From Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s House of Life Sonnet LIII: Without Her What of the glass without her? The blank grey There where the pool is blind of the moon’s face. Her dress without her? The tossed empty space Of cloud-rack when the moon has passed away. Her paths without her? Day’s appointed sway Usurped by desolate night. Her pillowed place Without her? Tears, ah me! For love’s good grace, And

I have much to do for the next few days in the wake of my Grandmother’s passing, but having read Dan’s earlier post — which touched on Professor Caric’s rather pointed set of criticisms against both me and my readers (criticisms shared by Maha a host of other “progressives” over the years) — I feel compelled, again, to make the following offer: let’s debate the merits of our positions. For

Yesterday, as most of us were focused on the terrible news of Christiana Hendrix’ death, and saddened by Jeff’s grandmother’s passing, Ric detailed his complaints against PW in particular and conservatives in general in a longish comment to Jeff’s post about Maha’s rhetoric and what it reveals about her. None of us likes especially to be mischaracterized, unless it is to be taken for greater than in fact we are,

Just received word that my grandmother passed away this afternoon. We’d been expecting it, but still, when a person has already lived into her mid 90s, you kind of expect that she’ll always be around. Tough old birds aren’t supposed to die. They’re supposed to stick around and peck at you whenever you try reaching for a cookie without asking first. They’re supposed to keep their sofas covered in heavy

In a post defending Karen Armstrong’s Guardian piece (on which Dan wrote here) advocating for an Orwellian idea of “tolerance” — by way of an institutionalization of politically correct speech when the objects of that speech are protected groups designated by the elites who presume to prescribe the parameters of what counts as “tolerant” — Mahablog counts protein wisdom among the “haters” whose “knee-jerk reactions” could be reduced to this:

While Jeff’s busy fixing computer gizmo stuff, what better way to pass the time than by watching intactivists go into a frenzy?  Wait . . . what’s that you’re using for chum, pal? ** Mass circumcision to fight Aids ** South African Aids experts call for mass circumcision after studies showed it reduced HIV infections. < http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/africa/6730261.stm > ** BBC Daily E-mail ** Choose the news and sport headlines you want

Thousands of people in Britain were left stranded in villages and towns Monday during the worst flooding in 60 years, which Prime Minister Gordon Brown linked to climate change. Swathes of central and western England were submerged as rivers swelled and burst their banks during four days of heavy rain, leaving thousands without clean water or electricity and facing the prospect of more rain. The largely rural counties of Gloucestershire,

Sorry for the lack of posting, but I’ve been spending this morning trying to get my computer to update software and the like. Still working at it. I’ll be back as soon as I can get things figured out. In the meantime, please enjoy a refreshing beverage and a snack, provided for your convenience: Diet Coke / Diet Dr Pepper / Arizona Ice Tea Cheezits Pistachio nuts bite-sized Twix bars

even if they believe you are sub-human and ought to be subjugated to Islamic law. [Dan Collins] Karen Armstrong has a piece in today’s Guardian that goes out of its way to be even-handed about the disparities in freedom between Western societies and Muslim ones. However, rather than call on Islamic rulers to permit more freedom of expression, particularly in the press, she finishes this way: But equally the cartoonists

The Washington Post, Friday, July 20, 2007; Page A01: Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege. The reaction on the Left was swift.  Shawn Mullen at the misnamed Moderate