Generation of Toads

Joel, you're a god among toads.

I like "toad kingdom."

Joel, please stop licking the toads.

With today's blog Joel entrenches himself further in the Self-Casitgation Club.

I have some questions:
You state; "The toad lives in an ecosystem that is part of a region that momentarily has been labeled "California" by another species, the jurisprudential authority of which (and this is the key point) is not recognized by the toad kingdom."

Yet, "Gifted with consciousness, we nevertheless choose to live in the moment. We are the Toad People."

1. By this are you implying that we (Toad people) do not recognize "California"?

2. Who is the Toad King?

3. Why do toads take things so literally, and then make comments on this blog?

bc

Nice to see that we are back to surface irrationality and deep inner logic, by the way.

So, you're saying the toads don't reside in California for the glamour that is California?

But if you think about, they still moved there because they have the best toad "homes."

are we all achentoads?

*sorry*

bc - is it really true about licking toads?

bc, Ryan (first comment) labeled Joel a God among toads. I think that could also mean that he is the Toad King.

Toad people? Are those like Cat dogs? Or more like Ant cows? Who is in charge of defining species anyway, and why should we listen to them?

The Toad King and the God among toads cannot be the same person, becuse a strict separation of church and state must be maintained within the toad kingdom.

This a rhibit--ing conversation.

can we be frog people? for some reason i've always found frogs to be cuter than toads - they don't have all those warts...

Thwarted by jw's superior intellect again! Crap.

But the Toad People are a relatively new idea. Proposed by Joel a mere hour ago. Who says that the Toad People have to follow the same rules as the regular people?

The toad lives in an ecosystem that is part of a region that momentarily has been labeled "California" by another species...

Momentarily, Joel? I would hardly call 443 years momentarily, except in the cosmological order of things....My maternal grandmother was born in El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciúncula (The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Porciúncula)in the early 1880s--when Los Angeles was still relatively a pueblo. As a Wunderkind on the piano, she entertained many of Los Angeles' earliest citizens.

California. The name was applied first to what is now called Baja California, around 1562, and later extended to Alta California, the present state of California. The term originally referred to a mythical land of Amazons, ruled by the beautiful black queen Calafia, as described in a Spanish novel, Las sergas de Esplandián (The Exploits of Esplandian), by Garci Ordóñez de Montalvo.

mo- I can't answer that first question.

I doubt Joel would be God and King -religion and politics don't mix well.

Hmm. Looks like bad things are happening in London.

If someone thinks they can intimidate the Brits with this terrorism, they should look in their history books under, "WW II: The Battle of Britain".

bc

London's blowing up again.

never mind WWII, the ira is much more recent in memory for most brits -

To toad, or not to toad?
Is that the question?
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind of Judge Roberts to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous amphibians,or to take arms against a sea of toads,and by opposing end them?

I think I will wait till I hear from the other toads before hopping on the first legal opinion that pops up out of the blog; especially concerning a matter of such profound imports.

Good point about recent events in the UK, LP.

bc

I can't quite figure out what's happening in London. "Small" devices? CNN says casualties low, devices appear to be small. "Peripheral" stations, rather than heart of London. Blair to speak shortly. Anyway, very upsetting.

The toad people of the human state of Florida send greetings.

I think the toad licking thing is mostly an urban legend. The hallucinocenic species does live here in south Florida, but what really happens is that dogs bite the toads and get sick, not that people lick the toads and get high. I guess it's possible to harvest the venom and ingest it various ways but it seems like a lot of trouble when there are drug dealers in most neighborhoods and bars in every town. Dave Barry is probably responsible for my mental image of people passing the toads around at parties and licking them, I know he wrote on that subject more than once.

My guess is either copy-cats, or a new terrorist strategy: the terrorism equivelent of a bully winding up and faking a punch to see you flinch. Not really al Queida's style, though.

They're called cain toads, from Australia. I don't think there are any new world species with hallucinagenic (sp?) properties. And you can't just lick them the skin is boiled and the resulting resin is then scraped and smoked.

Don't ask how I know that.

Blair to talk at 10:15. Like last time, 3 on subway and 1 on bus. Bus windows blown out. Apparently there was an uptick in security last night, so maybe police knew something was coming. (I am basically just transcribing CNN.)

Was no one on the bus? Because it seems miraculous that no one would be hurt on the bus if all the windows were blown out.

The incident's occured at about 1PM in London, so not exactly rush hour. I wouldn't be surprised at a relatively small number of injuries.

Why oh why do I feel the need to insert apostrophes EVERYWHERE!

I read that there was only one injury...

yeah, this time around it seems very very small - i'm with jw re: copy cats - most disturbing none-the-less...

jw and bc--what if the toad kingdom is in fact a theocracy? We toads see no need to conform to idealized American views of democracy and separation of church and state! Plus, we find life is easier if you just make everyone believe the word of the ruler is inescapably correct and inarguably just.

However, I don't think Joel is the toad king. Not enough warts.

"Not enough warts." That we know of.

Not to make light of this recent incident in London but it reminds me of a comment I heard by a lady in London after 7/7. She was asked if the event would change London at all, "Why would it, we are not Americans. We will respond rationally and continue about our business."

I was offended at first read, but after thinking for a minute she is right. Americans love to over-react, it's practically our national passtime. Just watch any local news program in the country, cause your family won't survive if you don't watch!

Although CNN says that the reports of a bad smell may be an indication of failed detonators setting fire to the explosive charges.

Dawaldg: That quote is priceless. Not to make light, but it appears that the UK may not be poplulated exclusively by Toad People.

poplulated?? OK I'm joining the club now. sorry!

There's a serious side to this though...

[SHUT UP! This isn't serious.]

But, Roberts supported the developers whose fence prevented the toads from going shopping.

[SHOPPING! YR AN IDIOT!]

Well, eating flies is shopping for toads, and the flies were on the other side of the fence.

[How do you know Roberts didn't support the toads? Are you an expert at reading that legal mumbo jumbo?]

Not really.

[Then SHUT UP!]

But...

Moi Moi is upset because it has been over four years since the 9-11 attacks but the leading perpetrator of those attacks has not been captured or killed, despite the fact that the DCI at the time of the attacks knew immediately which terrorist was responsible for those attacks. Today's incident in London appears to be more smoke than terrorism.

true jw - but all 4 were small - i don't see al queda screwing up 4 bombings - and on 7/7 the bombers supposedly blew themselves up - i think these bombs were left to detonate by themselves...

As a conservative Catholic Roberts will want to mention the Natural Law which is anything but natural, something thought up by Aristotle and chritianized by Aquinas. It is Nature as we would like it to be, not as it really is. The opposite of Natural Law is The Laws of Nature -- what really is as opposed to what should be ideologically. Natural Law has justified the burning of heretics, the banning of contraception, and the relegation of non-believers to an inferior pariah status, including the persecution of Jews. Ask Roberts about all this.

It was interesting about the bombers on 7/7 though. One of them bought round trip train tickets I think. And another paid for several days parking past 7/7 at the station. It seemed as if they either thought they were not going to be suicide bombers, or they were calming the nerves of the act by pretending not to be on a suicide mission.

But I agree that todays incident seems to be a copy-cat prank.

I should work and not linger in the Kaboodle but did anyone read the Steve Mufson article about how we calculate the risk of terrorism here in America (and, for him, specifically in DC). He wrote:
"It comes down to a calculation of risk. If I were being scientific about it, I might say something like: risk multiplied by frequency divided by life benefits yields a number with an inverse relationship to advisability. Except in this equation, every variable is unknown or unquantifiable."
Essentially Steve is saying that the rewards of living in DC and riding the Metro, combined with the low frequency of terror attacks, will keep him on the Metro for the forseeable future. Another person in his article claims, however, that Americans are too complacent, that we're not suspicious enough. I don't want to live in a society where people are suspicious of anyone who doesn't look exactly like John G. Roberts, Jr. That said, we shouldn't be oblivious the way we were prior to 9/11. I'll never forget a reporting stop at a motel on Route 1 in Laurel, where I talked to the people living next door, for weeks, to the hijackers of American flight 77. They thought the five men who acted so mysteriously -- staying together in a motel room, always traveling with their luggage even when they went to get a pizza, always silent, never watching TV or talking on the phone, very intense, speaking no English but rather some language the neighbors couldn't identify -- were probably part of a sex ring.

Or they thought those actions would draw suspicion away from them. Perhaps they didn't want people to know how had completed the bombing mission.

Who had. Who had completed the bombing mission.

About Roberts -

Anyone else think it's just a little tweaked that the guy who will be advising him through the nomination process will be Fred Thompson, aka DA Arthur Branch from Law&Order?

Anybody?

Here's the URL of the Mufson article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/15/AR2005071502195.html

I wouldn't say we're complacent. We do have the bomb proof trash cans. Or, as I think of them, portable bomb shelters.

The fact that we all know this defeats the purpose of the bomb proof trash cans, though.

norman, Catholics don't know about that stuff, don't care about that stuff, just like any other person. Maybe priests read about it in theology school, or when they study latin. Heck we don't even read and are not really encouraged to read the bible. We are taught what they want to teach us, and then we promptly ignore it. What we retain is guilt. We feel very guilty about this.

Generally, Risk = consequence x vulnerability x threat. These can all be quantified (although how accurately is an ongoing argument). Anyway, since Chertoff has said that all DHS planning will be risk-based, the risk assessment business is really booming, and everyone has their own idea of the perfect risk formula.

"Gifted with consciousness, we nevertheless choose to live in the moment."

In Buddhist teachings, this would be a contradictory statement. Consciousness is the act of living in the moment. When you are thinking about what you are going to do later today to advance your career (because we TSA-15's must have brilliant careers), you are not living in the moment, you are not conscious, you are UNconscious. Toads live in the moment. They eat flies at the moment they are hungry and/or available. They don't worry about how they are going to catch flies so they can live tomorrow, they simply catch flies tomorrow or starve and die.

"With all due respect to toads." One of the wisest statements I have heard in a while.

Yea, you might be right Sara. I suppose I'm looking for how someone who is raised in a very similar environment to my own could commit that act of brutality. And in my mind just not admitting the truth to yourself was the easiest way.

*linguring in the kaboodle feeling the catholic guilt of not working - even tho i'm no longer a practicing catholic*
Problem is that life is a risk - i know it's a terrible cliche but... mother's kill their children, kids playing in a trunk suffocate... i know terrorism shouldn't be scoffed at but how far do we go to protect ourselves from our inevitable fate????
oh, and sorry sara but i'm overdosed in the im world and now cannot write complete sentences with correct punctuation or capitalize sentences... oh and an over-use of the periods of ellipses...

I read that Mufson article on Sunday. This is the part that stuck with me:
"In Israel, when you see a package unattended, almost instantly someone will call the police and the police will respond and whole bus stations will be evacuated," Goldberg says. "Ninety-nine percent of the time it's some dope who went to the bathroom. But that person is the one who's scorned. The person who made the call is the hero even if the bag is old underwear. But in America still, I don't think these are behaviors considered acceptable."

Even in the face of terrorist attacks in London possibly today, I still think it's better not to live in such a reactionary way.

Yeah, I wouldn't want to see Americans becoming more reactionary than they already are.

We like you though, mo. I'm a closet ellipser and I use commas like it's the last day I'm going to be on earth. I think we can all agree that it's only ignorant people with no humor that we rag on for lack of punctuation and overall writing skill. Unless you are a member of the SCC, then we rag on each other just because grammar is fun.

the Bufo Alvarius is the hallucinogenic species of toad you may suppose Achenbach has been licking. There arent any other 5-MeO-DMT containing species out there. The cane toad contains bufotenine which, although hallucinogenic, will make you mostly ill. But then again, Joel has been in a more irate mood as of late.

http://www.erowid.org/animals/toads/toads.shtml

Good points on the Buddhist concept of consciousness, TA.
I think there are two types of consciousness. The first is the experience of being alive, thinking, observing what's going on around you, and noticing the passage of time -- this is what most people think of as consciousness. The second type is that higher level of consciousness, or spirituality, in which time does not exist and the physical world is meaningless -- the Buddhist definition. If we are able to bridge the gap between these two levels of consciousness, to transcend that spiritual disconnect that most of us experience, we will perhaps be able to reach the point where we are no longer Toad People.

Read "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The fates of Human Societies" and "Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed" by Jared Diamond (or you can watch his three-part special on PBS) and you'll realize that we're the dumbest animals on earth. We act instinctively, not logically, when we overuse our natural resources. We look at past civilizations and wonder why they were so dumb to cut down all their trees and drain all their wells, yet we're doing the same things today. Toads don't reason, they just live in the ecosystems that allow them to eat and breed successfully. SO yes, Roberts was WAY off the mark.

We'll have to get tougher with Islam, our mortal enemy. Bomb Mecca! Exterminate the lot! Deport all Muslims out of Europe and America!

Greetings from the toads who happen to live in a large land mass known to some as "Texas."

When we had the bombings in London a couple of weeks ago, our local news leaped (move along please, no toad reference was really intended) into action to report on security measures being put into place on local trains and buses -- as if attacks in London meant that a city in Texas might logically be next.

If one were doing a risk assessment, robbers, thugs, punks and even accidents would all be higher on the list of potential threats to citizen toads on a Texas train or bus than the likely slim odds of a terrorist bomber deciding to strike.

Nice kaboodle today.

Why go to all the trouble of reading a book. That is so un-American. Just recall the line from the Matrix in which agent Smith compares Humans to a virus.

(My roomate has had that book siting unmoved in his room for the last couple weeks. I am contemplating stealing it, don't think he would notice.)

Dreamer: thanks for that analysis of consciousness.

I was thinking something like what you said. Being rational and alert enables us to make good choices, but our rational minds get overwhelmed calculating the risks because of all the millions of difficult-to-quantify variables. On a spiritual level, good choices are defined as "doing God's will." (I know that's not how Buddhists define it, but Christians and Muslims believe this) I think of that as trying to be alert and rational and seeing the Big Picture; that is, not just how my actions affect me now, but how they affect the universe, in eternity.

Who's dreaming, now?

One of my favorite elements of risk is the idea of recouperability or redundancy. Basically, the more replaceable something is, the lower it's risk score. People, and politicians, REALLY don't like the idea that their building or facility wouldn't be missed if terrorist blew it up. But, that sort of thing matters when you have a finite amount of money and personnel you can use for security.

Perhaps Roberts is making a masked reference to Morrison's "Peace Frog"...

Dreamer writes, "I think there are two types of consciousness. The first is the experience of being alive, thinking, observing what's going on around you, and noticing the passage of time -- this is what most people think of as consciousness..."

Sounds like me most days. Only, my wife calls it my inherent laziness. I will need to inform her that I'm actually achieving the first form of buddhist consciousness. Thank you.

Also, I believe this first form of buddhist consciousness could be used to characterize the act of porching.

If you are really taking risk that seriously. Why would you leave your residence? Driving to work is one of the riskiest things one can do. People are more likely to be struck by lightening than be a victim of a terrorist attack in America I think.

Speaking of books there is a great on why people are so unhappy today by Gregg Easterbrook, a writer for the New Republic and visiting fellow at the Brookings Institute. The book, The Progress Paradox, is about how Western Society (North America, Western Europe, Japan) has it better today than 99.9% of people in the history of humanity. But happiness, which is notoriously hard to measure, has steadily been declining since the 50s. His premise is that because stress filled people are more successful, they are constantly improving themselves and building up for rough times ahead. The people of today have no real worries and are magnifying small risks and non-existent threats to give themselves something to stress about. So these small worries take on huge proportions when combined with technology and the ability to know about everything currently happening in the world, case-in-point the London attack from roughly four hours ago.

Sorry for the long post.

No, didn't read the Steve Mufson article...(Was it in the Washington Post...how about providing the link? Since I'm at it, Richard Leiby recently joined our blog, and he's the Washington Post reporter who interviewed Joe Wilson. How about the link to his story/early reporting on Wilson? Guess Leiby interviewed Wilson pretty close to Luly 4, 2003 and at Wilson's home? What's the dateline on Leiby's piece?)

But I dropped in at our local bookstore last night and read Seymour Hersh's reporting in the latest New Yorker magazine about how--Hersh claims--the United States very covertly supplied about $40 million dollars to try to influence the outcome of the January Iraq election. And we only bumped up the Allawi election outcome from about 4 percent to 14 percent. And there was British involvement--by assisting Allawi with his campaign--in the effort to "fix" the election results .

So much for true democracy in Iraq--so much for the inked purple thumbs raised in the air--only as long as it fits the Bush administration's concept of democracy (manipulation to install a pro-Western regime). And we wonder why there is Islamic terrorism in London, and disaffected Muslims in Great Britain, even though today's incident appears far less devastating than two weeks ago. I hope Blair's upcoming dialogue/summit is a good (honest) one.

More than $40 million. It's your money, folks.

"To an odd degree, however, humans behave unreasonably, which is why our civilization careens toward total obliteration."

In his book, Timequake, Kurt Vonnegut argues that in some sense total obliteration is a rational goal for the human race. I recommend the book, and here's an excerpt:

===========
I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, "The Beatles did."

It appears to me that the most highly evolved Earthling creatures find being alive embarrassing or much worse. Never mind cases of extreme discomfort, such as idealists' being crucified. Two important women in my life, my mother and my only sister, Alice, or Allie, in Heaven now, hated life and said so. Allie would cry out, "I give up! I give up!"

[further examples: Mark Twain, Henry David Thoreau, Jesus]

So it is not one whit mysterious that we poison the water and air and topsoil, and construct ever more cunning doomsday devices, both industrial and military. Let us be perfectly frank for a change. For practically everybody, the end of the world cannot come soon enough.
==========

I read the articles in the NYTimes about that Linda. Didn't the Bush Adm. propose trying to influence the Jan. Iraq elections to counter Iranian influence, but the Senate stopped it. The articles I read last week sure made it seem that no influence was attempted. Possibly the $40 mil was factfinding. What with $200,000 toothbushes in the White House and all.

Some would say we're all dreaming right now, kbertocci.

Some would say the dreams we have at night are just a mini version of what we dream during the day, created through a similar process. While we are asleep and dreaming, the dreams seem real, and sometimes even rational (in the context of the paradigm in which they take place). It's only when we wake up that we realize how ridiculous they were, because we're looking at them from within a different paradigm. (Maybe we'll feel the same way about our "real lives" when we die and look back on them?)

At some level, our nightly dreams could make perfect sense. If I'd had a dream a couple of years ago that I was communicating with people called Baggins, Dawaldg, Moi Moi, etc., via something called an Achenblog, and talking to bc about Tempel-1 and Calibi-Yau aliens, I'd have woken up and thought, "Wow, some crazy dream! What gibberish!"

I used to try to analyze my dreams, but now I realize that such analysis is just pointless. Now I'm more concerned with whether my dreams are generally positive or generally negative -- whether they leave me feeling good when I wake up. I see my dreams as a barometer for the state of my consciousness, or the state of my soul. I fugure if my dreams are good, so will be my waking life.

Getting back to all those millions of difficult-to-quantify variables, and the Big Picture: I think there is no limit to the number of variables we can create here in this physical world, this illusion, this Maya. There is no single way life is "supposed to be." Things could be so much worse, or they could be so much better. All of it -- good and evil, suspiciousness and acceptance, blame and forgiveness, male and female, young and old, black and white -- represents a separation from unity, timelessness, and yes, love, or -- as you say -- "Doing God's will."

And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.

I still have dreams that I've skipped every class for a semester in college and am now trying to take the final test. That is a horrible feeling. But it is so liberating when I wake up and remember it was a bad dream. That is kind of why I like bad dreams, when I realize it was a dream it is such a nice feeling. Yin and Yang and whatnot.

I have those dreams while I'm awake. About halfway through a semester I'll get the overwhelming feeling that there's a class I meant to drop but forgot to, and I've never been. Luckily those overwhelming feelings have never been right.

sara likes me!!! *insert smiley emoticon*

*caution - long post to follow!!!*

this is something i wrote in my blog...

This is an excerpt from the book Bangkok 8 by John Burdett. As an Agnostic, I've long been into the study of theology but have always been facinated with Buddhism, Daoism and far-eastern religion/culture. Obviously we can't have ONE right religion if there are so many out there - so i choose to keep my options open. This excerpt really laid it out in black and white and I wanted to share it. It's actually a quote from Thai Culture Explained by Professor Beckendorf...

Whereas your average Westerner does all he can to direct and control his fate, the latter-day Thai is no closer to adopting this attitude to life than were his ancestors a hundred or two hundred years ago. If there is any aspect of modern Thai psychology which continues to accept in toto the Buddhist doctrine of karma (so close to that Islamic fatalism often expressed by the phrase: It is written) it is surely in the conviction that que sera, sera. At first glance such fatalism may seem backward, even perverse given the dazzling spectrum of weapons Westerners now have in their arsenal against the vicissitudes of life; but anyone who spends much time in the kingdom quickly finds themselves questioning the wisdom, and even the sincerity, of Western attitudes. When he has paid up his taxes, his life insurance, his medical insurance, accident insurance, retrained himself in the latest marketable skills, saved for his kids' education, paid alimony, bought the house and car which his status absolutely requires he buy within the rules of his particular tribe, given up alcohol abuse, nicotine, extramarital sex and recreational drugs, spent his two-week vacation on some self-improving (but safe) adventure holiday, learned to be hypercareful of what he says to or does with members of the opposite sex, the average Westerner may - and often does - wonder where his life went. He may also - and invariably does - feel cheated when he discovers existentially that all the worrying and all the insurance payments have availed him not a jot or tittle in protecting him against fire, burglary, flood, earthquake, tornado, the sack, terrorist activity, or his spouse's precipitate desertion with the kids, the car and all the spare cash in the joint bank account. True enough, in a kingdom without safety nets a citizen may well be brutally flattened by accident or illness, where a Westerner might have bought himself a measure of protection, but in between the bumps a Thai still lives his life in a state of sublime insouciance. The standard Western observation is that the Thai is living in a fool's paradise. Perhaps, but might the Thai not reply that the Westerner has built himself a fool's hell?

Haha, I had that same fear in college Sara.

I was in a near state of panic heading to every final I had in college that I was going to the wrong room and would miss the final. Through some amazing luck I never missed one.

I almost slept through my first final freshman year. Geology. I woke up at 9:30 instead of 7:00. Luckily it wasn't a really long final and I was able to finish by 11:00. I started setting two alarms during finals week after that.

I also have a completely irrational fear that they'll say, "Oh, YOU can't take this final" but they won't give me a reason and I'll have to fail the class. That fear makes no sense.

If a Texas toad went to New York and said, "give me a bud," he (or she) would probably get a bud. If, on the other hand, the same Texas toad where to go to say ummmm.. Pakistan, and said, "give me a bud," would it be served in a frosted mug?

While we're on the subject, toad gender, has not been address either! Is it sratch and sniff or what?

Speaking of woodpeckers ...

Seems some scientists are scoffing at the rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker.

I guess we could shoot one. The carcass would be proof.

Thank goodness the woodpeckers aren't ugly chickens. Mmmm, chicken.

The story is at a competing website:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/21/science/21bird.html

We return now to our Commedia Bufo ...

I think Beckendorf is generalizing waaaaaay too much in that quote you cite there, mo. Beckendorf has clearly never seen a Westerner trying to achieve first form buddhist consciousness on a porch.

I'm not sure how my last sentence is supposed to be phrased. But I'm pretty sure I butchered the English language there.

I think "California" is aptly dubbed a "momentary" title for the land currently subjected to that name. The word has applied to a familiarly-shaped plot of land for barely more than a century (155 years).

Regardless, if you want to consider the history of the term as it has been applied to the south-central western portion of North American, it is still a blink in the entire span of even human history, let alone natural history, and especially cosmic history.

But what I really came to say is: HAHA Joel! Excellent post today. Cracked me up.

Well, that certainly explains all the toadies in Washington.

Well, a century and a half, not barely more than a century.

irregardless - i believe the act of porching, of which you refer to, can be considered a relatively new phenomenon first discovered via the achenblog. I'm sure there will be many, many studies once this action becomes mainstream - i predict it will be as mainstream as the "live strong" bracelet...

RE: MD 20/400
I work at Science Magazine (the publisher of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker study) and this new paper seems to be more of a competitive questioning than anything. That is how science works, people publish something and peers question it. It takes that give and take process for good science. I really doubt anything will be disproven. But as the Daily Show so elequently put it, the Bush adm. might have succeded in killing the only species to come back from extintion!

md 20/400...

commedia bufo -- I thought that was exclusively male.

commedia dell arte -- that's the coed version, no?

nitpicking is fun.

mo:
Thanks for that exerpt from Bangkok 8. Reminds me of something I read in James Redfield's "The Celestine Prophecy" (which I believe has its flaws, although it's definitely food for thought). I can't get my hands on the exact quote, but it's something like, Over the course of human civilization, we've spent so much time making ourselves comfortable here on Earth, we've forgotten what we're here FOR.

Oh, and irregardless: Sorry to burst your bubble, but that first form of consciousness I mentioned isn't actually the Buddhist form of consciousness, just the regular form. I won't tell your wife, though. It's all progress. Being aware of what's going on around you in the physical world is the first step.

yeah, dreamer - i read the "celestine prophecy" as well (yes, somewhat flawed but interesting) - "bangkok 8" is more of a mystery set in Thailand - really good read for those into mysteries - what i really like about "celestine" was the idea of coincidence - that you don't meet ppl just by chance, there's a purpose to them being in your life.

two questions:

what am I here FOR then?

and

what if my form of consciousness really doesn't involve much "awareness" as much as just observing time passing by?

To leap back to the subject of licking toads for a moment, I feel I need to interject and write that the hallucinogenic toads are actually used for recreating-- namely, the milking of glands on their skin produces a potent hallucinogen (DCT, I think?) that, when dried and consumed makes you balls-off crazy for ten minutes. And then you're fine. I've never tried it. I know a guy who milks the toads (its not illegal o'er here; maybe not even over there)

and by "recreating," I mean recreation. Must have been the toads I was licking.

I'd like to throw in my opinion on toad licking, here:

Who was crazy enough to lick a toad in the first place and discover all this? I don't even like to lick another human. Let alone a swamp-living thing.

irregardless:
Sorry, I probably misquoted "Celestine"; I think it might have said we've forgotten to ASK ourselves what we're here for (since no-one has really figured out the answer to that question yet).

As for your second question, some would say that if you don't become aware in this life, there's always the next one.

Sara:
At least licking a toad is relatively straightforward. It could happen by accident (in some scenario which I lack the imagination to invent). The people who demonstrated serious entrepreneurial spirit were the ones who decided to go through the myriad steps to develop, say, heroin or cocaine. Or make corn really big.
On another note,many of the humans I've happily chosen to lick have, in retrospect, turned out to be swamp-living things. Without the trip.

Good question, Sara. Who WAS crazy enough to lick a toad in the first place? Maybe it was the same person who had the brilliant idea to lick a frozen telephone pole.

Perhaps you could accidentally lick a toad by tripping and falling, mouth open, onto a toad.

Or, trip and fall in a swamp and be paralyzed and somehow lose tongue function so that your tongue is just hangin' out there. Then maybe a toad would come up and rub himself up against your tongue. I think this is the best scenario.

Linda Loomis inspired me to wonder: how long has that toad species lived in what is currently called California?

I couldn't find an answer.

But, while doing this "bufonic" research I read that almost all of these beasties have poison glands. "Some, like cane toads, are more poisonous than others."[1]

Google also threw up a web page titled: Bufo Abuse. I wonder if the Aussies have a 12 step program for THAT?

Irregardless: nitpicking is fun--and sanitary! (Co-ed nitpicking even more so.)

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bufonidae

Make a double-dog dare and an adolecent boy will lick just about anything.

If someone could find out the origins of the "double-dog dare," I would greatly appreciate it. I'd do it, but...

jw is usually good at finding these sorts of random answers for us.

why are we here...gulp, ahhhh, go forth and multiply. phewwwwwwww, go into all the world and evangelize. Not what anyone really wanted to hear, huh? Of course thats just one perspective.

speaking of toads - they use their eyes to help them swallow...

"Asking yourself these deeper questions brings in new ways of being in the world. It brings in a breath of fresh air; it makes life more joyful. The real trick to life is not to be in the know, but BE IN THE MYSTERY!"

-- Fred Alan Wolf, Ph.D.

"The average person considers their life boring or uninspiring because they've made little or no attempt to gain knowledge and information that will inspire them. They're so hypnotized by their environment - through the media, through television, through unattainable ideals of physical appearance, beauty and valor that everybody struggles to become but cannot - that most people surrender and live their lives in mediocrity. And they may live those lives, and their souls, their desires, may never really rise to the surface. So, they may want to be something else.

But if they do rise to the surface, and people ask themselves, Is there something more, or Why am I here? What is the purpose of life? Where am I going? What happens when I die? When they start to ask these questions, they start to flirt and interact with the perception that they may be having a nervous breakdown, and in reality, their old concept of how they viewed their life and the world starts to fall apart."

-- Joseph Dispenza

From the film "What the Bleep Do We Know?!"

I was in the audience when someone asked His Holiness the Dalai Lama "What is the purpose of life?"

His answer: "I don't know." Then he went on to say that the important thing is that we ARE here. [I don't mean to be disrespectful to him at all. Many of the things he said that day were very wise and immediately applicable to my life. He improved my life.]

Here's what James Taylor says: "Nobody knows how we got to the top of the hill. But since we're on our way down, might as well enjoy the ride." ("Secret of Life")

"dr" should not attribute his experience of Catholicism to all Catholics - there are plenty who take their faith very seriously and who do read plenty about it. And please stop perpetuating that "guilt" stereotype. We've learned a lot since the 50's.

Joel, humans do not act "instinctively". Humans long ago lost all instinct (defined as a complex, innate behavior such as nest-building). We act selfishly, impulsively, reactively. We have to LEARN not to hit back, hurt each other, seek revenge. That is the main message of all the mainstrem religions - the right action is the one that benefits others. Golden Rule - everybody's got one.

I imagine that the first toad licking was a practical joke. "Hey you, close your eyes and I'll give you a kiss."

then again, who was the first to say "hey, let's put this in a pipe, and smoke it!"

I've never had that dream about having to take finals even though I skipped all the classes, probably because when I was in college, I sobered up at the end of the first semester of my third year to realize that I hadn't been in any classes since the second semester of my second year.

There was second semester that third year.

You will not be kissing the arroyo southwestern toad as they taste very, vrey bad! Beware the paotid glands!

Rancho Viejo, LLC v. Norton, 334 F.3d 1158 (D.C. Cir. 2003): constitutionality of Endangered Species Act

This case involved a real estate development company's contention that the application of the Endangered Species Act to its construction project in California was an unconstitutional exercise of federal authority under the Commerce Clause. After the United States Fish and Wildlife Service determined that the company's project "was likely to jeopardize the continued existence of the arroyo southwestern toad," placed on the Endangered Species List by the Secretary of the Interior in 1994, the company filed suit "[r]ather than accept an alternative plan proposed by the Service." Rancho Viejo, LLC v. Norton, 323 F.3d 1062, 1064 (D.C. Cir. 2003). The district court dismissed the company's complaint, and a panel of the D.C. Circuit unanimously upheld the dismissal (323 F.3d 1062), following prior D.C. Circuit precedent upholding congressional authority under the Endangered Species Act. By a vote of 7-2, the D.C. Circuit denied a petition for rehearing en banc (by the entire court) of the panel's ruling.

The arroyo southwestern toad breeds in open sandy and gravelly streams and live in a variety of upland habitats associated with loose sandy soils for burrowing. Its population declines were due to habitat loss, hydrologic alteration, and human activity in streambeds. It was listed as Federally Endangered in 1994 and is a State Species of Special Concern. In the Sweetwater drainage, arroyo toads occur at various locations upstream of Sweetwater Reservoir into the foothill and low mountain zone. The federal recovery plan for the toad describes the needs for a compatible stream flows and management plan for the Sweetwater River to sustain and recover this species. The control of exotic or introduced predators, such as bullfrogs and a variety of fish species, are also necessary management activities.

The arroyo toad is a medium sized (5.5-7.5 cm), light olive to light brown toad with a v-shaped stripe between the eyes, and noticeable bumps on the shoulders. These are called parotid glands, and make substances that make the frog taste bad to potential predators. These toads have whitish bellies. Arroyo toads like sandy, stable terraces along stream banks, with scattered shrubs and trees, such as mulefat and willow. When breeding, they prefer open pools with gravel or sandy bottoms found near large streams. Adults need fine sand to burrow into over winter. These toads are primarily active at night.

Arroyo toads were once common in coastal river and stream systems from San Luis Obispo to Rio Santo Domingo in Baja. Now, they are reduced to one quarter of their historic range, and the species was federally listed as endangered in 1994. In southern California, they are primarily found in undisturbed streams in the national forests. Threats to the species include loss of sandy streambank habitat, siltation of breeding pools, and predation by introduced species such as bullfrog, crayfish, green sunfish, and bullhead catfish.

Make that parotid glands!

You think the toad thing is bad? Apparently the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights thinks Roberts might be a cross dresser:

"In short, the President may have nominated a stealth candidate--a Justice Scalia or Thomas in O'Connor's robes."

I sometimes dream that I'm at the ATM and I can't remember my code. It's probably the same as the dream about taking finals. Basically it's about not knowing what we're doing. Or maybe it's a reminder that there are some forms of information that we can't take with us when we travel between the dream world and the real world. Maybe that's why we can't usually remember our dreams.

(Anyone out there ready to tell me to stop dreaming yet?)

As the toad goes, so goes the human race. Mutant frogs are quite common today. Get used to the idea of kissing a three eyed, five legged toad, (other than your spouse).

Sorry to interrupt. Does Joel (another WaPo reporter?), anyone know whether Rove was a government employee as a Senior Advisor before he was promoted in Feb.

Someone is spinning that Rove was paid by the RNC, which also paid for his office space in the WH.

The claim then that the non-discloser of classified info doesn't apply.

Sara, I have no idea on the origin of "double dog dare," but I do know that Double Dare was a great TV show.

Doesn't seem legal that a party can paid salary of WH staff/advisor.

For as long as I can remember I have experienced my "dream world" (what happens while I'm sleeping) as a separate and equal reality to my waking existence. At some point a few years ago, I realized that if I had to choose, either to never wake up or to never dream again, I would choose to give up my waking life because the dream life is essential to my existence. When I'm dreaming I never look forward to waking up, but towards the end of the day I usually get a little happier thinking about going back to dreamland.

Dreamer: I hope nobody on THIS blog would ever tell you to quit dreaming. If they do, we might run 'em off, throw semicolons at them until they leave. Or something.

He's been Senior Advisor since Bush's first term...or is that not what you're asking...

[[[Someone is spinning that Rove was paid by the RNC, which also paid for his office space in the WH.
The claim then that the non-discloser of classified info doesn't apply]]]

I'm reading "Bush's Brain" by Moore and Slater. It does address his paid office space in the WH. This Plame dirty trick leak, I'm discovering is standard MO of Rove all the way back to his high school debate team days.

Nomes: Knew that. But as a Senior Advisor who picks up the tab, tax payers or RNC?

I'm so sorry to have missed much of this meaty existential conversation.

So much has been said so far that I have nothing to add, but to note to irregardless that consciousness in porching cannot be watching time pass. Time as we define it will pass, but unless you detach yourself from that notion, you will miss much of the beauty assaulting your senses. Presence of mind is what consciousness means. So listen to whatever sounds are there, smell, looks, let be and you will find the peace of consciousness.

That "Bush's Brain" is pretty one sided. The just interview all the people that Rove has stepped over in his career. But the bit about him faking his office being bugged to win a Texas race is pretty bad.

Rove was fired from Bush senior's staff for leaking. Not sure what his exact position was though.

Thanks, kbertocci. That's interesting what you say about your dream world being a separate and equal reality. We spend a third of our lives sleeping, and apparently we dream most of the time we're asleep (except it doesn't seem that way, because we don't remember it). That's a pretty substantial chunk of our lives. I don't know about you, but when I dream, I never, ever realize I'm dreaming. It all looks, sounds, feels, and even tastes real. I can't do that lucid dreaming thing, although there have been some weird moments in my waking life when I've had the sense of mentally influencing my reality -- sounds wacko, I know. And I occasionally dream about an incident and then experience the incident in waking life.

It's funny how little science can tell us about dreaming, or about sleep, for that matter -- we still don't know exactly why we sleep. (I think that was one of those things on Science magazine's recent list of questions science is yet to answer.)

Ah, the tide has turned on the stiff-upper-lip theme.

The AP is running a story that shouts: Panic on the streets of London. (Nothing said about Birmingham.)

"Subway stations closed, traffic backed up and offices were emptied Thursday after a new assault on London's transit system. Even with little bloodshed or damage, fear spread.

"Panicked and screaming commuters fled the affected subway stations, some running out of their shoes. One Londoner said everyone he knew was buying bicycles."

Bicycles are good. Let us now praise Lance Armstrong, and other famous folk.

Taxpayers

[[[That "Bush's Brain" is pretty one sided. The just interview all the people that Rove has stepped over in his career. But the bit about him faking his office being bugged to win a Texas race is pretty bad.]]]

When you make your career stepping over and on people it doesn't leave alot of room for reporting anything else.

Would to God someone would kiss Rove and Atwater and turn them into princes! Fat chance!

Yes Dreamer the part about consciousness is from our 125th anniversary issue. It is the second Big Question with a capital Q that Science has yet to answer. FYI that issue is very enjoyable, one of our best in a long time if you would like a general over-view of the state of science. The article is by Greg Miller.

Dreamer,
Really, scientists don't know why we sleep? Sleep is such a wonderful, healthy activity, I can't believe they don't know why we do that--our bodies need that time for repair, and spiritually it is good for the soul, though I'm too preoccupied by work right now to think that through carefully. Asking why we sleep is almost like asking why we eat. Because we do. And both are at the top of my favorite activities list.

I'm not saying I like Rove, politicizing 9/11 is one of the most despicable things I can think of happening in this country in a while. I'm just saying they present many things in that book as fact that are disputed by many non-partisian sources.

TA:
I think they've studied what happens when people DON'T sleep (eventually, they become psychotic), but they don't know exactly what the purpose of sleep is. I can't really explain it; maybe it's just a question of semantics. In case you haven't guessed, I'm no scientist (although I do try).

Max, I do agree that many are quite serious about their faith. But religions really are just rules some people at some point in time made about HOW one should proceed with belief and faith.

One of the finest things about your way of confirming Supreme Court Justices is that they are open to question on their record. To question him on his personal religious beliefs without reason, to aim at him based on his religion alone is wrong.

I heard an interesting program about sleep on NPR. The factoid I came away with was this: when animals hibernate, they only sleep some of the time. Even in hibernation, the animal has a wake/sleep cycle. There is a conclusion to be drawn from that, but I can't remember exactly what it was.

About the bombs: what if they were dispersal devices for some sort of bioweapon? A little far-fetched, perhaps, but it would explain the small size of the explosions.

I'm an insomniac (something about a lack of melatonin production in my body), so I rarely get tired unless I take melatonin supplements every night. I can see how someone who didn't sleep for an extended period of time could become psychotic. But I think if you have a disorder such as a lack of melatonin production, you can probably go longer because you don't get tired so everything functions normally. This is just speculation, but I'm judging on my experience. I can go days before I start to feel sluggish. I get really bored during the nights, but I function all right and all my faculties seem to work normally.

I think the fact that I don't sleep very often also adds to my intense love of sleep. There's really nothing better in my opinion. I'm with TA in thinking that I'd choose the dream world over the waking world. I need to catch up on my time there anyway.

If this is a WMD attack jw, it would go against the previous history of Al Queda, if that is who is responsible for 7/7. They generally take a lot of time in between operations to make sure everything works. They try to maximize casualties, doing it at noon on an almost deserted subway and bus doesn't seem the best dispersal method, but i'm no expert on bio-warfare.

Though I had the same thought after reading the articles this morning.

[[[I'm not saying I like Rove, politicizing 9/11 is one of the most despicable things I can think of happening in this country in a while. I'm just saying they present many things in that book as fact that are disputed by many non-partisian sources.]]]

Flying plane loads of republican youngsters on Enron and Halliburton planes and paying their hotel bills to disrupt the Florida vote count ranks pretty high on the disgusting things to do list. I'm not certain on this so I'll just throw it out there and check the feed back. Did judge Roberts advise Jed on the possible SC decision in the event the Florida vote count was to close to call?

the kaboodle today is truely on a rolling boil!! we've gone from frogs, hallucinogens, the meaning of life, religion, roberts, rove, the london bombings, existentialism, dreaming and sleep! i'm having trouble keeping up!!!

It certainly is a good Kaboodle, mo. As soon as I saw that Joel had mentioned the Kaboodle in the opening line of his Kit, I had a feeling this was going to be a good day for the Kaboodle.

Mo,
This is what kaboodle is all about. By the way, I liked your little thing on the Thai people. It reminds me of an old folk tale of two fisherman:
Two friends are fishing on the banks of a river, when one friend says to the other, "we should buy a boat." The other says "Why?" The first says, "so we can catch more fish and have more to sell." The second then questions again with "but why?" and the first responds, "so that we can make more money." The second again asks why they would want to do that. The first says, "so that we can hire people, buy more boats, build a successful company." The second asks again "why?" The first finally gets it and responds "so we can sit on the banks of the river and fish all day."

frogs? sheesh! i meant toads!!! *throws semi colons at herself*
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

I am a toad, non?

Great fishing story, TA. We could probably adapt it to include a porch.

Seems to me the only thing not in the kaboodle today is fine beverages, good cigars, and possibly the kitchen sink.

,all of which are porch material.

Add this thought to previous comment.

I don't think you're a toad, Melvin. I think you're just pretending to be a toad.

Who needs fine beverages when you can go lick a toad?

Sure there are lots of religions on earth, but as far as I know Salo only needs one part to repair his spaceship and continue his journey across the galaxy. Therefore Moi Moi suspects that all religions are cogs on the same wheel or links in the same chain, whichever. Anyway, Moi Moi is a firm believer in the necessity of spare parts.

My favorite anecdote about a river is the story of the Beaver and the Hare looking at the Hoover Dam. The Hare says to the Beaver, "But you didn't build it."
And the Beaver replies, "Yes but it is based on my design."

jw, et. al. that thought about the smallish explosions being distribution/aerosol mechanisms for an bio- or chemical agent occurred to me as well.

I hope that isn't the case.

I rarely remember dreams, and what I do remember is clearly (to me) a dream; visibly distorted, and discernably different from my reality. Sleep is a wonderful thing (I'd sleep 9 a night if I could), but I prefer conscious thought.

I'm more of a daydreamer. And I'm not the only one.

Other than the obvious physical resting/restorative properties of sleep, it may allow people and animals with cognitive properties extra time to process sensory (and perhaps extra-sensory) index, and store (and perhaps discard inputs that are deemed as unmiportant) inputs, and allow the higher processes (consciousness) to integrate them into normal mental operations. Dreaming may be a by-product of these "background" processes.

Men's background processes seem to involve sex, as there seems to be ample physical evidence upon waking once males reach a degree of maturity.

Women...ok, if I said I had any real idea of what was going on in there, I'd be lying. Whatever it is, it's mysterious and wonderful.

bc

Thanks TA - like i said the book is a great read - i heard the fishing story too but i was told it was in mexico - maybe cuz i'm hispanic! LOL

Thanks, bc. You seem to have a way with women. Your wife is a lucky lady.

But bc, do you recognize those visibly distorted, discernably different images as dreams WHILE YOU ARE DREAMING THEM, or only on reflection, after you've woken up? I think if I realized I was dreaming WHILE I was dreaming, I'd wake up.

I can't decide what I'll write about tomorrow morning: The phenomenon of consciousness; the significance or dreams; or the time I visited Kurt Vonnegut at his home. I could do them all, I guess. Anyway, even though, as you know, I don't officially read the Kaboodle, because even reading it might in some way inhibit the Kaboodle's creativity, and am sufficiently busy just being in charge of the Kit, this was a rather remarkable Kaboodle today. Yesterday we had more comments but today's Kaboodle was better.

Kurt Vonnegut!

Write about NASA, I enjoy your prespective on it. And they are trying to get the Discovery launched Sat.

i too have bouts of insomnia or difficulty sleeping - i got one of those "dream machines" that are supposed to make soothing, sleep enhancing sounds but i can't decide if it's working or not... i get these nightmares every once in a while where i know i'm dreaming and i scream to myself to wake up but i can't, or i wake up in another dream... i'm a very lucid dreamer - sounds, smells, tastes, colours...

My vote goes to the Kurt Vonnegut visit, hands down. We'll probably carry on the dream conversation no matter what you write about.

JA, you must have the greatest job in the world, and you must be the best at doing it.

You put together an innocent little column asking whether toads CHOSE to live in California and look at what it has wrought... masterpiece after masterpiece of brillent comments, from the taste of toads to the meaning of life, from the value of dreams to ethnic variation in popular jokes.

Genius! How do you do it?

JAG: Thanks much, but I can take no credit for the Kaboodle and the Kaboodle's genius. The Kaboodle is a self-emergent, self-generative fluctuation in the quantum foam that none of us anticipated. Hard to believe that just a couple of months ago the Kaboodle didn't exist.

JA: As we say on WoW... "k"

Dreams. This may sound a little strange, but when I remember a dream it usually makes perfect sense to me. I actually keep a little notebook next to my bed to write them down in. The most entertaining one I had lately involved an ex-girlfriend and my trying to protect her from a Rastafarian death-squad. So, that might not make a lot of sense. But the point is that it directly related to a situation I had some anxiety about and had been completely over-analyzing, and after that dream I knew exactly what to do. This happens a lot.

Thank you TA.

I'm not sure my wife would agree with your asessment of her luck, but I appreciate the compliment.

I try to be a gentleman, hold doors, 'ladies first', behave along those lines. Being a woman looks like a tough gig from here, it doesn't cost anything to try to be nice. Besides, it's a sweet reward to get a pretty smile.

I'm tryin' to make some "politeness waves" in the Higgs ocean in my vicinity. So far it seems to be working reasonably well.

bc

i graduated from NYU studying "experimental theatre" - it was very socio-political and anarchistic - one of the classes i had was "dream journal workshop" where we kept a journal of our dreams and used them to write plays and scripts... very cool class! another class i had was "visionaries and anarchists - theatre post-60's"... i was such the rebel!!! lol

The ad on the main blog page is for some movie on Roberts. Hahahahah. Ha. heh.

Dreamer, because I so rarely remember my dreams, I can't honestly say that while I'm dreaming that I know the difference between them and "reality" all the time.

I do know that somtimes I have said to myself in a dream, "Ah, this is a dream.", and been right. [cue "Enter Sandman"]

Sure, when I wake up and remember a dream as if it were filmed in the Riddler's hideout, that's another thing.

If you think that I should have my head examined, you wouldn't be the first to suggest that.

It's been a good couple of days 'mongst the bosons, quarks, and neutrinos, indeed.

bc

My pages don't show any advertisements. They have banners for advertisements. And in the banners it says, "Advertisement." I think I may have an overzealous pop-up blocker or something.

A professor I had in college once explained a method of controlling your dreams to us. He suggested we keep a "dream journal" on the night stand and write down the dreams we remember from the night before. Supposedly the more you remember a dream and think about it the next day the better the chance that when you dream next you will realize it is a dream. His idea was that with lucid dreaming you can control your dreams and turn them into your own fantasy world. Once you realize you are dreaming and don't wake up, control is possible.

I might be parroting something mentioned earlier today in the 'kaboodle' and if so please excuse my ignorance.

I've been seeing the Roberts add all day. I even received some junk e-mail yesterday about it. What a collosal waste of money that campaign is on both sides.

If I could control my dreamscape, that would be great! I would spend all night...um, exploring far off lands. Or something.

Cool topic. As a toad person with erratic success as a lucid dreamer in a previous life, I would let myself dip into unconsciousness by shaping mental cinema from the effects of the amoeba-like light splotches on the inside of my eyelids. But this was more like insomnia, and I altered my nutrition and drinking habits in order to get better rest.

Last night I dreamt that I was pulled over by a police officer, and he saw me try to hide something which I knew in my dream was an illegal susbstance of God's Green Earth Variety, in my shag tobacco pouch. The sequence came to an abrupt conclusion when I reached to open the car door, which served as a metaphysical escape hatch, and I came back from fantasy land awake in my bed with my hand hovering over the alarm clock, with AM radio waves washing over me. In my dream state, I had reached over to wake myself up by blasting the radio, a physical action whose "rationale" in my dream was to open the car door and escape from police custody. Pretty weird.

Joel this is the first time I stumbled onto one of your editorials, how insidious you are. The Oracle Toad Master warned us about extremist like you whose first proclivity towards the Toad People would be to excoriate normal toad behavior. Your demagoguery "The toad is not a "Californian" any more than a water molecule in your bloodstream is "human." " How did you become so anti-toad? Being an amphibian and not expecting you to have any knowledge on the subject, The Oracle Toad Master veraciously ruled the laws of gravity did not apply to any hapless California toad. I know this is too deep for you because you have to have some knowledge of the amphibians and interstate reptilian behavior. Your ramblings are so pivotal to the extreme toad haters and hatred for The Oracle Toad Master. Please try to read some nature books regarding the floundering invertebreas, the toad physiology, the Aquatic Biomes, etc., so as to be somewhat knowledgeable and be able to expostulate your beliefs with some facts instead of fallacious rantings. The enigma about people like you and the toad-lickers. they never let facts get in the way of their whimsical choleric obloquy eminating from their mouths (whatever that means).

MadCow, good parody of the gentleman from Northern Kentucky who dropped in yesterday!

The day after Joel wrote about Mexico, I dreamed about this blog--in Spanish!

And that was the last time I dreamed about the blog, maybe because I consciously decided it was a bad sign for it to be invading the other side of my reality. Although, tonight, who knows.

...well maybe I am a toad. I like to be licked.

And if any poster uses the word obloquy for a third day running (tomorrow), I think I am going to retch.....

More bad spelling and usage in one place (above) than I've seen in these spaces. Arrrgggghhhh

But Melvin/a, while I cleaned up some of the spelling and grammar, I felt a need to preserve the integrity and poetic rhythmn of the original message. It's not all me, there's a lot of JDW there.

bc: assessment

Dawaldg (can we make it Dawaldog? that's what I have in my head): colossal

Mad cow: voraciously

I may not be a grammatophile, but I am a spelling nazi.

add to last post:

Thank you, Melvin

Quantum Foam would be a good name for a rock band.

Thanks, TA. I didn't change "veraciously" because I didn't know what word he was trying to use. I'm vocabulary-challenged.

Thanks for the Constructive Criticism TA. Dawaldog would ruin the reason for the nickname. My last name is Rodewald, so a stoner friend in college nicknamed me da wald. I started using dawald for nicknames, but added the g to the end cause dawald was always taken. So the d is really superfluous.

You may call me anything you wish though.

Or 'g' rather. Sorry

I've never been inside Kurt Vonnegut's home but I used to hang out in Vonnegut's Hardware Store in Broad Ripple at an age when pocket knives seemed much more interesting and mysterious to me than existential fiction writers. So it goes

Hey, JA,

Your comment about how emergence of the Kaboodle is similar to the "self-emergent, self-generative fluctuation in the quantum foam" gives me an idea. (Rare for me, I'll admit, but not unheard of).

If memory serves, the quantum foam refers to the spontaneous conversion of free-space energy into mass and the subsequent degeneration of the mass back into pure energy thus satisfying the law of conservation of energy. (I think that's what Luke Skywalker told me.) At any rate, the key word is spontaneous... it happens without provocation. (Sorry about that. I know you know what spontaneous means.)

So, here's my idea. One of your future columns should contain merely the word "Hi". (Not tomorrow. That would be too blatant and obvious. Wait until Monday when we will have forgotten this week.) If you are right the Kaboodle should explode into creative brilliance. What do you think?

I realize that the first law of blogs is that comment number one relates to the subject of the column and the remainder relate to something totally different, so it would still be a fair test, I believe, if you wrote the first comment yourself under an assumed name.

Wait, wait, wait! I see that on 7/18 you generated 31 comments with the column, "The blog doesn't work. Comments don't work. Links don't work.", so perhaps you've already proven your point! Still, I'd like to see a column that just says HI.

Thanks for the correction, TA.

bc

*twiddiling her thumbs waiting for the next column so she can expound her wisdom or get some more hilarious outpourings from Moi Moi*

Is it just me or did several comments regarding Kurt Vonnegut disappear?

Mo,
Me too. Although I've definitely got things to occupy me today.
Moi Moi is definitely funny. I assume Moi Moi is female, although I have not used the Gender Genie on (her). Am I right?

Sara, I Ctrl+F'd Vonnegut, and there's still a bunch there. You crazy, grrl!

Oh, well, I didn't look that high up from the bottom of the comments. Too lazy, I guess. Ctrl+F is a beautiful thing.

Where in God's name is the new post? It's Friday, and I am therefore legally obligated by Presidential Directive to goof off and be completely unproductive.

On a completely unrelated subject, police gunned down a suspect in a London subway station today. Details are still sketchy. Best case, they stopped a suicide bomber. Worst case, kiss civilization good-bye, and start watching Mad Max 2 to mentally prepare yourself.

mad max? can i be tina turner?

Speaking of suspects and police, there was a car chase this morning in my town.

Through a trailer park.

Eventually the driver hit a police car and the chase ended after two hours. Two hours of driving around the trailer park.

When I was in college I did a research project that involved visiting government offices to access files. At one office we went to, there was a woman who sat at her desk and read novels all day. Not little books--War and Peace type epics. My co-researchers and I always marvelled at how great that was, to have a job where you get paid to sit and read all day. The best thing was, she went on vacation, and they hired a temp to replace her for two weeks. And the temp, I swear, sat at the desk and read books all day.

I'm not saying anybody on this blog made me think of that.

Wow, it's like my job, kbertocci.
Except lately instead of reading books I've been here.

It's not nearly as glamorous as it sounds.

That's my dream job. Read books all day.

When I was about 5, my dream job was being a jerky taster.

"The Road Warrior" is a lot better than "Waterworld" or "The Postman" (Kevin Costner learned his lesson about post-apocolyptic movies).

Gotta admit that I'm kinda partial to those late 60's early 70's apoco-dystopian movies like 'Planet of the Apes', 'Omega Man', and everybody's favorite; 'Soylent Green'. 'Escape from New York' came later, but remains a hoot. "I thought you were dead." still makes me giggle.

On a side note, does "The Island" sound like a Hollywood pitch? "It's like 'Logan's Run' meets 'The Island of Doctor Moreau' meets 'Running Man'!" "Brilliant!"

Note to self: Bread, milk, TP.

bc

How about "Brazil"?

Careful, now. Get a job as a reader, and the next thing you know, while you're off to lunch, somebody's pulled a "Three Days of the Condor" on your office.

I LOVE old post-apocalyptic movies, and books too, I suppose. Have you read Riddley Walker, by Russell Hoban? It's absolutely amazing. It's written, first page to last, in a weird British dialect that takes a while to even understand. It's as if he's saying, OF COURSE people aren't going to talk and write the same 500 years in the future if a nuclear war destroys the written record.

When I saw the previews for The Island, that's exactly what I thought. "Um, didn't they already make this movie? And wasn't it called Logan's Run?" Of course, no one my age has ever heard of Logan's Run. No one ever understands when I yell, "Soylent Green is people!" either.

Stand by. Almost done.

Please tell me how to sign up for that kind of job. I live to read.

Hey, Joel did not even have to begin a column with Hi.

bc,
Heard a review of "The Island" on NPR this morning. Kenneth Durand (sp?) panned it. Sounds like a rental to me, as I never pass up an opportunity to sigh over Ewan McGregor. I like Scarlett Johannson, too.

those people who do no work all day are affectionately called "gs'ers" or civil servants - i'm a contractor for the gubment and i swear they do nada all day long except play gamblings games on their pc's and mass e-mail chain e-mails having to do something with god... please note that if any of you guys are gs'ers - i'm not talking about you! :)

whoops! i used a smiley emoticon! *whips herself with wet noodle* 50 lashes for me!!!!

wait - i'm starting to enjoy this!

jw, I haven't read that Hoban's book, though I will attempt to take it up shortly.

I have read 'A Canticle for Leibowitz', and 'On the Beach' though.

TA, I hadn't heard that NPR review, or read Ann Hornaday's reivew http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/21/AR2005072102285.html in the post this AM prior to Kaboodling, but her piece would fit nicely into this thread.

kbertocci, sure, I loved "Brazil", but it's a little too consciously funny. Charlton Heston may be the best unintentionally comic actor ever, even over William Shatner. Those three movies I mentioned have decent stories to go with the fabulous overacting.

Oh, and 'Beneath the Planet of the Apes'- while a little preachy and starring James Franciscus (in a little over his head), when Heston shows up as Taylor, it really gets rolling.

Wow that last sentence was really bad. SCC entry # 1 for the day.

bc

bc, definitely grab a copy, you won't be disappointed. I love Hoban, and this is one of his best, if also most bizarre. The new editions come with a glossary in the back, but I think that takes some of the fun out of it. It's kind of like The Stand, but, well...good.

Hey, jw, thanks. I liked The Stand well enough...I'm sure this will be better.

bc

My brother in-law is Elvis Toad.

Hi fdg31!
Haven't seen you around here in awhile. Welcome back!

Well, I liked The Stand too. I wish Stephen King had stuck with the fantasy-horror genre rather than straight horror. Wow, that's a dorky thing to say. Random fact, my family lives in Bangor, ME, and my uncle runs the sports radio station Stephen King owns. He's a really great guy apparently. Build a little league field there that would put some AAA fields (and RFK) to shame.

What an excellent piece of writing!

I've appreciated your writing in the past, but Toad Kingdom won yourself an everyday reader.

You're worth the price of admission or subscription all by your lonesome. Just be sure that the next time you pass Leonard Downie or Robert Kaiser in the hall, that you tell them there is no recompense for such editorial actions or inactions that have come at the cost of our country.

So keep writing! There's some redemption availabe to the Washington Post for turning a blind eye to lies, defending 'journalists' who pervert the principle of source-confidentiality, ignoring the wholesale upending of America's defining principles, ... and most especially -- allowing a stonewall while simultaneously putting out Rovian disinformation via the conduit of, ironically, anonymous/background official sources.

Now -- I recognize the really high quality writers at the Post. Just be aware that that doesn't excuse failing or refusing to truth-squad your colleagues (not meaning you, Joel, specifically; but The WaPost and every political & news writer) on nearly every substantive issue of the last 5 to 15 years. (Sounds like a sentence!)

No really! When it's so plainly obvious to the whole country, God, your mother, and everybody that the Washington press corpse knowingly accepted Bush Admin lies w/o exposing or reporting them, then there is some serious atonement at hand -- or, barring that, credibility lost becomes open corruption.

Thing is, people I respect, such as Gwen Ifill, or NPR radio hosts, calmly allow their guests to lie -- repeating Rove/RNC talking points smearing Joe Wilson while McClellan opts not to comment on an ongoing investigation! Isn't truth-squadding the journalists, you know, actual job? About the Downing Street Memo, wherein Kaiser and Downie deny that the documentary evidence is news, saying we knew that all along, when they refused to listen to readers who told them Bush was lying at the time -- but would not report it. They would not report it then, and they will not report it now; so how does ANY adherence to journalistic principle or loyalty to American democracy or national security fit into a worldview that refuses to report actual facts? At the cost of 1763+ lives?

Martha Raddatz on WWinReview actually asserted that "there were no more photos from Abu Ghraib," Ifill looked on, said nothing. The VERY NEXT DAY headlines read that the Pentagon was considering releasing the remaining photos. I'd originally read that they'd kept a stack from the public because of the graphic images of sodomizing young boys with glow-sticks.

Why is it that many reporters appear to be less informed than their readers?

"All the news that's fit to print" somehow omits to mention that doesn't cover the news that's fit to READ.

So, I admire your way with words immensely, Joel Achenblog, but do, do mention, when you pass Kaiser and Downie in the halls, that it is not their country to "take 'liberties' with." [by liberties, read, rape]

It's ours.

And as e.e. cummings said in I sing of Olaf glad and big "There is some sh!t I will not eat!"