Kids say the darndest things!

"Father, a proper lady has a sword."

- C (age seven)

Kids say the darndest things!

"Daddy, I'm offending myself!"

- C (age seven)

Kids say the darndest things!

"Oh I get it, insurance is another word for money!"

- C (age six)

Kids say the darndest things!

"I don't play music, I sing!"

- C (age seven)

Kids say the darndest things!

"Is ice cream polite? Because ice cream you have to lick like a dog!"
- C (age seven)

Kids say the darndest things!

"I'm as hungry as a mountain eats clouds."

- C (age five)

Kids say the darndest things!

"I'm so tired of hearing ha ah wa wa ee ee ah ah leh ah ah me ne!"

- C (age five) listening to a Hawaiian radio station

Kids say the darndest things!

We took my youngest daughter C to Hawaii last year. She saw a beautiful bird sitting in a tree on one of our hikes and spoke to it:

"Excuse me, do you have a cousin named Pablo?"

- C (age five)

Kids say the darndest things!

C and I were walking back from Starbucks this morning after getting our morning coffee and breakfast. One of the slabs of cement that make up the sidewalk between Starbucks and home has been washed out and now moves when you step on it with an audible "clunk". So when I stepped on it today I looked down at her and said, "Weird".

Her reply: "That's not weird, dad, that's mysterious."

- C (age 6)

Kids say the darndest things!

"The rule of the beach is, never touch anything that is wiggling."

- C (age six)

Kids say the darndest things!

Daddy (on observing C hard at work making something): "Wow. What are you making?"

C: "Whatever it turns out to be."

- C (age six)

Kids say the darndest things!

My Mommy
- By C (age six, for mother's day)

I loved my mommy when she was young.
I love her so, she's lots of fun.
Even if she's very sad.
I still love her so she loves my daddy.
Even when I'm bad.
Just like my daddy.

Kids say the darndest things!

"Everybody has to love someone."

- C (age six)

Kids say the darndest things!

C: "What is the video game doing?"

Daddy: "It's updating."

C: "What does that mean?"

Daddy: "Sometimes the system needs new software and this is how it gets it. Don't worry about it - it's just how the system does it."

C: "Oh. Well, my way of updating is very much looking forward to dating someone someday."

Daddy: "Huh?"

C: "Don't worry about it. That's just how I do it."

- C (age six)

Kids say the darndest things!

"You're so goofy you could explode the earth. Pshfewwww! See, that was you...you exploded the earth!"

- C (age six)

Clinton / Sagan?

Come to think of it, I never did see Hillary Rodham Clinton and Carl Sagan in the same room...

Kids say the darndest things!

"Daddy, what if I was a chocolate covered grasshopper? I mean, hopping, hopping, baking, hot, hot, swimming in chocolate, eaten, hurts!! "

- C (age six)

Kids say the darndest things!

Daddy: "My brain doesn't work very good sometimes."

C: "Go see the doctor and she'll tell you what's wrong with you."

C: "And, by the way, patients rhymes with patience!"

- C (age six)

And the master said...

"If ever there was a city designed to distract us from our troubles, it would be Paris."

- Thomas Jefferson

Kids say the darndest things!

"Wow! It's so warm out here that all I need to go outside is nothing!"

- C (age six)

Kids say the darndest things!

"Daddy, did you know that there's very little gravity on the moon and that means that when you jump you go up much higher and stay up longer. So, that means you can jump up and do poses before you come back down just like Pocahontas does."

- C (age six)

Kids say the darndest things!

C, holding up a small sundial-shaped device she has made from construction paper:

"Daddy, this is the new game I made. This is the spinner and whoever is up gets to spin it. And if this big giant pointy part points to someone, then they get to sprinkle the magic dust and then we all have a party. Then you clean up the party, clean up the magic dust, put it back into the thing and then we do it all again...

It's a very big game."

- C (age six)

Kids say the darndest things!

C, holding up a five foot long paper snake that she had made:

"Daddy, this is my new pet. It's an anaconda that can turn into a king cobra when it wants to strike. And she's very nervous..."

- C (age six)

Kids say the darndest things!

"Oh. That's kind of like 'cheating magic'."

- C, (age 6) upon daddy showing her a magic trick purchased from a magic show.

Kids say the darndest things!

"'Syllables' has three syllables."

- C (age 6)

Kids say the darndest things!

"Wow! Clouds are made by trains! Look!"

- C, age six

Kids say the darndest things!

Watching the desert town battle scene in the movie Transformers:

"Wow! All the people in the whole beach are here to fight the dragon Transformer!"

- C, age six

Kids say the darndest things!

"Daddy, can people do what the sunshine does?"

- C (age six)

SOS

Just a castaway
An island lost at sea
Another lonely day
With no one here but me
More loneliness
Than any man could bear
Rescue me before I fall into despair

I'll send an SOS to the world
I'll send an SOS to the world
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle

A year has passed since I wrote my note
But I should have known this right from the start
Only hope can keep me together
Love can mend your life
But love can break your heart

I'll send an SOS to the world
I'll send an SOS to the world
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle

Walked out this morning
Don't believe what I saw
A hundred billion bottles
Washed up on the shore
Seems I'm not alone at being alone
A hundred billion castaways
Looking for a home

I'll send an SOS to the world
I'll send an SOS to the world
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle

Sending out an SOS

- Message in the Bottle, The Police

Kids say the darndest things!

C: "Daddy, where is heaven?"

Daddy: "Heaven is everywhere."

C: "Really? Is heaven in a movie?"

Daddy: "Good question."

- C (age six)

Kids say the darndest things!

"Hurting parents is what kids do best!"

- C (age six)

Number One

Go Bucks!

Kids say the darndest things!

"Darth Vader is a bad guy, except he's cool."

- C (age 6)

Free your mind...

...from the matrix.

The coming dawn...

As the dew turns into frost
There is something that I hope will not be lost
The leaves will change, they'll start to fall
I still wonder if it mattered much at all
When my world starts to fade
I can only hope that every choice I made
Will endure, and carry on ... into the
Coming dawn

The breezes blow, soft clouds drift by
Like some artists' canvas captured in my eye
I am sure, I'm holding fast
I am dying for a lifetime that will last
But when my world starts to fade
I'm still hoping this foundation that I laid
Will endure, and carry on ... into the
Coming dawn

We're so close, yet never touch
Can there be a love that changes me this much
I can't see, eyes open wide
Yet I'll never doubt you're standing by my side
When my world, starts to fade
I can only hope that every choice I made
Will endure, and carry on ... into the
Coming dawn

- Kerry Livgren
Kansas - Somewhere To Elsewhere

Historic

"We reviewed and we can't find a team in the history of the AP Poll that has ever lost to a lower division team..."

- Sports Center



"Uh...uh.....i think it's a combination...i think...uh.... inexperience.....uh....uh......ya hafta play to get it and...uh.....uh....Appalachian State had tremendous speed at the....uh....skilled positions....and......uh....uh .....you know.....uh ......they did a good job.

- "Coach" Lloyd Carr

Pain is a necessary part of beauty...

Artists suck unless they really, fundamentally hurt. And so they seek pain, and in so doing hurt those around them.

Those who believe themselves to be artists are similarly possessed of this tendency. And thus, despite their lack of ability to heal, they hurt - fundamentally.

Damn.

Quotable quotes...

"Nothing says revenge like mother nature."

- Chris Harmon, artist, father, excellent host!

Kids say the darndest things!

"The only thing I want to be is a astronaut, a ballerina, a famous singer, a teacher, a chef, a window sill cleaner, a gardener, a sewing lady, a builder and some kind of fixer."

- C, final days of age five

And the moral of the story is...

So I just watched "The Devil wears Prada". Ok...I'm soooo gay. Whatever. Anyway, it was probably the best acting I've seen in a long time. Which is to say that I'm beginning to wonder how Star Wars suckered in Sir Alec Guinness.

Great story. While the theatrical tension was entirely predictable and the end game preordained by all that is Hollywood, it really came off well for a low-budget, bollywood, cult, conspiracy theory film... That's what it was, right?

Whatever, haters. It made her both horny and self-assured.

Xan Shui
Philosophic Philanthropist, Honest Man

There you have it...

Don't worry, Al...you've got Al!

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070730/D8QN2CGO0.html

Wisdom

The last surviving veteran of WWI battle revisits the battlefield.

"Harry Patch, of Somerset, made the trip to Flanders in Belgium to recall his part in the battle which claimed 250,000 British casualties.

...

Mr van Emden showed him the five miles they advanced over 99 days which claimed 3,000 British casualties every day.

He was also shown a recently discovered panoramic photograph of the fields taken in 1917.

"Too many died," said Mr Patch. "War isn't worth one life."

- from the article

Kids say the darndest things!

"Change can be good...did you know that? See? That fart was me!"

- C (age five)

Kids say the darndest things!

"I wanna be funky like Mom."

- C (age five)

Kids say the darndest things!

C: "Daddy, there is such things as ghosts. Did you know that?"

Daddy: "Really? Why do you say that?"

C: "Because I saw a white thing in the bathroom once and it wasn't me."

- C (age 5)

Kids say the darndest things!

"People can't really fly like Superman you know. Only sparrows and ducks and geese and some bugs and fairies can really fly." - C (age five)

Kids say the darndest things!

Mommy: "Are you intense?"

C: "No, I'm in threes."

- C, age five

Kids say the darndest things!

"If I were a girl with a beard that would be just nasty."

- C (age five)

Buddhist thought of the day...

Buddhism teaches that the human mind is adroit enough to conclude that there is no person or thing in this universe that can really change anything meaningful. When your actions are in accord with the inevitable they are irrelevant, and when they are not they are like the fluttering of a bird's wings against the bars of its cage. Once you see this, then you can have peace.

- Paraphrasing 'All Else is Bondage; Non-Volitional Living' - Wei Wu Wei

Suffer the little children?

I use Google's portal as, among other things, a news bank. It allows me to quickly check what's going on in several areas of interest. One being general headlines and, those often being driven by sensationalism, I very often see stories of young children missing and only slightly less often read of the terrible fates they endured when their little abused bodies are found abandoned, and analyzed.

Every time I read of the missing I say a prayer for the safety of that child, and every time I read of the grieving family I say a prayer of condolence for the family. The few times I hear of a safe recovery I whisper a prayer of thanksgiving to God.

For the vast majority of us, our brains can do nothing but see the pure beauty in a child. In all their innocence and energy, they represent nothing but the future. Our brains evolved to protect them from harm, especially when our genes are part of their makeup.

But for a few who have seemingly fallen into an abyss of sexual selfishness that could only be described as monsterous, children represent an opportunity for gratification that they cannot pass up at nearly any cost. Why can we not see that this is an illness whether or not it is also a crime? Why do we let people go free who possess so dangerous a tendency? Would we allow a person who is incapable of restraining his or her anger to buy a gun? <--oops, I guess we do in Virginia.

Human sexuality is a wonderful thing, but in the possession of a chronic, irrepressible, apparently unrestrainable desire, it is also a weapon. And since we criminalize sexual violence, it is a weapon that is used in crime, which means a society has at least some obligation to control it. More, in the case of child molestation, it's a weapon that only attacks two classes of individual - one that is entirely incapable of protecting itself and the other that is apparently incapable (the child and the pedophile). And in this case, without the weapon (the chemicals that allow body to fulfill the desire of the mind), the criminal is as helpless to commit the crime as he or she (let's face it - its most always a he) is uninterested in committing it.

It is legal for me to possess a gun because I can be trusted to use it. But a gun isn't part of my anatomy and so we cross a threshhold of property freedom that is indeed sacrosanct when we suggest that society should be able to take away that weapon. But we castrate hopeless sexual criminals today, so it's not a boundary we haven't already crossed.

In Sin City, when the hero removes the child molester's weapons ("both of them"), the audience cheers. Twice. And they don't cheer for the raw violence, they cheer because of their innate sense of justice that has just been satisfied before them. I suggest its time to consider lowering the criteria with which we medically remove the sexual ability of people who demonstrate even one time the willingness to victimize a child for their sexual pleasure.

If we don't act ourselves then all we have is my prayers. And so far, frankly, their track record is just awful.

Xan Shui,
Philosophic Philanthropist, Honest Man

I have a question...

Who invented the word "hos" anyway?

Xan Shui
Philosophic Philanthropist, Honest Man

Kids say the darndest things!

C: "I'm gonna be a mountain climber."

Daddy: "Oh, really? That's cool! What do you have to do to be a mountain climber?"

C: "You just have to do what you don't know you can do."

- C, age five.

Kids say the darndest things!

Daddy: "What's that you drew on the dinosaur's tail - a firecracker?"

C: "No. It's a drink with an umbrella in it."

- C (age five)

Kids say the darndest things!

"I have TONS of patience. I can wait for ONE WHOLE MINUTE!"

- C (age five)

Lies in the sand...

Lies in the Sand

There's a man, who says there is a light in the sky.
All my friends say he's telling a lie.
But he speaks with such passion that I have to think about.
And his hands ... well they tremble as he points it out.
But I can't see what it's all about
And the voices of many are singing along it seems.

Is it all something new? And will I see it too?
Or is this just continuing man?
Throughout all history claiming they all can see
but the evidence falters just short of my hand.
And there are lies in the sand.

There's a man who says he was a Satanic Beast.
And the many were there at his feet.
And he scared all the people, cause he just what we want.

Is it all something new? And will I see it too?
Or is this just continuing man?
Making more history claiming they all can see
but the evidence falters just short of my hand.
And there are lies in the sand.

There are things that will surely seem as they are not.
And I might not know all that I've got.
But the bluffing is easy, and I haven't seen your hand.

- King's X

An interesting point of view.

"Astrophysicist Nir Shariv, one of Israel's top young scientists, describes the logic that led him -- and most everyone else -- to conclude that SUVs, coal plants and other things man-made cause global warming.

Step One Scientists for decades have postulated that increases in carbon dioxide and other gases could lead to a greenhouse effect.

Step Two As if on cue, the temperature rose over the course of the 20th century while greenhouse gases proliferated due to human activities.

Step Three No other mechanism explains the warming. Without another candidate, greenhouses gases necessarily became the cause.

Dr. Shariv, a prolific researcher who has made a name for himself assessing the movements of two-billion-year-old meteorites, no longer accepts this logic, or subscribes to these views.

Dr. Shaviv reconstructed the temperature on Earth over the past 550 million years to find that cosmic ray flux variations explain more than two-thirds of Earth's temperature variance, making it the most dominant climate driver over geological time scales. The study also found that an upper limit can be placed on the relative role of CO2 as a climate driver, meaning that a large fraction of the global warming witnessed over the past century could not be due to CO2 -- instead it is attributable to the increased solar activity."

- from the article.

Kids say the darndest things!

"I really do wish I was a jaguar so that I couldn't have hands but have claws instead because that would teach me to swim deep underwater without holding my nose because if I held my nose I might scratch my face with my claws."

- C (age five)

.

Kids say the darndest things!

"I'm really strong and I can figure a lotta stuff out."

- C (age five)

.

On Your Side

Kevin apologizes, before the Superbowl, for a commercial that will air for the first time on it.

Dude! Who's side are you on?

Kitty Washing Machine

Life it feels better down where it's wetter take it from me!

(Ignore the error message, just click on the video again to go to youtube and view it.)

Kids say the darndest things!

"There's no such thing as a 'master'."

- C (age five)

.

Kids say the darndest things!

C: "Daddy, when I grow up I want to be a jaguar."

Daddy: "Well, then you'd have to eat animals raw."

C: "What does that mean - raw?"

Daddy: "Well, it means you have to catch an animal, then kill it with your teeth, then tear it open and eat it without cooking it."

C: "Oh....COOL!"

- C (age five)

The world catches up...

They finally realized...

And a more direct reference to the impact's impact on orbital debris from ABC news from February 2.

D'oh!

A couple of wiseguys stole a cache of what they thought were mobile phones. Turns out they were GPS devices which led police right to their home!

Wise indeed.

Do as I say not as I do...

Looks like the Chinese have decided to show us just how vulnerable our testicles are. When there's nothing but loose bolts and smithereens floating above us in 16,000 mph freefall and we realize that we've just imprisoned ourselves on this planet for the next hundred thousand years or so because there is no longer a safe path into space, I wonder if anyone will write about how incredibly brilliant human beings are.

Chinese destroy satellite

Why can't they just leave us alone?

Why do they have to count things? Takes all the fun out of it. All we want is to sit back on our recliner, drink beer and feel superior to women...is that so wrong?

Article: Women are better drivers than men

Kids say the darndest things!

"You can only try to think of an idea for so long before you must say there is a lack of one."

- S, age 14

Let there be bass

In the beginning there was a bass. It was a Fender, probably a Precision, but it could have been a Jazz - nobody knows. Anyway, it was very old ... definitely pre-C.B.S.

And God looked down upon it and saw that it was good. He saw that it was very good in fact, and couldn't be improved on at all (though men would later try.) And so He let it be and He created a man to play the bass.

And lo the man looked upon the bass, which was a beautiful 'sunburst', and he loved it. He played upon the open E string and the note rang through the earth and reverberated throughout the firmaments (thus reverb came to be.) And it was good. And God heard that it was good and He smiled at his handiwork.

Then in the course of time, the man came to slap upon the bass. And lo it was funky.

And God heard this funkiness and He said, "Go man, go." And it was good.

And more time passed, and, having little else to do, the man came to practice upon the bass. And lo, the man came to have upon him a great set of chops. And he did play faster and faster until the notes rippled like a breeze through the heavens.

And God heard this sound which sounded something like the wind, which He had created earlier. It also sounded something like the movement of furniture, which He hadn't even created yet, and He was not so pleased. And He spoke to the man, saying "Don't do that!"

Now the man heard the voice of God, but he was so excited about his new ability that he slapped upon the bass a blizzard of funky notes. And the heavens shook with the sound, and the Angels ran about in confusion. (Some of the Angels started to dance, but that's another story.)

And God heard this - how could He miss it - and lo He became Bugged. And He spoke to the man, and He said, "Listen man, if I wanted Jimi Hendrix I would have created the guitar. Stick to the bass parts."

And the man heard the voice of God, and he knew not to mess with it. But now he had upon him a passion for playing fast and high. The man took the frets off of the bass which God had created. And the man did slide his fingers upon the fretless fingerboard and play melodies high upon the neck. And, in his excitement, the man did forget the commandment of the Lord, and he played a frenzy of high melodies and blindingly fast licks. And the heavens rocked with the assault and the earth shook, rattled and rolled.

Now God's wrath was great. And His voice was thunder as He spoke to the man.

And He said, "O.K. for you, pal. You have not heeded My word. Lo, I shall create a soprano saxophone and it shall play higher than you can even think of."

"And from out of the chaos I shall bring forth the drums. And they shall play so many notes thine head shall ache, and I shall make you to always stand next to the drummer."

"You think you're loud? I shall create a stack of Marshall guitar amps to make thine ears bleed. And I shall send down upon the earth other instruments, and lo, they shall all be able to play higher and faster than the bass."

"And for all the days of man, your curse shall be this; that all the other musicians shall look to you, the bass player, for the low notes. And if you play too high or fast all the other musicians shall say "Wow" but really they shall hate it. And they shall tell you you're ready for your solo career, and find other bass players for their bands. And for all your days if you want to play your fancy licks you shall have to sneak them in like a thief in the night."

"And if you finally do get to play a solo, everyone shall leave the bandstand and go to the bar for a drink."

And it was so.

- Unknown

.

O-H!

I-Ow!!!


CHOMP!

Kids say the darndest things!

Daddy: What would you do if you had a pet elephant?

C: Leave it outside.

- C, age five

.

Sister Moon...

"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun.
My hunger for her explains everything I've done.
To howl at the moon the whole night through...
and they really don't care if I do.
I'd go out of my mind but for you."

- from Sister Moon, Sting

Rainmaker

Have you ever seen a miracle - you couldn't doubt or imitate?
What's it really worth to you to shake the holy hand of fate?
Well I did what I could to make ends meet
Been a gunrunner and a medicine man.
In a Kansas town I was a rainmaker - there the hand of fate got out of hand.

Rainmaker Rainmaker save this one horse town
Rainmaker pray to heaven!

From the Flint Hills the land was cracked and dried
Thirsty streets in misery
I took the sign down that said medicine man
Put one up that said rainmaker - that was me.
So the townspeople gave me money up front
To light a fire - pray, and dance around.
Tell them it'd rain so they'd all go to bed
And I'd make my break clean out of town.
But I started this dance and a storm kicked up
The sky went black from coast to coast.
It was too late to stop - it was to late to pray
I had summoned down the Holy Ghost.
Oh the searing wind and the clouds of dust
And hell came raining down!
What came out of me and the powers that be
Was the last of that one horse town!

- Kansas, In the Spirit of Things

Kids say the darndest things!

C, getting ready to go to school with Dad on a cold December day:

"Look, Daddy. You have gloves on. That means you have five fingers. I have mittens on. That means I have one thumb and a whole pack of fingers."

- C (age five)

The worm turns...

"Potentially, the techniques could one day be adapted for human use, with doctors perhaps being able to offer parents pre-natal tests to determine the likely sexuality of offspring or a hormonal treatment to change the orientation of a child.

Roselli has said he would be “uncomfortable” about parents choosing sexuality, but argues that it is up to policy makers to legislate on questions of ethics."

Article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2524408,00.html

It seems that the same guys for the "right" of people to have an abortion are against the idea of parents choosing the sexuality of their child. Looks like this one hit a little close to home.

Xan Shui,
Philosophic Phanthropist, Honest Man

Political Leanings

Got into a great discussion the other day on politics, so decided to just state what I believe about life, the universe, and everything:

- God exists and created the universe.
- All human beings are animals and we have all evolved from other life forms just like every other animal. And this has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not there is a God.
- Guns aren't evil. Machine guns, however, are overkill and should be illegal.
- Life is beautiful and we don't have the right to take it away (even from criminals or unborn babies) for any reason.
- Pregnancy is a CHOICE. If the mother's life is in danger because of a child she carries then we should allow it to get close enough to term to save it.
- Government in the U.S. is too big, costs too much and knows way too much about me.
- The greatest thing we can do for world peace is to create a strong middle class all over the world.
- People should be required to take responsibility for their lives. People should have to give something back to society (work in some way) for what they want and need.
- Once people have earned something it should remain theirs.
- We need to improve our educational system in order to compete with other countries.
- Wars are too expensive. Our military should only be used to take countries who threaten us down and not to rebuild them. The U.N.'s should own rebuilding them if needed.
- The left is demonizing President Bush as unfairly as the right demonized Bill Clinton.
- There are too many people in this world not to use birth control.
- People have the right to be gay but marriage is a religious tradition that we shouldn't alter to handle homosexuality any more than we should alter it to handle more than two partners.
- The health and tax benefits associated with married people should be available to any two adult people living together (whether they're fucking each other or not) and all their dependents living with them.
- The U.S. tax code is too complex and should be simplified. We should tax consumption not wealth.
- In a sexual relationship, in is unfair to require monogomy from your partner without taking responsibility for the sexual happiness of that partner.
- Americans are in for a very rude awakening when India and China get their economies moving. However, we're in a better position to recover from losing our dominate status in the world than Europe. Africa will be pulled out of the third-world by China and India.
- In 2050 radical Islam will have about as much influence as the KKK.
- Any given woman and man are not equal in terms of their capabilities - but neither are any two given men or any two women.
- Buffalo chicken wings from BW-3 are the single greatest cullinary achievement the world has ever known.

That's it for now!

Saddamned

So I understand that he was evil. And I understand he was a threat to not just his own people. I understand that he was convicted of killing about 150 people and i'm more than 150% sure that there was much more beyond that. His children were child-raping animals and he let it be that way. I understand that if we hadn't intervened he and his own would still be raping children and causing unrest in the region and I believe that we thought we needed to do what we did when we did it - not just because Bush says so, but because the legislature overwhelmingly supported it.

He wasn't human - he was an animal who truly deserved death. But, in the end, honestly, we became less human for giving it to him. Not only that, we gave him the honor his pathetic sons did not have.

But I guess such is our lot in the shadow of tyrants; victims too.

Xan Shui
Philosophic Philanthropist, Honest Man

Dead.

My Way News - Iraqi TV Says Saddam Hussein Executed: "It was a grim end for the 69-year-old leader"

We're no better.

Xan Shui
Philosophic Philanthropist, Honest Man

In the news...

BREITBART.COM - Final Plans Made for Saddam's Execution: "'The Americans want him to be hanged respectfully,' al-Nueimi said. If Saddam is humiliated publicly or his corpse ill-treated 'that could cause an uprising and the Americans would be blamed,' he said."

So we'll execute someone for executing people...BRILLIANT!

Xan Shui,
Philosophic Philanthropist, Honst Man

Alembic

Main Entry: alem·bic
Pronunciation: &-'lem-bik
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French & Medieval Latin; Middle French alambic & Medieval Latin alembicum, from Arabic al-anbIq, from al the + anbIq still, from Late Greek ambik-, ambix alembic, from Greek, cap of a still
1 : an apparatus used in distillation
2 : something that refines or transmutes as if by distillation (philosophy...filtered through the alembic of Plato's mind -- B. T. Shropshire)

The mind's alembic...

Ideal Beauty

"Ideal beauty is not the mind's creation: it is real beauty, refined and purified in the mind's alembic, from the alloy which always more or less accompanies it in our mixed and imperfect nature. But still the gold exists in a very ample degree. To expect too much is a disease in the expectant, for which human nature is not responsible; and, in the common name of humanity, I protest against these false and mischievous ravings. To rail against humanity for not being abstract perfection, and against human love for not realising all the splendid visions of the poets of chivalry, is to rail at the summer for not being all sunshine, and at the rose for not being always in bloom." . . . .
"But to make ideal beauty the shadow in the water, and, like the dog in the fable, to throw away the substance in catching at the shadow, is scarcely the characteristic of wisdom, whatever it may be of genius."

---Mr Hilary, in Nightmare Abbey, Chap. XI.

Kids say the darndest things!

C, helping us decorate our Christmas tree, holding up a perfectly spherical ornament with a white ribbon tie hanging over its side:

"Daddy, can I help with the bombs?"

- C, age five

2nd highest victory margin in history...

Yes.

What was that huge sighing sound?

My Way - Sports News: "Southern California and Michigan will meet New Year's Day in the granddaddy of 'em all, with each playing in the game for the third time in four years."

Let the record show that Lloyd Carr's job was saved by one one-hundredth of a BCS point!

Xan Shui,
Philosophic Philanthropist, Honest Man

Perfect.

SI.com - NCAA Football - Ohio St., Michigan�stay 1-2 in BCS standings - Sunday November 19, 2006 4:41PM: "The No. 1 Buckeyes locked up a spot in the BCS title game Jan. 8 in Arizona with their victory over the Wolverines on Saturday, their 19th straight overall. They also became the first team to have a perfect score of 1.000 under the BCS formula introduced in 2004. Ohio State is a unanimous No. 1 in all the polls and the best team in the country according to the BCS computer ratings."

Probably the only thing in the world that can save Saddam.

BREITBART.COM - Iran Calls for Saddam to Be Executed: "Iran called on Iraq Tuesday to carry out its death sentence on Saddam Hussein, saying the former dictator who waged an eight-year war against Iran in the 1980s was a criminal who deserved to die."

In the news: An eye for an eye?

Vatican says 'don't hang Saddam' | NEWS.com.au: "'For me, punishing a crime with another crime – which is what killing for vindication is – would mean that we are still at the point of demanding an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,' he said.

'Unfortunately, Iraq is one of the few countries that have not yet made the civilised choice of abolishing the death penalty,' said Cardinal Martino, effectively the Pope's justice minister."

Kids say the darndest things!

Daddy: "Is it yummy in your tummy?"

C: "No. It's yummy in my head."

- C (age five)

.

Kids say the darndest things!

"Daddy, can you see your own eyes?"

- C (age five)

.

Those crazy Japanese!

My Way News: "TOKYO (Reuters) - Police are looking for a robber who held up a noodle bar in western Japan then paid for his meal and waited for his change before making off."

Read the story, and then ask yourself: Whose the crazy one - the waitress or the robber?

Kids say the darndest things!

"Little kids are magic, except for everyone else but me."

- C (age five)

Kids say the darndest things!

C: "Daddy, my throat hurts and my head hurts and my fingers hurt."

Daddy: "Really? Oh my goodness I don't know what we're going to do with you!"

C: "Umm, take care of me?"

- C (age five)

.

Kids say the darndest things!

Daddy: "Wow, look outside. It's raining it's brains out today."

C (after looking out the window for some time): "Daaaad, rain doesn't have any brains."

- C (age five)

.

Heavy cloud but...

...no rain.

The sun won't shine 'til the clouds have gone.
The clouds won't go 'til their work is done.
Every morning you'll hear me pray,
'If only it would rain today'.

- Sting
Heavy Cloud, No Rain

.

In the news...Execution

Florida executes "Ripper" who terrorized campus: "The macabre murders began August 24, when Rolling broke into the apartment of 17-year-old university freshmen Sonja Larson and Christina Powell. They were found mutilated and stabbed to death. He had raped both women, one after she was dead. "

Did he deserve it? Probably. Should we have done it? No! Death solves nothing.

Xan Shui,
Philosophic Philanthropist, Honest Man

Kids say the darndest things!

Daddy: "Holy shit!"

C (age five): "What does "holy" mean?"

.

The world less traveled...

Welcome to Info-Scape, EAI Consulting with a Difference!

A sad little epitaph to a man who lived in a fantasy world of encoded purity. To Bruce.

Martin, maintain the site please.

"(c) 2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005 Copyright Info-Scape Ltd., All rights reserved"

Kids say the darndest things!

"Daddy, what happens if there is no God anywhere?"

- C (age 5)

.

The only way to stop this...

My Way - News - News Home: "A milk-truck driver carrying three guns and a childhood grudge stormed a one-room Amish schoolhouse Monday, sent the boys and adults outside, barricaded the doors with two-by-fours, and then opened fire on a dozen girls, killing three people before committing suicide."

The only way to stop this is to stop publicizing it when it happens. When you have nothing to lose, then fame is free.

Xan Shui,
Philosophic Philanthropist, Honest Man

There is no such thing as safety.

My Way News - Milk Driver Kills 3 at Amish Schoolhouse: "A milk-truck driver carrying three guns and a childhood grudge stormed a one-room Amish schoolhouse Monday"

Effortless.

"In much the same way they did at Texas three weeks ago, the Buckeyes made their 38-17 victory over No. 13 Iowa look so effortless they might as well have been playing it in a library."

Sports Illustrated Online