Motley Kamuka

Jim Ruland in Alta writes: "“For the old guard,” Carswell explained, “Pynchon was validation for literary criticism because you can’t read it by yourself.”" I guess with the internet you can glean enough background, the reading groups on r/ThomasPynchon was very helpful. Also being older helps. Also, "Justin St. Clair, associate professor of English at the University of South Alabama, takes the argument one step further: “This may be heresy,” he says, “but I think I like the movie better than the book.”" Also, "For Reilly, it ignores the most important aspect of the book: the many and varied references to the Manson Family. Set in the period between the Tate-LaBianca murders and the Manson trial, the novel captures the moment when Californians lost faith in the counterculture." I really need to watch Once Upon A Time In Hollywood . I recently watched Under The Silver Lake , and found it interesting. Had lots of naked women prancing around the screen, and ...

It's such a relief when the opposing party can call out their own assholes, it kind of lends a air of objectivity to a fairly subjective process. Liz Cheney's politics are rancid from my perspective, but she's potentially carving out a presidential run, after being voted out of office for breaking ranks and getting ahead of the curve. Oh and holding Trump accountable for his criminal behaviors. No small thing. Just like I can say Biden is doing amazing for American standards and criticize him for not doing more from a progressive viewpoint. Politics is about having ideas about how things should be, and then kludging something anyway. I can hate Cheney's voting record but also applaud her American decency.  (Did you read about the Florida candidate who got his twitter account suspended for saying he will make a law that it's okay to shoot FBI, IRS or other government officials? ( source )) I've always thought the first female president would come from the right. ...

First off he ran for president, based on no political experience. Then he ran for mayor based on no political or governmental experience. He lost his two political races, not even close. Solution? Create a party in between the right of center Democrats and far right wing Republicans. Really? He defends the sentiment that Trump should be let off the hook, that seeing justice as blind is a political act? Please, a shill for the status quo is not what a 3rd party is about. A third party is democratic socialism or green party, something that doesn't just fall between far right and center right.  I want representation, I want more Asian heritage candidates. There are some Asian American politicians from my area. I really like Lindy Li . Trying to harness the disaffected, "politicians don't do anything," sentiment isn't really productive. You wouldn't pick someone with no professional experience in almost any other profession. Working in government is a profession. ...

A penny dropped, watching Mandalorian and thinking about the actress who was canceled. She made some tweets that were "political". She feels canceled. Disney is a woke corporation, pursuing a liberal agenda--is what they say. To me a political choice is abstractly wanting a smaller government, but not at the cost of lives. If people die, then it's not political, it's murderous. The canceling isn't politics, it's valuing human life. Pro-life. "Gina Carano will not be returning to The Mandalorian or the Star Wars galaxy after sharing a post on social media implying that being a Republican today is like being Jewish during the Holocaust." ( source  of quote, source , source ) So because you expressed a noxious death cult opinion, you lost your job, and you compare that to people being rounded up and murdered. And people get offended. Go figure. It's one thing to have a political difference. I think we should tax the rich to redistribute the grossly ...

The Irma Luhrman-Merman murder Turned the bird’s word lurid The whir and the purr of a twirler girl She would the world were demurrer The insurer’s allure For valor were pure Kari Wuhrer One fervid whirl over her turgid error Rural juror Rural juror I will never forget you Rural juror I’ll always be glad I met you Rural juror I will never forget you Rural juror

"Rising autocrats have declared democracy obsolete. They argue that popular government is too slow to respond to the rapid pace of the modern world, or that liberal democracy’s focus on individual rights undermines the traditional values that hold societies together, values like religion and ethnic or racial similarities. Hungarian president Viktor Orbán, whom the radical right supports so enthusiastically that he is speaking on August 4 in Texas at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), has called for replacing liberal democracy with “illiberal democracy” or “Christian democracy,” which will explicitly not treat everyone equally and will rest power in a single political party." ( HCR ) There was a woman from Ivory Coast in my neighborhood (black), who married a Hungarian man (white). We got along well until we started talking politics. She said January 6th was a protest, not an insurrection, and I told her I couldn't talk to someone whom I didn't share ...

I'm struggling to get back to work now that my daughter is school age. I was walking along thinking about my antipathy for the todo list.  Then I thought how Shulem has to pretend he's making a gifted school, to appeal to the vanities of the parents, to win his school back when it's wrestled away from him.  Sometimes you have to participate in antithetical things you don't like to keep what you do like. That is just one of the many countless absurdities of the modern life. I also loved the conflict between the ascetic life, the pious life, versus the artistic life, the life of beauty. I think the spiritual life needs beauty, that's how you find the spiritual life. And yet running for comfort and pleasure don't work.