He often talked to me about your forum and that he was active on it... Some months ago he had told me that he wanted to come to one of your real life meetings and I said I would come with him but then the meeting was canceled for some reason; so we did not have the opportunity to meet.

I'm feeling too choked to say much, except that Elco was a strong, warm presence here and he'll be greatly missed. And that we all join in offering our condolences to his sister and family.

It's amazing. The trip didn't start this way - the first few months were certainly good, but there were some dark, bleak, lonely nights in New Zealand and Australia.

But now - even the bad days are good, it doesn't matter if I'm meeting people, it doesn't matter if I'm getting laid, it doesn't matter if I did anything interesting today, it doesn't matter what I'm doing tomorrow, it doesn't matter if I have a damn thing planned for the next nine months - I am constantly happy.

Hell, if I find myself a hot travel partner my eyes will probably turn into heart shapes or something equally disturbing.

How long can this go on? Doesn't my mind have to normalize all this to some baseline state? I'm buzzing so hard at this moment I feel nauseated.

Part of the reason I'm buzzing is that I've been taking a five day Thai massage course over at Wat Pho, and getting three hours worth of massage a day from my classmates has my mind, body, and spirit firing hard on all cylinders. The class is enormous fun - lots of laughing and giggling - and as we've all gotten to know each other through the week the intimacy level is fairly high. Not quite sexual, but close, but it's mostly how wonderful touch is, and how off limits physical contact is in daily life, making this such a treat.

These are uncharted waters to say the least. It feels like I am a different person, because I am. I already don't know who that person was sitting in SFO last November 3rd. How do I go back?

you are the media you consume.

You know if you've ever been a witness to a car crash, you can describe it in detail but really all you're gonna end up with is some injury-porn of screaming, blood and body parts. Then there comes a time when the whole mess catches light and the flames creep towards the trapped injured person that you have to turn away. Well, it's kinda got like that.

Seriously, very wise, sincere and articulate good friends of mine are being flayed as we speak... for nothing and to no good end. What's the point ?

tho nearest someone came to making a good point in the whole farrago was

It seems to me, as an outside observer to all of this, that a lot of the rhetoric used is not designed to foster communication or spread understanding or even correct incorrect views, but simply to communicate anger and hurt, and to make the person who made the offending statement as hurt and angry as those who were offended. I'm not sure I see the ultimate usefulness in that, apart, from making the offended feel better.

What is the ultimate goal of these conversations? Persuasion, or attack? Because if it is persuasion that is desired, using mild tone and terminology is going to go a lot farther in persuading your opponent that they are wrong.

Practically speaking, if you want to persuade a white person that they are being racist or have said something racist, you'll make a lot more progress by not using terminology that you know is going to make them lose their minds.

"Has anybody seen this work in the wild?" Yes, I have--often.

On the other hand, if all you are interested in doing is attacking--and god knows I understand the joy of really unloading on someone who deserves it--then carry on.

For nearly two hours, she belittled the feminist movement as "teaching women to be victims," decried intellectual men as "liberal slobs" and argued that feminism "is incompatible with marriage and motherhood."

...Schlafly asserted women should not be permitted to do jobs traditionally held by men, such as firefighter, soldier or construction worker, because of their "inherent physical inferiority."

"Women in combat are a hazard to other people around them," she said. "They aren't tall enough to see out of the trucks, they're not strong enough to carry their buddy off the battlefield if he's wounded, and they can't bark out orders loudly enough for everyone to hear."

At one point, Schlafly also contended that married women cannot be sexually assaulted by their husbands.

"By getting married, the woman has consented to sex, and I don't think you can call it rape," she said.

 

keep to the Fen Causeway

Times of great crisis are also times of great opportunity, because only then is the public more terrified of the status quo than of seismic change. It happened in the States under FDR, and will happen again under Obama. If ever there was a moment when the British people, for all our transcendent apathy, were ready to embrace a radical reconstruction of this hideous apology for a democratic system, that moment is upon us now.

We are an ever-atrophying post-imperial power in grave need not of clinging to the façade of global relevance offered by a permanent seat on the Security Council and the renewal of Trident, but of renewal itself; and primed by economic petrifaction and lingering disgust over that war to accept some brutal truths about how we have sunk so low, and how we might begin to rise again

"Saddlebacking: the phenomenon of Christian teens engaging in unprotected anal sex in order to preserve their virginities."

Usage : After attending the Purity Ball, Heather and Bill saddlebacked all night because she's saving herself for marriage.

Here's why this definition is perfect: Saddlebacking, like barebacking, involves one person riding up on another's backside. But in this case, it's not the bare-naked cock-in-ass that's the most important feature of the ride, but the fact that the person being ridden has been saddled - thanks to the efforts of the Rick Warrens of this world - with religious hang-ups and serious misconceptions about sex. Like the barebacker who casually tosses away his health - or his partner's health - because he believes, quite erroneously, that "risky = sexy," the saddlebacker offers up her ass because she believes, quite erroneously, that she can get fucked in the ass - vigorously, religiously - and still be considered a virgin on her wedding night.

I've set up a website - www.saddlebacking.com - to popularize the new definition. (Get to work, Google bombers!) Spread the URL far and wide, please, and let's get this term into common usage as quickly as possible.

Remember our recent conversation about snow days and my suspicion Obama would have no tolerance for them?  I was right!!!

Sun Times:  Obama: Toughen up, D.C.

BY LYNN SWEET Sun-Times Washington Bureau Chief
WASHINGTON -- Toughen up, Washington. That's the word from President Obama.

With much of the city shut down in an ice storm Wednesday, Obama gently chastised his daughters' school -- and others in the area -- for taking a snow day. Chicago Public

Schools have not had a snow day since 1999.
Barack Obama urged Washington, D.C. residents to get some "flinty Chicago toughness" after snow forced the closings of schools and offices in the nation's capital.
(AP)
"As my children pointed out, in Chicago, school is never canceled. In fact, my 7-year-old pointed out that you'd go outside for recess in weather like this. You wouldn't even stay indoors. So it's -- I don't know. We're going to have to try to apply some flinty Chicago toughness to this town," Obama said.

Washington public schools opened two hours late, but Sidwell Friends, the school Malia and Sasha attend, shut its doors, as did other schools in the suburbs.

Obama was so taken with the closure that he brought it up at a meeting:

"My children's school was canceled today because of what? ... Some -- some ice?"

more, from Politico:

Egged on by laughter from aides, reporters and corporate executives, Obama pushed ahead: "As my children pointed out: In Chicago, school is never canceled," he said. "In fact, my 7-year-old pointed out that you'd go outside for recess." There was more laughter. "You wouldn't even stay indoors."

In fact, while the private Sidwell Friends School that Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, attend was closed for the day, D.C. public schools opened two hours late. But that didn't stop Obama, who grew up in Hawaii, from piling it on.

"We're going to have to try to apply some flinty Chicago toughness to this," he said. "I'm saying, when it comes to the weather, folks in Washington don't seem to be able to handle things."

Ha Ha Ha!!!  I love it...

Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

h/t The Stormy Present

keep to the Fen Causeway

keep to the Fen Causeway

So I was feeling like a tool for getting this stupid converter box and buying into this huge swindle.  I could not possibly care less that the picture is better.  And I didn't even care that I would get many more channels.  TV is just not a big part of my life, and I resent being forced to care about it.  So I was all surly and resentful as I hooked the damned thing up.  Bitter, even.  Then I flipped through the now 8 public television channels I get, and ...  OMG ...  I get Russia Today!!!  Russia Today, in my home, for free.  In fact, I get all kinds of international broadcasts...  But Russia Today!  Cheezy, unabashedly pro-Russia propaganda being beamed into my apartment everyday!  It's like heaven...   I mean, it is very difficult to live in a country where absolutely everything broadcast about Russia is negative.  Gregory Pfeiffer's 2 minute hate on Morning Edition on NPR used to come on at the same moment my alarm went off.  I set my alarm to go off earlier, and ... get this, now the 2 minute hate comes on at the new time my alarm goes off.  I will forever wake up to the voice of that tool.  

Anyway, I lived for the day Russian propaganda would be beamed into the homes of all Americans.  I feel like celebrating.

Some of last night's highlight's:

Putin speaking at Davos, lecturing Western countries on ...  the evils of nationalization.  Oh Snap!   HAHAHA!!!  His sense of humour is truly unmatched.  And you could just tell by the look in his eyes he'd lived for this day.  

Also, there were a bunch of European leaders admitting that maybe they had been precipitous in assigning all the blame to Russia when the Ossetian conflict began last year.   There was some Russian diplomat saying he hoped the Europeans had learned how childish and irresponsible logic like "Georgia is our friend so they are right.  Russia is our enemy so they are wrong." is when dealing with international relations.  

Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

Next to news that Ford lost almost $6 billion dollars in the 4^th quarter, was South Florida based retailer AutoNation. Their 4^th Quarter net was up 30% but sales were down 34%. How they earn more money on less sales in a down market is a testament to successful business modelling and sheer vision. AutoNation is the brainchild of South Florida's Wayne Huizenga.

Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

http://www.olympiade-der-koeche.de/en/Competitions__10.html?PHPSESSID=qav9ic3otogqtbj9j2jrm2vk16

US came in #6 which is the highest ever for the country.  The guy started as a dishwasher at the famous "French Laundry" in Napa, California.  

BBC NEWS | Scotland | South of Scotland | Otter tours Scotland in postbag

A postman who rescued a baby otter on a Scottish roadside took her on a 220-mile tour in his mailbag.

Elco B's funeral has passed. It was a simple but very tuching ceremony. Here is his photograph from the last time I have seen him.

[IMG]http://i39.tinypic.com/11agzs9.jpg[/IMG]

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." (Einstein)