, there’s no room in my belly for another bite. Well, maybe one tiny, just a thin slice more.
More proof that cats rule the world.

February 6, 2009 (UPDATED)

laocoon — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 01:52:08 +0000

Wind Song 402-08

Joy Reed Belt’s gallery will be showing the work of Michi Susan Friday evening at the Art at the Elms First Friday gallery opening on the Paseo. The thumbnail photo here is of a 40″X30″ mixed media piece, “Wind Song 402-08″, that was in the online invitation to the event. With the weather expected to be very mild for February, I hope to see you all there. I don’t know what else is going on Friday night, but if I stumble upon who is playing at VZDs, Red Cup, Galileo’s or some other place I’m likely to go, I’ll update. I’m too lazy to search their sites right now. If someone else already knows, leave a comment with a link, will ya?

TWITTER

OK, if you are already on Twitter, as I am, then you’ll understand this video and I hope you’ll look up Blogblah and follow me or something. If you aren’t on Twitter, you won’t understand that it can be fun but it’s also annoying as hell. Anyway, here’s this tech blogger ranting:

TODAY’S THOUGHT

Enjoy what you can, endure what you must

Goethe

I READ THE NEWS TODAY, OH BOY

Galactic Intelligent Life Abounds?

(Maybe just not here, you think? Ed.)

MORE TWITTER HATE