ill-conceived

Had the aim been to attract much traffic with a clever gimmick, this is the blog you would be reading now. Yet, do not infer great amounts of rancor nor bitterness. A good idea is a good idea. And those pictures are hard to hate.

(via BuzzFeed)

"the audacity of bleak despair"

This Modern World breaks down McCain's campaign tactics this week.

Att: Obama

W.H. Auden, in "September 1, 1939," was on to something:

Exiled Thucydides knew
All that a speech can say
About Democracy,
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;
Analysed all in his book,
The enlightenment driven away,
The habit-forming pain,
Mismanagement and grief:
We must suffer them all again.

(Link)

growtown

In the midst of much bad news--Iran launching missiles with the capability to reach Israel and then photoshopping photographs of the launch to make it seem like they launched more missiles than they actually did; Rice delivering very thinly veiled threats in reaction to Iran's launches; Obama voting for a bill that gives legal immunity to telephone companies that participated in the government's unconstitutional wiretapping, rendering any legal action against those companies effectively useless; massive suicide attacks in Afghanistan, forgotten almost as soon as they happen (hey, you can now download applications directly to your iPhone?)--it does a body good to read something simple and hopeful like this.

pleased to meet me

23/6 News has done an excellent job of describing the Obama rally in Portland earlier this week, at the end of which "75,000 Oregonians disperse from the park feeling just a little bit more inspired, and a little bit more satisfied with themselves." (Link, via murketing)