new words

internyet-Russian attack on the productivity of other nations by means of otherwise harmless "viral" messages.

sameizdat-Faux protest literature actually supporting status quo. See "astroturfing", "tea party".

In response to someone's poem poking fun at how women are shown in the comics:
That's kinda funny, but isn't it also a lot like shooting fish in a barrel?

Anytime you have a split like this, it's bad even for the side which looks like it's "winning". Male superheroes, even Swamp Thing (most of the time), have to be buff too, although they don't have to be smart:
http://www.bushcomic.com/images/main/tex_cover_259x400.jpg
But god help them if they want to do a little knitting.*

Where it really gets bad is in advertising. Much more subtle. But capable of keeping most of us in line.

frivolity:

BTW, ever wonder how Superman stays so buff when there's nothing to work out with that would challenge his strength? Steroids! You heard it here first.

Seems to me that the comics people are missing some entertaining possibilities if they'd allow a bit of gender bending:

How about a female landscaper, 50ish, with very powerful sarcasm, elbows, knees, and maybe a supercharged leafblower. She slouches around in old jeans and a faded t-shirt, muttering that she really must use her powers only for good, however tempted she might be when working. Reluctantly allows herself to be called in in a crisis, but, when doing something like foiling bank robbers, might be careless about the cash and inadvertently blow it into the river. Or the stock exchange. On tough cases she calls in her sidekick, a guy who is also a landscaper but who talks the villians to death, when he isn't digging his neighbors out of the snow or picking litter off his street. Villains attacking our hero at home get lost in all the plantings and knicknacks and starve to death. When attacking her sidekick they burst into his house but immediately fly out the other side, because the place is very neat and there's nothing in the way, plus the floor's freshly waxed. They run across a physicist and, with a time machine of course, attempt to go back and sabotage a television so as to grow brains in the boy who will later be in charge of the construction project which burst our water main. (based on neighbors of mine, tho I don't know if they like or even know each other)

I want more ugly, wimpy looking heroes and good looking villians. You shouldn't be able to tell just by looking.

*(Ok, I'll give some credit to Hellboy (movie) and his weakness for kittens, and his swishy, fishy friend who helps save the world. However, I take exception to his physiology and to the theology. I'd take exception to his disposition if it wasn't adequately explained by his upbringing. Besides, if I was that big and dumb and afraid of antidepressants, I'd act that way too. And the MI girlfriend, who has powers, ought to be breaking out of the hospital and saving him. Often.)

offensive

original message: (1:30 AM)
He'd ride a bicycle. (I'm guessing a low end English 3 speed, circa 1970.) And instead of the cross there'd be a big bloody bumper.

s_____ wrote:

> Guess that helps answer the question being asked now by the Evangelical
> Environmental Network "What would Jesus drive?"
>
> Not a SubarUU.
>
>
>
> S______
>
> ps. But can both fundamentalist Christians and Unitarians be on the same
> page about emission controls? Can this be the place to build bridges? (or
> roads??)
--------------------
Mild letter claiming that I was offensive deleted.
--------------------
my response:

xyz list members:
It's been pointed out to me that I may have crossed "the line" into the offensive with my last post. If this is so, I'd like to hear about it. I didn't intend offense, but rather to emphasize that every time we drive, we hold the power of death lightly in our hands, and so should be more vigilant than the oblivious drivers who I observe almost daily on the roads. (I have been similarly oblivious while driving once or twice myself. It's been less than a month since I've seen one of these drivers draw a little blood, and maybe a day since one threatened my own life in a small way. I've required surgery once, and I can immediately think of someone I knew who died this way. There are other incidents I can think of, and if you throw in the pedestrians, it's going to be a long list.)

I meant no offense towards Christianity. Christianity certainly deserves satire, as do we, but it would be better if it was done from inside. (Not that I'm above making a little fun of it myself on occasion, and I become lower the more the USA becomes officially Christian.) Ahem... As a driver, a cyclist, and someone raised UU, I feel somehow authorized to take a few pokes at these groups. I suppose the absence of a certain aggravating adjective might have rendered the message less shocking and almost equally effective, or perhaps I should have rewritten the last sentence entirely.

I also note that my next previous post was somewhat (in a friendly way, I hope) at the expense of Ms. ABCXYZ and her message about thinking ahead. I intended no critiscism of her and actually, I appreciate her thoughtfulness in calling the Tanner Lectures to our attention. Unfortunately, in my case this would be more likely to bear fruit if she was to post the message about an hour before the event. At my request, would you all mentally append the following: "Thanks to Ms. ABCXYZ for the information on the Tanner lectures. I certainly DON'T think next fall is too far in the future to think about." As an example of forward (or maybe backward?) thinking, might we order some black armbands to wear to the first lecture, which is on Nov. 2? (There I go again, yet another self satisfied UU! Please, along with Peggy Noonan, be kind and gentle in your objections.)

These days, my main relation to xyz seems to be as an occasional impulsive (see previous 3 sentences), satirical gadfly on this list. As such, I know full well that on occasion, I am going to seem tasteless, though it's possible I might be able to tone it down a little. It's true that I sometimes make other connections on this list, giving and getting small favors and yesterday even a small odd job, but those are secondary. As someone who does almost nothing to help the church, unless you count my satire as a plus, perhaps I make too much noise for the standing I have here. Rest assured that there are other ways in which I try to help other people, but at the moment it's not through xyz, and in fact I'm not sure how effectual my attempts in this direction are. I am probably moving to (unfortunate town deleted) very soon, so if it seems appropriate, I may drift off. Whether or not I stay on this list, some of you should be sure to warn the good people of (unfortunate town deleted). It's not likely they'll believe me.

Sincerely (for the most part, and I bet you can tell which parts) yours,

Len



P.S. This just in, from Rev. SUBUU:

> If your pastor doesn't measure up, simply send this letter to six other parishes that are tired of their pastors too. Then bundle up your pastor and send him to the church at the top of the list. In one week you will receive 1,643 pastors and one of them should be perfect. Have faith in this letter. One church broke the chain and got its old pastor back in less than three months. -- You have been warned.

Works for gadflies too!

P.P.S. I wish to note that another member of this list has an email address which might be read as mine! She is merely unlucky enough to share part of a name. Not a relative of any kind that I am aware of. If you don't have (len's real address deleted), you don't have the real (Len's real name deleted). Please direct all critiscism, virii, letters of disconcernment and firebombs in MY direction, not hers, or my housemates', for that matter. Ok? (Consider CEP, blast radius, and wind direction too. It ain't far. Remember the Chinese Embassy.)

excerpt from a personal response

Sometimes I respond to a personal because I have an urge to make friendly editorial suggestions, which I did in this case. The following snippet came somewhat after the editorial suggestions:

........ Calling me down to earth is probably a stretch, too. I am down to earth in that I know what to do with a handsaw, a milling machine, or a mop. Consider, however, that I was once known as the guy with the million dollar solution to the ten cent problem. The ten cent solutions to the million dollar problems didn't get noticed so much, although you could say that some of them have been used.

P.S. If you found the above useful, I have two requests:
-Do you know anyone who might know anyone who needs a mechanical engineer?
-Do you know a treatment for hypergraphia other than a hammer or missing a medium sized payment to a loan shark?

advice to a friend who has a dx

There are two kinds of people: the diagnosed and the undiagnosed. Surely, when you look at what happens in the world, you don't think most of those people are healthy? The undiagnosed just have problems that are too subtle or confusing for the current state of the art.

to a Southern woman

Excerpt, towards the end, from my longwinded response to a personal by a woman claiming to have a Southern accent. If my housemate finds out about this, I may be dead, though I hope he would laugh instead:

-------------------

If you don't think the above sounds promising, you should still meet me, because then you may be able to seduce my housemate. He is a shy, serious, polite, handsome and hardworking boy (ok, he's 30 or something) with an athletic build and a warm Tennessee accent, and he misses how people act at home. It would be like shooting a gar in a barrel, if you had a barrel that long. (And a gar that short.)

-----------------

Keep in mind that in the future this kid will be laughing all the way to the bank, while I'll probably be trying to start a fire by rubbing together two francs ancien (or is it ancienne?). Even pennies would be too expensive, let alone a pair of sticks made from real wood.

-------------------
(update: It didn't work.)

Shocked, shocked! (persuasion and torture)

I am not shocked by any of this, because it's the same old crap. However, I can be disgusted. I used to watch, for the camp factor, mind you, Star Trek Enterprise. When they started torturing enemies on that show I was pretty mad at Dubya for contaminating even the relatively distant future. (Timewise, that might almost be like the return of the Alien and Sedition Act would be for us. Hmmm..... Maybe NOT so strange.)

An acquaintance of mine who had been in WW2 used to have as one of his prized posessions a Luftwaffe (or some German aviation organization) model aviation trophy. A small, but elegant object. He had befriended a German POW who wanted someone who appreciated it to have it, since the prisoner was sure it would eventually be stolen. This acquaintance told me that prisoners were often beaten, implying that it was for emotional reasons and not for information. Whether that was common, I have no idea. Donald Murray, not long ago, recounted a torture incident against a German prisoner from that war in his column in the Boston Globe. Many of us, I'm sure, if we are honest, can remember from childhood incidents of this sort of thing perpetrated upon or by ourselves, just for the hell of it. I know I can. Same old crap.

I think in our culture, and many others, there is a psychological continuity between many accepted practices and torture. It's widely accepted to violate someone's integrity by putting them in very unpleasant situations, particularly for children. These days, the coercion usually isn't very physical, but that doesn't make it easier to take. When one refuses to recognize or vigorously denies the legitimacy and worth of another person, I think that's verging into torture, whether done with physical means or not. And it happens all the time, even with those we love most in the world. Inherent, almost in our nature, as social beings who develop dominance heirarchies. No surprise at these other more overtly shocking events. I believe that much of the horror felt upon hearing the Vietnam POW stories, which I used to dread particularly, came from a mostly unconscious recognition. However, I think we may be just smart and self aware enough to minimize these tendencies if we really want to. Seems to me that many of us as UU's show signs of being on the right track on these issure. But not all of us, and not all the time.

How to convince people, such as kids, under one's own responsibility and care, to behave appropriately without tormenting them, I leave as an exercise for the reader. I have't seen it done often, but I'm convinced it's possible.

We also have a tendency to pretend that we don't recognize or understand the activities of perpetrators, as if we are not even the same species. This is a false comfort. If we are good, and I'm not sure that's a meaningful evaluation, it is not because we never want to do these things, but because we give more influence to and cultivate our desires not to do this things and our desires to help others..

I know I'm out on a limb here, and it's possible it's all baloney. I had no intention of going this far when I started writing, but I'm supposed to be doing something else, and that drives me. Remember that I don't oppose vigorously disputing someone else's ideas without denigrating their inherent worth as a person. (But I am not mature enough to make this distinction in all cases, I'm afraid. Just deleted a particularly poignant example which I decided serves no legitimate purpose. ) Also,never having had kids, I probably don't know enough of what I'm talking about. And I'm a weak man, without enough strength to come close to the ideals expressed above. I don't even intend to! My "smart" mouth is my strongest part. (metaphorically, ok?)

Is there any possibility you find out in the next episode that they beat a false confession out of the wrong guy? As I understand it, this happens all the time.

Len

author concealed wrote:

We were shocked at last night's episode of Blind Justice. The good guy blind cop beat a confession snip

On Apr 20, 2005, at 8:04 PM, anonymous wrote:

While the star does find a way to get the information, the emotions evoked are very strong and very negative toward those who would protect terrorist suspects from torture. snip

sonnets and meds

Thanks for posting this. It's hard (at least for me) to write semi inspirational stuff like this without getting sappy, but I think Leonard Nathan does it very well. To tell the truth, I hadn't heard of him before, which probably says more about my ignorance than anything else. I immediately thought of the Shakespearean sonnet shown below, as I think I was meant to.

However, I have to say I'm hoping Nathan is being a little tongue in cheek here. I think a lot of extra people are miserable because they believe, as they've been told, in pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps. It's fine if one is equipped with bootstraps, but many of us don't have them, or have very slippery, short ones. Perhaps the poem was written when Valium was among the best options for boostrap substitutes (I'm not sure this is the right function for bensodiazepines anyway), but things have changed. I don't think sadness is just some kind of spiritual experience that garners us good karma and wisdom, at least not if it's a constant condition that prevents us from fully exercising our talents or experiencing life fully. In fact, rather than granting wisdom, it may turn one into an isolated fount of dyspepsia*. This new ability to sometimes lighten our burden in a relatively easy and quick way certainly brings some difficulties with it, though. What are we to think of disposition, moral strength, character and so on when we can no longer easily separate them from biology? However, if this problem is the shadow cast by the new ability, I don't think the answer is to blow out the lamp!


*Was just reading things I wrote in the house book when I was going to college 25 years ago. I think all of us in the house would have voted for dosing me with Prozac at the time, had it been available and had we known its capabilities. It's remarkable that I was not defenestrated. Not a wise risk to run in a house with 5 stories. And not for nothing was I known as N.O.T. (nasty old troll).

len
someone should tap me for maple sap, if their kitchen doesn't have wallpaper on the ceiling

Sonnet 29

When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf Heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least:
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee,--and then my state
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings'.

Shakespeare

xxxxx wrote:

Poem: "Ragged Sonnet: When in a Deep Depression" by Leonard Nathan. Used with permission of the poet.

Ragged Sonnet: When in a Deep Depression

When in a deep depression of the self,
I see on every side, on every hill,
like the lit mansions of the rich, success
of others, hear the echoes loudly praise
my rivals, feel my plodding soles sink deeper
in the cold ashes of hope, and feel
the tepid drizzle of self-pity stain
my cheeks, I think of you, dear friend, who scorned
the Valium prescribed because you thought
sadness was our wise companion, shadow
of later years and not good to deny;
and then, my heart, all but reconciled
to gravity, like a wing evolved for such
short flights, beats up again. But not too high.