TARHEEL TAVERN : Going to Blogolina in my Mind

A Blogtour of North Carolina

In my mind I'm going to Blogolina.
Can't you take the sunshine,
can't you just drink the moonshine?
Ain't it just like a friend of wine
to smack me on behind?
Yes, I'm going to Blogolina in my mind.

With a holy host of bloggers blogging round me,
listening to the dark side of the moon.
And it seems like this blog goes on like this forever...

The blogosphere is not equally distributed throughout these United, or should I say Untied States. It is not even equally distributed around this state. Any look at NCBlogs.com will tell you that. The heaviest concentration is in the Triad/Triangle region, with Charlotte and the Mountains in second rank, and Jesse country pulling up the rear, so to speak.

There are reasons for this unequal distribution, just as there are ways and needs for expanding into these undernourished regions, these bozarts, again, if you will.

That makes twice that I've said "will", and it is beginning to disconcert me. I am growing ill at the thought of Will. And no, not Will Robinson, should you be lost or spaced. I'm talking Will, as in Der Willen. Will as in George's "They will not break our Will." Or Leni and Dolphy's "Triumph of the Will". Not wit. Not love. Not caritas. But Will. Getting your way, costs be damned.

But alas I digress. It is what I do. Life is digression. The opposite of Will.

That said, let me try to hoist this travel guide back into the saddle, and quit examining the remains of our passing.

Coming, going, the waterfowl leaves not a trace,
nor does it need a guide.

I remember that koan from the sunny '70s, when I first made their acquaintance. I remember telling Rob Urban, who also thought it was "pretty neat". Neither of us embodied it though.
But neither, I predict, have you. Yet we have no Hiroshimas to live down either.
Or do we?

Live simply that others may simply live.

More true to that one I suppose. Some are actually astonished, or turned to stone, at the simplicity of my lean-to down by the river.

OK, it is not really a lean-to, and it is not near a river, but it is simple, practically Thorouvian. But relatively energy-efficient.

So, what was that about a saddle?

Alright. Enough! Time to start over.

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[ I WILL STILL BE TAKING SUBMISSIONS UNTIL I AM TUCKERED OUT. THE FINAL VERSION WILL BE SET AT MIDNIGHT. - THANKS FOR PLAYING. - DAVE]

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Blogtouring North Carolina

The blogosphere is not equally distributed throughout these United States. It is not even equally distributed around this state. Any look at NCBlogs.com will tell you that. The heaviest concentration is in the Triad/Triangle region, with Charlotte and the Mountains in second rank, and Eastern North Carolina pulling up the rear.

There are reasons for this unequal distribution, just as there are ways and needs for expanding into these undernourished regions of the state, country and world. In the old days, it was the seaport cities where civilization and culture mostly took place, because of their being a crossroads of different cultures. As the late Dr. Richard Schultes once said, "Monoculture breeds disease." But moreover, it breeds ignorance.

In these new times, it is not just the seaports, but also the blogports, and other places where minds meet, where you will find civilization and culture thriving. North Carolina is among these meeting grounds, along with New York, California, Massachusetts, Virginia, Oregon, Washington, and parts of Texas. Places where universities also thrive.

Within North Carolina, the universities are mainly in the Triad/Triangle area, along with the bulk of the blogosphere. And it is these places who will reap the rewards of blogtourism. So when a blogger, such as the illustrious Iddybud (who is an honorary Tarheel, although she lives in New York, and has appeared on CNN, the LA Times, Yes Weekly, and on John Edwards' blog, as well as others), comes to North Carolina, she knows she can contact Tarheel bloggers, tell them of the upcoming visit, and then tour the state with bloggers as guides and helpers. No blogger a stranger. And speaking of which, Jude (Iddy) plans to attend the upcoming event of the year, which is ConvergeSouth, to be held in Blogsboro (Greensboro) on the weekend of October 7th...so introduce yourself, and extend some of that famous Southern Hospitality. But if you really feel the need to throw tomatoes, make it the Jellybean variety, or the Sungolds or Juliets or the Calabash Purple, such as you might find in the garden, or blog, of Laurie, who because of her Slowly She Turned blog, has recently been named "Blogsboro's slow food guru". And throw them at me, not Jude, or anyone else for that matter. I'll come armed with lettuce and bacon.


Laurie's 'maters

EAT AND BE EATEN

And speaking of Bacon, how about them six degrees of Kevin Bacon! To think that every person alive has only six degrees of separation, at most, from Hollywood's Kevin Bacon, whose quatrayle, or great-great-great grandfather, was none other than Novum Organum's Sir Francis Bacon, who, no, did not write Shakespeare (or "Sheik's Peer", as some have insinuated).
Was he really a Sufi?

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A DIGRESSION ON NAMES
Prince Albert Gore Vidal Sassoon
Earl Warren Christopher Lloyd George Michael Jackson Browne
Patricia Neal Diamond Jim Cary Grant Tinker Bell
Osama Bin Franklin Roosevelt Grier Garson Kanin Abel

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OK, so I was wrong about Kevin and Francis. His quatrayle was a guy named Lonnie. But this fascination with the interconnectedness of humanity, not to mention the interconnectedness of all life, has now merged with technology, and now, because of so-called "social software" such as LinkedIn.com as well as Ecademy, Ryze, Multiply, MySpace, Friendster and others, tracking and using these connections has become but a mouseclick away. I have to thank Tarheel Taverner -- not to be confused with John Taverner, who is one of America's premiere composers, I believe, although I know there were Taverners in colonial Virginia -- Dr. Sue of Sue's Place for urging me to get linked in, as I now see that it is to blogging what blogging is to solitaire. Which is to say that when you play solitaire, you connect with no one. When you blog, you are likely to connect, but usually with Americans. With sites like LinkedIn, you are just as likely to connect with people from other countries as you are to connect with Americans. Your cybertourismic possibilities are equally widened, as are other possibilities.

Also linked in are Billy the Blogging Poet, Matt Gross, Roch Smith Jr., Ben Hwang and others, included, but not limited to, Dan Gillmor, Steve Rubel, Dave Taylor, Wiley Wiggins...but there is nothing stopping everyone here from also connecting in with these new tools. And by using them, welding the relationships, in a manner not unlike that of photoblogger, Mandie's omnicapable father, one may truly cast their net worldwide, and fish the exotic seas of distant shores. Bring the world home, and home to the world.



And North Carolina has so much to offer to the world. Do people around the world suffer loss? Of course not! But if they did, they could find comfort in the books and blog of Erin Monahan, for example, and learn how to cope with loss, divorce, death. Her Poetic Acceptance could touch hearts not only in North Carolina, and America, but could be touching lives even in the dark and archaeological cloacae of Harappa or Mohenjo-Daro, or at the Priory of Sion in risible Rennes, while making a nice profit for Erin.

DO WHAT IS PLEASING TO ONE'S SELF AND USEFUL TO OTHERS

Poetry, it seems, has helped more than Erin cope with loss. Billy Jones too has found meaning in his own poetry, and others. And his blog highlights his poetry and online novels, but also features the poetry of others. His shorter prose is also enlightening, as in this post, where he celebrates the life of his father, and laments his passing on the anniversary of his death. And although Billy wonders if he will ever attain the greatness of his father, we think his father would be darned proud. Particularly of his work in establishing North Carolina as one of the blog hotspots on the globe. I know I am. And I know many other that are as well.

I say we erect a statue!

But lest it be said that North Carolina is great, but so serious, one need look no further than Valerie Nieman to be given a dose of levitas and jocundity...

AUTOMATIC PENCIL, PART THE FIRST

Automatic pencil
Autopencil, to write moving finger without thought, to fill page after page like a signature machine freed of the loops and squiggles of a program, like the mind in long stretches of waiting for something, waiting is all, waiting is the empty place from which understanding blooms like a seed sudden from the desert after a breath of rain.

Automatic pencil
My father’s clipboard, his pencils, shop pencils thick in the barrel, industrial.I have one, black plastic or Bakelite, steel at each end where the lead came out and where the eraser sat, now an empty tube. The legend: Champion Tool & Die Co. McKeesport, Pa. 15131412 751-6000

I wonder if they’re still in business, or rusted with the rest of the belt, foundries and steel suppliers, solvent and paint dealers, tool and die works, trucking companies, designers, fabricators, merchants. A whole world whittled away, year by year, until now the red brick buildings stand like historic sites, Hadrian’s Wall or the Great Wall or some other useless thing, a single bare bulb burning over a back door.

Automatic pencil
Is not to be preferred over the traditional sort. Thin lead in yellow plastic. Ersatz. No smell of cedar, no scalloped shavings, no angled shading across a ruled page as faces and horses emerge from doodles, no pencil-point under the skin from grade-school bullies. - Val Nieman


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Her latest book is Fidelities, a short story collection from West Virginia University Press. The collection of 18 stories includes two winners of the Elizabeth Simpson Smith Prize from the Charlotte Writers Club, as well as stories that have appeared in the News & Observer, Wellspring, and the anthologies One Paycheck Away from Main Street Rag Press (Charlotte), The O. Henry Festival Stories 2003 (Greensboro) and Racing Home: Stories from Award-Winning North Carolina Writers, The Paper Journey Press (Durham).
She has also published poetry, a novel about the '70s called Survivors, and an SF novel way back when, Neena Gathering.

AUTOMATIC PENCIL, PART THE SECOND

In which our state's most beloved Ogre, makes the following astute assessment:

The Quick Brown Fox
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

But after the quick brown fox jumped over, the lazy dog moved quickly. The lazy dog ran after the quick brown fox. The quick brown fox discovered that it was not as quick as it thought it might have been. The formerly lazy dog quickly closed the distance between it and the not-so-quick fox as the chase continued.

The quick brown fox ran past Chicken Little, Henny Penny, Turkey Lurkey, and even past his cousin, Sly Fox. The lazy dog, now panting profusely, continued to get closer and closer. The quick brown fox hopped on the alligator's head for a ride over the river. Still the lazy dog followed.

They continued over the hills and through the woods. The race went down the path and the quick brown fox took a shortcut that his half-brother suggested through the woods that led past grandma's house. The lazy dog fell behind a little while traversing the thick undergrowth of the woods.

On the other side of the forest, the quick brown fox ran through the brier patch. Brer rabbit waved as first the quick brown fox, then the lazy dog, sped through his brier path. The briers slowed the quick brown fox, but the lazy dog continued.

Past the brier patch, the quick brown fox ran up the hill. At the top of the hill was a well that had recently been abandoned by Jack and Jill. With nowhere else to go, the quick brown fox stopped and turned to face the lazy dog. He bared his teeth at the lazy dog, hoping that it would turn him away.

The lazy dog stopped, panting from the long chase. He paused to catch his breath, watching the quick brown fox the entire time. Finally, the lazy dog said, "Why did you jump over me?"

From the Left Coast of North Carolina, to the Right, our state abounds in talent, fortuna et lux.

And speaking of which, Science and Politics' Bora Zivkovic, inches from his PhD, graces us with his ample and protean mind, week after week, and for this occasion has explained the differences between left and right...when it comes to science, pseudoscience, borderlands science, and nonsense.

About the pseudosciences he says:

Lefty pseudoscience was always marginal and marginalized by everyone on both the Left and the Right. No political party has ever pushed for astrology or biorhythms to be used in classrooms or in military planning.
However, attack on science, reason and rationality is the centerpiece of the Right-Wing strategy. The only way they can save their medieval notions about society, economics, religion, science, race, gender equality, etc. from being deposited forever in the trashbin of history is if they systematically brainwash every new generation into dogmatism, uncritical thinking and fearful obedience to their authority. They are in power now - White House, Congress, Supreme Court - and they are ramming anti-science and anti-reality ideas into school (and into media) as hard as they can.

His provocative and entertaining explanation can be read in its entirety here. Read and enjoy each delightful and instructive paragraph. Dull minds think alike. Coturnix is an original.

And for a slightly different take, you may want to snort a sprocket...which is a helluva lot safer than snorting "the powders", or "the vapors", which is just gross. The best thing to snort, though, is air. And the best way to snort air is pranayama...not to be confused with melinama, which is not to be confused with melanoma.

Thhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee thing is this. This is the thing, and the thing, is thusly this. You see.

And thus, you may feel something a bit odd in your whithers today. It could be that you are dreaming of taking droughts of Dramamine (unit of measure: drams), or perhaps possible pensives of Pontius Pilate’s palate, who ponders persimmons.

We are the persimmons. EAT US.

You can rest assured that the way is weirdly wondrous and wends through the jungle. Night thoughts, we can be assured. Assuredly, be.

Thoughts of 1 (2? 3!) hit my cortex. Impaled! It is time for much work, and we have so much to do, and not much time.

Lastly: remember. We are all (in love). In love, we all are.

In love.

Quick! Get this man some Asinine Alliteration Antidote with the anti-Charles Dodgson additive!
— Andrew S. Damick Aug 5, 10:01 AM #
“You don’t see the Shintus come around here, shattering sheetglass in the shithouse, shouting slogans…”

“Oh, don’t you go practicing your alliteration on me!”

Or so says Snort a Sprocket from the smerpological depths.

"Smerpological depths?", you ask. Why not alabandical depths, or antipelargical depths, flosculational depths or miasmic depths?

To answer these questions, we have to turn to our resident sesquipedalian, Melinama at Pratie's Place: a phrontistery (affront history?) where you will learn the meaning of the previous paragraph, as well as much else besides.

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We owe this word to the Roman writer Horace, who wrote in his Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry) [ see also Arse Poetica] : “Proicit ampullas et sesquipedalia verba” (“He throws aside his paint pots and his words that are a foot and a half long”). It comes from Latin sesqui–, one and a half, plus ped, a foot. It was borrowed into English in the seventeenth century and has become a favourite of those writers who like self-referential terms, or are addicted to polysyllabic humour. - Weird Words

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Carolinians, and indeed, Southerners, have long been verbophiliacs, which may alas stem from the predominance of Shakespeare in our cultural heritage, dating back to England, or maybe the interplay of cultures, or it may be what historian David Hackett Fischer called our love of leisure and "killing time".

With that in mind, allow me to share the adventures of Durham's Ron Hudson, who is killing time in Spain and Portugal. Let him share some of his own methods for killing time. You can keep track of his journeys by bookmarking his blog, 2Sides2Ron.

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In this present age of threats to democracy and individual liberty, probably only the scamp and the spirit of the scamp alone will save us from becoming lost as serially numbered units in the masses of disciplined, obedient, regimented and uniformed coolies. The scamp will be the last and most formidable enemy of dictatorships. He will be the champion of human dignity and individual freedom, and will be the last to be conquered. All modern civilization depends entirely upon him.
-Lin Yutang
The Importance of Living 1937

On the other hand...

"War paralyzes your courage and deadens the spirit of true manhood. It degrades and stupefies with the sense that you are not responsible, that 'tis not yours to think and reason why, but to do and die,' like the hundred thousand others doomed like yourself. War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity, brutish callousness, wanton destruction, and irresponsible murder."
—Alexander Berkman

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The Berkman quote just came to me in an email from another honorary Tarheel, who absolutely loves it down here, but lives in Cleveland, just a couple of miles from the base that sent so many to their deaths recently, and about which he says:

I'm sure you heard about the deaths of all those marines who came from my home state. Everyone here is just devastated at the tragic loss of life. I have never seen such an outpouring of grief and sorrow in quite a long time. The battalion headquarters where those marines were stationed is only a couple of miles from where I live. I drive past it every time I go visit my Mother. I think people are now starting to realize how absolutely insane and senseless this war is and who it's truly impacting.

But that's so negative, man! Don't drag me to negativeland. Sharks and Condit are what everyone is talking about now! No wait, that was on 9/10 and the months before. What is it we're talking about now? Oh yeah...shuttle debris and flag burning.

The question then becomes...

When the Media obsesses on junk-food news, are we in for a whacking? On September the 8th, 2001, while walking to a Yes concert at Radio City Music Hall, in, yes, Manhattan, I asked a media person about the obsession with sharks and Condit, to which he responded, "It is a slow news time." My intuition* told me otherwise. That is why I trust my intuition.
And when I need a muffler repair, I trust Maaco. To charge me an arm and a leg.

So why is the media obsessing on trivial, diversionary matters? Don't tell me they are still in cahoots with Daddy Warbucks, and that we are about to be taken to the cleaners yet again.
And wasn't Bush vacationing in Texas during the months before and during 9/11?
Is there a connection between Bush's vacations, a pussilanimous and diversionary Media, and terror?

It is such negativeland, Debbie Downer kind of stuff, that makes people want to watch sports all day and night, with the only reality being reality TV, which should really be labeled "reality-food TV", following Kraft's famous individually wrapped cheese-food ... also a few degrees of separation from reality.

But I digress. I am not a Fascist so I am allowed that luxury. More people should digress. Procrastination can be a virtue. I wish we would have procrastinated on the war. But nooo! Even the War Machine has to show a profit, and the Media has way too much invested in their parent companies. Thank God for blogs!

But I am surely starting to sound cynical. The MSM, mainstream media, corporate media, have great and good people working for them. Some could even become bloggers if they tried! But as Ben Bagdikian points out, and which can be found at Pratie's Place:

"Trying to be a first-rate reporter on the average American newspaper is like trying to play Bach's St. Matthew's Passion on a ukulele." - Bagdikian's Observation

I should talk about religion...

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How 'bout them stupid Baptists!

Naa...better not go there. Hell, Clinton AND Gore were both Southern Baptists! The exemplars! (Not to be confused with the Templars.)


The Templars

Speaking of confusion, who, besides me, is confused by this most appalling of Tarheel Taverns? Can I git a show of hands? OUCH! Not of the face, Reverend!
I know...one hand clapping. Very funny.

Now I realize that there are going to be some fellers who do not agree with my position on war and peace, and might even claim that our illustrious prince of war is to be preferred to the prince of peace, as Pam's House Blend points out, but alas, their numbers are dwindling, largely because of the relationship between time and truth. What is new is rarely good, because if it is good, it is not long new, but long old. I'm long and old, so I know. (Stupid, the word is "tall"!)

Fine! Whatever!

And so it goes in sweet Caroline. Sweetness and light. Delicacy of feeling. Whimsical charm. T'ungjen.

And speaking of T'ungjen, we may as well go over some other Chinese terms, and why not start from the top?

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A DIGRESSION ON 4-LETTER WORD POETRY
Time will tell
your mama that Karl
Rove will fess most
lies that Rush took
into Hell when dope
took that mind away.
Away! Into that cool
blue roof. Away! Help
your mama make soup.
Away!
Some days seem like they came from Hell.

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Better second-hand and first-rate, than first-hand and second-rate

And what better proof of this than a Sunday circumambulation of a good second-hand store...

Let our favorite lenslinger, Stew Pittman, show you how it is done. If you don't know him, he is the premiere video-journalist in the blogosphere, at least as far as I have seen. AND he's right up the street!

Check out his take on second-hand store shopping. He won't dissappoint.

Only a few shoppers noticed the bearded man with the fancy-cam gliding down aisle five. Most just shuffled behind battered shopping carts, staring fixedly at row after row of hand-me-down clothes and second hand doodads. North Carolina’s annual tax-free weekend was only a few hours old, but the feeding frenzy was well underway...

But if that is a little to down-to-earth, you may find solace in Joe Guarino's post on Supreme Court Nominations, Ellen Goodman and the Right to Take Human Life.

Since Justice O'Connor's retirement announcement, Ellen Goodman has been writing often about the issue of Supreme Court nominations and abortion. I have been following her column in the News and Record... - Joe Guarino

JOCULAR CONCLUSION

A scientist and a philosopher were being chased by a hungry lion. The scientist made some quick calculations, he said “it's no good trying to outrun it, its catching up”.
The philosopher kept a little ahead and replied “I am not trying to outrun the lion, I am trying to outrun you !”

A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says: “That's the ugliest baby that I've ever seen. Ugh!” The woman goes to the rear of the bus and sits down, fuming. She says to a man next to her: “The driver just insulted me!”
The man says: “You go right up there and tell him off – go ahead, I'll hold your monkey for you.”

Thanks to all who played and/or enjoyed this little foray into the life of the Tarheel Tavern. It has been a barrel of said monkeys. But looks aren't everything.

Classical Music in Movies and Films - List

Bohemian Opera

"Ever wondered what that music was in a movie?
Opera and classical music is used a lot in this way. Currently I have 1640 movie titles, at least 2350 total entries and 173 composers.

I've added a complete index of ALL 'classical music in movies' on this site, whatever age they are. So search this new list because if the movie you're looking for is not on there it's not here at all :-)
Every movie title is linked and cross referenced to the appropriate place in the detailed lists."

Triangular Blogging in Chapel Hill

DO TRIANGLE OR BE SQUARE

On February 12, 2005, Chapel Hill, North Carolina will be The Nuculus of the Blogosphere.


Chapel Hill, home of the most ancient of public universities, the grandparent to all the rest, by name the University of North Carolina, or what some people call Chapel Hill, Carolina, the Kremlin, the Harvard of Publics, and our dear village idiot has tagged it the UConn of the Yukon -- wrong on all points -- is hosting the next in a series of historical events in which you, dear bloggers, may participate. In attendance will be today's Thomas Paynes, Ben Franklins, Mark Twains, Ed Murrows, Walter Cronkhites, and A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhubpadas. There will also be your Ernest T. Basses, your Goobers and Gomers, as well as your exemplary handygriffins.

Sign up here and learn more about the festivities...

Some of the participants are listed below. Their name is linked to a google search for their name so that participants can learn more about each one. Of course references may also refer to others who share their name, and in some cases, I searched their screen name, as I knew there would be too many references to their real name. It's mostly for my own benefit, but you may find it useful as well...

UPDATED FEB 3 2005

"Lex Alexander" : http://blog.news-record.com/lexblog/
"John Joseph Bachir" - http://blog.johnjosephbachir.org/
"David K. Beckwith" : http://anonymoses.blogspot.com
"Silflay Hraka (!) " : http://silflayhraka.com/
"Jean Bolduc" : http://jeanbolduc.blogspot.com
"Frank Boosman" : http://www.boosman.com/blog
"Leslie Boyle" : http://warmchocolatemusic.blogspot.com/
"Badi E. Bradley" : http://capriciouspeacock.blogs.com/
"W Jeff Brown" - http://www.allheadlinenews.com/
"Steve Burnett" : http://badger.livejournal.com/
"Craig Caskie" :
"Janet Chui" : http://www.livejournal.com/users/marrael
"Rafe Coburn" : http://rc3.org
"Catherine Collingwood" : http://www.cathcoll.net
"Ed Cone" : http://edcone.com
"Henry Copeland" : http://www.blogads.com/weblog
"Jay Cuthrell" : http://fudge.org/
"Didier Deshommes" : http://aida.homelinux.net/wordpress/
"Bret Dougherty" : http://www.unc.edu/~bretd/
"The Debra" : http://reasonandradical.blogspot.com/
"Patrick Eakes" : http://www.patrickeakes.blogspot.com/
"George Entenman" : http://entenman.net/
"John Ettorre" : http://www.workingwithwords.blogspot.com/
"Herb Everett" : http://www.ramblinprose.com/
"Susan Eversole" : http://www.livejournal.com/users/sfevers/
"David Feld" : http://www.epicquest.com/pi/
"Fred Fenimore" : http://fredsspot.blogspot.com/
"Stephen Fraser" : http://www.salutor.com/
"Jeff Giddens" : http://segatech.blogspot.com/
"Dan Gillmor" : http://dangillmor.typepad.com/
"Mike Graves" : http://meekmok.com/robogoth/
"Sally Greene" : http://greenespace.blogspot.com/
"Herb of Ramblin' Prose" : http://ramblinprose.blogdns.com/
"Andy Hill" : http://www.panix.com/~ah/portfolio.html
"David Hoggard" : http://www.hoggsblog.com/
"John Hood" : http://www.johnlocke.org/lockerroom/
"B. Adam Howell" : http://www.benjaminadam.com
"Ben Hwang" : http://life.firelace.com/
"Virginia Ingram" : http://www.virginiaingram.com/dontreadthis/
"Brad Jasper" : http://www.blogcatalog.com
"Dave Johnson" : http://mistersugar.com/tamtam/blogtogether/show/DaveJohnson
"Jeannette Johnson" : http://home.earthlink.net/~so_anyway/
"Paul Jones" : http://www.ibiblio.org/pjones/blog/
"Tim King" : http://www.tvjunior.com/blog/
"Derek Lane" : http://www.livejournal.com/users/dereklane/
"Robert Littlejohn" : http://thephiloblogger.blogspot.com/
"Maximilian Longley" : http://www.livejournal.com/users/lilburne/
"Jason Erik Lundberg" : http://www.journalscape.com/jlundberg
"Ben MacNeill" : http://trixieupdate.com/
"Karen A. Mann" : http://www.mannsworld.blogspot.com/
"David Matusiak" : http://ibiblio.org/matusiak/
"Lance McCord" : http://mccord.ourmemorybox.com
"Fiona Morgan" : http://fionamorgan.blogspot.com/
"Jason Morningstar" : http://www.meekmok.com/sassy
"Eric Muller" : http://www.isthatlegal.org/
"Mary Nations" : http://www.exploringedges.com
"Jayson Ovittore" : http://jovittore.blogspot.com
"Tony Patterson" : http://home.earthlink.net/~half-lifeblog/
"H.L. Person" : http://hlperson.com/
"Alvin Phillips" : http://alvinphillips.com/
"Stewart Pittman" : http://lenslinger.blogspot.com
"Sue Polinsky" : http://www.livejournal.com/users/southernrants/
"Jeffrey Pomerantz" : http://www.ibiblio.org/pomerantz/blog/
"Robert Reddick" : http://mocklive.com/
Corey Reece
"Cathy Resmer" : http://cresmer.blogspot.com/
"James E. Robinson, III" : http://www.robinsonhouse.com/
"John Robinson" : http://blog.news-record.com/jrblog/
"Sam Ruby" : http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/
"Brian Russell" : http://www.audioactivism.org/
"Laura Seel" : http://chewok.blogspot.com
"Steve Segedy" : http://www.meekmok.com/muaddib
"Ruby Sinreich" : http://orangepolitics.org/
"Roch Smith, Jr." : http://www.greensboro101.com/
"Terry Smith" : http://www.bloglines.com/blog/TerrySmith
"Josh Staiger" : http://www.joshstaiger.org/
"Christian Stalberg" :
"Fred Stutzman" : http://chimprawk.blogspot.com
"TheShu" : http://www.greensboroistalking.com
"Mark Tosczak" : http://ncblogs.com/
"jw" : http://www.howdoyoulikeme.blogspot.com/
"Ken Waight" : http://www.lyinginponds.com/
"David Warlick" : http://davidwarlick.com/blog/
"Justin Watt" : http://justinsomnia.org/
"Todd Wilkens" : http://moresmarter.net
"Dave Winer" : http://archive.scripting.com
"Andy Wismar" : http://andywismar.com/themiddle/
"Rob Zelt" : http://www.robzelt.com/blog/
"Evan Zimmerman" : http://ncblogs.com/
"Tom Zito" : http://www.meekmok.com/mr_ed
"Bora Zivkovic" : http://sciencepolitics.blogspot.com
"Anton Zuiker" : http://mistersugar.com

Hi there!

"Hurry up! Rush is Jonesing!"

The League of Liberals blog has been added to the weblog of Anonymoses: Uncle of All Blogs

Avuncularity soon to be considered

In a bold move on Sunday, beloved blogographer, Anonymoses -- reputed to be the so-called "Uncle of All Blogs" -- linked the fine folks at the League up to his Internet home page on the World Wide Web...which is fast becoming the lastest thing to hit the bloody Red States since individually-wrapped cheesefood...an apt metaphor for those territories that don't comprise the headland, generously called the heartland, although we all know it is the anusland. We do, of course, exclude the thousands of points of light who have wherewithal sufficient to serve their apotropaic interests, and ours.

The Selection of Bush was a bomb at the end of Clinton's bridge to the 21st century, we had safely crossed...only to fall into a booby-trapped ravine set by Bush's cadre of Men Who Hate Peace. Wouldn't be prudent. Dut'n pay! And now we find ourselves corncootered to death by twangs of nucular greed, and the world and earth MOABed to the point where no life could grow if it wanted to. Consider how Jefferson gridded our ecosystem to death, unwittingly, and contributed to our own dustbowl, our own Iraqification. Gaia will definitely NOT be voting for Bush or Cheney...or any other member of the Greed-Oil-Pollution Party. (Or was that the Groping-Oxycontin-Phatrobertson party?)

At any rate, we are the big tent; the Great Raft. Mahafreakingyana! As such we would do well to be not only Liberals, Progressives, and Independents...we need to marginalize that which is already, de facto, marginalized. Tell them your uncle made you do it. Tell them we are non-conservatives, but better yet, tell them we are pro-humanity. We college grads understand the interdependency of all life, and are not narrow in our biophilia, like the so-called "pro-lifers". Too bad they stole the domain name...

As President Clinton said in his most recent, a must-read-and-study address...we need to remain happy. We are always truthful, but sometimes our anger poisons the message. Ann Magnussen, while fronting Bongwater, put it well: "When you start thinking like that, you start thinking like they do...it's time to let go of the material world."

City of Uruk
City of Uruk

"URUK. (Iraq) Situated 250 km south of Baghdad, on an ancient branch of the Euphrates River in Iraq, known in the Bible as Erech (now Warka, Iraq). Uruk, founded about 3500BC, became the first major city in Sumer. Gilgamesh built the walls of the city Uruk, and the Eanna (house of An) temple complex there, dedicated to Ishtar (goddess of love, procreation, and war). Excavations by German archaeologists from 1912 onwards have revealed a series of very important structures and deposits of the 4th millennium BC and the site has given its name to the period that suceeeded the UBAID and prceeded the JEMDET NASR period.
The Uruk period saw the emergence of urban life in MESOPOTAMIA and led to the full civilization of the EARLY DYNASTIC period. It is not always fully realized how unique the site of Uruk was at this time: it was by far the largest settlement, with the most impressive buildings and with the earliest evidence of writing. It would be true to say that Uruk was Meso- potamia's - and the world's - first city. It seems to have started as two separate settlements, Kullaba and Eanna, which coalesced in the Uruk period to form a town covering 80 hectares; at the height of its development in the Early Dynastic period, the city walls were 9.5 km long, enclosing a massive 450 hectares, and may have housed some 50,000 people. In the heart of the city are two large temple complexes: the Anu sanctuary, belonging originally to Kullaba, and the Eanna sanctuary, dedicated to Inanna. the goddess of love. Both these complexes have revealed several successive temple-structures of the Uruk period, including the White Temple in the Anu sanctuary and the Limestone and Pillar Temples in the Eanna sanctuary. A characteristic form of decoration involves the use of clay cones with painted tops pressed into the mud plaster facing the buildings - a tcchnique known as clay cone mosaic.
On the northwest side of the Eanna sanctuary is a ZIGGURAT (an ancient Mesopotamian temple tower consisting of a lofty pyramidal structure built in successive stages with outside staircases and a shrine at the top, where the priests ruled from) laid out by Ur-Nammu of UR in the Ur III period (late 3rd millennium BC). Evidence from the deep trench excavated in the Eanna sanctuary has cast much light on the developments of the Uruk period. The most important of these was undoubtedly the development of writing. The earliest CLAY TABLETS appear in late Uruk levels; they are simple labels and lists with pictographic symbols. Tablets from slightly later levels of the Jemdet Nasr phase, show further evelorpments towards the CUNEIFORM script of the Early Dynastic period.
The city remained important throughout the 3rd millennium BC, but declined in importance during the later part of that period . It remained in occupation throughout the following two millennia, down to the PARTHIAN period, but only as a minor centre. Uruk was the home of the epic hero GILGAMESH, now thought to be a real king of the city's first dynasty, and Uruk played an important role in the mythology of the Mesopotamian civilizations to the end. "

http://home.achilles.net/~sal/iraq_history.html

http://www.piney.com/EriduGen.html

The Eridu Genesis
The following excerpt is taken from "The Harps That Once...: Sumerian Poetry in Translation" by Thorkild Jacobsen. Yale University Press, Publishers; Copyright 1987. It is related here for educational purposes only.


The Creation of the Gods

The "earth" in Genesis is not the globe. Rather, Genesis speaks of God using pillars (buckling of the land) to raise the earth or fruitful place up between the liquid waters and the waters in the atmosphere. This fruitful place or earth created a place where animal and plant life could exist. If man can evolve from matter, then the ancient mind would say that the gods can also evolve. And in the ancient literature they do, based upon the "survival of the fitest."

The Eridu Genesis is a Sumerian text. It covers the creation of the world, invention of cities and the flood. After the universe was created out of the chaos of the sea, the gods evolved and they in turn created mankind to farm, herd and worship them. Cities and kingship was created but the gods decided to destroy mankind with a flood. Ziusudra (Upnapishtim) from Eridu was instructed by Enki (Ea) to build a boat to survive the flood blown up by Enlil. After the flood he worshipped (prostrated) himself before An (Anu) and Enlil (Bel) and was given immortality for his godly life.


http://emuseum.mnsu.edu/archaeology/sites/middle_east/eridu.html

Eridu
I chose the archeological site Eridu, now known as modern Abu Shah Rain. Eridu is 196 miles southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. It was the earliest known city of Sumer (Southern Mesopotamia).There are also an important group of temples in Eridu (Britannica, 1999)

Eridu is also known for the patron god Eriki (EA), "god of the sweet waters that flow under the earth" (Britannica). Eriki's waters were essential to the fishing and irrigation. Eridu's inhabitants had a agricultural based economy. Some claim that in ancient times the city may have been linked to the sea by waterways (McDonald, 98).

Eridu was located by the mound called Abu Shayhrayan. This was one of the most important prehistoric urban centers in southern Babylonia. It was built on sand dunes probably in the fifth millennium B.C. It completely showed the sequence of the pre-literate Ubaid civilization. Eridu had a long succession of super imposed temples portraying the growth and development of intricate mud brick architecture (Britannica, 1999).

The earliest village settlement (circa 5000 B.C.) had grown into a substantial mass of mud brick and reed houses by (circa) 2900 B.C., covering the city. Eighteen super imposed mud brick temples at the site underlie the unfinished Ziggurat of Amar-Sin (circa 2047-2039 B.C.) (McDonald, 1998).

The apparent continuity of occupation and religious observance at Eridu provide convincing evidence for the (indigenous origin of Sumerian civilization. The site was excavated between 1946 and 1949 by the Iraq Antiquities Department (McDonald The city continued to be occupied until 600 B.C. but was less important in historic periods.


Some links related to the notion that Iraq is significant because of its connecion with Annunaki, Eridu, etc.
http://www.cyberspaceorbit.com/eridu.html
http://www.megspace.com/science/earthgrid/extra/esiraq.htm
http://www.geocities.com/adilbookz/palgal.html
http://www.nii.net/~obie3/000illum/history.htm