The Pain - Is Mostly in the Belly

I just discovered Tim Kreider's "The Pain - When Will It End?" and I cannot stop laughing. The Pain is therefore most definitely that pain-in-the-belly from laughing too much and too deeply, and of course it will stop as soon as I stop reading these damnably hilarious comics and get on with something productive like doing the dishes or folding the laundry. But, damn! The thing is, the art, the cynicism, the dark-edged tone -- all of these things are so spot-on for me. It's a real soul-mate moment. Each comic I read makes me feel like sharing it with everybody (for instance, right now I'm on the CAT's IRC) but of course I can't do them justice, even by posting URLs, and of course the humor will be appreciated, just not as exquisitely as I'm appreciating it now.

So anyway, here's a blog posting celebrating that lonely recognition.

For an example of that exquisiteness, consider: "Some people's faces are so disfigured by hypocrisy and corruption that they render caricature redundant." I've often felt this way about the smirking Chimperor himself, and this line from the artist's statement captures that idea perfectly: Dubya is beyond caricature.

Thank the Maker!

. . . for Ambrose Bierce! Yet Another Must-Read Author (YAMRA). Some choice quotes:

• War is God's way of teaching Americans geography.
• Christian, n. One who follows the teachings of Christ insofar as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin.
• Politics: The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

Now there's a man who's not just a cynic, but a cynic for the ages. Makes you realize the curent disgusting tumult and slime tossing in the public arena is merely a recycling -- perhaps, more accurately, a regurgitation -- of that which came before: and only more sophisticated in having a slightly broadened scope, an ever-accelerating speed, and an exchange of coherence for cacophony.

With Apologies to Jane Smiley...

But "those of us who have been anti-Bush from day 1" would actually go back to March of 1999, when Dubya -- ever the delegator, it seems -- created his crack "exploratory commission" to decide whether he could bilk the media and the public into electing him and his cabal of cronies to the most powerful political office in the world. Shortly afterwards, he officially declared his candidacy.

Seven years later, and we're still having the debate as to whether this "incompentent," "stupid" "liar" and hopeless excuse for a leader deserves to be President of the -- potentially -- greatest nation on earth. It's a damnable embarrassment, any way you look at it.

At the time, as the primaries went into high gear, McCain was trying to fend off Bush for the GOP nomination. When the Washington state GOP primary took place, I (as an independant), went so far as to vote for McCain in the primary (and to encourage other independant friends to do so) as a miniscule attempt to tip the scales against Bush, before he was even nominated for the general election. [I'll discuss in a later post why I didn't vote for Gore, either, and why history has proven be correct to have done so.]

Maybe the more mild-mannered among you would be willing to go back to 3 August, 2000, when Bush formerly accepted the GOP nomination, and count from that day.

Either way, "day 1" should by no means be "defined as the day after the stolen 2000 election." That implies that your only reason for opposing Dubya, initially, was the 2000 election fiasco. Anyone with "knockin' about sense" as my dad would say, would have seen through the crap six and a half or seven years ago.

Other than that, Jane, you go girl. Show those Republicans and conservatives with half a brain left who's boss.

Things to Get Addendum #1

More!

• organizer boxes/bins/cabinets
• hat/coat rack
• shoe rack of some kind for closet
• kettle!
• microwave or toaster oven
• water filter (if necessary)
• shower curtains
• extension cords, as the only grounded outlets are in the kitchen

Things to Get for a New Apartment

In no particular order.

• 1-2 saucepans
• clothes drying rack
• bed (ha!)
• bookshelf #2
• bookshelf #3 ?
• coffee making device
• couch-like device
• coffeetable-like device
• CD rack at least 3 times bigger than the tiny one I now own
• bathroom scale
• nice, comfy, good-sounding headphones
• bike parking mats (I'm thinking 2-3 rubber doormat like things)
• 2-3 bike-tire wipedown rags (keep the landlords happy)
• little under-seat bike tool bag (keep rags handy)
• blender-like device
• can opener
• smallish kitchen table & chairs (breakfast nook sized or smaller)
• broom, mop, and floor dusting apparatus
• trash cans: kitchen + bathroom (I'm tired of my old standby of a suitably-sized cardboard box with a plastic shopping bag liner)
  
• nice house plants!
• some art + poster hanging apparatus
• a smaller stereo setup than this monstrosity from 1990
• a good cell phone headset, because it's no more landline for me
  
• 1-2 new power strips (they wear out, kids)
  
• teh Internets!!!
• 1 case of 12 dozen thank-you cards, plus postage, for all the people who are gonna send me their last dollar to make this beggar's wishlist come true (double ha!)
  

Well, I'm sure I'll think of something else. In the mean time, make checks payable to Rob Brown, apartment #202.

A Weekly Cycle of My Broadcast Media Diet

Just because I'm curious, here's one weekly cycle of my Broadcast media diet, starting with Sunday evening.

General Daily Faire:

Radio:

1. NPR: Morning Edition, All Things Considered
2. NPR: Afternoon talk shows (sometimes)

News Online:

1. Anchorage Daily News
2. Washington Post
3. New York Times

Blogs:

1. Billmon
2. Atrios
3. Talking Points Memo
4. Daily Kos
5. Digby
6. Laura Rozen
7. Fire Dog Lake

Sunday:

1. NPR: Weekend Edition; This American Life
2. NPR: Prairie Home Companion (sometimes)
3. ABC/CBS/FOX: NFL Football (depending on schedule)
4. PBS: Mystery! (sometimes)
5. ABC: Grey's Anatomy

Wednesday:

1. ABC: Lost

Thursday:

1. NBC: ER (sometimes)

Saturday:

1. NPR: Weekend Edition; Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me
   
2. NPR: Prairie Home Companion (sometimes)
   
3. Misc: Saturday night movie (sometimes)
4. PBS: Mystery! (sometimes)

That's roughly all of it. Some of the radio listening depends on when I get up, when I go to sleep, and when I'm home (I don't listen at work/in the car/on headphones). The TV viewing likewise depends on when I'm home -- the only things I'l record are Grey's Anatomy and Lost (although this latter item is a special case, which I'll detail in another post).

If I had cable I'd watch the new Battlestar Galactica series. When it was on the air, I watched every episode of Firefly -- and recorded most of them, too.

DISCLAIMER

ASOSD:

Use of this advanced computing technology does not imply an endorsement of Western industrial civilization.

Just, you know, FYI, FWIW. YMMV as in all things.

Moose Lurking Behind Mossy Logs

That's how I remember Porcupine Island. Forty-five minutes by 16' Polarcraft riverboat from the boat launch at Quartz Creek. The edges of the tiny island alternated between gravel shores strewn with bone-white driftwood and rock-and-bolder mini-cliffs where we couldn't ground the boat. Old-growth trees covered hills that rose away from the shores, where mossy logs were tumbled together. Among the spruce trees, abandoned lean-tos and other secret structures could be discovered and explored. Walking away from the water into the shadowy interior felt like walking into the undeveloped, unmechanized, uncivilized past. There never was a more fertile garden for the imagination of a child.

Except I never really encountered moose there -- we did see them swimming across the lake on a few occasions -- but in the hazy light of nostalgia, the island seems imbued with their stillness. And a part of my imagination abides there still.