05/06/04 07:41 - ID#35519
Georgia bans female gential piercings
Permalink: Georgia_bans_female_gential_piercings.html
Words: 37
Location: Buffalo, NY
05/05/04 11:02 - ID#35518
Moore's movie cancelled by Disney
And they've finally created "custom-made" babies . An American lab used fertility treatment and in vitro fertilization to select fetuses that matched critical DNA components of their siblings. It is for a good cause in that all the siblings are suffering from chronic illnesses (anemia, leukemia, etc) that can dramatically benefit from the stem cells of their new siblings' umbilical cords. But who knows what's next...?
Permalink: Moore_s_movie_cancelled_by_Disney.html
Words: 106
Location: Buffalo, NY
05/04/04 08:58 - ID#35517
Only in-state residents allowed to marry
Permalink: Only_in_state_residents_allowed_to_marry.html
Words: 207
Location: Buffalo, NY
05/03/04 11:15 - ID#35516
Geo-seer Bridgette
Permalink: Geo_seer_Bridgette.html
Words: 277
Location: Buffalo, NY
04/28/04 09:13 - ID#35515
Another entry about a book
-on poets, philosophers, and such:
"At first I hoped to find a somewhat more direct understanding of life in some novelists and some poets; but, if they possessed that understanding, I must confess they hardly showed it; it seemed to me as if most of them weren't living at all, but were contented with seeming to live, and almost considered life as an annoying obstacle to living. And I couldn't blame them for it; and I won't affirm that the mistake wasn't on my side.... Anyway, what did I mean by "living"? That is exactly what I would have liked someone to tell me. This group and that spoke deftly, about the various happenings of life, never about what motivates those happenings.
As for the few philosophers, whose role it would have been to instruct me, I had known for some time what I could expect from them; whether mathematicians or Neo-Kantians, they kept as far away as possible from reality, which might disturb them, and were no more concerned with it than the algebraist is with the real existence of the quantities that he measures."
-and on what they were/should be (this one comes from a man who has already "learned" of real life as Michel now understands it to be:
"'Do you know what makes dead letters of poetry and especially philosophy today? It's because they're detached from life. Greece created idealism directly out of living reality; so that an artist's life was already a poetic accomplishemt in itself; a philosopher's life was an activation of his philosophy; so that, in addition, mingling with life instead of being unaware of one another, philosophy nourished poetry, poetry expressed philosophy, and they had remarkable powers of persuasion. Today beauty no longer acts, action is no longer concerned with being beautiful; and wisdom operates on its own.'"
and more about the same topic (ie: intellectuals in general):
"...most of them think they can't derive anything good from themselves except by restraint; they're only satisfied with themselves when they're disguised. Each one strives to resemble himself least of all. Each one chooses a pattern, then imitates it; in fact, they don't even choose the pattern they imitate, they accept one that's already chosen. And yet, I think, other things can be read in man. No one dares to. They don't dare to turn the page. Laws of imitation; I call them laws of fear. People are afraid of finding themselves alone, and they don't find themselves at all. This moral agoraphobia is hateful to me; it's the worst kind of cowardice. And yet it is only when alone that people are inventive. But who here is trying to be inventive? Whatever a man feels to be different in himself is precisely the rare thing he possesses, the thing that constitutes each man's wotrh - and it's that very thing they try to eradicate. They imitate. And they claim to love life!'"
-on culture:
"'...I depicted artistic culture as an emanation from a given people, like a secretion that at first is diagnostic of a plethora, a superabundance of health, then immediately co
ng
eals and hardens, cutting off all direct contact between the mind and nature, hiding the diminution of life beneath the persistent semblance of life, an unyielding sheath in which the confined spirit languishes and soon withers, then dies. Finally, carrying my train of thought to the extreme, I stated that culture, which is born of life, becomes the killer of life."
-this can't be the first time it was said, but:
"'A man thinks he owns things, and it's he who is owned..."
In all, this book is much more than a description of Michel's attempt to rid himself of morals. The word "morality" is used to express everything made by man and constrained by man's rules. Michel constantly bumps into these rules and by breaking them reaches a state of being he never expected to encounter. Alas, once there he finds that living without the rules is, while more pleasureable at times, more difficult by far than conforming. Where does the purpose of living come from if not from society? Searching for one's own answer to that question is perhaps the end in itself. I automatically distrust those who claim they've already found it (or at least more than partial bits of truth), isn't there always more? And I exit with a nod to Michel as he utters this last query to his listeners, a pessimistic ending if ever, but one that reveals that for all of Michel's so-called immorality, he still bears some burden, if not quite guilt, for his knowledge.
"What frightens me, I confess, is that I'm still very young. I sometimes feel as if my real life hasn't begun yet. Rescue me from this place now and give me reasons for living. I can no longer find any. I've won freedom, possibly, but what for? I'm suffering from this freedom that has no purpose. Believe me, it's not because I'm worn out by my crime, if you wish to call it that - but I must prove to myself that I didn't claim more than what was due to me."
Permalink: Another_entry_about_a_book.html
Words: 1007
Location: Buffalo, NY
04/27/04 05:59 - ID#35514
Kimya cometh
Let's rock out!
Permalink: Kimya_cometh.html
Words: 4
Location: Buffalo, NY
04/26/04 11:55 - ID#35513
Iraq-war blunders, from one who knows
Permalink: Iraq_war_blunders_from_one_who_knows.html
Words: 169
Location: Buffalo, NY
04/26/04 09:02 - ID#35512
Over a million march
Key issues included:
-The winner of the 2004 presidential election could be responsible for appointing two or more Supreme Court justices, and abortion rights supporters fear Roe v. Wade could be overturned if President Bush fills those vacated seats with like-minded conservative justices.
-Last November, Bush signed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, a law to end certain late-term abortions.
-President Bush signed into law April 1 the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which states that when a criminal act causes harm to a pregnant woman the suspect can be charged with a crime against the fetus as well.
Permalink: Over_a_million_march.html
Words: 148
Location: Buffalo, NY
04/25/04 01:58 - ID#35511
It's a cruel trick
Permalink: It_s_a_cruel_trick.html
Words: 56
Location: Buffalo, NY
04/24/04 05:00 - ID#35510
Don't bother
sidenote: clowns driving cars like normal people is just wrong. Honey the clown was stopped next to us at the light, and when she saw me staring she game me a real creepy clown-smile. Sends shudders down my spine just thinking about it.
Permalink: Don_t_bother.html
Words: 156
Location: Buffalo, NY
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