I know a girl who thinks of ghosts

She'll make ya breakfast
She'll make ya toast
She don't use butter
She don't use cheese
She don't use jelly
Or any of these
She uses vaseline

I know a guy who goes to shows
When he's at home and he blows his nose
He don't use tissues or his sleeve
He don't use napkins or any of these
He uses magazines

I know a girl who reminds me of cher
(reminds me of cher)
She's always changing
(she's always changing)
The color of her hair
(color of her hair)
She don't use nothing
That ya buy at the store
She likes her hair to be real orange
She uses tangerines


I feel like I'm missing out by having never seen someone do this in person:




Currently Listening to
Transmissions From The Satellite Heart
by The Flaming Lips

It's a war on war

There's a war on

You're gonna lose
You have to lose
You have to learn how to die

Let's watch the miles flying by
You are not my typewriter
But you could be my demon
Moving forward through flaming doors

You have to lose
You have to learn how to die
If you want to want to be alive

You have to die
You have to learn how to die
If you want to want to be alive

Okay?


I honestly never even expected for Saddam to be executed. Honestly, with the crimes he committed, I feel the punishement is appropriate. Even this is not without some controversy, naturally. This note, from the first article, was particularly upsetting to me:

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International both complained that Maliki's government had pressured the judge to return guilty verdicts, and called for the accused to be brought before an international tribunal.

Saddam Hussein was an Iraqi citizen. He committed crimes against Iraqi citizens. He was sentenced and punished by Iraqi citizens. Some will claim that the death penalty can never be justified, but if Saddam were tried and sentenced by anyone else, no punishment would have been justified. Saddam was convicted by a jury of his peers. This is the only way to reasonably punish any criminal. In the end, justice, in some form, has prevailed. There would be no justice if he were brought before an internation tribunal.


Currently Listening to
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
by Wilco

Time goes by,

And we watch our lives,
As they're sadly slipping away.
Alone, we cry.

So follow that tune quickly
Or you'll lose the melody you never heard
When you were young you didn't care.
It's the one that stole your fathers pride,
That mighty mighty dollar sign.
These are the things that matter now,
So sing along and be...

Prepared to jump,
When the ship has sunk,
And you're slowly watching it drown.
Alone, you cry.

So follow that tune quickly
Or you'll lose the melody you never heard
When you were young you didn't care.
It's the one that stole your fathers pride,
That mighty mighty dollar sign.
These are the things that matter now,
So sing along and be prepared.

Maybe we, care about too much
Time we lost in in spite we run,
That night, but you know i'm wrong.


So, I'm pretty sure my iPod has been bricked. This was basically the only way I got through my day. Now its gone. I will be taking it in to the Apple Store as soon as I can, to see if there is any possible repair, but I'm thinking the hard drive has finally failed. If that is the case, it really isn't worth repairing. So I'm left in the position of trying to come up with $250 on top of everything else to get a new one. I am now officially out of the Christmas spirit and into the seasonal depression. Although, technically, this should be topical depression, since the shortened day really has nothing to do with it. So, yeah, I guess I got off topic, but this sucks.


Currently Listening to
I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody's Business
by I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody's Business

You're lovely baby, this war is crazy, I won't let you down…oh, no no….

No, I won't let them take you, won't let them take you…Hell, no no…
Oh, no…I won't let them take you, won't let them take you…Hell, no no…
No, oh no, no, no….

Should they catch us and dispatch us to those separate WORK camps.
I'll dream about you, I will not doubt you with the passing of time….Oh, yeah.
Should they kill me, your love will fill me as warm as the bullets, yeah.
I'll know my purpose: this war was worth this. I won't let you down…


There are things I can do . . . to change the way I feel . . . to make me feel good . . . to make me happy.

The thing is . . . without you . . . I just don't want to do this . . . It isn't the same . . . it isn't worth it.


Currently Listening to
. . . Is A Real Boy
by Say Anything

If you were born today

We'd kill you by age eight
Never get the chance to say:

Joy to the world and
Peace on the earth
Forgive them for they know not what they do

Blessed are the meek and
Blessed are the humble
Blessed are the ninety and nine

Deny the flesh
Deny all that's evil
Tonight you'll deny me thrice

If you were born today
We'd kill you by age eight
You'd never have the chance to say... to say...

Joy to the world (If you were born today)
Peace on the earth (We'd kill you by age eight)
Never get the chance to say


nixon had a show on short notice last night. It was really fun. Quite a few people showed up. Now, it is likely that the majority of them were there for Michael Morris, but still, they all heard us, and they seemed to enjoy it. I like the approach we are taking. When I was in The First To Go we were constantly adding myspace friends and asking them to come to our shows, and really it never worked. With nixon, it feels like we are growing organically. We have a myspace page, but we are letting people come to us instead of forcing ourselves on them. I like it. Lets hope this lasts.


Currently Listening to:
The Christmas EP
Jimmy Eat World

PS: This guy know what he is talking about:

Hey Jack...I know what you're thinking.

That now's as good as any to start drinking.
Hey Scotty...Yeah...What's it gonna be?
A gin & tonic sounds might mighty good to me.
Man I know I gotta go it's the same thing every time,
but I don't think another drinks' gonna make me lose my mind.
So I think about my next drink,
and it's you & me and the bottle makes 3 tonight.


Note to self:

The cat does not like swing dancing as much as you do.

/note.


Currently Listening to:
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

Leave me out with the waste

This is not what I do
It's the wrong kind of place
To be cheating on you
It's the wrong time
She's pulling me through
It's a small crime
And I've got no excuse

Is that alright?
I give my gun away when it's loaded
Is that alright?
If you dont shoot it, how am I supposed to hold it
Is that alright?
I give my gun away when it's loaded
Is that alright
Is that alright with you?



an open letter for the times I've been disappointed

So here we are again
I think
I thought
I guess it just seemed fine
until now.

until this.

So I guess it didn't work
for me
for you
It seemed to go so well
until now.

until this.

change your expectations
make them fit
I'll be a different person
unless that isn't it
I know you have your options
I'll fake my own
and try to make things softer
for when I hit the ground

Let my dream exist
for now
for me
I thought that it might last
until now.

until this.




Currently Listening to:
9
by Damien Rice

With your feet in the air and your head on the ground

Try this trick and spin it, yeah
Your head will collapse
But there's nothing in it
And you'll ask yourself

Where is my mind

Way out in the water
See it swimmin'

NASA can't explain why we need a lunar colony.
This is a perfect example of the problem with government programs, and on a larger scale our government in general.

Everything starts out, well intended, and with a lot of potential. Eventually an agency will reach is potential, and solve the problem it was working on. Naturally, then the agency/program would be disbanded and the resources would be reallocated, right? Not right. Now the agency goes into survival mode. Every agency eventually turns into an agency whose main goal is to get more funding for the agency.

During the Cold War, the United States played an important part in the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Its main goal, at that time, was to form a strong realtionship between America and the stronger European governments so that there would be a strong alliance in place if the impending war created by the arms race were to ever come to fruition. During the fall of the Soviet Union, NATO helped to provide stability to Eastern Europe. Now, NATO's main mission is to support the United Nations. Of course, all of the member nations of NATO are also part of the UN. So what is the purpose of NATO? As far as I can tell, the only remaining purpose of NATO is to keep NATO intact.

Why are we still contributing resources to this? Why do we need a lunar colony? Why do our public universities continue to pay to expand facilites while their own students are complaining of drastically increasing tuition?



Currently Listening to:
Surfer Rosa
by The Pixies

I had the notion that you'd make me forget the world

But your undecisive mind shows me that
You are "just another girl"
I had the feeling that those looks you gave me were real
What if I ripped your heart apart at the seams
Maybe then you'd know how I feel

But that day will most likely never come for me
And it's just my luck to end up getting stuck
To everything you are

So tonight I'll sit and pick apart your pictures
And overanalyze your words
But the truth is that I've never fallen so hard
It's taking everything in me
Just to forget your sweater so far

I can honestly say
That I never, ever, ever felt this way
Your lips, your eyelashes, your skin
These are the parts of your body
That cause my comatose to begin

I will sleep another day
I don't really need to anyway
What's the point when my dreams are infected
With words you used to say
I will breathe in a moment
As long as I keep my distance
I wouldn't want to go messing anything up

So don't go worrying about me
It's not like I think about this constantly
So maybe I do, but that shouldn't affect
Your life anymore
I knew it the moment you walked into the door

I'll let you get the best of me
Because there's nothing else that I do well
I'll be the giver and you'll be the taker
I guess that's how this one's gonna go I'll be the giver and you'll be the taker
You've got me down on my knees and I proclaim
All hail the heartbreaker

I've been thinking a lot about medicine, lately. And I wonder if we are moving in the right direction.

It seems to me like people were born to die. No matter what miracle drug we come up with next, the outcome is still the same. Death is inevitable. So why do we use medicine to prolong the pain of the end?

Our bodies are like cars. Some models will work perfectly for 100,000 miles, some for 200,000. But every car reaches a tipping point where repairing it costs more than the car is worth. The engine blows. As soon as that is fixed the transmission goes. Then the radiator, the brakes, etc, etc, etc. The human body does the same thing. Only our reaction to the breakdown is different.

Retirement homes are filled with elderly people, many of whom are at least mildly depressed, who are kept alive by a virtual cocktail of prescriptions. They forget who they are, where they are, who we are, but we keep them alive. Why?

I'm not suggesting euthanasia. I am suggesting allowing people to go when it is their time to go. Maybe, instead of trying to make our short lives longer, we should just try to make them better.


On a related note, there was an interesting article on MSN:
Antidepressants May Up Risk for Attempted, Not Completed, Suicide



Currently listening to:
Sunsets & Car Crashes
by The Spill Canvas

Theologians

They don't know nothing
About my soul
About my soul

I'm an ocean
An abyss in motion
Slow motion
Slow motion

Illitterati lumen fidei
God is with us everyday
That illiterate light
Is with us every night

Theologians
That don't know nothing
About my soul
Oh they don't know

They thin my heart with little things
And my life with change
Oh in so many ways
I find more missing every day

Theologians

Keith Ellison has chosen to take this Congressional oath on the Qur'an as opposed to the Bible. Those of you who voted in MN should be familiar with the fact that Ellison is the first Muslim to be elected to the House of Representatives. He is also the first black representative from Minnesota.

There are plenty of public officials whose place I would be happy to take. Ellison is not one of them.

First, he has to deal with interviews such as this:


Now, he has to respond to ridiculous right-wing ideology from people like Dennis Prager, who informs us that "America, Not Keith Ellison, decides what book a congressman takes his oath on". First of all, Mr. Prager, Ellison is not representing America, he is representing Minnesota, and were this a community decision, it would be the Minnesota community, not the America community making the decision. As it is, though, this is not a community decision. This is a personal decision by Ellison. The most important thing to remember is that a congressman only has to affirm his oath. Many choose to swear their oath on the Bible, but that is in no way a requirement of the office. In fact, former presidents Franklin Pierce and Herbert Hoover both chose to affirm their oath of office as opposed to swearing it on a Bible.

I could care less about the process by which Ellison takes office, what is important, to me, is that he accurately represents his constituents once he is in the House of Representatives. Unfortunately, it seems he will have to spend a lot of his time defending his personal choices, regardless of how irrelevant they are to his ability to fulfill his duties to the office.



Currently Listening:
A Ghost is Born
by Wilco