Sentential Links #123

Wow. Been a while, eh?

:: You ever have a friend who is just... different when he/she drinks? I'm not saying that Jim Kirk has a problem, it's just that I get uncomfortable around him when he drinks. So do my dogs. (The post is a couple of weeks old, but who cares?)

:: And they're all gone now. I remain. I remember. Do they?

:: You know what they have on the cigarette package in Great Britain? In great big letters? (I have less and less sympathy for smokers these days, I have to admit.)

:: In some perverse tribute to you, I watched "High Fidelity"--or the parts I could see through my tears--tonight. (This blog continues to break my heart every time I read it.)

:: But at the end of the day, we have four Democrats with serious plans to forestall a major environmental crisis. On the Republican side, we have Mike Huckabee who thinks global warming is a serious problem but doesn't have any particular ideas about dealing with it. We have Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, and Rudy Giuliani who basically seem to be in denial. And then most bizarrely we have John McCain who acknowledges the problem, acknowledges its severity, acknowledges that the only solution is curbs on carbon emissions and then . . . won't endorse the sort of curbs that his own analysis suggests is necessary.

:: Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

:: And here's the good news: when the better candidates got taken out in 2004, we ended up with John Kerry, a decent man but a lousy candidate. This year, if Hillary does indeed go on to lose, we'll end up Barack Obama, a decent man and a terrific candidate. So at least we're making progress.

:: The truth is that, of course, I fully understand that the far right's influence on the mainstream remains limited by a number of factors, the greatest of which is the basic decency of such a large segment of the populace. There are at times much more important issues than these people. But it's important that someone keep a spotlight shining on them and their activities -- important because it's a fundamental part of making the public aware and informed, which is the most important part of effectively combating them and their poisonous effects in our culture and our lives -- and I'm well-equipped to do the job. (And a fine job they do, over there at Orcinus.)

:: Robots do not want to have sex with you. Are you listening, Japan? (Salty language alert)

:: Watch out, Eric! When the four different voices in Margo’s head all say the same thing, it means nothing but trouble.

:: No one wants to read a blog that's all flowers and rainbows and fuzzy bunnies. (So that explains the drop in my traffic over the last year! [rimshot] )

All for this week, as usual.