Five O' Clock in the Morning, Again

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Monk got up for his first bathroom run at a little before four. Not bad. But then Bo got up and seemed... interested. Although it had been some time, maybe weeks, since Bo needed to go out in the middle of the night, Monk did not care to take chances and play with the eskie that way, and he took Bo outside. However, that was the last of sleep for the night. Not being allowed back into the Land of Nod by five, Monk decided to jack back into cyberspace with this wonderful new vehicle that is IE7.

xXx

Five O' Clock in the Morning, Again

♠
Monk got up for his first bathroom run at a little before four. Not bad. But then Bo got up and seemed... interested. Although it had been some time, maybe weeks, since Bo needed to go out in the middle of the night, Monk did not care to take chances and play with the eskie that way, and he took Bo outside. However, that was the last of sleep for the night. Not being allowed back into the Land of Nod by five, Monk decided to jack back into cyberspace with this wonderful new vehicle that is IE7.

xXx

Loving Your Child

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“When it came to trying to decide which theories of child-rearing were highly beneficial and which were absolutely ruinous to the future of your child — a subject of considerable discussion among some parents we knew — we agreed on a simple notion: your children are either the center of your life or they’re not, and the rest is commentary.”

At one point, Alice was working at a camp for children with genetic disorders. She wondered how one child, L., could be so cheerful, even though she neither grew nor could digest food. Then she saw a letter from L.’s mother: “If God had given us all of the children in the world to choose from, L., we would only have chosen you.” Alice pulled aside Trillin: “Quick. Read this. It’s the secret of life.”

-- David Brooks for The New York Times

Mr. Brooks is promoting some essays, and the above quote comes from one by Calvin Trillin writing about his late wife, Alice.

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Loving Your Child

♠
“When it came to trying to decide which theories of child-rearing were highly beneficial and which were absolutely ruinous to the future of your child — a subject of considerable discussion among some parents we knew — we agreed on a simple notion: your children are either the center of your life or they’re not, and the rest is commentary.”

At one point, Alice was working at a camp for children with genetic disorders. She wondered how one child, L., could be so cheerful, even though she neither grew nor could digest food. Then she saw a letter from L.’s mother: “If God had given us all of the children in the world to choose from, L., we would only have chosen you.” Alice pulled aside Trillin: “Quick. Read this. It’s the secret of life.”

-- David Brooks for The New York Times

Mr. Brooks is promoting some essays, and the above quote comes from one by Calvin Trillin writing about his late wife, Alice.

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Senator and Senate in Critical Condition

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Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) underwent emergency brain surgery overnight after falling ill at the Capitol and was in critical condition early this morning, introducing a note of uncertainty over control of the Senate just weeks before Democrats are to take over with a one-vote margin.

-- Charles Babington and Jonathan Weisman for The Washington Post

I hope he wasn't poisoned! Just kidding. We're not Russia. I think we prefer plane crashes for this sort of thing. Maybe Jesus just has Dubya's back.

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Senator and Senate in Critical Condition

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Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) underwent emergency brain surgery overnight after falling ill at the Capitol and was in critical condition early this morning, introducing a note of uncertainty over control of the Senate just weeks before Democrats are to take over with a one-vote margin.

-- Charles Babington and Jonathan Weisman for The Washington Post

I hope he wasn't poisoned! Just kidding. We're not Russia. I think we prefer plane crashes for this sort of thing. Maybe Jesus just has Dubya's back.

xXx

Daniel C. Dennett on Faith and Democracy

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“I am myself an atheist. Atheism is one of the live rails of American politics-touch it and you're toast. Fair enough. Those are the current facts of life. Not so long ago, you couldn’t be elected if you were Catholic, or Jewish, or African-American. But shouldn't we install another live rail, on the opposite side of the religious spectrum?

“It ought to be just as much a fact of life that anybody who declares that their allegiance to their religion comes before their allegiance to democracy is simply unelectable.”

-- Daniel C. Dennett for The Washington Post

Another word on religion and civic life from Daniel C. Dennett, one of my intellectual heroes. It may be recalled that his book, "Consciousness Explained," played a pivotal role in my philosophical life, giving me the final nudge to get off the fence and become a materialist, eschewing supernatural factors in my analytical and interpretive thought, though I have enough doubts and reservations about Ultimate Reality that I am not really an atheist, though neither am I a believer (in the supernatural). I try to be a 'realist,' but I am not without fanciful notions and hope.

I will make one critical note on this essay. Mr. Dennett's critical assumption is that there is a separation of church and state in the First Amendment. Although I adhere to that doctrine, that separation is hardly clear and hard law, which is a big opening that our expansionist sectarians use in waging battle in our Culture War. The principle of the separation of church and state is still to be fought over, itself.

( Dennett essay )

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Daniel C. Dennett on Faith and Democracy

♠
“I am myself an atheist. Atheism is one of the live rails of American politics-touch it and you're toast. Fair enough. Those are the current facts of life. Not so long ago, you couldn’t be elected if you were Catholic, or Jewish, or African-American. But shouldn't we install another live rail, on the opposite side of the religious spectrum?

“It ought to be just as much a fact of life that anybody who declares that their allegiance to their religion comes before their allegiance to democracy is simply unelectable.”

-- Daniel C. Dennett for The Washington Post

Another word on religion and civic life from Daniel C. Dennett, one of my intellectual heroes. It may be recalled that his book, "Consciousness Explained," played a pivotal role in my philosophical life, giving me the final nudge to get off the fence and become a materialist, eschewing supernatural factors in my analytical and interpretive thought, though I have enough doubts and reservations about Ultimate Reality that I am not really an atheist, though neither am I a believer (in the supernatural). I try to be a 'realist,' but I am not without fanciful notions and hope.

I will make one critical note on this essay. Mr. Dennett's critical assumption is that there is a separation of church and state in the First Amendment. Although I adhere to that doctrine, that separation is hardly clear and hard law, which is a big opening that our expansionist sectarians use in waging battle in our Culture War. The principle of the separation of church and state is still to be fought over, itself.

( Dennett essay )

xXx

Morning Nap

♠
The early morning is already weighing heavily on the morning reading. But Monk just came out of a mini-nap, and maybe that will help. He needed to lie down with his head feeling so heavy, and he dozed off. Happily curative, I think.

xXx

Morning Nap

♠
The early morning is already weighing heavily on the morning reading. But Monk just came out of a mini-nap, and maybe that will help. He needed to lie down with his head feeling so heavy, and he dozed off. Happily curative, I think.

xXx

Iraq: Candy and Bombs

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I know many even of my fondest readers have not the stomach for "what should be done". Political correctness has penetrated so deeply into the soul of Western man, that even people trying to resist it, readily succumb to the fantasies it engenders, and instinctively avoid looking reality in the eye. I have hesitated to prescribe because, if I say what I really think, people may shriek inconsolably.

... To put this plainly: the "strategy" in Fallujah should have been to make it into a parking lot, and build a Wal-Mart at one end. There would have been great loss of life, but the message to our enemies and their supporters everywhere would have been, "We will not be toyed with." Civilians whose sympathies are with the enemy cannot be won over, and have not been, by the "candy to children" approach. They must be taught that sheltering the enemy -- even involuntarily -- means sharing the enemy's fate. (The distinction between what is voluntary and involuntary soon changes under those conditions.) And this, in the longer run, is what saves millions of lives.

-- David Warren for Ottawa Citizen

Well, that sounds harsher than what I have thought, but then Mr. Warren imagines being able to win with the troops that we have on the ground. Personally, I think it is too late for this kind of muscular 'message sending.' Too many now have their back up in the game. Only a true occupation army can recover the situation now, if that.

As far as not having the stomach or the mind set for such high-handed programs, that is the argument for staying out, or at least for getting out NOW. But it looks like we will be staying the course for another two years, the remainder of President Bush's term in office, and we shall see what he can do.

xXx

Iraq: Candy and Bombs

♠
I know many even of my fondest readers have not the stomach for "what should be done". Political correctness has penetrated so deeply into the soul of Western man, that even people trying to resist it, readily succumb to the fantasies it engenders, and instinctively avoid looking reality in the eye. I have hesitated to prescribe because, if I say what I really think, people may shriek inconsolably.

... To put this plainly: the "strategy" in Fallujah should have been to make it into a parking lot, and build a Wal-Mart at one end. There would have been great loss of life, but the message to our enemies and their supporters everywhere would have been, "We will not be toyed with." Civilians whose sympathies are with the enemy cannot be won over, and have not been, by the "candy to children" approach. They must be taught that sheltering the enemy -- even involuntarily -- means sharing the enemy's fate. (The distinction between what is voluntary and involuntary soon changes under those conditions.) And this, in the longer run, is what saves millions of lives.

-- David Warren for Ottawa Citizen

Well, that sounds harsher than what I have thought, but then Mr. Warren imagines being able to win with the troops that we have on the ground. Personally, I think it is too late for this kind of muscular 'message sending.' Too many now have their back up in the game. Only a true occupation army can recover the situation now, if that.

As far as not having the stomach or the mind set for such high-handed programs, that is the argument for staying out, or at least for getting out NOW. But it looks like we will be staying the course for another two years, the remainder of President Bush's term in office, and we shall see what he can do.

xXx

David Duke Living Large in Iran

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I am glad Sully posted this. David Duke is feeling his oats in Iran at that Holocaust Conference. In this CNN interview, Mr. Duke is battling against the zionist Wolf Blitzer and defending free-speech enthusiast President Ahmadinejad. One can almost hear the thunder from the gathering storm.

David Duke Living Large in Iran

♠
I am glad Sully posted this. David Duke is feeling his oats in Iran at that Holocaust Conference. In this CNN interview, Mr. Duke is battling against the zionist Wolf Blitzer and defending free-speech enthusiast President Ahmadinejad. One can almost hear the thunder from the gathering storm.

Bragelina's Baby Shiloh

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I am not one to follow the news of celebrity babies - babes maybe, but not babies. But I just saw a little picture of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's baby girl, Shiloh, and I swear she looks like a 'movie star' baby, and you have to catch your breath. The wonder of Angelina!

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Bragelina's Baby Shiloh

♠
I am not one to follow the news of celebrity babies - babes maybe, but not babies. But I just saw a little picture of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's baby girl, Shiloh, and I swear she looks like a 'movie star' baby, and you have to catch your breath. The wonder of Angelina!

xXx

Life's Road

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Nights dark beyond darknesss and the days more gray each one than what had gone before. Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world.

-- "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

Monk finished reading a chapter of "Reading Vergil's Aeneid" at around four-thirty, and he was looking forward to spending a long afternoon with "O." However, he realized that the three-day weekend begins tomorrow, and instead of glutting himself on porn, he started "The Road" early.

This one by McCarthy is looking even better than "Blood Meridian," which is a darkly lyrical favorite in its own right. The plot in "The Road" is simpler and more elegant and therefore starker and even more absorbing. The man is a poet-novelist and we are beggar-readers.

I do believe that it spurred a special memory of mother with its brooding and desperate reflection. It occurred when Pop came out to see if Bill was outside to talk to. Since this makes Monk self-conscious about his reading, to be seen openly from outside the window like that, he shuts the blinds for privacy.

This 'shunning' brought to mind the springtime afternoons when mother would similarly impinge on the privacy and comfort of his reading. She would come by the window with water hose in hand to water her hibiscus. And Monk can practically see her there as if it were yesterday, with the kind of clarity that his recollections had in the first months after her death. Monk can see the attentive concern on her face for her dying plant, which is slightly tinged by the comical since her inability to keep her plants thriving had long been a family joke, that black thumb of death.

Monk came close to tears after all these years. That is a testament to the power of McCarthy's narrative of a father and son attempting to negotiate a barren world with more pride than hope.

xXx

Life's Road

♠
Nights dark beyond darknesss and the days more gray each one than what had gone before. Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world.

-- "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

Monk finished reading a chapter of "Reading Vergil's Aeneid" at around four-thirty, and he was looking forward to spending a long afternoon with "O." However, he realized that the three-day weekend begins tomorrow, and instead of glutting himself on porn, he started "The Road" early.

This one by McCarthy is looking even better than "Blood Meridian," which is a darkly lyrical favorite in its own right. The plot in "The Road" is simpler and more elegant and therefore starker and even more absorbing. The man is a poet-novelist and we are beggar-readers.

I do believe that it spurred a special memory of mother with its brooding and desperate reflection. It occurred when Pop came out to see if Bill was outside to talk to. Since this makes Monk self-conscious about his reading, to be seen openly from outside the window like that, he shuts the blinds for privacy.

This 'shunning' brought to mind the springtime afternoons when mother would similarly impinge on the privacy and comfort of his reading. She would come by the window with water hose in hand to water her hibiscus. And Monk can practically see her there as if it were yesterday, with the kind of clarity that his recollections had in the first months after her death. Monk can see the attentive concern on her face for her dying plant, which is slightly tinged by the comical since her inability to keep her plants thriving had long been a family joke, that black thumb of death.

Monk came close to tears after all these years. That is a testament to the power of McCarthy's narrative of a father and son attempting to negotiate a barren world with more pride than hope.

xXx