Louisiana, 2005

The news is so depressing, it's hard to watch. My cousins are ok; their house is not.

In my head this a.m., by Randy Newman:

Louisiana, 1927

What has happened down here is the wind have changed
Clouds roll in from the north and it start to rain
Rained real hard and rained for a real long time
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

The river rose all day
The river rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood
Some people got away alright
The river have busted through clear down to Plaquemines
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangelne

Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away

President Coolidge came down in a railroad train
With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand
The President say, "Little fat man isn't it a shame what the river has
done
To this poor crackers land."

dang

When I read columns like this, I think about what was going on politically in 1994 and why some were so obsessed with taking down Clinton, and where their lies were coming from, and how ridiculous their shit was, and how many people were needlessly affected, and how they continue to lie, and how many still are phucked because of their narrowness. so embarassingly depressing.

Day Off Update

MUST CREDIT ETJB: REPUBLICAN GROUP BOOED AT RFK!
The game kinda sucked on account of them beating us, but it was a beautiful day away from this desk. They had a catered party for us and I quickly scarfed down 3 hotdogs effortlessly.
But to the scandal:
So they put every group's name up on the scoreboad around the fourth inning. When the "Republican National Committee" appeared: the place erupted in a hearty round of BOOOS!
...gotta love that!

Day Off. Go Nats!

Beautiful day here. My work has an outing scheduled today at RFK for the 1 p.m. game...office closed all day. All the hotdogs you can eat beforehand. Spouses and friends get free tix too.
Man...this is how it should be...

Book Review: The Function Of Reason

So I just finished reading the above title by Alfred North Whitehead. Here's what's in it:
The author describes the truth that everything is in a slow degrading state, even that that appears stable. Paradoxically, everything is striving, cyclically upwards--like the seasons.
Then, a historical review of important schools--in particular the Greeks' mathematics and philosophy. This is an important review because of how much society's thought and progress is laid upon these ancient and great thinkers' work. With all this history laid out, Professor Whitehead advances the premise that, while this great foundation is still very much with us today (1929 for him) everyone else's point of view is also important and should be cultivated. In short, he advances a call for open-mindedness. In fact, he says that any "stifling of advancement is treason to the future."
Much of the latter portion of the book deals with speculative imagination juxtaposed to the Reason.
Why do we strive for aesthetics if it serves no purpose?...unless it moves us upwards towards goals that we may apply Reason to...
A scientist friend at my old job gave me this book before I left. Let me know if you would like to borrow my copy.
It's not a long book; I read it in Arlington while waiting for The Wedding Crashers to begin.

Movie Review: Wedding Crashers

Yeah, it was all right, I guess.

Outdoor Activities

That liberally controlled rock and roll industry is at it again. Now they're offering a free concert out there on the mall. Local Theivery Corp., Steve Earle, MC-5, Jello, etc.--they're all the same. Friends of the enemy.

Then there is the march for freedom that you have to register for(!) coming soon too.

I guess I could do both, but one seems more inspired than the other. OK, call me names...and I drink french wine and french fries. piss off.

The Real Reason They Vote GOP

Just as I had expected, bad time in grade school: the bullied become the bulliers.

"I found that if you made men more insecure about their masculinity, they displayed more homophobic attitudes, tended to support the Iraq War more and would be more willing to purchase an SUV over another type of vehicle," said Robb Willer, a sociology doctoral candidate at Cornell.

They probably have small johnsons too.

On this same note: please welcome OYE to the blogroll. This is an important effort that attempts to get young republicans to enlist. It's harder than you think...

Yeah that was me

at the Fresh Fields last night with a basket full of groceries. Almost at the end--near the cheese--I took over somebody else's cart. Unfortunatly, I didn't realize it until I was at the bread.
So what did I do? That's right: the coward's route. I picked up my cheese and bread, leaving some peach and pork lover's cart where I had taken it, and looked for MY cart.
When you do something chickenshit like this, don't make eye contact with other shoppers. As a matter of fact, put your sunglasses back on.

Flea Bomb

So, the cats got fleas. Not too bad, but bad enough to bother them. And us.
I put the chemical on their neck and combed a bunch out, but to do the job right, the house had to be bombed.
Saturday a.m. we bombed the house. After a trip to the mall and a long lunch, we re-entered, aired the bitch out for an hour, and went in for the deep clean: everything dusted, corners vacuumed, covers washed, you name it. We worked till about 8 p.m. We are still resetting everything, but it is really, really nice to have such a clean house....

Sunday, we recovered by lounging on the beach all day.

We are headed to Michigan this weekend for a quick trip....