Echoes and Mirrors » holiday

Merry Xmas, plebs!

Daniel — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:36:00 +0000

Merry Christmas everyone. I’m getting primed for New Years Eve and things will probably slow down even more around here while I sort out the issues with my web-development stuff. Expect Echoes and Mirrors to move soon. Also, I’m not sure if Craig has plans to post here anymore – he just started a new blog over at Written on the Stall.

My dad got me some t-shirts from smarttorso.com. One of them was the ‘life is pietzche’ shirts, which I automatically said, “that’s not how you pronounce Nietzche.” I think he’s implying that I’m a smart ass. I’m not sure.

Hobson’s Choice is coming back. Issue 5 has been recovered and I’m trying to fix the layout again. I suspect a few people will actually be quite startled by its late arrival at their doorstep (contributors, distributors). I’ve even applied for an ISSN. Seriously, it will be the most irregularly published journal of all time with years spanning between issues.

I’ll be searching for regular column (blog) writers for the new site. Details are forthcoming. Meanwhile, I’m doing everything in my power to get published elsewhere.

Drink some egg-nog and do something funny.

Burning Goat 2009

Daniel — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:18:00 +0000

Swedish Christmas straw goat burns again:

STOCKHOLM – A giant straw goat was burned down yet again early Wednesday in a Swedish city where torching it has become a Christmas tradition, to the dismay of local leaders.

Every year I see this article, it brings joy to my heart. Why can’t the city just understand that their tradition is to burn the straw goat, not to build and look upon a straw goat? They ought to make it an endorsed event. Over the last 50 years, almost half of their goats have been burned or otherwise destroyed. Just accept it – people want to see it burn.

devil machines

Daniel — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:29:00 +0000

Gordon Brown finally admits that England was wrong to prosecute Alan Turing – who may have done more to save England from total destruction in WWII than any other man alive – for being gay.

England just can’t stop trying to one-up us with past misdeeds.

I spotted this on the relevant Fark.com thread and couldn’t resist:

Now that is funny.

Have a somber & mistrustful 9/11 everyone – I’ll be at the bar.

The Red White and Blue

Daniel — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 20:01:00 +0000

Red
White
Blue

Patriotism. Dig it.

Independence Day

Daniel — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 19:05:00 +0000

The Declaration of Independence

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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 to 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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. –Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

These guys had some genuinely lofty ideas. Some of which are still followed today. Happy 4th, everyone.

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