Tannishblog

I’ve commented before about the swinging of the metaphoric political pendulum. My eyes caught the beginnings of reverse movement during the Terri Schiavo fiasco. Most great weights, like a freight train, take a while to gain momentum, but the movement is clearer by the day. I’m not predicting a sweep in the fall’s elections; nothing that hasty, Pippin, but change is in the wind.

Exhibit A: the June, 29 2006 congressional speech by Texas Representative, Ron Paul

Exhibit B: the return of the Religious Left to the stage.

Boy, that breeze smells fresh!

From the Dept. of English & Comparative Literature at San Jose State University comes the 2006 winners of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, awarded to authors of bad opening sentences to imaginary novels.

All aspiring novelists take note (me, too.)

I've been quietly stewing over my compassionate-gone-wrong missive to Jeff Goldstein the other day, when I caught up with Sadly, No's character assassination of aforementioned blogger. The sheer volume of quoted bile was overwhelming, and this is only Part 1. And I apologized to this wretch? It's the gesture that counts, I tell myself. It's not like I ever read Jeff's blog.

Today, I happen across perhaps the best example of the value of Grain-Of-Salt thinking regarding bloggers. After all, anyone can blog these days ( I'm living proof.) Here's a heartfelt anti-abortion posting. I'm dumbfounded (pun intended) that this guy is serious. Read the comments, they're great! It must suck to be him right now…

UPDATE:

The Instigator

The Response  

As I drive to work pondering a general lack of integrity in society, reflections upon the Jeff Goldstein affair, I have too many thoughts to express coherently.

Later, I find a CNN article with what my just be the solution to the spiritual deficit I feel is evident in most facets of modern life. We need more of this stuff:

Even two months after taking the drug… most of the volunteers said the experience had changed them in beneficial ways, such as making them more compassionate, loving, optimistic and patient. Family members and friends said they noticed a difference, too.

[…]

That experience included such things as a sense of pure awareness and a merging with ultimate reality, a transcendence of time and space, a feeling of sacredness or awe, and deeply felt positive mood like joy, peace and love. People say "they can't possibly put it into words," Griffiths said.

Two months later, 24 of the participants filled out a questionnaire. Two-thirds called their reaction to psilocybin one of the five top most meaningful experiences of their lives. On another measure, one-third called it the most spiritually significant experience of their lives, with another 40 percent ranking it in the top five.

About 80 percent said that because of the psilocybin experience, they still had a sense of well-being or life satisfaction that was raised either "moderately" or "very much."

A life-altering spiritual experience resulting in heightened feelings of joy, peace, and love… Yeah, that's the ticket!