No Further Comment
From a Georgetown University special collection dedicated to British Recruitment Posters from World War I:...

Martyrdom 2: Pyramids, Tophets, and a Ram in a Thicket

The man or woman who lies down upon the altar is called a victim, from the Latin victima meaning an animal used for sacrifice. The word comes from an Indo-European root "weik" signifying that which is magic and holy.

This Time I Did Not Cheat

Sound up the trumpets! Salute me! Stars and stripes (and no wars) forever!

Take the Leap Year's Day

So, wanna share benefits?

Talking to A Christian About the Buddha

The Buddha taught the Golden Rule four hundred years before Christ lived.

Rule of Evidence?
It's Saturday and what worse way of spending the evening can you think of than spending it taking pointless quizzes,...

Passion and The Passion in Lake Forest

Sitting in a restaurant talking about how the movie moved us is not putting ourselves in the position of Jesus, who suffered the tortures, carried the cross, and expired with his hands and feet pinned to its wood while slowly suffocating.

Martyrdom 1: The Martyrs of York and Edith Stein

Which were the martyrs of York? The ones who killed themselves or the ones who were massacred by the crowd?

Leadership

But of a good leader,
When his work is done,
His aim fulfilled,
They will all say:
"We did this ourselves."

Round and Round the Blogs We Go

A review of the week's most compelling blogging: Mel Gibson's film Passion has taken attention away from the suddenly boring Democratic primaries and the more crucial same sex marriage issue.

The Bible, Passion, and Jewish-Christian Relations

We must ask "Why this Gospel? Why not one of the other three, none of which include the divisive line?

The Bottom of A Lake

This morning, I could have been a catfish mucking around in the bottom of an asphalt lake, looking up at the inverted water sky.

Splash Wednesday

As I dropped down El Toro into Laguna Woods, the star-ticked streets of the foothill suburbs spread from right to as far left as the advancing wall of rain where they disappeared.

Self Portrait by Mouse and Scribbler

As I copied off a photograph taken last night after my shower, I kept saying to myself "Remember Betty Edwards. "

Shooting P(h)easants

Tonight in the philosophy reading group that I attend, I advanced the idea (based on a reading of Iris Murdoch) that good was based on being aware of your place in the Universe and evil was a denial of that place.

Politics vs. What is Important 2

Politics must be seen in perspective. To make rational decisions, we must calm our anxieties.

Ahnold Perspires and Aspires

The man-of-steroid-flabbed-muscles who squats in the Governor's Mansion appears to be ready and willing to reenact his roles as The Terminator in real life.

Suitcase Nukes: Is The Truth is Hidden in Caves?

The suitcase nukes story appears to be a cold act of desparation by the Bush Administration to save its collective ending from defeat at the polls in November. Or could there be a darker purpose?

Misery

After spending two hours outside of the house, I need a good ablution.

Boadicea and Fiona in Miniature

"The things I have to do for catfood!"

Vicodin Reflections

Still taking vicodin. Not convinced of any special visions.

Dream

I dreamed that I went to visit myself in the future.

No Exit

What I've found most interesting is how other people interpret the door.

Amergin in Orange County

I am a street: fronted by strip malls.

I am a flood: gushing from a canyon.

I am a wind: that dries the brush.

I am an SUV: hungry for rough roads.

Politics vs. What is Important

Everyone talks Fear: the Bushites tell me that terrorists prowl the streets, armed with nuclear-tipped balsa-wood gliders; the Kerry-outs tell me that four more years of Bush will destroy the nation and offer no plan for reversing the situation.

Do I Dare Eat a Peach?
I did play around with this a bit before I got a result that I liked. You're Prufrock and Other...

Go home to Crawford!
Go home to Crawford! Imitating Randy of Beautiful Horizons here. Then Rob from Conniption put this up: Do check out...

Pan Troglodytes

"Stupid homo!"

Deny deny deny

Costa Mesa attorney Joe Weber wonders if the acquittal of O.J. Simpson and the falsehoods implanted concerning WMDs by George W. Bush have "somehow plant[ed] the suggestion in the public consciousness that a complete denial is the only way to go?"

Heart Attacks: Are You at Risk?

Karyn and I want you to know that women are at risk for heart attacks.

Tuesday will Tell

Now that that story has been debunked, will Edwards keep his momentum as most electable candidate?

The Week in Review

I'm probably too lost in my vicodin haze to make much sense (this is Day 3, the worst) so here is a list of pointers to what I think is the best blogging I've found over the last week.

The Ghost in the Jaw

When you have surgery done on the jaw in a place that is dead, the body screams elsewhere.

Hasn't Edwards Heard....

If the Democratic Platform does not come out against these things, I'm voting Third Party.

It wasn't a mistake, it was one

Just when you think they've exhausted all the ridiculous statements they could make, they come up with a foul ball that is way out past the cornfield, into the badlands.

Dental Insurance Fraud

We think that teeth are not a part of the body, that fixing them is a luxury item like a nose job or a facelift.

The Golden Rule and Getting Laid

"Hey, I like people coming up to me and saying 'Do you want to have sex with me?' So it's OK for me to ask, right?"

Dream

During one of the many naps I took yesterday, I dreamed that I was renting rooms in a house without windows to my friends.

The Surgery

I've had fillings that pained me more.

Before Hydrocordone

Mark that as the last creative turns of phrase that I can manage for the next few days.

Don't Chide Her, Fire Her

Voice for Change tells me that I should write a nasty letter to Ann Coulter because she disparages the war record of Max Cleland who has committed the heinous act of criticizing her idol, George W. Bush.

Reagan and Prozac

Yule Heibel often writes of a future -- and a present -- where human beings have become assembly line products.

Caligula Now?

Do you see what I see?

The $2200 Mandible

I shall be in the chair, having my jaw turned into a kind of cyborg.

Of Clovis Points and Automobiles

The man (or woman) who chipped the stone into the shape of a pointed leaf thought of these problems that went with ensuring the kill....

Weekend Chills

For the sake of Valentine's Day -- that feast of love -- and because I don't like clouding my birthday, I kept my silence on political matters.

Snow Days

I've often told Lynn that Californians believe that snow is something that you go to visit on holiday weekends. A storm passed though on Friday and dumped a load on our higher peaks.

Behold!
Version 1.0 and 2.0 of the official Pax Nortona Quilt which will soon appear in the column on the right....

It's my birthday....

So I can post all the pointless quizzes and silly pictures I want!

Happy Birthday Joel

Happy birthday to the dear husband who loves the pilgrim soul in me!

Not for Voudoun Practice

Crazy Tracy Goes and Comes Back

What can I say? Welcome back, Tracy. Come and go as you please. It's your life, dear.

Valentine for Lynn

It's a damn fine thing that I'm not a deer who has 
     antlers that get caught in the low boughs of 
     oak trees;

We must urgently go to war against Terriers

I have spoken to Condoleezza Rice in the bathtub last week, re-confirming all this.

Goodbye Crazy Tracy

Goodbye, hon. Follow your pen. It's the way to the heart.

March 4: Books not Bombs

One year into the Quagmire, the young people of our country are rising in opposition to the policies of this youth-hostile administration and the Quisling-run schools that they attend.

They've Always Got to Find a Penis

Those who have read my comments on Kerry lately might believe that I would be delighted to hear the news. Frankly, I think this calls for a massive yawn.

Overheard on Undernet #political 2

One of IRC chat's lower moments followed immediately by one of its choicest -- if unbearably obvious -- retorts, I think.

The Drum Beat

When I look over Drum's commentary on the war and Kerry's let-Bush-have-his-way-votes, I find ample room for embarassment in both matters.

Homo Sapiens at Whiting Ranch

The only sound I heard was the wind tumbling off the mountain, hustling through the chaparral, and rushing through the arroyos and the gleaming industrial park at the mouth of the canyon to make a date with the ocean.

The Sum of Its Parts

"What's the use, Joel?" she said.

"At noon I will fall in love."

The Expert on Shyness

I loitered after the Wednesday Writers tonight, talking to a friend and eavesdropping in on a speaker who exuberantly declaimed his expertise on the issue of shyness.

Old Peanut Butter

It was stale, like eating an antique wooden desk.

Santa Ana

I was suffocating

so I opened the window a slit

no larger than a cat's lit pupil.

Fear Drives The Democrats

I replied "The Democrats campaign based on Fear, too."

The Book of Job

Candide cries to the narrative voice "But surely man who is made in the image of God --" And the narrator replies "Maybe this is His Image."

Fight Fight Fight

The comment woke me up to the fact that I was nothing more than a gladiator in a pit, one who could never lay a killing stroke, never die, and never transcend the walls of the arena.

The Breast of the Virgin

Many years ago, when I was in Greece, I picked up an icon of the Virgin Mary in a jewelry store and sent it home to my mother.

Hijacked for God?

Passengers dialed relatives, perhaps in fear that they'd booked a ticket on a Christian Identity suicide mission.

Dream
I dreamed that I was in San Bernardino, living the life I might have had if I had not gone...

The Unknown Sound

What percussion was this?

Censure Bush

Censure is a step short of impeachment which members of the Republican Congress might be willing to take. It implies a formal reprimand of pResident Bush for lying to Congress and to the American people about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The Shapes of Touches

Everything that Boadicea makes me feel from the press of her body against mine is transparent with a thin black line around it.

Heap of Sound

The world throws noise through the narrow open slit of my bedroom window.

Flipping his Toucan

Ugly American Douglas A. Skolnick is the winner of a Nipper Kettle Award for stupid, pointless acts of self promotion.

UnJustin

The woman should be punished, the reasoning follows, the man excused because "she led him into it".

Never may Happen

In a year, I will be waving my hands trying to stop the Buffalo Herd from jumping off some new cliff and they will be there, doing it to me again.

Spitting on Soldiers

If anyone had this happen to him and can provide witnesses, please let me know. I will say this: it was wrong. If it happened.

Blue Eyes Popping

A crew-cut-topped, goateed man maybe in his late thirties. Pressed blue plaid shirt. Pressed everything, for that matter. His eyes popped out of his head like he was on speed.

Michael Dukakis and 2004

Where was Dukakis's rage? Why didn't he tell the reporter off?

Tacky

Dump him.

Democrats: Is this you?

Vote for the man you believe in, not the Republican in Democrat's clothing.

Anybody But Bush?

Can't we all just go along?" seems the best answer anyone has for voting for John Kerry, the leading Republicrat.

The Kind of Pointlessness Yule Hates

I feel good. This fits.

What has Kerry Done?

I am supposed to think that this man stands for reform just because he is a Democrat?

I Taste of Wherever I've Been

Give Metamanda the credit for this interesting if shameless waste of bandwidth.

The Red Retro Chair

Everything depends on the red retro chair.

My Camera

Friends who see my photographs ask what kind of camera do I use.

San Diego Wild Animal Park 10

San Diego Wild Animal Park 9

Happy Birthday Lynn

More importantly, it is Lynn's birthday.

Quiet

Creativity, the child of Nature through the evolution of the throbbing human psyche, abhors blank paper.

75th Comment at Paths of Light
Last Friday, I received my biggo whammo mega 75th comment at Paths of Light! And the commentator was my long...

Howard Dean At Salon

He's not bitter about the press coverage he got -- it was to expected of the front runner -- nor has he given up the race.

Splat!

The rain on the streets is as dark as the goo in the La Brea Tarpits tonight.

San Diego Wild Animal Park 8

Mars and Venus

No amount of New Age synthesis of bad astronomy (astrology), bad corporate style mysticism (e.g. the Transcendental Meditation movement), and bad pop psychology is going to convince me that we're limited to being the paper mache idols that degree mill-made "Ph.d" Gray erects.

Marginal Parenting

I am a marginal parent.

Of Shining Worlds

In the wake of last week's parting of the ways, I've felt a brief lurch and a halt in my creative energies.

Dream
I'm sitting in a writing group. It's a large group, mostly if not all men, led by a spindly, beak-nosed...

Super Fowl

The real apology goes to MoveOn and other organizations which paid good money to air ads critical of the Bush Administration.

San Diego Wild Animal Park 7