I wish I was funny, too, just like Mrs. Kennedy

Because, dammit, I was a snide bookstore clerk for 7 years, but my stories just aren’t funny.   Well, not Ha-Ha funny.

Visit the Fussy Mrs. Kennedy here.

Two is the beginning of the end

I have not yet seen Finding Neverland, but its release offers a splendid opportunity to share one of my favorite opening paragraphs ever. 

All children, except one, grow up.  They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this.  One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother.  I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, "Oh, why can’t you remain like this for ever!"  This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up.  You always know after you are two.  Two is the beginning of the end.

:(

I still really miss Sketch.  I know I’m living in the past, but Andrew was one of my favorite bloggers back in the day – also a helluva nice guy who sent me a Christmas present outta the blue two years ago for no other reason than he was just a sweetheart.  I bopped on over to the site, and some of his posts are still there.  Not all of them, but at least some of them.  If anyone seeing this is still in contact with Andrew, tell him Devra says "Hey".

PsychBloggers

Can anyone point me to anyone who blogs on psychology, psychotherapy, or the like?

Thanks.

Anime

What’s the appeal?  I don’t get it. 

i thank You

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday;this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of allnothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

~ e.e. cummings, XAIPE, 1950

Be thankful for what you see, hear, smell, touch.  Be thankful for imagination & memory.  Be thankful for discovery.  Be thankful for who you are.  Be thankful for love.  Be thankful for anger.  Be thankful for sorrow.  Be thankful for tears.  Be thankful for joy.  Be thankful for laughter.

Be thankful, even, for sappy posts ripping off masters during the Holidays, because it’s an opportunity to read e.e. cummings.  Happy Thanksgiving. 

The Sideshow has moved

The Sideshow is at a new address:  http://sideshow.me.uk/

New blogs, Baby!

Thanks to Elayne, I have discovered a new blog syndication site, Feminist Blogs, wherein I further discovered rawkin blogs with which I was previously unfamiliar.

Not hearts. Not minds. Just what is it we’ve won?

Violence Breaks Out All Over Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Baghdad exploded in violence Saturday, as insurgents attacked a U.S. patrol and a police station, assassinated four government employees and detonated several bombs. One American soldier was killed and nine were wounded during clashes that also left three Iraqi troops and a police officer dead.

Gee.  I wonder why.

Practical question:  Is this the work of Fallujah’s insurgents who likely got the hell outta Dodge during the big build up to invasion?  If so, what exactly was the goddamn point of laying it waste?  Doesn’t that seem a real waste of military equipment & troops?  Okay, okay, you caught me:  that’s more of a rhetorical question, as it’s fairly obvious the Fallujah invasion was Hubris On Toast and we’ve essentially turned a large portion of the Iraqi population, who might originally have welcomed our assistance building a democracy, into ‘insurgents’ and Freedom Fighters who hate the guts of every American they see.  I wonder, at this point, how many Iraqis have gone from mild-mannered-and-willing-to-welcome-American-assistance to raging-America-hating-insurgents in the past year or so?  Could Gallup do a poll?

Impractical question:  Does the leadership of the American military, who authorize-slash-insist our troops invade-slash-desecrate Mosques honestly NOT GET that they are simply enraging the Iraqi people (and the rest of the Muslim world) by their disrespectful tromping around and killing of injured within the walls of said religious buildings?

I was (unfortunately) watching the Newshour last week when they showed the tape of the Marine killing the wounded Iraqi within what should have been the refuge or sanctuary of a holy place.

"He’s just pretending to be dead!  He’s just pretending to be dead!"
                                *GUNSHOT*
"He’s dead now."

Some of the thoughts running through my little mind while I watched:  How would all the people who are excusing this act feel if the building had been a Christian Church somewhere in Europe or the U.S. instead of a Mosque in Asia?  What the hell are the military minds thinking?  Don’t they realize the horrible sin being committed here?  Don’t they realize they are just enraging the people they claim to be helping?  Have they really convinced themselves that they belong to a separate and superior class of people?  Did that Marine REALLY have to be such a smartass?  God, this is so much like Full Metal Jacket it’s scary.

A pithy description from Jonathan Schell: 

The U.S. strategy is now focused entirely on inspiring fear in the minds of Iraqis. To hell with winning their hearts.

I’m sensing your sarcasm*

Digby sez:

I don’t know what he’s so unhappy about, though. George W. Bush is just trying to empower the working man here. With those fancy new medical savings accounts, the guy who works at Pep Boys and his wife who works in the hospital gift shop will be able to save the 10k a year (tax free!) to pay for his wife and 2 kids’ health insurance. Then he’ll be a member of the ownership society because he’ll own his own health insurance policy. Isn’t that great?
—————snip———————

Why, a real man would rather gnaw off his leg or put his wife out of her misery than have his boss pay for his health insurance. This whole issue is an excuse for lazy Democrat losers looking for a handout.

*Good, because I’m laying it on pretty thick.