"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
OK, I’ll admit that while I do NOT like some of the things their voice coach is having these young girls do with their voices, this actually is pretty darned good music.
The group is The Cactus Cuties. The five girls shown in the video above are older now, and only four in number. If you’re interested, there’s more at the link.
“Late” votes are apparently in. Here’s the list:
Keep these Senators away from your children…
If we give peas a chance, won’t the lima beans feel left out?–Pinky
Expiring minds just wanna know…
Vonda McIntyre has a great lil howto for new writers on “Hunting the Wily Cover Blurb.” In comments is where you’ll find some of her best stuff, though, like this one on someone trying to shine her on about being a “big fan”–
If somebody says, “I liked your story ‘Moon Women of Titan’s Caves,’” the proper response is
(a) Oh, well, jeez, it wasn’t my best work;
(b) That piece of tripe? You’re a moron for liking that;
(c) I always hate everything I’ve written after it’s pubished;
(d) You BOUGHT that? In HARDCOVER? Why didn’t you wait for the paperback?*
(e) Thank you.The correct choice is left as an exercise for the reader…
*heh*
BTW, she adds as a postscript to that comment, “You may guess that my idea of the proper response to someone who buys your work in hardcover is ‘Thank you.'” 🙂
I’m adding this to my collection of advice from authors (not that I expect to publish a book; I’d have to write one first ;-)) that includes, “How to Write Suckitudinous Fiction” from Holly Lisle, an author who tells a tale very well (the single most important criterion for a fiction writer, IMO).
*heh* Sure, Left and Right didn’t appear on the scene as descriptions of political positions until 18th Century France and its Revolt of the Masses. 😉 But still, it’s nice to know that beside his storied wisdom was Solomon’s ability to prophesy politics:
“A wise man’s heart directs him toward the right, but the foolish man’s heart directs him toward the left.” –Ecclesiastes 10:2
*heh*
Better than the broken-down “Left-Right” paradigm, though, is something like The Pournelle Political Axes which more accurately describes political models:
If examined according to the Pournelle Political Axes, The 0!’s policies so far are difficult to categorize. Are they to be found in the far upper right corner of the axes or the far lower right corner? There doesn’t seem to be any moderation toward the center whatsoever, and all of his actions to date lean toward “State Worship” but rationality or irrationality? Which dominates? Or does he vacillate between rational and irrational behaviors?
Warning: Geeky-gripey stuff. Page down or go elsewhere for other content. 🙂
The ongoing saga of my ISP deciding to take customer connection complaints seriously… perhaps. For two whole days now (TWO WHOLE DAYS!!!), I’ve had decent to very good connectivity. Wow. That’s a surprising change for the better. I even have a mid-level “customer care rep” calling me every few days asking if things are getting better and fluffing my appreciation (such as it had become) for the ISP’s services. This a.m., no email timeouts (so far) and no endless page reloads needed. Yet. And good upload/download speeds. For now. We’ll see.
I began my life reading and enjoying poetry with Rudyard Kipling. I’d already heard plenty from my paternal grandfather quoting at length from Tennyson, Kipling, Stevenson and even Service, among others, but my first poetry reads were Kipling. Soon after, Robert Louis Stevenson and others followed. Here’s an old, old favorite of mine from Stevenson,
Evensong
THE embers of the day are red
Beyond the murky hill.
The kitchen smokes: the bed
In the darkling house is spread:
The great sky darkens overhead,
And the great woods are shrill.
So far have I been led,
Lord, by Thy will:
So far I have followed, Lord, and wondered still.The breeze from the enbalmed land
Blows sudden toward the shore,
And claps my cottage door.
I hear the signal, Lord – I understand.
The night at Thy command
Comes. I will eat and sleep and will not question more.
While I don’t understand a couple of the word choices (to my mind’s ear, “darkling” doesn’t add much either to the rhythm, or the meaning or visuals for that matter), and when I recite this from memory, I find I often edit those out *heh*, but the images, sounds and feelings of this piece speak to me more and more as the years pass.
I hear the signal, Lord – I understand.
The night at Thy command
Comes. I will eat and sleep and will not question more.
Of course, this was written during Stevenson’s long slide to death as a result of tuberculosis, as was “Requiem,” and they both reflect a growing comfort with approaching death.
Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
Quite different to Dylan Thomas’ view (Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night), eh?
Just stuff floating around in my head. Memories. When I was in college, I had a procession of minimum wage jobs to pay my way. One was in a nursing center, as an orderly dealing with “extended care” patients, many of whom nowadays would be in hospice care of some sort, almost all just on a short waiting list for the undertaker’s services. Some would “rage against the dying of the light” while others would reflect the attitudes Stevenson portrayed in these short, powerful pieces.
One dear old soul–in her late 90s with only rare visits from family (she didn’t have many left, it seemed, for some reason, although that seems backward)–was one who vacillated quite a bit between acceptance and rejection of her Final Destination. Nearly every night I worked there, she asked me to recite Tennyson’s Crossing the Bar for her. I ended up writing a tune (and piano accompaniment, although there was no piano available on the floor *heh*) for it, but that’s another story.
Crossing the Bar
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea.But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home!Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;For though from out our bourn of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.
And what were these poets so confidently “singing” about?
Behold, I tell you a mystery;
we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,
at the last trumpet; for the trumpet shall sound,
and the dead will be raised imperishable,
and we shall be changed.
Then will come about the saying that is written,
“O Death, where is your victory?
O Death, where is your sting?” 1 Corinthians 15:51-52
So, where have my meanderings led me today? To 1 Corinthians 15:58
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
(And yeh, I set that to music at one point, too.)
Unfair. Steven Crowder asks, like, questions, ya know?
CNN Report Card (CNN!?!)
Yeh, I know the “average” says C-, but look at the F/D mark. And this is The Obamassiah, folks! The One. The “walks-on-water” libtard socialist/commie answer to all that ails us. His numbers–from a sold-out-to-The-0!-CNN report can garner him no better than a C- (with even worse scores in general than on the economy). That’s flunking out for Mr. Butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-his-mouth Barry Soetoro.
I have a sneaking feeling there are more reasons than simply his desire to cover up his citizenship status behind hiding his transcripts/records at Occidental and Columbia and Harvard. If he fades this quickly when faced with anything like work (WORK?!?!?–Maynard G. Krebs [Bob Denver]) today, I can just imagine his grades in those institutions. Probably make Jean Fraud Kerry (whose grades in college were even poorer than Bush II’s and whose performance in elective office is even a better track record than The 0!’s) look like a genius.
Seen on Facebook:
“One good thing about the ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program is that it got thousands of Obama bumper stickers off the road… “
*ba-dump-bump*
(Yeh, but was the expense worth it?)