Great Poem: "'Had I not been awake...'" by Seamus Heany

'Had I not been awake'
by Seamus Heaney

Had I not been awake I would have missed it,
A wind that rose and whirled until the roof
Pattered with quick leaves off the sycamore

And got me up, the whole of me a-patter,
Alive and ticking like an electric fence;
Had I not been awake I would have missed it

It came and went so unexpectedly
And almost it seemed dangerously,
Returning like an animal to the house,

A courier blast that there and then
Lapsed ordinary. But not ever
Afterwards. And not now.

Great Poem: "The Dawn" By Federico Garcia Lorca

It amazes me that this poem was written 80 years ago, and it still has so much insight into the New York of today. It's truly a great poem.

The Dawn

BY FEDERICO GARCÍA LORCA

The New York dawn has

four columns of mud

and a hurricane of black doves

that paddle in putrescent waters.

The New York dawn grieves

along the immense stairways,

seeking amidst the groins

spikenards of fine-drawn anguish.

The dawn comes and no one receives it in his mouth,

for there no morn or hope is possible.

Occasionally, coins in furious swarms

perforate and devour abandoned children.

The first to come out understand in their bones

that there will be no paradise nor amours stripped of leaves:

they know they are going to the mud of figures and laws,

to artless games, to fruitless sweat.

The light is buried under chains and noises

in impudent challenge of rootless science.

Through the suburbs sleepless people stagger,

as though just delivered from a shipwreck of blood.

Great Poem: "Barges on the Hudson" by Babette Deutsch

Barges on the Hudson

BY BABETTE DEUTSCH

Going up the river, or down, their tuneless look

Is of men grown poorer who, though ageing, wear

Some majesty of the commonplace. Old barges

Are cousin to those whom poverty becomes—

To late November, the north, nightfall, all the

Deprived whom increment of loss enlarges.

They have no faces, have no voices, even

Of their own selves no motion. Yet they move.

With what salt grace, with a dim pride of ocean

Uncompassable by a fussy tug,

Prim nurse that drags or nudges the old ones on.

They must borrow their colors from the river, mirror

The river’s muddy silver, in dulled red echo

A sundown that beds in soot. Their freight, rusty,

Faded, cindery, is like the past

The charwoman deals with. Yesterday’s business

They carry with the dignity of the blind.

By night the river is black, they are black’s shadows

Passing. The unwrinkled stars dispute that darkness

Alone with a lantern on a one-eyed spar.

Great Poem: "The Spring Campaigns" by Julio Martinez Mesanza

The Spring Campaigns

Other men remember the false gardens
of love, and the days they were in love
or thought they were in love, and others
the books they read as children, books that marked
their lives forever, though they couldn't know
in those days how the real world operates.
And all of them take comfort in this way
and even grow enthusiastic when
they realize that memory can shape
itself at will and provide the things
that love and books and gardens can't provide.
I remember what I didn't undertake:
more than anything, the spring campaigns.

Great Poem: "1999" by Kevin Gonzalez

It's been awhile... enjoy this poem by Kevin Gonzalez.

1999
by Kevin Gonzalez

We were driving to your funeral
& our father was not crying
because he has a way
of tying ribbons around grief.
It was the year we learned
the piercing that prefaces the blood
holds the most delicate of darknesses.
Then it was the year we opened
all our faucets & waited for the sea
to bleed to death. Then it was the year
we set fire to your mitt. Then, suddenly
the year we started to believe
every thorn was just a bridge.
Then the year all we talked about
was boxing. Then the year
my stomach hurt all year, & then
the year no one spoke of you.

If there were an antonym for suicide
we could all choose when to be born.
I would have been born after that day
so I could not remember you.
So my fingers would stop pointing
at all the things that aren't there.

50 worst pop lyrics of all-time

I'm glad this was included: 

"I'm down on my knees, searching for the answer… Are we human or are we dancer?" 

A shocker from Gallup

Grizzly Bear singing "Two Weeks" live

Man, these boys can harmonize... 

Scenes From The Wire: Bubbles Walks Through Hamsterdam

This may be the most intense scene in all five seasons of The Wire. It shows Bubbles, a heroin addict, walking through the legalized drug zone at night. Frightening stuff.

Great Poem: William Carlos William's "A Love Song"

Another beauty by WCW.

A Love Song
By William Carlos Williams

What have I to say to you
When we shall meet?
Yet—
I lie here thinking of you.

The stain of love
Is upon the world.
Yellow, yellow, yellow,
It eats into the leaves,
Smears with saffron
The horned branches that lean
Heavily
Against a smooth purple sky.

There is no light—
Only a honey-thick stain
That drips from leaf to leaf
And limb to limb
Spoiling the colours
Of the whole world.

I am alone.
The weight of love
Has buoyed me up
Till my head
Knocks against the sky.

See me!
My hair is dripping with nectar—
Starlings carry it
On their black wings.
See, at last
My arms and my hands
Are lying idle.

How can I tell
If I shall ever love you again
As I do now?

Eddie Murphy in "White Like Me"

I was watching the SNL short special last night and saw this for the first time. Hilarious. Just watch the way Eddie Murphy walks as a white man.

Grizzly Bear sings "Two Weeks" with chick from Beach House

I wish the recording was better, but this is still cool.

Great Poem: Ezra Pound's "The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter"

I can't believe I've never read this one, but it's something else. Enjoy. 


The River-Merchant's Wife
By Ezra Pound

While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead
I played about the front gate, pulling flowers.
You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse,
You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums.
And we went on living in the village of Chokan:
Two small people, without dislike or suspicion.
At fourteen I married My Lord you.
I never laughed, being bashful.
Lowering my head, I looked at the wall.
Called to, a thousand times, I never looked back.
At fifteen I stopped scowling,
I desired my dust to be mingled with yours
Forever and forever and forever.
Why should I climb the look out?
At sixteen you departed,
You went into far Ku-to-en, by the river of swirling eddies,
And you have been gone five months.
The monkeys make sorrowful noise overhead.
You dragged your feet when you went out.
By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses,
Too deep to clear them away!
The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind.
The paired butterflies are already yellow with August
Over the grass in the West garden;
They hurt me. I grow older.
If you are coming down through the narrows of the river Kiang,
Please let me know beforehand,
And I will come out to meet you
As far as Cho-fu-Sa.

Critics' Pick: A.O. Scott reviews "The Graduate"

A.O. Scott does a little 3-minute soundbyte about "The Graduate" on the New York Times website. If you're a fan of the movie it's worth a watch. It's probably the best movie about being young and in your 20s that I've seen. It's a classic. 

Great Poem: Michael Blumenthal's "And Here You Are"

When I was an undergrad, Michael Blumenthal was teaching poetry writing. Unfortunately, I never got to take him. It's a shame, he's a wonderful poet. Just check this out. 

And Here You Are

By Michael Blumenthal

It's such a relief to see the woman you love walk out the door 
some nights, for it's ten o'clock and you need your eight hours 
of sleep, and one glass of wine has been more than enough

and, as for lust—well, you can live without it most days and you 
are glad, too, that the Ukrainian masseuse you see every Wednesday 
is not in love with you, and has no plans to be, for it's the pain

in your back you need relief from most, not that ambiguous itch, 
and the wild successes of your peers no longer bother you 
nor do your unresolved religious cravings nor the general injustice

of the world, no, there is very little that bothers you these days when 
you turn, first, to the obituaries, second to the stock market, then, 
after a long pause, to the book review, you are becoming a good citizen,

you do your morning exercises, count your accumulated blessings, 
thank the Lord there's a trolley just outside your door your girlfriend 
can take back home to her own bed and here you are it is morning you

are alone every little heartbeat is yours to cherish the future is on fire 
with nothing but its own kindling and whatever it is that's burning 
in its flames isn't you and now you will take a shower and this is it.

Great Poem: Billy Collins's "Marginalia"

I'm not always the biggest Billy Collins fan but this poem's wit made me laugh. Favorite line: "And if you have managed to graduate from college/without ever having written "Man vs. Nature"/in a margin, perhaps now/is the time to take one step forward."

Marginalia by Billy Collins

Sometimes the notes are ferocious, skirmishes against the author raging along the borders of every page in tiny black script. If I could just get my hands on you, Kierkegaard, or Conor Cruise O'Brien, they seem to say, I would bolt the door and beat some logic into your head. Other comments are more offhand, dismissive - "Nonsense." "Please!" "HA!!" - that kind of thing. I remember once looking up from my reading, my thumb as a bookmark, trying to imagine what the person must look like why wrote "Don't be a ninny" alongside a paragraph in The Life of Emily Dickinson. Students are more modest needing to leave only their splayed footprints along the shore of the page. One scrawls "Metaphor" next to a stanza of Eliot's. Another notes the presence of "Irony" fifty times outside the paragraphs of A Modest Proposal. Or they are fans who cheer from the empty bleachers, Hands cupped around their mouths. "Absolutely," they shout to Duns Scotus and James Baldwin. "Yes." "Bull's-eye." "My man!" Check marks, asterisks, and exclamation points rain down along the sidelines. And if you have managed to graduate from college without ever having written "Man vs. Nature" in a margin, perhaps now is the time to take one step forward. We have all seized the white perimeter as our own and reached for a pen if only to show we did not just laze in an armchair turning pages; we pressed a thought into the wayside, planted an impression along the verge. Even Irish monks in their cold scriptoria jotted along the borders of the Gospels brief asides about the pains of copying, a bird signing near their window, or the sunlight that illuminated their page- anonymous men catching a ride into the future on a vessel more lasting than themselves. And you have not read Joshua Reynolds, they say, until you have read him enwreathed with Blake's furious scribbling. Yet the one I think of most often, the one that dangles from me like a locket, was written in the copy of Catcher in the Rye I borrowed from the local library one slow, hot summer. I was just beginning high school then, reading books on a davenport in my parents' living room, and I cannot tell you how vastly my loneliness was deepened, how poignant and amplified the world before me seemed, when I found on one page A few greasy looking smears and next to them, written in soft pencil- by a beautiful girl, I could tell, whom I would never meet- "Pardon the egg salad stains, but I'm in love."

Or maybe this is the best hockey goal ever...

The best hockey goal ever?

This goal by Alexander Ovechkin may just be the best goal I've ever seen scored. I'm not sure there is another player in the NHL who scores this one. 

Hauschka - Morgenrot

Beautiful stuff... 

Hauschka - Morgenrot from Jeff Desom on Vimeo.

True Friendship

Great Poem: William Carlos Williams "To a Poor Old Woman"

And here is my favorite William Carlos Williams poem...

To a Poor Old Woman
by William Carlos Williams
munching a plum on the street a paper bag of them in her hand They taste good to her They taste good to her. They taste good to her You can see it by the way she gives herself to the one half sucked out in her hand Comforted a solace of ripe plums seeming to fill the air They taste good to her

HBO Gives David Simon another show

Just when I thought the day couldn't get any better, I heard this news: 

It might not pay off in Emmys, but we're excited anyway! HBO has ordered the first nine episodes of Treme, the new project from Wire creator David Simon, according to Vulture buddy Nikki Finke. Treme, set in post-Katrina New Orleans, centers on a group of jazz musicians, though Simon has promised he'll make the Big Easy look just as bad as Baltimore by training his lens on the city's corrupt government and public-housing controversies. It stars Simon acolytes Wendell Pierce, Clarke Peters, and Melissa Leo, and will almost certainly be awesome.

Great Poem: C.P. Cavary's "Since Nine--"

I kind of dig this poem...curious what people think.


Since Nine—
by C. P. Cavafy
Translated by Daniel Mendelsohn

Half past twelve. The time has quickly passed
since nine o'clock when I first turned up the lamp
and sat down here. I've been sitting without reading,
without speaking. With whom should I speak,
so utterly alone within this house?
The apparition of my youthful body,
since nine o'clock when I first turned up the lamp,
has come and found me and reminded me
of shuttered perfumed rooms
and of pleasure spent—what wanton pleasure!
And it also brought before my eyes
streets made unrecognizable by time,
bustling city centres that are no more
and theatres and cafés that existed long ago.
The apparition of my youthful body
came and also brought me cause for pain:
deaths in the family; separations;
the feelings of my loved ones, the feelings of
those long dead which I so little valued.
Half past twelve. How the time has passed.
Half past twelve. How the years have passed.

Great Poem: William Carlos William's "The Red Wheelbarrow"

Slowly but surely this is turning into a poetry blog, it seems. But it's probably what I love most in this world, so I think it will continue to be a poetry blog with a few random links here and there.

Anyway, here's another WCW classic. As I said about another WCW poem, I did not understand the brilliance of this poem until I aged. But now I realize that WCW challenges us to do through the use of line breaks and rhythm is to savor each image. He wants to look at each image in the poem and movement of the poem and appreciate it just for the language and nothing else. So try reading it aloud and slowly. Savor each syllable and and be in the moment with it. 

The Red Wheelbarrow

By William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

Why President Obama needs to tweet more often

Oh lord, what is the world coming to:

In his first 100 days in office, Barack Obama has updated his Twitter account only twice. I voted for the guy, but I can’t stand by while President 2.0 throws away the
online cred he built during last year’s campaign.

Two weeks ago, the daytime-TV host Oprah Winfrey and the second-tier celebrity Ashton Kutcher drew national attention — Ms. Winfrey for using Twitter on her show, Mr. Kutcher for collecting a million followers at twitter.com. No one seems to have noticed the president has racked up a million followers without even trying. Imagine if he posted something!

The standard excuse made by Obama apologists — “he’s too busy” — is at best naïve. More often, it’s dishonest. The president records a five-minute video every week. Anyone who’s done video knows a five-minute clip takes a lot more than five minutes of preparation, shooting, and reshooting. A few days ago, Oprah figured out Twitter live on camera in less time than it takes Mr. Obama to explain PAYGO in this week’s address.

Great Poem: Richard Jackson's "Cause and Effect"

I found this on poems.com. Now this is the type of poetry I want to write.


Cause and Effect
by Richard Jackson

It's because the earth continues to wobble on its axis
that we continue to stumble down the streets of the heart.
It's because of the loneliness of the first cell trying to swim
through its primordial pool that we are filled with a kind of
galactic fear. For example: one moment a rocket falls
capriciously into a square. Another moment, a rogue wave
turns over the fishing boat whose crew leaves their memories
floating like an oil slick that never reaches shore.
In this way we understand our dying loves scratching at the door.
In this way, each love creates its own theory of pain. Each love
gnaws the derelict hours to the bone. But because there are
so many blank spaces in history we still have time
to write our own story. Wittgenstein said our words have
replaced our emotions. He never understood how
we have to cleanse ourselves of these invisible parasites
of doubt and fear. We might as well worry about
the signals from dead worlds wandering around the universe
forever. Think instead of how the trees prop up the sky.
How the rain falls into the open eyes of the pond
bringing a vision no one expected. Here's mine: this bee
hovering over the pencil seems to bring a message from
the deepest flowers you inhabit. Because I don't know
where all this love has come from, because the clouds are
covered with our footsteps that know no time, I am
no longer surprised when each day comes from a new place,
because in this way, I can imagine these words getting lost
in your lungs, my fingers curling inside you as if I could
gather you inside my own heart, or tracing the slope of your hip
towards a whole other world. Don't worry. Like us the planet
wobbles because of the shifting hot and cold zones, high
and low pressures, the pull of tides. The stars that are
these words are always closer than we think despite
the theories of astronomers. In this way, I will always be there,
a rain falling into the sea, the abandoned light opening your eyes
despite the curtains of reason, the life you give each time
you turn to me, because the stumbling breaths we borrow
from each other are all we have to keep each other alive.

Great Poem: Jim Harrison's "Age Sixty-Nine"

Just found this poem. What a great finish it has.

Age Sixty-nine
By Jim Harrison

I keep waiting without knowing
what I'm waiting for.
I saw the setting moon at dawn
roll over the mountain
and perhaps into the dragon's mouth
until tomorrow evening.

There is this circle I walk
that I have learned to love.
I hope one day to be a spiral
but to the birds I'm a circle.

A thousand Spaniards died looking
for gold in a swamp when it was
in the mountains in clear sight beyond.

Here, though, on local earth my heart
is at rest as a groundling, letting
my mind take flight as it will,
no longer waiting for good or bad news.

Often, lately, the night is a cold maw
and stars the scattered white teeth of the gods,
which spare none of us. At dawn I have birds,
clearly divine messengers that I don't understand
yet day by day feel the grace of their intentions.

Fun with Google Maps: Tracking the Swine Flu in real time

It is indeed a strange, strange age. 

Great Quote

“There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now.”- James Baldwin

Great Poem: W.H. Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts"

I just discovered this poem, and what a poem it is. It's an ekphrastic poem based on Auden's experience of seeing "Fall of Icarus" by Bruegel for the first time. It speaks to the apathy of humans in the face of individual tragedy, how what we feel as individuals is often not understood or ignored by the world around us. Pain is a solitary burden and something we must all deal with alone. It is something all the great poets understood. 

Musee des Beaux Arts

by W.H. Auden

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may 
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

Why Twitter is more valuable than Facebook

An interesting story in the New York Times today on the value of twitter: 

“Twitter lets people know what’s going on about things they care about instantly, as it happens,” said Evan Williams, Twitter’s chief executive and co-founder. “In the best cases, Twitter makes people smarter and faster and more efficient.”

Mr. Williams, along with the other founders, Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey, first envisioned Twitter as an easy way to stay in touch with people you already know.

In 2006, when Twitter was just starting, the three men felt a small earthquake in San Francisco. They each reached for their phones to twitter about it and discovered tweets from others in the city. At that moment, it dawned on them that Twitter might be most useful for something else — a frontline news report, not just for friends, but for anyone reading.

Indeed, the news-gathering promise of Twitter was most evident during the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last November and when a jetliner landed in the Hudson River in January. People were twittering from the scenes before reporters arrived.

Great Quote

"The greatest discovery of my generation is that man can alter his life simply by altering attitude of mind"- William J

Great Poem: Ranier Marie Rilke's "Autumn Day"

I know it's spring, but something made me think of this poem today. Beautiful.

Autumn Day

Lord: it is time. The summer was immense. Lay your shadow on the sundials and let loose the wind in the fields. Bid the last fruits to be full; give them another two more southerly days, press them to ripeness, and chase the last sweetness into the heavy wine.  Whoever has no house now will not build one  anymore. Whoever is alone now will remain so for a long  time, will stay up, read, write long letters, and wander the avenues, up and down, restlessly, while the leaves are blowing.

I'm sorry...

But this made me laugh. 

Great Quote

I was reading some D.H. Lawerence poetry on the internet, and I ran across this quote. I'm not sure I agree completely, but I always admire who can live and feel this passionately. 

" I am in love - and, my God, it is the greatest thing that can happen to a man. I tell you, find a woman you can fall in love with. Do it. Let yourself fall in love. If you have not done so already, you are wasting your life."- D. H. Lawrence

10 ten hottens 80s sitcom moms

Lori Loughlin i.e. Rebbeca Donaldson should be number one.

Great Poem: "The Long Boat" by Stanley Kunitz

I love this poem. There are many ways, I'm sure it can be interpreted, but I like to think of it as sort of a Buddhist poem. It's that feeling of when you let go of everything that is supposed to be you-- ambition, personality or whatever-- you can finally feel some peace.

The Long Boat
By Stanley Kunitz
When his boat snapped loose
from its mooring, under
the screaking of the gulls,
he tried at first to wave
to his dear ones on shore,
but in the rolling fog
they had already lost their faces.
Too tired even to choose
between jumping and calling,
somehow he felt absolved and free
of his burdens, those mottoes
stamped on his name-tag:
conscience, ambition, and all
that caring.
He was content to lie down
with the family ghost
sin the slop of his cradle,
buffeted by the storm,
endlessly drifting.
Peace! Peace!
To be rocked by the Infinite!
As if it didn't matter
which way was home;
as if he didn't know
he loved the earth so much
he wanted to stay forever.

White Music for Black People

Coates on the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album:

I think my opinions are shaped by basically missing any music created by white people during the mid to late 80s. Kids like me would have been dismissed as "acting white" for listening to a ban like the Yeah Yeahs Yeahs. OK, that's dishonest--I would have been the one doing the dismissing. What can I say? I was young and stupid, and thought the Bomb Squad and Marle Marl created the world. To get a listen from me, you had to run game--think George Michael who half my hood thought was black. We couldn't get cable in the city, and so we missed a lot of videos. (Hell, even Madonna got cut off, post "Get Into The Goove.")

Kenyatta, who did listen to a lot of white 80s acts, was saying how much of the stuff I'm digging today is derived from her childhood. I can vaguely hear that. But not really. The YYYs offer a shot at redemption, a chance at forgiveness for that imaginary black kid who I mocked as white because he dug Flock Of Seagulls. Forgive me Derwin. Everyone else, cop It's Blitz. Derwin already has it.

I agree with Coates, the album is quite good. It sounds sort of like a David Bowie album mixed with the Pretenders. And Karen O's voice is great. Like Coates says, it's not flashy but she never oversings. And her voice has this thing where it sounds like it's part of the rhythm section as much as it is part of the melody of the song. Just listen to her sing on "Soft Shock," which may be the best song on the album, and how she says the words "what's the time, what's the day, don't leave me?" Good stuff.

Benny Lava

This is simply brilliant. I couldn't stop laughing. 

Asian's Beware! Drinkers’ Red Face May Signal Cancer Risk

So I know a lot of Asian people whose faces turn red when they drink. I used to just make fun of them. I don't think I will anymore:

People whose faces turn red when they drink alcohol may be facing more than embarrassment. The flushing may indicate an increased risk for a deadly throat cancer, researchers report.

The flushing response, which may be accompanied by nausea and a rapid heartbeat, is caused mainly by an inherited deficiency in an enzyme called ALDH2, a trait shared by more than a third of people of East Asian ancestry — Japanese, Chinese or Koreans. As little as half a bottle of beer can trigger the reaction.

The deficiency results in problems in metabolizing alcohol, leading to an accumulation in the body of a toxin called acetaldehyde. People with two copies of the gene responsible have such unpleasant reactions that they are unable to consume large amounts of alcohol. This aversion actually protects them against the increased risk for cancer.

Paul Krugman keeps ripping the Obama administration's financial policies

You have to hand it to Paul Krugman, at least he's consistent. He knows far more about economics than I do, his criticism of Obama feels valid to me. But does anyone really know the correct solution to our financial crisis?

But the Obama administration, like the Bush administration, apparently wants an easier way out. The common element to the Paulson and Geithner plans is the insistence that the bad assets on banks’ books are really worth much, much more than anyone is currently willing to pay for them. In fact, their true value is so high that if they were properly priced, banks wouldn’t be in trouble.

And so the plan is to use taxpayer funds to drive the prices of bad assets up to “fair” levels. Mr. Paulson proposed having the government buy the assets directly. Mr. Geithner instead proposes a complicated scheme in which the government lends money to private investors, who then use the money to buy the stuff. The idea, says Mr. Obama’s top economic adviser, is to use “the expertise of the market” to set the value of toxic assets.

But the Geithner scheme would offer a one-way bet: if asset values go up, the investors profit, but if they go down, the investors can walk away from their debt. So this isn’t really about letting markets work. It’s just an indirect, disguised way to subsidize purchases of bad assets.

The likely cost to taxpayers aside, there’s something strange going on here. By my count, this is the third time Obama administration officials have floated a scheme that is essentially a rehash of the Paulson plan, each time adding a new set of bells and whistles and claiming that they’re doing something completely different. This is starting to look obsessive.

But the real problem with this plan is that it won’t work. Yes, troubled assets may be somewhat undervalued. But the fact is that financial executives literally bet their banks on the belief that there was no housing bubble, and the related belief that unprecedented levels of household debt were no problem. They lost that bet. And no amount of financial hocus-pocus — for that is what the Geithner plan amounts to — will change that fact.

You might say, why not try the plan and see what happens? One answer is that time is wasting: every month that we fail to come to grips with the economic crisis another 600,000 jobs are lost.

Even more important, however, is the way Mr. Obama is squandering his credibility. If this plan fails — as it almost surely will — it’s unlikely that he’ll be able to persuade Congress to come up with more funds to do what he should have done in the first
place.

All is not lost: the public wants Mr. Obama to succeed, which means that he can still rescue his bank rescue plan. But time is running out.

Dalai Lama denied visa for South Africa peace conference

How do you deny the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize a visa so he can't attend a peace conference? Talk about irony:

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- South Africa has refused the Dalai Lama a visa to attend an international peace conference in Johannesburg this week, a presidential spokesman said.

The Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel Laureate did not receive a visa because it was not in South Africa's interest for him to attend, said Thabo Masebe.

South Africa thinks that, if the Dalai Lama attended the conference, the focus would shift away from the 2010 World Cup -- the global soccer championship it will host next year.

"We cannot allow focus to shift to China and Tibet," Masebe said, adding that South Africa has gained much from its trading relationship with China.

Great Quote

"The fact is, the marijuana law in the U.S. is a big lie. It's racist and classist. White rich people can smoke marijuana with impunity and poor black people get a record, can't get education, can't get a loan, and all of sudden go into a life of desperation and become hardened criminals. Why? Because we've got a racist law based on lies about marijuana.

There's 80,000 people in jail today for marijuana. We arrested 800,000 people in the last 12 months on marijuana. Even in my rich little white suburban community of Edmonds, Wash., 25 percent of police action is marijuana-related. Everybody knows it's silly. I'm not saying I'm pro-drug. I'm just saying it's parallel to alcohol prohibition. When they rescinded the laws against alcohol, nobody said booze is good, they just said it was stupid to make it a crime, that you're creating organized crime and people are dying," - Rick Steves, broadcaster and travel guru.

The difference between wisdom and intelligence

I was thinking about this today because of something someone brought up to me...

Intelligence is valued in our society. It combines knowledge, experience, innate reasoning skills, logic and more. It's very useful in work, solving problems; it is logical. Very few people think they're dumb, and assume their intelligent. This leads to a lot of arrogrance and grandiosity, to the idea that you have the right answers in life because you came to it logically. (This reminds me of Robert McNamara, the Security of Defense under Kennedy and LBJ. He was one of the brightest minds of any generation, and through logic and intelligence decided that the Vietnam War was a great idea. Worked out pretty well.)

Wisdom is something completely different. There is a belief in our world that somehow the older you get, the wiser you are. But, and this sounds condescending as hell, I've spoken to far too many older adults who may be very intelligent, but don't have any wisdom, and I learned long ago that while their advice is appreciated, it should be with a grain of salt.

Wisdom is not grandiose and arrogant like intelligence often is; it doesn't purpose to have the right answers like intelligence which will use logic, knowledge and experience to come up with the right answer. Wisdom is humble. It knows that there are no right answers in life. Wisdom doesn't come from the mind like intelligence does. It is deeper. Zen Buddhists believe it comes from the hara. It comes when we're able to turn of our minds and feel things deeply and calmly and with humility.

Intelligence, in my humble opinion, is overvalued. I try to think of the mind as a computer. It is great at solving problems. But should it be used for more? The deeper and most important things in life have little to do with intelligence. It's much more about humility and feeling things out. It comes from an understanding of not only one's self but the world around us.

Virginity rates among students by major

I think the lesson here is that if you want to get laid a lot in college make sure you're a liberal arts major of some type and stay the hell away from math and science.

Great Quote

Great advice... it's a reminder to me that despite all the advice you may receive from people and the conventions of society, that no one can fully understand the experience of each individual, and that too live honestly means accepting your reality for what it is-- all one's thoughts and feeling and perceptions-- and using that as your guide through life. Fuck what other people say, I say.

"We must accept our reality as vastly as we possibly can; everything, even the unprecedented, must be possible within it."- Ranier Maria Rilke

Jon Stewart destroys Jim Cramer

There's been a lot of hype about this, mainly because Jon Stewart showed video clips of Jim Cramer saying that you should buy Bear Stearns stock right before its collapse. If Jim Cramer knew better he wouldn't have responded (see Tucker Carlson). But he did, saying Stewart took his quotes out of context. And then Stewart ripped again. And again.

Here's the interview they had last night. I haven't actually watched it, but I hear Stewart owns him.

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Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 2

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Great Poem: Stanley Kunitz's "Touch Me"

I just discovered this poem this morning. In an age were irony rules the day and sincerity is lost in the shuffle, it's wonderful for me to see a work of art were this direct & simple but beautiful and truthful. Amen for Stanley Kunitz.

Touch Me
By Stanley Kunitz

Summer is late, my heart.
Words plucked out of the air
some forty years ago
when I was wild with love
and torn almost in two
scatter like leaves this night
of whistling wind and rain.
It is my heart that's late,
it is my song that's flown.
Outdoors all afternoon
under a gunmetal sky
staking my garden down,
I kneeled to the crickets trilling
underfoot as if about
to burst from their crusty shells;
and like a child again
marveled to hear so clear
and brave a music pour
from such a small machine.
What makes the engine go?
Desire, desire, desire.
The longing for the dance
stirs in the buried life.
One season only,
and it's done.
So let the battered old willow
thrash against the windowpanes
and the house timbers creak.
Darling, do you remember
the man you married? Touch me,
remind me who I am.

How To Twitter

A nice little story in the WSJ today about how to twitter. I must say I'm a believer, much more than any other internet phenomenon of past years like Youtube, Facebook and the such. The reason? Well the article spells it out:

But I have to admit I didn't understand the appeal of Twitter when I joined, at the prodding of friends, in November. One answer that explains its popularity: It's not about chatting with your friends -- it's about promoting yourself.

Sure it's narcissistic as hell. But there are few things at good marketing than twitter. Twitter provides an easy way to promote whatever it is you do, whether it's music, write, design websites or anything else. Unlike Facebook, which is mostly to maintain acquaintances, twitter has real value. And it's free.

The Company of Women over Men

(I know this is a bit of strange post, but I've been thinking about it and was curious if any other males out there knows what the hell I'm talking about)

For all of my life, I've been a guy's guy: sports, comic books, drinking beer, playing poker etc. (I'm still very much all these things.) Hanging out with girls, unless it was in hopes of a relationship or sex, just didn't seem like that much fun or very appealing.

But something has changed over the past two or three years. I'm not really sure what happened, but I find myself enjoying the company of women over men more and more.

I wonder why that is. It's not because of sex; sure I'm attracted to some of the girls I hang out with, but that's an afterthought when I'm with them.

It comes down to this, I think (I realize these are generalizations): women, in general, are more thoughtful than men, and are better able to express those thoughts, emotions and insights. This makes for more thoughtful conversations as a result. Women, it seems, are generally better listeners too, and allow the conversation to flow its natural course. With the "boys," everything is a joke, everything is fun, but rarely is it enlightening or thoughtful in some meaningful way.

Don't get me wrong, I still want to watch football and play poker and shit and I wouldn't give up hanging out with the "boys" for anything because it's a huge part of my personality.

But when I want to chill and enjoy someone's company, I am turning more and more to women these days. It's a strange thing for me. But it's also, I think, a sign of finally leaving adolescence behind and maturing a bit...

An abortion for a 9-year-old rape victim condemned by Catholic archbishop

The amazing thing about all this is that an abortion may have helped saved this 9-year-old's life because, as the article states, having a baby that young is a high-risk pregnancy. What an asshole:

A CATHOLIC archbishop has sparked controversy in Brazil by saying the mother of a nine-year-old girl who had an abortion on Wednesday following a rape is automatically excommunicated for allowing the procedure to go ahead.

Archbishop José Cardoso Sobrinho of Olinda and Recife also declared that according to canon law the doctor who performed the abortion is considered excommunicated, along with anyone else involved.

The child was raped by her stepfather, who has since admitted abusing her over the last three years. Abortion is generally illegal in Brazil but allowed in cases of rape or when the pregnancy endangers the mother’s life.

The child entered hospital in the northeastern city of Recife on Tuesday night, where she was given medication to interrupt the pregnancy, which doctors said was terminated by early Wednesday morning. She was pregnant with twins.

The archbishop’s statements have drawn condemnation from Brazilian politicians and caused disquiet among some theologians concerned by the difficulties raised by the case.

But Archbishop Cardoso Sobrinho has denied media reports that he personally ordered the excommunications. “I simply recalled what is in church canon law. Excommunication is automatic for those who participate in an abortion. I did not excommunicate anyone, just remembered the church’s law which says they are automatically excommunicated,” he said.

Before the abortion was carried out the archdiocese’s lawyers threatened to charge the mother with homicide, citing the Brazilian constitution’s guarantee to the right to life.

The doctor who carried out the procedure has defended his actions. “If the pregnancy had continued, the damage would have been worse, being a high risk pregnancy. The risk would have been of death or at the very least that she would never have been able to become pregnant again,” Dr Olímpio Moraes told O Globo newspaper.

How to Smoke Smarties

My roommate showed me this. I think it made my week or year.

Great Poem: "A Song On the End of the World" by Czeslaw Milosz

Just discovered this poem. Milosz has such a command of simple images interchanged with grand themes that never seem self-conscious, but real, humble and true. Amazing stuff.

A Song On the End of the World
by Czeslaw Milosz Translated by Anthony Milosz
On the day the world ends A bee circles a clover, A fisherman mends a glimmering net. Happy porpoises jump in the sea, By the rainspout young sparrows are playing And the snake is gold-skinned as it should always be. On the day the world ends Women walk through the fields under their umbrellas, A drunkard grows sleepy at the edge of a lawn, Vegetable peddlers shout in the street And a yellow-sailed boat comes nearer the island, The voice of a violin lasts in the air And leads into a starry night. And those who expected lightning and thunder Are disappointed. And those who expected signs and archangels' trumps Do not believe it is happening now. As long as the sun and the moon are above, As long as the bumblebee visits a rose, As long as rosy infants are born No one believes it is happening now. Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet Yet is not a prophet, for he's much too busy, Repeats while he binds his tomatoes: No other end of the world will there be, No other end of the world will there be.

651,000 Jobs Lost in February; Rate Rises to 8.1%

This is feeling more and more like a depression isn't it? And it's only expected to get worse. Those who have jobs now should feel lucky:

Another 651,000 jobs were lost in February, adding to the millions of people who have been thrown out of work as the economic downturn deepens.

In a stark measure of the recession’s toll, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday that the national unemployment rate
surged to 8.1 percent last month, its highest in 25 years. The economy has now shed more than 4.4 million jobs since the recession started in December 2007.

And economists expect that unemployment will continue to rise for the rest of the year and into early 2010, with the unemployment rate reaching 9 to 10 percent by the time a recovery begins. With so many job losses occurring in manufacturing, economists say that many workers will struggle to find new jobs that pay as much as they had been earning, even when the recession ends.

“This is not people being on furlough for six weeks or a month or two — this is permanent job losses, and that is what makes this so difficult,” said John Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia. “That is very telling in terms of how we’re really restructuring the overall economy.”

This is why you don't cancel on The Daily Show

Watch Jon Stewart rip Rick Santelli a new asshole.

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Socialism and Obama

The right's attacks on the new Obama administration seem to be that he is the new Lenin or Stalin. Man do I hate one word labels like "socialism" that say nothing about the complexity of what is going on. Sure there are elements of socialism in Obama's policies but there are also elements of progressivism and dare I say, conservatism. Buzz words are easy. Elevating the political debate so that it acknowledges all sides of policy is not:

It seems that "socialist" has supplanted "liberal" as the go-to slur among much of a conservative world confronting a one-two-three punch of bank bailouts, budget blowouts and stimulus bills. Right-leaning bloggers and talk radio hosts are wearing out the brickbat. Senate and House Republicans have been tripping over their podiums to invoke it. The S-bomb has become as surefire a red-meat line at conservative gatherings as "Clinton" was in the 1990s and "Pelosi" is today.

"Earlier this week, we heard the world's best salesman of socialism address the nation," Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, said on Friday, referring, naturally, to a certain socialist in chief.

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas decried the creation of "socialist republics" in the United States. "Lenin and Stalin would love this stuff," Mr. Huckabee said, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference here over the weekend, a kind of Woodstock for young conservatives.

"Socialism is something new for us to hit Obama over the head with," said Joshua Bolin of Augusta, Ga., who founded a Web site, "Reagan.org," which he calls a conservative analog to the liberal MoveOn.org.

Ecstasy Pushed as PTSD Treatment

Our society, for whatever reason, rarely considers the benefits of illegal drugs for useful purposes. Marijuana, for example, does have legitimate medical purposes, but is still frowned on by the establishment, despite being much less harmful for the body than alcohol.

And here is a new report about the possible effects of ecstasy:

If you're a veteran, having trouble getting over your battlefield time, a South Carolina psychiatrist would like to get you really, really high.

Michael Mithoefer, a former emergency room physician turned psychiatrist, is testing the party drug ecstasy as a treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

"I heard about it and I decided to give it a try,” a former Army Ranger tells Military.com. "It’s an extremely positive thing. I feel so lucky that I got to take part in the project... It’s basically like years of therapy in two or three hours. You can’t understand it until you’ve experienced it."

Mithoefer has been conducting the FDA-approved tests with ecstasy, known clinically as MDMA, since 2004. "People are able to connect more deeply on an emotional level with the fact they are safe now," he explained to the Guardian, in the trials' early days.

I have no doubts that ecstasy has a number of helpful mental health benefits. But will society relent? Highly doubtful.

Korean Karaoke

This might just be the funniest song "Flight of the Conchords" has performed...

Who likes porn?

This isn't really an invitation, but more a rhetorical question:



Utah, the reddest state around, is the largest consumer of online porn. Even more interesting:

However, there are some trends to be seen in the data. Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.

And:

Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year's presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama.

Not sure what this all means. Maybe us New Yorkers are just such slutty, immoral, evil bastards who will sleep with anything, so we need porn less and less than the those repressed, moral, good Christian places.

Barack Obama is the antichrist and/or Hitler

"Do you think before you speak?" Hahahah, hilarious.

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Funny stuff:

U.S. Troops out of Iraq by 2010

My boy looks like he's going to fulfill this promise:

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama plans to order that all U.S. combat troops be withdrawn from Iraq by August 2010, administration officials said Tuesday, ending the war that defined his upstart presidential campaign three months later than he had promised.

Obama's plan would pull out all combat troops 19 months after his inauguration, although he had promised repeatedly during the 2008 campaign that he would withdraw them 16 months after taking office. That schedule, based on removing roughly one brigade a month, was predicated on commanders determining that it would not endanger U.S. troops left behind or Iraq's fragile security.

Pledging to end the war in 16 months helped to build enormous grass-roots support for Obama's White House bid.

Mormon Commerical, "Who Broke My Window?"

Thanks to my brother for this. I can now die a happy man.

Devin Harris's Half-Court shot for the win last night against the Sixers

Mormon Commercials from the 1980s

Anyone else remember this classic gem from the 80s? I would be eternally grateful if someone had a video of this somewhere:

ON: Who broke my windooooooow?
AR: Mr. Robinson, Mr. Robinson!
ON: What a horrible mess!
AR: I broke your window with my ball--
ON: YOU?
AR: --and I've come to confess.
ON: You knew I'd be angry!
AR: Yes!
ON: You're afraid!
AR: YES!
ON: You'll have to pay for this mess you've made, but I'm proud of you boy, for you have displayed honor! The stuff from which heroes are made!
AR: I! Told! The! Truth!

"Arrested Development" movie is going to happen

Good news here. Too bad Michael Cera is acting like a diva about all this:

Ron Howard confirmed at Sunday's Oscars that the "Arrested Development" movie was in fact going ahead and that show creator Mitch Hurwitz is in the process of writing the script. (Video of MTV's brief interview with Howard is pasted below.)

Howard also said that he's been asked not to talk about who's in and who's out, which is an obvious reference to long-time hold-out Michael Cera.

A fish with a transparent head

All I can say is wow.

My cousin's correspondence with a scam artist

He may have too much time on his hands, but this is funny stuff:


> From: confirmation@westernunion.com> Subject: Treat As Urgent ----- Western Union> Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:41:56 +1030>> Hello,>> I'm Sure you must have been trying to send me an email regarding the $100,000 which is meant to be transferred to you.>> There is an error with the previous email.>> All you need to do is send me the last email you sent me to my previous email and we would go from there.>> Just reply to this email and we would receive it.>> Thanks,>> Western Union



From: _@hotmail.comTo: westernuniotransfers@hotmail.comSubject: RE: Treat As Urgent ----- Western UnionDate: Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:31:50 -0500
Hi--
Thank you for contacting me. Here is my information:
1.Full Name: Karma Sonam Wangyal2.Full Address: 4234 Alameda las Pulgas, Redwood City, CA, 943123.Marital Statue: Single4.Occupation: Engineer5.Age: 366.Sex: Male7.Nationality: American8.Tel.Number: 650 845 96759.Country Of Residence: United States
Thank you again.



From: westernuniotransfers@hotmail.comTo: _@hotmail.comSubject: WESTERN UNION TRANSFER FEEDate: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:45:47 +0000

Attn
I am happy to inform you that the verification of your information sent to us was submitted to Your embassy here in united kingdom for screening and we just received a telegram stating that all your data submitted have being confirmed correct. (though it corresponded with what we have on record from the IMF) we have been advised to proceed with your transfer once you meet with the payment of our charges, but please be informed that transfer made cannot be picked up by you until you have fulfilled all your financial obligation as required of the International Monetary Fund(IMF). Please be informed that the funds are coming directly from the International Monetary Funds headquarters and we are only to pay beneficiaries once they meet their financial obligations. Also note that Western Union is not allowed to make all payment at once via Western Union Money Transfer due to the way the fund came to our headquarters and for security reasons. You are required to pay for the International Remittance File and the service charge attached to your first pay-out of $10,000.This is because the IMF did not pay for them.
The Western Union Charges fee/payment for your International Remittance File is £490 ( 490 pounds ) Your first pay-out of $10,000 has been sent to you but it has no Receiver's Name therefore you will be unable to pick it up until you remit the £490 ( 490 pounds ) to us before we can purchase the Remittance file with your name and put your name as the Receiver Name. Note that the remaining fund/payment will be paid in installments in the following order: 1. $10,000 made payable to you from the western union
2. $90,000.00 made payable to you via bank wire transfer from our designated paying bank. Upon receipt of the fee for the purchasing of your International Remittance File, you are receiving your first Pay-Out of $10,000
The money which has already been made ($10,000) will be withdrawn back and remember that the detail of the money that is available for you now does not bear your name as the Receiver's Name until you make the payment of the £490 ( 490 pounds ) You are to send the required £490 ( 490 pounds ) through any Western union outlet in your country to me using the information below so that your Remittance file can be purchased. Name: Mac Taylor
Address: 3 western union building,
City: London
zip code: SW15 6TL
country: United kingdom As soon as you have made the payment,you are advised to send the below to me immediately in order to pick it up and effect your transfer. Sender's Name:Sender's Address:Money Transfer Control Number (M.T.C.N):Total Amount Sent:
Have a nice day. Regards,
Mr. Mac Taylor


From: _@hotmail.comTo: westernuniotransfers@hotmail.comSubject: RE: WESTERN UNION TRANSFER FEEDate: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 01:50:20 -0500
Dear Mr. Taylor--
Thank you for the email below. I have just wired you over 500 pounds. Please confirm the receipt.
Thank you.
Karma


From: westernuniotransfers@hotmail.comTo: _@hotmail.comSubject: RE: WESTERN UNION TRANSFER FEEDate: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:53:09 +0000
Hello Again,
There is nothing to confirm as i didn't get any information from you
What is the details for the money you wired?


From: _@hotmail.comTo: westernuniotransfers@hotmail.comSubject: RE: WESTERN UNION TRANSFER FEEDate: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:24:59 -0500
Hello Sir--
I wired the money to the address you gave me below. Please confirm the receipt.
Thanks.


From: westernuniotransfers@hotmail.comTo: _@hotmail.comSubject: RE: WESTERN UNION TRANSFER FEEDate: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:28:06 +0000
Hello Again,
You are advised to send the below to me immediately in order to pick it up and effect your transfer. Sender's Name:Sender's Address:Money Transfer Control Number (M.T.C.N):Total Amount Sent:



From: _@hotmail.comTo: westernuniotransfers@hotmail.comSubject: RE: WESTERN UNION TRANSFER FEEDate: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:38:41 -0500
Sir--
Here is the info you requested below:
Sender's Name: Karma SonamSender's Address: 2234 Alameda de las pulgas, Red Wood City, CA, 94312, USAMoney Transfer Control Number (M.T.C.N): 213-45678-534e346Total Amount Sent: 500 Pounds.
Thank you.


From: westernuniotransfers@hotmail.comTo: _@hotmail.comSubject: RE: WESTERN UNION TRANSFER FEEDate: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:40:08 +0000
Scan the receipt


From: _@hotmail.comTo: westernuniotransfers@hotmail.comSubject: RE: WESTERN UNION TRANSFER FEEDate: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:57:35 -0500
Dear Sir--
I don't have a scanner, can you please wire me $10 so I can go to the shop to scan the receipt.
Thank you.


From: westernuniotransfers@hotmail.comTo: _@hotmail.comSubject: RE: WESTERN UNION TRANSFER FEEDate: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:04:24 +0000
Do not contact us again