To The Dogs

Cable News is an ongoing stream of programming arranged to deliver audiences to advertisers. Producers know that if dogs are seen rutting out the left window, and nuns are observed praying out the right window, they go with the dogs every time. Facts must pay their way - truth is no longer a coin. - PS

Jan Goes All Space On Me

Here are questions from a reporter and answers from Phill Sawyer:

How long have you and your wife been married?

We married the night of Dec 31, 1999 - depending on where you were in the world, that     was either in the 20th century or the 21st century. But 14 years either way.

What was the conversation like when she told you she was applying to Mars One -- how did it differ when you found out she was
one of the 1058?

Applying to do something interesting or provocatively different is not an exceptional event with Jan, so I wasn't really totally surprised to hear her explain how this could be part of a new adventure in her life. When she received word of having been chosen as one of the 1058, I was nevertheless completely amazed and - along with Jan - excited to know that this was indeed a serious proposal and that it was intended to actually take human life into the cosmos - and not machines alone, but my wife and her 3 new roommates.

Was it particularly out of character, or surprising of Jan, to apply for a mission to Mars?

Out of character would have been her dismissing the whole idea without having driven it around in her head and her imagination, and then moving forward to learn more.

And, like the news stories so commonly published on the subject, what will become of your relationship if she is
considered for space travel?

Our relationship will survive. I will be in my eighties when Jan's adventure begins. I may be already be out there by then, or perhaps far beyond.  But there is absolutely no doubt that we will both experience some thinking and some emotions that are new not only to us but to the whole of humanity. We're both going to try to make this part of our lifetime become a work of meaning and amazement.

Sinead

The Beach...

One of the purest, most beautiful voices I have ever heard in my life. She truly has a gift. I too agree that music is a force far higher and greater than ourselves. To be able to channel it is a blessing. To be able to receive it and let it transform you, even more so. 

I identify with her universal approach too. I have not found any absolute or unique insight or truth in any one religion that answers all the questions.

If the Infinite and Unknown is a beach, then each religion is like a portrait of that beach painted at a particular time of day by one particular artist. 

If you only saw one painting, you still have not seen everything about that beach. If you really want to know what that beach is like, you would find as many paintings of it from as many angles, times of day and through the eyes of as many painters as possible. 

I see no reason why I must only embrace the Northern Palestinian version of "the beach" and not the Navaho or the Ashante or Buddhist.

- Jessica J. HuffPo commenter

Watch Your Six, Julian...

Not right or left, but up or down...

"Each part of the brain influences and interacts with the other. So I came up with four modes of thinking -- mover, stimulator, perceiver, and adaptor -- that emerged from the interactions I saw between the top and the bottom brain that go beyond basic function. People who tend to operate in stimulator mode make extra use of the top brain; perceivers make extra use of the bottom brain; movers make strong use of both top and bottom; and adaptors don't utilize either in any additional capacity -- instead they let external circumstances guide their actions...

...And the results may be especially useful when it comes to working on any kind of team. In general, if your group includes people who fall into each of the four categories, they'll each offer something different that, when put together, can lead to great success."

Take the quiz...

Mia throws shit at the gawkers...

I was working at a Sinatra recording session where Mia was hanging out. A man of 51 and his 21 year old wife - a perfect image of the obvious. Nobody said a thing; nobody needed to. When I hear her describing and devaluing the unusual circumstances of others, I wonder what she expects to achieve - and I wonder what she thinks we've forgotten.

Bad form award goes to...

Not The Brady Bunch

The sense of remembered sadness is nearly palpable as I read this. Unfortunately modern life pumps out an endless stream of broken promises, dismembered childhoods, doubted love, and our assumed collective shame for all of this.   

The story...

A Shining City on a Hill, overlooking poverty

...as Paul Krugman points out today, the American elite has almost never been in such a dominant position. Who needs a stronger job market when profits are high and workers cowed?

...check it out -

Hmmm, I no longer hate that Ted Nugent is President.

If it can help people, then yippee! But, I think I can already hear the collective buzz of the world's dishonorable forces thinking up ways to use this as a tool for the powerful in threatening enemies, and maintaining control over a human population. 

Bend over - it's for your own good...

Duck Breath

I think I found the problem - he says that "my mission today is to go forth and tell people about why I follow Christ and also what the bible teaches." ...so my mission is to let him know that droves of us don't want to hear what his beliefs are, or what his favorite religious book tells him. Think of it like cellphones in a plane - nobody wants that stuff!

More about this nonsense...

A failure bowl in an even larger failure bowl...!

Nice try, but nobody can un-skin a cat - not even Russia's shirtless, pink racketoon leader. If justice still works, he'll trip and fall into a vat of multi-colored paint and spend closing ceremonies as a failed rainbow...

It'sjust another reason I don't like the guy...