Sunday, January 01, 2006

Republicans win. America goes to war with Iran.

From the ANONYMOSES Archives (July 4, 2004) , we see that my prediction may well come true...sadly.

My headline read:

Democrats Win! World Erupts in Celebration!
Celebration, relief and good cheer spread across the globe, as war-happy madman is replaced by sane and beautiful leaders who respect all peoples.
OR...
Republicans win. America goes to war with Iran.
Foolwells get their Armageddon. Millions die needlessly. A handful of suits reap windfall profits.


Today the Jerusalem Post reports this:
'US planning strike against Iran'

Bush's philosophy?
When stretched thin...snap!

Friday, December 30, 2005


Dark Dubya

Thursday, December 29, 2005

"The Nightingale" on PBS tonight at 8pm



This amazing performance is on as I type. Mesmerizing.
The music is by Stravinsky, and the staging is reminescent of the works of Robert Wilson and Twyla Tharp. Beyond the beyond.

[Repeat]

BUT THEN..."Shallow Hal" is also on concurrently...on FOX. Also a very good pick. Besides...it was filmed right here in Charlotte...AND it features friend of a friend Gwyneth Paltry...in her skivvies.

A splendid time is guaranteed for all...

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Find the Liberal



One of these hominids is a Liberal. Can you find him?

Iddybud Journal


art by anonyMoses

When will conservatives learn their role?

There is no need to yell and scream. No need to be strident and shrill. What is needed is that conservatives learn their proper role.

Now by conservative, I mean people who are not creative, but who are, in the main, reactionary.
In America, it has long been the case that the creative class tended toward liberality, since that is, in large part, what enables them to be creative. Creativity is a generative and generous act.

But many of those who are not creative make the mistake of becoming, or being, reactive, as if reactivity balanced creativity. But this is not the proper order. The proper thing for the non-creatives to do is to be receptive, not reactive. Creativity is the yang, receptivity is the yin.

All of life is infused with both characteristics. No one is completely one way or the other. There are simply aptitudes and orientations.

America is prevented from evolving naturally by this miscalculation. Instead of great ideas being nurtured and developed by those who would be receptive, instead they are reacted against, shot down, and the balloon bursts...if it is ever given wind in the first place.

The second mistake of the reactives is that reaction is, to the extent that it is mechanical, the antonym of consciousness. As DH Lawrence once wrote: "Death is not evil. Evil is mechanical."
And so it is with mechanical humanity -- if the oxymoron hasn't already smacked you on the face or fundament. And mechanicality is a state against which one must ever struggle, as modernity itself seems to lull one into its hypnotic laze. (Here laze is meant to indicate the gestalt of laziness...and to not neologize might be a glaring example of said laze.)

Allied with this unconscious, mechanical reactionariness are the onion layers of delusion (Maya) caused by the buffers from reality caked on with each ego-centered supposition, as if every knucklehead were indeed the actual center of the universe.

Creatives, for their part, need to understand that a gift is a gift, and that gifts can be taken away if not stewarded with proper care. Midwiving reactives into receptives may be a role you have to take up. Alas, friends are better than foe. Make it all worthwhile.

Americans are growing weary of the ululation, the pounding fists, the adolescent bravado. Fix the most basic structures, and the rest will become much easier to attend.

These things and more have been uttered under the influence of Anonymoses, uncle of all blogs, and may not be taken as medicine. If conditions persist, consult your physicist.

Mr. Wondrous welcomes you to Anonymoses


this is an audio post - click to play

BULLETIN: Bush Elected President of Iraq

Complete coverage at Onion News Services.
(hattip to Rah Bourbon of the European Bourbons)

"Growth is Good" by J. "Bradfold" Delong

An economist's take on the moral consequences of material progress

[Note the prominent typo in his name.] :)

Blogger Brad DeLong, Harvard ’82, Ph.D. ’87, is professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley, and is at work on “The Economic History of the Twentieth Century: Slouching towards Utopia?”

We have been nominated for Best Writing/Koufax Awards



Along with these other good folks:
Best Writing
Lance Mannion - Creek Running North - Nancy Nall - Neil Shakespeare - Michael Berube Online - Anonymoses - Rana - Echidne - Amanda Marcotte - Shakespeare's Sister - Stirling Newberry - Jeffrey Feldman - Matthew Nisbett - Paul Rosenberg

Thanks to Bora at Science and Politics for the nomination. Personally, I think he is the better writer. And color-coordinated!

Two Minute Television

Two Minute Television is the brainchild of Levi Shapiro. Some great clips! Check it out!

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

The Disnification of Harvard Square



In its heyday, the Brattle offered Boston film buffs the best movie education in town. For many, it is still hard to recall scenes from Francois Truffaut's "400 Blows" or Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless" or Humphrey Bogart's farewell to Ingrid Bergman in "Casablanca" without thinking of the Brattle.

The Brattle Film Foundation, the nonprofit that has operated the theater since 2001, has launched a campaign to save the place by raising $400,000 before its lease runs out in February.


The last performance I saw at the Brattle was Spalding Gray performing Swimming to Cambodia. May the theater not suffer a similar fate...

Literary Monkeyshine


More Endowed

Yankee Pot Roast: Letter from the Editors Archives

Monday, December 26, 2005

Vid-blog Emmy awards

href="http://edcone.typepad.com/wordup/2005/12/vidblog_emmy_aw.html">EdCone.com: Vid-blog Emmy awards
Video blogs and podcasts are eligible for Emmy awards. The LA Times reports: "The New York-based National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences...is creating an award for Outstanding Achievement in Content for Non-Traditional Delivery Platforms ? and the first one will be handed out at the 33rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards on April 28, airing on ABC."

Details on applications and rules at vlogLab.

via Ed Cone

Pratie Place: Tar Heel Tavern #44

Tarheel Tavern is open at Pratie Place. It's a good one!

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Memories of my first Holiday

Holiday doesn't sound right, but Christmas doesn't sound right either. The main thing I remember about my first Christmas was that my mother's mother had died. And people were crying all over the place. I have since learned why.

When I first saw the commotion, the sadness, I was hanging out on the porch with my brother and sister, while my aunt, a Parisian woman with good looks and a funny way of talking, bathed her latest after her latest created quite a mess, which was preternaturally green and filled with discordant odors already strange to my five year old nose.

A commotion commenced with its epicenter being the front door, wherein my dear grandfather was carried into the house and up the stairs to his bedroom. He looked a broken man. He, a strong, solid man who worked his farm and raised nearly a dozen children, and who never showed weakness, was now virtually drained of Life, and seemed dependent upon the human props, crutches, that animated him toward that feather-filled bed where he was to spend his Christmas without the person who had animated him for longer, perhaps, than he was willing to let go.

Some grown-ups explained to us that our grandmother had died, of sugar diabetes. Grandpa needed some rest. You can talk tomorrow.

And tomorrow did come, after what might have been a very long night for dear Elias. And little by little, he resurrected himself, and lived more than twenty years, until the ripe old age of 98.

During this season, I hope people will think about what it is to resurrect, and why it is important to allow others to resurrect. Surely it is not as simple as the evolutionists believe in it, while non-evolutions do not. Maybe resurrection IS evolution, of a sort. In any case, both are aspects of change, which is, perhaps, the only real absolute. Other than vodka of course.

When things are great, you may wish that things never change. But when things are not so good, as in the case of my grandfather, and everyone eventually, change becomes a hope the manifestation of which may not come too quickly. Were only all changes for the better...

If evolution didn't exist, we would have had to invent it.

Jesus Christ is risen today

Judge Lets Man Change Name to Jesus Christ

"This was not done for any reason other than I am that person. You're dealing with the real deal."

...yet somehow I have my doubts.

Oakland Tribune seeks copies of "1984" to send to politicos

Oakland Tribune
The paper says it's time for Congress to heed the warning of George Orwell. "To that end, we're asking for your help: Mail us or drop off your tattered copies of '1984.' When we get 537 of them, we'll send them to every member of the House of Representatives and Senate and to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney."

(earwhispered by Deep Teeth)

Wednesday, December 21, 2005