http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090622/scheer  -- worth reading.

to a new reader, sorry about that!
Eric

*peering to left and to right*
... a rabbit and a penguin, trailed at a safe distance by
a twitchy horse
sneak in, and each puts pen to paper. Variously paw or flipper draws, with some tapping spell-checking adjustment by hoof, gets out suite:

"The usual author, a chap named Eric of our acquaintance too, couldn't make it this evening, though he'd had some plans to.  He sends regards, raincheck, and excuses
of an unwell though now much-improved finger. A comment to be explained soon though not just this moment!"

Computer is futzed (predictably, it's been getting this way for awhile) so will probably be offline soon for awhile (unless I set up my older computer. Maybe, maybe not.) Able to get online for the moment using a bootable disk, but - not I suspect for long.

It's finally possible to use the "Advanced Editor" on a Mac on MySpace (using the Camino browser. I don't know if I tested this using this browser before, so maybe finally isn't the apt term. Always got a "No!!" before, and should have taken more note of what browsers I was testing with...)

(Hrm. Apparently several released Solti/Chicago Mahler 5s, but this is the right one- the time is, and times are right )
Eric, off to this and that.

would also like to express my own cheer at today's events. Though an activist shouldn't make the mistake many made during the Clinton years, assume that we have this friend in the White House and all is now fine, to assume that work at the grassroots level would just get in the way. That's not how it works...

(Did I spent much of my day, despite assorted very minor ills and this and that, joyful? Oh yes...
if my estimation of what's going on is different in _degree_ - not in kind- from that of many other progressives and liberals, my morale politically during the last few years especially needed some increase, to give one reason and hardly the most major of them...)

and for those who need it (as sometimes I have) I recommend this link strongly enough at least...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome

a much-appreciated and useful gift given by a reader here (upgrading my account status on another site!)

Returned from Long Island on Monday, after a visit with my podiatrist. Good bus rides both ways, much reading, several episodes from season 3 of LOST seen, good company, good support meeting, saw sister and had enjoyable meal in her company as well; well-spent weekend. Tuesday was rainy, but went well, and saw The Dark Knight at the end, enjoyed the movie.

Well-written take on why not to pass along that panic message from your bulletin section or mailing list without taking a half-moment to think about it, or check it, first...

and what harm it really can do, if you do, instead.

http://lordmatt.co.uk/item/565/

where I would make my remarks only once-awhile and then only when annoyed...

that hasn't been my overall mood or sense of self.

Lately much enjoying (and this matters enough to me if not necessarily otherwise :) ) a novel by Elizabeth George and music by Steve Reich on the one hand, and (just now) Tomas Luis de Victoria on the other...

HTML in all comments now disabled again here (on my profile, I mean, and, I think, for good this time.)

Write it _out_, blast it, doesn't have to be your original words but I have had it up to here with graphical LUV. (links to friends' sites and contests I didn't mind but people can still cut and paste them from my comments- just again, write them out once, don't copy a whole kit-and-kaboodle that won't transfer anymore.)

The latest is that
Tsvangirai, who was to compete against Mugabe in the runoff elections this week and who withdrew a few days ago, has sought refuge in the Dutch embassy in Harare (fleeing soldiers at the time) and received safety assurances. For those who have not read or heard the background by now, between the first election and the runoff, there have been tens of thousands of deaths - as part of a larger form of, apparently, vote-for-Mugabe-and-the-ZANU-PF (his party) campaign of intimidation (destroying homes, threatening jobs, ... and much and much and more).

Understandably and always wishing to be fair, the ZANU-PF expresses a different opinion.

For the latest in a series of stories, see

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7470627.stm. The BBC has been reporting about this for some time, I have been listening to this over their Global News podcasts. (The Mugabe government claims that a vote for their opponent would be a vote for Britain, perhaps because the BBC has not been treating them well in broadcasts and perhaps because Britain was the former colonial power - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe, and - well, I don't claim to know.)

the death of George Carlin yesterday.

(Now the misattribution of sappy mailing-list bits (like "living backwards", and "bad American", and the rest) to him can continue without pause. Unfortunate. He had a rapier wit and often excellent judgment, it seems to me.)