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Wednesday links

15 Comments

  1. Bear
    Bear January 22, 2014 7:01 am

    Claire, I’ve attended too many legislative hearings on victim disarmament bills to under estimate the ability to the gun control crowd to delve the depths of density. Case(s) in point.

    Drunk writing: Now I know why I failed as a writer.

  2. Ragnar
    Ragnar January 22, 2014 8:31 am

    Drunken ne’er-do-wells??? Ha Ha, that’s me… My best stuff comes to me after a few libations. And, I’m way too fond of the late Charles Bukowski… I wish I had his writing talent… He lived the “write drunk, edit sober” mantra… Drink and write all night, then clean it up the next day.

  3. Joel
    Joel January 22, 2014 8:39 am

    I’ve done some of my best writing just this side of dead drunk, if by “best” you mean utterly uninhibited. I’ve also written one hell of a lot of incoherent drivel under the influence.

    Weed, btw, does not have a good effect on writing at any time, in my experience. One can find the most trivial things utterly fascinating and brimming with nuance – until the next morning when they go back to being trivial.

  4. Scott
    Scott January 22, 2014 9:12 am

    A passport merged with a Flip-It book! That’s kinda cool..

  5. water lily
    water lily January 22, 2014 9:16 am

    I wish I could drink while writing. But I’m a cheap drunk with a sensitive tummy and usually have to put wine or hard cider aside after only a few ounces. (Hard alcohol, forget it. Beer is out – gluten.) I guess I’m stuck with my sober imagination and the coffee mug. 🙂

    I detest Cuomo. Maybe it’s because I’m a native New Yorker, or maybe because he always sounds so hateful. Many of my NY friends and neighbors are livid over his recent remarks.

    I love the graphic designer site. 🙂

  6. MamaLiberty
    MamaLiberty January 22, 2014 12:38 pm

    The alligator with the human foot/shoe… hmmm A little disturbing, somehow. Don’t know why.

    Seems to me that a “picture is worth a thousand words” is still true sometimes, but it is increasingly obvious that pictures alone are not necessarily proof of anything these days, especially the digital kind. Can’t wait to see what the tech folks will come up with next!

  7. Pat
    Pat January 22, 2014 1:11 pm

    I love the imagination of the graphic designers, and ― liking both turtles and ladybugs ― especially appreciate the “turtlebug”.

    Alcohol helps some people concentrate better, but lessens the ability of others to think clearly.

    What makes a “great writer”, anyway? Subject matter… composition… plot… popularity… or simply a voice of the times? As in the 20’s ― if “the pretty people” (celebrities and media of the era) agree with the writer’s politics or philosophy, then his books often end up being defined as “great literature”.

    (How well can you write when high on tea, Claire? :-))

  8. Betsey
    Betsey January 22, 2014 1:36 pm

    Edgar Allen Poe used to write when he was high on drugs, and did the editing when he came down. IMHO he must have had some weird highs.
    Don’t fool yourself about McDonnell–Hillary is clearing the field.
    Andrew Cuomo’s voice and his speech patters are, well, downright grating on my nerves. He sounds like a cross between a nasal speaker and a disapproving nanny. If he gets into national office, I will reuse my ear plugs from these Obama years.

  9. LarryA
    LarryA January 22, 2014 2:37 pm

    [A passport merged with a Flip-It book! That’s kinda cool..]

    True, but the real coolness is a government that could come up with that kind of whimsy.

    I write on Coke.*

    Politicians telling the truth is a be-careful-what-you-wish-for proposition.

    * No, the Cola kind.

  10. A.G.
    A.G. January 22, 2014 2:43 pm

    They- want to rock n’ roll all nite, eat bamboo shoots every day. m/

  11. naturegirl
    naturegirl January 22, 2014 3:16 pm

    I have had tons of money and I have had absolutely none. The only constant through both is that freedom to do what I want to is more important. Having money isn’t necessarily freeing and not having it isn’t either…..but I have learned to pick what frees me up first and that choice isn’t always money related. I noticed that the people mentioned in the article are way obsessed with having more than whomever else, and I don’t live that way so that’s probably got a lot to do with it too….

  12. Paul Bonneau
    Paul Bonneau January 22, 2014 5:34 pm

    I don’t see what is wrong with Cuomo’s solution. People should live with their own kind. The states (and for that matter, smaller subdivisions) should be diverse. There should be a place for gun haters to live, and another place for gun nuts; and for other issues too.

    The opposite of this condition is homogenization, which happens with the federal government. Then you get a situation where marijuana is illegal in all 50 states even if some states want to de-criminalize it.

    Now of course there is a question whether New York State is really a place for gun haters. Maybe it should just be New York City. But the basic idea is sound. Live where you fit in, or at least where people are tolerant of you.

  13. Shel
    Shel January 22, 2014 9:03 pm

    I don’t know that liberals are particularly concerned with sounding stupid as long as their statements are politically correct, for the MSM will never call them on it and the majority of the population will never know the difference. Although sometimes, as you may remember, the talk is incontrovertibly retarded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY1mAlFjJTw

    I don’t know the answer; is this prosecution stupid or a not-so-subtle threat to us all? http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/20/dc-businessman-trial-one-shotgun-shell-wasnt-given/

    An excellent article on gun control that I just uncovered (in my own emails) is http://www.doityourselfcapitalism.com/gun-control-violence

    As we know, alcohol releases inhibitions. People behave the way they want to behave under the influence; I was always a friendly drunk. I used to drink diagnostically on occasion. If I wanted to find out what was really on my mind, I’d get half drunk and the thoughts would come out. That did help me decide to relocate an old motorcycle I had sold to a former high school classmate. He told me in another six months he would have sold it to somebody else (WHEW). I suspect EtOH helps writers by allowing their thoughts not to be overwhelmed by conscious concerns. I really don’t know about other drugs, but I do know Aldous Huxley was fond of mescaline.

    Tonight I talked with a retired LEO friend who lives in Virginia. He considers the McDonnell case, as far as criminality goes, to be a political hack job. He said that the trial will be in Richmond and if the prosecutors are successful in getting persons of the right ethnicity on the jury, they have a chance for a conviction.

    The frightening part about Cuomo’s statement is that the Constitution is the only thing that protects us from people like him and that he would do much, much more than talk if he could get away with it.

  14. R.L. Wurdack
    R.L. Wurdack January 23, 2014 5:50 am

    On Seawright:

    While the butterfly may trigger a market collapse, the probability of that is miniscule, microscule. All the chaotic driver effects combined are probablistically tiny. The likelyhood of a major driver is large. Which major driver is the key question. I wish someone would do something like Rees book, “”Our Final Hour””

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