OMG

Do I Even
Know How
To Change
My Home Page?

I think so.  I think I can go to an address, and point, click, and drag over to the little house with the cute chimney that's on the sixth line down from the top, right below what I'll call my "Favorites" bar.

Right above that line -- it reads Favorites, Suggested Sites, Google, NYTimes, ESPN, ClearSp (for Real Clear Sports), MRQE, ClearPol (for Real Clear Politics) and, finally, "Get more Add-ons" with one of those cute little down arrows at the end of the line -- is another line I don't know what to call.

Above THAT line (the fourth line down) is stuff I never click on:  from left to right:  the letter x, a dialogue bar, "search," Norton, Safe Web, Share, Access Vault, Login Assistant."  After each are those cute little down arrows.

The third line down, I almost understand.  File Edit View Favorites Tools Help

The second line down, I partly understand.  The back and forward arrows, the cute little down arrow, the dialog box for the URL (hell if I know what URL stands for, but I know what it is) and some funny little symbols (I know the one that "refreshes") and another dialog box that I never use and a magnifying glass and a cute little down arrow.

And then, the top line, where it says Xanga Weblog Editor - Windows Internet Explorer -- and the three boxes in the upper right corner that bring the whole page down to the very bottom bar on the screen, or maximize/minimize, or close. 

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When I get time, I'll write more.  Honest.

Can you write this long a thing on Facebook?  I don't think so.  I KNOW you can't on Twitter, which I've never used or been on.  I like to write expansively.  I don't like to tweet.

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From what I've seen, LiveJournal is the place to go.

Or maybe I'll learn how to use Xanga 2.0, if it ever gets up and running.

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What I DON'T have is time to write anymore this morning, because I stayed up late reading all the comments at John Hiler's blog, and slept late because of that, and I have to get my ass down to Steve's mother's house in Boynton Beach for a long-awaited Scrabble match.

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I've already mentioned my Scrabble files, I think, in the previous entry.

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FINALLY, here's a twitter-style, tweet-style summation of my feelings.

Social media without Xanga is like classical music without Beethoven.  How many characters does Twitter allow?

********

7:46 a.m. edit

Gotta fly, sly.

Before I leave for Boynton Beach, here's a link to a pretty good column by Maureen Dowd from 2011 -- found at the site of VegasMike433.   He's just one of the many many Xangans I'll miss if this place folds.

This place.  It hasn't really been the same since Drakonskyr left.

And what am I going to do without Zsa_MD?  Or jsolberg?

Same as without Drak, I guess.  Same as without sororitygirl, I guess.   At least lionne's pages are up until July 15.  And LordPineapple's.

Jeez, I'm going to miss this place. 

Xanga Crowdhoster -- Go to Xanga Crowdhoster to see progress toward the 60 thou goal.

Archive Download -- Go to Archive Download to download your files.  I think you need to give them time to create an archive (for example, I got a message saying that I had never created an archive; seems Xanga will do it for me, and you, if you give them a few minutes, or a few days), and then you can download.  I think that's how it works.

Will Xanga Survive?

 

Perhaps, but I'm worried that the user-friendliness I'm used to (I've become addicted to hyperlinks, for example) will no longer be present when Xanga 2.0 kicks off.  I'll have to wait and see.

Here are two three news stories:

Digital Trends

TheVerge.com

Jessica Roy at BetaBeat

Apparently, there's a July 15 deadline to raise $60,000, or John Hiler of the Xanga team says it will shut down.

 

We'll be given a chance to save our files, but my files are so extensive (not just the Scrabble files, but a slew of other data files that I refer to constantly, such as my medical appointments and prescriptions, all sorts of addresses, phone numbers and I can't remember what-all I keep tucked away) that I might just give up.

I'll miss the friends most of all.  I have a few email addresses and phone numbers, but not many.

Gosh, I love my readers.  I even think some of them love me.

John Hiler's blog, linked above, seems much more optimistic than what I've written.  I just hope he's right.

Jorn K. Bramann

I mentioned Jorn K. Bramann's essay on "Network" yesterday.

Today, I just want to point you to THIS PAGE with links not only to a slew of other essays on notable movies, but also philosophical essays related thereto.  The clarity of Dr. Bramann's writing is remarkable, and last night I sent him a fan letter telling him how much I loved his writing.  You will too, if you give it a try.

(Late Tuesday edit)

For example, "Network" is linked to Plato's "Republic," and it's quite remarkable how Dr. Bramann so lucidly ties the theme of one (a ratings-driven network catering to the lowest common denominator viewer who will swallow whatever the boob tube offers them) vs. the democracy or oligarchy choice when it comes to designing the ideal republic.

I've treated myself to a lot of reading since I discovered Dr. Bramann.  Buster Keaton's brilliant silent film, "The General," builds comedy out of a series of events that follow each other AS IF causally related, while the incredible dissertation on mathematics, "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus" by Ludwig Wittgenstein, makes the point that while it is mathematically true to say, " 'If P then Q' implies only that if P is true then Q is true," that statement does NOT imply that there is any causality between P and Q.  What a wonderful treat to read both analyses one after the other.

"Modern Times," a Charles Chaplin masterpiece, is an echo of (you guessed it) Karl Marx's "Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844."

Most of these treatises are quite long, and there are at least one or two of them seriously marred by typographical errors, but as I've said earlier, Dr. Bramann is a gifted writer and teacher whose prose is easy to understand.

*******

On Another Subject

Ten Fictional Golfers

Check out especially the Shivas Irons segment (No. 5), based on "Golf in the Kingdom" as discussed by that book's author, Michael Murphy.  You don't have to thank me now.  You can thank me later.

 

"Network"

I watched this movie last night for the first time in years.  It rings truer than ever -- a devastating indictment of the slavishness to ratings that defines the television industry, then and now.

Only problem I have with Paddy Chayefsky's brilliant script is that the words fly by so fast I don't have time to savor them.  That's one reason I love Jorn K. Bramann's essay -- which I found only this morning.

Acting Oscars went to Peter Finch (posthumously), Faye Dunaway, and Beatrice Straight.  Equally awesome was William Holden and almost as awesome was Robert Duvall.  And of course Chayefsky also was honored with the coveted statuette for "Best Screenplay."

The Slate Article

I got called into work, AND I have a doctor's appointment in an hour, so I don't have time to point you to my facebook comment, but if you look for Bob Lipton, I'm the one with the picture of the big dog and the little baby as my "photograph."

The Slate article (linked above) discusses the Kaitlyn Hunt case, which I've been following closely.  Though I don't know her personally, I'm especially interested because this is local.  Well, sort of local.  Sebastian, where she goes to high school, is in the same town as my doctor's office.  Which reminds me ...

5 p.m. Edit

Well, that was a brutal day of work.  Glad to be home.

About Kaitlyn Hunt.  She declined the plea deal which, according to prosecutor Bruce Colton, would have included a guarantee not to be labeled a sex offender.  Not sure if he's telling the truth about that.*  But, here is where we are, in any event.

They're going ahead with the trial.  The facts are:

Kaitlyn Hunt, age 18, was a senior at Sebastian River High School before the school board demanded she be expelled because she had had sexual relations with a 14-year-old girl who happened to be a fellow member of the school's basketball team.  Thousands of folks have rushed to Kaitlyn's defense, signing a petition agreeing with her lawyer's request for the charges to be dropped to a misdemeanor.

Hunt's parents allege that their daughter's relationship with her girlfriend, who was 14 when they began dating, was known to the other girl's parents. They implied that the other girl's parents waited until Hunt turned 18 to press charges.

The laws in Florida are such that persons 18 and over may be charged with felonies for having sex with a person 16 or under, and it's understandable why children need to be protected from adult predators.

But in my opinion, mitigating factors need to be taken into account.  From what I understand, Kaitlyn is no predator.  The prosecuting attorney is acting as if he has no choice, but I think he's lying.

*The reason I think he's lying is that an article in London's Daily Mail says THIS (which agrees with something else I read in the local paper):   "Hunt is facing felony charges of lewd and lascivious activity.  If she had accepted the plea deal, she would have been forced to register as a sex offender as well as remain on house arrest for two years." 

Here's a Facebook page where you can sign a petition to help "free Kate."  I'll try to post a link to a petition page itself.

I still don't see where you sign the petition on that page.  Or buy a couple of "Stop the Hate.  Free Kate" t-shirts, which Barbara and I would like to have.

A guy writing under the pseudonym of "FosterDisbelief" captures my feelings HERE.  I wish he would tell me where I can buy a t-shirt.

to be continued

The Crime
Was Getting Caught

That's if any crimes were committed, that is, and I seriously doubt that any were.

I'm talking about the ridiculous trio of "scandals" that Republicans are trumpeting these days.  And I'm including the snooping case into Associated Press phone records as being ridiculous, though I'll admit there COULD be (in fact, could easily be) something in that one that's reprehensible.  But even regarding the AP thing, I can make a devil's advocate case for "That's ridiculous."  Back to the AP thing later.

1.  The IRS Thing

Let's say I'm a pest exterminator and you hire me to take care of your house and you have a history of ants and roaches.  But let's say the roaches have been mostly taken care of, and the latest headache is ants in a lot of places.  Wouldn't it make sense for me to concentrate on ants, and worry about the roaches a little later?  Mind you, I won't forget about the roaches.  But if there're ants all over the place, as a good pest exterminator in your service, it's ants I'm thinking about mostly.

Personally, I despise political parties almost as much as I despise insects (all the time admitting that ants, roaches, Republicans and Democrats are all creatures of God and are perhaps capable of occasional beneficial acts), so the analogy is apt enough.

As an IRS agent, I've probably already denied tax-exempt status to MoveOn.org and other roaches (I mean Democrats) because -- and I read this somewhere recently -- there have actually been liberal-oriented operations that applied to the IRS for tax-exempt status and were denied because they budgeted more than half of their operational budget to political ends.

Now comes the Tea Party and a slew of other ant colonies (I mean Republicans) forming up organizations and claiming they shouldn't pay taxes because Tea Partiers hate taxes in the first place and they can pay for more TV commercials if they don't have to pay any pesky taxes in the second place.

As an IRS agent, wouldn't I flag likely organizations for special scrutiny?

President Obama expressed faux outrage, in my opinion, when this "scandal" first popped up a week or two ago.

As I've said many times, I'll be the last man standing when it comes to defending our President against scurrilous attacks, and I'll defend him now even if I do believe he didn't really mean it when he said the alleged IRS behavior was "outrageous" and other calumnious adjectives.

What puzzles me is how few commentators are saying the obvious.  There's nothing wrong with looking at groups with "tea party" in their names and checking to see how they spend their money before granting them exemption from paying taxes.

2.  The Benghazi Thing

Let me be the devil's advocate AGAINST Obama and say what's equally obvious (and equally unsaid; read my last paragraph on "The IRS Thing").

If YOU were running for president and you thought that maybe there was an Al Qaeda terrorist attack that killed four members of your foreign service in Libya but you weren't really sure and maybe it was a stupid spontaneous protest about an anti-Muslim film and people are going to be voting in a few weeks and you don't want it to look as if you're not on the lookout for Al Qaeda terrorist attacks, wouldn't YOU maybe scrub the "talking points" when the public is anxious to know what exactly happened and who did what and why in Benghazi?

That just ain't scandalous, in my opinion.  What IS scandalous is to politicize the thing to death, which is what Romney did last fall and what his fellow Republicans are doing now.

3.  The AP Thing

Again I'll be the devil's advocate and postulate that I'm an underhanded, damn-it-the-Press-isn't-sacred President and damn it I'm going to find out who's behind bomb plots in Yemen even if I have to secretly check reporters' phone records to get the information I need to keep my country safe.

Yes, I understand it's important not to intimidate informants and whistle-blowers and reporters have an important function to fulfill and a free press needs to be preserved.

I'm just sayin'.

How heinous is it to try to find out who the bad guys are?

The crime was in getting caught.  If there was a crime.  And maybe there was and maybe there wasn't.

************

This is your favorite (maybe not anymore, but I hope so) Devil's Advocate, signing off.

Donna Summer
Sings
MacArthur Park

It's 17:52 long, if you have the time.

Actually, I've heard versions that have moved me more.  Not that I have anything against the Queen of Disco.

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Here's another one I love -- Nancy Sinatra singing "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" -- and the video is sexy too.  Plus, great choreography, which I always admire, whether or not there's skin to enjoy.

**********

Time for a reprise -- a video of a different kind -- George Jones singing "He Stopped Loving Her Today" in a live performance.  Mmm.

********** 

After the nice comments about Vivaldi's D Major Guitar Concerto (2nd mvt) the other day, I offer you now Antonio's Four Seasons.

**********

Anyone for Beethoven's Ninth Symphony?

This and That

I know next to nothing about the Jody Arias trial, but I did hear former prosecutor Wendy Murphy on Al Sharpton's MSNBC show earlier this evening, and fell in love with her as she was talking about the accused rapist/kidnaper Ariel Castro, and looked for a YouTube snippet.  Didn't find Castro, but I did find Arias.  HERE.

Well, that was OK, but as I searched Murphy's name on YouTube, I see that she lets herself be used by Fox News to attack Planned Parenthood.  Seems there was a sting operation which I BELIEVE was conducted by an anti-abortionist who probably filmed interviews with several Planned Parenthood staffers until finding one who obligingly went wink-wink when the subject of abortions for teen prostitutes came up, then created a carefully edited film to make it look as if Planned Parenthood has no conscience when it comes to sex trafficking.

My political bias does not allow me to provide you with THAT link.  Even though Murphy is pretty good.

Wish I could find the Sharpton segment.  Maybe tomorrow.  For now, HERE SHE IS following the bail hearing on Castro.

*******robert.lipton at irmc.onmicrosoft.com ********

More wrinkles unfold daily regarding the Tiger Woods - Sergio Garcia soap opera.  Here's an early report from ...

Miami Herald

Since then, and I've been wondering about those marshals who supposedly told Tiger that Sergio had already hit his shot (on hole 2 Saturday), marshals have come forth to say that they never told Tiger any such thing.

My theory is that one or more marshals had his arm get tired and lowered it at a time when Tiger could infer that Sergio had hit.

Oops, I just read THIS, the latest story, and my theory was wrong.

 

*******************

 

Want music?  Here's the second (everybody's favorite) movement of Vivaldi's D Major Guitar Concerto.

 

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Finally, here's an item I picked up from the Huffington Post the other day.  An excellent analysis of what's wrong with Ayn Rand's take on the "job providers" of our economy.

Atlas Shrugged Off Taxes

By Paul Buchheit

A Poem To Share

Yesterday during drive time, I heard this wonderful poem by Louise Fletcher, read by Garrison Keillor on "Writers' Almanac."  As you know, I love sharing.  So, here 'tis:

 

The Land of Beginning Again

 

I wish that there were some wonderful place

Called the Land of Beginning Again

Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches

And all of our selfish grief

Could be dropped like a shabby old coat by the door

And never be put on again.

   

I wish we could come on it all unaware

Like the hunter who finds a lost trail

And I wish that the one whom our blindness has done

The greatest injustice of all

Could be at the gates like an old friend that waits

For the comrade he's gladdest to hail.

   

We would find all the things we intended to do

But forgot, and remembered too late;

Little praises unspoken, little promises broken

And all of the thousand and one

Little duties neglected that might have perfected

The day for one less fortunate.

   

It wouldn't be possible not to be kind

In the Land of Beginning Again

And the ones we misjudged and the ones whom we grudged

Their moments of victory then

Would find in the grasp of our loving handclasp

More than penitent lips could explain.

   

For what had been hardest we'd know had been best

And what had seemed loss would be gain

For there isn't a sting that will not take a wing

When we've faced it and laughed it away,

And I think that the laughter is most what we're after

In the Land of Beginning Again.

   

So I wish that there were some wondered place

Called the Land of Beginning Again

Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches

And all of our selfish grief

Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door

And never be put on again.

   

Louise Fletcher Tarkington