bodhi tree swaying » NYT

Sarah Palin, quitting because she’s not a quitter

bodhipaksa — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:26:13 +0000

Gail Collins is often wickedly funny, and she’s in good form commenting on Sarah Palin’s quitting in order to spend more time with her family values:

"Palin is quitting as governor because she’s not a quitter."
"She recalled her visit with the troops in Kosovo, whose dedication and determination inspired her to … resign."
"The timing of Palin’s announcement was extremely peculiar. Not only did she interrupt the plans of TV newscasters to spend the entire weekend pointing out that Michael Jackson is still dead, she delivered her big news just as the nation was settling into Fourth of July celebrations. You’d have thought she didn’t want us to notice."
"It turns out that Palin believes that the only way her administration can ‘continue without interruption’ is for her to end it."
"There is no sign … that Palin has made any attempt to bone up on the issues so that next time around, she could run as a candidate who actually had some grasp of the intricacies of foreign and domestic policy. So if she’s starting to run, it will be as the same reporter-avoiding, generalization-spouting underachiever that she was last time around.
Now we know she not only doesn’t have the concentration to read a policy paper, she can’t focus long enough to finish the job she was hired to do.

The final quote from the article is a brilliant piece of self-parody on the part of Ms. Palin:

On Friday, Palin said that finishing out her term would be just too easy. "Many just accept that lame-duck status, hit the road, draw the paycheck and ‘milk it.’ I’m not putting Alaska through that," she said.

Yes, sticking to your commitments is for quitters.

No doubt many die-hard Palin supporters will lap this up, including the pod people pictured below:

“He died in a hail of bullet points”

bodhipaksa — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:13:09 +0000

Apparently God does not like his followers to resign for ethical violations, misuse of taypayers’ money, lying, and dereliction of duty, as Mark Sandford attests.
"Joe" "The Plumber" calls for the assassination of a senator, or at least comes close. He also reveals a stunning grasp of history. I had no idea that Karl Marx predated the American Revolution.
3/4 of people in the US who are pushed into bankruptcy by medical problems have insurance. You can read about some health care horror stories in this NYT article.
My 2-year-old pointed to NYT columnist Maureen Dowd’s picture on my monitor this morning and identified her by name. Maia, you rock! (She’d asked me Maureen’s name at least two months ago).
Glenn Greenwald discusses the deaths (possibly by torture) of perhaps a hundred or more US detainees.
It was 13C (58F) in my town today. And rainy. It’s been raining for a month now, and it’s becoming rather depressing.
But I met with Nagabodhi this morning and we had coffee, talked Dharma, and compared iPhone/iPod Touch apps. That was fun. Sadly he only has the iPod Touch, so most of the things I was most excited about aren’t compatible with his device. Dukkha!
I bought a boxwood bush to screen the trashcan that sits by our front door. That means that tomorrow I get to be manly and dig a big hole!
Lastly, I’ve been moaning about the WordPress app for iPhone not working. It now is, presumably because I added a trailing slash to the URL when entering the details of the blog in the application. So that’s very handy! And the bugs that handicapped the previous version all seem to be fixed. Good job WordPress volunteers. It’s amazing really, that so many people are willing to devote so much time and expertise to making software available,

My life in bullet-points (again)

bodhipaksa — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:01:54 +0000

I read Zits every morning. Today’s was particularly funny, I thought.

Liked this quote: "You cannot live an authentic life without mastering the art of disappointing people." Cheryl Richardson
And this one: "Thinking without awareness is the main dilemma of human existence." Eckhart Tolle
But this is another fake Buddha quote doing the rounds on Twitter, quotations sites, etc: ” ‘If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change’ – Buddha.” The entire tone of that statement is so far from anything I’ve read in any form of Buddhist scripture that I’m astonished anyone familiar with Buddhism would think for a moment this is genuine. And yet I see Buddhists passing this quote on as if it were.
It’s good to know I live in the land of the free. Now you’re not a criminal in Colorado for watering your garden with rainwater. (But I believe it’s still illegal to fill your own gas tank in Oregon).
Interesting article about fireflies. I’d have titled it, "Why females prefer flashers." That’s why the NYT will never employ me.
Speaking of which, here’s the NYT on the Dalai Lama’s Science Initiative.
I think it’s interesting how many people call the iPod Touch the "iTouch." Suggests the real name is a bit awkward. A bit of a mis-step by Apple, I think.
The very talented E. Christopher Clark is raising money through Kickstarter. Donors get copies of his new book once it’s done (and other goodies).
Norm Coleman conceded! Go Franken!