The Joy of Life

The Joy of Life by Berton Braley:

I’d rather risk gamely
And lose for my trying
Than grind around tamely
–A cog in the mill.
I’d rather fail greatly
With courage undying
Than plod on sedately
With never a thrill!

The game’s in the playing
And, losing or winning,
The fun’s in the essaying
Your bravest and best,
In taking your chances
While fate’s wheel is spinning
And backing your fancies
With nerve and with zest!

Let stodgy folk censure
and timid folk quaver,
But life sans adventure
Is weary to bear,
The dangers we’re sharing
Give living its savour
I’d rather die daring
Than never to dare!

I came across a collection of some of Berton Braley’s best poems at Quent Cordair. Check it out!

Alisa Veijo, California — City officials were so concerned about the potentially dangerous properties of dihydrogen monoxide that they considered banning foam cups after they learned the chemical was used in their production.
Then they learned, to their chagrin, that dihydrogen monoxide – H2O for short – is the scientific term for water.

Socialist cave-in part of al Qaeda plan

Al Qaeda document:

We think the Spanish government will not stand more than two blows, or three at the most, before it will be forced to withdraw because of the public pressure on it,…
If its forces remain after these blows, the victory of the Socialist Party will be almost guaranteed — and the withdrawal of Spanish forces will be on its campaign manifesto.

This al Qaeda plan was published months before the bombings and elections that accomplished it. Which U.S. ally will the terrorists go after next? Despite the president’s appeals, I think anti-Americanism is too pervasive for any European government to make a principled stand against terrorism and survive the elections.
(More at Cox & Forkum.)

George Carlin Responds to Indecency Uproar

The whole problem with this idea of obscenity and indecency, and all of these things — bad language and whatever — it’s all caused by one basic thing, and that is: religious superstition. … There’s an idea that the human body is somehow evil and bad and there are parts of it that are especially evil and bad, and we should be ashamed. Fear, guilt and shame are built into the attitude toward sex and the body. … It’s reflected in these prohibitions and these taboos that we have.

The below is from the Clean Airwaves Act, (H.R. 3687):

As used in this section, the term ‘profane’, used with respect to language, includes the words ‘shit’, ‘piss’, ‘fuck’, ‘cunt’, ‘asshole’, and the phrases ‘cock sucker’, ‘mother fucker’, and ‘ass hole’, compound use (including hyphenated compounds) of such words and phrases with each other or with other words or phrases, and other grammatical forms of such words and phrases (including verb, adjective, gerund, participle, and infinitive forms).

Astute readers will note that the list of banned words matches Carlin’s 1972 “Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV” — except that “tit” has been replaced by “asshole.” My, how times (haven’t) changed.
I think Robert A. Heinlein’s take on the matter is appropriate:

Of all the strange “crimes” that human beings have legislated of nothing, “blasphemy” is the most amazing – with “obscenity” and “indecent exposure” fighting it out for the second and third place.

The state of abortions rights in America recently got bleaker:

A woman accused of murder because she allegedly refused a caesarean section that could have saved her unborn twin denied the charge today, rejecting claims she avoided the surgery because she feared scarring.

The implications of these charges are clear enough:

Critics of the charges say the case could affect abortion rights and open the door to the prosecution of mothers who smoke, fail to follow their obstetrician’s diet or take some other action that endangers a fetus.

Terrorists Bomb Madrid Trains

I’m sure that you’ve all heard of the Madrid bombings this morning that killed 190 and injured over 1200 people. While the Spanish government initially blamed Basque separatists, new evidence implicates Islamic fundamentalists, possibly cooperating the separatists. I have two observations to make about this:

Unlike Islamic fundamentalists, the Basque separatists are not death-worshipping suicide bombers. They did this expecting not only to get away their act, but also to survive long enough to reap the political benefits. What policies of the Spanish government and the larger war on terrorism led them to that conclusion?

Aside from the lackluster and self-defeating American response to 9/11, the European response to terrorism has been to portray Islamic fundamentalists as victims and America as the aggressor. If the Basque separatists anticipated the same attitude to be extended to them, they now expect a wave of sympathy for their cause, an attack on the Spanish government as the “imperialist aggressors” and a military response designed to capture their “hearts and minds” rather their bloody hearts and splattered brains.

So how did the Spanish politicians react? Did they pledge to hunt down and kill every single terrorist behind this attack? Did they renew their dedication to destroying the global terrorist network that is almost certainly at least partially behind this atrocity?

Three days of national mourning were declared and thousands of people took part in spontaneous anti-terror rallies across the country Thursday. The government called for nationwide anti-ETA demonstrations on Friday evening, and millions were expected.

Not a single article I read mentions anything about the Spanish government’s attempt to hunt down those responsible for the attack. In fact, the only pledge to go after the terrorists was offered by the U.S.:

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution expressing outrage and urging Bush to “provide all possible assistance to Spain” in pursuing the terrorists.

The Spanish response to today’s bombings is just another example of a larger lesson: terrorism cannot be defeated until we recognize whom it is that we are fighting – something that our enemies have been aware of from the start:

The Arabic newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi said it had received a claim of responsibility issued in the name of al-Qaida…. This is part of settling old accounts with Spain, the crusader, and America’s ally in its war against Islam,” the claim said.