choices

Now an Obamanation, once an Ibombanation. 

From the initial presidential term of the millenium, a lot of corpses.  To all the pro-life war mongerers out there - some of those were pregnant women.  Imagine how it is for a fetus to die because its mother got blown apart.

Evil "geniuses" out, happy well meaning halfbreed in.  This is better.

thought fer the day

Immortal quote I was inspired to invent during yet another day of trying to foist my books upon unsuspecting  Park Avenue strollers:

"Mankind imagines a human intelligence no one is possessed of."

You read it here first. 

Decisions, decisions

Suppose someone identifying himself as God came before the world and said, “Sorry. I've just sold you out to a meat processor from Alpha Centauri. The contract takes effect tomorrow. Still alive after that, they get your carcass and soul. Well, that's it for now.”

What would you do?

The New Confederacy of Dunces

Selling books I talk to lots of people.  Some are  people who have bonded with the Republican Party.  Many of these seem to feel anger at the President of their country.  The oddest thing is  they often spew something about how stupid or what an idiot he is.  It should be clear how this destroys their credibility.   Of all the things they could dredge up, I always wonder why they choose  the one thing he most obviously is not.  And then I always think, if this man who was Editor of the Harvard Law Review is an idiot, then what does that make you, who surely reside somewhere below him.   Furthermore I doubt they ever said that about Obama's predecessor, who clearly was stupid, whether acting a part  or not.
 Maybe it's because they can't come up with anything specific; or  they're  dissatisfied with the race of his father.  They lack the candor to say that what really bothers them is the extreme uppity-ness of his Negroness so they just blurt out that he's an idiot, hoping that saying it makes it so.  

In a lot of ways, I think we're all just still in the second grade.

everything being relative

It must be a basic mammalian trait that we want to see our species capable of good deeds.  I was just looking at Mark Twain's account of Joan of Arc's demise and even that notorious cynic found something good in a 17 year old girl getting roasted on the spit.  It seems before the flames entirely engulfed her, a British soldier fashioned a cross for her to ride into eternity.  Twain was moved by this act.  So there it is.  By only allowing her to burn to death as opposed to burning to death without a cross, he has become a great anonymous man remembered through the ages for his thoughtfulness. 




So - has the bar risen since then or dropped?