anonyMoses

Token Terri Schiavo Grandstand, Part Two

(via The American Street)

I’m a member of the PWDGAFF Synod (People who don’t give a flying f*ck) when it comes to that poor exception to the rule that no people actually die, and so my sympathies have been all but dessicated by the cloaca of inescapable coverage.

Granted, they all seem like sweet people, but Lord knows…to air their laundry for all the world to see would not be something I would wish upon my worst enemies.

It’s a complicated case, and one I know next to nothing about…which is why I tend toward abstraction.

In general, I think family trumps spousery. Spice are not blood.

Back when I thought life was a bowl of cherries; a proverbial walk in the park…I would have opted for life eternal. But life is not a bed of roses…or any other dead metaphor. It is filled with suffering, misery, stupidity, war, poverty, and all manner of ugliness…largely of our own devising.

If we want Terri to have eternal life, how ’bout we clean the place up a bit. Make it a better place for her to come to. Instead we are doing the opposite. As such, she might be better off taking flight.

Anais Mitchell & Etta Lea Tonight in Charlotte

Evening Muse
at the corner of 35th Street and North Davidson Street in NODA.

Follow your ears...

Ogre's Politics & Views: More Guns = Less Crime

or Why I am a Salesman

...where Ogre proves that more guns equals less death, I mean crime.

Why is it that when you live in a town where everyone has guns, there is a peaceful silence?
And why is it that when you live in a town where no one has guns, all you hear is gunfire day and night?

(See: The New Rulebook 2000, volume 2, the Bully Wins series, chap. 4, BushWorld and the Death of Logic)

Friday, March 25, 2005

Didactic Dropout

Didactic Dropout

From the World's Most Obnoxious Types series: Wannabe Professors and Preachers

If you are in a hospital and someone comes in to do surgery on you, and when you inquire as to their credentials, they say "I am not a real doctor, but I know how to sound like one.", you would have a perfect right to be uncomfortable. And were you to decide to decline the offer, few would blame you.

People who have had the benefit of quality instruction, be it from professors, teachers, preachers, rabbis and such, learn to differentiate between those who are truly qualified to instruct and draw out, and those who merely know how to sound that way.

Some of those who are qualified can take on a didactic tone, which is in some ways forgiveable, since they actually do know more about the given subject.

What is truly annoying though is when those who are not really qualified to take on such a tone...take on such a tone. The didactic dropouts, of which there are plenty.

For the sake of one's mental health, one might do well to question those whose ideas are performing daily surgery on one's mind, and realize that mental invasiveness can be as costly and dangerous as physical invasiveness.

Garbage in, garbage out...

Republican Schadenfreude?

Join the discussion!

The other day, Phin took off on a post from Edward Teach, the Blackbeard at Pirate's Cove (and descendant of my Dad's sister's husband, historically), regarding the unhappiness of today's Democrats or NFL (No Fun League).

A discussion ensued...

Thursday, March 24, 2005

Token Terri Schiavo Grandstand

or...Why are we such materialists?

We are spirit. When we die, we go back to God where we always were, but were blinded by Ego to think otherwise.

Terri Schiavo is not her body either. To chain her to this world may be an inadvertent act of cruelty, keeping her body alive for our amusement, while preventing her from going back to God.

Why are we such materialists? Why are we blinded by the flesh? No one really owns anything. And everything goes back to where it came.

Ooh! That sounds nasty!

End of grandstand.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Ed Cone in the Third Ring of Hell

Our beloved Mister Cone has sunk to a new level today. He was on MSNBC. And he was darned good. They should pay him the big bucks. He'll spend it on groceries and freedom. Not champagne and show.
And to show what a fan I am...I saw it on dialup! It took like an hour! In fits and starts.
Think, fast, and wait indeed!
But again...well worth it! He does us proud, even as they try to give him over to South Carolina...which he promptly corrected. Not something a North Dakotan might think to do.

An eerie anonyMoseslessness again pervades this clip. What am I? Scrambled Eggs?

iddybud summarizes john edwards' first podcast as honorary president of the blogosphere and friend and steward to humanity

the man who should be president speaks through the aerophone
"'We need these blogging leaders to continue to speak out,' said John Edwards, 'We depend on them to continue this fight.'"

Christopher Shays on his party and State's Rights

Christopher Shays' amazing Meehan sculpture

Christopher Shays, one of the VSB (very small bench) of ontologically independent Republicans, reveals his latest creation which he simply calls, "Marty", perhaps as it was only a few months ago that they did Marty Grah, down in Baton Rouge.
I know! I know! I am wrong at every port...including "Nwallins". Deblatterate me with nonsense. Clapperclaw me with fetid swampcheese. Underuncuate my offspring in ghazals of Urdu.
And no, Chris is not really a sculptor either. A bad guess! An attenuated and shopworn lead-in, no more.

Indeed saith Beth:
'My party is demonstrating that they are for states' rights unless they don't like what states are doing.' - CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Republican congressman of Connecticut, on the Schiavo case. "

And one of the other ontologically independent Republicans, the venerable Senator from Virginia, Senator John Warner, and perhaps the only politician who even vaguely resembles George Washington, physically or spiritually, had this to say:

"This senator has learned from many years you've got to separate your own emotions from the duty to support the Constitution of this country. These are fundamental principles of federalism...It looks as if it's a wholly Republican exercise, but in the ranks of the Republican Party, there is not a unanimous view that Congress should be taking this step."

OrangePolitics.org : What Should Al Franken Discuss in Chapel Hill?

"The Al Franken Show" is coming to Chapel Hill on April 13. Al Franken and co-host Katherine Lanpher will broadcast the show live from the Carolina Union Auditorium.

This weekend: Lea Pritchard and Anais Mitchell

ANONYMOSES

Lea of Ishi will be opening for the equally great Anais Mitchell on March 26th at the Evening Muse.

Monday, March 21, 2005

BECOME REPUBLICAN!: The How-to video

Watch the Presentation and WIN BIG!

"Now THIS is a cartoon!" - Person

(via Skippy the Bush Kangaroo)

Saturday, March 19, 2005

We want you to learn what we have learned and then make the world a better place.

via iddybud

"If you want to understand the blogger mentality, think of us as evangelists. We're zealots. We want to bring you in. We want you to use our tools. We want you to learn what we have learned and then make the world a better place. We are the idealists. We are into, you know, truth and justice and so forth. We have a passion for news, and maybe that can act as a reminder to the professionals that somewhere deep inside of your core is that same passion. That's the thing that unites us. That's the bond that we share. Rather than looking at it as an adversarial relationship, let's look at the ways we can help each other, because God knows we have much bigger problems to solve."
-Dave Winer

Reducing Blogger and "Hello" frustration

An excellent, step-by-step guide to peaceful blogging, at Pratie Place.

Blogging, Journalism and Credibility | Rebecca MacKinnon

The Nation

excerpt from The Nation article:
I am delighted that Ed Cone is here, because I think his newspaper in Greensboro [North Carolina] is doing some very innovative work in finding a way to use blogging as an effective, transparent open-sourcing methodology for connecting with its communities. And I hope that one of the results of this meeting will be to inspire more newsrooms to think creatively and go to the purse-holders in their news organizations and make the compelling case for why this helps us and why we need to make the investment for the technology and the newsroom time and resources to make all this work.

Today's Musical Selection: Cosmic Music: Meeting Angels Through Sound & Music

allmusic [Cosmic Music: Meeting Angels Through Sound & Music]

Ralph Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, for 2 string orchestras 15:29
Performed by: Christopher Warren-Green

Samuel Barber Adagio for strings (or string quartet; arr. from 2nd mvt. of String Quartet), Op. 11 7:01
Performed by: Richard Hickox

Tobias Picker Old and Lost Rivers for orchestra 6:33
Performed by: Christoph Eschenbach
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Arthur Honegger Pastorale d'été, symphonic poem for chamber orchestra, H31 8:08
Performed by: Jesús López-Cobos

Lars-Erik Larsson Lyric Fantasy, Op 58 10:03
Performed by: Ulf Björlin

Erik Satie Gymnopédies (3), for piano, complete (also orchestrated by Debussy): Gymnopédies (2) 5:35
Performed by: Paul Tortelier

Lord Benjamin Britten Sea Interludes (4) from Peter Grimes, for orchestra, Op. 33a: Moonlight 4:36
Performed by: Libor Pesek

Gustav Holst The Planets, suite for orchestra & female chorus, Op. 32, H. 125: Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age 9:29
Performed by: Sir Charles Mackerras

Tift Merritt photos

Greensboro Teach-In

We're blogging!

YesButNoButYes

Where good taste and humour are a contradiction in terms, like a chaste whore.

excerpt:

Finally, Transbuddha, one of my favorite irreverent blogs, actually produced a series of seven posts examining female sterotypes in advertising from around the world (1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7). It's not the most scholarly of examinations, but the point is made.

The ad agency I work for regularly claims the heritage of having one of the very first women Creative Directors in the 1930s. Doesn't seem like we've come a long way in the last 75 years.

Posted by Scaramouch

Gothic Lolitas reign

Charlotte Observer | 03/18/2005 (Registration required)

Gothic Lolitas reign Demure or dominatrix? Whatever it is, trend is moving into mainstream Laura M. Holson

t did not take long for Twinkle Lam of Dallas to realize that she had a problem on her hands.

Lam, 23, moderates an online discussion group about Gothic and Lolita fashion, a style of dressing -- imported from Japan and featuring Victorian-era calf-length skirts, bloomers, aprons, lace bows and ruffled petticoats -- that has attracted a following in America.

For the most part, discussion on www.livejournal.com/community/egl, a blog of about 2,500 ardent adherents to Gothic and Lolita fashion, revolves around questions like where to buy chunky high-heeled Mary Jane pumps or how to fashion Bo Peep collars. But over the winter, the polite exchanges gave way to angry, often profane declamations.

the704.com

the704.com

Rich Barrett describes the vision and thrust of this excellent blog:

Hi. I've just started a creative community web blog called the704.com, and I'm looking for contributors (writers, artists, creative people, people interested in what's going on in the city) from the Charlotte area that would want to take part.

The704.com is basically a free-form daily discussion centered around the creative community of Charlotte. Ideally, contributors would post entries about upcoming or recently experienced arts events in the area, gallery shows, local music, theater, current events, as well as photos, drawings, paintings, poems, anecdotes, personal design projects, tips they want to share, books or movies or things they've found on the web that may be of interest to other creative people.

I'm open to people posting about pretty much any subject they feel like. Ideally the sum of the individual entries will paint an interesting picture of the people who live in Charlotte and the things that interest them.

The site just launched and will evolve as it goes along. Please check it out, feel free to read entries and post comments if you have them, and if anyone is interested in being a contributor please send me an email at rich@the704.com and introduce yourself.

Register for the Blogging Teach-in

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Never Suppress a Generous Urge : Bloggers helping bloggers

The American Street (see the new design!)

Follow through on all your generous impulses. Do not question them, especially if a friend needs you; act on his or her behalf. Do not hesitate!
Don’t sit around speculating about the possible inconvenience, problems, or dangers. As long as you let your reason lead the way, you will be safe.
It is our duty to stand by our friends in their hour of need.

— Epictetus: The Art of Living, A New Interpretation by Sharon Lebell (© 1995 HarperSanFrancisco)

From my friend, Billy the Blogging Poet:

do something good for a change

Jini Hoggard is soon to have surgery for breast cancer. You can read her story at Jini’s Journal Several fundraisers are being planned. Jini is the wife of Greensboro citizen journalist, David Hoggard, of HoggsBlog.com a struggling contractor who does more than his part for Greensboro, North Carolina. Those of you who can’t come to the fundraisers may contribute to the Hoggard Family by using the contribute link on this page.

Well over 1000 people read BloggingPoet.com every day. If Ya’ll could send a couple of dollars each it would go a long ways to help out the Hoggard Family in this time of need.

As my old friend, Yellow Dog, would say, “A wag of my tail to Ed Cone.”

Give if you can. Pass it on to those who can. Learn from the experience. Good health is never a guarantee…

As Epictetus says…never suppress a generous impulse.

Free Online Novels

Those that got past the gatekeepers...
(via novelist and poet, Billy)

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

I coulda been a contender...

No wait! I am!! :)

via MarketLeap

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Indo-Europeans Declare War on South Carolina

and YOU may be next!

I bet you don't even know any Indo-Europeans, who are really only known for their roots, and maybe their berries, but you will soon! So you better arm yourself with knowledge.

Here is a primer on their strange language and ways, shuffled together by Cal Watkins one winter night in a flash of inspiration.

Elegant Jeremiahs: The Sage versus the Wisdom Speaker

The Sage versus the Wisdom Speaker

"nearly all cultures have praised and elevated wisdom, [and] perhaps the only subject which is universally admired is wisdom -- not only in the Bible, or by the Greeks, but among the Hindus and Japanese, the Polynesians and the American Indians, the Hausa and the Xhosa, peoples of Africa. All peoples with few apparent exceptions admire wisdom, hypostatize and personify it, practice or say they practice it, teach it to their children, and use it to face or smooth away the irritations and dangers of everyday life."
-Morton Bloomfield (Chaucer)

Benchmarks of Fairness

Benchmarks of Fairness
Welcome to the website for the Benchmarks of Fairness, a system for assessing the fairness of health sector reform in developing countries.

also (to whom it may concern):
The Department of Population and International Health
...seeks to improve global health problems through education, research, and service from a population-based perspective.

Jimmy Massey: The Healing of One Man's Soul

Tour de force by the great iddybud:

John Edwards: iPod President podcasts next week!

World's Most Beautiful Man and First Blogger President: Smart, Hip, Wise, Good, Beautiful
Poverty to End Soon
World Put on Alert that help is still on the way

"Next week John Edwards will participate in an exciting new medium: podcasting. He will answer your questions and update you on his family and projects. Do you have a question for John Edwards? Click here.

What is podcasting? It starts with an MP3 file that will play on your computer or portable music player - but it acts like a subscription. This means you are alerted when a new podcast becomes available - and you are always kept up-to-date with the newest broadcast.

How do I get started? Download free software for your Mac or PC at iPodder.org. Then check back here at One America: next week we will provide a link to download John Edwards' podcast! "

via Ed Cone

Sunday, March 13, 2005

Take the Verbal Intelligence Test at SimilarMinds.com

Your overall percentile is 94% which means you scored higher than 94% of the people who have taken this test. The internet population tends to be more intelligent so your percentile might be higher if the test taking sample was perfectly random.

Take the Verbal Intelligence Test

OUTFOXED: Clips

Make your own movie! The Outfoxed interviews are available under a Creative Commons license allowing anyone to sample them freely in their own works. Even Fox News. You can download them in high-resolution with BitTorrent from Torrentocracy, or in a variety of formats from the Internet Archive.

-Watch the full-length trailer (Quicktime, Windows Media) or the teaser trailer (Quicktime, Windows Media).
-Bill O'Reilly lied about a few things on Tim Russert's show, so here is a point-by-point rebuttal with scenes from Outfoxed. (Quicktime, 14MB)
-"O'Reilly at His Best" (Quicktime)
-Howard Dean outfoxed Sean Hannity on the convention floor Monday night, July 26th! Watch Hannity bumble and squirm on video.

Daily Kos :: Framing vs. Fencing: A post-Lakoff analysis

Some limitations of Lakoff's "framing," and the evolving Republican strategy to fence voters off from Democratic ideas, leaders and values -- before the debate even begins

Saturday, March 12, 2005

Trade Street Journal: Approach Life as a Banquet

"Think of your life as if it were a banquet where you would behave graciously..."

Friday, March 11, 2005

No Cornpone Pseudophilosophy Zone

Opinion is not philosophy. Opinion is not fact. Opinion is not knowledge. Opinion is not even wisdom.

Take this bit from Shaw's "Man and Superman", and apply it to today:

"DON JUAN. Pooh! why should I be civil to them or to you? In this
Palace of Lies a truth or two will not hurt you. Your friends are
all the dullest dogs I know.
They are not beautiful: they are only decorated.
They are not clean: they are only shaved and starched.
They are not dignified: they are only fashionably dressed.
They are not educated they are only college passmen.
They are not religious: they are only pewrenters.
They are not moral: they are only conventional.
They are not virtuous: they are only cowardly.
They are not even vicious: they are only "frail."
They are not artistic: they are only lascivious.
They are not prosperous: they are only rich.
They are not loyal, they are only servile;
not dutiful, only sheepish;
not public spirited, only patriotic;
not courageous, only quarrelsome;
not determined, only obstinate;
not masterful, only domineering;
not self-controlled, only obtuse;
not self-respecting, only vain;
not kind, only sentimental;
not social, only gregarious;
not considerate, only polite;
not intelligent, only opinionated;
not progressive, only factious;
not imaginative, only superstitious;
not just, only vindictive;
not generous, only propitiatory;
not disciplined, only cowed;
and not truthful at all--liars every one
of them, to the very backbone of their souls."

Think about that for a little while, as I gather my thoughts.

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

"Anonymoses Hyperlincoln, mensch of all disciplines"

from the central scrutinizer at Scrutiny Hooligans, who asks: Would You Prefer to Get Your News From Pravda or Some Guy in His P.J.'s?

Thanks for the words! No one has ever said that before.

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Blogs on Nightline

John Donvan and Chris Bury did a pretty good job on bloggers, so to speak, and it is to their credit that they showed anything at all. One does wish that an expert would host the show though, as it might avoid that "aliens looking at aliens" feel and tone. But again, to dedicate the entire show to bloggers is laudable in today's obscurantistic climate.

We won't go into their egregious anonyMoseslessness...

Personal pain, national character

Dr. Arthur Kleinman

Kleinman shows how individual travails reveal a society
via Harvard Gazette

I remember my first class with Dr. Kleinman. I was class shopping as was the rage back in the '80s, and his Medical Anthropology class description made me curious enough to give it a try.
When he first walked into the room, I felt a strange heat on the right side of my face, but didn't give it much thought, until, upon introducing himself, he asked if anyone felt the right side of their face heat up earlier.

Shopping done. I shall see what this mystical man had to impart.

I know some people who have completely flushed their teachers and professors out of their minds. For some, they were never present to begin with. Class was simply a thing be gotten through, collect the grade, thank you very much.

I was not one of these people. And often, I will write down the names of every teacher I have ever had, even Kindergarten...where Mrs. Cora Lee Sykes, bless her soul, would do things like sit us in a circle, and teach us the art of conversation. Or have us stand up before the class and show-and-tell about some interesting thing we had learned.

She brought a churn and a chicken into the classroom (whew!) and we made butter and saw an egg being brought to bear. And although not a very worldly woman, she loved us, and taught us the things she knew about.

Dr. Kleinman knew about some very interesting things, and funneled these various streams of knowledge through his diamond-sifter mind. An Anthropologist, a psychiatrist and an MD, who spent years studying Chinese medicine and culture, as well as our own, he was able to span the continents and synthesize a global understanding quite rare among blokes. And I got to peel off a cheeseparing.

If you are a student, and are unhappy with your teachers...seek out better ones. As Balthasar Gracian wisely counsels: Know the great minds of your time. Spend as much time researching your professors as you do classes, and you might make yourself happier and wiser.

If you happen to be interested in Social Suffering, Chinese Medicine, Medical Anthropology, Doctor-Patient dialog, Healers in the context of culture, hypnotism, and the like...you could do worse than reading his works, which are at most online booksellers.

Kleinman receives Doubleday Award

About Arthur Kleinman

As seen on CNN: The American Street

Where ideas come from.

If you haven’t heard, American Street was featured on CNN the other day while showcasing a few of the more evolved and exciting blogs.

Monday, March 07, 2005

Blog TV

for those with vision

Sunday, March 06, 2005

Gore Vidal and Ed Cone on the Pravdization of American Media

In the old Soviet Union, various Russian friends were often surprisingly well informed about the world despite the fact that their view of it was largely shaped by their New York Times, Pravda. When asked how do you find out what's really going on, they would give secret smiles: "You must know how to read Pravda." -Gore Vidal, December 17, 2001, The Nation

The Soviets called their party newspaper Pravda -- "Truth." Americans used to laugh at that kind of phony journalism. But more and more, the joke is on us.
Ed Cone, March 6, 2005, News & Record

Gore Vidal is writing about how The New York Times buried the truth of the Consortium's analysis of the 2000 election...in the 16th paragraph:

Finally, paragraph sixteen: "A New York Times investigation earlier this year showed that 680 of the late-arriving [overseas] ballots did not meet Florida's standards yet were still counted. The vast majority of those flawed ballots were accepted in counties that favored Mr. Bush after an aggressive effort by Bush strategists to pressure officials to accept them." I then got out this earlier story (July 15, 2001). It is somewhat less homogenized than the current account. "In an analysis of the 2,490 [overseas] ballots...the Times found 680 questionable votes," of which "four out of five were accepted in counties carried by Mr. Bush," making him victor by 537 votes. Yet on July 15 the Times felt "all [680 votes] would have been disqualified had the state's election laws been strictly enforced." I suggest that the editors, to show good faith, should have used paragraph sixteen as their lead paragraph: Start with the crime and then unravel it--or deep-six it if that's your plan. Putting it as the coda to a confusing story suggests a desire to obscure, not illuminate, what happened.

Welcome to BushWorld! Now learn how to read your Pravda. As Mister Cone says at the end of his column:

One big difference between the old Soviet Union and the land of the First Amendment is that the party-line press cannot exist here in a vacuum. Serious reporters, working for organizations or as independents, are able to expose scripted news and the agenda behind it. And with increased transparency into the news-making process a big promise of the new media, that process should only intensify. Over time, that ought to lessen the credibility of the scripters, but it won't stop them from trying to manipulate the news.
Eternal vigilance being the price of liberty, informed skepticism toward government-issue news is an ongoing obligation of Americans.

I was US target - journalist

Sgrena tells Rome prosecutors: There was no "checkpoint," unlike in the Pentagon's cover version of the story. She Was the Woman Who Knew Too Much About Fallujah. 3/7