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Shocked, just shocked! Appalled, absolutely appalled!
Somewhat behind on my web reading, I have just learned that my GOP friend PP of the South Dakota War College is part of a cabal planning to take over the world. After all, good and certainly unquestionable authority says PP is — gasp — a “Zionist operative.”
Now I’ll admit that even when we were joint blogging I was dismayed by the fact PP is a hardcore Republican and by some stretch of the imagination might be called “a SD GOP operative,” as the individual accusing him of being Zionist also calls him. But at the same time, PP and some other GOP friends and acquaintances are proof of the fact that not all Republicans are spawns of Darth Vader, regardless of how much we may disagree — often vehemently — on certain issues.
I also have to admit an insufficient education in New World Order jargon to know exactly what a Zionist operative is or the dangers one poses to our values and lives. I presume, though, that as such an operative PP is part of the Jewish banker cabal working with the Trilateral Commission, Halliburton and other entities as the U.S. shadow government responsible for 9/11 and engaged in a global conspiracy of world domination and a one world government. That has, of course, been obvious to everyone since the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Suffice it to say that as PP unveils his new blog look, his comments on former JAILer-in-Chief Billy S.’s new political activities is once again bringing out the, shall we say, rather interesting views of Bill’s crowd. I just hope there’s no truth to the rumor that the reason PP quit his Pierre job and commuting from Brookings was because his black helicopter crashed while surveying sites for a patriot concentration camp.
We are all sufferers from history, but the paranoid is a double sufferer, since he is afflicted not only by the real world, with the rest of us, but by his fantasies as well.
Richard Hofstader, The Paranoid Style in American Politics
As I spent the last several days hibernating trying to shake a cold that’s plagued me for going on two weeks, I also got around to compiling most of my LibraryThing library. Although the effort was sped up a bit by CueCat, I still have to wonder about the time put in to the project.
While I know I’ve got several strays floating around, my guesstimate of having about 1,000 books currently in my library was about as close as you could come. The total came to 999 books consisting of 987 distinct works with an average publication date of 1991. And while I didn’t go to the effort of tagging the books by subject, my author cloud is kind of fun. I’m not surprised to see Kurt Vonnegut and Philip K. Dick as the most significant authors (the latter due to a period a couple years ago when I went on a binge of reading tons of Dick ‘s work) but a few of the others were somewhat unsuspected (Norman Cantor and Barbara Tuchman, for example).
Two new additions to the library also kept me occupied. Both consist exclusively of foreign authors, about which more in a day or so.
[A]s beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the ideal library is in the wish of its maker.
Carolyn Wells, The Rest of My Life
Travel to and attendance at the AILA annual conference leads to consecutive marginalia postings rather than anything more substantive:
- Why is it that the TSA personnel at the Sioux Falls airport consistently include some of the most unpleasant people I’ve encountered in any air travel?
- Also on a travel note, USA Today has a rather brief look at airport bookstores. (Via.) I’ll agree that the used bookstore in the Raleigh-Durham airport is amazing, particularly if you’re caught in massive weather delays like I was there once.
- A new study looks at 25 of the world’s biggest news internet sites to see which are best — and worst — in five categories. (Via.) For some reason, I’m not surprised that a U.S. outlet is not at the top (but then, none is at the bottom).
- Reminiscent of something I said more than 2 1/2 years ago, another recent study raises a legitimate question as to whether America is basically conservative or progressive. (Via.)
When a journey has no destination, progress can only be measured by counting steps.
Karen Joy Fowler, Sarah Canary
Distracted by a tough week that comes on top of a hectic four weeks, a short compilation of some notes from the week:
The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.
Charles de Gaulle
I lost my best friend within the last hour. We ended our chocolate lab’s battle with cancer this morning. Sadly, Maggie fell right within the window of anticipated life expectancy from the date of diagnosis of lymphosarcoma.
Without reiterating the details, we started chemotherapy last week but evidently it was too late. Although she acted entirely normal for several days following the chemo session, it became apparent over the last 48-60 hours that the battle was rapidly being lost. Maggie wasn’t well enough to have her second round of chemo Wednesday. Our wish to not lose her didn’t outweigh the toll the cancer was taking or allowing her to leave us before losing what little quality of life remained. We owed her at least that after a dozen years of unconditional love.
Fittingly, if not karmically, Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May,” part of the inspiration for her name, is playing on the radio as I write this. Maggie was our youngest family member in human years but around 90 in dog years. I’m not ashamed to call her my best friend. She was my unwavering and unflappable companion for nearly a quarter of my life and brought joy to it 98 percent of the time.
People can learn a lot from dogs. A lot about themselves. I often think of a refrigerator magnet we bought years ago with a picture of a chocolate lab on it. It says: “May I always be the kind of person my dog thinks I am.” Looking in her eyes last night and in the minutes before her death this morning, I believe I met that standard and her needs today.
I don’t invariably live up to expectations. Maggie always did.
The morning sun when it’s in your face really shows your age
But that don’t worry me none, in my eyes you’re everything
“Maggie May,” Rod Stewart, Every Picture Tells A Story
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