Sentential Links #55

Heading into the holiday:

:: Whod’a thunk I would be so in love with a movie about a KILLER SHARK! (How do you get to live in America to the year 2006 without seeing the movie in question? Oh the Humanity!)

:: I am thinking about getting a tattoo or several to remind me about gratitude. I seem to forget about this way too much. It is the best gift we can give one another.

:: If you don't buy this novel, I'll kill myself. I mean it. I have Tylenol and wine, and I'm not afraid to mix them.

:: POW! Office Morale Booster!

:: People talking on cell phones can be annoying but sometimes I get the feeling that some people just want to ban cell phones in enough places so that they never have to see anyone talking on a cell phone. (It's not the cell phone that bugs me, it's the implied behavior by incessant users of them that the cell phone is more important than the people who are around them. With very few exceptions -- and business-related "emergencies" do not qualify, unless they involve buildings on fire -- I don't believe there are conversations that are so important that they must be indulged wherever one is, simply because the existence of the cell phone makes it possible.)

:: Alfalfa has the property of promoting growth and well-being in some creatures while disagreeing with others. No one knows why. Cows love it. (Alfalfa sprouts! I love those on a sandwich, and I haven't had them in, oh, forever or so. Now I gotta get some. It'll be a nice change from my much-loved romaine and red-leaf lettuces.)

:: What possible defense is there for this behavior, and what rational person would consider Malkin, Hinderaker, Horowitz, Red State -- all of them -- even the slightest bit credible in the future?

:: John Hinderaker has responded to my post on how Hinderaker claimed that ticket sales for Al Gore's movie had gone down when they'd actually gone up. (And surprise of surprises, it turns out that Hinderaker is an idiot. Imagine my shock.)

:: John Hinderaker sure could use a history lesson. (Wow. If being full of crap was a hockey game, Hinderaker would have the hat trick.)

:: Lady Liberty, Goddess of America: long may you lift your lamp against the darkness.

:: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

:: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

:: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

:: James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, John Adams: We've long resisted asking you for guidance. Perhaps we have feared in doing so we might acknowledge that our individuality which we so, so revere is not entirely our own. Perhaps we've feared an appeal to you might be taken for weakness. But, we've come to understand, finally, that this is not so. We understand now, we've been made to understand, and to embrace the understanding that who we are is who we were.

We desperately need your strength and wisdom to triumph over our fears, our prejudices, our-selves. Give us the courage to do what is right. And if it means civil war, then let it come. And when it does, may it be, finally, the last battle of the American Revolution.

:: Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

:: We cannot improve on the system of government handed down to us by the founders of the Republic. There is no way to improve upon that. But what we can do is to find new ways to implement that system and realize our destiny.

:: So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life, a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.

:: With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

Happy Birthday, America. Better days you've seen, but better days you will see again.