Lars and Lori show

speechless 1 and 2

panic in zero decade

You've read it before. http://panicinzerodecade.blogspot.com/

allegory of the cave

questioning the ontological privilege of established reality.

hinged panel with word games

word game drawings

buried alive in the big hole

I linked to Dahlia Lithwick's piece in Slate about Cheney's book on
Facebook:

"As John Adams famously put it, the United States was intended to be a
government of laws, not of men. Dick Cheney is living proof that if we
are not brave enough to enforce our laws, we will forever be at the
mercy of a handful of men."

"He interpreted our apathy as resounding applause," Lucy commented.

"There wasn't complete apathy, although many of "us" who were and are
opposed are sunk in despair. And the so-called Libertarians (Ron and
Rand) are not the solution, by any means,"
I replied.

Dick Cheney would never tell the truth, no matter how many times he was
water-boarded, I wisecracked.

Joshua: "Yeah, but it'd be fun trying."

LS: "It is a guilty pleasure to think so, Joshua. Or maybe not so
guilty. It would have the usefulness of proving that torture doesn't
work, but that is already known. The liquidation of Osama bin Laden was
also a guilty pleasure, but wouldn't it have been a bigger propaganda
coup for The American Way if he had been brought to trial? Of course,
that isn't really the American Way, anyway."

Dick Cheney might not even know what the truth is anymore.

He wouldn't be alone. I shared an Alexander Cockburn piece from
Counterpunch that attacks the conspiracy theories of the 9/11 "truth
movement," the truthers. A debate followed. Arguing about 9/11
conspiracy theories heats me up. Everyone should doubt any official
narrative, but not all alternative narratives are likely. I have always
believed that Osama bin Laden sponsored the 2001 attacks. There was
intelligence warning of an attack that the White House apparently
ignored. I don't know why. I don't know why they thought it would be a
good idea to start a war in Iraq. I don't know why they thought the tax
cuts on the wealthy were such a good idea they kept them in place while
spending trillions of dollars on two wars, as well as on the perpetual
"war on terror."

The attacks left a big hole. We are at the bottom of the hole. The Bush
administration buried us in that hole. We elected a Democrat we hoped
would start digging us out. Republicans seem to want us to stay there
so Obama will lose the 2012 election, so they block all attempts to
rescue us. We know the Republicans can't help us because all they offer
is to make the tax cuts permanent, and to further deregulate the
financial institutions that crashed the economy in 2008. Obama
compromises too much. Maybe a black president has no power because
white politicians will exploit white racism to prevent change. Maybe
Obama knows this and that is why he is too conservative and too
compromising to dig us out. Even if he was white the Republicans would
work to make him fail and, therefore, make the country fail.
Because, even if the country fails as a whole, the rich will build
their mansions on top of the the mountain of shit the rest of us are
buried under.

liberty

Yesterday Lori, Jimmy Blackford and I took a two hour sail boat trip on
the Hudson River and around a famous landmark.

3 meetings

shine on

weekend with Irene

8/26  

I am very concerned that this hurricane will be almost as fearsome as that earthquake was.

I grew up in South Florida. In the sixties the newspapers published hurricane tracking maps. You tracked the hurricanes by listening for the coordinates on a transistor radio and sticking map pins in the map. I think it made it feel you had some power and control over the scary chaos around you if you could track its progress. And it was fun. Its useful to know that you in the eye and its not safe to come out. Now I look at satellite videos of the crazy beautiful storm to rise above it all. 

Panic video-renting in Williamsburg. In the other stores people line up with 8 packs of small bottles of spring water and chips. Its almost as bad as last minute Christmas shopping, except the panic is worse at Christmas.

August 28, morning

Wind and rain coming from the east. Ceiling leaking on that side. I guess its here.

Nothing you can do until its over, and its barely begun.

"Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!"

I hope nobody's cock drown'd

‎"At 800 AM EDT the center of Hurricane Irene was located by an Air Force Reserve hurricane hunter aircraft and NOAA Doppler radar near latitude 40.3 North, longitude 74.1 West or about 40 miles south-southwest of New York City. Irene is moving toward the north-northeast near 25 MPH and this motion with a continued gradual increase in forward speed is expected during the next day or so." forecast.weather.gov

I feel all the information from satellites and computers is telling me less than I used to get with a transistor radio and a paper tracking map from the Palm Beach Post.

August 30, 5:30 AM, morning after the storm, I see Orion and Sirius out the kitchen window.

the past week