circle circumference come from sun dance

from The Onion (dot com)


Swaggering Down: Swaggering Down 87%


"The average stride has decreased from 2.5 feet in length to mere 11-inch shuffling steps, and the angle of a walker's torso in relation to his waist has gone from a confident 28-degree backward lean to a pitiful 67-degree bent-over slouch," Macleod said. "Perhaps most distressing is the near-total absence of Americans making imaginary guns with their fingers and 'shooting' at passersby while winking."


I remembered first love with my wife when she laid her head on my shoulder and settled there.

Today I'm in a random mood with that jumbo-tron brain screen with quantum mechanical brain cells pumping in more directions and dimensions than I'll ever have names for.

I witnessed the beauty of two people learning to form new ideas about the world and test and wrestle with and form these ideas into pyramid blocks of advanced design - meanwhile they learn tolerance and patience and fellowship.

Trampled truly are dreams of anyone plugged in enough to know fear like locking the door all the time, like folks who've never been in a fight carrying a handgun, like a man programed and damned to want only what every other man has.

Oh, to solve a Vendetta's worth of misfortune, blaming only the circumstances of history, and fulfilling a rare prophecy of reflecting back in a mirror only that which you seek to see around you, to see change, to see the special lighted pathway to turn turn turn suffering into synergy, grime into growth, mayhem into magic.

Oh, to hold it all in your head, then swing out of silent safety with actions unfolding in sequence to reset.

Space has form as a mind has form, with infinite sequences of emptiness full of emptiness counters where the sounds of silence charge the empty space, producing potential for leaps of light and energy from Lifesavers cracked in mouths to our planets pull on the fabric of the entire universe.

And outside space is where our planet has no pull, where connection is meaningless, where any wandering mind would be revoked or dissolve, since "as we know it" would cease.

And I'm pissed at the people who are afraid still; we worry ourselves to death and I want a culture of life.

And I'm pissed at the people who vote against their own true interests because they don't dig deep enough either to find true concerns or find the not-so bubble-yum bravely self-proclaimed objective and objectional rational - dare I say Enlightened? - truth out there that can only ever exist subcutaneously away from the surface scan of permanently previous epochs of progress we call the media

October Surprise Nostalgia - Dukakis in '88

Congratulations to Caleb of East High School in Anchorage for winning 2nd place in his first ever debate tournament. A real Maverick who, with little more than a few weeks of research and practice, competed and rose without a partner experienced opposition of two in Public Forum Debate at Robert W. Service High School. Honorable mention as well to Mya, who impressed judges and us, and Min-Joo and Julia our brave up and coming hopefuls who had a wonderful time. Also commendation to all the sight-impaired - were it not for our recent and fairly miraculous technologies such as glasses and contacts, we'd all be blinder.

Is October for 8 and 10 or 16 or 18? 20, 24? 26? 28-800?

anyway, Dukakis

from Wikipedia:

Dukakis had trouble with the personality that he projected to the voting public. His reserved and stoic nature was easily interpreted to be a lack of passion (which went against the ethnic stereotype of his Greek-American heritage). Dukakis was often referred to as "Zorba the Clerk." Nevertheless, Dukakis is considered to have done well in the first presidential debate with George Bush. In the second debate, Dukakis had been suffering from the flu and spent quite a bit of the day in bed. His performance was poor and played to his reputation as being cold.

During the campaign, Dukakis's mental health became an issue when he refused to release his full medical history and there were, according to The New York Times, "persistent suggestions" that he had undergone psychiatric treatment in the past. The issue even caused then-President Ronald Reagan, when asked whether the Democratic Presidential nominee should make his medical records public, to quip with a grin: "Look, I'm not going to pick on an invalid." Twenty minutes later, Reagan stated that he "attempted to make a joke in response to a question" and that "I think I was kidding, but I don't think I should have said what I said." Reagan continued, "I do believe that the medical history of a President is something that people have a right to know, and I speak from personal experience." Dr. Gerald R. Plotkin, Dukakis' physician since 1970, stated that "[Dukakis] has had no psychological symptoms, complaints or treatment."[6]

[edit] Views on capital punishment

The issue of capital punishment came up in the October 13, 1988, debate between the two presidential nominees. Because she knew the Willie Horton issue would be brought up, Dukakis's campaign manager, Susan Estrich, had prepared with Bill Clinton an answer highlighting the candidate's empathy for victims of crime, noting the beating of his father in a robbery and the death of his brother in a hit-and-run car accident. However, when Bernard Shaw, the moderator of the debate, asked Dukakis, "Governor, if Kitty Dukakis [his wife] were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?" Dukakis replied coolly, "No, I don't, and I think you know that I've opposed the death penalty during all of my life," and explained his stance. After the debate, Dukakis told Estrich he was sorry and didn't realize it was that question[7]. Many observers felt Dukakis' answer lacked the passion one would expect of a person discussing a loved one's rape and death. Many – including the candidate himself – believe that this, in part, cost Dukakis the election, as his poll numbers dropped from 49% to 42% nationally that night. Other commentators thought the question itself was unfair, in that it injected an irrelevant emotional element into the discussion of a policy issue and forced the candidate to make a difficult choice.

08's October Surprise is More Like an Everything Bagel

re-posted from www.theonion.com

Infographic

October 15, 2008 | Issue 44•42
October Surprises In History

Many elections have been altered by an "October surprise," or a sudden revelation that casts one candidate in a bad light. Here are some of the more memorable October surprises from years past:

1816: James Monroe (Democratic-Republican) vs. Rufus King (Federalist)—The Daily Pottstown Ledger intercepts a carrier pigeon carrying erotic poetry from Sen. King to an unidentified minor

1840: William Henry Harrison (Whig) vs. Martin Van Buren (Democrat)—In one of the earliest photographs ever taken in the United States, the incumbent Van Buren is revealed to be nothing more than a topcoat stuffed with leaves

1868: Ulysses S. Grant (Republican) vs. Horatio Seymour (Democrat)—Scandal erupts when it is discovered that Seymour secretly supports polio

1924: Calvin Coolidge (Republican) vs. John W. Davis (Democrat)—Publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst releases photos of Davis dressed as a flapper

1960: John F. Kennedy (Democrat) vs. Richard Nixon (Republican)—Chicago's powerful League of Deceased Voters rescinds its endorsement of Nixon

1984: Ronald Reagan (Republican) vs. Walter Mondale (Democrat)—Ronald Reagan finds Osama bin Laden and gives him $100 million to fight the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan

1988: George H. W. Bush (Republican) vs. Michael Dukakis (Democrat)—Voters are shocked when it is revealed that Dukakis previously slept with and impregnated his wife of many years.