because i said so: media and other trivialities

Free spliff with your first visit....Public transit ads, Frisco-style.

2009-12-06T17:28:00.000-08:00

Sale on Christmas Decorations at the Salvation Army, 26th & Valencia, San Francisco.

2009-11-17T08:35:00.000-08:00

Forlorn stuff left on the corner of 30th & San Jose, San Francisco.

2009-10-18T17:32:00.001-07:00

No comment.

2009-09-26T16:33:00.000-07:00

My Day Off....

2009-09-22T15:10:00.000-07:00

When I started my run at Mission and 30th, it was sunny....

2009-09-20T19:04:00.001-07:00

The emdpoint of a rainy run.

2009-09-13T17:42:00.000-07:00

Foggy morning run.

2009-09-12T12:23:00.001-07:00

Crazy foggy this morning in Daly City as Ieave SF on BART. Will it really be 79 today?

2009-09-11T08:12:00.001-07:00

3 hours 10 minutes: I arrive at the Ferry Terminal. I think I'm done with my run.

2009-09-07T17:13:00.000-07:00

2 hours and still running--God bless caffeine!

2009-09-07T16:05:00.000-07:00

...& ran from Ocean Beach to Baker Beach...

2009-09-07T15:35:00.000-07:00

Ran from Haight to the Pacific.

2009-09-07T14:47:00.000-07:00

Separated at birth? Or two great tastes....?

2009-09-05T14:38:00.001-07:00

-- E. R. O'Neill

Enlightenment? Fuck Yeah!

2009-09-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

-- Ed

Made it to the beach--where it's cool & lovely. Haven't seen R. in a week: I think it's over.

2009-08-29T16:36:00.000-07:00

-- E. R. O'Neill

Is there ANY flavor combination considered out of bounds? Shrimp banana maybe?

2009-08-21T15:36:00.001-07:00

-- E. R. O'Neill

Cold clear San Francisco night, Mitchell's ice cream. Mob scene.

2009-08-13T21:02:00.000-07:00

-- E. R. O'Neill

Stinson Beach at Dusk.

2009-07-30T20:36:00.000-07:00

-- E. R. O'Neill

Near Bodega Bay....

2009-07-30T19:06:00.000-07:00

Did I see WHAT sign?

2009-07-22T07:11:00.000-07:00

-- E. R. O'Neill

Dude, where's my bike?!

2009-07-17T08:32:00.001-07:00

-- E. R. O'Neill

My, what a classy mall. Can you tell me: where is Wharf Hydrant #4?

2009-07-16T19:13:00.001-07:00

-- E. R. O'Neill

Professional Victims

2009-07-15T18:35:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr. Frank:

I'm a fan of yours--but I especially liked today's editorial.

You hit on a theme too many are ignoring.

Namely, conservatives like to complain about weak and spineless liberals: strength of character and independence are the moral virtues that complement their religious belief that the market takes care of those who take care of themselves.

We're the lazy "victims" who need government largesse, whereas if we just trusted ourselves, our God, free markets and hard work, everything would turn out just fine (as it so clearly has lo these last eight years).

But in fact, conservative rhetoric is shot through with a powerful sense of injury and impotence.

If someone weren't harming them and depriving them of what is 'rightfully' theirs, they'd have precious little to say (except "free markets uber alles").

You see it most clearly at the party's nutso fringes--wherever white men don't get the privilege they feel was theirs, wherever they can't tell women what to do with their bodies, wherever they can't impose their moral values on others and call it "hands-off government." But it's everywhere.

They are the true inheritors of the culture wars of the 60's and, more largely, the co-definition of selfhood and injury that almost defines the post-romantic era. (Freud's Cartesianism defines it clearly: I am insofar as I've been traumatized.)

Peggy Noonan hit upon this in her recent skewering of Palin: she argued that Palin is a victim of a culture that says every child is precious--aka the wishy-washy liberal sixties.

Peggy Noonan, of course, only sees the truth of this when it's true of a conservative she hates.

Whereas the larger point and the contradiction both escape her: conservatives claim strength and independence as their core values, whereas their rhetoric would have no oomph were it not for how terribly, terribly unfairly they're always being treated.

It's your basic pot-calling-kettle situation. Rhetorically, it's probably all the Republicans have left. Indeed, every single Karl Rove editorial on the pages of the WSJ basically accuses the Obama administration of something that was trademark of the Bush administration--overspending being the major example.

Sincerely,

Edward R. O'Neill

7:08 a.m. Just ran 8 miles. Sunny at Mission & 1st. Still foggy on Potrero Hill.

2009-07-15T07:10:00.000-07:00

-- E. R. O'Neill