Bill's Notes

Lucius: [Bob and Lucius are sitting in a parked car, reminiscing] So now I'm in deep trouble. I mean, one more jolt of this death ray and I'm an epitaph. Somehow I manage to find cover and what does Baron von Ruthless do?
Bob: [laughing] He starts monologuing.
Lucius: He starts monologuing! He starts like, this prepared speech about how *feeble* I am compared to him, how *inevitable* my defeat is, how *the world* *will soon* *be his*, yadda yadda yadda.
Bob: Yammering.
Lucius: Yammering! I mean, the guy has me on a platter and he won't shut up!

You know that song by Toby Keith with the chorus:

I ain't as good as I once was,
But I'm as good, once, as I ever was.

I really liked the song. Once.

Now I can't stand it.

Oh, looky here.

I quote:

This is the zephylax that Brutus Boriston spleedylunk you don’t barkatthemoon. This zoomonoid would not have been neebleflexed at Zoomie Zoom Zoom II. Copperly, it has the visayana to move bonnies, marimbaneering more biggles to grokking the grok of grokster, and at the bingbangboomerang, brooking of each romouring. Sadly, this zoomonoid will likely be cowenixed or zebelinked by the sporkers that need to wallawallawisinferry it most: the bacon-and-cheese omelettes and the antibens.

Yup. That's what she said sounded like to me.

Hat Tip: Dean.

Peace Corps Gabon has shut down, allegedly because of the cost (Libreville, the capital, is one of the most expensive cities in the world.) But apparently there has been some violence in the southern part of the country.

The official press release is here.

Allons-nous revenir?

On verra.

Some more info here.

Wow. It was one of the oldest Peace Corps programs, started back in 1963. So 41 years and about 1,500 volunteers later, they decide it's too expensive. And too hard to find homologues (that is, local counterparts for volunteers to train to build local primary schools.)

Suddenly, I miss it. You know how it is ... I always thought I could go back and stay at the case de passage, and then tour the country, staying with Peace Corps volunteers the whole way. Now I'd have to stay with missionaries. And I'd have to find a hotel in the capital first! Sheesh ... that sounds like such work.

Whoever prayed for me the other night about the resentment, it worked. Whoever you are, please continue to pray. Honestly, I could feel the blessing come to me, out of the blue, that night. Praise God and thanks. And please continue praying!

What's happening in Gaza is disgraceful. Terrorism and misbehavior are rewarded. Once again Jewish families are rousted from their living quarters and told to go live elsewhere because the local population hates them and has been violent to them. I'm beginning to think the Jews not only need their own country — they need their own backup country.

People really, really hate Jews. Some people may ask why. Any group that's this vilified must be doing something wrong, right?

Well, as a Christian, I believe that God's creation has fallen into Satan's hands, and Satan, as god of this world, still feels there is a score to settle with this desert tribe that escaped Egypt, carried the news of the one true God and God's law, birthed the prophets and the messiah, and still endure without idolatry, despite the best efforts of the world, the devil and the flesh to corrupt and destroy them.

So to answer my question, no. What they did wrong was cling to the truth.

What I'm saying is this: Say there never was a zionist movement and there is no Israel today. The Jews would still be persecuted, somewhere, for some trumped up charge. You see, it's their presence that's offensive to the god of this world, and the devil looks around for someone who's enough of a loser to listen to his lies and carry out his revenge.

Thus, whenever I hear people trashing the Jews, I hear behind their voices the insidious tone of the god of this world, whispering, trying to get even, trying to cover up knowledge of the one, true and living God.

So when I see the Arabs utterly freaking out about the Jews and about Israel, I think, what a bunch of losers.

So, the pullout in Gaza. Strategically, it looks like Israel is effecting a straight-out separation from the Palestinians. The thinking is along the lines of: You guys go live there, we'll live over here, and that's that. Maybe see you around some time.

After the terrorism the Palestinians conducted since 1993, which was beyond the pale of any concept of civilized conduct and can only be called barbarism, this pullout seems to be a strategically reasonable solution. The Chinese walled out the barbarians, too, rather than suffer repeated raids. But it's a tragedy, too. Because Israel can't protect those on the barbarian side of the wall, so they have to come inside. Thus, heartbreak. This is where the abstract becomes real, and as so often happens, it's a tragedy.

Pray for peace in and divine protection for Israel, and God's continued protection of the Jews. Not because God needs our prayers, or because the Jews won't be protected if the prayers stop, but because the prayers change our hearts.

UPDATE: By the way, I know how crazy all that devil stuff sounds. But you have to admit it kind of explains a lot, doesn't it?

What she said.

"I was in a class of nine- and 10-year-olds, girls and boys, and this young woman was telling these kids that the reason for wars was the innately violent nature of men.

"You could see the little girls, fat with complacency and conceit while the little boys sat there crumpled, apologising for their existence, thinking this was going to be the pattern of their lives."

Lessing said the teacher tried to "catch my eye, thinking I would approve of this rubbish".

She added: "This kind of thing is happening in schools all over the place and no one says a thing.

"It has become a kind of religion that you can't criticise because then you become a traitor to the great cause, which I am not.

"It is time we began to ask who are these women who continually rubbish men. The most stupid, ill-educated and nasty woman can rubbish the nicest, kindest and most intelligent man and no one protests.

"Men seem to be so cowed that they can't fight back, and it is time they did."

Lessing claimed that much of the "great energy" whipped up by feminism had "been lost in hot air and fine words when we should have been concentrating on changing laws.

Back when Bruce Springsteen had only four albums out, nothing. Some of the songs on Greetings and E Street are unlike anything done before or since — by anybody. And in a good way.

The songs on the first two albums capture the joy of language and are filled with exuberance and silliness and fun and accidental beauty. Has anyone ever written anything like Kitty's Back? Or can anyone vilify David Sancious' piano intro to Incident on 57th Street? Or the strange horns in the opening on E Street? The songs are fun without a hint of the pretense, sentimentality, pomposity, self-conscious striving, and "jes folks" affectation that would dominate everything after this.

Bruce's third record, Born to Run, was much different than his first two, and it has its moments, but it's aged badly. Its flaws have been brought too clearly into focus by overplaying. Bruce gets operatic — and sentimental and overblown. I can't listen to any of it anymore.

The fourth record, Darkness on the Edge of Town, is his best ... he certainly never came close to the polish of this record. Prove it all night and Darkness are still great songs, and Badlands and Promised Land stand up well to this day, too. For a long time this was my favorite record, and it's the only recording I've ever owned on 8-track, cassette, album and CD. Yes, I've bought it four times. But I can't listen to it all that much, either. Just overplayed.

I've been disappointed with everything after Darkness on the Edge of Town. So when I hear people trash Bruce, I have mixed feelings. Many of the Springsteen haters seem to be those who started listening around Born in the USA in 1984, which is when it all had already done horribly, horribly wrong. They have a point.

The River sounded like outtakes from Darkness. Nebraska was catatonic and can only be listened to when on quaaludes, which are no longer available, or by people who insist that anything this bad must actually be good. Born in the USA distilled all of Bruce's flaws (see list above beginning with "pretense") into one album and did it while making it commercially popular, doubly the heinousness of his crime. Tunnel of Love was "eh" and after that I stopped listening or caring. Human Touch? Huh?

To belabor this point, let's look at the lyrics. This is from that ridiculous piece of shit, Human Touch.

I just want something to hold on to
And a little of that human touch
Just a little of that human touch
Oh girl that feeling of safety you prize
Well it comes with a hard hard price
You can't shut off the risk and the pain
Without losin' the love that remains

Ugh. Abstract, sentimental, uninteresting, the lines say what they mean and hint at nothing more. Now let's look at this from Greetings:

By the time we made it up to Greasy Lake
I had my head out the window
And Janey's fingers were in the cake.
I think I really dug her 'cause I was too loose to fake.
I said, "I'm hurt."
She said, "Honey let me heal it".

Granted, it's silly and immature, but it's at least rendered concretely, Bruce goes straight at the image, and there's something universal that pierces all but hardest hearts in young woman's saying, "Honey, let me heal it."

So what's wrong with Bruce Springsteen? He got old. He ran out of ideas. He kept going after he should've hanged it up. He got trapped by his own public image. He started to take himself too seriously. And his best stuff has been overplayed. Is that so unforgiveable? At least he hasn't blown his head off in Ketchum or Woody Creek over it.

Note to drivers on Route 81:

The left lane is the passing lane, not the camping lane. Camping is to be done in approved campsites, which are never on the highway. If you are driving your vehicle, keep right, pass left.

__________

You can't imagine how many times I was stuck in traffic for no reason other than some fucktard slowpoke was in the passing lane. At one point, and I exaggerate not, me and a pickup truck in front of me passed a line of 30 cars -- all of whom were doing the speed limit in the left lane. We obviously passed them all on the right.

But that was the one lucky time. Too often, there was a line of 30 cars in the left lane, and one good citizen going slow where he belongs -- in the right lane. No way past. Hello traffic for the next 10 miles.

Ugh.

Didn't drive all the way home last night. Stayed in Winchester, Va., for anyone who's keeping track.

Trip was good, though I admit my anger is still simmering at J. And I had a lot of time in the car alone to simmer. No real epiphany, except the usual stuff (you're using your anger at her to take your focus off your own life, that sort of thing). But this was new: She managed to drag me down to her level. It took quite an effort on her part; she was mean for nearly a year before she found the mark, but she did it. She managed to piss me off so much that I no longer root for her to succeed in life.

FTR, I don't like to root against people (except the Yankees, that's different) ... it smacks of loserdom, in my book. But some people are so meretricious that you can't help but wish them ill. As a Christian, this results in a ill-wish/repent/pray-for-the-person cycle. I have a major resentment and I wouldn't mind some prayers from some folks out there that this resentment go away and that I could forgive J. completely. I don't need this baggage. Maybe some spiritual help will put this to rest.

BTW, I have a date this weekend. My attention should be forward. Any suggestions for what to do?

KNOXVILLE, TN — It was a good visit. Caught up with an old friend. Had some discussions that I haven't had in more than a decade. We both had a love of discussing the finer points of grammar, composition, rhetoric and style. At one point we were discussing parataxis versus hypotaxis as applied in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I learned a new phrase: "elegant variation," which is from Fowler's. And we had a short discussion of metaphysics, including the metaphysics of morals (but not Kant specifically), but then a pretty girl with nice boobs went by and I sort of lost track of the conversation. Still, it was nice to reconnect. Brad's got a great mind and even though we disagree on a lot of stuff, we have very similar aeshetics (same is true of my friend John and my ex- Jen), which makes for interesting discussions.

Brad's heading to law school at U of T next week to become an animal welfare and human rights activist. He's a member of PETA, a vegetarian for reasons of principle, and is deeply impressed by the animal-liberation writings of Dr. Peter Singer. He wants to do more to protect animals from harm. It's hard to argue with that. Where that line of thinking takes you, however, is a different place entirely. Perhaps banning meat, or the concept of animal rights — that animals have inalienable rights, including life, liberty and pursuit of happiness?

I don't know the answer to that. But I do know that this country will be surprised at how hard it will be to defend the status quo in the intellectual arena. Just at look at the success of activists with intellectuals on issuues such as gay marriage. And were I to craft a response, it would require more thinking along the lines of Lee Harris' June 2005 piece in Policy Review.

In that piece, Harris talks about the intellectual practice of abstraction, and how excessive abstraction leads you to funny places. (Does that sound familiar? Does Lee Harris read Industrial Blog? My argument against gay marriage has always been along the lines of, if you are seriously considering gay marriage, you're getting too abstract in your thinking. My argument is based on Dorothy Sayers masterful work, The Mind of the Maker, which cannot be summarized here here.)

St