Sending a 12 year old kid off as a contract killer ins't exactly standard fare in literature.

Baum also has the odd habit, despite a female protagonist, of relegating woman to servile roles.

Then there is the multitude of religious symbolism surrounding the wizard and his "emerald" city.

And of course, reality is a gray, joyless place inhabited by people who aren't smart enough to move somewhere else.

Well...gotta go teach this stuff.

On the ride home from Atlanta, Kathy was painfully silent. I hope that I don't become too "fragile" in her mind. I assume that she's a bit scared of what may come and that, I suppose, is natural.

As for me, the whole issue still seems unreal. It's as if I am watching a movie of someone playing me going through all of this. The doctors call this "emotional blunting." I suppose this is also a natural coping mechanism.

Well, enough whining. Time to go teach.

Today, we seem to have filled our days with the same bread and circuses. We have 170 channels of shite to while away our every waking thought. We have Springer's minions and the mindless California beauty pageant to insulate us from thinking about the rest of the world. Our only care seems to be that our check (payroll or otherwise) is on time and that we get home in time to watch Judge Judy.

I fear that, as a people, we are beginning to surrender control of our lives and our nations to others. I hope that I am wrong.

More later

I love this time of year, especially now that we appear to be out of the threee year old drought. Hot and humid days and sultry nights are good for the body and the imagination. Nights here in the south are great for sitting around a fire and knocking back a few cold adult beverages.

My physicians have, in their united wisdom, decided to send me to an MS clinic in Atlanta in August. I can't complain about my treatment here as one doctor invited Kathy and I over to his home to discuss my prognosis. It's a little depressing but it appears that I will soon be able, at least, to name the beast.

Research for the NEH grant is slowly, but steadily coming in. I should have an LPU (least publishable unit) ready for a history journal (or maybe the Smithsonian) by the time classes start.

Well, gotta go cork my bat. (For the Brits on the list, that's an illegal act in baseball).

Keith

I also rediscovered the joy of a fine cigar and a well mixed drink. However, I am certainly glad to be home with the menagerie and all that is comfortable. Yet, If I get rich, relocating to the keys would be terribly inviting.

If I have internet access I'll post to rub it in.

The first 30 minutes are tedious and poorly edited. It looked, at times, like a freshman level video project. Once Trinity and Neo do the wild thing...then it looks more like what we expect.

I have a weakness for philosophy, thus the handle "sophist." This film's plot is based on some old Gnostic/Christian works (collected in the Nag Hammadi Library...a great read for those so inclined). If you don't know at least the basic arguments dealing with freedom of choice, pre-destination, and the nature of realith then the next two hours prbably felt a whole lot like watching the Jedi council sit around and smoke Tatooine gold. Long boring speeches, occasionally punctuated with a kick-ass fight.

As a middle canto it ends "To be continued"

What I really want to know is why, here in Macon, the police were checking ID at the door. The only other time I've seen that was for South Park.

So why is this bad, you ask? Well, imagine telling someone that they have to move their car. Pretty standard fare without music...however the scenario is changed if you're listening to the theme from "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." Or imagine engaging in the exchange listening to the Teletubby CD or the Sex Pistols. The music affects you emotionally. It's patently unfair to not share that part of the interaction.

I guess I am guilty of the same, I pretend to feel well when I don't and have to really be aware of how I treat others to be sure I don't take my pain out on them.

I guess it all comes down to honest communication which is something none of us do very well.

After pain posts I get emails about this pain remedy and that pain remedy. Thanks for your concern, but I've tried 'em all and, despite taking enough Code II narcotics, a neuroleptic, and a bunch of stuff to stop spasms....I just have to cope with it.

My physician (who wrote me a letter in case I ever get stopped by Cailet's hubby or some other cop) says that the daily dose of pain meds that I take without even getting drowsy would drop the average person for a week. Wanna beer with that coma, sir?

On a brighter note, the backyard oasis is coming around. Lotus and bamboo are reaching for the sun. Even the okra, with it's purple veined leaves, looks like more than the blue-collared food plant it is.

Well, gonna watch bad tv for a while.

Heck, Kathy loved it..(btw, great date movie...hint, hint) she cried at the chick stuff (sorry Cailet).

Time to go to bed now.

I did that. However it never occurred to me to remove the plastic wrap which was covering the chicken.

So, when she got home...and whipped out the chicken it was obvious to everyone what had happened. Man, I just feel as if my mind is going away one little piece at a time.

When a President's truth depends upon the definition of "is" and we call out income tax system voluntary...truth becomes a relative issue and, as such, is meaningless.

Justice has also gone that way. It seems that the group which is willing to be the biggest threat to peace gets "justice." North Korea is playing that game right now and it is liable to blow up in their face. I hope to be upwind when that happens.

If Truth and Justice are shot...what of the American Way? The American way is exemplified by the concept known as the Protestant Work Ethic. Simply put, the idea is that if you work hard you will eventually be rewarded. That idea is dialectically opposed to idea of instant gratification that seems to have pervaded the culture. Why work hard and wait when I can put it on my credit card (and pay for it two to three times because of interest)? Instant gratification has been seared into the consciousness of youth. Sex: why wait? Use protection and boink everyone. College: I'll just pull an all-nighter and.... Work: Ah, I'll do this later, besides that manager owes me.... It's like baby barf in that it seems to permeate everything. IN fact we have entire sub-cultures of people who have never had to work for anything...go to an Indian reservation or the trailer parks or Appalachia, the slab shacks here in GA. Old folks living on cat food and Social Security. People who have whored their future to the government for their vote.

Sorry, just an observation.

I know part of it is the relative nature of time in that our experience of time is created by our relation to and with the situation. For instance 60 seconds in the dentist's chair and sixty seconds kissing a beautiful (choose the gender you prefer) are, in our own experience, different. Yet a scientist or a clock maker would say sixty seconds is sixty seconds.

I miss those lovely long summer days of my youth where fishing for catfish in a stockpond seemed to last a lifetime. Those idyllic continuity of gracefully slow experience. When I was a kid, we never were bored (except at school or church). Now kids have to have their cell phone, game boy, beeper with IM, and GPS devices even when they attend the Apocalypse. Boredom is endemic. . .so time must be moving too slowly for the young.

Perhaps the old saw is true. Youth is wasted on the young. I see 15 year olds who can't wait to be 16, then 18, then 21...and suddenly life starts to get aways from them. Somewhere in the twenties work, family, church, kid's activities, the glass teat all start to speed time. Soon you're praying for time to slow down.

Many of the conceptual views of time tell us it's like a river in that it constantly flowin and we, in relation to time, are standing still. The past is the water that has flowed past you...the future is the water yet to come...and the present is what is swirling around your legs right now. You can't step in the same river twice. However, this modle means you are immortal as, for you, there was no time before you became conscious and when you die, time stops.

My fear is that time is more like an inverted V. We spend the first few years of our lives pushing as hard and as fast as we can to push our boulder to the top of the V because we just know it will be better to be 16 or 18 or 21. The when we hit the top, the boulder takes off and the second "half" of our life moves by so quickly as to be ephemeral.

Enjoy the moment./ Don't yearn for something you don't have or waste time longing for what you had in the past. There is joy and beauty and treasure around you now if you choose to see it.

To see it go to here .

The shop is here

If you've never visited the bunniwerks website...you can by going to www.bunniwerks.org

Thanks for any help you can spare.

Keith

Sorry, but I just really wanna take a nap.

Does anyone on the list have MS? I'd like to talk to someone who has dealt with this for some time. Thanks, Keith

Fullerton Cops fart on female prisoner. So that's why you married a cop;)

Boy, It's nice to know the United Nations is against the "N" word.

No peyote for you junior. Court won't let 4 year old get stoned.

What a world in which we live.

The First amendment is not just an open sore from which you can spew whatever foul nonsense you want. Rather it protects you when you are saying what you beileve to be true while saying it in the proper manner and in the proper venue.

For instance, you can stand outside an airport and talk about bombs and being a terrorist all day. however, when you enter that airport, your speech is constrained in favor of the protection of others. Nor can you scream theatre in a crowded fire house. Or something like that.

What happens in blogs and other discussion forums are ad hominem attacks. What that means is people attack the individual who posted an idea rather than the idea itself. It's called, among other things, flaming. It is not protected speech.

Nor are lies. Knowingly spreading falsehoods is fraud and not protected.

The web is a grand democracy...but remember, you are not the verbal executioner.

The past few hours have really been tough. The University President called me yesterday. He and his wife found a baby rabbit on their lawn. It had been attacked, it appeared, by a cat and would I please come save it. (With wild buns the normal response is, "no. leave it alone and it's mother should come to the rescue." But this guy is my boss after all.)

So, I stayed up most of last night trying to get the little fellow's body temp up to normal and to get some food im him. Well, he passed away a little while ago...It's surprising how a tiny little life like that can affect you.

So, I'm gonna sit around a mourn a life too young to have a name.

They often see murder as the only way of escape...and many want to be caught. So the state assists in their escape by putting them in jail.

Years ago I covered trials for radio news services. It was very hard to not get wrapped up in the sensational cases...but the most amazing thing was how pathetic many human lives seem to be. One or two bad choices and they're on crack in a trailerpark with six kids and no electricity.

So as the Laci Peterson case becomes the nation's new live news drama...remember that if he did it...he has, symbolically anyway, killed himself too.

I'm not trying to demean the act; I just want to understand the motive.

ttfn Keith

It was nice to feel the chill of the ocean as the tide rolled in and to watch the dolphins feed on bait fish. It was great to sit in Doc's and drink Guiness with adults. It was also nice to see that God hasn't lost his touch and can still create women who should be in bikinis...very small bikinis.

I'm still worn out. MS does that to you.

PS...Cailet...legal roofies like Nyquil and Tequila