It’s life, but not as we’ve known it

You can tell metaphors

But reality can push back.

Who do you think best speaks for the American military men and women? Not Fouad Ajami.

Thank you Paul Rieckhoff.

Hat-tip Steve Benen @ TPM.

Reinvocation (Belgium)

Return Dull Care.

Recommended listening:

• Precessional
• Tell the moon

Found, or not found?

My wife found it, not me.

Timing malfunction

Story of Rabbit

Hat-tip Neil Gaiman.

Recommended viewing:

• Try tempting me with a carrot.

High society

Do you prefer plagues of locusts?

Shawn Colvin Cover

Down at the train they go to Independence everyday
Anywhere else now, it seems like a million miles away
And I must have been high to believe
that I would ever leave
No, I’m just a flat, fine line
Like the Wichita skyline.

I rode on the airstream to cross the great lonesome afternoon
And I wished hard enough to hurt, drove fast enough to catch the moon.
And I must have been dreamin’ again
Cus there’s nothin around the bend
Except for that flat, fine line
The Wichita skyline.

As far as Salina I can get that good station from LaRue
I’m searching the dial, scanning the sky for a patch of blue
And I watch the black clouds roll in
chasing me back again
Back to the flat, fine line…
the Wichita skyline.

He will squeal like a stuck pig, once he knows he’s stuck

digby, on Karl Rove:

Getting the truth from this disabled fellow in simple interviews has already proven to be a big waste of time. Better to just put him under penalty of perjury from the beginning. Recent history shows that he can barely remember his name unless he’s facing jail time.

He tried “Let there be light,” — it didn’t work.

Thanks to SteveAudio’s Mom:

Question: How many members of the Bush Administration does it take to change a light bulb?

Answer: TEN.

1. One to deny that a light bulb needs to be changed;
2. One to attack the patriotism of anyone who says the light bulb needs to be changed;
3. One to blame Clinton for burning out the light bulb;
4. One to tell the nations of the world that they are either for changing the light bulb or for eternal darkness;
5. One to give a billion dollar no-bid contract to Halliburton for a new light bulb;
6. One to arrange a photograph of Bush, dressed as a janitor and standing on a step ladder under the banner ‘Bulb Accomplished’;
7. One administration insider to resign and in detail reveal how Bush was literally ‘in the dark’ the whole time;
8. Another one to viciously smear #7;
9. One surrogate to campaign on TV and at rallies on how George Bush has had a strong light bulb-changing policy all along;
10. And finally, one to confuse Americans about the difference between screwing in a light bulb and screwing the country.

And after all is said and done, no one will notice that they never actually managed to change the light bulb.

So easy even a caveman could understand it

Glenn Greenwald:

First, the President began his Press Conference by admitting that the administration’s explanations as to what happened here have been — to use his own words — “confusing” and “incomplete.” Why, then, would Congress possibly trust Bush officials to provide more explanations in an off-the-record, no-transcript setting where there are no legal consequences from failing to tell the truth?

Related posts:

• A real problem for somebody
• First denial, then anger. Next up?
• Impeachment testimony

When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.

A song of seeds, the food of love

“She’s trying to stop me from helping you!” Click the video to watch it elsewhere, it won’t embed.

iRaq is not an Apple product

But what if it was?

A change of perspective — understand highness.

Related post:

• Awesome-o

For GenX, this is Woodstock.

I just cried, listening.

Awesome-o

Thanks to Skippy, who has more.

Small, but persistant, like an itchy temblor

Another earthquake, same place and magnitude as the last three.

Spice for the recipe

Global warming a reality

We might as well make the best of it, and this will probably be good for Finland’s tourism and immigration, if they wanted such things. The downside to tourism (and for that matter, the general warming trend) is that we lose our traditional winter cultures. We need to preserve them, however, for future generations to survive a time when the world might again return to the past or present day temperatures. We as a human species need to be prepared to live in changing environments and teach our descendents how we have fashioned ways of surviving.

That, you see, is the purpose of religion.

It is a survival trait of the human race, and of all species of animal and plant. We alter ourselves by our choices of what we value and pass along to the next generation. In our choices of how and who we conceive with, on a physical plane but also on an intellectual or emotional plane, because these teach others and ourselves to make good or bad choices as we and others have made.

Here’s some pictures of Finland.

I pass along my understanding of the world as I gain it, and sometimes my understanding changes. I am willing to admit that I make mistakes. We all do, but not everyone will say so.

All of the mythologies are history. None of them are false, in the sense that they aren’t talking about real things, but they are metaphors to some extent, due to the limitations of human language. When and as we overcome our communication barriers, our language becomes stronger and our stories become better.

Not every story is a good example to follow. You need to be discerning. Consider whether the source is trustworthy. Test for yourself. What do you want to be when you evolve?

Whose example do you follow? Do you evolve beyond that?

What will humanity be like in the future? What do you think we can do right now?

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

— Mohandas Gandhi

Is it A.D. yet?

“Please don’t sue me. I’m just a fan.”

Blogging isn’t a bad life

Lee Rosenberg (thehim) is looking for a way to blog while keeping his bills paid. Our situation is similar, but in our case the insurance and everything are in place and we have just enough to pay our bills and tread water now. It would be nice if we could plan to have a family but we cannot even imagine it financially now. I cannot complain; we are not starving unless we try to live beyond our means. Once in a blue moon we might even go out to see a movie. (I highly recommend Pan’s Labyrinth.)

Oh, also I blog semi-anonymously. It’s not hard for people to figure out who I am if they care enough, but I have no desire for personal publicity outside those who know me by introduction. I’d love to have a larger readership but I don’t want to write for hire. I wouldn’t mind it if I could find a way to support myself on donations but it would have to be done in a way that would be kept away from me, lest I be corrupted by seeing what I can say that brings in more dollars.

I want to speak from my heart and tell you what seems right to me, so that if I make a mistake it was one not made with a gain in mind. I could choose to become wealthy, it would be easy enough if I had the will to subjugate myself to that end, to put aside my childish blogging. I could be a capitalist like the Goldman family, and I love them very much.

But to do this I would have to turn my back on injustice, to stop looking in the dark corners where people are being tortured in our names. To let the problems of the world be someone else’s problem, I cannot do this. To the extent I can integrate what I do with helping people, I will do it. While the current crisis is ongoing, the most helpful thing I can do is communicate a way that I see through the danger. I could be non-essential, maybe my own thoughts are not as good as someone else’s, but I don’t know that. For the want of a nail, the horse, the battle and finally the war were lost.

We are the ’80s

Modern conservatives

Animated.

The great comet of 2007

Comet McNaught.

Related post:

• Recommended listening

Fair use image from Space.com:

Shit productions, apparently

Tidal wave

A very large wave begun in the very deepest parts of the ocean, it does not look like much out there because in the volume of water the depth of the wave is very slight. As it moves toward land it swells in size like a shark rising up out of the water, devouring the water ahead of itself.

If you have a little advance warning you can seek higher ground.

Red, white and blue

The blue is for consensual democracy, unity of purpose

The red is for the blood that has been shed

The white is for peace, a time to heal

The stars are for the heroes in the firmament

The stripes are for the cages we have escaped

Free at last, free at last.

See which way the wind blows

Doctor Biobrain.

Adult content

Via Shakes, who thinks it’s inaccurate. I’m not so sure she understands how many have consented to this.

Breakdown tonight

If the man on the television tonight who calls himself the president goes for his surge, remember: the media may back him up. Fox “news” surely will. The consciousness of the American people is being divided and the minds of those who are still faithful to the Republican order are going to be snapped to one side very harshly by this propaganda wave.

Are we prepared to endure this and how do we bring them back to reality? (If you could get them to watch Jon Stewart, they would think he was unfunny because he would be mocking their beliefs.)

Soon they will be given a new word for some impressment, a draft by any other name. There is no surge without the increase of “voluntary” enlistment, and while most current enlistees were only forced into the service by economic circumstances, the ability of brownshirts to press people is a well established historical phenomenon.

Of course it is absurd and insane that they think they can do this, in the face of reality. Today we have ways of communicating, through the internet. Too much depends upon the internet for them to cut it off, or prevent us from having conversations. Yes, of course the administration reads our mail, we write it out in public and put it on our blogs.

And there are not one or two of us, or hundreds, but literally hundreds of thousands of bloggers. In every city and part of the country, and in every country that has internet, we have a free press. If we can keep it.

Oh, but most of you cannot talk about the benefits of cannabis without confessing to something you might be persecuted for. That’s part of why cannabis prohibition has to end, people need to be able to be honest about who they are and what they do if we’re going to have a real discussion about how to fix this country.

New day

Love to all

Be kind

Update: replacement video:

The man who will fall forever

Comma Karma.

And welcome d r i f t g l a s s to the blogroll. Along with Spocko’s Brain and some others that I’ve added recently and neglected to mention.

The man who fell to earth

Twelve

How to make a starter

My tinctures of vert, azure, or. Knit together to form a unity.

Last day!

Seven trumpets blowing.

Related posts:

• Six days of creation
• Five cups of wine
• Four forced confessions,  three henchmen, two purple gloves, and a US body count higher than 9/11

Thanks for all the fish

Here

Let me show you a miracle.

Six days of creation

Related post:

• Five cups of wine