Thursday, November 04, 2004

"If You Need Help Packing, Let Me Know"

When I was a child, and angry with my parents, from time to time I would threaten to run away.  Whenever I threatened this, my Mum would always say, “If you need help packing, let me know.”

“Unhappy Democrats Need to Wait to Get Into Canada"

Via Drudge.

Posted by John Venlet on 11/04 at 05:35 AM
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Interesting Visualization

Take a look at this county by county breakdown of the 2004 presidential election. Interesting, isn’t it?

Do you know where your friends are?

Posted by John Venlet on 11/04 at 05:06 AM
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Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Non-Headline News of the Day

The headline.

“Electronic Voting Machine Woes Reported."

The first paragraph, from the linked article.

"Voters nationwide reported some 1,100 problems with electronic voting machines on Tuesday, including trouble choosing their intended candidates."

Hmm, “nationwide,” “some 1,100 problems.” Sounds serious.

Number of votes cast nationwide, approximately 113,872,408.

1,100 divided by 113,872,408 equals .00001 equals almost infinitesimal.

Lest we think there were not any problems in Florida, the linked article also informs us,

"But there were also several dozen voters in six states — particularly Democrats in Florida — who said the wrong candidates appeared on their touch-screen machine’s checkout screen, the coalition said."

Nationwide non-news.

Posted by John Venlet on 11/03 at 10:41 AM
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The Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth Begins (before the election is called)

Nicholas Kristof, in, of course, The New York Times, has penned an op-ed bewailing the vote, even before knowing the final election results.  Let’s take a look.

"In the aftermath of this civil war that our nation has just fought, one result is clear: the Democratic Party’s first priority should be to reconnect with the American heartland."

Civil war?  Rather over the top, Nick.

"I’m writing this on tenterhooks on Tuesday, without knowing the election results. But whether John Kerry’s supporters are now celebrating or seeking asylum abroad, they should be feeling wretched about the millions of farmers, factory workers and waitresses who ended up voting - utterly against their own interests - for Republican candidates."

I can tell Kristof is feeling “wretched,” but that could be the result of writing while on tenterhooks.

Further into the op-ed, Kristof relays a tale of a recent visit home.

"In the summer, I was home - too briefly - in Yamhill, Ore., a rural, working-class area where most people would benefit from Democratic policies on taxes and health care. But many of those people disdain Democrats as elitists who empathize with spotted owls rather than loggers."

I am not certain, after reading the above paragraph, whether Kristof is bemoaning the “working-class” individuals’ disdain for Democrats, or the “working-class” individuals’ independence from “Democratic policies on taxes and health care.”

But what I consider the crowning ignorance of Kristof’s op-ed is this paragraph.

"What we once thought - that people would vote in their economic self-interest - is not true, and we Democrats haven’t figured out how to deal with that."

Democrats and Kristof have no clue to what economic self-interest actually is.  They might benefit by reading Human Action.

Posted by John Venlet on 11/03 at 05:19 AM
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Coffee and Cigarettes

This morning, while sitting on the back porch at 5:45 A.M. enjoying a small cigar and a cup of coffee, I was considering the news that researchers are stating that coffee and cigarettes have a “synergystic” negative effect on the heart and the arteries.

As I sat there contemplating this, I wondered if the film Coffee and Cigarettes, which I mentioned here, would become a cult classic like Reefer Madness.

I then finished my coffee, and savored the remainder of my morning cigar while walking the Iz.

Posted by John Venlet on 11/03 at 04:57 AM
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Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Obligatory Election Day Post

If an individual chooses not to vote, they can expect questions regarding why this is so, as evidenced here, or they can be told to shut up, as evidenced here.

Some individuals are quite eloquent in their explanations for why they do not vote, as evidenced here, here, and here.

Other individuals provide more straightforward reasonings for not voting, while at the same time providing economic examples for their rationale.

I’d wager, big, that all of these individuals, like myself, have taken some flack for not voting.  For each individual, and others like them, and myself, I offer the following, as a response to those who bang the drums to get out there and vote and gnash their teeth at our individual choice.

"When you are declaiming from the rostra, some one may say to you: “What! man, have you forgotten what all these things you are so keen about amount to?” “True,” say you; “but others seek them eagerly.” “But,” comes the answer, “is that a reason why you should be a fool, too?"

Quote from:

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Book V, pg. 72

Posted by John Venlet on 11/02 at 04:48 PM
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Visual Imagery

The link will lead to you what are labeled the “Best Photos of 2004." They are visually “stunning,” as Fred Lapides states, but they missed one, as far as I am concerned.

Posted by John Venlet on 11/02 at 04:34 PM
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A Meditation

"To expect that bad men will not sin is madness; it is demanding an impossibility.  To allow them to injure others, and demand that they should not injure you, is foolish and tyrannical."

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Book XI, pg. 183"

Posted by John Venlet on 11/02 at 07:42 AM
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Wintersong for Bill Evans

"Suspended from the eaves
the feeder swings, cold
plastic pagoda brimmed
with seeds the wind flings
scattering in the snow.
Beyond those low
eaves, the frozen teeth,
are juncos in the trees.
Trees too thin for snow
and three birds weaving
wintersong among them--
music on a sheet.
Music eased by one
alone, from a piano,
brooding over the keys,
holding each note
for all its worth,
alone and whole…

When the flourish goes,
emptiness comes, space
of fields simplified
by snow, that between
note and other note,
unreckoned with before.
That which differentiates
lasting deed from forage,
the mindless bickerings…

Noon on the kitchen clock.
The mail truck stops
and skitters in the road.
Coming from the box,
I consider the irony
of the house--modern,
spare as any feeder,
the owner somewhere
in Florida--and, caught
once more in the snow,
with stuff disposed of
by the postman--notes
and cancelings from
San Francisco--I know
whatever juncos know."

From Moment’s Notice: Jazz in Poetry & Prose, pg. 226

Posted by John Venlet on 11/02 at 04:57 AM
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"Waiting"

A selection from John Burroughs

"SERENE, I fold my hands and wait,
Nor care for wind, nor tide, nor sea;
I rave no more ‘gainst time or fate,
For, lo! my own shall come to me.

I stay my haste, I make delays,
For what avails this eager pace?
I stand amid the eternal ways,
And what is mine shall know my face.

Asleep, awake, by night or day,
The friends I seek are seeking me;
No wind can drive my bark astray,
Nor change the tide of destiny.

What matter if I stand alone?
I wait with joy the coming years;
My heart shall reap where it hath sown,
And garner up its fruit of tears.

The waters know their own and draw
The brook that springs in yonder height;
So flows the good with equal law
Unto the soul of pure delight.

The stars come nightly to the sky;
The tidal wave unto the sea;
Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high,
Can keep my own away from me."

Posted by John Venlet on 11/02 at 04:09 AM
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Monday, November 01, 2004

"It has no instrumental value."

Jonathon Wilde, at Catallarchy, has an thoughtful post up regarding voting, and why he will be abstaining.  The post is titled “Who Are The True Idealists and Defeatists."

He would have to use Michigan in his example of the effects of one vote.

Posted by John Venlet on 11/01 at 04:36 PM
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Right Under Their Noses

I’ve always said, if you’re participating in an “illegal” enterprise, or undertaking, it is better to do it right out in the open, as if you’re simply going about your everyday tasks.  The guy mentioned in the following story was pretty much doing just that.  He should have been burning drier wood, though.

“Man Living in Cave on Los Alamos Lab Land"

Posted by John Venlet on 11/01 at 05:19 AM
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Our Treasure?

The British Museum is imploring eBay to stop the auction of artifacts found by plucky British individuals armed with metal detectors.  Old roman coins, gold and silver rings, and other metal objects from ancient times, which evidently litter the British landscape, are found in the thousands all over Britain, and, according to British law at least, this “treasure” is the property of Britain.

Evidently the treasures of the British empire are not all collected, yet.

“Don’t sell our lost treasure on eBay, begs museum"

Posted by John Venlet on 11/01 at 04:53 AM
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A Conversation on the Way to the Philosophy Department

Bill Ramey posts an interesting conversation that took place while walking to the philosophy department.  Just read it.

“Bush is Hitler: A Platonic Dialgoue"

Via Billy Beck.

Posted by John Venlet on 11/01 at 04:43 AM
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An Incredibly Laughable Non-Sequitor Barb

William Safire has a column in today’s New York Times titled “Osama Casts His Vote." A quasi review of Osama’s latest video, I guess, and an analysis of Osama’s supposed intentions with the video.  The money line.

"That produced a dutiful letter from the Iraqi bureaucrat to the U.N. nine days later that was promptly leaked to CBS News, which apparently turned to the more credible New York Times to do most of the reporting."

The “more credible New York Times."

Right.

Posted by John Venlet on 11/01 at 04:32 AM
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