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Pic of the Day
Jun. 20th, 2012 12:00 am
You know you are pretty small when your cat is almost as big as you are.
Jun. 20th, 2012
You know you are pretty small when your cat is almost as big as you are.
Pic of the Day
Jun. 20th, 2012 12:00 amYou know you are pretty small when your cat is almost as big as you are.
The Republicans' Political Rabies
Jun. 20th, 2012 08:00 amThese are tough times to be a liberal Democrat. It has been for a few decades, and it only seems to be getting worse. Yet, we do enjoy these little glimmers in the reportage that suggest a growing understanding of how corrupt and greedy our Republicans have been getting in their growing power. It is doubtful that this matters electorally, but I sometimes like to keep these the-world-is-ending-and-it's-the-Republicans'-fault riffs. I know it makes me feel a little better to get some confirmation of what we know.
_ _ _
As a local GOP official after President Obama’s election, I had a front-row seat as it became infected by a dangerous and virulent form of political rabies.
In the grip of this contagion, the Republican Party has come unhinged. Its fevered hallucinations involve threats from imaginary communists and socialists who, seemingly, lurk around every corner. Climate change- a reality recognized by every single significant scientific body and academy in the world- is a liberal conspiracy conjured up by Al Gore and other leftists who want to destroy America. Large numbers of Republicans- the notorious birthers- believe that the President was not born in the United States. Even worse, few figures in the GOP have the courage to confront them.
Republican economic policies are also indefensible. The GOP constantly claims that its opponents are engaged in “class warfare,” but this is an exercise in projection. In Republican proposals, the wealthy win, and the rest of us lose- one only has to look at Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget to see that.
As Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein have written, “the Republican Party, has become an insurgent outlier—ideologically extreme; contemptuous of the inherited social and economic policy regime; scornful of compromise; unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence, and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.” Its reckless behavior helps drive the political dysfunction crippling our nation.
In the end, it offers a dystopian vision of our future- a harsher, crueler and more merciless America starkly divided between the riders, and the ridden.
-- Michael Stafford at MSNBC
_ _ _
As a local GOP official after President Obama’s election, I had a front-row seat as it became infected by a dangerous and virulent form of political rabies.
In the grip of this contagion, the Republican Party has come unhinged. Its fevered hallucinations involve threats from imaginary communists and socialists who, seemingly, lurk around every corner. Climate change- a reality recognized by every single significant scientific body and academy in the world- is a liberal conspiracy conjured up by Al Gore and other leftists who want to destroy America. Large numbers of Republicans- the notorious birthers- believe that the President was not born in the United States. Even worse, few figures in the GOP have the courage to confront them.
Republican economic policies are also indefensible. The GOP constantly claims that its opponents are engaged in “class warfare,” but this is an exercise in projection. In Republican proposals, the wealthy win, and the rest of us lose- one only has to look at Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget to see that.
As Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein have written, “the Republican Party, has become an insurgent outlier—ideologically extreme; contemptuous of the inherited social and economic policy regime; scornful of compromise; unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence, and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.” Its reckless behavior helps drive the political dysfunction crippling our nation.
In the end, it offers a dystopian vision of our future- a harsher, crueler and more merciless America starkly divided between the riders, and the ridden.
-- Michael Stafford at MSNBC
The Republicans' Political Rabies
Jun. 20th, 2012 08:00 amThese are tough times to be a liberal Democrat. It has been for a few decades, and it only seems to be getting worse. Yet, we do enjoy these little glimmers in the reportage that suggest a growing understanding of how corrupt and greedy our Republicans have been getting in their growing power. It is doubtful that this matters electorally, but I sometimes like to keep these the-world-is-ending-and-it's-the-Republicans'-fault riffs. I know it makes me feel a little better to get some confirmation of what we know.
_ _ _
As a local GOP official after President Obama’s election, I had a front-row seat as it became infected by a dangerous and virulent form of political rabies.
In the grip of this contagion, the Republican Party has come unhinged. Its fevered hallucinations involve threats from imaginary communists and socialists who, seemingly, lurk around every corner. Climate change- a reality recognized by every single significant scientific body and academy in the world- is a liberal conspiracy conjured up by Al Gore and other leftists who want to destroy America. Large numbers of Republicans- the notorious birthers- believe that the President was not born in the United States. Even worse, few figures in the GOP have the courage to confront them.
Republican economic policies are also indefensible. The GOP constantly claims that its opponents are engaged in “class warfare,” but this is an exercise in projection. In Republican proposals, the wealthy win, and the rest of us lose- one only has to look at Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget to see that.
As Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein have written, “the Republican Party, has become an insurgent outlier—ideologically extreme; contemptuous of the inherited social and economic policy regime; scornful of compromise; unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence, and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.” Its reckless behavior helps drive the political dysfunction crippling our nation.
In the end, it offers a dystopian vision of our future- a harsher, crueler and more merciless America starkly divided between the riders, and the ridden.
-- Michael Stafford at MSNBC
_ _ _
As a local GOP official after President Obama’s election, I had a front-row seat as it became infected by a dangerous and virulent form of political rabies.
In the grip of this contagion, the Republican Party has come unhinged. Its fevered hallucinations involve threats from imaginary communists and socialists who, seemingly, lurk around every corner. Climate change- a reality recognized by every single significant scientific body and academy in the world- is a liberal conspiracy conjured up by Al Gore and other leftists who want to destroy America. Large numbers of Republicans- the notorious birthers- believe that the President was not born in the United States. Even worse, few figures in the GOP have the courage to confront them.
Republican economic policies are also indefensible. The GOP constantly claims that its opponents are engaged in “class warfare,” but this is an exercise in projection. In Republican proposals, the wealthy win, and the rest of us lose- one only has to look at Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget to see that.
As Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein have written, “the Republican Party, has become an insurgent outlier—ideologically extreme; contemptuous of the inherited social and economic policy regime; scornful of compromise; unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence, and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.” Its reckless behavior helps drive the political dysfunction crippling our nation.
In the end, it offers a dystopian vision of our future- a harsher, crueler and more merciless America starkly divided between the riders, and the ridden.
-- Michael Stafford at MSNBC
I Write Because...
Jun. 20th, 2012 01:00 pm“I don’t write because there’s an audience. I write because there is literature.”
-- Susan Sontag
I suppose I kind of have to feel that way myself, heh. As a practical matter, I write because it is a more interesting way of talking to myself. The Internet is very encouraging, however, because it fosters the illusion that one has an audience. On LiveJournal, of course, the illusion runs a little thinner since people do not come here anymore, but you never know, people could type in a wrong url or something.
-- Susan Sontag
I suppose I kind of have to feel that way myself, heh. As a practical matter, I write because it is a more interesting way of talking to myself. The Internet is very encouraging, however, because it fosters the illusion that one has an audience. On LiveJournal, of course, the illusion runs a little thinner since people do not come here anymore, but you never know, people could type in a wrong url or something.
I Write Because...
Jun. 20th, 2012 01:00 pm“I don’t write because there’s an audience. I write because there is literature.”
-- Susan Sontag
I suppose I kind of have to feel that way myself, heh. As a practical matter, I write because it is a more interesting way of talking to myself. The Internet is very encouraging, however, because it fosters the illusion that one has an audience. On LiveJournal, of course, the illusion runs a little thinner since people do not come here anymore, but you never know, people could type in a wrong url or something.
-- Susan Sontag
I suppose I kind of have to feel that way myself, heh. As a practical matter, I write because it is a more interesting way of talking to myself. The Internet is very encouraging, however, because it fosters the illusion that one has an audience. On LiveJournal, of course, the illusion runs a little thinner since people do not come here anymore, but you never know, people could type in a wrong url or something.
Hamlet (3,2) What Ho! Horatio!
Jun. 20th, 2012 06:00 pmThe king and queen are coming to the play, and Hamlet has charged others to hasten the players, and, now, what good timing, it’s Horatio. As Mr. Rosenberg relates:
Hamlet, so compressed inward for so long with unspoken passion, can at last pour out his deepest feelings to one whom his soul seal’d for herself. Man may delight him not; but this man delights him.
HAMLET
What ho! Horatio!
[Enter HORATIO]
HORATIO
Here, sweet lord, at your service.
HAMLET
Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man
As e'er my conversation coped withal.
HORATIO
O, my dear lord,--
HAMLET
Nay, do not think I flatter;
For what advancement may I hope from thee
That no revenue hast but thy good spirits,
To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter'd?
No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
And could of men distinguish, her election
Hath seal'd thee for herself; for thou hast been
As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing,
A man that fortune's buffets and rewards
Hast ta'en with equal thanks: and blest are those
Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled,
That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger
To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee.--Something too much of this.--
There is a play tonight before the king;
One scene of it comes near the circumstance
Which I have told thee of my father's death:
I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,
Even with the very comment of thy soul
Observe mine uncle: if his occulted guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen,
And my imaginations are as foul
As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note;
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,
And after we will both our judgments join
In censure of his seeming.
HORATIO
Well, my lord:
If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,
And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft.
HAMLET
They are coming to the play; I must be idle:
Get you a place.
Rosenberg notes:
We are at the center of the play, but we might as easily be near the very end. The naive spectators wonder if the coming clash may not be final. The storm that has been brewing must beak. The stage begins to fill with people, who infect the air with apprehension. What will this mad - madcap? - prince do now?
Hamlet, so compressed inward for so long with unspoken passion, can at last pour out his deepest feelings to one whom his soul seal’d for herself. Man may delight him not; but this man delights him.
HAMLET
What ho! Horatio!
[Enter HORATIO]
HORATIO
Here, sweet lord, at your service.
HAMLET
Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man
As e'er my conversation coped withal.
HORATIO
O, my dear lord,--
HAMLET
Nay, do not think I flatter;
For what advancement may I hope from thee
That no revenue hast but thy good spirits,
To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter'd?
No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
And could of men distinguish, her election
Hath seal'd thee for herself; for thou hast been
As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing,
A man that fortune's buffets and rewards
Hast ta'en with equal thanks: and blest are those
Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled,
That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger
To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee.--Something too much of this.--
There is a play tonight before the king;
One scene of it comes near the circumstance
Which I have told thee of my father's death:
I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,
Even with the very comment of thy soul
Observe mine uncle: if his occulted guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen,
And my imaginations are as foul
As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note;
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,
And after we will both our judgments join
In censure of his seeming.
HORATIO
Well, my lord:
If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,
And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft.
HAMLET
They are coming to the play; I must be idle:
Get you a place.
Rosenberg notes:
We are at the center of the play, but we might as easily be near the very end. The naive spectators wonder if the coming clash may not be final. The storm that has been brewing must beak. The stage begins to fill with people, who infect the air with apprehension. What will this mad - madcap? - prince do now?
Hamlet (3,2) What Ho! Horatio!
Jun. 20th, 2012 06:00 pmThe king and queen are coming to the play, and Hamlet has charged others to hasten the players, and, now, what good timing, it’s Horatio. As Mr. Rosenberg relates:
Hamlet, so compressed inward for so long with unspoken passion, can at last pour out his deepest feelings to one whom his soul seal’d for herself. Man may delight him not; but this man delights him.
HAMLET
What ho! Horatio!
[Enter HORATIO]
HORATIO
Here, sweet lord, at your service.
HAMLET
Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man
As e'er my conversation coped withal.
HORATIO
O, my dear lord,--
HAMLET
Nay, do not think I flatter;
For what advancement may I hope from thee
That no revenue hast but thy good spirits,
To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter'd?
No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
And could of men distinguish, her election
Hath seal'd thee for herself; for thou hast been
As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing,
A man that fortune's buffets and rewards
Hast ta'en with equal thanks: and blest are those
Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled,
That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger
To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee.--Something too much of this.--
There is a play tonight before the king;
One scene of it comes near the circumstance
Which I have told thee of my father's death:
I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,
Even with the very comment of thy soul
Observe mine uncle: if his occulted guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen,
And my imaginations are as foul
As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note;
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,
And after we will both our judgments join
In censure of his seeming.
HORATIO
Well, my lord:
If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,
And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft.
HAMLET
They are coming to the play; I must be idle:
Get you a place.
Rosenberg notes:
We are at the center of the play, but we might as easily be near the very end. The naive spectators wonder if the coming clash may not be final. The storm that has been brewing must beak. The stage begins to fill with people, who infect the air with apprehension. What will this mad - madcap? - prince do now?
Hamlet, so compressed inward for so long with unspoken passion, can at last pour out his deepest feelings to one whom his soul seal’d for herself. Man may delight him not; but this man delights him.
HAMLET
What ho! Horatio!
[Enter HORATIO]
HORATIO
Here, sweet lord, at your service.
HAMLET
Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man
As e'er my conversation coped withal.
HORATIO
O, my dear lord,--
HAMLET
Nay, do not think I flatter;
For what advancement may I hope from thee
That no revenue hast but thy good spirits,
To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter'd?
No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
And could of men distinguish, her election
Hath seal'd thee for herself; for thou hast been
As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing,
A man that fortune's buffets and rewards
Hast ta'en with equal thanks: and blest are those
Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled,
That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger
To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee.--Something too much of this.--
There is a play tonight before the king;
One scene of it comes near the circumstance
Which I have told thee of my father's death:
I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,
Even with the very comment of thy soul
Observe mine uncle: if his occulted guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen,
And my imaginations are as foul
As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note;
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,
And after we will both our judgments join
In censure of his seeming.
HORATIO
Well, my lord:
If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,
And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft.
HAMLET
They are coming to the play; I must be idle:
Get you a place.
Rosenberg notes:
We are at the center of the play, but we might as easily be near the very end. The naive spectators wonder if the coming clash may not be final. The storm that has been brewing must beak. The stage begins to fill with people, who infect the air with apprehension. What will this mad - madcap? - prince do now?