Should I read Left Behind? I'm curious how the world view works, and it must be passable fluff to have such a following. Has anyone tried?
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(3)
11:04:54 AM,
Friday 6 February 2004
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Democrats are cute when they're being pragmatic. They furrow their brows and try to think like Republicans. Or as they imagine Republicans must think. They turn off their hearts and listen for signals from their brains." -The irreplaceable M. Kinsley, in Slate. I always feel a bit strange linking to Slate, because I assume everyone who is likely to follow the link already reads Slate.
Every time I hear an ambivalent Kerry voter on the radio, and there seems to be no other kind, my heart sinks. They all talk about how they agree with him on the issues. I agree with myself on issues, but I'd never vote for me. But more to the point, I don't want another president with the strange power to disconnect my ears from my brain with the sound of his voice. I know he's talking, I want to listen, but something filters out the claptrap before it gets to my consciousness.
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(1)
04:20:22 PM,
Thursday 5 February 2004
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The BBC has the Day in Pictures, which has been extremely enjoyable. In fact, they have a whole photographic section, now conveniently located on my sidebar. Plus, you can now look at all the pictures I've blogged, thanks to the lovely way Search was implemented.
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11:38:13 AM,
Wednesday 4 February 2004
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The New York Times has a nifty graphical presentation of the 2004 election so far. I'm absurdly relieved that Clark and Dean are still in the race, so I don't have to pick between Kerry, who I simply don't like, and Edwards, who is pandering to the enemies of International Co-operation. Thing I learned: There are a lot of Democratic senators from Dixie retiring.
I should explain; I like free trade, not so much for economic reasons (though I like those too) as political ones. Sometimes, reading history books, I get all weepy about what a wonderful thing the European Union is. Blather about protecting American mill workers, and supporting those steel tarriffs, it scares me.
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11:18:22 AM,
Wednesday 4 February 2004
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I've taken down the link, since www.world66.com seems to have given up the ghost. It was a map of states I've visited.
These are places I have more than fragmentary memories of. Minnasota is the most unfairly treated; I went to the mall of america during a stop-over on the way back from Montana. Montana is the one I have the fondest feelings for. I should do another EarthWatch trip, next time there is some money hanging around going moldy.
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(7)
11:00:45 AM,
Tuesday 3 February 2004
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The problem is, I'm good at wordsmithing. I like taking other peoples words and sprucing them up, finding where they lack clarity. I'm just incapable of either creating my own words in a reasonable period of time, or one they're produced, looking at them without suffering. Blogging is helping me with this, to an extent. I say this is a problem, because it tempts me to take on tasks which involve writing, at which point I'm reduced to a small pile of bubbling panic.
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(1)
06:01:47 PM,
Monday 2 February 2004
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It seems this really is the end of the story of Spaulding Gray. Warning: This is long and depressing.
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(2)
04:18:31 PM,
Monday 2 February 2004
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I had a longer thing here, about how I simply seem unable to comprehend the confidence and emotional investment people have in the formal existance of grammar, much the way I am unable to see the machines on Mars. It's languagehats fault. But anyway, I lost it, and I can't bring myself to get angry about it again. Grammar seems to so clearly come after language, the way that economics comes after the economy. Also I can't see any justification for the bright line between verbal and non-verbal communication. I see information flowing between animals, but I'm told that it isn't really language, because they don't conjugate verbs. How can they be so confident about this? Why would it undermine their entire world-view? Is it the underlying christian need for a distinct soul? Does anyone believe that grammar is exclusively human and non-arbitrary, and not believe in the soul?
(No, I didn't get past a couple pages of Chomsky. I can't follow Kant either. They say things follow from each other, and I can't see the necessity in it, and I feel I'm being hoodwinked by bad prose)
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(3)
04:06:08 PM,
Monday 2 February 2004
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Why Geography? Why the New England Patriots? I suppose there are also national teams, and college teams. But since most people just watch on TV anyway, since people move around the country so much, and the players have no real connection to the area, you could tap into other loyalties people have. Mac people could have a team. Left handed people could have a team. Star Wars geeks could have a team, with really dorky uniforms. I think this is a brilliant idea.
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(3)
11:54:36 AM,
Monday 2 February 2004
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PF's market share is expanding.:
"the mysterious and very interesting American, who very well learned the Russian language, and in the course of the last month travels on the Asian part of Russia (Yakutiya, Buryatiya, Vladivostok recently, and many other places), about which he very captivatingly tells in English in his vebloge. I has long ago wanted to write about its vebloge, but everything forgot. It it is possible to read contract, winding off back (on each page there are only several records), there there is much interesting. Meanwhile its last record is saier than all previous. It occurs, it now in Khabarovsk, in the hospital, without the money and (judging by everything) without the familiar people next; they thrashed it and selected purse. In it the brain concussion and even some problems with the eye, seems. It can, to eat someone in Khabarovsk, who can to it somehow soak or even simply visit? He seems by very interesting and good person, and would for sure it help now whose- that participation, council or aid. Update: like it already somewhat was set right, and it will go on the train to Chita.
Mangling courtesy of Babelfish. Babelfish is nearly as much fun as reading Dragon Naturally Speaking French poetry. Next time I see him, I need to remember to greet him as the mysterious and very interesting American. Vebloge Vebloge Vebloge. The sentence about soaking and eating, I'm curious how that happened.
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(2)
11:43:48 AM,
Monday 2 February 2004
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The puck is now spinning, gradually getting faster and faster until it throws the paddles flying off the table and crashes the program. Progress!
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08:00:14 PM,
Saturday 31 January 2004
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"Saddam himself was a weapon of mass destruction", says Lieberman. Now Megatron, he was a Weapon of Mass Destruction. I suppose this is what happens when a phrase means next to nothing. After all, Poverty (Kucinich) and AIDS (Annan) are also weapons of mass destruction. Is there a metaphor I'm missing here? Are we all being held hostage by AIDS wielding fiends, or multi-national corporations with strategic reserves of poverty? Why can't we say "worth worrying about", or "more important than national soveriegnty"? I don't disagree with any of these people, I simply object to the phrase.
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06:50:16 PM,
Saturday 31 January 2004
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site & script courtesy of Moss