Quote of the Day

"Hard work may pay off in the future. Laziness pays off right now." ~Anonymous (sometimes attributed to Steven Wright) --- Right now I'm listening to: The White Album (up to "Wild Honey Pie")

More Michael Pollan

I liked the two Michael Pollan books I've read enough to check out his site which, lo and behold, republishes all of his articles. "Another day it occurred to me that time as we know it doesn't exist in the lawn, since grass never dies or is allowed to flower and set seed. Lawns are nature purged of sex and death. No wonder Americans like them so much."

"It is shameful to politicize this disaster" -every Republican apologist for the last 3 weeks

Digby Jackasses. Though I live in a liberal oasis (Athens) in the desert of conservatism that is Georgia, I work in Watkinsville. Just 15 minutes to the south, it's supposedly one of the most conservative (and wealthy) counties in the state. Today, two (Republican) co-workers were discussing the media slant and blaming of everyone involved (my paraphrase of their conversation) while I was in the room. Tempted as I was to jump into the discussion, I stopped myself, because I'm no longer able to speak civily about this administration. I like these folks, I'm not mad at them, I'm just dumbfounded that anyone can still support Bush and his cronies (actually, that phrase may be conceding too much leadership to Bush, but that's a topic for another day). Often I talk it over with my girlfriend or family and we ask ourselves, "How can anyone support him? Who are these people? Then I come to work and I realize, they're just ordinary people, not evil or even stupid. I just don't get it. And then my brain shivers and crawls into the darkest recesses of my skull to hide. I realized at some point this week that over two years left to serve. Ugh.

I Evoke Brow

I love working at a library: I usually juggle 3-4 books at a time and I finish one or two a week, so relying on Amazon or B&N would bankrupt me. Anyway, I figured I could bring something to the table in the way of book reviews, or at least memorable quotes from what I read. In that vein, the most recent book I've finished is Michael Pollan's A Place of My Own : The Education of an Amateur Builder. An excellent read, if a bit wordy at times. In the context of a simple construction project, Pollan looks at the evolution of post-WWII philosophy and the rewards of manual labor (without being overly smarmy about it). I've been fascinated by architecture since I read Tracy Kidder's House as a child; I think of A Place of My Own as the sequel to that great book. Note: If you're confused about the title, here's a hint: link

Mahr or Less

From Bill Mahr's open letter to the President, which is making it's way around the internet:

"You've performed so poorly I'm surprised that you
haven't given yourself a medal."

Hee hee hee.

WWFSMD?

Ah, a site that feeds my love of sarcasm AND my hatred of ignorance: Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTERISM * Flimsy moral standards. * Every friday is a relgious holiday. If your work/school objects to that, demand your religious beliefs are respected and threaten to call the ACLU. * Our heaven is WAY better. We've got a Stripper Factory AND a Beer Volcano.

And for a more rational take on the "argument" (although, really, have you ever been able to change a religious person's mind with mere reason?), check out this Scientific American Article(application/pdf Object). I think the most telling fact is this graph:

And finally, even if you already think you "believe in" evolution, but especially if you are a Creationist, Richard Dawkins' work is a must read.

Chimpeach!

It seems like Bush should have been impeached five times over by now. It time to start saying it: "Worst...President...Ever." Go read Bob Harris's excellent run-down: Bush and Katrina: so many outrages, so little time

So Funny I'm Crying...

...or maybe so infuriating that I'm laughing. I should have known The Onion would trump everyone with their Katrina coverage:

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld praised the phone support, but noted that it would take months to transfer any equipment from Iraq to New Orleans, saying, "You fight a national disaster with the equipment you have."

Much more at the above link.

Joe Morgan le Fay

From my favorite baseball site, the only website I'm willing to pay for, Baseball Prospectus:

Liam (School): Joe Morgan said 13 times in one minute hoe Jeter's HR on sunday was wind aided. The man has to be stopped. Dayn Perry: Joe Morgan is such a cliche that bitching about Joe Morgan has become a cliche. I don't even pay attention to him. I favor the color men who tell me "inside" things I'd never otherwise know about. Bob Brenly does this well, as does Troy Aikman in the NFL. If I want someone who knows nothing about statistics to talk about statistics I'll go listen to myself ten years ago. Baseball Prospectus | Events | Chat with Dayn Perry

The perfect quip for a serious pet peeve of mine: bad sports announcers. 90% of the guys on air will do anything but discuss the game that's going on right in front of their faces. And the same guys are incapable of not speaking for more than nine thousandths of a second. Blep. More on this eventually...

The Dilemma

So now I have a blog. I'm not entirely sure what I plan to do with it, though I can guarantee that it will lack focus, and therefore an audience. Stay tuned for run-on sentences and poorly formulated thoughts. The impetus for the creation of this site is a revelation that just occured to me today while reading Peter Singer's Animal Liberation. Now my "revelation" may be an obvous point to some, or just plain incorrect to others, but I wanted to write it down while it was relatively fresh in my head and a blog seemed as good of a place as any. Without further ado:

America is in trouble, due to the following two hypotheses: One, the government doesn't have NEARLY enough resources to even enforce the restrictions that theoretically already exist, let alone improve such fundamental areas as education or security; two, it is impossible to be elected on a platform that even hints at raising taxes.

These two properties reinforce each other in a recursive loop. I don't foresee us breaking out of our self-imposed downward spiral before the system crashes. Cheery thoughts for your holiday weekend! More to come...