The Incredibly Shrinking LiveJournal

A nice morning walk with Orwell. Though, I was also doing some sober, maybe somber, thinking about whether I should continue blogging on LiveJournal. I know we always have this talk when the Russian geniuses that run and administer the site take us through another round of massive fuck-ups. But I think I have had enough, understanding that this is just going to keep going on and getting worse. Of course, there is always the hope that, one of these days, they will actually get on track and just do some truly amazing stuff and even make it attractive enough to draw back some people from Twitter and Facebook, and I am not thinking about completely severing my ties with the old e-homestead, but it is time to change things.

In my walking and between my readings, I played with the possibility of opening another Dreamwidth account for my news and Internet harvesting, as well as with the idea of opening a Tumblr after all. By the time I came home, I was fairly settled on the idea of further unifying my blogging life and making things simpler by just bringing in the LJ stuff into my scribble blog, that is, my one and only Dreamwidth account.

The intention is to keep a pulse going at LJ, by bringing over a post or two to LJ, for the benefit of any old friends or anonymous readers, as well as to keep an eye on the joint, just in case those Russians ever do get things all nice and shiny and running spiffy, and, moreover, I still get a lot of my news from my friends page.

Like I've said before, LJ is really more of a Russian animal now and I am just an alien there. And I have no friends anyway.

Peggy Noonan

In response to the faltering Romeny campaign, Peggy Noonan's column "Time for an Intervention" is an engaging, heartfelt piece, and since I feel it captures the political vibe of these days, I want to keep it in full.

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All Hail Joseph Smith!

Oh look, a Mormon shot!



I didn't know Joseph Smith was so fiery.

(PolitiCartoons)

Zuckerberg and Ergen

This time last year, the Facebook founder was sitting pretty at number 14, with a net worth of $17.5 billion. In the new list, however, Zuckerberg’s net worth is listed at a measly $9.4 billion, where he’s forced to rub shoulders with blue-collar average nobodies like Steve Cohen and Charles Ergen.

-- ONTD

Well, times are tough.

The name Charles Ergen rang some bells, and I see that he is indeed our Dish Satellite guy. I didn't know he was a billionaire.

Courtney and Doug Walking About

The teenager who married a 50 year old man. They continue to be my inspiration.

(ONTD)

Gwyneth Paltrow

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who raises two kids with husband Chris Martin, says that she only allows her children to watch television in French or Spanish instead of their native English.

-- ONTD

An interesting idea. But I would hope she might allow an exception or two for top American shows. Personally, I still cringe a little over being a monolingual dummy.

"white beans"?

What are "white beans"?

When I got the groceries with Pop a few weeks ago, I got a seasoning mix for White Chicken Chili, and now that I have the house to myself, I'm thinking about giving that dish a shot for dinner tonight.

...

I just googled it, and I'm thinking that I should just drop the idea, but I am also wondering if pinto beans will work well enough.

I'll probably drop it.

Afghanistan Update

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The round-the-clock killing of U.S. military advisers by Afghan soldiers they are training coupled with some $200 million worth of jet fighters and attack helicopters destroyed in a heavily fortified allied base in Afghanistan by Taliban guerrillas disguised in U.S. military uniforms are the latest reminders that 11 years of fighting have strengthened rather than weakened the Islamist enemy.

With more than 70 percent of the American people polled saying they are against the Afghan war as well as prolonging it to the end of 2014, the time to reassess the NATO commitment -- originally made to punish al-Qaida and chase it out of Afghanistan, not to wet-nurse a feudal society into democracy -- is past overdue.

-- Arnaud de Borchgrave for UPI

Yup, we should have declared victory a long time ago and left, when it looked like we were kind of on top. It's not going to look as good now to leave, but it is not likely to get better.

C. S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis believed in the literal Adam and Eve story and did not accept Darwin's idea of natural selection. That surprises me. I presumed he was devout, but I would not have bet that he was such a fundamentalist.

(ChristianPost.com)

Fortune Cookie Wisdom

"A danger foreseen is half avoided."

~

Why do I bother opening fortune cookies? It's not like I care to eat them.

Pics of the Day

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Oh, my cats, my cats!

Now that the cats are spending much more time outside, I shouldn't be surprised when I see Sammy climbing the back fence corner and venturing in the back neighbors. But it is still like watching a four-year-old playing with a loaded gun.

Our Governor

"Satan runs across the world with his doubt and with his untruths and what have you and one of the untruths out there that is driven is that people of faith should not be involved in the public arena. ... Somehow or another there’s this, ya know, steel wall, this iron curtain or whatever you want to call it between the church and people of faith and this separation of church and state is just false on its face. We have a biblical responsibility to be involved in the public arena proclaiming God’s truth."

-- Governor Rick Perry

That might not be so bad if you have a decent conception of "God's truth", but the people who are loudest about it, as Perry is here, usually have a narrow, cruel, bigoted idea of God.

Pre-Cooked Meat

I don't think I can fuck around any longer with those pre-cooked hamburger patties. I cannot bear wondering what is actually inside of them.

I like applause

WTF Republicans