As I sit at my computer reading the mornings emails here are a few of the things that stand out:
From the Washington Post:
E.J Dionne had this to say about the Clinton interview on Fox –
“Sober, moderate opinion will say what sober, moderate opinion always says about an episode of this sort: Tut tut, Clinton looked unpresidential, we should worry about the future, not the past, blah, blah, blah.
But sober, moderate opinion was largely silent as the right wing slashed and distorted Clinton’s record on terrorism. It largely stood by as the Bush administration tried to intimidate its own critics into silence. As a result, the day-to-day political conversation was tilted toward a distorted view of the past. All the sins of omission and commission were piled onto Clinton while Bush was cast as the nation’s angelic avenger. And as conservatives understand, our view of the past greatly influences what we do in the present.
A genuinely sober and moderate view would recognize that it’s time the scales of history were righted. Propagandistic accounts need to be challenged, systematically and consistently. The debate needed a very hard shove. Clinton delivered it.”
Then Michael Kinsley has this closing –
A commander in chief who must face life-or-death questions such as these deserves a bit of sympathy. I would sympathize more with Bush if his answers weren’t so preening and struggle-free. It is wonderful to be so morally pure that you won’t allow a single embryo to be destroyed in the quest for medical cures that could save lives by the thousands. You are way beyond Gandhi, sweeping the path ahead to avoid stepping on an insect: Insects have more human characteristics than a six-cell embryo.
And regarding Iraq you are quite the man, aren’t you, “making the tough decisions.” A regular Harry Truman, consigning thousands to death in order to bring democracy and freedom and peace to millions. But Truman actually produced democracy and freedom and peace, whereas you want credit for your hopes. That’s not how it works. If you want to be the hard-ass, you get judged by results. And you can’t be Gandhi and Truman at the same time.
from this mornings “A Writer’s Almanac“:
Miguel de Cervantes said, “Too much sanity may be madness, and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.”
From the folks at Photo Friday: “This week’s Challenge: ‘Anger’.” I guess I’ll be pondering how to capture that emotion for a while today…
Martha Stewart (don’t ask) brings us Halloween Crafts.
And last in this mornings in-basket is: Eknath Easwaran’s Thought for the Day
September 28
God is not external to anyone, but is present with all things, though they are ignorant that he is so.
 PlotinusI have heard people claim that mysticism denies the physical world. A good mystic would answer, ÂWe are not belittling Sir Isaac Newton. We donÂt deny the Pythagorean theorem. All we are saying is that we have discovered another dimension to life, another realm  changeless, eternal, beyond cause and effect  on which the entire physical universe rests.Â
Because our lives are oriented outward, we may doubt the existence of the Self within. I have been telling people about this Self almost daily for more than thirty years, but occasionally I still am asked, ÂAre you talking about something outside us? Compared with this Self  whom we call Krishna or Christ, Allah or Adonai or the Divine Mother  my own body is Âoutside. Compared with the Self, my own life is not more dear.
Yesterday I spent some time with photoshop to “enhance” a photo from last week, let me know what you think…
This is the un-shoped version…
My wife is of the thought that using photoshop to “enhance” an image is untruthfull. I tried to tell her that the enhanced version is really closer to what stopped me for the image than the straight shot…oh well, about the only thing we ever agree about is dis-agreeing. And to think we’ve been together for 2 1/2 decades already…