Holiday Gift Idea: The Hunting of the Blog Snark by Henry Gordon Fletcher

The collected blog posts of Screwy Hoolie, member of the group blog, Scrutiny Hooligans

"Nonsense on Stilts" : Bedau on Bentham, the UN charter, and its French predecessor 200 years ago.

Hurricane Hugo's lashing winds...

Rupert Sir Richard Branson takes on Rupert Murdoch

Sir Richard Branson

Sir Richard Branson is taking dead aim at Murdoch's media empire by creating a giant television, internet and telephone company.
According to the London Telegraph, Branson plans to merge his company, Virgin Mobile, with media service provider NTL in a $7.5 billion deal.
This would make Branson one of the most powerful figures in television and threaten Sky TV, part-owned by Murdoch's News Corp. It also will position Branson for future media deals.

When I see the race riots in Australia, my first thought went to Australia's own Dark Citizen, Rupert Murdoch. With his media empire, he has helped fan the flames of war and hatred, and now it is spreading onto the streets of his homeland. And to think, he was only trying to make a buck.


Fortunately for Sir Branson, the truth need not be repeated ad nauseam in order to be digested. As the bathetically adolescent Mr. Limbaugh is fond of saying: "If you repeat it often enough, people will believe you." And his echolalia knows no bounds. May Sir Richard not be so mind-deadeningly repetitive. May he inherit the riches who are the real and boundless treasure chests.

We need good, exemplary guides, not paid apologists and spin doctors.

out in
spout spin
spin is out
spin is out

He's not even trying to hide it anymore

You can quit wondering how Bush really thinks about the people dying for his bullshit war. It's becoming obvious.

Dead heroes are supposed to come home with their coffins draped with the American flag -- greeted by a color guard.

But in reality, many are arriving as freight on commercial airliners -- stuffed in the belly of a plane with suitcases and other cargo.

via Nitpicker
"You know, this war is so fucking illegal." - SPC Pat Tillman

(Thanks to Rah Bourbon)

Schwarzenegger Denies Clemency for Williams

Arnold shows no mercy. More blood will be spilt. The cycle goes on...

Tarheel Tavern: Peace Futures

Dedicated to honorary Tarheel, Jude Nagurney Camwell, the blogosphere's Iddybud, who lost her dear Mother this week, and to Ron Hudson, who, on Monday, will celebrate, along with many of us, twenty years of life, following his being told that he had tested positive for HIV. We celebrate his life, and the life completed by Jude's mom.



Art by JaWW unless otherwise indicated. Most thumbnails are clickable to the original size.

Just as when weaving

One reaches the end

With fine threads woven throughout,

So is the life of humans.

-Buddha

---

Omnipresence Abnegates Attribute


Magen's Bay

"Around 11 a.m., I’d take a communal taxi to the north side of the island and the most beautiful beach in the world, Magen’s Bay. For the next six hours, I’d swim, sleep, sip Cokes, watch for bikinis and pelicans, and read from the two-volume collected stories of Sherlock Holmes. I savored every story in those books..." - Anton Zuiker as Mister Sugar

"That money was collected from gas & vehicle taxes, but was NOT used for roads. And more of that money is being used to build "light rail". . . "

Steven Burr at Nothing Could be Finer may be retooling his position, as he has come down with the Cackatida, or some variant thereof, granting him time to consider the wacky names families create to describe polysyllabic greek terminology and that which has been doctated.


The Cackatidae

My Uncle Howard would have said I had "The Cackatida". Don't ask me what it means, and don't try goggling it either, cause I've already tried that. It was his general name for pretty much every illiness under the sun. He was a character all right. (Of course, he was also known to carry around old sticks of dynamite in the glove compartment of his rattletrap truck, and to chase around my cousins and whack them with a fly-swatter, but those story's are for another time.) My parents would say I had the "Epizudic" or the "Creeping Crud". Well, I do feel pretty cruddy, right now.


The Epizudic
So, what funny names for ailments has your family come up with over the years. Post a comment; laughter is the best medicine, don'tcha know.


"He’ll kick them with his bony hoofs
or stick them with a horn.

They say that he won’t let them leave
and they have all been warned. "




Yesterday's Asheville Citizen Times: "U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor will receive the Golden Galaxy Award...




He's up to 7lbs 3.8ozs. He's a hoss, eating like crazy, and gaining like crazy.
He's awake more and more, and seriously alert when he's awake.
He hates diaper changes, blood pressure checks, and having his temperature taken.
He may be the biggest baby in the NICU, but those are still tiny tiny little fingernails.
What the Hell is it??



Dinner at Pratie Place
Dinner at Pratie Place includes the discussion on musical religious indoctrination, and insights such as "If you are a Christian perhaps you don't realize how galling it can be to have somebody else's religious or cultural music stuffed into your ears for a month" and "To use such music as a bludgeon for the diversity of students we have in taxpayer funded activities is a travesty and a perversion of all the ideals it purports to convey" and "There's a difference between being exposed to different religious and cultural traditions from your own and being compelled to participate in activities that reify them."

I particularly like this one: "It's not just the CONCERT ITSELF that's the problem - it's having to rehearse Christmas songs for a month or more preceding. Really, if you're Christian maybe this puts you into a state of happy anticipation for your holiday, but if you're not, it just prolongs the torment of being in the midst of somebody else's mishigas."

It has opened my eyes to the problem. There is no such thing as one culture, on this land, for all time.


Now go eat your soup!



Asheville, Enlightening
The Redshirts are coming! The Redshirts are coming! And the lights shine more brightly in the high country.



Healthcare Vortex
"Promoting optimum health for all children is a complex undertaking that is complicated by an adult society caught in the spiral of unhealthy lifestyle pulling the children with them into the vortex." (Fixing Healthcare)


Motivation is the ignition for a biological machine.



Hubble photo of Bora Circumnebulix
Bora! Bora! Bora! Ni hui shuo zhongwen ma?

The Coturnix Sweater is now available for viewing. Does your blog match your clothes?



Winter Comes to Carolina
Weather Wins, and we are gifted with many beautiful shots of its magic, from the lens of Colonel Corn's Camera.


Photo by Colonel Corn


Photo by Colonel Corn


Photo by Colonel Corn


Everyone dies, but no one is dead. - Tibetan Saying

I''ll be hosting this week's Tarheel Tavern

I'm thinking about making this week's Tavern..."The Cross-posted Edition". By this I mean that I hope to cross-post it at other venues, such as Blogcritics, Daily Kos, American Street, or other such places as would draw yet more eyeballs to each participant. And being a kindly old soul, I would like to extend my generosity by saying that you can write pretty much what you damn well please, and I will sift through and pick out what I need for my little scheme.

If there is something you would particularly want me to use, either mark it as such, or write to me at baruchthescribe at yahoo dot com whereupon I might light upon your suggestion with greater felicity and huffman. Sooner is better.

Jane at Pratie Place has already jumped in, with a piece called:
Christmas in the schools: music educators weigh in

She plays the role of "J.P.", and does a splendid job of it too. I want to invite you to participate in her discussion, which really should be our discussion, and so I am going to suggest that you weigh in. Comments are blogs, according to some, and so I may use your comment as your submission on The Tavern, and link it back to your homeblogsitethingimapoo, as the Germans say. You may also post a comment here, and alert me to the bostpost you would like for me to use.

As a Liberal Christian, or liberal christian, or progressive TAOIST, or practicefailing bUdDhIsT, or Presbyunitarian, or sufijudaistical mystic, or whateverrrr, one, which is to say I, agree with her on the subtle and blatant atavism that we bring forward, to a changed world, a changed demographic, and expect the people to adapt to the products, rather than have the products adapt to the people. I mean...who is boss here?

And while some may incorrectly guess "God", the real answer is that the onus rests on the slumponixonian shoulders of Mammon, and his gathering. Not a smattering, but a splattering hath this throwback foisted forth upon "we, the future", who should have known better, but who, in the meantime, are too busy rifling through carseats for change, as it is nowhere else to be found in our stay the course parade off lemming heathcliff. I mean Montgomery Clift. Mount Gomer.
(Pinterian pause)


As so it was that the Tarheel Tavern hath stepped proudly forth into this new realm beyond the yesterday, where songs needn't words, not words salads, nor salads breads, nor breads spoons, nor spoons nightmares, nor nightmares daze. These things I quoff into my hank gurdjieff, eternal footman, and butling, mathatma choate, all to lay before you, the treasures we all share, lest we not be here at all. As we are scarce as the breeze which cloaks all in her brief chancely dance, gasped as eternal. Fickle fackel tea.

So go. Rrrrrrrrrrrite!

Harold Pinter's Nobel Acceptance Speech

The playwright says what journalists dare not.
No wonder he gets to win a Nobel Prize.
Perhaps journalists should take a lead from his example.

Thanks to Michael Hawkins at Spontaneous Arising for the link, and this excellent blog post.

Tibetan Prayer Wheel

Tibetan Prayer Wheel

via the great Coffee House Studio

Loserman tapped to Win War on Terror

Liebestrom


I have heard some pretty crazy things before, but this one really takes the cake. Is it that they want Democrats to take the blame and heat when we pull out of Iraq? And how will all the folks who only know Joe as "Loserman" react to his being put in charge of winning a war?

Sure Joe has droopy skin and always sounds like he is constipated, but is that any reason to use him as Rummy's replacement? Why not find someone who is not droopy and constipative for a change? Staying the course again?

Joe dreams of being a Republican, so why not just let him become a citizen Republican, and not a high-powered Republican? Is that too hard? There are enough right-wingers already. No need to add another.

Now Wes Clark is another story. He could actually get the job done. Not be another Michael Brown. Let Wes have the job. Better yet, let him have Bush's job. Then get someone who would be great on the domestic front to take over Cheney's job. Like John Edwards. So many improvements available to us. Why wait for a vote?

Please tell me this whole thing about Lieberman is just a cruel joke. Things are bad enough already.

A soft goodbye

"When the light begins to fade,
And shadows fall across the sea,
One bright star in the evening sky,
Your love’s light leads me on my way.

There’s a dream that will not sleep,
A burning hope that will not die,
So I must go now with the wind,
And leave you waiting on the tide.

Time to fly, time to touch the sky.
One voice alone - a haunting cry.
One song, one star burning bright,
Let it carry me through darkest night.

Rain comes over the grey hills,
And on the air, a soft goodbye.
Hear the song that I sing to you,
When the time has come to fly.

When I leave and take the wing,
And find the land that fate will bring,
The brightest star in the evening sky,
Is your love waiting far for me."
- Celtic Woman

For Jude, who needs our hearts now.

The EContent 100

EContentMag.com
A "list of companies that matter most in the digital content industry."

Blogs at Charlotte.com (Charlotte Observer)

Check out the blogs at the Charlotte Observer

And I thought blogs were bad things!

Running Mate - Richard Rubin on Local Politics
Inside the Panthers - Pat Yasinskas
Marathon Woman - Deirdre McGruder
Stork-Raving Mad - Tracy Curtis on being 40 and preggies
Inside the NBA - Rick Bonnell
Girl About Town - Emily A. Benton on Entertainment and Young Life
From the Hip - Crystal Dempsey on fashion, beauty and trends

The Art and talent of Arroe Collins

Arroe Collins

Arroe Collins is all over the map, and his talent demands it. A 26 year veteran of radio, Arroe's work has made its way onto the Bob & Sheri Radio Show, helping them earn six Marconi nominations. He was 1/3 of the nationally syndicated Pam Stone Show, helping her earn two Gracie Allan Awards. Twice he was voted Jefferson Pilot employee of the year, and was nominated to replace Casey Kasum on American Top 40.

More on this multi-talented Renaissance Man can be found at the Carolina Art Blog.

Never Compete

The Art of Worldly Wisdom

114. Never compete. Every competition damages your reputation. Our rivals seize occasion to obscure us so as to outshine us. Few wage honorable war. Rivalry discloses faults that courtesy would hide. Many have lived in good repute while they had no rivals. The heat of conflict revives and gives new life to dead scandals, digging up long-buried skeletons. Competition begins with belittling, and seeks aid anywhere it can, not only where it should. And when the weapons of abuse do not effect their purpose, as often or mostly happens, our opponents seek revenge and use them at least for beating away the dust of oblivion from anything that is our discredit. People of goodwill are always at peace, and those of good reputation and dignity are of goodwill. - Balthasar Gracian

Judge Roy Moore: The "Ayatollah Of Alabama"

The Charlotte Capitalist on the guy who ain't too keen on people, but who is running to govern Alabamie anyway.

Dave Brubeck: Take 85...right into Charlotte!

One of my favorite Dave Bs, Dave Brubeck, turns 85 today, and I, for one, am going to celebrate by pulling out "Time Out" and giving it a thorough ear. Dave is one of America's great treasures, and I would urge anyone who hasn't heard him to run out pick up "Time Out".
Total classic, and a great way to learn time signatures and strange rhythms.


Dave on Wikipedia
"Blue Rondo A La Turk" is a play on Mozart's "Rondo alla Turca", and the 9/8 metre of traditional Turkish music, the country in which the band was touring when the tune was written.

Jack Klugman's blog: Tony And Me

Tony And Me honors Jack's friendship with the late Tony Randall. Includes interviews.

(Thanks to Toby Bloomberg over at Diva Marketing for this find.)

Big Pharma's Shameful Secret

Bloomberg on this new chapter in the Serpent's Egg.

Square Yon Virgin

What if the Jesus family had been uncool?

Most people will agree that Jesus had a pretty hip family. I mean, they were pretty liberal and progressive for their time, and even somewhat mystical. They burned incense, healed people, peregrinated around in sandals and talked about philosophical matters. They never bothered with trying to fit into any so-called "mainstream". They must have known that great minds and hearts; great men and women are never nourished this way. They were not squares. But what if they had been? What if Mary were a square yon virgin?

All theories and nostrums will be considered...