Althouse: At the Rural Sunset Café...

September 27, 2010

At the Rural Sunset Café...

... things feel so intense and random.

10 comments:

jungatheart said...: Lincolntf:
"Obama is poison, at least in the eyes of Party men like Russ. Feingold must be beside himself.
He was looking forward to a nice long career in DC and now he might go down for this flash in the pan President."

The downside of mass hysteria.; 9/28/10, 9:48 AM
jungatheart said...: MadMan:
"News to me that it's on Feingold's behalf. I thought it was just a general rouse the Democrats out of their torpor visit."

Then again, maybe one point of the visit is to give Feingold the opportunity to diss the prez. Obama taking one for the team?; 9/28/10, 9:53 AM
jungatheart said...: Althouse, I think the Drudgedy makes it look like Obama, Biden, and Feingold have been zombified in mid-sentence by Hillary's voo-doo stare.; 9/28/10, 9:55 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Tyrone Slothrop,

Where does it say you can't enjoy a sunset, and also have a practical point of view on social issues?

I don't know. It just seems to work out that way. Airheads "ooh" and "ahh" while staring at the same sun they saw on the last go 'round. I don't know what there is to "enjoy" even. And why just this fetish for the sunset? Why aren't you all walking around aimlessly, mumbling, "Wow, man: air"? Or marveling at flowers. Or children? Or industrial landfills? Why just sunsets?

It's because you're not thinking about what you've internalized, and why, and just follow hippie cultural prerequisites without question.

When did estheticism and realism become mutually exclusive?

They're not - but, somehow, one's been given prominence over the other to the detriment of both - and I ain't the one doing it. Nor am I the one insisting you've got to stick your whole face into gritty reality - but, if I don't go all limp in the knees at the same shit I saw yesterday (or notice the triggers for NewAge moonpie thinking) there's something wrong with me by default. It's a form of cultural tyranny.

Why do you feel that everyone should ignore the bits of beauty that are available to us because the world sucks?

Whoa - sucks? - that's you talkin', not me. Maybe the world wouldn't suck so much, for you, if you'd get productive and stop staring at the fucking sky.

A night full of stars doesn't make you feel small unless you are small.

Oh, bullshit.; 9/28/10, 11:11 AM
blake said...: I don't know. It just seems to work out that way. Airheads "ooh" and "ahh" while staring at the same sun they saw on the last go 'round. I don't know what there is to "enjoy" even.

Depends on the day. But beauty is beauty. You're allegedly an artist; that would seem to be a fundamental criterion, to be able to appreciate beauty.

And why just this fetish for the sunset? Why aren't you all walking around aimlessly, mumbling, "Wow, man: air"? Or marveling at flowers. Or children? Or industrial landfills? Why just sunsets?

Who said just sunsets? Sunrises are more amazing to me because I never see them.

And for that matter, who says aimlessly?

And you've obviously never seen anyone from the city get out of the car after a long drive to the mountains. They appreciate the hell out of the air.

And you don't read this blog much if you don't realize that people DO marvel at flowers.

Children? Really?

As for industrial landfills, I do marvel at the occasional one I come across, and dumps in general. I'm probably odd in that regard. Just the whole process of how things got from where they were, to something valuable, to something worthless.

But then, I marvel at pencils.; 9/28/10, 11:38 AM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: @Crack Emcee

Yeah, well I'm not the one who said enjoying a beautiful sunset is some kind of New Age obsession, and the world will go to hell if you do.

As far as being productive, I've been gainfully employed for thirty years, I put myself through college before that, and I've raised three great kids to adulthood. That still left time to look at sunsets and thank God I was alive to see them.; 9/28/10, 11:40 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: blake,

You're allegedly an artist; that would seem to be a fundamental criterion, to be able to appreciate beauty.

Oh, I appreciate it, that's why I can't understand the sunset fetish - ain't "life" remarkable? The lack of focus on anything but the day dying, and the emphasis that it alone gets, especially, is what gets to me - and what I think we ought to consider our motivations for.

Tyrone Slothrop,

I'm not the one who said enjoying a beautiful sunset is some kind of New Age obsession, and the world will go to hell if you do.

No, but you're also not the one who's ever pointed out where NewAge infiltrates, and has influence on, our lives. Like everyone involved in NewAge activities, you'll deny it and point at everything else, when I'm saying fuck all that and look at the NewAge aspects squarely. As Chris Locke said, no one wants to admit they're NewAge because no one wants to admit they're stupid.

As far as being productive, I've been gainfully employed for thirty years, I put myself through college before that, and I've raised three great kids to adulthood. That still left time to look at sunsets and thank God I was alive to see them.

"Thank God." For an optical illusion we thoroughly understand, based on an outdated idea from before science, that, like too much of what we do in the modern era, harkens back to (and, in many ways, keeps us in) the days of Paganism and ignorance.

Yea, "Thank God."

For the telescope.; 9/28/10, 12:15 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: First, I said this:

you're also not the one who's ever pointed out where NewAge infiltrates, and has influence on, our lives. Like everyone involved in NewAge activities, you'll deny it and point at everything else, when I'm saying fuck all that and look at the NewAge aspects squarely. As Chris Locke said, no one wants to admit they're NewAge because no one wants to admit they're stupid.

And, now, there's this:

If you want to know about God, you might want to talk to an atheist.

Heresy? Perhaps. But a survey that measured Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists and agnostics knew more, on average, than followers of most major faiths. In fact, the gaps in knowledge among some of the faithful may give new meaning to the term "blind faith."

This goes along with the finding that reporters can't write knowledgeably on spirituality either. Religion, group think, cultism, culture - trying to find someone who'll social get their head out of politics, when it's clearly these/cultural ideas, behaviors, and beliefs that are screwing us up, is almost impossible.

Almost as impossible as stopping people from meditating, doing yoga, taking homeopathy, or staring at the sky,...; 9/28/10, 1:41 PM
traditionalguy said...: Crack ... The Hebrews say the next day starts a sundown. That is OK by me, since then the first things I get to do everyday are eat, make love and sleep 8 hours. Everything is downhill from sunrise on.; 9/28/10, 2:06 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Tg,

LOL!; 9/28/10, 2:26 PM