tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-166469922009-07-14T16:16:44.945-10:00Spirituality. Psychical research. Politics. And the way we live now.<br><br> <BIG><b><center>" ... Olympos, where the abode of the gods stands firm and unmoving forever, they say, and is not shaken with winds nor spattered with rains, nor does snow pile ever there, but the shining bright air stretches cloudless away, and the white light glances upon it."</b></BIG><br><br> <b>Homer, <i>The Odyssey</i>, Book VI (Richmond Lattimore translation)</b></center>Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.comBlogger547125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-28168671337362889232009-07-13T09:31:00.020-10:002009-07-14T02:50:13.902-10:00

Melody Gardot has released another exceptional album, My One and Only Thrill. As enthusiastic as I was about her previous disc, Worrisome Heart, which I wrote about here, her newest shows off her vocal and songwriting abilities in a new — one might even say daring — direction. But she's daring in a surprising way.It's almost required these days for a young musician who hasn't acquired a large

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-39791584800701516092009-07-10T04:10:00.023-10:002009-07-11T10:22:58.990-10:00

Everybody seems to wonder What it's like down here I gotta get away from this day-to-day running around, Everybody knows this is nowhere. — Neil Young, "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" Nowhere isn't what it used to be. Your congressional pork farmers want to make sure you can get from one end of it to the other, and their cronies can get rich, at high speed. ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - New Mexico,

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-74014224455786348152009-07-07T02:08:00.026-10:002009-07-07T08:50:36.751-10:00

Gen. Stanley McChrystal (center) explains U.S. strategy in Afghanistan at a news conference. As a neo-Marxist in good standing, President for Life Obama should be well aware of the original Marxist's quip, "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce." The news from the Comeback War, the one in Afghanistan, proves it yet again. Or maybe if it's historical precedent we're grasping

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-36546551874407711572009-07-03T14:42:00.007-10:002009-07-03T14:51:19.929-10:00

For what it has been... and may, yet, still be.

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-40472559129552254502009-07-01T07:57:00.023-10:002009-07-03T14:41:20.960-10:00

4. Television program is produced.Uh, wait. I'm getting a little confused here. The Daily Mail has launched this year's religious news silly season, with Jesus and St. Paul moving up to spots no. 2 and 3 in its Spiritual Celebrity Sweepstakes, although still trailing Michael Jackson by a Roman mile.Let's see if we can sort this out.First up, we have a publicity hound who has decided that the

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-45463460989626849682009-06-29T10:03:00.017-10:002009-06-29T11:02:05.844-10:00

If this German film ever spent time on American screens other than at film festivals, I didn't know of it. I probably would have skipped it anyway, as the description makes it sound very sensitive, and I'm not.However, based on good reviews at Netflix, I borrowed the DVD and watching it was rewarding. It's hard to describe the story without including spoilers; if you want, though, IMDb will give

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-17978931367207504962009-06-26T04:33:00.017-10:002009-06-26T09:07:39.943-10:00

You would think reading about what your money has been doing in the past year would be jolly interesting, yes? Not when the explanation arrives via most annual reports of companies or funds, though.Although the financial statement is the heart of an annual report, for most shareholders that is a little too esoteric. The one part of the report likely to be read is the letter from the CEO, usually

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-65048820882331424332009-06-26T03:32:00.019-10:002009-06-27T03:38:41.279-10:00

"I'm Governor Mark Sanford, and I was blown awayby how much I could do in South Carolina."

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-5914120488696630202009-06-23T04:29:00.028-10:002009-06-24T02:59:57.479-10:00

When our nation and world are in deep crisis, it's especially worth remembering that our senses, the information they provide and the thoughts based on that information do not tell us everything about reality. No matter how bad things are or we fear they will be, there are finer and deeper realities. In some of them, there is no crisis, no problem.We can have entrée into other worlds, which our

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-91385489633778799882009-06-21T05:31:00.016-10:002009-06-21T07:00:06.590-10:00

Los Angeles Times editorial staff tests new bailout plan.This column reads like a parody of the leftist, soft-totalitarian mentality. But it is from the Los Angeles Times, and the LAT doesn't joke about such things. It can't afford to.Rosa Brooks is a sometime columnist for the paper, but you are to understand that she is of a higher class than your common journalist. She explains:This will be my

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-83563542488363118642009-06-16T04:29:00.024-10:002009-06-16T08:30:21.178-10:00

The Wall Street Journal has published an article about the potential devolution of the United States. Surprisingly, it is respectful, even somewhat favorable to the idea.Paul Starobin writes, "Picture an America that is run not, as now, by a top-heavy Washington autocracy but, in freewheeling style, by an assemblage of largely autonomous regional republics reflecting the eclectic economic and

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-64107197983046956632009-06-13T04:29:00.028-10:002009-06-13T05:41:59.249-10:00

U.S. paper money is widely derided as being drab and uninspiring in appearance. The Dollar ReDe$ign Project wants to fix that.Some 25 redesign submissions have been made so far, ranging from the presumably serious to the satirical. They might, if you want to look at it that way, say something about what people today think about the country's currency, or the country. Here is a selection of the

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-15247118618461898092009-06-11T04:27:00.020-10:002009-06-12T04:20:12.038-10:00

In a June 2 posting, I groused about the panting haste with which various official and unofficial parties assured us that the there was no evidence of terrorism in the fatal accident involving Air France 447, which mysteriously plunged into the ocean from cruising altitude, an extremely rare accident script. Technically they were correct; there was no evidence of terrorism. There was no evidence

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-70585619876374471362009-06-09T10:53:00.007-10:002009-06-09T11:44:43.669-10:00

… after decades of promoting yin (i.e. the cosmic female element) and suppressing yang (i.e. the cosmic male element), the West now suffers from yin toxemia. As per Chinese Taoist precepts, this produces an overabundance of the soft, wet, squishy, sweet, flabby, irrational, diffuse energy that characterizes yin, and a shortage of the hard, dry, salty, muscular, rational and compacting male (i.e.

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-73577212666723728152009-06-07T04:19:00.011-10:002009-06-07T09:26:39.052-10:00

So says a blowhard New York Democrat, more or less.Rep. Charles Rangel Friday warned of "racial polarization" if Attorney General Andrew Cuomo challenges Gov. Paterson in a primary next year. Rangel, who is close to the poll-challenged Paterson, ripped Cuomo on New York 1 last night for flatly not ruling out a run for governor next year. ...Should Cuomo run, Rangel said, it would create a divide

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-11805543992138517022009-06-03T09:21:00.015-10:002009-06-04T05:42:37.817-10:00

Barack "I'm Too Cool for My Country" Obama can't even wait till he gets to Cairo to deliver the United States into the Muslim world. Le Monde says that in an interview on the French TV network Canal +, he said, "les Etats-Unis sont l'un des plus grands pays musulmans" ("the United States are one of the greatest Muslim countries"). The full quote: "Les Etats-Unis et le monde occidental

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-65933606484844133642009-06-02T04:59:00.016-10:002009-06-02T13:05:48.139-10:00

Everyone speculating about what happened to AF 447 acknowledges that it's baffling. An anomaly. No evidence to support any hypothesis.Except, as usual, the instant reflex is to deny that it could be terrorism."Both French and US sources have ruled out terrorism as the cause of the plane's loss," the International Business Times says. Other sources content themselves with statements to the effect

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-44059148090455328012009-05-27T07:28:00.005-10:002009-05-27T08:37:21.302-10:00

Are you really surprised that President for Life Obama has, in Lawrence Auster's words, nominated a "Hispanic racialist, with a Hispanic racialist judicial agenda" to the highest court in the land? Sonia "I am the Law" Sotomayor is exactly the kind of nominee I would have expected from a man who sees it as his duty to overthrow the Constitution and turn the United States into an unofficial

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-73940473101727430072009-05-24T10:19:00.032-10:002009-05-30T05:53:08.087-10:00

He was acknowledged as one of the finest crime fiction writers in the ’60s and ’70s; continued writing novels long after. He is semi-forgotten now. No matter. As Gustav Mahler said of himself, his time will come. That might seem extravagant, comparing a genre novelist to one of the greatest composers of classical music of all time. In his own field, though, Nicolas Freeling deserves the

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-4652298640993288172009-05-22T05:40:00.014-10:002009-05-22T09:10:08.194-10:00

"Government's Helping Hand" — Sculptureto be borrowed for White House lawnThe Obamas may or may not know anything about art, but they know what they like.The Wall Street Journal reports:The Obamas are sending ripples through the art world as they put the call out to museums, galleries and private collectors that they’d like to borrow modern art by African-American, Asian, Hispanic and female

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-45143863692103156042009-05-16T13:02:00.013-10:002009-05-16T13:55:18.958-10:00

Nicolai Fechin, NasturtiumsYour blogger will be away until after Wednesday the 20th, and it is unlikely there will be any posting meanwhile.Why the Fechin? Simply because I don't want you to feel you have clicked here totally in vain (although I may be totally vain to imagine you would care much), and because Fechin is perhaps the greatest painter in my experience who is largely unknown except to

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-33928544493923265982009-05-14T06:24:00.021-10:002009-05-14T10:39:47.689-10:00

Small is in. Beauty is optional.The Church of Environmentalism is dead keen on making everything micro. A foot that prints less carbon. Energy efficient. Keeping down with the Joneses. And, best of all from the standpoint of meager-is-better environmentalists, literally downsizing everything means we can accommodate lots more overpopulation. Bring on the next batch of serial-pregnancy immigrants.

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-71088651637768930292009-05-12T10:59:00.008-10:002009-05-12T13:12:43.661-10:00

A woman named Robin, from Berkeley no less, describes her conversion from leftism in American Thinker. She is now a recovering liberal, she says, and apologizes to people she has harmed, especially herself:I didn't know any better. I thought the whole world lived in areas where the streets are filthy, aggressive street behavior is allowed because the perps are victims of capitalism, and where you

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-9143811010747517732009-05-11T05:37:00.010-10:002009-05-11T09:48:59.255-10:00

The "stress test" to separate the sheep from the goats among banks apparently was wired by the government to present a false picture of their general financial health. The Wall Street Journal broke the news:The Federal Reserve significantly scaled back the size of the capital hole facing some of the nation's biggest banks shortly before concluding its stress tests, following two weeks of intense

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16646992.post-40642767053581489922009-05-07T03:14:00.026-10:002009-05-07T05:46:34.734-10:00

The windy country of the clouds … — Christopher Marlowe, Dido, Queen of CarthageOne of the few remaining pleasures of air travel is meeting the clouds. I'll even select a window seat on a short flight, just to get a better look. What was, a few minutes before, a symbol of the ethereal and unreachable now seems to draw us up like dew as the airplane climbs. Now we enter the clouds, they surround

Rick Darbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02371910140619422820noreply@blogger.com2