Forging ahead

Rather than issue another signing statement, Captain Cowboy is expected to actually veto a bill that would put US scientists in a better position to get some work done in the area(s) of stem cell research.

Veto me this, Batman. Gotta love seeing him stand there next to such highly respected 'men of god'. Pfffft.

Afternoon Nietzsche Bit

Just one bit. Savor the flavor:

New Struggles.-- After Buddha was dead, his shadow was still shown for centuries in a cave-- a tremendous, gruesome shadow. God is dead; but given the way of men, there may be still caves for thousands of years in which his shadow will be shown. --And we--we still have to vanquish his shadow, too.

Update: Okay, one more bit:

Let us beware.-- Let us beware of thinking that the world is a living being. Where should it expand? On what should it feed? How could it grow and multiply? We have some notion of the nature of the organic; and we should not reinterpret the exceedingly derivative, late, rare, accidental, that we perceive only on the crust of the earth and make of it something essential, universal, and eternal, which is what those people do who call the universe an organism. This nauseates me. Let us even beware of believing that the universe is a machine: it is certainly not constructed for one purpose, and calling it a "machine" does it far too much honor.

Let us beware of positing generally and everywhere anything as elegant as the cyclical movements of our neighboring stars; even a glance into the Milky Way raises doubts whether there are not far coarser and more contradictory movements there, as well as stars with eternally linear paths, etc. The astral order in which we live is an exception; this order and the relative duration that depends on it have again made possible and exception of exceptions: the formation of the organic. The total character of the world, however, is in all eternity chaos--in the sense not of a lack of necessity but of a lack of order, arrangement, form, beauty, wisdom, and whatever other names there are for our aesthetic athropomorphisms. Judged from the point of view of our reason, unsuccessful attempts are by all odds the rule, the exceptions are not the secret aim, and the whole music box repeats eternally its tune which may never be called a melody--and ultimately even the phrase "unsuccessful attempt" is too anthropomorphic and reproachful. But how could we reproach or praise the universe? Let us beware of attributing to it heartlessness and unreason or their opposites: it is neither perfect nor beautiful, nor noble, nor does it wish to become any of these things; it does not by any means strive to imitate man. None of our aesthetic and moral judgments apply to it. Nor does it have any instinct for self-preservation or any other instinct; and it does not observe any laws either. Let us beware of saying that there are laws in nature. There are only necessities: there is nobody who commands, nobody who obeys, nobody who trespasses. Once you know that there are no purposes, you also know that there is no accident; for it is only beside a world of purposes that the word "accident" has meaning. Let us beware of saying that death is opposed to life. The living is merely a type of what is dead, and a very rare type.

Let us beware of thinking that the world eternally creates new things. There are no eternally enduring substances; matter is as much of an error as the God of the Eleatics. But when shall we ever be done with our caution and care? When will all these shadows of God cease to darken our minds? When will we complete our de-deification of nature? When may we begin to "naturalize" humanity in terms of a pure, newly discovered, newly redeemed nature? - taken from The Gay Science; book 3, section 110

Simplified 'News' (kind of like the real thing!)

Staying informed...

Iran is playing negotiation poker.

North Korea wants to test missles.

Israel is 'pounding' Lebanon.

Vladimir Putin kissed a little boy on the stomach.

Captain Decisive and his decisive crew can't decide what to do with 'terrror' detainees in the 'war on terra'.

People in Iraq are still killing each other.

UN officials argued with each other today.

Smoking is bad.

It's really hot in the Midwest (US).

Wild fires are burning in Nevada-- and elsewhere.

Gas prices in the US and elsewhere are expected to rise.

All hell is breaking loose.

Or so it would seem. Just repeating what I see in the 'news'.

Here's to another 4th of Jooligh

Huzzah! (...who the fuck is that guy??)