Barack Obacca

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=sr_gallery_1&listing_id=17279667

Cracked's Inauguration Coverage

"Some people say that Obama is unrealistic and overly optimistic. Not so says Obama. In his address, Obama seeks only to 'harness the sun.'"

"Now THERE'S some super-science I can stand behind. Fuck Kennedy's moon landing shit. We're going to literally RIDE THE SUN LIKE A HORSE. Godspeed, you doomed astronauts."

http://www.cracked.com/blog/cracked-liveblogs-the-inauguration/

Massacre in Korea

Massacre in Korea
Pablo Picasso
1881-1973 Spanish

reputation for barbarism and cruelty

"The Mongol period is not only noted for its supposed barbarity, but also for the plethora of historians and chronicles it produced. These many scribes, both within the Mongol camp and without, were happy to pander to the Mongols' desire for notoriety and a reputation for barbarism and cruelty. Primary sources in a wealth of languages have survived the so-called Mongol mayhem. Critical analysis and comparison of these various sources yield a more balanced and less sensationalist picture of what actually occurred during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries than the lurid portrait that myths and legends have conjured up. Since Bernard Lewis questioned the basis of the Mongols' tainted reputation in 1995, scholarly opinion has grown more sympathetic toward the legacy of Genghis Khan."

--George Lane, eNotes.com

Blue Cashmere

Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 246 / Monday, December 22, 2008

Gifts to Federal Employees From Foreign Government Sources Reported to Employing Agencies in Calendar Year 2007

"Publication of this listing in the Federal Register is required by Section 7342(f) of Title 5, United States Code.

"President- Artwork: silver statue of a Morin Khur; engraved; held in wooden box. Rec’d—22–Oct–07; Est. Value—$400.00

"President- Clothing: royal blue cashmere jacket. Rec’d—22–Oct–07; Est. Value—$414.00

"President- Book, hardcover (in Mongolian): ‘Great Mongolian State.’ Rec’d—22–Oct–07; Est. Value—$89.00

"First Lady- Clothing: blue cashmere sweater with silk lining. Rec’d—22–Oct–07; Est. Value—$1,000.00

"Identity of foreign donor and government-
His Excellency N. Enkhbayar, President of Mongolia, and Mrs. O. Tsolmon.

"Circumstances justifying acceptance-
Non-acceptance would cause embarrassment to donor and U.S. Government."

http://static.usnews.com/documents/whispers/giftlist1-19.pdf

rather understood

"I expect it [the Internet] to be much more stable, something that people don't talk about. Really when you talk about an article, you don't say, 'Oh, I'm going to write an article on paper!' The fact that we use pen and paper is sort of rather understood."

--Tim Berners-Lee, BBC

Orthodox church in the Beskidy Mountains, Poland

Photo from Marta.

Happy Kings' Day

Or Epiphany, or Theophony, or Timkat, or Little Christmas.

As the dish heated the spoon

Hey diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon!
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon!
He ran from conviction
And fed his addiction
As the dish heated the spoon.
The spoon begged to go
But the dish shouted "No!
The heroin will be ready soon."

--Rob DenBleyker, Cyanide and Happiness, 2008 November 30

Adolf Hitler, Kinderbild

Adolf Hitler als Kleinkind (Porträt), 1889
--Deutsches Bundesarchiv

Happy Seventh Day of Christmas

Seven swans a-swimming.

"From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"With the onset of more Americanized and secular traditions throughout the past two centuries (such as the American 'Santa Claus,' popularity of Christmas Eve itself as a holiday, and rise in popularity of New Year's Eve parties as well), the traditions of the Twelve Days of Christmas have been largely forgotten in the U.S.... Indeed, contemporary marketing and media tend to espouse the (erroneous) belief that the Twelve Days end on Christmas."

New Years wishes

from Jonas Ramoska

a flash of lightning in a serene sky

By and by I learned that, most appropriately, the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs had intrusted him with the making of a report, for its future guidance. And he had written it, too. I've seen it. I've read it. It was eloquent, vibrating with eloquence, but too high-strung, I think. Seventeen pages of close writing he had found time for! But this must have been before his--let us say--nerves, went wrong, and caused him to preside at certain midnight dances ending with unspeakable rites, which--as far as I reluctantly gathered from what I heard at various times--were offered up to him--do you understand?--to Mr. Kurtz himself. But it was a beautiful piece of writing. The opening paragraph, however, in the light of later information, strikes me now as ominous. He began with the argument that we whites, from the point of development we had arrived at, 'must necessarily appear to them [savages] in the nature of supernatural beings--we approach them with the might of a deity,' and so on, and so on. 'By the simple exercise of our will we can exert a power for good practically unbounded,' etc., etc. From that point he soared and took me with him. The peroration was magnificent, though difficult to remember, you know. It gave me the notion of an exotic Immensity ruled by an august Benevolence. It made me tingle with enthusiasm. This was the unbounded power of eloquence--of words--of burning noble words. There were no practical hints to interrupt the magic current of phrases, unless a kind of note at the foot of the last page, scrawled evidently much later, in an unsteady hand, may be regarded as the exposition of a method. It was very simple, and at the end of that moving appeal to every altruistic sentiment it blazed at you, luminous and terrifying, like a flash of lightning in a serene sky: 'Exterminate all the brutes!'

--Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, 1899

box

Happy Boxing Day.

Freedom From Religion Foundation sign at Wisconsin State Capitol

Happy X-mas

"Christian legend, dogma and ritual are the refinement of a great body of primitive and even barbarous beliefs, and almost the only original element in Christianity is the personality of Jesus."

--Robert Graves, The White Goddess

Fourth Verse of "We Three Kings"

Myrrh is mine: Its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom.
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb.

--John Henry Hopkins, Jr., "We Three Kings," 1863

Joker, the ninth tiny reindeer

air inside the ice cube

I write out my life
hour by hour, word by word
gazing into the anger of old women on the bus
numbering the striations
of air inside the ice cube
imagining the existence
of something uncreated
this poem
our lives

--Adrienne Rich, "Incipience," 1971

Edgar Allan Poe

"From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"On October 7, 1849, at age 40, Poe died in Baltimore; the cause of his death is unknown and has been attributed to alcohol, brain congestion, cholera, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide, tuberculosis, and other agents."

there was such a smell

"The smell of a battlefield in hot weather one cannot recall. You can remember that there was such a smell, but nothing ever happens to you to bring it back."

--Ernest Hemingway, "A Natural History of the Dead," 1933

Rorty, near death

"I now wish that I had spent somewhat more of my life with verse. This is not because I fear having missed out on truths that are incapable of statement in prose. There are no such truths; there is nothing about death that Swinburne and Landor knew but Epicurus and Heidegger failed to grasp. Rather, it is because I would have lived more fully if I had been able to rattle off more old chestnuts—just as I would have if I had made more close friends."

--Richard Rorty, "The Fire of Life," 2007

the tomb

Kilclooney Dolmen
Ireland, Donegal County

"The Song of Amergin"
ca. 1268 BCE Goidelic
translated and arranged by Robert Graves

God speaks and says:

I am a stag of seven tines,
Over the flooded world,
I am borne by the wind,
I descend in tears like dew, I lie glittering.
I fly aloft like a griffon to my nest on the cliff,
I bloom among the loveliest flowers,
I am both the oak and the lightning that blasts it,

I embolden the spearsman,
I teach the councillors their wisdom,
I inspire the poets,
I rove the hills like a conquering boar,
I roar like the winter sea,
I return like the receding wave,
Who but I can unfold the secrets of the unhewen dolmen?

I am the womb of every holt,
I am the blaze on every hill,
I am the queen of every hive,
I am the shield to every head,
I am the tomb to every hope.

A link to some photos of the riots in July.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mongol/sets/72157602478404203/

Droll thing

"Droll thing life is--that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose."

--Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, 1899

Popes

"Popes matter in ways that challenge our conventional thinking about the way the world works. Popes no longer claim the power to bring penitent princes to their knees in the snow, as Gregory VII did with Henry IV; the modern papacy deploys a greater power, the power to propose and persuade, religiously and morally. Popes matter by changing lives and changing history.

"Which, as it happens, was the only power Saint Peter had."

--George Weigel, "How Benedict XVI Will Make History," Newsweek, 2008 April 21

Proc

Happy Proclamation Day.

Briefing II

You've been dreaming, have you?

I am dreaming now.

No, you are awake now. You are talking to me.

This is no different. A dream, like that.

Oh yes it is different. This is reality. The other is a dream.

How do you know?

You'll have to take my word for it, I'm afraid.

If I did have to, I'd be afraid.


--Doris Lessing, Briefing For a Descent Into Hell, 1971

Abraham at Gettysburg

"From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"The Constitution of France (under the present Fifth Republic) states that the principle of the Republic of France is 'gouvernement du peuple, par le peuple et pour le peuple' ('government of the people, by the people, and for the people,') a literal translation of Lincoln's words."

“No.”

I spoke to Sylvia. “Do you think this is a good life?” The table held apples, books, long-playing records. She looked up. “No.”

--Donald Barthelme, “The Indian Uprising,” 1968

Happy Polish Independence Day

small problem

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress."

--Eric Moody, captain of British Airways Flight 9

Sanity

The implications of philosophical truth are so horrifying that the human mind cannot comprehend them and remain sane.


www.TheSteppe.com

barbican

The Times of India

"What does a possible Obama victory mean for America and the rest of the world (and judging by the worldwide interest and the number of foreign journalists here, it's the only story for the day)?

"Well, for one, it is expected to restore faith and trust in a more engaged and consensual United States as against the perception of the Bush Republican administration as a mostly unilateral regime. The election of a black minority candidate to the highest office in the world's most powerful and advanced democracy will also be seen as the final vindication that America can overcome racial prejudice.

"It still boggles the imagination -- that could soon be reality -- that the 44th US president may be an African-American son of a Kenyan exchange student."

--The Times of India

The London Times

“We support Obama not as a person but as a new phenomenon,” Denis Twahika, a student, said. “We look at America as a continent that disenfranchised Africa. If Obama is the president, then when I meet an American I meet a brother. That white-black thing, we become one.”

--The Times, UK

Did you vote?

"In every election, many people grapple with the nagging suspicion their vote doesn't count.... They are wrong. In fact, our democracy depends on every citizen recognizing the value of his or her vote.

"And here is the value of that vote. In the most recent presidential election 105,360,260 people cast ballots. That means each person's vote counted .000000949%.... So we can agree, your vote counts. It counts .000000949%."

--Stephen Colbert, "Of Course Your Vote Counts!," America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction, 2004

Nov 2

"All Souls’ Day.
The 2nd of November, so called because the Roman Catholics on that day seek by prayer and almsgiving to alleviate the sufferings of souls in purgatory. It was first instituted in the monastery of Clugny, in 993.

"According to tradition, a pilgrim, returning from the Holy Land, was compelled by a storm to land on a rocky island, where he found a hermit, who told him that among the cliffs of the island was an opening into the infernal regions through which huge flames ascended, and where the groans of the tormented were distinctly audible. The pilgrim told Odilo, abbot of Clugny, of this; and the abbot appointed the day following, which was November 2nd, to be set apart for the benefit of souls in purgatory."


--E. Cobham Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1898 edition "Revised, Corrected and Enlarged"

Nov 1

"All Hallow’s Day (November 1st).
The French call it Toussaint, which we have translated All Saints’ Day. Hallowmas is All-Saints’ festival. (Anglo-Saxon, hálig, but Hálig-mónáth was September, and Hálig-dœg was simply a Holy-day.)"

"All Saints
or All Hallows. In 610 the Pope of Rome ordered that the heathen Pantheon should be converted into a Christian church, and dedicated to the honour of all martyrs. The festival of All Saints was first held on May 1st, but in the year 834 it was changed to November 1st. 'Hallows' is from the Anglo-Saxon hálig (holy)."


--E. Cobham Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1898 edition "Revised, Corrected and Enlarged"

Oct 31

"All Hallows’ Eve.
The Scotch tradition is, that those born on All Hallows’ Eve have the gift of double sight, and commanding powers over spirits."

"Hallowe’en (October 31st),
according to Scotch superstition, is the time when witches, devils, fairies, and other imps of earth and air hold annual holiday."


--E. Cobham Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1898 edition "Revised, Corrected and Enlarged"