Good evening, Dark Wraith.

Goodness, your usually sunny disposition seems to be rather cloudy, today:)

That chick spinning her car around reminded me of an incident, this morning. I got to work and parked. One of the other people came driving into the parking lot to where there were no cars, and slammed on the brakes. The vehicle slid around. I wondered who the heck that fool was. Ha. It was one of the really nice young fellas that work there. I decided the best course was not to say anything.

I'm glad you reminded me about clicking to Amazon.com from your site. It's the least I can do.

By the way, the comments were closed on your prior article. You really do look younger, and healthier!

I'm going to have to follow some of your tips. Perhaps, I'll be able to kick off some pounds.

Good evening, oldwhitelady.

Not everyone needs to lose weight. As I recall, some of my long-time readers here are quite beautiful without having to diet.

As far as that driver is concerned, in my parking lot I've noticed more than a few places where large circles and arcs have been formed by what I suspect were drivers unprepared for what ice can do to otherwise well-behaved cars. In fact, there's a snow bank on the other side of the lot that has the distinct inpression of what was probably a car that would not have stopped had the snow not been there. I wasn't around to see it happen, but I imagine there's a resident of this place who is, from now on, going to be at least somewhat more cautious.

Then again, I should talk. I've already fallen twice in the past few days because I wasn't paying attention to the ice under my feet.

I think being in a car would have made the impact somewhat less traumatic on my body.

The Dark Wraith should consider buying personal airbags to wear when going outside in this weather.

Good morning, Mr Wraith.

I used to be one of those guys that OWL was talking about.
There was a spot out behind the Pancake House (we didn't get waffles out in the boonies) that would build up a big patch of ice. My friend and I would go out there to spin wildly in circles with some tune from Mob Rules blasting. For some reason, that was necessary for the proper effect. Better than most amusement park rides.

Probably some other tune they listen to nowadays while that's going on; though I suspect that Mob Rules cassette still works fairly well.

Perhaps you should have asked that lady if she has that on CD.

DW,
Those "large circles and arcs" are quite explainable. They are winter crop circles created by the seasonal visitors of northern and southern regions of their respective home worlds!
As for your summation of the state of life, I now believe you have transcended dimensions. I've always known that we "dimension trip." How else could anyone explain global warming deniers who obviously have much less pollutants in their atmosphere?
And in some dimension I'm sure Democrats DO care about people more than corporations. In addition, there are NO conspiracies in their dimensions, only here.
In case you wonder where this info comes from, know that I have dimension tripped many times! Usually we "trippers" do so during deep, dreaming sleep where we make the transition. But please don't tell anyone. Some may think it's just another...theory.
Oh, and men are better drivers in my original dimension, you can find pots of gold at the ends of every rainbow and Schrödinger's cat has a twin who slides between dimensions at will to explain the problem.
Oh, yeah. And I'm fabulously wealthy in 4 other dimensions.
Maybe that's why I'm looking forward to my next trip. I'm pretty sure I work for Goldman there!
Ciao baby!

First, it's Mob Rules, then it's crop circles in the snow.

What's next? — visits from Hades by fallen angels looking for jobs as undocumented workers?

I simply must stop buying coffee beans from guys who keep chemicals in their underwear to destroy the fabric of this once-great nation.

The Dark Wraith will probably have to re-establish his purchasing relationship with that donkey of Juan Valdez.

Progressive Traditionalist, years ago, my roommate and I rode along with my older brother to make snow donuts behind a mall. It was night, and there were several others with the same idea. The fun ended when two cars smacked against each other. We were in one of those cars. Fortunately, there wasn't much damage done (cars were built with more metal, back then) and the people were just shaken. Good times... or maybe not so much.

It's so cold that I will stay indoors as much as possible. I dislike being cold. Even though I've lived in the "north country" all my life, I still can't get used to winter.

I love when you grouse. You are so good at it!

I once knew an older woman who would purposely run a shopping cart into the back of someone's ankles (yowie) and then put on this phony "sweet little old lady face" and say:

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there... BLOCKING THE AISLE.

Tsk!

As for getting about on ice when you must be out, maybe this would work.

Or this.

There certainly better ways to bust your arse!

Dear DW,

A pleasure speaking via your radio show tonight.

Per your post -- "a veritable liberal—in the White House" -- liberal is the new conservative.

Per our discussion, I would be interested to hear your expanded thoughts on the clamped-down nature of today's youth and that lack of inquisitiveness and spontaneity.

Has HSA got their tongue? Are people starting out wizened? Has fear pervaded the schoolyard? As I mentioned, here in FLA we have the dreaded FCAT's, which keep the students on the hamster wheel from 3rd grade on.

Father Thyme says it's the flouride, but does he know about the lithium initiative? Are they not already adding that to the water in Japan? Not that I'm a conspiracy theorist, or anything ...

"The trains all run on time here /Got such a straight and narrow mind here" ("Paper Tiger") Oops -- forgot about Amtrak!

Father Tyme,

Did I catch that you are a Korean War veteran? My hat's off to you -- I am heartbroken when I read of the privations the men endured over there. Beyond the limits of human endurance, it would seem.

Hi Lisa,
Nope! One war too early! After I mentioned that, even my wife asked me if I lied about my age! Har Har!
Sadly, all "conflicts" cause men to endure that which they must and that which sane men wouldn't wish on any others, not counting our chickenhawk, 4F, too rich to serve, piloniadal cyst asses and their ilk. It's one thing to talk about defending your country like some patriotic founding father but another, (and all the difference in the world), when you actually are in a position to lose your life (or worse, in my opinion) at the hands of one who may just be doing what his leaders think is right.
It's always been that "Hey, let's you and him fight for me" attitude that pissed me off.
There MAY be even more "experiments" hidden in the open than the lithium initiative. Look how long it took for the New York Subway germ/bacteria experiments to come out.
We have Monsanto knowingly providing dangerous genetically modified organisms to people through end products. There is all kind of repressed bad corporate information that people in monetary power positions don't want released. And look at the fruits of their labors; Aspartame and it's problems and the rewards Donny Rumsfeld got from it. That's just one of a list too long even for the "tubes!" Someone should compile a list of companies and lawyers who knowingly would harm the public for money and publicly name them.
Imagine a person knowing his product can cause cancer, brain damage, birth defects or any other condition hiring another (lawyer or advertiser who also knows the dangers) to propagandize such that Congress allows the public to suffer so the person in question and his company can make money! If you know that I commit a crime and you tell no one, you are an accomplice and can go to jail. Not so with advertisers, lawyers and politicians.
Conspiracy theory is like paranoia; just because it sounds so far-fetched doesn't mean it ain't so!
(Has anyone checked 7-Up lately? or any other cola or "uncola?" And after the Chinese paint scare in 2008, did we really get the "lead" out or did it go quietly into the Congressional night? Are we still poisoning our pets so the Nestlé Purina PetCare Company can make money?)
If I weren't already crazy, I'd think I was going crazy!!!!

Father T,.

I'm with Krishnamurti: "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."

To question is not only valid, but necessary if we are to have any semblance of liberty. I have no doubt our government cares little for the individual citizen. We, too, can lose thousands without it maing much of a dent, and the deaths can easily be attributed to any number of natural causes.

We are appalled at China, yet I can imagine all of the environmental, food and drug offenses committed on our own soil, with a complicit government.

DW,

p.s. -- I just read your previous post, and am so glad you are caring for yourself better. You do look well, and as with myself, are learning that little bites of exercise are better than the intermittent bouts.

Butter is good; salt is not. All things in moderation, but preferably, not poisonous foods. Everyone needs a sweet now and again, but make it a good one. The old maxim holds: We are what we eat, meaning everything we ingest (thoughts, feelings, food, etc.)

Ah, yes, but the Chinese are now in the process of cracking down on Internet pornography.

There's nothing like a good purge to cleanse the national soul of those darned demons, which simply must be other than the nature of the soul, itself.

The Dark Wraith thinks we can all agree on that.

Dr. Wraith -- you left out Rahm Emmanual from the list of "failed and venal men". Or this because failed morality doesn't count?

Father Tyme, Lisa Ranger - yep.

I just read two blog posts from someone I have known for a considerable time, and I have to say that I am terribly disappointed.
The one was about Sarah Palin joining FOX news; the other about gay marriage in California.
I really don't care.
Sarah Palin is the exact same person as Britney Spears. The exact same.
Why bore me with Britney Spears and pretensions of pertinence?
It's pop culture. That's all.
The so-called "marriage equality" thing is just flavor of the day.
It means nothing to my daily life.
I really don't care.
Some people do.
But then some people like telling everyone else what they should and shouldn't be doing.
I don't see why they don't get involved in some community organization where they could reach out to people and help change their lives, if that's what they really want.
But that's not what they really want.
They want for A and B to both equal C, as well as A + B = C.
The only way that works out is if A, B, and C are all 0.

It occurs to me that this is the very reason that I enjoy my "typically apolitical" status.
I do enough foolish things left to my own devices without the bother of organizing foolishness into a widespread campaign.
Apparently, others see the matter somewhat differently.

I feel a sickness in my heart for the superfluity of what passes for serious matters these days.

"The world is good. First-tier, liberal bloggers are straight shooters. The government isn't still spying on you, and it deleted of all the databases you were in that were created during the Bush II era. Conspiracy theories are nonsense. The Democrats care about you instead of K Street lobbyists. The courts side squarely with the rights of the citizens over the claims of police and the privileges of corporations, and that promise of health care reform is about to be realized beyond your wildest hopes.

It's all good.

It's the 21st Century, we have a progressive—nay, a veritable liberal—in the White House, and our nation is at peace.

Yes, it's all good."


I will have to post this on my bathroom mirror where I can read it every morning. :-)

"We are fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance."

"Dr. Wraith . . . or, How I Came to Stop Worrying and Love Cynicism"

( not really stop worrying, but at least enjoy a little truthful humor along the way.)

...And while I'm at it, here's how to fix health care and ensure universal coverage (I've already shown that Universality is the greatest of all virtues):

1). Require that all insurance companies sell a medical policy that covers emergency room visits, and emergency room visits only.
2). Require that everyone purchase this level of coverage.

Problem solved!

...Want prescription coverage?
How's this:

1). Take every pill in the nation and throw it in to Lake Michigan.
2). Require that everyone in the country drink one cup of water a day from the lake.

Problem solved!

Progressive Traditionalist:
I'll have to agree that Britney and Sarah are about equal in the scale of the universe, except that Sarah IS dangerous in that otherwise intelligent people seem to somehow have been mesmerized by her "abilities" (wow, she can kill a moose and dress it, what a woman!) leading to acceptance of her various ignorances as Truth, leading us further away from a logical, rational society. So I kind of like to watch her, like keeping an eye on the snake in the tree you need to pass in the woods.

I kind of resent anyone characterizing the civil and legal rights issue of gays being recognized as full human beings with families by the phrase "flavor of the day". I am quite happy for you that it means nothing to you in your daily life. It will probably cease to be a "flavor of the day" to annoy you if the thousands of gay and lesbian households achieve equal recognition as real families, with all of society's protections. Unfortunately, it does daily impact thousands of men, women and children, and some folks will find it worthy of blogging about. You'll just have to cope.

I was hoping for a psuedo-open thread over here. I just re-read "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand (please, DW, spare me the economics rant...I have never been able to abide her non-fiction and don't think much of her worshippers). That said, I realized during the reading that Karl Rove/Rush Limbaugh/etc. IS Elsworth Toohy. The Neo-con playbook is sooo close to what he does throughout the book, elevating the mediocre at the expense of the competent through teaching the masses to distrust the intellectual, the scientist, the doer, and revere the stupid, the emotional, the parasite. For those who have read the book, can't you see George Bush as Peter Keating? His qualification for president was folks would like to have a beer with him? Kerry was too elite, too intellectual and policy minded....

The cons are "supposed" to be Ayn's spiritual successors.... but rather than taking her libertarian to the extreme heroes as role models, they took her villains, the ones using the collective to gain power as their role models. Read the common man's opinions quoted in places in the novel, then listen to an interview with a teabagger or someone at a Palin rally.

I've been feeling sick and depressed since I noticed the parallels. I'm hoping the depressed is more the single digit temps and too many days straight at work more than true hopelessness about the country and the future.

No. Gays are recognized as human beings. That is not at issue, nor are any of the other logical fallacies surrounding the rhetoric.
The rhetoric surrounding gay marriage is either:
1). inconsequential; or
2). so widespread it's meaningless.

Inconsequential includes those arguments such as family structure, when in fact there are no prohibitions on the family structure.
I'm supposed to believe that someone like Melissa Etheridge can't have babies.
I'm supposed to believe a lot of things that I don't.

Widespread arguments are those which apply to very large groups (like human beings) which gays are a subset of, and then apply all of those things to gays only.
Like gay skin care.
Gays should wear sunblock when exposed to full sunlight for extended periods of time, because the sun has been shown to have harmful effects on gay skin.
Etc.

Gay marriage can have a significant impact on someone's life only if they choose for it to.
Gay people have been plenty gay for centuries without being married one to another, and I have every confidence that this trend will continue.

Before this gets out of hand and goes off on a tangent, I would like to say that it's really only an issue of being inside a bubble.
You're either inside the bubble or outside of it.
Inside the bubble, gay marriage is very important, and what Sarah Palin does or doesn't do is very important. It's just the bubble that distorts things to make them look that way.
If gays get married/don't get married in California, who's going to go out to shovel the snow from my walk?
If Sarah Palin is a savior/demon, is the price of a can of soda going to go up?
Those things are inconsequential and meaningless, except to those directly involved.
The bubble confers a sense of involvement which doesn't exist.
The bubble makes itself important, but it is false.
There is no spoon.
Can I fix a bike for the kid down the street?
That's something that's important. It has meaning. It has consequence.
Outside of the bubble, things appear much differently.
I was not meant to be inside that bubble.
I don't belong there.
Perhaps some do.
I feel badly for them, that they would search for meaning in their lives through something so abstract and intangible.
Whatever meaning they find is likely to be just as abstract and intangible.
There is no fulfillment on that side of the bubble; only hunger.
And that hunger will never be satisfied.

Dear Wraith,

You should approach CBS about replacing Andy Rooney. Maybe you could make some big money on weekends.

DW says,

"Ah, yes, but the Chinese are now in the process of cracking down on Internet pornography"

Bbbut ... they're not going to remove the plushie sites, are they?!!