I think a few people were laughing about me feeling intimidated and being submissive to cranky county fair volunteers yesterday. Found it pretty funny, myself. In real life, I’m mostly just a person who’d rather get along or talk things out than make a scene — until you really offend my sense of right and wrong. Once you get my righteousness up, you’d best get out of my way. I’m dealing with an IRL situation like that this very minute. On Sunday I mentioned a Bad Thing I’d been told (not asked) to keep confidential. It already felt wrong to…
Category: Mind and Spirit
Spirituality, moods, feelings, and thinking free to live free.
Why we get only idiotic reporting on guns from the MSM: one more data point. (And this from one of the reporters who was on the scene in Ferguson where rubber bullets were actually fired!) Craigslist: Roof Koreans for hire. 🙂 (H/T AG) MJR reminds me that it’s time to revisit Robert Peel’s nine rules for policing. Sort of encouraging that an MSM source ran that (even if a Canadian one). “Paper Boys.” Inside the dark, profitable world of consumer debt collection. Eeew! “Cigars, But Not Close.” Mark Steyn on U.S. police overkill. “The Low-Information Diet.” A classic from Mr.…
It’s not spam. Jacquie Lawson cards will be going out today to roof-raiser donors. If you open yours, I can promise you won’t pick up any virii or have your mailbox hacked. You might get an OD of cuteness, though. —– ADDED: Whew! All cards have now been sent. If you donated and didn’t receive a card, please let me know. It could be because I don’t have a good email address for you or it could be I’m an idiot I got overwhelmed and missed you. Smack me upside the head and I’ll make up for it. While composing…
Friend of mine went to his high school reunion this summer. In school he was the uber-geek, the undisputed smartest kid in his class — which you can imagine didn’t sit well with some. Even now you can tell he learned his social graces by dint of hard work, and he’d rather eat worms than suffer fools.
But he’s gone on to be a successful international businessman and he wanted to see how his old friends are faring. He had some good times at the reunion, but was startled — and hurt — that a lot of people treated him just as they had when they were all raw kids. Same jokes. Same attitudes. Same view of him even though he’d changed enormously and led a fascinating life.
Well, maybe that’s just reunions. Some go to see how everyone has grown. Others haven’t grown at all and just want to relive their glory days — glory days in which they felt safely superior to smart but awkward geeks like my friend.
Maybe high schools are just dysfunctional families writ large.
Today totally sucked. Today was totally blessed. That’s not as eloquent as, “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” But that line’s already taken.
Some of what follows is pretty personal. Don’t click on the more link if you hate that stuff.
I’m working on a blogosaurus post, which I hope to have within the next few days. Meanwhile, here’s some randomness for you.
But first (and absolutely foremost), many thanks. Your generosity and support have been mind boggling. After the first red-hot week the roof-raising bleg looked as if it was going to stall out.
But nope. Old friends and new have just kept the funds coming. Robbie, Ava, and Kitsu the cat will all thank you for the dryness this winter. And you darned betcha, so will I.
Now, on to randomness, trivia, and the collection and dispersal of linkage …
It’s a mystery why one person can be poor but still be proud, independent, and reasonably content while the guy next door is only content to slide into a swamp of misery, blame, slovenliness, dependence, and cigarette smoke.
I agree that Alchemist summed things up pretty well by observing, “Poor is a state of finance. Poverty is a state of mind.”
But why?
I once briefly dated a guy who lived from hand to mouth. He got by on about $600 a month, mostly donated by friends who thought he was a starving genius. Literally he never knew at the beginning of the month whether he’d have enough to make it to the end without going hungry.
He was also a mega-slob. But he always said that if he someday had enough money to live in a nice place he was sure his “naturally clean self” would keep it impressively neat and spotless.
At the time, I lived in a house that was tiny but a gem. I’d bought it from a young architect who’d remodeled it for himself and his family and it was a work of love. Mr. Naturally Clean Self would come over and after an hour it would look … well, just like his place. Grime on the counters. Cabinet doors left open. Jackets and shoes discarded in the middle of the floor, furniture askew.
Now I realize some people just aren’t into keeping a tidy house, and that’s dandy. But I laughed at his self-delusion.
He also believed that someday he’d be famous and fabulously wealthy as an author. But of course, he never put a word down on paper — while at the same time he wouldn’t think of holding an actual job or doing freelance work because that would disrupt his spiritual and creative flow.
My problem with people who agree with me. P.J. O’Rourke on libertarians. 🙂 Surely you’ve all heard the story now about the Florida father who came home to find the 18-year-old babysitter diddling his 11-year-old son. But the pictures are priceless and should serve as an object lesson for … the kind of people who badly need object lessons. Bovard: “Sweet Land of Growing Indifference.” Ha! And I thought I knew a few people who were obsessed with getting reward points on their credit cards. Top this, guys. So the ATF is so bad at solving “gun crimes” (or so…
Liberty or tyranny, happiness or misery, life or death. You decide. (H/T WRSA) And along similar lines, Paul Bonneau reminds us of a classic piece of his: “A New Berry Bush for the Garden.” The natives are surely getting restless when a law professor says things like this. The prof in question is Glenn Harlan Reynolds. But still … Yet another reminder that the Internet is full of idiots. Campaign challenges users to quit F*c*b**k for 99 days. (Hey, I think I’ve beaten that challenge already!) Malkin hands it to Bloomberg. Hands him his posterior, that is. And yes, that…