“I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.”

Weekend Caption Jam Linkfest. . .

Rodney is ready to square off.
Wizbang is looking in a different direction.
Wyatt Earp runnin’ from the law.
Cowboy Blob is pinchin’ a log
RT’s Ponderings is having a meltdown.
Willisms coulda had a G-8.
The Gone Rick Motel had the holstein.
Right Pundits thinks his smells like roses.
Congrats to Blonde Sagacity on their new addition. *** not…

“We have it in our power to begin the world over again.”

“We should enact an ‘e’ tax. Government agents would roam the country looking for stores whose names contained any word that ended in an unnecessary ‘e,’ such as ’shoppe’ or ‘olde,’ and the owners of these stores would be taxed at a flat rate of $50,000 per year per ‘e.’ We should also consider an additional $50,000 ‘ye’ tax, so that the owner of a store called ‘Ye Olde Shoppe’ would have to fork over $150,000 a year. In extreme cases, such as ‘Ye Olde Barne Shoppe,’ the owner would simply be taken outside and shot.”

The Republican-dominated Alaska legislature released its Troopergate investigation results last night and Sarah Palin does not come out covered in glory.

Anchorage Daily News reports, under the headline “Troopergate report: Palin abused power,”

A legislative investigation has concluded that Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power in pushing for the firing of an Alaska state trooper who…

Several commentators have objected to my characterization of Sarah Palin as an”ignoramus” in the post below. I’m simply using the term in its precise meaning as “an extremely ignorant person.”

The dictionary definition of ignorant:

1.    lacking in knowledge or training; unlearned: an ignorant man.

2.    lacking knowledge or information as to a particular subject…

“Love is needing to be loved.”

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

“A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere–’Bibles laid open, millions of surprises,’ as Herbert says, ‘fine nets and stratagems.’ God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous.”

“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.”

A conference is a gathering of important people who singly can do nothing, but together can decide that nothing can be done.

“I’m the type who’d be happy not going anywhere as long as I was sure I knew exactly what was happening at the places I wasn’t going to. I’m the type who’d like to sit home and watch every party that I’m invited to on a monitor in my bedroom.”

“It is noble to be good; it is still nobler to teach others to be good - and less trouble.”

“I wake each morning torn between the desire to improve the world and the desire to enjoy it. It makes it hard to plan the day.”

“It is not what you look at, but what you see.”

Without a high pain threshold, you can’t be a successful President.

Old people don't need companionship. They need to be isolated and studied so it can be determined what nutrients they have that might be extracted for our personal use.

“The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.”

“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.”

“Television is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to listen to the same joke at the same time, and yet remain lonesome.”

Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardour, for their curiosity and tolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision.

“Some things have to be believed to be seen.”

“We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance planet: and, amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog, has made an alliance with us.”

“This is like deja vu all over again.”

“We need a president who’s fluent in at least one language.”

“If the people who make the decisions are the people who will also bear the consequences of those decisions, perhaps better decisions will result.”

“Hysteria is only possible with an audience.”

“The great thing about a computer notebook is that no matter how much you stuff into it, it doesn’t get bigger or heavier.”

“Have regard for your name, since it will remain for you longer than a great store of gold.”

“If you can’t sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It’s the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep.”

Everyone from MoveOn and DailyKos to Pajamas Media and Next Right to Wikipedia and Reddit are begging Barack Obama and John McCain to change the rules so that the third debate won’t be so mind numbingly boring as the first two.

It’s not going to happen: The “debates” are boring precisely because both candidates’ reps negotiated the rules in such a way as to…

“If freedom is short of weapons, we must compensate with willpower.”

You can get much further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.

“My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.”

“Happiness consists in activity. It is running stream, not a stagnant pool.”

Barack Obama, flush with cash, is buying 30 minute spots — so far on ABC and NBC — that will air on the anniversary of Black Tuesday. James Hibberd and Paul J. Gough:

The Obama campaign is producing a nationwide pitch to voters that will air on at least two broadcast networks. The ad will run Wednesday, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m. — less than a week before the general election.

The…

“What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.”

My love life is terrible. The last time I was inside a woman was when I visited the Statue of Liberty.

I got a CNN breaking news alert a few minutes ago informing me that the Dow had dropped more than 500 points in the opening minutes of trading.  It has already recovered:

Stocks staged a huge turnaround Friday morning, with the Dow erasing most of a 700-point slide as fears of a global recession were countered by a willingness of some traders to step in at five-year lows.

The Dow Jones…

The latest media meme is that McCain rallies are full of angry, bitter (and presumably racist) Americans who hate Obama.  Both, apparently, are based a single rally yesterday in Waukesha, Wisconsin — and just two outbursts from the crowd, at that.

Slate’s John Dickerson was on the case last night with a piece titled “A Republican Mob Scene: John McCain’s supporters are…

“What is bad? Everything that is born of weakness.”

I’ve posted today’s entry in my series on the issues, this one on health care policy, at The Glittering Eye.

Please join in the discussion and post your own thoughts on the subject!

The previous entries in the series are:

Introduction
Foreign Policy
Economic Policy

Before we proceed further let us get one thing clear. Are we talking about the brown Indians in India, who have multiplied alarmingly under the benevolent British rule? Or are we speaking of the red Indians in America who, I understand, are almost extinct?

“Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.”

“Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.”

There ought to be one day - just one - when there is open season on senators.

“The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.”

“You can’t deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.”

“You don’t have to stay up nights to succeed; you have to stay awake days.”

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.