Here’s an article that was sent to me by two people, both John Wendel and, about an hour later, by Mer. It’s about how the cuddly feelgood New Age version of the Dalai Lama is our fantasy creation. The “us” to whom I ascribe this “our” being, of course, the New Age feelgood-addicted West. I know John and Mer both very likely know that my own thinking on the issue of Tibet and the Tibetan government-in-exile (ie. the theocracy that was desposed by Chinese soldiers) is far from blind sympathy, but I did realize that perhaps many of the people …

AP Wire | 09/10/2003 | Man Charged for Shipping Himself As Cargo Yes, really. I found this on Epiphany in C. Here’s the thing. I wrote this article right after September 11th, arguing that the problem is, there are weak spots all over in the armor of the American system. I really do think they exist in such massive numbers that for the American government to find them all is impossible. Maybe with enough encouragement and publicization, enough cranks and loudmouths will think up the crazy things terrorists might do, and if the government listens to them (instead of arresting …

Gallamine.com – William Cox I was following one of the blogsnob links served up to my webpage when I came across William Cox’s page Gallamine. While looking about I came across a ludicrous little article on why banning gay marriage is just. So I posted the following comment there, responding to others comments and then to the article itself, and decided to reproduce it here because it’s long enough to warrant reposting and because I think I argue well.

Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Ideas / That sinking feeling Is America on the decline? That’s the premise of the novel I am working on, but it’s not as if I came up with the idea. Here’s a fascinating article looking at the various theories alleging America is, or is not, on the decline. I agree with the final point, at least, which is: Maybe civilizations do not devolve, as theorists of decline fear, but rather evolve, as from Darwin’s tangled bank where there is no perfection, merely complexity and fluxand where there is always something growing where …

The update first, so I don’t get a bunch of corrections. Yes, I checked with Myoung Jae and he’s pretty sure joji is a slang word for a boy’s naughty bits and not a girl’s naughty bits. So this story is slightly less funny. But I’m leaving it up since it still means George Bush is a dink and a p*ssy. And I am censoring this to avoid getting porno search freaks bombarding my site with complaints.