8/18/11

Girardi has the eyes


C.C. has his usual recent troubles.
The M and M boys are up. 
Single.
Then a Home Run!
C.C. look like toast.
But Girardi sees the home run ball and it is a foul.
The refs agree.
Good eye Joe.
Betting CC goes six innings now.

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Can Rick Perry even get out of the box

Rick Perry: The Biggest Little Hypocrite in Texas | The Nation

I think Bush 3 virus is spreading. We don't want anything like we got rid of when we voted for Obama.

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Extreme weather argues for my notion of human settlements

3 die as storm hits Belgium fest; US band safe - World news - Europe - msnbc.com

A recessed stadium like shell with a retractable roof, the skeleton to which we attach the mass produced spaces we require to create a varied and interesting and walkable human community.

Man's best diagnostician

Study: Dogs Can Smell Lung Cancer - The Daily Beast: A new study has found that dogs can detect the smell of organic compounds that are linked to the presence of cancer in the human body. Scientists had the dogs sniff test tubes that contained breath samples from patients who had lung cancer and some who did not. The dogs identified lung cancer in 71 out of 100 patients who had the disease.

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Good grief maybe even Perry won't be able to challenge Obama

Protesters quiz Perry sharply in N.H. from Political Intelligence

In addition to his Bush 3 and neocon liabilities, it appears Perry has trouble answering questions and that he avoids ones that he wishes to avoid. I thought Perry might be biggest threat, the alternative being the suicide of the split GOP, presently underway.  Perry is a Bush 3 type who might unify the ranks. Either way, Obama probably wins. Now it seems Perry might be weaker than I thought.


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Jimmy Buffett Sings Jesse Winchester (Video)


"Defying Gravity"

A musical coda to Living Without A Net


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Living without a net

Stocks put brakes on plunge in midafternoon - Business - Stocks & economy - msnbc.com: In the United States, there were reports that more people joined the unemployment line last week than a week earlier, gasoline prices contributed to higher inflation and manufacturing slowed in the mid-Atlantic

Human beings live not merely with a need for confidence but with a need for some assurance that they have ground to stand on. Today the reality is too seismic to form a basis for confidence. So much that we have built was an error to begin with that we are wisely letting it collapse with few tears. As we perceive and begin more and more to live by the values we have ignored or rejected over time, the solutions will drop like ripe fruit and confidence wlll well up in a sea of happy tears. And we will have learned that we should have been living without a net all along.


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Look who has the loud mouth now

Buffett's 'coddled' column draws reaction from some wealthy Americans | McClatchy: "If he wants to just send more money, he can write a check," says Smith, a Republican and chairman and CEO of Speedway Motorsports. "... He should sit down and shut his mouth."

Any billionaire who does it with cars and sports should be given a gag at birth. What spews forth could be lethal to all within any distance.


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Nepal's compromise problem

Nepal: From Two Armies to One - International Crisis Group: All involved will have to make compromises to settle an issue that lies at the heart of a sustainable peace.

Governing is not easy. Anywhere.


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Read this for good Middle East background

Religious liberty, minorities, and Islam: an interview with Saba Mahmood « The Immanent Frame: SM: I think this is an incredibly interesting time in Egypt. The country is involved in a historic and heady process of political transformation. The stakes are very high, and it is unclear whether the kind of changes—political, social, and economic—that the January 25 Revolution envisioned will, in fact, be possible. Like any other revolution in modern history, this one faces immense challenges from both within and without.

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Tahrir in peril

Egypt: Military Intensifies Clampdown on Free Expression | Human Rights Watch: Egypt: Military Intensifies Clampdown on Free Expression

Not a good sign. But the movement is too big to fail, to coin a phrase.

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A largely ignored Middle East killing field

“Bahrain – Speaking Softly” Overview | Human Rights First

The killings here simply do not make the news.

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Cry cry cry, you lapsed Obama followers

Venice For Change: OFA's Contempt For The Left: It's Not A Bug, It's A Feature: "In 2008, I took a six-month unpaid leave of absence to work on the Obama campaign. In fact, I was a Regional Field Organizer in Southern California. I also maxed out my campaign donations - the first time I've ever done that in my life.

"Not in 2012. Next year, I'll be turning my focus on retaking the House, keeping the Senate, and electing good Democrats in local races."

I follow no one. Not even Jesus. Following is dumb. Who is a follower. A wisp in the scheme of things. The community and continuity is what matters. To say that Obama has contempt for the Left is simply to say the man is human and that people function contemptibly in all realms and backwaters. My best reason now for supporting the President is to identify with those who do not imbibe and live by the nostrums of the left wing.

Barack is a wingless President. More power to him.

Syria gets a good push from our Prez

Obama: Assad Must Step Down: WASHINGTON -- A senior administration official tells The Associated Press that President Barack Obama is demanding that Syrian President Bashar Assad resign for unleashing a sustained assault against his people.

Resign is a nice word. Assad's best option is to follow the advice.

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Reading Mark A Real Jesus Emerges - Just Not That Familiar

G. A. Wells: Jesus the Myth, Man of the Indefinite Past: Paul, for instance, wrote before any gospel existed, and his Jesus lived on earth as a shadowy figure of the indefinite past. Such early Christians developed their beliefs in the tradition of Jewish Wisdom speculation about a supernatural personage who sought an abode on earth but was rejected by man and who then returned to heaven.

I think that this is speculation. The person who emerges n Mark is real enough for me. He is iconoclastic, does not suffer fools gladly, is universal in his POV and worst of all he says it is OK for us to be done with the devil and act according to the idea that a house undivided will stand. He also says we can heal each other beyond the interference of priests. Few of these ethereal scholars look to such things.

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Christine Being Examined for Thin Skin

Christine O’Donnell Storms Off CNN - The Daily Beast

It is a condition devoutly to be ministered to. It results in spontaneous meltdowns. It can be healed by thinking less of yourself and more of others and being aware of the penumbra of mystery that surrounds everything we act as though we are sure of.

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Cap Tip to Amy

Presto, Instant Playground - NYTimes.com: Over the past few years, retailers have experimented with “pop-up” stores and restaurants — establishments open for a few weeks, or even just a single day, typically in a busy shopping corridor. Such projects aim to generate buzz while trying out a new product or marketing concept. They allow entrepreneurs to test ideas relatively cheaply and to capitalize on the excitement and urgency that go along with something new and scarce.

See also


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Obama is thinking rationally but when did that ever work

Obama to issue new proposals on job creation, debt reduction - The Washington Post

OK this is the right thing but they will say you lie and are trying to bamboozle us with make-believe savings down the road.

So you must say:

"Here is a plan that the wingnuts cannot touch with their venomous bile. It is teflon. It is good for the unemployed, good for business, good for all of us except those who care only to get rid of me. I will gladly go when it is time. Meanwhile get smart immediately or die at the polls yourselves."

Do not say scum. Imply it with a slight deprecating smile. Make them overreact. They will. Force them to the wall. It'll be a win win for you whatever happens.

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Listen to my mellifluous voice

TalkShoe - Audio

Don't bother unless you want my take on religion.

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This is not a lucid article but read on

Rick Perry’s War With the Bushies: Why Karl Rove Is Fighting His 2012 Bid - The Daily Beast: For years, Rove has made it a hobby of sorts to deflate conservatives more popular with the base than he is. Like any good bully, he has tended to focus on easy targets, such as Sarah Palin and Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell, piling on them as if he were hoping for a time slot next to Al Sharpton on MSNBC. So far he has (mostly) gotten away with this.

I think this is all about pumping up Perry and ignoring the similarities between Perry and W. It won't work. Whether Rove is of interest or not is immaterial. The underlying question is: Are Perry and Bush twins ideologically? I think they are. And this is where the questions should be focused.


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The Global Spring Is Coming to Uganda

Uganda: Minister Claims Opposition Using Social Media to Prepare for War · Global Voices

Maybe I'll change from Global Spring to Year Round Global. It's almost fall and the global democratic revolution is continuing. We must find the right name for it.

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The people are handling the economy just fine

New Low of 26% Approve of Obama on the Economy

Well that is the wrong question
People are handling the economy just fine
They are making do
They are seeing what the problem is
They are despairing of a political solution
The result is that housing is not marketable
Jobs are not available
Unemployment is rampant
We all do what we must do
Blaming is part of it
But ultimately it is less important than a decision not to buy this or that because we are in a recession
Our eyes are a little more open
We wait for something to break our way
And otherwise do fine

And a partridge and a pear tree

Planet Under Siege: Family Planning Critics Soon To See Global Population Reach 7,000,000,000 - Forbes: According to an illuminating piece by Kiera Butler and Dave Gilson in Mother Jones Magazine (“What’s Your Baby’s Carbon Footprint?” [April 28, 2008]) each American baby will consume in his/her lifetime at least “3.1 million pounds of CO2, 22,828,508 pounds of water waste, 16,372 pounds of yard waste… 7,249 pounds of food waste…s/he will eat 1,654 chickens, 74 turkeys, 25 pigs, 11 cows, 2 sheep…” and consume “1,870 barrels of petroleum…” as well as going through “3,800 disposable diapers” (this latter figure occurring during the first 30 months of life).

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Is NYC a strike breaker?

NYC OK's Verizon contract at city schools - Yahoo! News: NEW YORK (AP) — A policy panel for New York City's Department of Education has backed a controversial $120 million contract with a Verizon subsidiary to provide phone and Internet services at city schools for two years.

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It takes balls to execute an innocent man

Daily Kos :: State of the Nation: Perry may be exactly the bully they seek. Even executing a seemingly innocent man -- almost everybody who’s looked into the case of Cameron Todd Willingham thinks so -- and then openly tampering with a commission charged with investigating the case, makes him a hero to some. "It takes balls to execute an innocent man," one hairy-chested patriot famously told a focus group. I think that guy sends me weekly emails. - Dan Lyons

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Now Mr. President Be A Good Person and Reduce Those Nukes Won't You

U.S. Nuclear Arsenal Holds Fast to Status Quo | Common Dreams: "There is concern over whether Obama's goals can be realized within the enduring bureaucracies that have a stake in the status quo," Kristensen wrote in the FAS report.

It's a little matter of a Nobel Peace prize. You would not want to end the world and have it laid to bureaucratic lassitude and then redound to you.

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My daughter is doing more than these fancy devices

New satellites battle pollution 'ghosts' - CNN.com: Now a new generation of orbiting sensors capable of mapping these wraith-like chemicals at city level is being built in a laboratory in central England, a development that will give scientists a new tool in the fight to cut pollution.

She is conducting a grass roots effort to reduce the intrusions pf the automobile on rights of way that belong to us and our children. Look not to the sky alone. Look to your street, your neighborhood.

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Is it wise to tell someone to "be yourself"


From Charles Peirce
The most balsamic of all the sweets of sweet philosophy is the lesson that personal existence is an illusion and a practical joke.
Those that have loved themselves and not their neighbors will find themselves April fools when the great April opens the truth that neither selves or neighborselves were anything more than vicinities;
while the love they would not entertain was the essence of every scent.
4.68

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RECCMENDATION Richard Gordon Quantum Touch

The Slow as Molasses Press