Sid's Fishbowl
A proud member of the reality-based community (aquatic division)
Tuesday, August 23, 2005

From The Poor Man Institute for Freedom and Democracy and a Pony:
A sound monetary policy is vital to a healthy and strong nation. It is too important to be entrusted to the whims of political appointees and unworldy academic theories. At the same time, it must reflect our national spirit of independence, our playful and optimistic nature, and, most of all, our belief in a “culture of life”. The gold standard is a relic of Old Europe. America must adopt the kitten standard, making kittens the standard unit of account.

The advantages of using kittens as currency are endless. Kittens can be used to create more kittens, which will encourage saving. A first world economy based entirely on unneutered kittens can expect to achieve an average growth rate of 900% per year, which far surpasses anything possible under the current system. If you try to steal a kitten, it will scratch you. Kittens can not be controlled by the unelected central bankers in Washington, D.C. And so on.

All totalitarians are allergic to cats. Cats, and freedom.


And every time you scoop the litter box, you get a little richer.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Riggsveda:
Things are starting to converge: the war, the criminality of everyday business on the Hill and in the Oval Office, the rape and pillage of our labor laws and environmental and public health regulations, the theft of votes, the force-feeding of poisonous presidential appointments aimed at bringing down the very systems that have protected us, however imperfectly, from boardroom sharks and wealthy conscienceless thugs. It's putting me into an activist state of mind I haven't felt since the protests of 1969 and 1970, remembering the fearlessness of those days. And to watch Cindy Sheehan taking a stand down south recalls those days, as she attracts others to her vigil by the sheer determination and bravery of her stance.


Nothing will change until people start speaking up.

Arthur Silber administers a brutally frank smackdown of Michelle Malkin. It's a thoughtful, reasoned, thoroughly accurate explannation that follows up on a previous post, which was more vitriolic but no less accurate:
I was indeed astoundingly generous and unjustifiably kind when I referred to Michelle Malkin as a vicious, lying, racist, hypocritical bitch the other day. The truth is that she is a deeply disgusting, unforgivable, and vile piece of shit.
After you finish, be sure to read Greg Saunders at This Modern World, who moderates a debate between Michelle Malkin and Michelle Malkin.

Friday, August 12, 2005

"Just like in 2001, Bush will be spending August in Texas. I guess literally vacationing in Hell would be kind of a give-away."

- The Poor Man

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Salon points out:

We know we're a little early, but as George W. Bush settles into the first full day of his five-week vacation in Crawford, Texas, we want to be the first to wish him a happy anniversary. It was four years ago this week, also in the midst of a Crawford vacation, that Bush received the presidential daily briefing that warned, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US."

What's in store this year?

Forwarded by a friend:

It started out innocently enough.

I began to think at parties now and then -- to loosen up.

Inevitably, though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker. I began to think alone -- "to relax," I told myself -- but I knew it wasn't true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time.

That was when things began to sour at home. One evening I had turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother's.

I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't stop myself. I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly we are doing here?"

One day the boss called me in. He said, "Listen, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job." This gave me a lot to think about.

I came home early after my conversation with the boss.

"Honey," I confessed, "I've been thinking..."

"I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!"

"But Honey, surely it's not that serious."

"It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver. "You think as much as college professors, and college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on thinking, we won't have any money!"

"That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently.

She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional drama. "I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door.

I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche. I roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big glass doors...They didn't open. The library was closed.

To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night. Leaning on the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye. "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked.

You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinker's Anonymous poster. Which is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker. I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting. I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed...easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking.

I think the road to recovery is nearly complete for me.

Today, I registered to vote as a Republican.

It's funny because it's true.