Bill's Notes

Bill Whittle has a brilliant and outstanding essay that cuts to the heart of the matter.

He posts a picture of the Twin Towers in flames and says this:

And all of this rage and fury and spitting and tearing up of signs, all of these insults and spinmeisters and forgeries and all the rest, seem to come down to the fact that about half the country thinks you deter this sort of thing by being nice, while the other half thinks you deter this by being mean.

Bill makes me feel a bit ashamed for my harsh criticism of President Bush's inarticulation. No matter how we look at it, President Bush is the only choice. Yeah, I'd like him to be more articulate. He's not. But I trust President Bush and his executive team to hunt down terrorists. I trust John Kerry to do whatever the conventional liberal wisdom believe is the right plan of action, whether or not it works.

I'll add one comment, then urge folks to head over there: I'm starting to hear some people talk about Sept. 11 as a "one time thing". The word for this kind of thinking: denial.

One side's in denial and the other side wants to do the hard work of defending civilization. The choice is clear. But let's hope even if our opponents win that we never find out just how wrong they are.

John Edwards always reminds me of the kind of actors cast as villains. I mean, you know by the third act it'll turn out he's sold his soul for Satan and secretly funds the KKK, all while seeming an innocent and sweet guy.

I'm not saying he is. That's just what he reminds me of.

Cheney, on the other hand, is an actual grown-up, possibly the only one of the four candidates to qualify for that title. He did a good job defending himself from Edwards' various rhetorical tricks, manipulations and machinations ... but to give the devil his due, Edwards didn't come off as a light-weight. He came across as a manipulative lawyer and a bullshit artist.

Unfortunately, sometimes Edwards was right and Cheney didn't do a good job answering legitimate criticisms. Edge to Cheney, but Edwards didn't make any major screwups, either.

Left a job on Friday. Started a new job yesterday. I'm shaking off the cobwebs in the new job, but so far, so good.

I guess I'll miss the old place, too. It grew on me and it was a good place to work. A couple of things impressed me. One was there were lots of good-hearted folks, and even those who were a little prickly seemed fundamentally decent at heart. Second was the work ethic — they were hard workers who didn't need a lot of supervision. Third was they were completing a difficult transition, and succeeding in it, without making a big outward show of things. I liked all that.

But in the end I really preferred a slightly different line of work, and was fortunate enough to get the position I wanted. So it's onward and upward, as a former boss used to say.

I dislike John Kerry more as a result of the debate. But that's because despite his presence and articulation, I still find the substance of his ideas wanting and his style of speech manipulative. Kerry seemed more presidential -- but pretty much the kind of president I don't want.

I prefer Bush's ideas and judgments, but he lacks any kind of serious executive presence. He's not Fortune 5000 material, much less presidential material. The Republicans screwed up by nominating this guy. Now they're [we're]stuck with him.

Kerry kicked his ass in the debate. Not even close. Bush sounded like a defensive and somewhat petulant child. Too bad. Now it looks like we'll have a presidential race. Shit. I was hoping for a blowout. Bush never should've debated this guy.

But hey, if you can't handle a debate with your opponent, perhaps you don't belong in the White House.

FWIW.

yack yack yack. problem with writing so much and reading so much is sometimes you just get sick of words. words, words, words. words. words, words, words. sentences. sentences and paragraphs. paragraphs and stories, and kickers and subheads and pull quotes and of course headlines, big screaming headlines demanding READ ME MOTHER F***ER OR YOU WILL SUFFER A SUDDEN, PAINFUL FIERY DEATH. you know, rhetoric. metaphor. analogy. synecdoche. a friend who thinks dodecahedron is a fun word to drop into conversation. metonymy. zeugma. parallelism. zeno's paradox. dialectical materialism. that sort of thing. words. language. yackety yack.

sometimes i think it would've been nice to have been a plumber. or a carpenter. or a stone mason. something where i could've just fixed something tangible and not have to say a whole lot. or an eastern [orthodox] monk.

you breathe in, you breathe out ... chant your mantra, then listen for it back, follow it down, witness/don't judge, and then wait for your consciousness to drop. see ya at the third chakra, amigos.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Open and just hold the lantern in the doorway,
For the freedom of it.
And you take the night air through your nostrils and you breathe
In out, in out
And you breathe just like that, just like that

How does it get you when it gets you
When it gets ya
You may not know it's got you until you turn around
And I'll point a finger at you, point a finger at you
You say which way, which way
That's alright, we've gotten hip to it
Goin' to do it right now.
Behind you
Beside you, beside you

Oh child to never wonder why
To never, never, never, never wonder why at all
Never never never never wonder why at all.