AdamSmith

That's it, isn't it? Ben Franklin's mordant quip after the Declaration of Independence that "We had better hang together or we will certainly hang separately" is no less true today. I am as lefty as they come, but I am absolutely with RA1 in that the posturing and tomfoolery and dishonesty coming from all sides in DC today threaten to be the death of the republic. One can make fine partisan distinctions, but they won't much alter the outcome.

The answer is: Yes! I trust your motives.

Fuck fuck fuck yes yes yes!

I met him once, when he came to my college to give a talk (as such!). He was incredibly gracious. He autographed my copy of (only thing I had on me ) Dante's Inferno.

If this should be in the Politics forum, make it so...

Deepest condolences. Been there. Our thoughts are with you.

Just couldn't resist...

And what about the airport metal detector... Would TSA make you remove it and put it in the little dish to go through the X-ray machine?

In case it was in question, one might note the obvious: this RockHard is pretty clearly not our beloved cuss of the same name from Daddy's forum. The above post -- the grammatical slip "Use to be" and the general style -- is nothing like the writing of the original RockHard. Further, given how emphatically and repeatedly RockHard Edition 1 has expressed his contempt for the present site, it strains credulity to think he would post here. lurker's post was heartwarming. Thank you, lurker, for all you do for our community here. Kumbaya!

Standards? What are they? See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizard_Lick,_North_Carolina

A bit late, but I just noticed this dead-on indictment of this foolishness: P.C. insult to a Mark Twain classic By Ron Powers, Special to CNN January 7, 2011 7:04 a.m. EST Editor's note: Ron Powers is the author of "Mark Twain: A Life" (Free Press, 2005). (CNN) -- The vapid, smiley-faced effrontery of it corrodes the foundations of respect for American literature. And the effrontery is the least of it. NewSouth Books' announcement that it is bringing out a desecrated edition of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" -- in which faceless editors at this distinctly vanilla-flavored publisher will have excised every one of Mark Twain's brilliantly seditious employments of the evil word "nigger" -- has caught the fleeting notice of bloggers and pundits around the country... More: http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/01/06/powers.huck.finn/index.html?iref=obinsite

Something to watch for, starting Feb. 7... http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/01/31/958027/lizard-lick-towing-the-tv-show.html ...Sounds authentic to me!

Amazing, marvelous, often warmly hiliarious to ruminate on how the books we loved as children helped form us. When I was little (age 4-7), one or other of my parents would read to me many nights, just before bedtime, in the bed beside me. First The Gingerbread Man, which was grim enough; then the even more Grimm fairy tales (slightly redacted!), together with some Aesop from the same anthology as Grimm; other little children's books of the times, Little Toot on the Thames, The Berenstein Bears, et al.; then Dr. Seuss & Sendak & so on. Then I got a voracious appetite for the, I think, 50-cent Fawcett-Crest paperback collections of 'Peanuts.' Also, thereafter, 'B.C.' ((possibly one of the drollest creations the other side of 'Beavis & Butthead,' at least until Jonny Hart was overtaken by senility)); 'Wizard of Id,' 'Tumbleweeds' and a few others. Anybody else have favorites to add? Anyway, at age nine, I watched '2001,' then bought the paperback, and read and re-read it into oblivion. Literally. I still have it. 2/3 of its body weight is Scotch tape. ... One's first, alas lifelong, glimpse into the torment of all that remains unread.

How could I have missed this series? http://worldofwonder.net/productions/Machines_of_Malice/ I once saw an Iron Maiden at a Ripley's Believe It or Not museum in Gatlinburg, TN. It was as horrifying as you might think. Not full of many small spikes, as often drawn; just a few big ones, strategically placed.

January 2011 interview with Terry Gross... http://www.npr.org/2011/01/21/133110607/reynolds-price-a-southern-writer-a-lyrical-gift I studied with him in 1979. Last spoke with him in 1989. You just never envision that such a thing will one day not be possible ever again. http://www.maleescortreview.com/forum/index.php?/topic/3706-deaths/page__p__19441__hl

To N.C. novelist & Milton scholar Reynolds Price: RIP. One feels the loss so deeply. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/books/21price.html?pagewanted=1&hpw http://www.npr.org/2011/01/20/133094306/novelist-professor-reynolds-price-dies http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/21/reynolds-price-legendary-_n_812024.html I took his course on Milton. One of the 2 most magnificent minds I've ever encountered in person.

"...with all deliberate speed..." http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr007.html

Somewhat extraordinary audio I just came across... http://www.kennedylibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKPOF-TPH-30.aspx

HAW! ... Worth 4 or 5 of these ...

The Two Towers of Bologna both lean, one of them quite visibly, due some think to haste in building them fueled by competition between the two families to see who could complete theirs first. Walking around them one time, I was actually a little fearful to get too near the one that looks like it may be about to tip over. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towers_of_Bologna

Well ... there is some scholarly thought that 'Jesus' (Yeshua bar Joseph), as such and as placed in history by the Gospel writers, did not actually exist, but was rather a narratological invention modeled on a 'Yeshua' who lived some 60 years before the time of the Gospel stories, then outfitted with circumstance to 'fulfill' conditions laid down in the Pentateuch. One of many itinerant sage/miracle-workers who abounded in that part of the world in those times. Several of whom seem to have become the focus of one or another of the abundant mystery cults of the day. But that it was the Gospel writers, plus the scribe who set down the Thomas gospel -- plus a hypothesized 'Q' gospel and in the view of at least one scholar a 'Cross' gospel, both now lost, but possibly both having served as source texts for the 4 canonical Gospels (the latter 3 of which fairly clearly just rewrite, as well as compete for authority with, the Markan gospel) -- and above all the near-superhuman efforts of Paul, that together transformed the Jesus movement from one of many minor mystery cults into what it ultimately became. The only independent (i.e., outside canonical Scripture or the Apocrypha) near-contemporary reference to the Jesus movement is a brief, dodgy mention by the Roman Jewish 'historian' Josephus Flavius, whose motives are in any event suspect. Let me stop before MsGuy has to chastise me again.

We may never know. But Wikipedia summarizes the case: On 26 May 2000 he was made a Knight Bachelor "for services to literature" at a ceremony in Colombo.[12][43] The award of a knighthood had been announced in the 1998 New Year Honours,[11][44] but investiture with the award had been delayed, at Clarke's request, because of an accusation, by the British tabloid The Sunday Mirror, of paedophilia.[45][46] The charge was subsequently found to be baseless by the Sri Lankan police.[47][48] According to The Daily Telegraph (London), the Mirror subsequently published an apology, and Clarke chose not to sue for defamation.[49][50] Clarke was then duly knighted. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C_Clarke Clarke claimed that the words about pedophilia attributed to him were entirely fabricated by The Mirror. Seems likely to me; the comments are just so radically out of character from anything else he ever said in public remotely related to sexuality. (And he didn't drink or take drugs, nor was there any dementia. So he did not just slip up and lose track of himself in an interview.) There has been speculation that The Mirror pulled the stunt partly to try and embarrass Prince Charles, as the "interview" appeared shortly after it was announced that Clarke would be knighted. Besides the retraction, Murdoch even apologized to Clarke for what his paper had done. This reminds me I can't wait for his diaries to be unsealed, which I think he directed to happen 30 years after his death. Hope I am still around then!

Update -- The Economist just published this remarkably enlightened piece on BBQ: http://www.economist.com/node/17722664 It's only 10 in the morning and already I want some.

You think? Twain was such a fierce ironist that it almost never pays to take him (exclusively) at face value. As with the passage you quote -- is he being straight, or ridiculing the question and the questioner? That one can't be quite sure is the genius of it.