I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allen Poe

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- H. L. Mencken

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
-Bertrand Russell

What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
-James Branch Cabell

October 29, 2015 - 12:31 p.m.

If I Were King of the Jungle or Maybe President

I slept late today so I'm starting this quite a bit after I should have finished it. I won't let that get to me the rest did me good. I'm finished with the antibiotic and the leg is so much better. I woke up to find it bent at 50° I couldn't have done that yesterday. There's still a lump there. I will keep it bandaged and use the topical antibiotic till that's gone. OK now my leg hurts. Thanks for making me push it.

I was feeling better yesterday and could stay awake but I thought it best to stay in especially as it was raining all day. That might be why I'm improved today. I made eye round steak for dinner. It was tiny and not a great cut of meat but I have learned how to make it taste great and it did. I used to make it Cajun style, now I put on butter, garlic, and steak seasoning.

Then I sat down and watched the entire Met game. That did not go well, deGrom did not have it. So now the Mets are down 2-0. Of course they were down 2-0 in 1986 and came back to win. These Mets are not as good as those Mets but the Royals are not as good as those Red Sox. Because I have not been able to watch all year I've felt distant from the Mets. As soon as I saw them the passion came back in full. They are my team.

Last night was the Republican Debate, I had no interest in watching. It's not like I don't know where they stand. Debates are no informative, they are theater. I am not going to be supporting any of those guys in any event. I won't even watch the Democratic debate, I'll vote for Hillary in the primary and if lightning strikes and Bernie wins I'll happily vote for him in the general election.

Hillary disappointed me the other day, she was on Colbert and got a huge applause for saying that she would not bail out the big banks if we had a 2007 type crisis. Of course she would. Saying you won't is catering to people's emotions not their reason. It was bail them out or have a full on 1929 style depression. It's so odd that many on the let are with the Tea Partiers on this one. The Tea Party was founded on revolt against the bank bailouts. They want people punished! They didn't want to think what would happen to the economy if it weren't done. Could it have been done better? Yes but it had to be done fast and a then Democratic congress had to agree with a Republican president. Compromises were in order. Now I've forgiven Bernie for voting against the bailout on the theory that he knew it would pass so he could afford to vote against it to protest that it should have been better. This is something Krugman wrote a lot about, whoever was president had to do it or face economic collapse. Even Bush was reasonable enough to go along with that logic.

So yes I don't like the rhetoric of either of the two candidates I enthusiastically support. I am betting that faced with the real decision they'd do what's right not the emotionally pleasing response.

This fits in with what I was thinking about Syria. That's one on of the worst disasters going on now. There is so much pain and suffering. Do I know what's best to do? No. Neither do the candidates. They can't. Even with accurate intelligence there would be no obvious solutions. But that's a big if and the candidates don't have access to the same intelligence they would as president. I don't want a president that would do what he said when he or she was running. I want a president that would use the resources he or she has as commander and chief to figure out what's best. So what I want to hear is the approach the candidates would take not the specifics. If someone pledges to set up a no-fly zone then discovers that there's no practical way of doing so he or she should not be afraid of saying, "Sorry there's just no way of making it work." If someone comes in vowing to not get militarily involved then discovers that something can be done to save people from the Islamic State and Assad he or she should not be afraid to say, "I discovered we had a real chance to save lives, we can't stand by and let innocent people suffer." It's not about being consistent it's about doing what's right based on the best evidence you have at the time and realizing that that can change.

I've been meaning to write about that for a while. Syria has been on my mind a lot. There might not be any good choices but as Buffy said, "you always have a choice." If it's picking the least bad that's what you have to do. Doing nothing is a choice too.

OK now I'm going to eat. It's a poached eggs sort of day. Do I have any plans for tonight? I don’t. I'd love to see Tammy Faye Starlite in Cabaret Marianne but it's too expensive a night as I've seen it already. That's Tammy Faye channeling Marianne Faithful. It's so good. It's not a tribute show, it's a performance piece. Tammy is an actor portraying a singer. She is also a writer and makes it funny and entertaining.

I will leave you with some music. The song is by Darlingside and the music by Andrew Benincasa. You might know the name as I've written about him before. He is a friend of Jean Rohe and did the artwork for her Christmas Shows. That's how I met him. I love that people I know from totally different places collaborated. The word is interconnected in ways we don't imagine


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please hold me accountable.





Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018



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Horvendile October 29, 2015
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