"Heaven has a road, but no one travels it; Hell has no gate, but men will bore through to get there."

Monday, October 27, 2008

MELT DOWN = HIGHER GOOD

"It was the worst of times, it was the best of times..."

*this one is in process, so bear with me. also working to complete any entries below with a lovely header and seemingly invisible contents. the thin line between the written word and life has blurred a bit these past few months on the side of simply living without benefit or solace of recording. patience si vous plait!*


The End Is Not Near

Radley Balko @ Reason.com

Doom and gloom may prevail on Wall Street, in Washington, and in the media, said Radley Balko, but for most Americans life is not only pretty good—it’s getting better. Advances in technology are improving our standing of living, giving us more leisure time, improving our health, and “putting much of the world—quite literally—at our fingertips.” The crime rate has been in “free-fall” since the 1990s, with everything from sex crimes to juvenile crime in decline. As for our immoral, “sexualized culture,” the abortion rate is at a 30-year nadir and the divorce rate at its lowest point in four decades. Meantime, Americans are living healthier, longer lives, with mortality rates dropping for eight of the 10 leading causes of death. Yes, the economy is suffering a severe, cyclical downturn, but that hardly signifies “the downfall of American society” or some new Dark Ages. Socially, economically, and technologically, we’ve made an astonishing leap forward over the past two decades, and once this storm passes, we’ll still find ourselves with a “personal and economic freedom” unprecedented in human history.

http://www.reason.com/news/show/130861.html

And from The Week:

Happiness as national policy...
While technocrats the world over try to boost their nations’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP),the government of Bhutan is publicly dedicated to increasing GDH—Gross Domestic Happiness. The policy has four pillars: equitable and sustainable economic growth; environmental conservation; cultural preservation; and good government. But Bhutan is not the only nation focused on happiness as a matter of national policy. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, encouraged by fellow Labor Party member and renowned happiness scholar Richard Layard, has shown interest in using happiness studies to advance “well being” in the U.K. Layard argues for teaching “happiness skills” in school and for curtailing advertising that targets children, in an attempt to stifle envy and greed. The nub of his approach, though, involves an aggressive program of income redistribution—since, he says, “an extra pound or dollar gives more happiness to poor people than to the rich.” Of course that leaves unaddressed the unhappiness caused when taxes are raised to make that possible.

Cozily chic...

http://store.diesel.com/searchResult/gender/U/toll/A/tskay/3FD17CD7/c/cat_142/lv/1/sales_line/176/areaid/7/layoutType/1

Sunday, October 26, 2008

"Such human nuances are lost on conservative warriors of the Allen-McCain-Palin ilk. They see all Americans as only white or black, as either us or them. The dirty little secret of such divisive politicians has always been that their rage toward the Others is exceeded only by their cynical conviction that Real Americans are a benighted bunch of easily manipulated bigots. This seems to be the election year when voters in most of our myriad Americas are figuring that out."

-Frank Rich

Let's hope so!

Saturday, October 18, 2008

SWALLOWED

The national debt hit the $10.2 TRILLION mark- a number so big as to be heretofore unimaginable- and the National Debt Clock in New York's Times Square has had to eliminate its dollar sign to make room for the extra digit. The national debt is fast approaching the size of the entire US economy...

Awaken Sleepers & VOTE!!!

*I was trying to find a picture of a giant sand worm from Dune excruciatingly gobbling up the evil Baron Harkonnen so that I could replace him with George Bush, but no luck... just watch the 1984 Lynch movie version and use your imagination. Be one with Alia and her knives amidst the fires of Arakis-


http://video.aol.com/video-detail/dune1984/148837170


http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sitesdesignedbysites.com/alia1.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.sitesdesignedbysites.com/dune.htm&h=504&w=378&sz=37&hl=en&start=6&um=1&usg=__ECNIOngOc4gZ71niHV1BvtcUyak=&tbnid=gDDpbLopRGKWFM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=98&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dalia%2Bfrom%2Bdune%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG


http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.24liesasecond.com/site2/images/Alia.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.24liesasecond.com/site2/index.php%3Fpage%3D2%26task%3Dindex_onearticle.php%26Column_Id%3D88&h=180&w=413&sz=56&hl=en&start=17&um=1&usg=__zBueEfoBRLCWz9_J7QwDBsS-BsU=&tbnid=S7DwPeLyxYWd-M:&tbnh=54&tbnw=125&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dalia%2Bfrom%2Bdune%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Easy Go, Easy Come

bout damn time...

http://www.mariannefaithfull.org.uk/NEWS.HTML

ST 11 @ 40

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b64207_jj_abrams_vs_william_shatner_round.html

Like Mother Like Son

http://www.christopherricebooks.com/

His mom may have abandoned her vampires to rekindle her faith, but Christopher Rice has not abandoned writing on the edge as he uses his new book to explore the mystery and tragedy of a soldier's life after the Iraq War. Good to know somebody takes the inner battle seriously as we continue to ignore the ongoing cost of the outer one and its effects on all levels of our society.

These wasted blues...

"Who could ever be so cruel- blame the Devil for the things you do?"

Marianne Faithfull singing Beck's Nobody's Fault- on her album Kissin Time

Long Days Journey Into Light

http://www.bookbrowse.com/bb_briefs/detail/index.cfm?ezine_preview_number=3139
http://www.annerice.com/Called-Editions.html
Jonathan Stacy

When dressed for physical illness,
waiting for the truths.Will you let me take you?
No secret faults, no shameful desires.
I think I'd rather walk.

That firmness, peppery.
That's why I got so stirred up.

I've got news for you:
Those that provide real strength.
No man is fit for society.

I have relatives who will only answer
my father with a look of despair.

"My child, here, I give it to you, time."

The shutting of gates.

I beseech you. I was now free.
I believe for a night. I was carried by the wind, in gold.

I was often tempted, so I wish to do two things
so that those good fathers close over me and my calamities
forever.

But soul, whom I tend, you shall surrender it to desertion.
At these moments I wept for his world.

Never is God more to be.
Remorse extinguished; lies, the true way of gaining Heaven.