gdp's Comments

Steve Lundeberg : Lundy: Not so much

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 23:40:04 +0000

- Having said that, .... There's the non-questions where the voice rises at the END? -

Steve Lundeberg : Lundy: Marriage?

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 03:45:19 +0000

Steve, there is a source reference book written in 1884 which informed me more than anything else I've read, about how / when / why 'marriage' began; and explaining 'marriage' and 'family' as ('business') contracts for transfer of property; and property as the definition of the State, or sovereignty. Back when marriage and property and the State began ... was a long long time ago, way before the Egyptian dynasties, (which were before either the Hindu calendar, the Jewish (Hebrew) calendar, or the Chinese calendar began). The book is The Origin of the Family, by Frederick Engels, and the entire of it is HERE [ www.scribd.com/doc/4068357/Engels-The-Origin-of-t... ] There is a lot in it to read and think about -- food for thought -- before one can say, comprehensively, that the ideas upset the gut, or cultural mores. .

Steve Lundeberg : Lundy: Thursday Top 7

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 22:03:33 +0000

WOW. For me that is T.M.I. (Too Much Information). For those TV viewers those years that is F.G.U.R.M.I. (Forest-Gump Unquestioning Role Model Indoctrination) -- 'behave like Gilligan, behave like Forest Gump, same same, be celebrated for it ... someday ... maybe.' I 'shut out' Gilligan's Island because I couldn't identify with Gilligan as authentic for being re-cast of Maynard G. Krebbs -- actor Bob Denver, ( "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis", altho' "many" wasn't my most interest in the show, Tuesday Weld was), but in those days I hadn't realized an actor person is not the same as a character-role fiction. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I'm unconfused about it these days, either. Anyway, HERE is the complete collection of full-length G.I. episodes. H.A.G.O. -- K.Y.O. www.Fancast.COM/tv/Gilligan-s-Island/97792/full-e... -

Steve Lundeberg : Lundy: Error free?

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 20:36:39 +0000

Shirley no one expects blondie here in the blog. Blondie is in the comics. Letting your hair down is here in the blog.

Steve Lundeberg : Lundy: The mirror

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 20:30:22 +0000

Good one, Steve. Good one, 'guy' of eulogy. It makes me think that the modern equivalent of MIRRORS which ricochet light into dark fathoming reachs, is the use of webpage LINKS. That is, if we agree passing literate webpage information, pointed to by a LINK, reaching the mind of someone who lacked that information, enlightens. Like, a sunbeam vectored off a mirror enlightens unknown voids. LINKS accessing internet information is a different device yet demonstrating the same result in a MEANING of life: Sharing awareness of our environment and of ourselves together in it. You and me and everyone around us, Steve, are aware of massmedia in our environment. (Perhaps massmedia is the totality of some folks' awareness of the environment, where they dwell, seeking MEANING.) Accordingly, a 'small piece of broken mirror,' (click HERE: MediaMatters.ORG), shows a daily laser beam spotting the lies and factual errors and contamination information being tossed around in the massmedia part of our world, environment. The false statements on TV and by the AP are tainted pieces of information -- they darken thoughts instead of enlighening -- and such massmedia stains are good to know to avoid ... while seeking MEANING.

Steve Lundeberg : Lundy: Picture this

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 22:01:23 +0000

- Hey, Steve, Some some yum yum summmmmmmerrr! Yes, what? Lovin' this heat, I yam I yam. Transports me back into years of my youth, one of the boys of summer, in Eastern Oregon's scorcher skillet. The best part is (for the stargazers among us) not having the perpetual Willy-Valley overcast means getting to watch the moon and stars go 'round. So I'm looking at photos here. Judging by the top-most and bottom-most and the spectrum spread in between, it's my hunch you could like this blog: Bats: Left / Throws: Right [ or Copy'n'Paste this URL: http://doghouseriley.blogspot.com/ ] Fair warning before the hasty mouse-click: Riley (the blogger) is NOT talking baseball, much, and IS talking politics, a lot -- in Left and Right terms. I don't quite get it, but I think it means when he "bats left" he is on offense, he advances his 'side' and he scores his points through the 'leftist' vantage point. Whatever "throws right" means, I'm not sure. Maybe it is something about being on defense, stopping the right-wing goofball-ness -- as in 'throwing rightists for a loop' or '... for a loss' -- throwing rightists Out trying to steal Home or bases or whatever unearned 'runs' rightists try to stretch for beyond competence and skill set. I have not read the blog fully, only skimmed through the headline topics he chooses, and sped through a few paragraphs for the flavor of his writing style ... a flavor I like. However, I've seen enough to advise anyone going in there with no mental game good enough for the Bigs, and tossing typical right-wing puny platitudes or stupid spitballs, should expect to be sent to the showers because the dude's level swing gets some wood on the ball and parks it way over the upper deck. ... last seen headed for the clouds as it's fading out of sight. Well, I don't know much about the political spectrum of it, I just really like to play in the baseball metaphor. Let's play two. Say, hey. There was an item earlier this week which offers all us youngsters a view of the society and social sensibility when baseball became integrated, when 'negroes' were allowed to sign major league contracts. (Was it Branch Rickey who removed the racist barriers to Jackie Robinson?) Baseball 'purists' (maybe rhymes with 'racists') sort of screamed bloody murder, but the guy in charge just did it, brandished the pen (mightier than the bat) and said, 'let 'em in. Play ball.' So this item (LINKed below) is about the Army, in the 1940s, surveying soldiers and officers for their opinions about serving in the same squads -- showering together, bunking together, dining together -- with 'negroes.' And get this: They did a second survey at the same time asking the same questions, but replacing the label 'negroes' with the label 'jews.' Someone retrieved the actual pages of the (1948?) Army report, showing the number of service personnel sampled and the percentage answers -- scaled 1 to 5, 'strongly oppose,' 'somewhat oppose,' 'neutral,' 'somewhat favor,' 'strongly favor' -- for each question. The main (statistically significant) finding was that the less educated the military man, the more he opposed integration, and, the more educated the man, the less he opposed integration. But get this: Truman didn't pay the slightest sniff of notice to what the servicemen said. He simply and directly ordered that the military begins integration. So ordered. Whoever had a problem with that could buck it up the line to him and he'd stop the buck there. Suck it up, salute and serve, soldier. Today's topic in a similar context is the question of repealing DADT, (the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that the Pentagon officially put in place regarding gays about 1981, twelve years before Congress and Clinton rubber-stamp enacted it into law). This summer, stalling stalling stalling, the Pentagon is surveying troops for their opinions -- 'strongly oppose' ... 'strongly support' -- while Obama can simply and directly sign his name and make it happen any time he's ready to step up to the plate. See here: EXCLUSIVE: New Docs Show Truman Integrated Forces, Despite Military Objections (or Copy'n'Paste this URL: http://thinkprogress.org/2010/07/22/dadt-docs/ ] Or just in general, we can all try to keep up: http://ThinkProgress.org There ya' go. Deja vu all over again. It ain't whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game. When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

Jennifer Moody : Moody: We interrupt these memories to bring you different memories

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:33:05 +0000

Ms. Moody, do you believe the US 'wall' against Mexico will come down in our lifetime? How about the Zionist 'wall' against Arabs, will we see it come down? (Distinguishing here between Zionist and Israeli, in a manner similar to distinguishing between Texan, say, and American.) I agree, btw, and ever since Gabriel blew his horn -- "something there is that does not love a wall." ... one wonders 'why, how, what, where, who' wastes our tax dollars and resources to make walls these days when our technology can see through, over, and above them. (Also, I believe the 'walls' are coming down, as soon as everyone understands the waste and shame of the wall builders, and we on Earth make it known together we are not going to tolerate such racist bigotry.)

Steve Lundeberg : Lundeberg: What I tell my daughter

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 03:18:46 +0000

Y'know, I have a few thoughts from reading this, Steve -- which is very good IMO -- and these thoughts start at some connection point in your 'sharing' and then go off at various tangents. For instance, there was an incident not long ago when two girls were killed 'on their way home' from the place where my daughter would have been (and perhaps accompanied them walking) except that I interceded and told her she couldn't go there ... because I 'had a feeling' of a 'disturbance in the force' that night. Second, sorta related: I 'feel' the ambient 'vibrations' around me, where I go, what I'm aware of. It is just some 'sense' I can't explain and I've always felt; being attuned to it has carried me into danger and safely out in the nick of time during more events than I can count. I believe everyone has such a 'sense' to some extent -- animals seem to have it, so primal it is -- and there is scant or no presentation, discussion, or 'training' of it in our culture, (where cursory illusion out-ranks substantive merit). In my advice to my daughter (and son) growing up, I emphasized 'training' their sense of trouble in the wind, stirring a 'hunch,' an untoward or inappropriate 'behavioral tic' and such prescience as provides for judge of character and to form those judgments and act on them and yet remain aware to revise and update judgment with new understanding, and so on, much MORE than I tried to 'train' her responses for all the different sorts of close situations or dangers there are to encounter. The best remedy for trouble is prevention or pre-emption, not 'practice at it.' There's more connected with all you said, Steve. But ... forefend.

Steve Lundeberg : Lundeberg: Thursday Top 7

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 02:47:30 +0000

Hasselhof and the talking car, I forget the name of that send-up, and it was TV not a movie. The Flubbermobile, in Disney's 'Absent-Minded Professor' (Fred MacMurray?) ... or was it 'Son of Flubber'? Thelma and Louise? The Blues Brothers? (TIC ALERT - tongue in cheek)

Steve Lundeberg : Lundeberg: Letter imperfect

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 02:38:53 +0000

... and then, when you do have a WORD to convert to NUMBER, you could misdial it, Steve. tsk tsk LOVE converts to 5683 (the character 'O' (oh) is not the numeral '0' (zero)) I convert many phone numbers to words for my own amusement ... and better remembering. For examples, the 5683 converts to other words such as: LOUD (excessive, as this religion-flogging uber-righteous group sounds to me), LOUF (as in LOL), KNUD (as in dried krud), JOVE (as in the jovial 'namesake' of JOKE), KOUF (as in ducking the question about {ahem ...cough, cough} their aims) KNUF (no mas, nuff said) Any one of which is more (than 'LOVE') likely to stick in my memory as description I associate with such an "outfit."

Steve Lundeberg : Lundeberg: 1,900 miles down

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:57:10 +0000

Along your run Ogden to Normal, (er, Lawrence ... whatever), the 100th meridian crosses your path. Uhmm, what's a meridian? Folklore tells of two Americas, the North and the South divided by Mason-Dixon's line. Well, there also is the American West and the American East divided by the meridian line of longitude at 100 degrees, (from Greenwich England). When you get back, or any chance, pick up and read Wallace Stegner's book Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West.. http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780140159943-3 In it I learned all I know about it. Two things mostly: -1- the American East is where the slavery reparations providing "40 acres and a mule" works; that just don't cut it in the American West. (Starting in Kansas on the terrain slope rising from the Mississippi at the 100th meridian and continuing (to the Pacific Coast), it takes between 200 and 500 acres to collect the annual rainfall enough to water and feed a family, and a couple of oxen. 40 acres is only enough to starve to death. Unless it is one of the 40-acre sites with a gold mine on it. or silver mine. or rich mineral deposit. or old-growth forest. or wild game environment. or riverbank with water rights ... but you knew that since you grew up here. The American East hardly has any of these features, 'natural resources' to extract. There it rains, grows crops -- that's the basis of the commerce there. Such as Anheuser-Busch: they're not selling something they scoop out of a lake hidden back in the 'haunts and hollers.') -2- John Wesley Powell's political effect is to thank for your even having a road map. showing your Ogden to Normal route. Back when the American West contained unmapped areas, about 1900, the persons and businesses gotten rich in the West by owning and extracting from some of those special 40-acres sites, they poured a slice of their riches on USCongress to legalize private ownership of map information. Powell prevailed upon Congress to socialize map information -- use public tax money to explore the territory and then produce the picture (maps) results available publicly, shared with everyone. Hence the US Geophysical Service maps. Powell is a hero at the Smithsonian, (and sort of a cultural 'enemy' opponent in and of the American East). If you get around that way, Steve, you might look him up.

Steve Lundeberg : Lundeberg: Jazz, baseball, barbecue

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:04:32 +0000

what's on the corner of 12th Street and Vine ??

Steve Lundeberg : Lundeberg: Thursday Top 7

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:57:46 +0000

land of the midnight sun First hearing it stirred in me a mixture of romance and exile. Or something. Plus it's a riddle or a mystery. Which seems to remain unanswered even after you 'solve' it. The phrase was coined describing Alaska or the Arctic pole or Eskimos, Inuits, or maybe the aurora borealis or all of these, I think. And I thought that cheated the south pole since Antarctica is also a land with a midnight sun. 'Round Midnight If you've ever sought something of a rain-washed city street in the night -- ideally the City of Light, Paris -- then you've felt this music in your ear and under your steps. But see HERE . Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil I haven't read the book nor seen the movie. But I remember excited promotion of 'it all' variously gripped and enthralled the 'bestseller' arts and literary concerns, sort of claiming to redeem piedmont savanna culture from dissolute backwater status. I had to look it up. And I found a thrill and a chill to discover that the title reference 'garden' means a cemetery in voodoo-speak, which designates 'midnight' as that slightest balance between good magic and evil magic. Something in that imagery demarcates a line (not a point) in the very depths of the human soul in each of us, whether conscience or self-passion accordingly.

Steve Lundeberg : Lundeberg: Pencil pointless

Sun, 6 Sep 2009 07:25:52 +0000

"Where's the protractor? compass?" was still pleasant in memory when I came across the following headline. On the installment of this week's wrap-up of newspaper critique, (and other media), at Media Matters .ORG I claim that editors and publishers should read the critiques more often, consider some of the suggestions, pull back from making newspapers the complete fools of themselves they have been going, and that as a result of ignoring the insipid and featuring the facts then circulation would increase and advertisers would foster the market. Newspapers can blame the content (thinly veiled bias) they published, more than blaming the internet, if or when they soon demise. After all, who needs to buy or read the paper when everything it says is available free on Rush Limbaugh radio. Who hates ordinary people, by the way, which is called being antisocial ... besides being a racist and other obvious malevolent character flaws, yet THERE IS his inanity word-for-word, front page, top story, in the D-H: Some recluses worried black president Obama speaks to their kids. It is more mental awakening than fits in a comment space, so the link provides better analysis in-depth to read. But it's short -- it's ONLY one week's inanity. Glue? Check. Protractor? Check. No. 2 pencils? Check. Insane reaction to president's back-to-school speech? Check. by Karl Frisch, Media Matters, September 04, 2009 http://mediamatters.org/columns/200909040044 Below Frisch's column the Comments are highly recommended, quite informative.

Steve Lundeberg : Lundeberg: A dog tale

Sun, 6 Sep 2009 06:41:33 +0000

The guy came back to get Ruby -- that's impressive. Ruby remembered him I bet. Get a buddy for Shag in short order. An auxiliary 'back-up' dog. You and Shag both benefit.