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Hey y’all. Just watching some baseball (Go Braves!) and having a lovely Greek salad with grilled chicken, and reflecting on Pops, which is appropriate and proper on this Father’s Day. Pops said he was celebrating today by tucking in and watching the US Open, because golf is one of his things. I hear from my brothers he’s pretty damn good at it, too. It’s a game I mean to pick up when I can. In fact, a friend of mine has suggested an outing to this place as a fun way to test out if you have a swing. She says it’s a good Sunday afternoon group event and I hope we make it happen. And, if it turns out I can swing a club (I already know I can putt), then I may start with some lessons. Anyway, back to the Pops…

It’s easy enough to talk about the virtues of the man, for they are many, rare in the world, and significant. The ones I like the best include his intellectual curiosity — voracious — driven by intense and unrelenting mental acuity but tempered by an absolute devotion to the grace of humility. My sisters and I have a running joke about how difficult it is to be the female children of a man such as my father, because boyfriends never quite seem to measure up to our first real understanding of what manhood looks like. I’m serious about that, by the way. It has made relationships difficult because my father’s sharpness is blurred and softened by his kindness, and those two things do not generally play well together in the same person. So it hasn’t been uncommon to find one in a man but not the other. But, because we have seen it, we know it exists. I have felt much dissatisfaction over the years at men who could not find this marriage of qualities within themselves and have been most unforgiving in my judgement of them. But Pops, as is his way, has lectured me many times on empathy and forgiveness, even as regards people — like many I have met in the last few years — that I believe neither worthy nor deserving of either. But my father says the ability to do those things for those who will never ask, and who may never behave in a way that warrants the consideration, is what separates us from other animals, makes us human, and failure to use these gifts is a failure of our potential in this life. And, by the way, these are things I was hearing well before I entered grade school. It’s not unusual now for people to say I’m too “deep” and constantly searching for the meaning in things. That’s all true. I come by it honestly. And i wouldn’t have it any other way (and, just so you know, when you say those things, it feels like an insult to the man who taught me to be a thinker. So I would prefer you not say those things again…).

Anyway, I love my Pops. He’s just a solid dude who scratched his way out of poverty and made a damn fine life for his children. I think of him every time I face the snobbery of men here in DC, who popped out of the womb with chances and safety nets my father never had. And something in me knows that these men — some of who have been quite cruel to me of late — would never have made it without their safety nets and ready-made paths to success. And because I know that, they are less impressive than the old man who is respected by pretty much everyone who ever meets him, and loved deeply by his family. It does make it hard sometimes to show that same kind of respect for lesser men when the example I have is the one I’ve described above. But that, as my Pops would say, is where the empathy comes in. He’s better at it than I am. But I’m learning.

Happy Father’s Day Walt. Your youngest daughter thinks the world of you.

This is Pops and my sister Lou. I think you can see those qualities pretty well in this picture, and my sister looks beautiful. I'm a lucky kid.

This is Pops and my sister Lou. I think you can see those qualities pretty well in this picture, and my sister looks beautiful. I’m a lucky kid.

I had a bunch of newsy links I’ve been hoarding for a few days but I just don’t feel like going into how stupid we’re being about Syria; how that kid Snowden is way more confusing than Bradley Manning ever was; how I agree that Rubio is hanging on to immigration, at least in part, for the political optics and how I think this is a very, very good thing; how I think Ann Coulter is wrong to assume that those who come here from socialist countries will naturally gravitate toward that same system (why would they come here if they had such attachment to that style of governing?); and how the IRS training with AR-15s is possibly the most disturbing thing I’ve read in some time; but I’m going to save all that and see what the week brings. I will give you this one however, because it’s downright funny. And sharp, and true. Here’s a bit but read it all.

In the old Soviet Union, Mao’s China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, and today’s North Korea, they tried to move toward the ideal Communist system. Combined, they killed about 100 million of their own people. That’s a hefty moral distinction right there: When freedom-lovers move society toward their ideal, mistakes may be made, but people tend to flourish. When the hard Left is given free rein, millions are murdered and enslaved. Which ideal would you like to move toward?

Lind sees it differently. “If socialism is discredited by the failure of communist regimes in the real world, why isn’t libertarianism discredited by the absence of any libertarian regimes in the real world? Communism was tried and failed. Libertarianism has never even been tried.”

What an odd standard. You know what else is a complete failure? Time travel. After all, it’s never succeeded anywhere!

And this one because it’s all about faith. Both of the religious and atheist kind. I always get a kick out of atheists who say they reject faith. Honey, if you knew anything about anything you’d know that your rejection of religious thought requires as much — if not more — faith than those who casually assert that the Old Testament is true to a letter.

It is self-evident that if the universe was not created by God, and since it did not create its self, and since it cannot be destroyed, it must be eternal in time, both in the past and in the future – possibly an infinite series of Big Bangs – or a universe in rotation around an eternally old ultra-massive black hole at its center. The most basic law of science tells us that outside power is a requirement for the creation of nature’s mass and energy, so we are left with either an eternal un-created God with no beginning and no end who created our finite universe with a Big Bang (religion), or we have an eternal un-created universe with no beginning and no end (atheism).

And a question: if you had something to say, something you felt you needed to explain or just get off our chest, but you knew the effort would be met with resistance, even rage, would you try to say it anyway? I mean, if you don’t require dialogue — which I don’t — but have had the chance to process something and have a need to go “on record” about it, would you? What if it was just festering and causing feelings of anger and resentment. You’d want that gone, right? Man, I wish I was more like my father…

On that note, here’s a song my Pops has always liked. Enjoy.

Whoa man, the battle against bitterness is one of the things that you hear about before moving to a place like DC, but you just don’t KNOW it until you face it. I was going to go into an explanation of all that but you know what? I think I won’t, preferring instead to spend the rest of this beautiful day heading down to the Mall to take a picture of the nephews’ drawings positioned in front of the Capitol Building so I can send them a letter with that image included. My sister says the anecdote for dealing with the careless and narcissistic is a concerted effort to be a blessing in the world. I think that’s good advice. So, before heading out to undertake that task, here are a few things that I hope are of interest.

A few things that have increased during the Hope n’ Change admin. 1) government requests for your personal info. Allahpundit makes a decent case that the bullying from the Hill should at least mitigate big Tech’s share of the responsibility in the secret snoop-a-thon, formally called PRISM. I guess. But then there are these stories, too. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t fear surveillance, and I appreciate efforts to keep us safe. But, and I’ll be honest, there’s little about this administration that’s proved impressive from the straight-shooter perspective. So call me crazy, but I’m somewhat skeptical of their motives. Anyway, this is maybe the best column I’ve read on it all because it does include a unified field theory as it were: power. 2) Your health insurance premiums. I spent a lot of time pre-OCare passage talking about this one, as did those way smarter and with a better platform. So, ya know what America? Suck it up. You wanted it. You sang about it. You vilified the detractors. Enjoy your win.

So, I did something pretty good. I tell ya, I like the way they edit over there. They keep the writer’s voice and language, only restructuring sentences and breaking up grafs for readability. I hope they let me write again.

Good piece here. Money quote: “‘The West Wing,’ probably Sorkin’s most popular work, encapsulates perfectly a self-satisfied and somewhat sunny liberal view of Washington, in which pragmatic, do-gooders are thwarted only by circumstance and mean opposition from making the wheels of government turn to the good of the people. I do not hold this worldview. Mine is more “House of Cards,” in which a bunch of basically corrupt people work within a basically corrupt system to satisfy self-serving ends, thwarted rarely by decent people and do-gooders. The only quibble I have with ‘House of Cards’ is its portrayal of Washington evil as competent evil, when real Washington is more often filled with a bunch of incompetent, sloppy, and even accidental evil. Maybe ‘Veep’ takes care of that quibble.”

This film was recommended to me and now I’m recommending it to you.

Holy crap…

Okay, enough with the heavy. Let’s do flowers. Love the strapless one…
dress

New art

Mom, I don’t know what I would do without you. Thanks for letting me get it out with you so it doesn’t come out someplace it shouldn’t. You’re a good egg and I’m a lucky kid.

Don't be jealous, but this is what I get in the mail occasionally. Not sure if you can see it but the bottom one is entitled "Rocket Ship." Brilliant.

Don’t be jealous, but this is what I get in the mail occasionally. Not sure if you can see it but the bottom one is entitled “Rocket Ship.” Brilliant.

PERSONAL VENT. I’D ADVISE SKIPPING TO THE NEXT GROUPING OF THOUGHTS: Okay before getting into other things, I have a rhetorical question that I don’t really want an answer to (because it’s rhetorical): How can people who tell you that your biggest problem is that you don’t stand up for yourself be the same people who get all pouty and mad when you finally do? On a related note, how come people can be — accounting, of course, for the fact that people really only show you images that make it appear their life is all hunky-damn-dory — very good to some folks but treat others so very badly? Mom says it’s all about usefulness, i.e. for some folks, there’s a direct relationship between what you offer and how you get treated. I suppose that’s true. And maybe I’m naive but shouldn’t you treat people well simply because it’s a better way to live in the world, both for you and everyone else? I mean, you’re still going to be getting what you got anyway from the useful with something to give. But you may end up with other good things, too, since not everyone wears what they have on their sleeve. Isn’t it just a numbers game? Also, please trust my judgment. If I finally have a word with someone, trust it’s not a knee-jerk reaction but a final addressing of something that had been building. I go out of my way not to be a jerk without cause. And you should know that by now. My friend Austen, when I posed this to him, just smiled wryly and said, “Life’s a bitch, man.” Dammit, that’s really the answer isn’t it? Gah.

Okay then, let’s talk NSA stuff, yeah? So, the ballsy thing — chatting with a reporter about something that freaks you out when it’s on the scale of a massive data mine of metadata on American citizens — remains impressive. This kid Snowden must have known the risk he was taking. Does it undermine national security? That remains unclear, but I’m not uncomfortable with them detaining him and questioning him. That’s part of the risk you assume when you do something like this. All that said, there are some rather weird components to his story — the 200K/year, in Hawaii, for an analyst position, for which he qualified, apparently, not at all. I think Allah P’s asking the right questions here. And I share most of his concerns. Also, this data was being pushed — PUSHED — out by PRISM from what I understand. So PRISM was allowed to operate within those server environments and collect data, which they then sent out to government systems for allocation to, presumably, databases. So all that talk of Silicon Valley being complicit in giving the government your data looks true. And they don’t really have the national security excuse. I don’t know about y’all, but I’m reserving my annoyance for them. Anyway, this is our brave new world, folks. And, for the record, blaming Bush is a very weak argument because this is a kind of expansion of intent that bears little resemblance to tracking terrorist activity following the death of 3000 people. But it’s really not all that surprising.

Okay, other things.

Interesting discussion the other day about this and whether or not you can count the zombie/vampire heroine in all this…

Kind of fantastic.

I very much look forward to Whedon’s version, but this one is going to be pretty hard to beat…

And speaking of films to see…

Maybe someday someone will like me enough to get this for me. Oh, wait, will find me useful enough to get this for me…

It is pretty cool that the old placeholder was a pretty late player in the game…

Whipped up some tacos last night using this handy little recipe. I did put a little flour in to thicken the beef filling. Delish.

Maybe I should get a pair of Tretorns again. I’m always curious if it’s possible to resurrect a fad…

Oh for goodness sake, yes.

A friend sent me this job listing today. Not sure if I should be horrified or totally flattered.

This one I would do, but only if someone filmed it and dubbed some crazy, incorrect “facts” and running play-by-play, and ran it in syndication in Japan.

Best prom photo ever?

I say yes.

I say yes.

I come back to this song a lot…

The Story

Apparently, according to my orange-loving sis-in-law, my nephews have just mailed me a surprise. Had to wipe the tears away a little. Because there’s much to be happy about in the world and all it takes is someone giving you a thought to remind you. So, I wanted to start with that before going from there to…

Here.

“Under federal law, a Senator enjoys absolute immunity from civil or criminal prosecution for anything he says on the Senate floor, no matter how slanderous, stupid, or subversive.

Yet there is absolutely no support for this rule in the Constitution.”

~ AMENDMENT: they were actually referring to Graham’s statements that he wasn’t sure that bloggers needed First Amendment protections. There’s so much crazy right now it all runs together…Apologies…the guys from Popehat regarding the Verizon phone record surveillance and the remarkably silly statements made by Lindsey Graham in response. (He’s “glad,” y’all. I mean THANK GOD someone is tracking who I call. The world is a safer place for it. Jesus.) In any event, that Obama administration sure was about Hope and Change and making up for the past abuses of the Bush years or something. In so many ways.

On that note, via George, this is an interesting and alarming little video. Last time I was aware of a young person taking up 1984 for a first read they came away from it indicating an affection for Julia’s approach to life. I think the exact review by this person read thus: “Sign me up for Julia’s party. Thinking is overrated. Let’s bang.” They reduced the eloquent and important point Orwell was trying to make about how precious our freedom is to something too hard to really want to understand (never mind that this book is read in High School for a reason (read: it’s not that hard)). Further, they turned it in to a call to anyone lurking on the internet that those wishing to bang are welcome. By the way, this “young” person is past the 1/4 life mark so, yeah, not that young. Yes, this is our future folks. Excited?

So many scandals. I think there was something that happened in Libya recently…but I forget what it was…

So, I was fortunate enough to hear Marco Rubio speak about the Gang of 8 immigration plan recently and I have to say that, while I take the critics’ points worrying about a lack of enforcement and the need to tighten security BEFORE granting citizenship (which I hope might be the future of any legislative efforts, large or small), I must say I think he is right to keep his finger on the issue, both morally and strategically. Because, on the strategic side, he does stand to appeal to people who — quite literally — speak his language. And I think that may be a very, very good thing for conservatives and libertarians. And the country, frankly. And I also think the man takes this effort very personally — he really believes in it — which makes sense given his background. And, to my mind, that makes him compelling. My father and I talked about how it is necessary to remember the human element in any strategic plan because, if you choose not to (“deport them all!”), you risk becoming so coldly calculating that you end up resembling leadership and regimes you never intended. Also, Pops is candid about having employed migrant workers in his business — some of who were undoubtedly illegal — and that he found they had an ethic about them that the youth in this country has lost. And, to put a fine point on it, we could maybe learn a little something from people who do a hard day’s work and ENJOY it. Pops is a cool dude, man. I lucked out having him as a dad. And anyway, I welcome people who come to this country looking to work and produce rather than the alternative. I wonder if your average Cuban immigrant would get the kind of treatment from the Cambridge community that the Tsarnaev family received. I’m not suggesting anything here…really just wondering…

Alright, fun stuff now…

I sort of want to get this for the nephews because it seems like a utilitarian little thing to have in the home because kids are just naturally curious. They’re gonna wanna know why 6X2=12…

mathclock

Apparently, this is doing Pinterest right. The salad does look delicious though. I think I’ll make it for dinner…

The fact that this is the first webcam makes me so happy I can’t adequately express it. The power of coffee is real. May the grounds be with you.

I’m not sure if it has a real function beyond being REALLY COOL, but it is, in fact, really cool.

I don’t want to talk about it but I’m pretty sure some stupid hipster in my neighborhood stole Alexander. Because he was beautiful and cool and, as I’ve pointed out before, looks like the Cheezburger cat. Anyway, not the first time I’ve lost a buddy. I’m grieving though. And this is a warning: if I see my buddy in your window, I will get him out. I realize what I’m saying there. I also mean it.

The Popehat guys also linked to this piece and quoted the author of a Clockwork Orange which just hit me like a Led Zepplin Monday. I’m still processing it. Here’s the quote:

“By definition, a human being is endowed with free will. He can use this to choose between good and evil. If he can only perform good or only perform evil, then he is a clockwork orange–meaning he has the appearance of an organism lovely with colour and juice but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil or (since this is increasingly replacing both) the Almighty State. It is as inhuman to be totally good as it is to be totally evil.”

And on that note: this one will be seen in theater, something I don’t do often anymore because I don’t like getting wallet raped. But I think it may be worth it here.

Yeah, probably. Dammit.

These boys look like my beloved late Stella Bells! I love them.

I remember the Peace Frog! This is why the internet sales tax is harmful to folks just trying to make a living. I get that there are those who are all “Well, just get a job at DeLoitte like me!” but seriously, get your head out of your rear.

Okay, music. Have fallen totally in love with this song. That low-tuned electric causes some involuntary muscle reaction where I start to thrash around. Seriously, no matter where I am. Sure, it’s a little more subdued depending on location but I’m pretty adept at low-key thrashing. It’s a gift.

My bear's name is Dan and it's his job post Game of Thrones.

My bear’s name is Dan and it’s his job post Game of Thrones.

So, let’s talk a little Game of Thrones, shall we? I’m not going to spoil(er) it for you because that’s what’s Twitter’s for, but I do have an opinion on the shocker ending last night as it relates to the overall enjoyment of the story. Which is to say, I think the Red Wedding and the events to come are essentially gratuitous violence that do very little to further the plot or the arc of the Westeros universe. And yes, I’ve heard Martin proclaim that he was going for the realism of the brutality of actual life (during the War of the Roses period ostensibly). But I felt when reading the books — which took me a while because once the wannabe cool kids picked up on the series (they needed a little help, as they usually do), I wanted nothing to do with Westeros because I have a general aversion to conformity — and was reminded last night, that the critics of Martin think GOT is little more than an adolescent rape fantasy. And, while I think he’s a better writer than all that, I do think he ENJOYS the darker side of life and his general outlook on life is that heroes die. And that maybe they should. And honestly, this is why sometimes, depending on my mood, I forgo watching GOT until I’m more emotionally able to — quite literally — withstand it. If that’s what Martin is going for, then he has succeeded. But I do think people tend to use entertainment as an escape from the brutality of life. And Martin’s world is not only not an escape, it is a much darker, much more cynical, much more hateful place. It’s the Roman Coliseum. And I wouldn’t be lying if I said that I’m much more attracted to the bringers of light rather than the narrators of dark. Will I stop watching? No. It’s a compelling land of make-believe and Martin may have some good in store for us yet with the completion of the series of books. Also, I like looking at handsome, strong, capable men. But then, there’s one less of those now, isn’t there? Okay, I’m not trying to be a buzzkill. I just have a thing about being complacent when it comes to darkness. I’m just hoping the point wasn’t to enjoy the deaths of some of the nobler characters in that universe. Because that would suck. In any event, I’m kind of with this guy on the whole thing. This is not to suggest you shouldn’t read the books or watch the show. Hell, they’re both so culturally significant now you probably should for that reason alone. Just know that the brutally realistic is actually only called that so it can dabble in bloodshed and explore an almost impossibly amoral universe. Good men do exist.

Speaking of the visual representation of light and dark, you don’t have to like it, but this is basically true:

Archetypes exist for a reason.

Archetypes exist for a reason.

So, hey, I hit a home run the other night at our softball game. And it was a legitimate one, too, not just kicked around on errors. I’m just pumped about it.

So hey Atlanta people, my sis is stage managing a play in Little Five that’s getting some pretty good reviews if you get bored of a weekend night…

So hey, did I tell you guys about the lovely older couple from Florida I met at Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah who are taking a few years to sail up the East Coast and then heading inland to the Great Lakes? They’re coming to DC in July and they promised if I gave them some tips on things to do and places to eat (they bring collapsible bikes with them on the boat) they’d take me out for a sailboat spin? Because that happened. Savannah is magic like that.

So this is just funny right here. George cracks me up:

Unilever…owns Ben & Jerry’s, who is subsidizing Ben Cohen’s latest political advocacy at shareholders’ expense, brings the delicious, hypocrisy-dipped waffle cone of progressive nuttery full-circle: progressives spill tankers of ink decrying the influence of foreign money in American politics, and yet here, one of their champion’s advocacy plays is being subsidized by a foreign corporation! You can’t make this stuff up.

These people, who also exist on the Republican side, are the enemies of freedom. Call them out wherever and whenever you see them.

Aw, booger. I’m having serious dog withdrawal. I just feel like I need a little more stability in my life before giving my heart away again…Sometimes I think if my heart breaks one more time that could be it for me.

The only time I’ve gotten the laser gazer has been from men at the beginning of a relationship. Fell for it the first time (5 years later realized it was just a laser gaze and had very little meaning). Didn’t fall for it the second time. And have never been treated meaner. Go figure.

Yeah, Krugman and those who “argue” in this manner are baffling. And juvenile. And stupid, I don’t care how many Nobel Prizes you win.

The machine churns on. But it is, alas, not a perpetual motion machine and it’s fuel source (re: the useful idiots) appears to be drying up…

Money, ideology, conscience, and ego. And of course there’s an S at the end.

It was revealed to me recently that it is proper and right to dislike the kickball kids who take up space on the mall and generally cause DC to be regarded as a den of Peter Pans who all wear the same shirts and think the same thoughts. And here I thought they got on my nerves because they didn’t play positions and just spread out in the field like a group of elementary school students who all get a trophy at the end of the day. Disclosure: this happened just before I moved to town but I know Lamont. One of the nicest guys in our league. And he’s right, he could verbally eviscerate the rubber ball toting, perpetually juvenile “don’t-call-me-a-hipster!” hipster that comprises the average DC kickballer. But, as he notes, he’s not in the 3rd grade. Brilliant.

Forgot how much I loved this song in my early 20s. Which likely explains a lot.

I played in the waves with abandon. The water's too damn cold here to do that so I took advantage, tossing the beach football with the boys, diving and swimming into the waves, handstanding and back handspringing all over the place. Sigh.

I played in the waves with abandon. The water’s too damn cold here to do that so I took advantage, tossing the beach football with the boys, diving and swimming into the waves, handstanding and back handspringing all over the place. Sigh.

Hi! I’m back. Well I mean, not emotionally, but physically. And I have some pretty solid pics but I’ll post them later, save one or two. There’s just other things worth writing about today. And, I may have secured another byline here in town…we shall see… Anyway, if y’all get something out of the following, well that’s just a fantastic bonus. But this is how I find my voice in the madness. And so if you thought it was something more, my apologies for disappointing you.

One thing happened down there in my beloved Georgia that had the mark of a lesson on it, primarily due to the fact that it followed me from Savannah to Atlanta. There’s a stretch of highway between 16 and I-95 down there that’s named the Clarence Thomas Interchange. Now, I was unaware that Thomas hailed from Savannah but it made sense immediately from what I know of the man when I realized I was bopping along it headed out of Savannah. And then, early the next morning, after some killer burgers and brats that Pops grilled up, I happened to turn on the TV at like 6 am and there was Thomas on CSPAN talking to students at Duquesne University about how he thinks there’s something remarkable about kids who come from modest means and go on to defeat the odds and obstacles — and prejudices — and become what they desire to become. He said they are the reason the expression “Do well to do good” existed. Well my God. I hear you. And I’ll get right on it.

And I’m pretty sure that whole “doing good” thing means owning up to mistakes and taking responsibility. There has been a very disturbing trend lately at high levels of government to be all, “Huh? What’s going on? Well I didn’t know that was happening…It must’ve been someone working to harm me or against my overall vision… .” I mean look, plausible deniability is a fascinating concept and useful to a degree, but it’s starting to sound stupid and, at a certain point, starts to smack of cowardice. I think you have to employ it on the front-end for it to work effectively. As in — “Don’t tell me! I don’t want to know!” Invoking it after the fact, when everyone’s pretty sure you must’ve known something, just makes you look…God take your pick of things. None of them are flattering. If you’d like to know the proper way to handle a scandal, it’s here:

“First, let me say I take full responsibility for my own actions and for those of my administration. As angry as I may be about activities undertaken without my knowledge, I am still accountable for those activities. As disappointed as I may be in some who served me, I’m still the one who must answer to the American people for this behavior. And as personally distasteful as I find secret bank accounts and diverted funds – well, as the Navy would say, this happened on my watch.” ~ Ronald Reagan, March 4, 1987 during a little thing known as Iran Contra

Also, one of my favorite thinkers has written something that I’m so glad SOMEONE has finally addressed. Namely, it doesn’t really matter if you’re nice to your enemies if their agenda is to see you dead. Your truce is a punchline to these folks. Or, as Goldberg says:

They say all is fair in love and war (I’m skeptical), but that doesn’t mean war and love have much in common. When it comes to love, both parties need to be in on it. In war, all it takes is one to tango. Sure, if the non-belligerent party doesn’t want to fight, it can try to talk, or cut a deal, or even surrender. But it’s up to the guys willing to kill to decide how things will proceed.

I recently watched Apocalypse Now again after many years and Kurtz kind of comes to that realization when he decides that Charlie has the will to cut off the arms of the children recently inoculated by American Special Forces. They are just men, but they are stronger because they don’t care/care that much. By no means is this meant to suggest we meet brutal killers on their own ideological battlefield; simply that it would be wise to stop pretending that we can reach them through explaining how inoculation is good for the world. And for the record Jonah, I’m skeptical as well.

On a related note, shocking right? (said no one who has been paying attention to anything in the history of the world or in modern day international affairs…)

A’ight, other fun things and stuff:

This would be hard for those slaves to email (ahem), the planning the day idea is a good one. I personally murder sticky notes at a horrifying clip.

Must read. Because the intersection of magic and psyops is just too delicious.

Engineering would have been a cool pursuit if I didn’t have the hots for all those tortured poets and writers as a teenager…

Some boys are awesome.

Some women are bizarre. Feminism is hilarious to me.

Like economics? How bout Game of Thrones? History? Okay, here. Thank George when you see him.

Have yet to see it but Moulin Rouge was a tear-jerking spectacle of theater and dance and the book. Oh the book…

Hmmm…I feel like the Democrats only mantra might change…

Gah! If only he could have found more private investors! Wait…what?

A man unwilling to do this need not apply.

Could eat these all day. Also, if it eludes you…

I played in a million softball tournaments here as a kid and glad to see it’s getting some street cred.

If you could have seen me playing in the waves this weekend from underwater it would have looked something like this, only with red hair and a larger frame.

If you make it to Savannah, go to Bonaventure Cemetery. Trust me.

bonaventure2

You don’t want to waste your life, nor do I.

Hey y’all…by the time you read this I’ll be close to Savannah, Ga. And the water. And the beach. And the food. And the pace. And my friends. And my family… I wonder if I’ll come back…Hold on there sparky, don’t get too excited yet. Things have just gotten really challenging and I tend not to run from challenges, despite the recent assertion by a charming human being I used to know that I’m weak — I think because I can get my feelings hurt and I don’t like to be around bitchy folk, men or women. Funny how often people mistake that for weakness. In any event, cutting the trip dangerously close to the wedding Friday but I’m a rebel like that (and I had tons to do before leaving town). So don’t get too excited about being rid of me yet. I’m still around. And plan to be for some time to come. Also, I made some of these for the trip from some of Grandpa Lee’s blueberries that have been chilling in my freezer. Can’t recommend this recipe more…

So, one thing that’s become noticeable of late — and it’s glaring — is the deafening silence of the kids who were so politically minded that they HATED BUSH and were all about YES WE CAN and the Obama future. I mean you couldn’t shut these kids up five years ago, and even pre-election last summer. They were all brilliant policy wonks who knew Nate Silver and Ezra Klein and Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were the blessed and the holy and were the glorious second coming of all things noble and peaceful and rational and not George Bush or evil Richy “Mitt Romney” Rich. But now, I look at some of their stuff on Facebook and they’ve become sort of shockingly apolitical. Like politics is SO BORING now it’s not even worth the effort to type about it. You would never know that we have some major, major scandals happening at the moment from the lack of output from these political and social critics of yesterday. It’s goddamn fascinating. Anyway, just an observation.

Speaking of, a friend created a beautiful graphic to demonstrate the wisdom of one “low-level” IRS employee:

If you need the reference, just do some YouTubing of the brilliant Chappelle Show. Man, there's a hole where that programming used to be...

If you need the reference, just do some YouTubing of the brilliant Chappelle Show. Man, there’s a hole where that programming used to be…

I’ve seen it written that Lerner was a product of her environment and a the culture of “target the other.” My friend George even gives her the Nuremberg Defense of she was just doing her job. And he’s right: it doesn’t take a genius to know what to do to stay employed. And the bureaucracy does pretty much rely on these types, those willing to forgo decency and all ethical consideration to keep their position (there are so many of them and, trust, is it a hard thing to watch at times…). And I think that speaks to a culture as well: you WILL get in line and follow the protocol — no matter what that protocol is — or something horrible will happen to you, i.e. you will lose your job. That’s a real and valid threat for most people. And breeding that kind of culture leads to the demise of a great many things — up to and including a huge organization like the IRS, as some are yelling for. Which, in this case, maybe wouldn’t be such a bad thing…Anyway, this was interesting. It’s the dumb blonde defense. Which has never been particularly impressive as a strategy AFTER THE FACT, to cover a mistake. It’s just kind of sad at that point…

K, now fun things for your long weekend…Also, do you ever get the feeling you have people in your life who are only happy if you’re really sad? I’ve been feeling that way lately. I don’t care for the feeling.

Gattis is going down in history already. Myth and legend people.

Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster has always been a particularly appealing option…

Y’all know my Joaquin Phoenix obsession, right? I’m sure this won’t help…

So the arches of my feet sometimes get over worked from dance and they can really give me the finger and be all “yeah, I’ve just decided you’re asking too much of me and I quit.” A dancer friend of mine had one of these in class the other day and it was like the light of heaven just shone down upon my poor and beleaguered feet.

I’m thinking about it.

Finally, everyone’s talking about that new Daft Punk album. It’s in the car. So far, so good.

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