How much longer are we going to think it necessary to be ''American'' before (or in contradistinction to) being cultivated, being enlightened, being humane, and having the same intellectual discipline as other civilized countries?

-- Edith Wharton
"Letters"

Far off the wind picked up a sound and brought it up the canyon and whirled it away. Then it brought another and another, all seeming part of the wind until something back in the mind separated it and shouted it out for what it was.

-- A. B. Guthrie, Jr.
“The Big Sky”

I'm sorry, I cannot countenance this importance being given to everything military. Our country was forged to be a civilian nation with a civilian leadership. A melding of military and politics leads to only one thing. Sinclair Lewis wrote once, "It Can't Happen Here."

I've always argued that it could happen here; and we must fight to not make it so. For if it were, we might get more than we bargained for; we might find ourselves consumed with nothing but working...

That's what I was told at the end of a performance review that devolved to the real purpose of the review. I had been called to task for questioning (in my mind draconian) policies instituted by the Corporate Office. Not anything major mind you; in fact I was really joking and don't take the policy as any great burden on me.

It has now been ordered from on high, that men cannot wear earrings at work. In fact, I had been "following" the edict even before it was codified.

I work in San Francisco at a boutique bed and breakfast in the Nob Hill area; the Corporate Office is in Laguna Niguel, Orange County, California. Corporate insisted upon this unscheduled review to address my "attitude" and whether it impacts the guests and my fellow workers.

I am fifty-three years of age.

Fish Friday was one of those Catholic practices I looked forward to as a kid; and even after being a Secular Humorist for the last several decades, Fish Friday is still an important part of my dietary practice; though I must admit, I don't relegate fish to only Fridays.

I was a professional chef for a number of years and remain an unrepentant gourmand. When I was in the cooking wars, making a living and a reputation, I mostly specialized in Pacific Rim Fusion.

Though any firm, white fish could be used, follow me below the fold for a Japanese Glazed Chilean Sea Bass With A Costa Rican Spicy Mango, Orange & Cilantro Salsa.

When I'm Killed

by

Robert Graves

When I’m killed, don’t think of me
Buried there in Cambrin Wood,
Nor as in Zion think of me
With the Intolerable Good.
And there’s one thing that I know well,
I’m damned if I’ll be damned to Hell!

So when I’m killed, don’t wait for me,
Walking the dim corridor;
In Heaven or Hell, don’t wait for me,
Or you must wait for evermore.
You’ll find me buried, living-dead
In these verses that you’ve read.

So when I’m killed, don’t mourn for me,
Shot, poor lad, so bold and young,
Killed and gone — don’t mourn for me.
On your lips my life is hung:
O friends and lovers, you can save
Your playfellow from the grave.

I

A government car and driver was waiting for me at the curb when I exited the airport doors. I got into the back seat and was handed a briefcase containing department requisition forms, some brochures from that evening’s seminar and a town map.

I was in town during the Olympic Torch Relay. Rumors were circulating that the Dalai Lama would make an appearance along the route; though that’s not the case I was assigned to.

Malcolm X had just sent another reply to another Instant Message from Thomas Jefferson. Adams, even though a neighbor of Jefferson's from across town, had replied more and more infrequently these last generations to even regular snail mail; so Malcolm took up the slack. Though Adams was enthralled with the modern Navy, he hated texting and the internet tubes. Nixon, Reagan, Hoover and Jackson never replied to Jefferson's missives; and he had sent them many. It was probably because mail delivery is rather spotty in Hades. Plus, there is no broadband there and interference from the heat disrupts the wireless signal. Kennedy and both Roosevelts carried on an infrequent correspondence; and Lincoln as well, but they were engaged with other pursuits in heaven, so Jefferson and Malcolm X began to Instant Message each other daily. After all, they lived only light years away from each other in Limbo; wireless is free, the signal strong and never disrupted.

It seemed Jefferson was worried about Obama's chances for the Presidency with this Reverend Wright oratory causing such concern.

"The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished.  It was stained by this nation’s original sin... "

-- Senator Barack Obama
Constitution Center Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
18 March 2008

"(D)escendants of slaves did not get much of a head start, and I think you continue to see some of the effects of that... (t)hat particular birth defect makes it hard for us to confront it, hard for us to talk about it, and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today,"

Condoleeza Rice
Washington Times Interview
28 March 2008

2,500:

QUESTION: Tony, American deaths in Iraq have reached 2,500. Is there any response or reaction from the President on that?

SNOW: It's a number. And every time there's one of these 500 benchmarks, people want something.

-- WH Presser 15 June 2006

4,000:

"The president carries the biggest burden, obviously."

-- VP Dick Cheney
24 March 2008

God has called us to be His representatives in our nation and in our world. Select candidates who represent your views and work for their election.

-- James Dobson

The church and this nation cry out for a revival of masculine Christianity, which is to say that we church leaders need to stop being such, for lack of a better word, sissies when it comes to social and political issues. We need to spend as much time confronting perpetrators as we do comforting victims. We need to do less fretting, and more fighting for righteousness. For every motherly, feminine ministry of the church such as a Crisis Pregnancy Center or ex-gay support group, we need a battle-hardened, take-it-to-the-enemy masculine ministry like Operation Rescue (questions of civil disobedience aside). For every God-hating radical in government, academia and media we need a bold, no-nonsense, truth-telling Christian counterpart: trained, equipped and endorsed by the local church.

–Scott Lively
Director of AFA California and Abiding Truth Ministries

"I must say, I’m a little envious. If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed...It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history!"

-- George Bush addressing troops in Afghanistan by videoconference in Crawford, Texas 14 March 2008.

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.

-- Socrates

Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.

-- Voltaire

What I have absolutely no sympathy with is the legislator, the man who seeks, for his own profit, to exploit the weaknesses of those who are unable to help themselves and then to fasten some moral superscription upon it. This I loathe so much that I cannot conceivably explain how much it is.

-- Malcolm Lowry
Letters

I'll be all around in the dark. I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look, wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad. I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready, and when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise and livin' in the houses they build, I'll be there, too.

-- John Steinbeck
Grapes of Wrath

Trompe L'oeil: from the French, to deceive the eye. An art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects really exist.

Sotto in su: from the Italian, seen from below. A type of trompe l'oeil where the elements above the viewer are rendered as if viewed from true vanishing point perspective.

First, I apologize for the Meta diary. I realize this may come off as whining, but I somehow lost my TU status today and I don’t know why. I was going to post this in an open thread but I have to go back to work and just couldn’t wait.

I have never been troll rated, never had a diary deleted, I post comments at least once, but actually multiple times a day; I’m careful what diaries I recommend and comments I rate; I only troll rate for over the top invective, racism and misogyny. I post a diary at least once a week, though most of my diaries are of the literary nature.

All has been cross-posted at The Justice Department. I post here on Kos and charges have been leveled that Kos is a hate site. It follows then, that The Justice Department is a hate site as well. It is actually something to be proud of, since I have so much invested in the polemics.

This is Part IV of a continuing series:

I hate bigotry, racial prejudice, homophobia, violence, fascism, inequality, ethnocentrism, misogyny, mandated illiteracy, dictatorships, environmental destruction, murder, rape, propaganda, government spying, authoritarian decree, militarism, incivility, lack of neighborliness and an uncaring sense to not fulfill civic duty.

Yeah, my name is Justice and I am a Hate site.

A continuing response to charges made:

I hate bigotry, racial prejudice, homophobia, violence, fascism, inequality, ethnocentrism, misogyny, mandated illiteracy, dictatorships, environmental destruction, murder, rape, propaganda, government spying, authoritarian decree, militarism, incivility, lack of neighborliness and an uncaring sense to not fulfill civic duty.

Yeah, my name is Justice and I am a Hate site.

A continuing response to charges made.

I hate bigotry, racial prejudice, homophobia, violence, fascism, inequality, ethnocentrism, misogyny, mandated illiteracy, dictatorships, environmental destruction, murder, rape, propaganda, government spying, authoritarian decree, militarism, incivility, lack of neighborliness and an uncaring sense to not fulfill civic duty.

Yeah, my name is Justice and I am a Hate site.