First, my apologies for not being able to post this diary sooner. As some of you know, George W. Bush came to my town last weekend to give the commencement address at Furman University. I was out of town for the event - fear of cooties, you know - but a close friend of mine, a psychic, was not. All of the information in this diary is courtesy of that friend, who shall remain nameless. My friend recorded it and gave (excerpts of) it to me to share with you. I needed to give that friend time to exit the country on a personal trip without the threat of being put on a ‘no-fly’ list, knowing that Administration psychics would begin an investigation once this is published. Scary.

By way of disclaimer, now, I must say this:

Every word you read here is the gospel truth.
Not one word of this diary is true. It’s a complete fabrication, fantasy, almost hallucination, if you will.
Without doubt, some of what you read here is probably at least somewhat true.

More below the fold.

They have a deep and abiding faith.

They have always claimed it. They trumpet their faith to the skies, as if the God they believe in could only hear them with such trumpeting. As if that God were truly ‘above,’ not around, not within, not everywhere. Worse, not knowing who’s been bad or good without the audible ‘spin’ they alone are entitled to provide.

I have serious problems with that ‘faith,’ which only seems to have value if it contradicts and isn’t supported in any way by rational thought, because it makes it so much easier to suspend thought and reason in so many other arenas, particularly in the political arena.

That isn’t the faith I am talking about tonight, however.

More, below.

We have so many insightful and powerful diaries written here at Daily Kos.  Our diaries inform, inflame, impassion, and even entertain.  We Kossacks have strong voices and an even stronger will to be the change we wish to see in this country.

One of the richest, and perhaps most under-appreciated, areas of thought come in the form of comments attached to these diaries.

Here at Top Comments we strive to recognize and promote the talent of this community by highlighting outstanding comments found throughout the day by the diarist, and through nominations at made at topcomments at gmail dot com by your fellow Kossacks.  

These nominations are subjective, and certainly not complete (as no one can read the complete site on a daily basis!). But hopefully they will serve to shine a light where deserved, and to give the reader a good starting point in finding conversation on the site.

Please come in and make yourself at home!   Join us beneath the fold...

I have written before about the fact that I see progressive issues or morality in just about everything I watch or read. Tonight’s diary is about the same experience from the financial pages of Tuesday’s USA Today. I looked at the page initially because of the article on George Soros.

But what caught my eye was an article titled: Gas set another economic-battering-ram of a record. The subtitle, which is what actually got me, was: Reverberations rock consumers as analysts run out of reasons for rise.
(USA Today, 5/13/08, Page B-1.)

More below!

I started this diary several weeks ago, when this story was new, but was never able to finish it. Now, tonight, it seems we are without a TC diarist so I am resurrecting it. :) I hope you enjoy it for what it is!

For me, no progressive value resonates louder or more clearly than goodheartedness and generosity of spirit. I very much agree with George Lakoff about the value and power of nurturance in society and politics. He recommends that we speak to the nurturant elements of our fellow human beings to activate and reinforce the progressive elements of their world view. I agree with that, too. For me, one of the clearest paths to the humanity of another is through animals, specifically beloved pets.

More below the fold.

Quotations taken from this CNN article.

Republican Sen. John McCain has been forced to clarify his comments suggesting the Iraq war involved U.S. reliance on foreign oil. He said he was talking about the first Gulf War and not the current conflict.

Awww! That is soooo sad! But he has not been forced to clarify them ENOUGH. If you can’t stand the heat, Mr. McCain, perhaps the presidency is not for you. Word to the wise. And to you, too.

"My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East," McCain said.

Why not talk about it now, Mr. McCain? Is that because your energy policy doesn’t yet exist?

In the movie ‘Out of Africa,’ Meryl Streep recited lines of Isak Dinesen, in which she said something like:

I've got this little thing that I've learned to do lately. When it gets so bad,and I think I can't go on, I try to make it worse. I make me think of our camp in the river and Boteli, and the first time that you took me flying. How good it all was, and when I am certain that I can't stand it, I go one moment more, and I know I can bear anything ...

(Could only find the quotation here.)

Well, I found a counterpart to this, the subject for tonight’s diary!


We have so many insightful and powerful diaries written here at Daily Kos.  Our diaries inform, inflame, impassion, and even entertain.  We Kossacks have strong voices and an even stronger will to be the change we wish to see in this country.

One of the richest, and perhaps most under-appreciated, areas of thought come in the form of comments attached to these diaries.

Here at Top Comments we strive to recognize and promote the talent of this community by highlighting outstanding comments found throughout the day by the diarist, and through nominations at made at topcomments at gmail dot com by your fellow Kossacks.  

These nominations are subjective, and certainly not complete (as no one can read the complete site on a daily basis!). But hopefully they will serve to shine a light where deserved, and to give the reader a good starting point in finding conversation on the site.

Please come in and make yourself at home!   Join us beneath the fold...

We have so many insightful and powerful diaries written here at Daily Kos.  Our diaries inform, inflame, impassion, and even entertain.  We Kossacks have strong voices and an even stronger will to be the change we wish to see in this country.

One of the richest, and perhaps most under-appreciated, areas of thought come in the form of comments attached to these diaries.

Here at Top Comments we strive to recognize and promote the talent of this community by highlighting outstanding comments found throughout the day by the diarist, and through nominations at made at topcomments at gmail dot com by your fellow Kossacks.  

These nominations are subjective, and certainly not complete (as no one can read the complete site on a daily basis!). But hopefully they will serve to shine a light where deserved, and to give the reader a good starting point in finding conversation on the site.

Please come in and make yourself at home!   Join us beneath the fold...

(Diary hint: Kevin Nealon)

I love the Daily Kos (love the Daily Kos). I know many get tired of things which may be encountered here (primary war diaries, trollish behavior), but that’s true in any human community (except mine). We’re human beings, imperfect (but not like conservatives), fallible (but not like conservatives), sometimes selfish (but not like conservatives), sometimes hard-hearted (but not like conservatives), but all of that is just a part of being human.

Diaries for the DailyKos are very hard for me. There are too many things to write about, truly an infinity of them. How in the world do frequent diarists whittle down the choices?!

I remember seeing Morey Amsterdam on a show many (many many many) years ago. He had a reputation for being able to produce or spontaneously generate a joke on any subject anyone could suggest. How could he do that? I think it is because of his great creative gift, and, simply, because he spent his lifetime viewing the world through a generous comic lens.

I am not funny like Morey, but I am a liberal/progressive Democrat, and there is never a waking moment when I don’t view the world through progressive eyes. I pick up a newspaper and it seems to me to be full of possible diaries. Every paper, every book, every song. Conversations I have with friends or acquaintances are opportunities to expound progressively. I believe very deeply in the power and the value of ‘framing,' in the true George Lakoff sense.

I was having breakfast with Kathy at a local restaurant a month or so ago, and I saw a car pull up outside. It had a large political sign on the side, advertising the individual’s apparent candidate of choice, Ron Paul. I scowled, within, but then I read the sign and was struck by its message. Here is the sign I saw.

Perhaps you see what I saw from that sign. Its value was IMMEDIATELY clear to me! Ron Paul had succeeded in articulating a very deep truth I have always known.

(More beneath the fold.)

We have so many insightful and powerful diaries written here at Daily Kos.  Our diaries inform, inflame, impassion, and even entertain.  We Kossacks have strong voices and an even stronger will to be the change we wish to see in this country.

One of the richest, and perhaps most under-appreciated, areas of thought come in the form of comments attached to these diaries.

Here at Top Comments we strive to recognize and promote the talent of this community by highlighting outstanding comments found throughout the day by the diarist, and through nominations at made at topcomments at gmail dot com by your fellow Kossacks.  

These nominations are subjective, and certainly not complete (as no one can read the complete site on a daily basis!). But hopefully they will serve to shine a light where deserved, and to give the reader a good starting point in finding conversation on the site.

Please come in and make yourself at home!   Join us beneath the fold...

This diary is not about me.

In the interest of full disclosure, I feel I should say I don’t have a web site. I don’t have a book. I don’t have an article or a column. I don’t have a constituency. I don’t have a consulting position. I have no official position with any campaign. I don’t have a role as an advisor.

I do have a car, and a house, flush toilet, computer, wireless connection, all the essentials.

But, this diary is not about me.

More below the fold. (But not more about me, since that's not what this diary is about.)

Welcome to tonight's Top Comments! :)

11 days ago I read a comment in that night’s Top Comments diary in which the author despaired of being able to ‘lift the discourse’ here on the Daily Kos. To the author’s credit, giving up was not an option, and diary recommendations were denied to all candidate diaries.

Optimist that I am, I wrote a very long comment in response, in which I said it was absolutely in our power to raise the level of discourse here. My response came very late in the life of the diary, so it did not get a great deal of readership. Several friends recommended that I post it as a diary in its own right, so here it is, below.

Officer Dobson was a highway patrolman we knew because he attended at least two accidents in which my sister had been hit by motorists while riding her bicycle. He was a friendly, large gentleman, very professional.

Once, while driving with my sister, Officer Dobson was conducting a driver’s license check on a back road several miles from our house.

Since I was the driver, Officer Dobson asked me for my license and the vehicle registration.  I provided them without hesitation.

He asked a question or two about details on the license, then asked, "Would you close your eyes?"

It seemed a strange request, but I knew he wasn’t going to hurt me or anything. As I was allways one to support our local officers, I complied, smiling most cooperatively.

I heard him ask, hesitantly, "Blue?"
I nodded, reassuringly, as my eyes are indeed blue. He got it right!

Meanwhile, my sister, sitting next to me,  was about to explode with laughter!

Last week I went skiing in Utah with my sisters. On the first day we passed Snowbird, which was developed by Dick Bass. (No, not my candidate.) Bass was the first man to climb the highest peaks on all seven continents. He climbed Mount Everest last, accompanied by David Breashears, best known as the co-director, co-producer and cameraman for Everest, one of the most famous and most successful IMAX films of all time. (No, Breashears is not my candidate, either.)

Bass’s successful ascent came on his fourth Everest trip, and it came at a time when he was swamped with Snowbird projects. Thus, he was not able to do the training he had done before. Breashears, himself a world-class climber, was aware of Bass’s fitness level, so he had to work hard to keep Bass safe.

More below the fold!

Today is the 16th anniversary of the death of Farrokh Bulsara, better known to us as Freddie Mercury. In an article that was not entirely complimentary of the politics of Freddie Mercury and Queen, British columnist, John Harris wrote:

Those who compile lists of Great Rock Frontmen and award the top spots to Mick Jagger, Robert Plant et al are guilty of a terrible oversight. Freddie, as evidenced by his Dionysian Live Aid performance, was easily the most godlike of them all.

I was thinking of Freddie Mercury recently in the context of an argument in Hermann Hesse's book, Steppenwolf.

Hesse's main character was an eccentric academic named Harry Haller who became involved in a remarkable community of spirited human beings.

More below.