Clipmarks | akarra's clips

Emily Dickinson, "To hang our head - ostensibly -"

Thu, 08 May 2008 19:21:28 GMT

clipped by: akarra

Clip Source: inrethinking.blogspot.com

"To hang our head - ostensibly..." (105)

Emily Dickinson

To hang our head - ostensibly -
And subsequent, to find
That such was not the posture

Of our immortal mind -

Affords the sly presumption
That in so dense a fuzz -
You - too - take Cobweb attitudes

Upon a plane of Gauze!

Tags: poetry, dickinson

McCain, Fiscal Conservative?

Thu, 08 May 2008 19:20:10 GMT

clipped by: akarra
clipper's remarks: One blogger thinks so.

Clip Source: orderdisorder.blogspot.com

John McCain, has a solid and proven record of cutting taxes and cutting, or at least voting against, waste. His fiscal conservative pedigree, according to Stach, is second to none. If the pundits on the right wanted Reagan incarnate, they should stop scrutinizing and start supporting John McCain. The man, as a Representative then a Senator, has consistently voted to cut capital gains, corporate, personal - at all brackets, and other taxes. He has also voted for larger tax breaks for retirement savings and to eliminate the "death" tax. Why the hatred?

The hatred stems from short memories. Our wise and learned sages of the party can't seem to get past the 2001 Bush tax cuts. A bill that McCain did vote against, but it was a protest vote. Protesting what exactly? Protesting the obscenely bloated discretionary, think earmark, spending added to the bill after committee.

Tags: mccain, politics, conservatism, budget, congress

A Rough Year for Republicans

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:27:26 GMT

clipped by: akarra
clipper's remarks: Karl Rove muses on just how tough this election will be for McCain.

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

This will be a very difficult year for Republicans. The economy's shaky state, an unpopular war, and the natural desire for partisan change after eight years of one party in the White House have helped tilt the balance to the Democrats.

Mr. Obama is significantly weaker today than he was three months ago, but Democrats have the upper hand in November. They're beatable. But it's nonsense to think this year is going to be a replay of George H.W. Bush versus Michael Dukakis or Richard Nixon versus George McGovern.

Tags: politics, rove, republicans, democrats, campaign, mccain, obama

A Lack of Moral Absolutes in Poetry?

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:12:58 GMT

clipped by: akarra
clipper's remarks: A blogger quotes a critic in order to muse on world and language.

Clip Source: scribblingsandsketches.wordpress.com

Mind seeks echoes between world and language. Every mind does this. Lack of echo leaves us with sullenness and, sometimes, poison. Metaphor is echo. Bronowski stepping into the pond (in the film below) scooping the mud is echo. His act is poetry in motion: simple, dramatic, almost too perfect, but stopping short of perfection and self-admiration. Bronowski understood this. He wrote a study of William Blake that I used as a student when writing a thesis on Blake. Language has led him to the edge. That moment of stepping in is the echo. Poetry is that kind of stepping in, shoes and all. But it cannot afford perfection. It is the lack of absolutes that makes poetry: not smoothness but falling short. Almost a clumsiness. There is an element of uncomfortable soaking in it.

Tags: poetry, criticism, philosophy, literature