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Why We Are Here

I know that the conventional wisdom is that the We Are All Giant Nuclear Fireball Now Party blog is just an attempt by a few desperate individuals to cling to a joke that got old a long, long time ago.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The We Are All Giant Nuclear Fireball Now Party was not the reason for this blog, it was the opportunity for this blog, and that’s a very different thing entirely. Why “opportunity”? Because I felt it was time for a new kind of blog format, specifically, a new kind of community blog. With the WAAGNFNP, we had a great foundation upon which to build for arts, sciences, humor, and progressive politics.

As you know, on most community blogs, only a few essays make the Front Page. The rest are relegated to the sidebar hoping someone might notice. Obviously, this means neglect for some really great essays that deserve way more attention. My idea was to create a community blog where there is no sidebar, so each essay posted receives the full attention of the community. This is a great way to show respect for the author even if you disagree with the viewpoint, and a great way to honor a community whose attention span is substantially greater than that of a gnat. What a concept, eh? And what a great community we had to draw from, didn’t we?

Perhaps my biggest inspiration to do the WAAGNFNP blog was to provide the space for people who had great things to share, but weren’t interested in or didn’t want the bother of keeping up a blog on their own, or joining a group blog (being part of a set group of writers). So with the WAAGNFNP blog, these brilliant, witty, erudite people would be able to submit posts when they wanted to, free from the hassle of day-to-day blogging responsibilities, and we’d all benefit. And if people already had their own blog, they could cross post at the WAAGNFNP or write original material. They’d be an active part of the community, and perhaps get a little wider exposure for their personal blog.

My other great inspiration for this blog was to provide a safe space for people in our community who would never label themselves as “writers” to actually write. I feel strongly that a lot people with some of the most interesting things to say and share aren’t “writers”, so they don’t write (at least not in public), and we all miss out. And so do they.

There are a couple of radical concepts going on here.
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Two Really Good TV Shows You Might Have Missed - by Oaktown Girl

Although the example I gave in the post “Kill Your Television” featured a show that aired on PBS , I’m not one of those who goes around saying, “Yeah, I have a TV. But I only watch PBS”. (Well, I guess now with all the critically acclaimed shows on HBO, Showtime, and some of the cable networks there’s fewer of those people around, but you get my drift).

By way of example, I’m going to mention two of my favorite shows of all time, and both were on regular network TV. Sadly, they both suffered the same fate: canceled too soon - as is want to happen with quality shows on regular network TV. But I want to highlight them here because if you blinked and missed them, you’ll definitely be glad to discover them now. Praise Astaroth!
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Oakland and Berkeley California must surely have been the world capital of Kill Your Television bumper stickers on cars and other inanimate objects at the peak of that particular phrase’s popularity, (probably sometime in the 1980’s). You can still see them every once in a while, but not nearly as much as before. Bigger fish to fry, what with Bush and Iraq, I suppose.

Kill Your Television was the only “lefty” bumper sticker that really bugged me. In fact, it was probably the only lefty bumper sticker that bugged me. And that’s saying a helluva lot. Nowhere, I believe, are there more lefty bumper stickers than in Oakland, Berkeley, and San Francisco California.

From the very first time I saw it something really got under my skin with the Kill Your Television message, but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was. Clearly, Kill Your Television is snobby, and that’s rather unappealing. But there was something more. It’s also condescending, which is really irritating. But even that didn’t answer the gnawing question of why it bugged me so much. Oakland and Berkeley was positively riddled with irritating, snobby, condescending lefty types (ironically enjoying all the benefits of White privilege). I grew up there. I’d long since developed a survival immunity against letting that get to me, at least most of the time. So what the hell was it about this one damn bumper sticker message?
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By spyder

This post thread is in homage to our showiest of defendants and convicted as the showiest, Teh Chris Clarke. Since he is on the downtime swing of his 2007 rollercoaster blogging, and I have been on tour and missed several of his last postings, I missed the chance to connect and say adieu. But that doesn’t mean I don’t think about his contributions to the way I experience the world, and particularly to my experience of the Greater Sonoran Desert.

And not to overstate or overtax the fireball’s interests in the greater deserts of the Southwest, I just concluded my summer solstice tour of some of the region in which and from which I find myself collecting precious alkaloid resources. And this time I took to heart and spirit my own adage - —what would Chris Clarke write? - —formulating a constant dialogue with the natural environs around me. So I shall share a few of these:

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By James Killus

3:15 And Solomon awoke; and, behold, it was a dream. And he came to
Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and
offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace offerings, and made a
feast to all his servants.

3:16 Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and
stood before him.

3:17 And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one
house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house.

3:18 And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered,
that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there was no
stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house.

3:19 And this woman’s child died in the night; because she overlaid
it.

3:20 And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while
thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead
child in my bosom.

3:21 And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it
was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was
not my son, which I did bear.

3:22 And the other woman said, Nay; but the living is my son, and the
dead is thy son. And this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the
living is my son. Thus they spake before the king.

3:23 Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth,
and thy son is the dead: and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the
dead, and my son is the living.

3:24 And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword
before the king.

3:25 And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half
to the one, and half to the other.

3:26 Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king,
for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her
the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it
be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.

3:27 Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and
in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof.

3:28 And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged;
and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in
him, to do judgment.

4:1 So king Solomon was king over all Israel

The story of the true mother was a tale spread by Solomon’s people at a time of civil crisis.

Solomon had an elder brother, Adonijah, who was the rightful heir to the throne, (or had, at least, a more legitimate claim than Solomon) but Adonijah had already been executed at Solomon’s command, along with a number of Adonijah’s supporters.
Solomon’s tale of justice was actually a warning to any remaining supporters of Adonijah. “I am not the legitimate heir,” he was telling them. “I’ll not hesitate to split the Kingdom, just as my father David warred against King Saul.” The “wisdom of God” that was in him, was, in fact, the ruthless calculation of a warlord. “If I cannot be King,” he told the people of Israel, “No one will.”

But history is strange, and is written by the victors. So ruthless cunning is now recorded for all time as wisdom and justice.