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Archive for December, 2007|Monthly archive page
Err … this is supposed to be Kara Thrace …
In Uncategorized on 12/26/2007 at 17:52
Not EVEN close, I know, but I like the colors anyway – they sort of match this blog’s colors. I have this box of pastels and a 99¢ sketchpad left over from an exercise (but that’s another story).
Christmas Eve, I came across the supplies which were resting under a stack of books and mags I plan to sell some time. I noticed them when I added this month’s Wired to the stack, 
so thought I’d see what would come of playing around with these materials in the Silent Night, I made drew sketch from a small Katee Sackhoff-as-Starbuck publicity shot alongside a minor rant by a Wired staffer that BSG will not be back until April. Happy Holidays anyway, skiffy lovers!
Tags:science fiction, bsg, starbuck
Err … this is supposed to be Kara Thrace …
In media, visual on 12/26/2007 at 16:52
Not EVEN close, I know, but I like the colors anyway – they sort of match this blog’s colors. I have this box of pastels and a 99¢ sketchpad left over from an exercise (but that’s another story).
Christmas Eve, I came across the supplies which were resting under a stack of books and mags I plan to sell some time. I noticed them when I added this month’s Wired to the stack, 
so thought I’d see what would come of playing around with these materials in the Silent Night, I made drew sketch from a small Katee Sackhoff-as-Starbuck publicity shot alongside a minor rant by a Wired staffer that BSG will not be back until April. Happy Holidays anyway, skiffy lovers!
Tags:science fiction, bsg, starbuck
What she said
In Uncategorized on 12/26/2007 at 06:00Arianna Huffington is zeroing in on the crucial issue – the consquences of the Bush powergrab for years after the administration leaves office. Who among the current candidates, once elected, will have the courage or the understanding to give some of that power up. Once upon a time George Washington was offered the highest office for life — a Crown if he wanted it. He said no. Who today is capable of saying no to sweeping powers of the executive once they begin to feel the draw of that power January 20, 2008? Anyone?
[snip]
Looking back over the last year, it’s one of the most important issues America faced. Looking ahead, it could turn out to be the “sleeper issue” of the 2008 presidential race.
I’m talking about executive power, the way it is used — and has been abused over the last 7 years.
In a very revealing piece in the Boston Globe, Charlie Savage lays out the results of a questionnaire the Globe sent to the presidential candidates on the limits of executive power, asking their views on the Bush administration’s expansive view of presidential authority.
It’s hard to overstate how vital this issue is, or how far off the media radar screen it remains. Indeed, it’s hard to think of another issue in which the importance-to-the-public/attention-paid-by-the-media ratio is as out of whack.
[...]
It’s easy to imagine the next president saying: Sure, Bush used his increased prerogatives to do damage but, trust me, I’ll use them to do good.
And for a 150-page primer on the current threats to our rapidly-vanishing open society check out Naomi Wolf’s July 2007 book: The End of America: Letter’s of Warning to a Young Patriot
What she said
In "quote", civil liberties, media, politics on 12/26/2007 at 05:00Arianna Huffington is zeroing in on the crucial issue – the consquences of the Bush powergrab for years after the administration leaves office. Who among the current candidates, once elected, will have the courage or the understanding to give some of that power up. Once upon a time George Washington was offered the highest office for life — a Crown if he wanted it. He said no. Who today is capable of saying no to sweeping powers of the executive once they begin to feel the draw of that power January 20, 2008? Anyone?
[snip]
Looking back over the last year, it’s one of the most important issues America faced. Looking ahead, it could turn out to be the “sleeper issue” of the 2008 presidential race.
I’m talking about executive power, the way it is used — and has been abused over the last 7 years.
In a very revealing piece in the Boston Globe, Charlie Savage lays out the results of a questionnaire the Globe sent to the presidential candidates on the limits of executive power, asking their views on the Bush administration’s expansive view of presidential authority.
It’s hard to overstate how vital this issue is, or how far off the media radar screen it remains. Indeed, it’s hard to think of another issue in which the importance-to-the-public/attention-paid-by-the-media ratio is as out of whack.
[...]
It’s easy to imagine the next president saying: Sure, Bush used his increased prerogatives to do damage but, trust me, I’ll use them to do good.
And for a 150-page primer on the current threats to our rapidly-vanishing open society check out Naomi Wolf’s July 2007 book: The End of America: Letter’s of Warning to a Young Patriot
The what’s-next-on-your-party-shuffle-playlist? post
In Uncategorized on 12/26/2007 at 04:21
…or the I’m-too-lazy-to-type-tonight post.
The what’s-next-on-your-party-shuffle-playlist? post
In music, ordinary on 12/26/2007 at 03:21
…or the I’m-too-lazy-to-type-tonight post.
The Study of Cause and Effect
In Uncategorized on 12/25/2007 at 19:31It is hard to have one’s watch stolen, but one reflects that the thief of the watch became a thief from causes of heredity and environment which are as interesting as they are scientifically comprehensible; and one buys another watch, if not with joy, at any rate with a philosophy that makes bitterness impossible. One loses, in the study of cause and effect, that absurd air which so many people have of being always shocked and pained by the curiousness of life. Such people live amid human nature as if human nature were a foreign country full of awful foreign customs. But, having reached maturity, one ought surely to be ashamed of being a stranger in a strange land!
– from How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett
The Study of Cause and Effect
In "quote", politics on 12/25/2007 at 18:31It is hard to have one’s watch stolen, but one reflects that the thief of the watch became a thief from causes of heredity and environment which are as interesting as they are scientifically comprehensible; and one buys another watch, if not with joy, at any rate with a philosophy that makes bitterness impossible. One loses, in the study of cause and effect, that absurd air which so many people have of being always shocked and pained by the curiousness of life. Such people live amid human nature as if human nature were a foreign country full of awful foreign customs. But, having reached maturity, one ought surely to be ashamed of being a stranger in a strange land!
– from How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett
Music/Youth/Study
In Uncategorized on 12/24/2007 at 17:46
And therefore, I said, Glaucon, musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful, or of him who is ill-educated ungraceful; and also because he who has received this true education of the inner being will most shrewdly perceive omissions or faults in art and nature, and with a true taste, while he praises and rejoices over and receives into his soul the good, and becomes noble and good, he will justly blame and hate the bad, now in the days of his youth, even before he is able to know the reason why; and when reason comes he will recognise and salute the friend with whom his education has made him long familiar.
– Plato’s Republic Book III
Music/Youth/Study
In "quote" on 12/24/2007 at 16:46
And therefore, I said, Glaucon, musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful, or of him who is ill-educated ungraceful; and also because he who has received this true education of the inner being will most shrewdly perceive omissions or faults in art and nature, and with a true taste, while he praises and rejoices over and receives into his soul the good, and becomes noble and good, he will justly blame and hate the bad, now in the days of his youth, even before he is able to know the reason why; and when reason comes he will recognise and salute the friend with whom his education has made him long familiar.
– Plato’s Republic Book III
Nah … I can’t happen here.
In Uncategorized on 12/23/2007 at 07:34The good old days: NYT: Hoover Planned Mass Jailing of 12,000 in 1950. The sad thing is that I won’t be a bit surprised if I see bloggers, pundits, or some of the Republican presidential candidates offering defenses of such a scheme. Along the lines of “well, err the intent was reasonable, I’m sure. I mean, you can’t have people running around speaking unfavorably about the government, about the military, not in a time of war. But we don’t advocate taking anyone’s rights away — just suspending them for awhile. Detainees who can manage to prove their innocence of acts of dissent to the satisfaction of designated authorities will eventually be released.”
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