Scratch & Dent Dreams

Eric Darby at the 2005 National Poetry Slam.

Doctrine! What doctrine?

From today's New York Times:

In laying out his justification for the American-led assault on Libya on Monday night, the president offered the most detailed portrait of when he might commit the country’s military might in a tumultuous world.

He would take action, he said, if vital national security interests were at stake. He would consider it if economic interests were threatened, or if there was a humanitarian crisis so deep it could not be ignored. But in those two instances, he would hesitate unless there was international participation, and the cost was not too high.

But these conditions seemed tailor made for Libya, and the president seemed to provide little guidance for what position he would take in other, more vital nations in the region[.]

The money quote (from David J. Rothkopf):

If there were ever a speech more dedicated to eliminating the idea of a doctrine, this was it.

Computer computer computer

I just got my computer back from the shop - that's the third time it's been in since I bought it a couple of weeks ago.

If you're looking to buy gum, Office Depot sells it. For anything else, I'd shop elsewhere.

English teeth

In the first of a series on American dentistry, June Thomas at Slate recounts her experience growing up in England.

[E]veryone in my family, and every other adult that I grew up around, had false teeth by the time they were 30.
[...]
I didn't even own a toothbrush—my parents had never brushed their teeth, and as adults their oral hygiene was achieved by soaking rather than brushing. I'd never even heard of dental floss, and I ate far too much candy. I prefer not to think about the excruciating pain that decay and resulting abscesses caused—pain that you can hear, that stops the world, that makes listening to the teacher or concentrating on homework impossible.

I think English dentistry and general oral hygiene have improved a lot since those days. Nevertheless, one of the first things I did when I got to the States was have some dental work done.

And I've still got English teeth.

Weekend reading

Man, Economy, and State by Murray Rothbard

The Ludwig von Mises Institute lecture series on economics

That's not my weekend reading, by the way - that's the Big Fella's reading list (he turned 16 in January). And he's not actually reading the LMI lectures - he listens to them on his iPod when he's walking to and from school.

Looks like I've raised a libertarian. How'd that happen?

Paradise in Portland

Heaven is a Jewish deli on Eleventh and Stark (right on the edge of Downtown) called Kenny and Zuke's.

And really, you can quote me on this, their pastrami is to die for!

Cured 7 days, Smoked 10 hours, Steamed for 3 hours & Hand-sliced Just for You.

Oh, and their Reubens are legendary.

Friday roundabout

At the Spectator: Alex Massie on the intervention in Lybia.

Harry's Place has a piece on Mary Gardner, the Scottish woman murdered in Wednesday’s bomb attack in Jerusalem.

Zoe Brain on challenging social and ideological monocultures.

Some thoughts on religion and community at Evolutionblog.

And finally,

Glimpses of Isadora Duncan at Neo-neocon.

Something Stupid

On ukulele! And it's an absolute delight.

Rainy day news

So, I haven't posted for fifteen months. That's a personal record!

And I'm not in England anymore; I'm in Portland, Oregon. I've been here three weeks and, I have to say, I'm loving it and have no intention of leaving anytime soon.

Of course, they told me it would be wet here, they just didn't tell me how wet. Every time I step out of my hotel I get rained on. Portlanders don't seem at all bothered by it - if you carry an umbrella around here, it's likely you're from out of town.

The other day, I was caught in a huge downpour, got drenched, took refuge in a cafe. I was saturated - so wet I was dripping all over the menu and a small puddle from the runoff was forming under my chair. But, when I mentioned the weather to my waitress, all I got back was: "Ya, it's fairly moist today."

And there was me thinking only the English possessed such mastery of understatement.

Still dreaming

Saul Williams

When The Clock Strikes Me (text here).

Military relations

American generals are from Mars, seemingly.

I imagine that gives us an edge in combat.

Unreal images

Pebbles by Jonathan Hunt

From the POV-Ray Hall of Fame.

Virtual rights

Blurring the line between fantasy and reality:-

Video games depicting war have come under fire for flouting laws governing armed conflicts.

Human rights groups played various games to see if any broke humanitarian laws that govern what is a war crime.

The study condemned the games for violating laws by letting players kill civilians, torture captives and wantonly destroy homes and buildings.

It said game makers should work harder to remind players about the real world limits on their actions.

Friday roundabout

Gordon MacMillan at Harry's Place has some thoughts on the Palin Newsweek cover.

Michael Totten is concerned about a Third Lebanon War.

Joe Katzman at Winds of Change on a second, unsuccessful pirate attack on the Maersk Alabama.

Bad Astronomy has Mandelbulbs: 3D Mandelbrot sets.

And finally,

Small Town Scribbles suggests a solution to the energy crisis.

Feeble tweet

OK, so having declared today to be the first day of the rest of my life, I decided to start off with a spot of vacuuming. I even went so far as to vacuum my laptop - just to clear out the dust. Sledgehammer/nut: the vacuum sucked half the keys off the keyboard and I've spent the last half-hour fishing little black tiles out of the dust bag.

Three sixes

Six years ago, I weighed a little over 200 lbs (that's a normal weight for my height - I'm 6'6").

Six months ago, I weighed less than 150 lbs.

Six days ago, I weighed myself - I'm almost exactly 175 lbs.

If this keeps up, pretty soon I won't be embarrassed to have my photo taken. And, even better, I'll start recognizing myself in the mirror.

Life goes on

Well, I'm sorry to say, I haven't gotten around to any of that blogging and emailing I said I was going to be doing. It seems I underestimated the time and energy involved in starting again from scratch.

So, I've been getting on with things. And I now have a bed! It beats sleeping on the floor wrapped up in an old sheet. I'm still using the sheet but at least I'm elevated.

Next to do: furniture.

Update
Went out to buy furniture - came back with a small car!

A minor conflagration

It took me a month to find an apartment and the first night I'm here there's a fire. Not a serious one - although it could have been - I left a light on in the sitting-room and one of the lampshades caught fire (a faulty fitting): I woke to the smell of burning. Luckily, I caught it in time, so there's no damage beyond the lampshade and fitting.

Looking on the bright side, the place has good mobile broadband reception (as opposed to the "wing and a prayer" connection I was working with before) so I can now surf, blog and email to my heart's content. Not right now though because it's 3:30 in the morning, the fire's out and I'm going back to bed.

Contact

It's taken me a while to sort out internet access and an e-mail account (I've put the new contact details in the sidebar). I'm now back online and contactable.

Thanks to all those who mailed wishing me a speedy recovery - I'll reply now I'm online again. Unfortunately, my address book has been deleted, along with a lot of my mail (some of it unread) so, if I don't reply to a particular e-mail, it's because I probably never got it.

So it goes.

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