Ramble

[jazzfish]

Flipping through E's copy of Madeleine L'Engle's A Swiftly Tilting Planet, because it was there. (Been ages since I read those, too. And the stack gets bigger.) It occurs to me that this whole Welsh fascination goes back further than Stephen Lawhead's Pendragon cycle, further even than Susan Cooper and Lloyd Alexander. It started with Swiftly Tilting Planet, with the legend of Madoc ap Owain Gwynedd setting sail to the West and eventually coming ashore in America.

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Despite my general dislike of Henry David Thoreau, "On Civil Disobedience" isn't bad. 'That government governs best which governs not at all,' indeed. I'm a strong supporter of the idea that the less regulating the government does of my life the better.

But then, I'm a strong supporter of the idea that the less regulating anyone does of my life the better. I've never gotten on well with people who think they know what I should be doing with my time. Even when they're arguably right (such as elementary school).

Are all political arguments the result of people trying to force their own preferences on the rest of the world? This would go a long way towards explaining why there's not been any consensus as to the 'right' way to run a country.

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The songs on the 5 Tracks website are actually in mp3 format, they just hide in your cache somewhere. (available in both normal-sized 128 kb/s and modem-friendly 32 kb/s formats) 'Verses' and 'Waiting For Blonde' are my favorites of the five.

And Warren Zevon's final (probably) album will be out the end of August, and Blue Man Group has tour dates for the next leg of their tour posted (relevant to people I know: July 7 at Merriwether Post in MD, July 16 in Boston, July 19 in Chicago, July 31 in St Louis, August 9 in San Diego, August 17 in Houston, August 26 in Raleigh. I'm thinking seriously about the July 7 concert. I'd be leaving here around noon and coming back immediately after the concert, though. (I'd drag E to the one in Raleigh for her birthday, but I've got that whole full-time-classes thing going down.)

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Getting email from random people about my journal is pretty cool.

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I actually sat down and did the math, and I've got six thousand words to write in the next two weeks. Put like that it doesn't sound like so much, except that half of that is a research paper that I'm not convinced I can get to the requisite length. Means I should stop goofing off and go write some more about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, or maybe the genre oddities known as the 'Romances' in the Shakespeare canon.

Or maybe just go to Spiel.

Comments

[zerblinitzky.livejournal.com]

Are all political arguments the result of people trying to force their own preferences on the rest of the world? This would go a long way towards explaining why there's not been any consensus as to the 'right' way to run a country.

Okay, and you call yourself left-wing why?

"Left-wing?!?"

[jazzfish]

You take that shite back! Them's fighting words!

The fact that I wish to distance myself from the Big Government Republicans currently in running the country should in no way be taken to imply support for the Democrats. I am socially liberal (Peter McWilliams's book, Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do, pretty well sums up my feelings there) and fiscally conservative (I can spend my money far better than anyone else can).

I am not now, nor have I ever been, 'left-wing.'

Re: "Left-wing?!?"

[zerblinitzky.livejournal.com]

Sorry, just with all your talking about how right-wing Patrick is, I assumed that you thought of yourself as left-wing.
I agree with you, for what it's worth. Both major parties are effectively the same thing, for evidence of this see the 2000 "election", and how close the vote was.
All the issues I care about, both parties are the same on.
Cryptography? Both have at one point or another supported a measure I'm against; wiretaps for the democrats and export laws for the republicans.
Marijuana? Nobody wants to let me smoke pot, be they donkey or elephant.
Gun control? You don't see Bush lobbying to get rid of the concealed-carry licenses, do you? Why should I have to pay the government to get my constitutional rights back?

Only candidate that was even remotely like the platform I want was Harry Browne (Libertarian). I'd have voted for him, had my absentee ballot arrived earlier than the day after the election.

Re: "Left-wing?!?"

[zerblinitzky.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah: about the only good thing Bush has done is not cut the ISS program, which he only did because a good portion of his constituents and supporters (at least, the rich ones) work in aerospace in Houston, or IT in Austin, or other industries that depend on NASA's existence.

Re: "Left-wing?!?"

[vond.livejournal.com]

Sounds Libertarian to me... Everyone's Libertarian these days, but not enough people seem to think a Libertarian candiate can actually get elected, so they go one way or the other based on whether they care more about being able to do drugs and shoot things with impunity or having enough money to do it with.

I'm economically left-leaning because I come from a (non-military) civil service family and I'm too damn lazy to take care of myself so I enjoy government services.