End of the Bush Era

The Bush Era is over. The sooner politicians in both parties realize that, the better for them -- and the country.

E.J. Dionne explains how and why the Bush era came to an end on September 2, 2005...

Excerpts:

And so the Bush Era ended definitively on Sept. 2, the day Bush first toured the Gulf Coast States after Hurricane Katrina. There was no magic moment with a bullhorn. The utter failure of federal relief efforts had by then penetrated the country's consciousness. Yesterday's resignation of FEMA Director Michael Brown put an exclamation point on the failure.

But the first intimations of the end of the Bush Era came months ago. The president's post-election fixation on privatizing part of Social Security showed how out of touch he was. The more Bush discussed this boutique idea cooked up in conservative think tanks and Wall Street imaginations, the less the public liked it. The situation in Iraq deteriorated. The glorious economy Bush kept touting turned out not to be glorious for many Americans. The Census Bureau's annual economic report, released in the midst of the Gulf disaster, found that an additional 4.1 million Americans had slipped into poverty between 2001 and 2004.

Promises! Promises!
Broken promises!

"Biopolis", Research Campus, part of Kannapolis revitalization plan

via Charlotte Internet Blog

Sweet Neo-con (song by The Rolling Stones)

SWEET NEO CON
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)

You call yourself a Christian
I think that you're a hypocrite
You say you are a patriot
I think that you're a crock of sh*t

And listen now, the gasoline
I drink it every day
But it's getting very pricey
And who is going to pay

How come you're so wrong
My sweet neo con.... Yeah

It's liberty for all
'Cause democracy's our style
Unless you are against us
Then it's prison without trial

But one thing that is certain
Life is good at Haliburton
If you're really so astute
You should invest at Brown & Root.... Yeah

How come you're so wrong
My sweet neo con
If you turn out right
I'll eat my hat tonight

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah....

It's getting very scary
Yes, I'm frightened out of my wits
There's bombers in my bedroom
Yeah and it's giving me the sh*ts

We must have lots more bases
To protect us from our foes
Who needs these foolish friendships
We're going it alone

How come you're so wrong
My sweet neo con
Where's the money gone
In the Pentagon

Yeah ha ha ha
Yeah, well, well

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...
Neo con

The Sunk-Cost Fallacy

Bush falls victim to a bad new argument for the Iraq war.

In recent speeches, President Bush has offered several reasons for staying the course in Iraq. One of them is the almost 2,000 Americans who have already died in the war. "We owe them something," the president said on Aug. 22. "We will finish the task that they gave their lives for."

Psychologists, decision scientists, and economists have a name for this type of argument: the "sunk-cost fallacy." It has gotten the United States into trouble once before. As casualties mounted in Vietnam in the 1960s, it became more and more difficult to withdraw, because war supporters insisted that withdrawal would cheapen the lives of those who had already sacrificed. We "owed" it to the dead and wounded to "stay the course." We could not let them "die in vain." What staying the course produced was perhaps 250,000 more dead and wounded. Read on...

KANYE WEST: Bush, Football fans don't care about black people

When rapper, Kanye West, beamed into football stadium in the hinterlands south of Boston, the wan plebeians gave him their best racist non-welcome, proving, scientifically, that football fans don't care for blacks either.

Bush: One of the Worst Disasters to Hit the U.S.

"Truth in Advertising"

New Yorkers Remember 9-11 by Lobbying for Peace

On Friday, September 9, 2005, from 1-2pm on the steps of City Hall, a group of New Yorkers will gather to speak about the Department of Peace (DoP) legislation being reintroduced to the 109th Congress on Wednesday, September 14, 2005; and to thank the 9 New York and 2 New Jersey Congress members who are among the bill’s 53 co-sponsors. Each local co-sponsor has been invited to attend the press conference, along with NYC Council member Bill Perkins, who helped sponsor the press conference and supports the creation of a Department of Peace.

Four years have passed since the worst terrorist attack to happen in New
York City occurred, and many steps have been taken to ensure it does not
happen again. Every necessary precaution to protect this great city should
be enacted, and many New Yorkers are getting behind a proactive solution:
the creation of a United States Department of Peace.

The Department of Peace would work collaboratively with other federal agencies to research, facilitate, and articulate nonviolent solutions to conflict at home and abroad. The DoP New York chapter is sending a delegation to Washington, DC over the anniversary weekend of September 11th, to attend the National Department of Peace Conference where Walter Cronkite is a scheduled guest speaker. Then they will march, but not in the streets of our Nation’s Capitol. Instead they will march through the halls of Congress meeting with lawmakers to win support for this bill.

They have also organized a one-day phone-a-thon, complete with pledge packets that are available on their website (www.nyc-dop.com). There is a twist however, the “pledges” aren’t asking for money, they ask for a promise to call Congress on September 14, to support the bill.

Please join us on Friday, September 9, 2005 from 1-2pm on the steps of City Hall to learn more about this historic legislation and the elected officials working for its passage.

The Many Sides of Labor

...slowly she turned: tarheel tavern #28 - labor day edition

On Labor Day, what better thing to contemplate than...Labor!
Laurie, at "...slowly she turned" takes on Labor for this week's Tarheel Tavern, and lays out her treasure before you. Enjoy!

Hope, haven found in Charlotte

Charlotte Observer | 09/05/2005

Hurricane Katrina survivors find a warm welcome and comfort in Charlotte, North Carolina.

On the Coming Recession: Poverty matters. More to Come...

Ancient Chinese oracle, "I Ching", says recession is in the cards.

I'm not sure why but the Sage is very good to me. So when I asked about Hurricane Katrina, it said, among other things:

"When the eighth month comes, there will be misfortune. Recession is not slow in coming."

Katrina hit during the eighth month. I suspect recession will come in its wake.

Best to be prepared. Foreknowledge is a good thing.

That said...what to do to prepare? Idears?


Other things it said were:

The transition from disorder to order is not yet completed.

The conditions are difficult. The task is great and full of responsibility. It is nothing less than that of leading the world out of confusion back to order. But it is a task that promises success, because there is a goal that can unite the forces now tending in different directions.

The hexagram BEFORE COMPLETION represents a transition from chaos to order. It points to the fact that every end contains a new beginning. Thus it gives hope to men. The Book of Changes is a book of the future.


Interresant!

Iddybud is the guest blogger of John Edwards' One America Committee Blog this week

Jude Camwell's excellent blogging on Iddybud has earned her the honor to be guest blogger on the One America Committee blog this week.
Go and give her a shoutout!

OVERKILL: Military to take on American "Insurgents"

“This place is going to look like Little Somalia”

Somalia? That's in Africa, right?

Something doesn't smell right. This could well be the nightmare scenario. American troups killing Americans on American soil. And for what? Trying to stay alive?

“We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.”

What is wrong with humanitarian relief? Why torture the soldiers like this? Indeed, why torture fellow Americans like this?

Why do I think this will be just another bad mistake?

Is the Bush mantra:
"When you find yourself in a hole...stay the course!"?
Or worse... "dig faster!"?

Just when you think things are about as bad as they can get, the current misadministration finds new lows in their incessant digging of holes to Hell.

They complain that people are shooting at them...but then they were the ones who talked the citizens into arming themselves in the first place.

In a decade of living in Boston, I never once heard a gunshot. Here in the gunbelt, I hear them on an almost daily basis.

Freaked out that citizens are well-armed? Well... who is to blame for that? Go complain to the NRA!

And Mr. Bush... you might do well to remember how public opinion shifted during the 70s, when people saw their fellow citizens attacked by uniformed police and military.

We are not at war with the people of New Orleans. We are trying to help them. Right?

“This is making a lot of us think about not reenlisting.” Ferguson [Spc. Cliff Ferguson of the 527th Engineer Battalion] said. “You have to think about whether it is worth risking your neck for someone who will turn around and shoot at you. We didn’t come here to fight a war. We came here to help.”

Rehnquist is dead

Now God or the Devil can explain to him why Bush v Gore was an opprobrious decision.

Remember that scenario that Al Gore talked about before the selection?
You wake up. The coffee is brewing, nice music on the radio, sunny outside...and the paper reads: "Gore Wins!"
OR You wake up. Sleet and freezing rain. Miserable weather. The newspaper is soaked.
Through the smears you can see "Bush Wins".

Well it has been Bushweather ever since. And has peaked with Katrina.
It rained on his inauguration. It rains wherever he has gone. The man against nature is finding that nature is also against him. And sadly, us.

Rehnquist was part of the coup that put Mr. Foulfeather into office.
I don't know him, so I won't miss him. Old people die. People with cancer die.
I feel sorry for his family.

He did, however, have some cool robes. And William is a pretty popular name.
But with all the suffering that America and the World has had to go through because of his poor decision-making, don't expect any great outpouring of sympathy. One man has died.
But thousands of others have died needlessly because of him.

I mourn for the thousands.

Mister Bush must be happy to know that Rehnquist's death knocked Katrina coverage off the Sunday talk shows.

Watch for the hairy Justice Scalia to take his place. And for weather to get even worse.

Chavez & France offer assistance as "Flyover Presidency" runs out of gas

Meanwhile Journalists become, well, journalists

The president's 35-minute Air Force One flyover of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama was the perfect metaphor for his entire presidency: detached, disconnected, and disengaged. Preferring to take in America's suffering -- whether caused by the war in Iraq or Hurricane Katrina -- from a distance. In this case, 2,500 feet.
-Arianna Huffington

There will be several good things to come out of the Katrina nightmare - a better understanding (at least by some) of the horrors of poverty, a federal government which will be eyed more suspiciously by the public, and perhaps a new awareness by the media of how to do their jobs.
- Hoffmania

How Cindy Sheehan and Katrina Woke the Media from their Somnolence

I have a codeword for it. I call it "Sharks and Condit". Others may call it different things. What "it" is is, for lack of better words, journalists resting on their laurels, otherwise known as asses.
You saw it on 9/10 and the months before. And it has been the zeitgeist from whence these well-heeled articulates go to bat for their corporate sponsors. I mean, report the news. You'd almost think that they were paid to keep their mouths shut. But alas, this is America, and things like that don't happen here. Not in an ideal America. But we haven't had an ideal America since, let me check, never.

This may be changing, as journalists find themselves surrounded by their suffering brothers and sisters...and perhaps realizing that for many at the watercooler of the flyover presidency, having them drown in the bathtub of the inland Gitmo should cause no great loss of nap. For whatever reason, there has been some excellent reporting coming from New Orleans, and just the fact that they are there, not only eyewitnessing, but earwitnessing and nosewitnessing the "Hell on Earth" that the Bush Administration is all too good at creating or allowing, is a service to humanity, and should be commended. So I will. I hope Mr. Pulitzer is noting these braves souls as they signal from the flames of this fresh Hell.

But what can you expect from a "War President" or, in other words, a Prince of War? War is Hell. A war president presides over Hell. President of Hell. Hmm. Isn't there another word for that?


THE PRESIDENT OF HELL

Do the math. War is indeed hell. And this war was elective. Bush and his collaborators elected to spread Hell, and sadly it has found its way back to its source. At least its source nation. Even though Hell's refugees were, in the main, excluded from the selection process. One wonders how soundly the Supreme Court sleeps...

So the Supremes lose a few hours sleep. You still don't see them anywhere near New Orleans. They are safe within their cocoons. They won't even have to do a flyover. They are members of the insouciant class. The journalists in New Orleans no longer have the luxury of insouciance. The molecules of the dead are flowing through their bodies, as they breathe the stench of Truth, spreading like genocide before their eyes. And they realize who they are. And whom they best serve.

DAVID BROOKS: I think it is a huge reaction we are about to see. I mean, first of all, they violated the social fabric, which is in the moments of crisis you take care of the poor first. That didn't happen; it's like leaving wounded on the battlefield.
...in 9/11 you had a great surge of public confidence. Now I think we are going to see a great decline in public confidence in our institutions. And so I just think this is sort of the anti-9/11 as one of the bloggers wrote.

My hope is that Brian Williams, Bob Woodruff, Shepard Smith, Anderson Cooper, and the other brave new stewards of the poor and disenfranchised, will stay in New Orleans, and be the voice of those whose need is most great. Even those far removed from harm's way are being moved. David Brooks said he assumed that those for whom he has been fighting, would rush to the aid of the poor. I think the fact that they didn't will cause him to reject them more generally. David cannot long defend Goliath. And I think Mister Brooks is realizing that John Edwards, and not George W. Bush, is the one who stands up to Goliaths, and will, himself, cease being a brave defender of the rich and powerful.

Hurricane and Tsunami Katrina will prove to be far more devastating than even 9/11. It is 9/11 in slo-mo. And it is hard to take. Every day is worse than the last. But we don't want happy talk. We need truth. And peace. How can you uplift with one hand, when with the other hand you kill?


WHAT WOULD SOLDIERS DO?

If given the choice:
1- I want to stay in Iraq and kill.
2- I want to stay in Iraq and be killed.
3- I want to go to New Orleans and help save lives.

...I think you would find that the overwhelming desire would be to help out in our own backyard, their own backyard. Bush said he wanted to fight the war "over there"...and yet the most urgent battle, as regards American lives, is the battle for New Orleans. It matters not whether American lives are threatened by foreign terrorists or natural disasters. It is still American lives. And it is a reality, not just a vague notion of some future scenario, the Grand Protector from which, luckily benefitting the Bush family of corporations.

Terror has reached our shores. And the only thing that keeps it from being Bush brand terror is the lack of malice, or I should say malice...beforehand. Katrina was probably even more nonchalant about the destruction is was going to inflict, than Bush pushing the Shock-and-Awe button, or the thousands of other similar acts of kindness. Any malice regarding Katrina came afterwards, in the form of "too little, too late". Had the late-niks prescience, the malice might have come beforehand, but I am not that cynical. It is bad enough already.

But prescience can come in handy. For example, Bush says we don't need to bring our soldiers home to help. "We have plenty of resources. We can get both jobs done." he says, lacking prescience. He is, in fact, getting neither job done. Surely both will get worse. No question.

His echolaliac "stay the course" is only making him sound mechanical. Maybe he is! Not everyone is conscious. It takes individual effort, and then some, to become conscious. Until then you are basically mechanical. Pre-conscious. Twice removed from cosmic consciousness.

Consciousness might allow Mister Bush to realize that allowing our dear soldiers to come home and help save lives might reverse any negative effects from having to basically do the opposite...because of what? His own personal cruelty? Impatience? Revenge? Greed? Subservience?

What better prevention of post-stress disorder, which is a near inevitability for soldiers today?
It would not only be better for the soldiers, it would obviously be better for the refugees in New Orleans. And Lord knows...it might even be better for the people of Iraq.

It is not cutting and running, but rather defending the homeland. New Orleans is on our soil, right? Americans are dying and crying out for help, right?

It is not too late to become the Ideal America. It is not to late to become the Humanitarian Superpower of which so many dream. It is how true, lasting respect is won.

While the President fiddled, New Orleans burned. And drowned. Maybe 10s of thousands. And while Tasmanian devils like Grover Norquist might relish the fact that government too is being drowned, just when fellow citizens are crying out for their help, most people find their humanity awakened. Even journalists. And while the president fiddled, the mother of a dead soldier cried out in the streets of his own howntown. Bats have flaps on their ears. Is this why Bush loves baseball?

BlogCritics Edition

Poll: New Orleans Stores Should Release Food, Medicine

Urgency demands immediate relief. Open the stores. Free the food. Save the lives, not the emergency relief.

One Foot in the Grave: Blog of a now-dead soldier

"I'm the most real thing on TV!"

Raw Story on Sgt. Thomas Strickland, 27, who posted an entry on his blog sharing his anger about the situation in Iraq, in which he questioned the United States' 'fucktarded' Iraq war plan. He was killed in combat in Baghdad.

Katrina & The Shock and Awe of Global Warming

Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama look like Iraq today. Where will global warming shock and awe next?


RUMSFELD ON FREEDOM AND LOOTING

"Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things." -Donald Rumsfeld

"Now we have a humanitarian crisis, people live in fear of constant violence but they are free to do what the hell they like, whether it be looting hospitals or raiding government buildings. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what freedom is all about and that is what we have brought the Iraqi people." - Donald Rumsfeld

Oops! Have we set a bad example?

MANDARIN DESIGN

...this will
look like some of the pullquotes and styles we see
in magazinelayout...

The copy and paste code makes Magazine style pullquotes easy. Just start typing your text here. We used the named colors silver and gray.
It's easy to plug in your own colors.

Full instructions
for making the first letter big are in the Drop Cap copy and paste style tutorial. For this drop cap we forced the first big letter to span more than five lines. The font-size is adjusted to exactly 100 pixels while the line height is 80 pixels.

Bush Inc: Sell them gas-guzzlers, then jack up the price!

Fun with Gullible Americans

Never known for their brilliance...

Are you one of these?

Have you seen...The Manhattan Masturbator???

perv caught in a fon flash

Watch for the coming movie!
(No pun intended)

FLHurricane.com: Google Map Plot of Katrina (2005) Google Maps Hurricane Track Overlay

Thanks to The Real Paul Jones, we know two great places to track the coming tragedy, and perhaps convince the slowheaded to vamoose, scram, hit the trail, make like a tree, save your freakin' life.
Wikipedia
and
FlHurricane where Google maps are put to the service of humanity.

Bush's Latest Premature Celebration

"ANOTHER week in Iraq, another light at the end of the tunnel. On Monday President Bush saluted the Iraqis for "completing work on a democratic constitution" even as the process was breaking down yet again. But was anyone even listening to his latest premature celebration?"

Frank Rich on the Vietnamization of Bush's Vacation

NOW including such nostrums as these:

"We have long since lost count of all the historic turning points and fast-evaporating victories hyped by this president. The toppling of Saddam's statue, "Mission Accomplished," the transfer of sovereignty and the purple fingers all blur into a hallucinatory loop of delusion. One such red-letter day, some may dimly recall, was the adoption of the previous, interim constitution in March 2004, also proclaimed a "historic milestone" by Mr. Bush."

and

"With a shove from Pat Robertson, her [Cindy Sheehan] 15 minutes are now up, but even Mr. Robertson's antics revealed buyer's remorse about Iraq; his stated motivation for taking out Hugo Chávez by assassination was to avoid "another $200 billion war" to remove a dictator."

and

"The president, for one, has been forced to make what for him is the ultimate sacrifice: jettisoning chunks of vacation to defend the war in any bunker he can find in Utah or Idaho."

and

"Mr. Bush's current definition - "as the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down" - could not be a better formula for quagmire."

and

"For his part, Mr. Hagel backed up his assertion that we are bogged down in a new Vietnam with an irrefutable litany of failure: "more dead, more wounded, less electricity in Iraq, less oil being pumped in Iraq, more insurgency attacks, more insurgents coming across the border, more corruption in the government."

and

"Anyone who can read a poll knows that support is gone and is not coming back. The president's approval rating dropped to 36 percent in one survey last week."

and

"The Leo Burnett advertising agency has been handed $350 million for a recruitment campaign that avoids any mention of Iraq."

and

"Mr. Feingold also made the crucial observation that "the president has presented us with a false choice": either "stay the course" or "cut and run."

and

"The marketing campaign will crescendo in two weeks, on the anniversary of 9/11, when a Defense Department "Freedom Walk" will trek from the site of the Pentagon attack through Arlington National Cemetery to a country music concert on the Mall. There the false linkage of Iraq to 9/11 will be hammered in once more, this time with a beat."

BUSH PRODUCTS: Misleading Americans since 2001

Moog is Dead

Robert Moog with his synthesizers

The Man Who Democratized Music Has Died

New York Times:
Robert Moog, the creator of the electronic music synthesizer that bears his name and that became ubiquitous among experimental composers as well as rock musicians in the 1960's and 70's, died on Sunday at his home in Asheville, N.C. He was 71.
MORE


Who hasn't heard of a Moog Synthesizer? And how many of those correctly pronounce it "mogue" as in "vogue" or "rogue"? Fact is, everyone has heard of a Moog Synthesizer, even if they call it a "mood simplifier", a subset that would include me, mainly because I happen to think it does simplify the mood. Not, of course, because I am a buffoon, like the others who call it that. I taught my precocious nephew how to play when he was but six or seven. And I taught myself on the minimoog and then on the maximoog, the granddaddy...which was housed at the university in Greensboro, along with a monster ARP. Wires and levers were the fashion in those earlier days.

The first one though was the Minimoog, which was made available for public use at Reliable Music, back when it was in the backroom of a pawn shop in downtown Charlotte. Early 70s.
While most people there were hogging the guitars, I was hogging the Moog. Several years would pass before I got the opportunity to goof with the classic Moog, which resembled a telephone switchboard with all the patchcords. A friend of mine was studying electronic music at UNC-Greensboro, and she let me come to the lab and goof around on it.

A few more years would pass, when my old friend, Ken Phillips (who had come for one of his always interesting visits) and I were walking down Mass. Ave in Cambridge, and on a pole outside the MIT campus was a flyer that said Moog and Ray Kurzweil were going to be presenting their latest creation.

My God. My jaw dropped open, and nothing seemed to make it close...as Ken and I sat and listened to what I believe was the first public display of the amazing Kurzweil keyboard, of which Bob Moog had a hand. Another decade would pass before I had my own...which I've never regretted, since it allowed me to create 20 or 30 tapes of music before passing it on to my dear musical wizard and friend, Woody, who is still having a blast with it, and probably has as many CDs.

Once upon a time classical music was reserved for a small coterie of society somebodies, but then symphony orchestras were created and now you can have many violins, many oboes, many contrabassoons, and you can invite in more people. Classical music was being democratized.

But with Moog, and because of Moog, a single person could create symphonies, and actually hear the final product. Before Moog, many may write symphonies, but finding one to play it was a different matter. This de facto gatekeeper has been removed, and it is largely because of Robert Moog. And now he is gone.

There isn't a musician or composer today that doesn't owe him a debt of gratitude.

Long live his legacy!

Play one for Mister Moog!


And speaking of which... I'd love to see folks like ELP, Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, PDQ Bach, Tomita, Kitaro, Radiohead, Faust, Morton Subotnick, Pauline Oliveros, Einsturzende Neubauten, The Beach Boys and so on, converge on Asheville to do a benefit concert, with their Moogs, to raise money for one of Moog's favorite charities.

Who can get that done?

_______________
Reprinted on Blogcritics

Rush Limbaugh inciting violence in Texas, and should be removed from the radio.

1:15 PM, Aug 22, 2005

I cannot believe how desparate Mister Limbaugh has become of late.
While listening to his hyperventilations, just minutes ago, he worked himself into a frenzy, thinking about liberals I suppose, and started exhorting Texas hunters to take on the Sheehan protesters. Of course he cloaked the message, but only slightly. Anyone listening would know that he meant for Texas hunters to arm themselves and do whatever they wanted, as regards the protesters. (Media Matters will pick up on this, one would assume.)

He may as well be Osama Bin Laden. These are Americans he is trying to have killed...of course by proxy. He will try to wiggle out and say he was just speaking words, and it meant nothing. Just an entertainer.

Rush. Go watch "Fisher King" then learn some manners. Your vitriol and suggestions are only spreading violence. You are not a gentleman. Gentlemen and women should shut you off. Grace, wit, taste, class, humor, love, friendship, brotherhood, community, tolerance, beauty, sweetness and light. Not monobloviation. Not even masterbloviation.

You cannot stand to lose. You got sucked into the Sports frame. Life is not like Sports. You only lose when you play a win-lose game. So you think you are losing, and therefore you want to drag others down with you. May as well be the princes and princesses of peace.

You need to clarify your remarks. You need to make clear that you do not want "Texas Justice" inflicted upon Americans. We have had enough, thank you very much.

Time for Sheriff Andy Taylor to show us the higher path.

New York's CBGB Outlived Ramones, May Fall to Real Estate Boom

Here's a piece by my old friend, Rob Urban, on New York's changing landscape...

Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- CBGB, the birthplace of punk rock on New York's Lower East Side, outlived Sid Vicious and all but one of the Ramones. It may not survive the city's real estate boom.

The club faces eviction Aug. 31 when its 12-year lease expires unless it can settle a dispute with the landlord, a homeless agency that runs a shelter upstairs. Owner Hilly Kristal, 74, has drawn support from Tommy Ramone, Blondie's Debbie Harry, the Talking Heads' David Byrne and E Street Band guitarist Steven van Zandt, who is trying to mediate.

Read the full article at Bloomberg.

Creative Loafing does Charlotte Bloggers

...and mentions ConvergeSouth. (Not the movie)

In this week's Creative Loafing, you can find out about blogging in Charlotte. At least it will get you started. One of the problems with paper, I suppose, is that it is finite. One reason to get a blog. Blogs are infinite.

If you don't know Creative Loafing, let me just say that they are the premiere alternative weekly in the Charlotte and Greater Davebeckwith County region, which is a part of the fiefdom of Anonymoses. Obvious, I know, but important, although not here.

Anyway, this, this Creative Loafing, this alternativity is, well, essential to Charlotte and Anonymoses, as well as thousands of other non-conformists in the uniformity of Charlottality.
And that they would devote the time and energy to figuring out this weblog weirdness is commendable, regardless of their patience. May they start a weekly column, and may they have me do it, and may they pay me large sums of money for doing it.

You may recognize some of the people discussed. Karen Shugart did a fine job with this primer. She even mentioned ConvergeSouth...so maybe more Charlotteans, or Charlatans, or Charlhestons for that matter, will get involved. For if they do, they will find that the blogosphere is actually the latest stage in social evolution, and that magazines can even benefit from partaking in the blogversation.

Some day, CL, as it's lovingly typed by lazy typers throughout the county, will seize the reins and become an essential part of this latest manifestation of democracy, because when it comes to that Schopenhauerian question: "Champagne or Freedom?, they opt for Freedom.

"Fries. And biggie-size it!", my corpulent amanuensis carked at the polyester semaphor with ears for orders. "And make it snappy!"

So yes. Make it snappy. Then make it a point to send representatives to ConvergeSouth in order to see and be seen. The future leaders of the world are gathering. And a few knuckleheads.

Blogs mentioned are these:

ace pryhill
anonymoses
converge south
charlotte capitalist
charlotte101.us
anna-banana.net
pam spaulding
tbo talks
save cms kids
dump cms
the 704
drunk-in-a-midnight-choir
charlotte mommies

Thanks, Creative Loafing and Karen Shugart, for the complimentary and informative article.

(via Pryhills)

Flights of Fancy Captivated by Mandie

...as the Tarheel Tavern opens it's doors for the 25th Edition: "Flights of Fancy".

Thank you for choosing Mandie's Transport. The airport is the next stop. All those heading out of state or country can now retrieve your luggage...

The tavernous headbirth of Blogmeister Bora Coturnix, graciously dubbed "Tarheel Tavern" by its caring 'tender, never ceases to amaze and thrill as it evolves, week by week, as if flying in the face of those who would cage evolution itself, then lower it into a pit of acid, that it might not compete with the official doctrine of reaction disguised as creation, and these weekly evolutions fan out and dance their wondrous fractal math of chaos and growth and change, such that a lesser shepherd might lay down his panpipe and take up the sackbut. But not Mandie! For Mandie carpaid the blogum and molded it into a shape not unlike herself, that is, if she still looks like the portraits on display at the Postal Service.

Of course I jest. All is good.

Go look!

ConvergeSouth: The Movie

OCTOBER 9, 2005
BLOGSBORO, NC
TARHEEL TAVERN

ConvergeSouth

It was a weekend unlike any other in this small Southern city. Celebrities and blogebrities were everywhere. You would trip on them as you walked. And if you ran, forget about it, collision with fame was a certitude. Anyone who was anyone was in Blogsboro to lend their support, influence and money to the blogtival, and to the historically African-American institution who was hosting the event this momentous and pivotal year. So far, over a million has been raised, which will go toward creating a "Blogospheric Studies" department at A & T University, along with scholarships and such, as well as other projects like the network of "poverty oases" hosted by the University of North Carolina, at their many branches -- with Greensboro, Chapel Hill and A & T triangulating as pioneers, soon to be in all branches.

(A "poverty oasis" is a place in the university where the poor and luckshy can come and gain valuable skills, connections, food and work. )

"Word of this event started to saturate the media by late summer", says blogger Synonymoses, "and before long Hollywood and Independent directors were fighting over the rights to covering the event.

Spielberg wanted to call his "Blogging Private Ryan", about war-bloggers during the current unpleasantness in Iraq.
Michael Moore pitched for "Blogging for Columbine", a story about how students are sublimating their violent urges and learning how not to kill people by killing time instead.
David Lynch's "Oil Peaks" is about Peak Oil and its coverage in the blogosphere.
The Farrelly Brothers' "Jog Blog" will star Jack Black as a jogging blogger.

Francis Ford Coppola is doing "The Blogfather" about Mister Ed Cone, pioneer and gentleman blogger.
George Lucas will do "Blog Wars" to get more of the anger out.
Gus Van Sant's "Even Cowgirls get the Blogs" is about how the blogosphere is now seeping from the Headland into the Heartland.

James Cameron pitched"Blogtanic" but retracted it when told it would not hold water.
John Hughes' "Blog Alone" is about a blogger's life prior to discovering the blogosphere.
John Sayles' "Blogwan" is a story about West Virginia bloggers who rebel against their ISP after The Bhagwan is reincarnated as Glenn Reynolds, who proceeds to make them all drive Rolls-Royces and chant nonsense in Hindi.

Jonathan Demme is working on "Stop Making Blogs" and the sequel, "Silence of the Blogs".
Kevin Costner's "Steppin' with Wolves" is about a night out with FOX executives.
Martin Scorsese's "Raging Blog" covers the more vituperative bloggers among us.
Mike Nichols' "Who's afraid of Virginia Blogs"is about the lack of blogging representation from Virginia, our state to the north (should you have forgotten).
Oliver Stone, what else?: "GWB"
Quentin Tarantino - "Blog Fiction", about the work of Billy the Blogging Wordjones and others.
Richard Linklater "Slack Blogger" is a blogumentary about yours truly.
Rob Reiner's "Spinal Blog" is about bogus blog musicians.
Robert Altman... "B*L*O*G"

Tim Robbins' "Blog Roberts", about the blogging of neo-Supreme, John Roberts and/or a simple love story about bloggers who are named Robert.
Steve Martin's "Blogfinger"is about Carpel-Tunnel syndrome.
Tim Burton's "Edward Bloggerhands"another movie about Carpel-Tunnel.
Woody Allen & Roman Polanski are whipping together "Young Girls Who Blog".
Robert Redford's "Horse Yeller" is a sort of cross between "Old Yeller" and "Horse Whisperer", only the character yells at his horse, mainly because he is still using dialup.

Spike Lee's "Blog the Right Thang" is a blogumentary joint about ConvergeSouth.

One mustn't overlook the music at this veritable Blogstock, this Blogapalooza, this Tangleblog. All the best bands in the South were in attendance. REM, Dave Matthews, James Taylor, Allman Brothers, Ryan Adams, Josh Joplin, Love Tractor, B52s, Hootie, Arvo Part, and all the rest. Oops. Arvo is not from down here. Maybe next time.
Writers and novelists, always curious, also came out in droves, as did political beings such as Jesse Jackson (an alumnus of A&T), John Edwards and Liddy Dole. Andy Griffith even made a cameo appearance, whistling that famous melody, and partaking in a discussion on poverty with Mister Edwards and his lovely wife, Elizabeth.

The hightlight was, of course, the appearance of Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton...who stole the show even more than Mister Internet himself, Al Gore, who was also there. Along with their esteemed and beautiful wives!

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates made appearances, as did Misters Ellison, Grove and Chambers. Flipper and Lassie were allowed in free. Flipper, bless his heart, wound up having people throw buckets of cold water on him, and complained that the sidewalks needed sweeping.

Of course, the cream of the blogosphere were in attendance, including Hoder, Jay Rosen, Dan Gillmor, Sybril Bennett, Nancy McLaughlin, David Hoggard, John Robinson, Lex Alexander, Ruby Sinreich, Ed Cone, Michael Moran, Christie Seals, Allison Perkins, John Teleha, Ted Vaden, DeWayne Wickham, Jeff Jarvis, Phil Meyer, Bob Steele, Francisco Camara, George Curry, Kevin Sites, Duncan Black (Atrios), Amanda Congdon, Dave Winer, Sandy Carmany, Tiffany Brown, Herb Everett, Roch Smith, Jr., Ruby Sinreich, Michael Bowen, Jimmy Wales, Sue Polinsky, Iddybud, Seth Godin, Dave Taylor, BL Ochman, (Sir Tristram) Tris Hussey, Toby Bloomberg, Andy Wibbels, Denise Wakeman, Steve Rubel, Rick Bruner, Wayne Hurlbert, John Jantsch, Neville Hobson, Biz Stone, Eric Alterman, Stowe Boyd, Henry Copeland, Wil Wheaton, Wiley Wiggins, Cory Doctorow, Arianna Huffington, Al Franken, Lawrence Lessig, Doc Searls, David Corn, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, James Wolcott, Juan Cole, Matthew Yglesias, Andrew Sullivan, Evan Williams, and God herself!

Can't wait to see the movies!"

Are you through now, Mister, ah, Synonymoses?

"Quite! Except to thank hometown bank, Bank of America, for their generous sponsorship."


And now a word from ProductPlacement...

ConvergeSouth
BE THERE OR BE STUPID

MIT Media Lab founder to build $100 PC for developing world

MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte has a plan to build a $100 PC for the developing world.

Proposed is a Linux-based, full-color, full-screen laptop using innovative power (including wind-up) and to do most everything that a conventional computer will do. These laptops will be WiFi- and cell phone-enabled, and have USB ports. Current specifications are: 500MHz, 1GB memory (no hard drive). See http://laptop.media.mit.edu/

USA TODAY Founder: 'Support our troops' bring them home alive

The Gig is Up. We've played make-believe long enough...

Sacrificing the very lives of our children for a fake war that only benefits the president and his club buddies is growing tedious. The hoodwinks are losing their opacity. The Prince of War has worn out his welcome.

excerpts:
'Support our troops' — bring them home alive
They're burying young Marine reservists in Ohio this week. Fourteen of them, ages 19 and up, were killed last week when their amphibious landing vehicle was blown up by a roadside bomb in Iraq.
President Bush won't be at any of the Ohio funerals. He has not attended any funeral for any of the 1,840 servicemen and women killed in Iraq, although he has met with some groups of families who lost loved ones.

Bush simply called this latest tragedy a "grim reminder" that we are at war. It also should remind anyone who knows anything about war that lightly-armored amphibious vehicles never were meant to transport troops on bomb-laden roads. They were designed for sandy beaches.
...
"Support our troops" has become a sad, empty slogan for Bush.

Public support for the troops still is there, with candy, cookies and yellow ribbons. But government support sadly is lacking. No effective overall war plan. Inadequate or outdated equipment. No exit strategy.

That's why the best way to support our troops in Iraq is to insist that Bush bring them all home. Alive. Sooner rather than later.

Someone Tell the President the War Is Over

Frank Rich - New York Times

excerpts:

LIKE the Japanese soldier marooned on an island for years after V-J Day, President Bush may be the last person in the country to learn that for Americans, if not Iraqis, the war in Iraq is over. "We will stay the course," he insistently tells us from his Texas ranch. What do you mean we, white man?
...
Mr. Bush has lost not only the country but also his army. Neither bonuses nor fudged standards nor the faking of high school diplomas has solved the recruitment shortfall. Now Jake Tapper of ABC News reports that the armed forces are so eager for bodies they will flout "don't ask, don't tell" and hang on to gay soldiers who tell, even if they tell the press.
...
The president's cable cadre is in disarray as well. At Fox News Bill O'Reilly is trashing Donald Rumsfeld for his incompetence, and Ann Coulter is chiding Mr. O'Reilly for being a defeatist. In an emblematic gesture akin to waving a white flag, Robert Novak walked off a CNN set and possibly out of a job rather than answer questions about his role in smearing the man who helped expose the administration's prewar inflation of Saddam W.M.D.'s. (On this sinking ship, it's hard to know which rat to root for.)
...
Only someone as adrift from reality as Mr. Bush would need to be told that a vacationing president can't win a standoff with a grief-stricken parent commandeering TV cameras and the blogosphere 24/7.
...
To this day it's our failure to provide that security that has turned the country into the terrorist haven it hadn't been before 9/11 - "the central front in the war on terror," as Mr. Bush keeps reminding us, as if that might make us forget he's the one who recklessly created it.
...
Now comes the hard task of identifying the leaders who can pick up the pieces of the fiasco that has made us more vulnerable, not less, to the terrorists who struck us four years ago next month.

First 24k gets this haunted house on 1/2 secluded acre

First 24k gets this haunted house on 1/2 secluded acre

The first 24 thousand dollars will get this 3 bedroom haunted house situated on a 1/2 acre lot in the North Tryon/University area. This the deal of a lifetime. You will not find a better value in the Charlotte/Mecklenburg area, and probably all of North Carolina. The owner has lived there for 50 years, and is now wanting to move, so he will not have to mow the lawn and trim the hedges.

The lot itself is valued at roughly twice the selling price. So get a good deal on the lot, and the house is free.

24,000 dollars and it's all yours.

704-661-4763

AltMedia 101

AltMedia 101
Earn revenue from your blog by joining the AltMedia101 Ad Network. Revenue paid every month, no minimums.
Target your online advertising campaign to local markets. Reach involved, civic-minded consumers with a presence on local blogs.
Champion grassroots media in your city. Operate a 101 citizens' media portal in your hometown. Coming soon to over 200 cities across the U.S.

Cindy Sheehan & The Tipping Point

Call Off the dogs on Cindy Sheehan
By Jude Nagurney-Camwell (iddybud)

One Mother's Stand
By William Rivers Pitt

The Amazing Hypocrites
By Cindy Sheehan
t r u t h o u t Perspective

Meet With Cindy

Stan Brennan, "The Rock" of the Charlotte Observer, has died

Charlotte Observer 08/10/2005 Ex-Observer editor was rock of newsroom

Charlotte's Stan Brennan, a former Observer editor who made more friends and shepherded more stories into the paper than anyone can count, died early Tuesday at Carolinas Medical Center-Mercy.

He was 74. Complications from liver disease took him, but not before he filled his life with family, jazz, books, bridge games and a colorful career.

Brennan was the slot man in the newsroom, the calm soul in the middle of a storm who helped oversee the metro desk at night...

In the mid-80s, I worked at the Observer, writing obituaries and the weather page...and sat close to Stan, who was at the center of the Metro Desk. He was, indeed, the rock, and the calm soul...and was one of my favorite people at the paper. He knew how to put people at ease, and with a variety of deadlines, every day, ease and calm was an otherwise rare commodity. I will always remember his jocular laugh, and extraordinary sense of humor. I will miss him. Many will. He was a good man and consummate journalist.


A graveside service will be at 11 a.m. Friday at Sharon Memorial Park, 5400 Monroe Road. Visitation will be at 7 p.m. Friday at Rollins' home, 8513 Tintinhull Lane in Union County.

Peter Jennings: May he rest in peace

Peter Jennings has died.

As I had written back in April, I felt a certain familial connection with the gentleman. This when we learned that he had lung cancer, only a few months ago. But I am sure many people thought of him as family. And I know my dear parents will miss the emails he would send out to subscribers. He was a good man, and my heart is with his family.

One wonders...who will replace him as head anchor on the evening news. Koppel would be the best choice, drawing from their existing pool. Or maybe they could gather enough funds to get Mister Cronkhite off the island...

Short of that, Elizabeth Vargas or George Stephanopoulis are also fine choices.

Good night sweet prince! You have improved this world and are now in a better one.

MORE at Blogcritics.org

TARHEEL TAVERN : Going to Blogolina in my Mind

A Blogtour of North Carolina

In my mind I'm going to Blogolina.
Can't you take the sunshine,
can't you just drink the moonshine?
Ain't it just like a friend of wine
to smack me on behind?
Yes, I'm going to Blogolina in my mind.

With a holy host of bloggers blogging round me,
listening to the dark side of the moon.
And it seems like this blog goes on like this forever...

The blogosphere is not equally distributed throughout these United, or should I say Untied States. It is not even equally distributed around this state. Any look at NCBlogs.com will tell you that. The heaviest concentration is in the Triad/Triangle region, with Charlotte and the Mountains in second rank, and Jesse country pulling up the rear, so to speak.

There are reasons for this unequal distribution, just as there are ways and needs for expanding into these undernourished regions, these bozarts, again, if you will.

That makes twice that I've said "will", and it is beginning to disconcert me. I am growing ill at the thought of Will. And no, not Will Robinson, should you be lost or spaced. I'm talking Will, as in Der Willen. Will as in George's "They will not break our Will." Or Leni and Dolphy's "Triumph of the Will". Not wit. Not love. Not caritas. But Will. Getting your way, costs be damned.

But alas I digress. It is what I do. Life is digression. The opposite of Will.

That said, let me try to hoist this travel guide back into the saddle, and quit examining the remains of our passing.

Coming, going, the waterfowl leaves not a trace,
nor does it need a guide.

I remember that koan from the sunny '70s, when I first made their acquaintance. I remember telling Rob Urban, who also thought it was "pretty neat". Neither of us embodied it though.
But neither, I predict, have you. Yet we have no Hiroshimas to live down either.
Or do we?

Live simply that others may simply live.

More true to that one I suppose. Some are actually astonished, or turned to stone, at the simplicity of my lean-to down by the river.

OK, it is not really a lean-to, and it is not near a river, but it is simple, practically Thorouvian. But relatively energy-efficient.

So, what was that about a saddle?

Alright. Enough! Time to start over.

---

[ I WILL STILL BE TAKING SUBMISSIONS UNTIL I AM TUCKERED OUT. THE FINAL VERSION WILL BE SET AT MIDNIGHT. - THANKS FOR PLAYING. - DAVE]

---

Blogtouring North Carolina

The blogosphere is not equally distributed throughout these United States. It is not even equally distributed around this state. Any look at NCBlogs.com will tell you that. The heaviest concentration is in the Triad/Triangle region, with Charlotte and the Mountains in second rank, and Eastern North Carolina pulling up the rear.

There are reasons for this unequal distribution, just as there are ways and needs for expanding into these undernourished regions of the state, country and world. In the old days, it was the seaport cities where civilization and culture mostly took place, because of their being a crossroads of different cultures. As the late Dr. Richard Schultes once said, "Monoculture breeds disease." But moreover, it breeds ignorance.

In these new times, it is not just the seaports, but also the blogports, and other places where minds meet, where you will find civilization and culture thriving. North Carolina is among these meeting grounds, along with New York, California, Massachusetts, Virginia, Oregon, Washington, and parts of Texas. Places where universities also thrive.

Within North Carolina, the universities are mainly in the Triad/Triangle area, along with the bulk of the blogosphere. And it is these places who will reap the rewards of blogtourism. So when a blogger, such as the illustrious Iddybud (who is an honorary Tarheel, although she lives in New York, and has appeared on CNN, the LA Times, Yes Weekly, and on John Edwards' blog, as well as others), comes to North Carolina, she knows she can contact Tarheel bloggers, tell them of the upcoming visit, and then tour the state with bloggers as guides and helpers. No blogger a stranger. And speaking of which, Jude (Iddy) plans to attend the upcoming event of the year, which is ConvergeSouth, to be held in Blogsboro (Greensboro) on the weekend of October 7th...so introduce yourself, and extend some of that famous Southern Hospitality. But if you really feel the need to throw tomatoes, make it the Jellybean variety, or the Sungolds or Juliets or the Calabash Purple, such as you might find in the garden, or blog, of Laurie, who because of her Slowly She Turned blog, has recently been named "Blogsboro's slow food guru". And throw them at me, not Jude, or anyone else for that matter. I'll come armed with lettuce and bacon.


Laurie's 'maters

EAT AND BE EATEN

And speaking of Bacon, how about them six degrees of Kevin Bacon! To think that every person alive has only six degrees of separation, at most, from Hollywood's Kevin Bacon, whose quatrayle, or great-great-great grandfather, was none other than Novum Organum's Sir Francis Bacon, who, no, did not write Shakespeare (or "Sheik's Peer", as some have insinuated).
Was he really a Sufi?

---

A DIGRESSION ON NAMES
Prince Albert Gore Vidal Sassoon
Earl Warren Christopher Lloyd George Michael Jackson Browne
Patricia Neal Diamond Jim Cary Grant Tinker Bell
Osama Bin Franklin Roosevelt Grier Garson Kanin Abel

---

OK, so I was wrong about Kevin and Francis. His quatrayle was a guy named Lonnie. But this fascination with the interconnectedness of humanity, not to mention the interconnectedness of all life, has now merged with technology, and now, because of so-called "social software" such as LinkedIn.com as well as Ecademy, Ryze, Multiply, MySpace, Friendster and others, tracking and using these connections has become but a mouseclick away. I have to thank Tarheel Taverner -- not to be confused with John Taverner, who is one of America's premiere composers, I believe, although I know there were Taverners in colonial Virginia -- Dr. Sue of Sue's Place for urging me to get linked in, as I now see that it is to blogging what blogging is to solitaire. Which is to say that when you play solitaire, you connect with no one. When you blog, you are likely to connect, but usually with Americans. With sites like LinkedIn, you are just as likely to connect with people from other countries as you are to connect with Americans. Your cybertourismic possibilities are equally widened, as are other possibilities.

Also linked in are Billy the Blogging Poet, Matt Gross, Roch Smith Jr., Ben Hwang and others, included, but not limited to, Dan Gillmor, Steve Rubel, Dave Taylor, Wiley Wiggins...but there is nothing stopping everyone here from also connecting in with these new tools. And by using them, welding the relationships, in a manner not unlike that of photoblogger, Mandie's omnicapable father, one may truly cast their net worldwide, and fish the exotic seas of distant shores. Bring the world home, and home to the world.



And North Carolina has so much to offer to the world. Do people around the world suffer loss? Of course not! But if they did, they could find comfort in the books and blog of Erin Monahan, for example, and learn how to cope with loss, divorce, death. Her Poetic Acceptance could touch hearts not only in North Carolina, and America, but could be touching lives even in the dark and archaeological cloacae of Harappa or Mohenjo-Daro, or at the Priory of Sion in risible Rennes, while making a nice profit for Erin.

DO WHAT IS PLEASING TO ONE'S SELF AND USEFUL TO OTHERS

Poetry, it seems, has helped more than Erin cope with loss. Billy Jones too has found meaning in his own poetry, and others. And his blog highlights his poetry and online novels, but also features the poetry of others. His shorter prose is also enlightening, as in this post, where he celebrates the life of his father, and laments his passing on the anniversary of his death. And although Billy wonders if he will ever attain the greatness of his father, we think his father would be darned proud. Particularly of his work in establishing North Carolina as one of the blog hotspots on the globe. I know I am. And I know many other that are as well.

I say we erect a statue!

But lest it be said that North Carolina is great, but so serious, one need look no further than Valerie Nieman to be given a dose of levitas and jocundity...

AUTOMATIC PENCIL, PART THE FIRST

Automatic pencil
Autopencil, to write moving finger without thought, to fill page after page like a signature machine freed of the loops and squiggles of a program, like the mind in long stretches of waiting for something, waiting is all, waiting is the empty place from which understanding blooms like a seed sudden from the desert after a breath of rain.

Automatic pencil
My father’s clipboard, his pencils, shop pencils thick in the barrel, industrial.I have one, black plastic or Bakelite, steel at each end where the lead came out and where the eraser sat, now an empty tube. The legend: Champion Tool & Die Co. McKeesport, Pa. 15131412 751-6000

I wonder if they’re still in business, or rusted with the rest of the belt, foundries and steel suppliers, solvent and paint dealers, tool and die works, trucking companies, designers, fabricators, merchants. A whole world whittled away, year by year, until now the red brick buildings stand like historic sites, Hadrian’s Wall or the Great Wall or some other useless thing, a single bare bulb burning over a back door.

Automatic pencil
Is not to be preferred over the traditional sort. Thin lead in yellow plastic. Ersatz. No smell of cedar, no scalloped shavings, no angled shading across a ruled page as faces and horses emerge from doodles, no pencil-point under the skin from grade-school bullies. - Val Nieman


-

Her latest book is Fidelities, a short story collection from West Virginia University Press. The collection of 18 stories includes two winners of the Elizabeth Simpson Smith Prize from the Charlotte Writers Club, as well as stories that have appeared in the News & Observer, Wellspring, and the anthologies One Paycheck Away from Main Street Rag Press (Charlotte), The O. Henry Festival Stories 2003 (Greensboro) and Racing Home: Stories from Award-Winning North Carolina Writers, The Paper Journey Press (Durham).
She has also published poetry, a novel about the '70s called Survivors, and an SF novel way back when, Neena Gathering.

AUTOMATIC PENCIL, PART THE SECOND

In which our state's most beloved Ogre, makes the following astute assessment:

The Quick Brown Fox
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

But after the quick brown fox jumped over, the lazy dog moved quickly. The lazy dog ran after the quick brown fox. The quick brown fox discovered that it was not as quick as it thought it might have been. The formerly lazy dog quickly closed the distance between it and the not-so-quick fox as the chase continued.

The quick brown fox ran past Chicken Little, Henny Penny, Turkey Lurkey, and even past his cousin, Sly Fox. The lazy dog, now panting profusely, continued to get closer and closer. The quick brown fox hopped on the alligator's head for a ride over the river. Still the lazy dog followed.

They continued over the hills and through the woods. The race went down the path and the quick brown fox took a shortcut that his half-brother suggested through the woods that led past grandma's house. The lazy dog fell behind a little while traversing the thick undergrowth of the woods.

On the other side of the forest, the quick brown fox ran through the brier patch. Brer rabbit waved as first the quick brown fox, then the lazy dog, sped through his brier path. The briers slowed the quick brown fox, but the lazy dog continued.

Past the brier patch, the quick brown fox ran up the hill. At the top of the hill was a well that had recently been abandoned by Jack and Jill. With nowhere else to go, the quick brown fox stopped and turned to face the lazy dog. He bared his teeth at the lazy dog, hoping that it would turn him away.

The lazy dog stopped, panting from the long chase. He paused to catch his breath, watching the quick brown fox the entire time. Finally, the lazy dog said, "Why did you jump over me?"

From the Left Coast of North Carolina, to the Right, our state abounds in talent, fortuna et lux.

And speaking of which, Science and Politics' Bora Zivkovic, inches from his PhD, graces us with his ample and protean mind, week after week, and for this occasion has explained the differences between left and right...when it comes to science, pseudoscience, borderlands science, and nonsense.

About the pseudosciences he says:

Lefty pseudoscience was always marginal and marginalized by everyone on both the Left and the Right. No political party has ever pushed for astrology or biorhythms to be used in classrooms or in military planning.
However, attack on science, reason and rationality is the centerpiece of the Right-Wing strategy. The only way they can save their medieval notions about society, economics, religion, science, race, gender equality, etc. from being deposited forever in the trashbin of history is if they systematically brainwash every new generation into dogmatism, uncritical thinking and fearful obedience to their authority. They are in power now - White House, Congress, Supreme Court - and they are ramming anti-science and anti-reality ideas into school (and into media) as hard as they can.

His provocative and entertaining explanation can be read in its entirety here. Read and enjoy each delightful and instructive paragraph. Dull minds think alike. Coturnix is an original.

And for a slightly different take, you may want to snort a sprocket...which is a helluva lot safer than snorting "the powders", or "the vapors", which is just gross. The best thing to snort, though, is air. And the best way to snort air is pranayama...not to be confused with melinama, which is not to be confused with melanoma.

Thhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee thing is this. This is the thing, and the thing, is thusly this. You see.

And thus, you may feel something a bit odd in your whithers today. It could be that you are dreaming of taking droughts of Dramamine (unit of measure: drams), or perhaps possible pensives of Pontius Pilate’s palate, who ponders persimmons.

We are the persimmons. EAT US.

You can rest assured that the way is weirdly wondrous and wends through the jungle. Night thoughts, we can be assured. Assuredly, be.

Thoughts of 1 (2? 3!) hit my cortex. Impaled! It is time for much work, and we have so much to do, and not much time.

Lastly: remember. We are all (in love). In love, we all are.

In love.

Quick! Get this man some Asinine Alliteration Antidote with the anti-Charles Dodgson additive!
— Andrew S. Damick Aug 5, 10:01 AM #
“You don’t see the Shintus come around here, shattering sheetglass in the shithouse, shouting slogans…”

“Oh, don’t you go practicing your alliteration on me!”

Or so says Snort a Sprocket from the smerpological depths.

"Smerpological depths?", you ask. Why not alabandical depths, or antipelargical depths, flosculational depths or miasmic depths?

To answer these questions, we have to turn to our resident sesquipedalian, Melinama at Pratie's Place: a phrontistery (affront history?) where you will learn the meaning of the previous paragraph, as well as much else besides.

---

We owe this word to the Roman writer Horace, who wrote in his Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry) [ see also Arse Poetica] : “Proicit ampullas et sesquipedalia verba” (“He throws aside his paint pots and his words that are a foot and a half long”). It comes from Latin sesqui–, one and a half, plus ped, a foot. It was borrowed into English in the seventeenth century and has become a favourite of those writers who like self-referential terms, or are addicted to polysyllabic humour. - Weird Words

---

Carolinians, and indeed, Southerners, have long been verbophiliacs, which may alas stem from the predominance of Shakespeare in our cultural heritage, dating back to England, or maybe the interplay of cultures, or it may be what historian David Hackett Fischer called our love of leisure and "killing time".

With that in mind, allow me to share the adventures of Durham's Ron Hudson, who is killing time in Spain and Portugal. Let him share some of his own methods for killing time. You can keep track of his journeys by bookmarking his blog, 2Sides2Ron.

---

In this present age of threats to democracy and individual liberty, probably only the scamp and the spirit of the scamp alone will save us from becoming lost as serially numbered units in the masses of disciplined, obedient, regimented and uniformed coolies. The scamp will be the last and most formidable enemy of dictatorships. He will be the champion of human dignity and individual freedom, and will be the last to be conquered. All modern civilization depends entirely upon him.
-Lin Yutang
The Importance of Living 1937

On the other hand...

"War paralyzes your courage and deadens the spirit of true manhood. It degrades and stupefies with the sense that you are not responsible, that 'tis not yours to think and reason why, but to do and die,' like the hundred thousand others doomed like yourself. War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity, brutish callousness, wanton destruction, and irresponsible murder."
—Alexander Berkman

---

The Berkman quote just came to me in an email from another honorary Tarheel, who absolutely loves it down here, but lives in Cleveland, just a couple of miles from the base that sent so many to their deaths recently, and about which he says:

I'm sure you heard about the deaths of all those marines who came from my home state. Everyone here is just devastated at the tragic loss of life. I have never seen such an outpouring of grief and sorrow in quite a long time. The battalion headquarters where those marines were stationed is only a couple of miles from where I live. I drive past it every time I go visit my Mother. I think people are now starting to realize how absolutely insane and senseless this war is and who it's truly impacting.

But that's so negative, man! Don't drag me to negativeland. Sharks and Condit are what everyone is talking about now! No wait, that was on 9/10 and the months before. What is it we're talking about now? Oh yeah...shuttle debris and flag burning.

The question then becomes...

When the Media obsesses on junk-food news, are we in for a whacking? On September the 8th, 2001, while walking to a Yes concert at Radio City Music Hall, in, yes, Manhattan, I asked a media person about the obsession with sharks and Condit, to which he responded, "It is a slow news time." My intuition* told me otherwise. That is why I trust my intuition.
And when I need a muffler repair, I trust Maaco. To charge me an arm and a leg.

So why is the media obsessing on trivial, diversionary matters? Don't tell me they are still in cahoots with Daddy Warbucks, and that we are about to be taken to the cleaners yet again.
And wasn't Bush vacationing in Texas during the months before and during 9/11?
Is there a connection between Bush's vacations, a pussilanimous and diversionary Media, and terror?

It is such negativeland, Debbie Downer kind of stuff, that makes people want to watch sports all day and night, with the only reality being reality TV, which should really be labeled "reality-food TV", following Kraft's famous individually wrapped cheese-food ... also a few degrees of separation from reality.

But I digress. I am not a Fascist so I am allowed that luxury. More people should digress. Procrastination can be a virtue. I wish we would have procrastinated on the war. But nooo! Even the War Machine has to show a profit, and the Media has way too much invested in their parent companies. Thank God for blogs!

But I am surely starting to sound cynical. The MSM, mainstream media, corporate media, have great and good people working for them. Some could even become bloggers if they tried! But as Ben Bagdikian points out, and which can be found at Pratie's Place:

"Trying to be a first-rate reporter on the average American newspaper is like trying to play Bach's St. Matthew's Passion on a ukulele." - Bagdikian's Observation

I should talk about religion...

---

How 'bout them stupid Baptists!

Naa...better not go there. Hell, Clinton AND Gore were both Southern Baptists! The exemplars! (Not to be confused with the Templars.)


The Templars

Speaking of confusion, who, besides me, is confused by this most appalling of Tarheel Taverns? Can I git a show of hands? OUCH! Not of the face, Reverend!
I know...one hand clapping. Very funny.

Now I realize that there are going to be some fellers who do not agree with my position on war and peace, and might even claim that our illustrious prince of war is to be preferred to the prince of peace, as Pam's House Blend points out, but alas, their numbers are dwindling, largely because of the relationship between time and truth. What is new is rarely good, because if it is good, it is not long new, but long old. I'm long and old, so I know. (Stupid, the word is "tall"!)

Fine! Whatever!

And so it goes in sweet Caroline. Sweetness and light. Delicacy of feeling. Whimsical charm. T'ungjen.

And speaking of T'ungjen, we may as well go over some other Chinese terms, and why not start from the top?

---

A DIGRESSION ON 4-LETTER WORD POETRY
Time will tell
your mama that Karl
Rove will fess most
lies that Rush took
into Hell when dope
took that mind away.
Away! Into that cool
blue roof. Away! Help
your mama make soup.
Away!
Some days seem like they came from Hell.

---

Better second-hand and first-rate, than first-hand and second-rate

And what better proof of this than a Sunday circumambulation of a good second-hand store...

Let our favorite lenslinger, Stew Pittman, show you how it is done. If you don't know him, he is the premiere video-journalist in the blogosphere, at least as far as I have seen. AND he's right up the street!

Check out his take on second-hand store shopping. He won't dissappoint.

Only a few shoppers noticed the bearded man with the fancy-cam gliding down aisle five. Most just shuffled behind battered shopping carts, staring fixedly at row after row of hand-me-down clothes and second hand doodads. North Carolina’s annual tax-free weekend was only a few hours old, but the feeding frenzy was well underway...

But if that is a little to down-to-earth, you may find solace in Joe Guarino's post on Supreme Court Nominations, Ellen Goodman and the Right to Take Human Life.

Since Justice O'Connor's retirement announcement, Ellen Goodman has been writing often about the issue of Supreme Court nominations and abortion. I have been following her column in the News and Record... - Joe Guarino

JOCULAR CONCLUSION

A scientist and a philosopher were being chased by a hungry lion. The scientist made some quick calculations, he said “it's no good trying to outrun it, its catching up”.
The philosopher kept a little ahead and replied “I am not trying to outrun the lion, I am trying to outrun you !”

A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says: “That's the ugliest baby that I've ever seen. Ugh!” The woman goes to the rear of the bus and sits down, fuming. She says to a man next to her: “The driver just insulted me!”
The man says: “You go right up there and tell him off – go ahead, I'll hold your monkey for you.”

Thanks to all who played and/or enjoyed this little foray into the life of the Tarheel Tavern. It has been a barrel of said monkeys. But looks aren't everything.

Tarheel Tavern : The email

I sent emails, but not sure if it cleared the hurdles.
So here it is again...

Toot Your Blog / Automatic Pencil
T A R H E E L - T A V E R N
ANONYMOSES EDITION

______________________________________________________

Greetings friends,

This is my first (1st) Tavern, so please bear with me as I get my pub legs.
While trying to conceive of a theme, two competed for my attention.
I throw them both on the table, and let those who want to play, choose, or mix the two in unique ways, or alas, write any darn thing they want.

The first idea was to do what I call "Automatic Pencil", even though I know it is already the name for an actual product. The "automatic pencil" I am referring to is, basically, automatic writing. And the more absurd and surreal, the better.

I have discovered that, try as I might, I cannot seem to write outside the iceberg, if you will. The nature of icebergs is that the great bulk is subaqueous, or beneath the surface. But that if one mines from those regions, one can often catch of glimpse of the future...as what is submerged today, basks in the sunlight of tomorrow. One needn't wait. One need only mine.


The second idea is what I shall call "Toot Your Blog". Exercise your copywriting skills, and create an ad for your blog. This task of focusing on one's uniqueness, or whatever might be a good reason to visit the blog, might well reap lasting rewards, and wind up on many a sidebar.

Like I said, you may want to mix the two, or you may want to toot someone else's blog. Or, write anything at all. I can put ads between articles, and place art in strategic places.

Be creative.


I'll try to have it done by midnight on Saturday, so having it in by, say, 3 in the afternoon, on Saturday, would be most delightful.

May the muses be with you...

-anon

PS - If this email reached you, or anyone you know, in error, please exercise that famous American tolerance, and know that it probably really isn't that big a deal.

On today's American Street

The American Street, August 4, 2005

- Jeff Gannon-fake journalist- back in the news By Jude Nagurney-Camwell
- Psychoperegrination: Why did Hitler hate the French? By anonyMoses
- Are you a Reagan Liberal? By anonyMoses
- Bygones By Riggsveda

and more...including:

- Dave Thinks Big By Jeff Alworth
- go to jail, lose an award By Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
- Hearts and Minds By eRobin
- Mice and Men By eRobin
- The Aristocrats By Lance Mannion
- One Island In The American Archipelago By Riggsveda
- Oil, Gas, and Conspiracies, By Emma
- A war by any other name… By Flamingo Jones
- How to Fake News: An Example By Barbara O'Brien
- Sunday Sermonette: Mark Twain By Lindsay Beyerstein
- it’s funny because it’s true by Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
- Dim academics and anti-evolutionism By PZ Myers
- “Scotty, I need warp speed in three minutes or we’re all dead.” By Lance Mannion
- The Coming Plague, By Melanie

Prayers go out to Kevin Hayden, the visionary behind American Street, who is suffering multiple losses...

Posthumous Tales of Tomorrow

Tertium Organum
THE THIRD CANON OF THOUGHT
A KEY TO THE ENIGMAS OF THE WORLD
by P.D. Ouspenksy

Also newly listed on Sacred-texts.com is the
Pistis Sophia and more.

Blogcritics.org: Wedding Crashers : World's Sexiest Comedy

Blogcritic review by anonyMoses

Take off work and go see this movie. Tell your boss that the globe is simply too hot for you right now, and that you need to sit in a dark, air-conditioned environment and just laugh a while. I am here to attest to the restorative powers. Bring a date or a friend or a party of friends. Bring the blogosphere while you're at it. We're talking about healing the globe...

Down Goes Humpty

Follow the Uranium - New York Times

Jose Machado, king of social networking platforms

Who knew there were so many?

As social software, and their concomitant networks hook more and more of the world together, there will be some who will seize upon these tools and work them for all they are worth. Jose seems to have a good headstart...