I passed a house where I once lived:
A man and a woman are still together in the whispers.
Many years have passed with the silent buzz
of staircase bulbs -- on, off, on.

The keyholes are like small delicate wounds
through which all the blood has oozed out
and inside people are pale as death.

I want to stand once more as in my
first love, leaning on the doorpost
embracing you all night through, standing.
When we left at early dusk the house
started to crumble and collapse
and since then the town
and since then the whole world.

I want once more to have this longing
until dark red burn marks show in the skin.

I want once more to be written
in the book of life, to be written
anew every day
until the writing hand hurts.

Yehuda Amichai

"I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free." -- Nikos Kazantzakis

"The child who received a great deal of attention, whose every need was promptly met, as among the New Guinea Mountain Arapesh, became a gentle, cooperative, unaggressive adult. On the other hand, the child who received perfunctory, intermittent attention, as among the New Guinea Mundugomor, became a selfish, uncooperative, aggressive adult...

Another relevant aspect of most of these cultures is that there are very few models of adult aggression, including the physical punishment of children. There is virtually no hitting, fighting, killing, warring or verbal "put downs." Even psychotic behavior is virtually nonexistent. Cooperation is rewarded; aggressive conduct is discouraged...

Among the !Kung Bushmen... when the child's aggression is toward a younger child, the aggressor is scolded harshly; if toward a peer, the children are distracted or separated if necessary; if toward an adult, the behavior is usually ignored."

Child Raising In Non-violent Cultures

The Pain -- When Will It End?

"Jean Rhys said in an interview in Paris Review, 'Listen to me. All of writing is a huge lake. There are great rivers that feed the lake, like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. And there are mere trickles, like Jean Rhys. All that matters is feeding the lake. I don't matter. The lake matters. You must keep feeding the lake.'" -- Madeleine L'Engle

"Slippery slopes have been the topic of a spate of recent literature. In this Article, the authors provide a general theory for understanding and evaluating slippery slope arguments and their associated slippery slope events."

The Camel's Nose Is in the Tent: Rules, Theories, and Slippery Slopes

"We're a pro-leisure and anti-wage-slavery group of people dedicated to exploring the question: why work?

We actively promote alternatives to the wage slavery mindset and what we call "The Cult of the Job" which automatically equates having a job with making a living..."

More...

Freeze food in ice cube trays

Word Processors: Stupid and Inefficient

Benjamin Braun

"Amberley excelled at chess... one mark, Watson, of a scheming mind."

The lazy are slaughtered
the world grows industrious

The ugly are slaughtered
the world grows beautiful

The foolish are slaughtered
the world grows wise

The sick are slaughtered
the world grows healthy

The sad are slaughtered
the world grows merry

The old are slaughtered
the world grows young

The enemies are slaughtered
the world grows friendly

The wicked are slaughtered
the world grows good

The Measures Taken - Erich Fried

Why I Left America: The Rise Of Elitist Fascism And The Death Of American Democracy

What's the difference between noir and hardboiled fiction?

"Those who control the past, control the future. Those who control the present, control the past." --George Orwell

Word of the day:

contretemps - An unexpected and usually undesirable event.

"Search fearlessly for every sin, for out of sin comes joy." --Frank Wedekind

"I think it would be a mistake for us to go on to Baghdad [during the first Gulf War]. I think it would have sundered the coalition. None of our Arab allies was prepared to do that. We would have been all alone in Baghdad and we would have switched from being the international organizer of this coalition that defeated aggression, to a situation in which we were sort of a colonialist power -- an imperialist power coming in taking down governments and replacing them. That would have been a very big mistake for us." --Dick Cheney, Aug 27, 2000

Word of the day:

verbigeration: an obsessive repetition of meaningless words and phrases, especially as a symptom of mental illness.