Decisions, Decisions
As I continue to weed the Martin-Ryan Research Library and Curio Emporium, hard decisions confront me at every turn.
This did not, however, call for a hard decision. This one’s a keeper.
Immigration Is Satan’s Fault
Don Larsen, chairman of legislative District 65 for the Utah County Republican Party, had submitted a resolution warning that Satan’s minions want to eliminate national borders and do away with sovereignty.
In a speech at the convention, Larsen told those gathered that illegal immigrants “hate American people” and “are determined to destroy this country, and there is nothing they won’t do.”
Illegal aliens are in control of the media, and working in tandem with Democrats, are trying to “destroy Christian America” and replace it with “a godless new world order — and that is not extremism, that is fact,” Larsen said. […]
Republican officials then allowed speakers to defend and refute the resolution. One speaker, who was identified as “Joe,” said illegal immigrants were Marxist and under the influence of the devil. Another, who declined to give her name to the Daily Herald, said illegal immigrants should not be allowed because “they are not going to become Republicans….”
Fixies
Many fixed-gear adherents contend that their bikes are the ultimate and all others are pretenders. And these fixed-gear zealots are a growing presence on the streets of New York. Perceived by some as nuisances, or as troublesome, anarchist Dumpster-diving punks who happen to ride bikes, they are occasionally reviled, but they are also the subject of curiosity and interest.
The Rooster
“Western hairstyles … have been banned,” the newspaper Etemad said in a front-page headline.
Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Lusso
I want to laugh at this. I really do.
But when I see things like this, I can’t help but feel a bewildered despair, at least for a little while.
“Mr. Cooper Renner”
Two of my favorite people in the world met for the first time this weekend. Cooper dropped in on my friend Lee when he arrived in Galveston Friday, and on Saturday I believe she may have escorted him to the ship he is now aboard. In any event, I share with you all last night’s message from Lee to me, headed “Mr. Cooper Renner”:
Lovely day for meeting a friend and walking along The Strand. I do like Cooper very much. Best of wishes to him and to you and Jon and me and all the brilliant people who are not properly famous yet.
Sleepingfish 0.9375
Gandhi’s “Seven Blunders of the World”
Wealth Without Work
Pleasure Without Conscience
Knowledge Without Character
Commerce Without Morality
Science Without Humanity
Worship Without Sacrifice
Politics Without Principles
John Scalzi talks to Google
John Scalzi, author of the critically acclaimed Old Man’s War, among many other books, went to speak at Googleland during his current book tour, and today he posted a link to the video. I clicked it thinking I’d watch the first a few minutes. Half an hour later (the talk is an hour long), still scraping out reserves of attention span I didn’t know I had, I thought maybe some of youse guys would also find it interesting.
Mr. Scalzi originally published Old Man’s War by serializing it on his website, for free. Then Tor offered to buy it, and it’s sold extremely well. The book was then nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in March 2006 and was a finalist for the 2006 Locus Award for Best First Novel; and for it, Mr. Scalzi won the Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Author. Since then he’s sold several novels in this way, and he has thing or two to say about the benefits of giving stuff away, the future of books, e-books, and so forth.
I have not actually read any of Mr. Scalzi’s books (though I did write up the typesetting order for one of them), but I’ve just been a skimmer of his blog Whatever for three years or so. He’s totally not dumb.
Two Things I Really Don’t Like
1. Clowns
2. Popsicle sticks
Weekly Picture 80
Skater with Hat, San Marcos, TX, 4.20.2007
Nudity, Mass Murder, Mime
During the dark days of the week now coming to its close, I got to thinking that once clusterflock was stabilized, I’d pick up the abruptly dropped themes of ‘spaghetti westerns’ (see Once Upon a Time in a Cage and From JT Helms) and ‘curious cinema’ (see Cindy, — and be aware that among the very few casualties in the cluster-transfer were comments appended to the latter post re: Jan Svankmajer and the Brothers Quay).
Said I to myself, “I’ll post [Bizarre, Self Immolation, Surrealism] an announcement of the imminent DVD release [Good Versus Evil, Dreamlike, Nihilism] of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s long-out-of-release El Topo [Mass Child Killing, Mass Hanging, Child Murder, Shoe, Social Satire] (a film I saw in 1971 — as a high school senior — [Disturbing, Cult Favorite, False God] — and have not seen since).
Meantime, I thought that Cindy [Russian Roulette, Deformity, Religion, Dwarf] might enjoy one aspect [Child Shot In The Head, Mexico, Bandit, Bare Butt] of my planned post — a link to the IMDB list of plot keywords for the film. I sent the link to her and here present it for all to enjoy. The complete list reminds me of the labels Pinky Diablo [Church, Gambling, Gloves, Human Branding, Inbreeding] attaches to his blog posts.
And if you’re wondering whether El Topo is worth viewing, Rumsey Taylor’s review over at Not Coming to a Theater Near You, together with Shawn Levy’s piece in The Oregonian, pretty much say it all.
Disparity, Indeed!
I found this over at my friend, Dave’s, blog. The map is interesting enough, but I rather like the first comment on his post:
Participation not imitation said…
This reminds me of jr. high dance. I’m going back east.
Neon Bible, Live in the Elevator
Handle Harry With Care
I am not sure how I feel about this one, but I do love the song.
A Final Round for Andrew
Hi, everybody. Let me say for all of us how good it is to be back online. Thanks to Andrew and the good folks at dreamhost, bandwidth, and monthly expense, will no longer be a problem.
To that end, I am pleased to announce that this will be the last round of fundraising for the site. As the site grows, I am looking for the site to take care of itself, and with the bandwidth that dreamhost provides and the low monthly costs, when the site begins to take in funds, it can begin to give back to the people that contribute to it.
That said, the site would not be up and running today without Andrew’s remarkable effort last week. I encourage you to pony up ten, twenty, fifty dollars to get us to 500. Andrew deserves it, and no contribution is too small.
What do you say?
Jessica Lynch Tells the Truth
Remember Jessica Lynch, the poor West Virginia girl who went off to Iraq, got captured by the Iraqis and was rescued in a commando raid? Remember the stories of how she went down fighting, firing her weapon until it was out of ammo and resisting capture until the very end? Remember the bad TV movie dramatizing it all?
We’ve known for a long time it was all a crock. Lynch never fired one round at her captors because her gun jammed. Furthermore, no commando raid was necessary. Iraqi nurses at the hospital she was taken to tried to return her to American forces, but their ambulance was fired on at a checkpoint, and they had to go back.
Lynch has no desire to let the false story of her capture continue to circulate. She recognizes it for what it is: mere propaganda served up to the compliant media by military brass who were eager to boost the war by offering up heroes to the public.
Lynch recently testified in Congress in the matter of Pat Tillman, an Army ranger killed in Afghanistan in 2004 by friendly fire. She made it clear, once again, that the story the Army circulated about her was not true.
Trevor Fiore
US withdrawal from Iraq – an opinion
All the Democrat candidates in the US have come out in favour of a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. That was probably predictable but this is the part that interests me:
Senator John Edwards said that anyone who had voted to back the war “should search their conscience”.
Mr Edwards himself voted in favour, but has since apologised for doing so.
The BBC’s Justin Webb says Mr Edwards summed up the Democrats’ new-found confidence in suggesting that the nation needed to rethink the way it approached the outside world.
“How do we ultimately change what’s happening – the threats that America faces?” he asked.
“I think for that to occur, the world has to see America as a force for good again.” [My italics.}
It would be nice to visit the planet that Edwards is living on. The people who thought America was a force for the bad in the world and quite possibly stupid too are not really going to think that America is suddenly a force for the good. They are much more likely to think that America is not only a force for the bad but also stupid, and, furthermore, enticingly weak. “The threats that America faces” do not come from Germany, France, Denmark, Jamaica, Mexico etc. They come from those who considered it the Great Satan in the first place, and still do.
George Szirtes
ephemeral discussions about ageless things
Stamati and i discussed vineyard lore. He told me of an Isreali mathematician, here for a symposium, whose aquaintence he had made and with whome he had discussed the Muscadet grape. The Isreali had sent him a bottle of Muscadet sweet wine made in his country, which Stamati was much taken with. When the proffesor returned the following year, he passed by to ask Stamati what he had thought of the wine. Stamati replied: well if i had drunk the wine i would have an empty bottle to throw away, but by keeping the wine bottle intact on my shelf i will always have a memento of you.
Spuds
Search Terms That Led People to Clusterflock
33 g shot
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6 mike daisey
6 russian boys
5 hairy vagina
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4 big butt porn
3 clusterflock
3 lynn bauman
3 zuzana licko ceramics
3 the blue people of troublesome creek
3 blue people of troublesome creek
3 adobe updater update
2 virginia’s three river names
2 rinspeed exaxis
2 redneck rollercoster
2 they didn’t study
2 disturbia boom mic
2 magenta aura
2 new porsche 928
My new boxers
Yep, you knew it was coming–an underwear posting.
It’s almost “Bon voyage”
Today I drove to Galveston, preparatory to getting on the ship tomorrow. The drive was fairly easy. I-45 from Dallas to Huntsville (north of Houston) is certainly a lot less stressful than I-35 between San Antonio and Dallas.
