yoda is a cat!

Jeffrey Goldberg (September 29, 2008) - Sarah Palin Endorses Hamas

2008-09-30T00:43:00.000+01:00

Jeffrey Goldberg (September 29, 2008) - Sarah Palin Endorses Hamas: "How can it be that some people still pretend that Sarah Palin is suited for high office? This country has never seen someone so comprehensively unprepared for the vice presidency; Dan Quayle was Metternich by comparison. I've watched Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric three times, and my astonishment does not diminish. Her nonsensical answer about Russia has deservedly been highlighted, but let me focus on another question, this one concerning the export of democracy. Couric asked, 'What happens if the goal of democracy doesn't produce the desired outcome? In Gaza, the U.S. pushed hard for elections and Hamas won.'" Read more

"Dare Greatly" - Emotional risk-taking - Literotica Discussion Board

2008-03-21T15:56:00.000Z

"Dare Greatly" - Emotional risk-taking - Literotica Discussion Board: "Dare Greatly
It is not the critic who counts; nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcomings; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end, the triumph of high achievement; and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

~ Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)"

Paul Loeb: Did Clinton Win Ohio on a Lie? - Politics on The Huffington Post

2008-03-07T13:52:00.000Z

Suppose someone in the North Korean government released a false story that shifted a key American election. If Bush were negatively affected, we might be bombing Pyongyang by now. But this just happened with what Hillary Clinton called 'NAFTAgate' Without it, she might never have won Ohio, or her margin would have been minuscule. But as a Canadian Broadcasting Company story reveals, practically the entire story was a lie, one that played so central a role in Clinton's Ohio victory as to thoroughly taint any claim she raises about a swing state mandate....read entire article

2008-02-27T13:00:00.000Z

Funyuns Still Outselling Responsibilityuns

DALLAS-Funyuns continues to enjoy an "overwhelming sales lead" over competing brand Responsibilityuns, reports Impulse Purchase Quarterly...

2008-02-27T12:52:00.000Z

I Say Live Life To The Fullest In Terms Of Yearly Income Set Against Monthly Expenditures

Each morning, I wake up with a smile on my face and a renewed sense of vigor, because this day is unlike any other, and it is full of potential....

deconstructing the culture of happy

2008-01-18T16:47:00.000Z

In Praise of Melancholy - ChronicleReview.com:

"A recent poll conducted by the Pew Research Center shows that almost 85 percent of Americans believe that they are very happy or at least pretty happy. The psychological world is now abuzz with a new field, positive psychology, devoted to finding ways to enhance happiness through pleasure, engagement, and meaning. Psychologists practicing this brand of therapy are leaders in a novel science, the science of happiness. Mainstream publishers are learning from the self-help industry and printing thousands of books on how to be happy. Doctors offer a wide array of drugs that might eradicate depression forever. It seems truly an age of almost perfect contentment, a brave new world of persistent good fortune, joy without trouble, felicity with no penalty.

Why are most Americans so utterly willing to have an essential part of their hearts sliced away and discarded like so much waste? What are we to make of this American obsession with happiness, an obsession that could well lead to a sudden extinction of the creative impulse, that could result in an extermination as horrible as those foreshadowed by global warming and environmental crisis and nuclear proliferation? What drives this rage for complacency, this desperate contentment?

Surely all this happiness can't be for real." read entire article

I guess I would say that being happy sure beats being depressed in terms of personal comfort... but maybe it takes extreme discomfort to motivate us to see beyond our own happy little world.

Hell Is Other People?

2007-08-19T20:32:00.000+01:00

This is a masterful summary of what Jean-Paul Sartre meant....

Anti-Americanisms

2006-11-07T16:26:00.000Z

Living abroad has made me think about anti-Americanism a lot more. This article explains the paradox that is American society very well. I especially like the term "polyvalence" to describe our values, culture and constituents. I am also fascinated by the myriad ways in which Americanisms (or anti-Americanisms) has seeped into the world's consciousness.Anti-Americanisms by Peter J. Katzenstein and Robert O. Keohane - Policy Review 139

Thoughts and Words

2006-10-30T23:03:00.000Z

They said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them."
—Psalm 126:2

When my thoughts and the Word
Are in one accord,
Then the words of my mouth
Honor Christ my Lord.

Let no thought linger in your mind that you would be ashamed to let out of your mouth.

Food for thought...

2006-03-21T01:16:00.000Z

Coffee Makes People Talk A Lot - AdPulp: 'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, �Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?� Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.'

Owning our time!

2006-03-18T01:47:00.000Z

One always has time enough, if one will apply it well.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time.
-Leonard Bernstein

People & Relationships

2006-03-13T00:43:00.000Z

“Friendship is like money, easier made than kept”, said Samuel Butler. To maintain friendship we have to make an effort. Friendship can be time consuming and might require some sacrifice from our part – staying up all night comforting a girlfriend after a hard breakup, canceling you hairdresser’s appointment to babysit your friends’ kids, or taking care of someone’s pets. But friendship rewards us with a warm feeling of being there for someone, being important, being part of someone’s life.

Psychological studies reveal that people who manage to maintain healthy relationships really have more happiness and less stress. There are simple ways to make relationships healthy, even though each one is different… boyfriends, girlfriends, parents, siblings, friends, colleagues, professors, roommates, and classmates.

Here are some tips to keep any kind of people’s relationships healthy:

• Accept people as they are and don’t try to change them.
• Be yourself. Healthy relationships are made of real people, not images!
• Talk with each other and genuinely listen.
• Be reliable – keep your promises, meet deadlines
• Don’t criticize. Avoid blaming the other person for your thoughts and feelings.
• Admit mistakes and say ‘sorry’ when you are wrong

Read the whole article

Before The Years Take Their Toll

2006-03-03T20:42:00.000Z

Oh, how sweet the light of day,
And how wonderful to live in the sunshine!
Even if you live a long time, don't take a single day for granted.
Take delight in each light-filled hour,
Remembering that there will also be many dark days
And that most of what comes your way is smoke.

You who are young, make the most of your youth.
Relish your youthful vigor.
Follow the impulses of your heart.
If something looks good to you, pursue it.
But know also that not just anything goes;
You have to answer to God for every last bit of it.

Live footloose and fancy free--
You won't be young forever.
Youth lasts about as long as smoke.

-Ecclesiastes 11 (from The Message)

May you grow up to be righteous, may you grow up to be true.
May you always know the truth and see the lights surrounding you.
May you always be courageous, stand upright and be strong.
May you stay forever young.

-Bob Dylan (Forever Young)

To do: absolutely nothing

2005-11-01T18:51:00.000Z

Finally! A perfectly reasonable rationale for my non-productive spurts. This essay is every guilt-prone procrastinator's dream come true.

"In an eloquent 2004 Harper's magazine essay, Columbia University professor Mark Slouka extols the virtues of idleness with an argument worthy of consideration by anyone concerned with getting things done. He writes:

Look about: The business of business is everywhere and inescapable; the song of the buyers and the sellers never stops; the term 'workaholic' has been folded up and put away. We have no time for our friends or our families, no time to think or to make a meal. We're moving product, while the soul drowns like a cat in a well.

Suffocating our inner metaphorical feline isn't the only risk in a society that fetishizes productivity. Slouka goes on to assert that idleness is essential to a democracy:

Idleness is not just a psychological necessity, requisite to the construction of a complete human being; it constitutes as well a kind of political space, a space as necessary to the workings of an actual democracy as, say, a free press. How does it do this? By allowing us time to figure out who we are, and what we believe; by allowing us time to consider what is unjust, and what we might do about it. By giving the inner life (in whose precincts we are most ourselves) its due.

The eternally busy, he says, worship at the 'Church of Work'..."

Read the entire essay