'Out of the cradle, endlessly rocking...'

Friday, February 26, 2016

today's fun thought...

     The most extreme manifestation of American Exceptionalism is the breathless condemnation of any manifestation of American Exceptionalism. 

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

rambling rambles about nothing at all...

     I need to start exercising again. Fell out of the habit thanks to the long bout of flu, infected sinuses, and general plaguiness. Still not back to full - in fact, I've lost my voice for like the fifth time or so. O well, this can't continue forever, no no no it can't I say. It's time for a return to cardio! Sounds like a movie - A Return to Cardio. 'Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks star in this Romantic Drama about two men who fall for the same woman in the same town after The War, and then return years later, each unbeknownst to the other, to rekindle their lost kindle with her - A Return to Cardio'.
     So like, yeah, I need to start exercising again. 

nothing to see here...

     Seems Noam Chomsky has seen fit to say something about The Donald. I don't really care about Chomsky, so no, I won't be reading the article in question. That would cut into my free time. I will simply note here the inevitable convergence of the twain, like the Titanic and its Iceberg riding the currents of Absolute Will.

it's like christmas has come early...

     O boy o boy o boy o boy o boy Facetube gave us cute virtual stickers we can use for anything! It’s like we’re kids again! Kids with debts and jobs and lawyers and doctors and accountants boy do we need accountants and kids and cars that need fixing and lawns and roofs and an ever growing list of regrets and doubts about whether we ever made the right decisions when pushed to it...but yay, we got some badass virtual stickers! Woohoo!

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

thoughts on this here election cycle...

     It seems that the fate of the Republic is at stake in this latest Hunger Games, Presidential Edition. That is simply not true. The fate of those who will live through the final death and fall of the Republic is at stake. That's totally different.
     Have a nice day.

Monday, February 22, 2016

a poem...

When it is Nearly Winter



A thunderstorm comes tearing from the west,
and once again the ground is thick with leaves
wet and matted, mottled brown and yellow; 
some few fly about the gathering dark
of early evening in November, as
curled shavings fly before the carpenter’s plane.
These are not yet the shortest days, but when
the dark slams down upon those rushing home, 
those who have seen so little daylight while
they worked or slept or ate in tiny rooms,
it seems an almost perpetual night, the day
an errant dream lost before we’re awake,
like some frolicsome snake we glimpse as it 
streaks out of sight along a garden path.

a query...

     Are we certain that Socrates isn't the villain?

Monday, February 15, 2016

the game's afoot...

     This, from Senator Elizabeth Warren, is making the rounds on The Social Media:


     Well spotted, Senator Warren, well spotted. There is no such clause. In fact, you will not find in The Consitution a clause that requires the Senate to do anything in particular. Article 2, Section 2 makes that clear:

'...and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, [the President] shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.'

     The Senate can move with alacrity to a floor vote; the Senate can lollygag about as committee after committee vet chronologically a nominee's personal and professional life. If a gaggle of Senators wants to block a nominee, they are welcome to try. It is the prerogative of the Senate if so moved to allow a nomination to wither and die. Whether any given gaggle can so move the Senate is an open question. We answer it by means of all the Politics.      
     So, Senator Warren, you are correct, but what you say is not the whole truth. I do applaud your embrace of a plain-text reading of the Constitution, and encourage you to read farther, and deeper, in that work and the works of those who drafted it and saw it through a rather punishing ratification. (Hint - that was some first class Politics right there.) As you read the text, you might find all Penumbras disappear, but that is intermediate to advanced reading. For now, focus on the Article at hand concerning the various powers and prerogatives of the President and the Senate with regard to the appointment of Supremes. It will take practice, but with determined hard work you will improve over time. I have faith in your abilities.

Friday, February 12, 2016

wintery winter strikes again...


This is from a few nights ago. We had our usual early February Snowpocalypse. I've been too ill to go outside, but my wife tells me the city managed to survive. 

Thursday, February 11, 2016

a poem...

Two-Fifteen A.M.


Who will conjure memory
at the end, conjure hope itself
from nothing at all? Stripped
bare, like tree limbs in a storm
one raw spring night, each 
must reckon with elements,
powers of the air, as light
as nothingness itself seems
when it seems most like being.

something from Denys...

     '"Suddenly" means that which comes forth from the hitherto invisible and beyond hope into manifestation. And I think that here Scripture is suggesting the philanthropy of Christ. The super-essential has proceeded out of its hiddenness to become manifest to us by becoming a human being. But He is also hidden, both after the manifestation and, to speak more divinely, even within it. For this is Jesus [hiding himself], and neither by rational discourse nor by intuition can his mystery be brought forth, but instead, even when spoken it remains ineffable, and when conceived with the intellect, unknowable,' [Epistle III, translated by Alexander Golitzin, Mystagogy: A Monastic Reading of Dionysius Areopagitica, p. 45, altered slightly].

I've noticed...

     Haydn's music is good for you, especially when you're awake in the night with the flu. 

good times...

     This time last year I was in Denver. That was only one stop in my whirling travels across the High Plains and back again. I may have been a madman. 

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

from today's reading...

     Here is Marina Tsvetaeva on Boris Pasternak:

'He is unique and indivisible. His verse is the formula of his essence. The divine case of "couldn't be done any other way". Wherever there may be a dominance of "form" over "content", or of "content" over "form", no essence ever set foot. And you can't copy him; only garments can be copied. You'd have to be born as another him,' [Art in the Light of Conscience, pg. 22-23]. 

The same of course can be said of Tsvetaeva herself. She goes on:

'Of the demonstrable treasures in Pasternak (rhythms, metres, and so on), others will speak in their turn - and doubtless with no less feeling than I when I speak of the non-demonstrable treasures. 

'That is the job of poetry specialists. My specialty is Life.'

Monday, February 8, 2016

late night pre-Lenten thoughts...

     The virus night shift is much more efficient and determined than the day shift. The nose is running and there's the coughing and the fever. It's hard to read while blowing le nez, so I'm listening to music.      
     I know what you're thinking dear reader - the earthquake in Taiwan, my cold, they're roughly the same in terms of how they raise the problem of suffering in a world created by a just God.
     Time to open another box of tissues. 

Friday, February 5, 2016

a translation...

Aeschylus, Agamemnon



But he who gladly shouts of Zeus's victories
shall make himself to be wise in all things -
Zeus who sets men on the path to wisdom,
who as Lord decreed that we have wisdom through pain -
Zeus lets fall before our hearts, even in sleep,
pain that brings loss to mind once again:
in such bonds man comes to be of sound mind,
a violent grace, from gods poised on the quarterdeck.

just a thought...

     Aeneas never should have left Dido. You know it's true, don't try to deny it.