Struggle
by Sidney Lanier (1842-1881)
My soul is like the oar that momently
Dies in a desperate stress beneath the wave,
Then glitters out again and sweeps the sea:
Each second I’m new-born from some new grave.
Views: 21
Monthly Archives: February 2019
Game of the week
Vladimir Kramnik announced retirement earlier this week. He was one of the all-time greats. I felt privileged to cover his victory over Kasparov in 2000, the Brains in Bahrain match of 2002, his title defense against Peter Leko, as well as his unsuccessful attempt to regain the title from Anand in 2008 and several of his tournament victories. Always a class act and he will be missed. I wish him well in his future endeavors.
This game is his first win against a master. Hardly a great game but a good struggle and a remarkable performance for a nine or ten year-old.
Views: 42
Those Chinese hoaxers are good
Views: 47
ISIS resurgent??
Charles Cook says Schulz can’t win
Therefore, according to Cook, he won’t run. I’m not so sure. This assumes that Schulz’s goal is to become President. That won’t happen. But what if his real goal is to prevent a progressive Democrats (who would raise taxes on the likes of him) from being President? His candidacy could easily accomplish that goal (and might well be the most effective means to that end).
Views: 51
The benefits of more carbon dioxide??
She and Rep. Chellie Pingree sent a letter to the companies on Monday about their sponsorship of the conference.
Views: 38
Treasonable noticing of seditious facts
A border wall is "not the silver bullet that's going to take care of drugs and people coming across the border," says Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada.
Views: 32
Poem of the day
A Flower Given to My Daughter
by James Joyce (1882-1941)
Frail the white rose and frail are
Her hands that gave
Whose soul is sere, and paler
Than time’s wan wave.
Rose-frail and fair—yet frailest
A wonder wild
In gentle eyes thou veilest,
My blue-veined child.
Views: 21
Poem of the day
The Definition of Love
by Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)
My love is of a birth as rare
As ’tis for object strange and high;
It was begotten by Despair
Upon Impossibility.
Magnanimous Despair alone
Could show me so divine a thing
Where feeble Hope could ne’er have flown,
But vainly flapp’d its tinsel wing.
And yet I quickly might arrive
Where my extended soul is fixt,
But Fate does iron wedges drive,
And always crowds itself betwixt.
For Fate with jealous eye does see
Two perfect loves, nor lets them close;
Their union would her ruin be,
And her tyrannic pow’r depose.
And therefore her decrees of steel
Us as the distant poles have plac’d,
(Though love’s whole world on us doth wheel)
Not by themselves to be embrac’d;
Unless the giddy heaven fall,
And earth some new convulsion tear;
And, us to join, the world should all
Be cramp’d into a planisphere.
As lines, so loves oblique may well
Themselves in every angle greet;
But ours so truly parallel,
Though infinite, can never meet.
Therefore the love which us doth bind,
But Fate so enviously debars,
Is the conjunction of the mind,
And opposition of the stars.
Views: 28
Family ties at the Supreme Court
Linda Greenhouse in the New York Times on the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas: “So where does all this leave the outspoken Ms. Thomas? She’s broken no rules except the rules of good taste. What she’s violated are longstanding norms of behavior. And in an age when nearly every norm is being shredded, that makes her the perfect Supreme Court spouse for our time.”
Views: 31