MOVEMENT

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Much more of the brain is devoted to movement than to language. Language is only a little thing sitting on top of this huge ocean of movement.

— Oliver Sacks (via David Kranes)

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THE LITTLE FUGITIVE

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testifies in Washington

The present whereabouts of James Clapper (above) are not known — and the Obama administration isn’t offering any hints — but he’s believed to be hiding out in a government office building in McLean, Virginia hoping to avoid prosecution for lying to Congress, a crime that could land Clapper in jail for as much as five years. Both China and Russia have urged Obama to turn Clapper over to the DOJ for immediate indictment, to demonstrate to the world America’s commitment to the rule of law.

CLOWNS

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The U. S. government needs to stop whining to foreign governments about not following the rule of law with respect to Edward Snowden — it just throws into starker relief the practices of an administration which sees the “law” as an inconvenience it can disregard at will. Our spokesmen, like John Kerry, might as well wear red rubber noses and floppy clown shoes when they lecture other governments on the rule of law.

Don’t they realize the world is laughing at them?

LIABILITY

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Barack Obama is clearly, on the face of it, guilty of violating his oath of office to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”. Violating an oath of office is, for a federal official, a federal crime. However, although the law is not settled on this point, there’s a general consensus that a sitting President cannot be indicted in a regular court of law, because of the issues this raises about the separation of powers.

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The best way to get Obama into jail is thus for the House to impeach him and the Senate to convict him on the articles of impeachment, removing him from office. Then it will be possible to prosecute him criminally and send him to prison.

We need to get on this right away!

ASYLUM

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Barack Obama and his intelligence director James Clapper have both apparently opened secret negotiations with Kim Jong-un about the possibility of seeking asylum in North Korea in case they are prosecuted in the United States for their joint role in subverting the U. S. Constitution and, in Mr. Clapper’s case, lying to Congress. The State Department needs to revoke their passports immediately to insure they don’t avoid justice here at home.

A NEW REVIEW

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On Amazon:

An excellent, satisfying yarn

Why are most novels so long? It’s a function of the economics of the publishing industry more than art. Fonvielle shows how in 82 pages one can tell a complete and even epic tale. Set during the California Gold Rush, the action moves from lush New Orleans to the dangerous open plains of the midwest to the hallucinatory heat of the Nevada desert as the two main characters, Missouri and Jim, learn to trust and love one another. I read it in one sitting. It’s filled with action, emotion, humor, and heartache.

You a fan of Westerns? Adventure stories? Great storytelling? If the answer is yes to any of those, you’ll want to add this to your collection.

Missouri Green — check it out!

LITERARY FICTION

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I really can’t understand why modern “literary” writers take so many words to tell a story — why they think a reader has nothing better to do than read a list of the plants growing outside the window of a room where nothing has happened. Why they spend so much time applying quirky adjectives to objects that will play no part in the tale. Why they use adverbs to describe how a line of dialogue is spoken, when it should be clear from the context.

It’s as though they think they have the rapt attention of a captive audience with nowhere else to go, no other opportunities for distraction.  What world are they living in?  Who do they think they are?  In many cases, of course, they have no story to tell, just a sensibility to sell — the quirky adjectives and useless adverbs and lists of things are all they have to offer to “express” themselves.  But if they do have a story to tell, why don’t they just get on with it?  The sensibility of a storyteller is at best a faint herbal flavor in a rich stew.  The story is the stew.

HO JO’S

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The Times Square branch.  This place was still going strong in 1972 when I moved to New York, a year after this picture was taken.  It holds a special place in my heart because of some strawberry shortcake I had there once on my birthday with my sister Lee.

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I have eaten strawberry shortcake on every birthday of my life as far back as I can remember birthdays.  It has always been my favorite dessert and somehow it became a birthday tradition.  On one birthday in the 1970s my sister and I had a celebratory dinner at a place near Times Square where strawberry shortcake was on the menu, but when we ordered it after we had our main course they’d run out of it.  It was nearing midnight, and we ran around Times Square from restaurant to restaurant trying to find some before the witching hour signaled the end of of my birthday.

Ho Jo’s had it — we ordered and ate it on time.  The tradition was upheld.  Thank you, Howard.

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