And The Winner(s) Is....

Horsedooty! For both funny and numerous. The letter from boot camp was priceless. Also, for a Texan to be a good sport about a Texas joke, adding in that Cormac MacCarthy is from Texas...it was tough though. Vervet almost got there merely for being from St. Augustine. Pogo, until I remembered that he's a lawyer was considered for announcing that he wasn't even going to try...(hey, I told you the process was going to be arbitrary and unfair)


So, mi amigo horsedooty, email me your shipping information and I'll send you the book.

I did a second place though for JackGoff. He has a choice to make. The choice is between "The Road" and "The Quark and the Jaguar." The latter is a wonderful exploration of both quantum and particle physics but also a great foundation for complexity theory by Murray Gell-Mann, the Nobel Prize winner for his discovery of the quark. One of the cooler parts of the book is where he describes that to discover the quark he had to first imagine that it might exist. Jack, email me with your shipping information and your choice of books. I'd send you my copy of the Gell-Mann, but it's inscribed. I got to meet him when I played a gig in Santa Fe. He was all giddy about meeting Harry "the Hipster" Gibson and we were all giddy about meeting a roomfull of Nobel laureates from the Santa Fe institute. The scientists were doing all kinds of wild riffing on the math and physics of the music and how it resonates to produce emotions in humans. It was a pretty heavy experience. Stomp jazz and quantum physics.

The next contest will be in December with the prize being a dozen chocolate truffles.

Thanks for your attention and support

(posted in another dimension at 3Beez

Friday's Random Ten On Thursday

Since I'll soon be loading up the ol' bus to go to my mother's for her 80th birthday celebration I figured I'd run the random ten. One of the cooler things to have on the road (along with satellite radio) is the little port to plug the iPod into. The contest for Cormac MacCarthy's "The Road" is still running. Feel free to give it a shot. I have no judging criteria, I promise it will be decided totally by whim and mood of the moment. So, before we roll across the stinking desert for six hours or so, we'll hit random and take the top ten.....

Louisana Man ---- Doug Kershaw
Hesitation Blues - - - Furry Lewis
Since I Fell For You - - - Dr. John & Ricki Lee Jones
Death Letter - - - Son House
Truck Drivin' Man - - - Box Car Willie
Wild, Wild Life - - - Talking Heads
Just My Imagination - - - Temptations
Grand Valse Brilliante in Eb - - - Vladimir Horowitz (Chopin)
Sweet Georgia Brown - - - Django Reinhart
track 11 - - - Harp stuff I'm working on for a gig next month

Bonus track (random twice take the top)

Four Strong Winds - - - Ian Tyson

Bonus Bonus - - -

I Feel Lucky - - -Mary Chapin Carpenter (since I feel lucky one more time)

Amerika V6 ---- Steve Earle

What ya'll listening too?

Cormac MacCarthy - - The Road - - A low key stupid contest

I have tried, and failed, to write anything else about Mark Foley. Too many others are doing a much better job. I am too addled and amazed to get into any of the other politics. I was forking some hay out in the barn this morning and this thought hit me like a ton of bricks.

President Bush is in Phoenix today. He is doing two fund raisers for Republicans who are running for Congress. The. Worst. President. Ever. Has fans. Has them where I live. I decided to bury myself in some decent fiction.

I have a few authors (most of them are not contemporary) where I own a complete set of their work. Yeats, Shakespeare, e.e. cummings, to name a few. Of the contemporary authors I own a complete set of John Irving, Harry Crews, William Manchester, David Hackett Fisher, Flannery O'Connor, and Kurt Vonnegut. Also, Cormac MacCarthy.

I just finished his most recently published work The Road. It is searing, brutal and beautiful. Like most of his work, people will be tempted to make a movie, and the movie will most likely suck. This is literature. If you take away the imagination required to appreciate this, if you take away the vivid scenic descriptions you will diminish this book's power. I read the entire book in one day. I put it down a few times to do things that needed doing. Then I went right back to it. I had a football game (where I had money riding on the outcome) on and read the book instead. I'd look up every now and then to try and get a feel of the game, then I turned it off. This book is simply the best thing that I've read this year.

So, now to my silly contest. Since I am in need of cheering up I will entertain in the comments, jokes, witty statements, total ass kissing flattery, anything anybody can say that will cheer me up and put a stupid silly smile on my face or even a tale of poverty and woe that might remind me how fucking good I have it in life. Anything goes. Those of you (and there are many) who write much better than I do can remind me of that. Again, Anything Goes. A total free fire zone. Over the next two days I will check the comments and using a totally arbitrary and autocratic process I will pick one who will be the winner to be announced on Saturday.

The prize? I will send, through Barnes and Noble, a copy of this book. I also on Saturday post my "5 Things Feminism Has Done For Me" meme, which I was indirectly tagged by Shakes. I'm going to be at my mother's house for her birthday. I will be in the company of my mother, my three sisters, two of my three daughters who are the most influential women in my life. I figured why not do that one at that time when it makes the most sense, ya know?

So, have it at it folks. The prize is the best book I have read this year. Somebody gets a book out of this.

cross posted at Big Brass Blog

Regarding the Torture Bill

I found this via PZ Meyers at Pharyngula and agree completely. Advice to soldiers ordered to violate the Geneva Conventions.

Here is an excerpt, I strongly suggest reading the whole post.

Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions is straightforward and clear. Under Article VI of the Constitution, it forms part of the supreme law of the land.

You personally will be held responsible for all of your actions, in all countries, at all times and places, for the rest of your life. “I was only following orders” is not a defense.

What all this is leading to:

If you are ordered to violate Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, it is your duty to disobey that order. No “clarification,” whether passed by Congress or signed by the president, relieves you of that duty.

If you are ordered to violate Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, this is what to do:

1. Request that your superior put the order in writing.

2. If your superior puts the order in writing, inform your superior that you intend to disobey that order.

3. Request trial by courtmartial.

You will almost certainly face disciplinary action, harassment of various kinds, loss of pay, loss of liberty, discomfort and indignity. America relies on you and your courage to face those challenges.

A case of one soldier or special forces operator refusing an order to torture, take hostages, or otherwise violate the Geneva Conventions or the Constitution would be the single best test case issue there is. I am certain that there are constitutional law attorneys that would stage a round robin boxing tournament for the priviledge of representing you.


Crossposted at 3B's

Random Flickr Blogging (1835)

_MG_1835_edited-1
Originally uploaded by marvin m.

A single flow'r he sent me, since we met.
All tenderly his messenger he chose;
Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet--
One perfect rose.
I knew the language of the floweret;
"My fragile leaves," it said, "his heart enclose."
Love long has taken for his amulet
One perfect rose.

Why is it no one ever sent me yet
One perfect limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no, it's always just my luck to get
One perfect rose.


     Dorothy Parker