In our family from the Swabian side, was told an ancient story about a dark and wicked force called the Erl König who lives in the hollow woods. The Erl King is a soul stealer, a bloodless, malevolent and claw-handed creature who thieves the minds and hearts of humans so they become hollow like the withered woods… and the Erl King himself. …. The Erl King makes certain that human beings can no longer think of the world, and can no longer consult with nor hear their rational souls, but...

There are some things that lucre cannot buy. Fire in the Belly: You can’t have it because you want it. You can’t have it because it seems like a good idea. You can’t have it because people think you’re swell. You can’t have it because you are talented, have good ideas, are well-positioned. You can’t build it by caucus-winning, water it with money, nor cut-and-paste it from one past presidential person to the next. Fire in the Belly is not about having a Career. Fire in...

We at TMV are pleased to welcome several new cobloggers… Damozel “… the internet handle for a lady of a certain age who stumbled onto the path of political blogging while planning to do something else entirely. She has a background in philosophy and law… [is] a Democrat, though a moderate and reasonable one… blogs regularly at Buck Naked Politics…” Jill-Miller-Zimon “… award-winning freelance writer, editor and political blogger. [Her] blog, Writes Like...

It’s not stunning that Hillary won New Hampshire. What is stunning is the gullibility of the press and pundits following corporate polls that were as off as Roseanne singing the Star Spangled Banner on the baseball diamond. After Iowa too many pollsters leaned out of their windows like old Mrs. Goldberg gossiping, calling out that the funeral dirge was playing for Senator Clinton. But even if so, which it wasn’t, tonight it’s clear, the Senator’s first, middle and last name may well be...

I come from a long line of old country storytellers; the Magyarok and the meztisos call us, taltos or cantadoras… In our ethnic family, there’s an old, old story told by our grandmothers about the old bullfrog who tries to fool others into thinking he is naive instead of cunning and deliberate… “Once there was a large old bullfrog, all spotted with bald forehead and bags under his eyes. This bullfrog really liked to eat mice most of all. But, most mice were too smart to...

We’re led to believe that New Year’s images are about the Old Year going out as a bent over old man… and the New Year toddling in as a grinning infant. That’s what the buycandy buywine buybeer folks would have us believe. But those are degraded images. Long ago, there were far brighter symbols for this ending of one revolution and beginning a new revolution of earth around sun… Long ago, the child of ‘the new year,’ was named Dionysus; and as an infant he...

December 24, 2007, After Dark in the Rockies, the Full Moon, Mars Shining Bright, 15″ of Snow… posted for The Moderate Voice UPDATE: IT IS DONE… PEPINO Big Boy Dalmation, Guardian of the Family Born 1994, Died December 24, 2007 Go well dear, dear, loyal old friend. Thank you for showing us, we who are far more frail, what bold unconditional love a soul can truly give to others while on earth. And, don’t rest in peace, Pepino. Run in happiness. Strong again and...

(photos on next page) There was a fight on the Q train. The last car was filled with people rolling toward Brooklyn. A young man, accompanied by his girlfriend, had just been wished Merry Christmas by another group on the train. The young man happily answered back with, “Happy Chanukah.” That’s when all hell broke loose. One of a group of other young people on the train immediately hiked up his sleeve to reveal a tattoo of Christ. Fourteen men and women jumped the “Happy...

UPDATE 6:20 PM MST: It’s been determined that one man wounded five persons and murdered four persons at both churches which are about 60 miles apart. Matthew Murray, 24, a home-schooled son (one of two brothers) of a prominent Denver family did the shooting. Murray was five years ago an ‘associate’ at the Missionary Training Center, but was found ‘healthwise’ unfit for assignment after the 12 week training for missionary work. People close-in would not say what the ‘health’...

UPDATE: It’s been determined that one man wounded five persons and murdered four persons at both churches which are about 60 miles apart. Matthew Murray, 24, a home-schooled son (one of two brothers) of a priminent Denver family did the shooting. Murray was five years ago an ‘associate’ At the Missionary Training Center, but was found ‘healthwise’ unfit for assignment after the 12 week training for missionary work. That Missionary Training Center was the shooter’s...

That the Justice Department and the CIA announced today, three days after it was first noted that ‘interrogations’ video tapes were missing, that they will probe destruction of taped interrogations… that may be less important to many of us, than this other issue…. There’s another critical reason why many of us who are shrinks want to retrieve and view, not just the two missing videotapes of CIA interrogations of two al Qaeda suspects, but many more of the tapes of so-called interrogations Why?...

You just wonder, is Old Scratch whispering to Mukasey: “Policy isn’t fitting the facts, it seems. Critical evidence has been lost? You’re thinking over what to do for the 44th time? Great tactics! Carry on.” But, a gaggle of muddy angels interested in the old fashioned definition of justice are asking: Hasn’t Mukasey known for many days now that ‘tapes have been lost/ destroyed’? Why hasn’t Mukasey shot out an immediate preservation order to all concerned...

“Kindle” is the name Jeff Bezos, of Amazon Empire on Planet Buyme, named an electronic reading device that he hopes will make paper books, well, less papery. Save trees. Have a closed purchase system with Amazon only, with Amazon storing all scans of the book, as well as all customer buying habits, and customer comments that the Kindle allows a reader to ‘write’ in the margins of the electronic book. And more. Jorge Luis Borges wrote, “I have always imagined that paradise will...

About a month ago, I wrote on “the Grassley Six,” who hold the interest of Senator Grassley’s investigation into several high profile televangelists’ finances and spending patterns with church members’ money. The Senator ordered all televangelists to comply with the Dec 6th deadline, today, to produce all financial records, tax returns, receipts, accounting in writing about why and where they had stopovers, including explanations where applicable for cosmetic surgery,...

Don Imus is back on radio. Tonight on CBS Nightly News with Katie Couric, the Imus clip was terrific. He said he would not do anything to make the women of the Rutgers team question the sincerity of his earlier apology. Then… in case people who love him feared he’d lost his brand of humor… he said that Dick Cheney is still a war criminal and Hillary Clinton is still the devil… and that he’d signed a five year contract, because it was going to take that long to get back...

I read Andy’s most excellent satire on a regular basis. Long ago when venerable “The Onion” began, one could distinguish fairly well the satire on its front pages from the so-called ‘real news’ in mainstream media. Then, something happened: Mainstream media front pages began out-Onioning The Onion, with real time stories that were so outrageous and often egregious news of normal-looking politicos acting like their brains had been replaced by wires and springs and were...

read more on this subject re Governor Romney and religiousity, at Pam’s House Blend “Romney Hits Religion Panic Button” here, and the shiny new Poligazette and Michael van der Galien re Romny to Give Religion Speech here… and our own Joe Gandelman’s recent piece on Gov Romney, especially Joe’s observation from speaking to a fellow entertainer who happens to be Mormon and his take on matters: There’s a lot of suspicion about Mormonism, that is, The Church...

Just this picture for your rest and restoration before the week ahead… If I hadn’t spent too many months in a wheelchair as a kid, I would have loved to do this: ski pure powder, like Mercurius, winged boots, ankles practically able to rotate 360 degrees , flying through the everything clean and pure at high speed, lungs filled with snow crystals, goggles caked with snow, snow pouring over the slats…. As it is, I consider hitting a femmie stride in stilettos my favored athletic,...

UPDATE 4:15 MST It appears that the man who took hostages came out of the campaign office, and was taken down to the ground and handcuffed, and is now being taken away in a tactical vehicle. On a different front: Newspeople are turning to analyse the background of the man who entered the campaign offices in Rochester New Hampshire 5.5 hours ago, claiming to have a bomb, and not allowing all hostages to be released within short order. Some newspeople are saying their network (to each their own) gave...

H. L. Mencken, The Master On elections: Each party steals so many articles of faith from the other, and the candidates spend so much time making each other’s speeches, that by the time election day is past there is nothing much to do save turn the sitting rascals out and let a new gang in. On the lazy thought patterns of cynicism A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin. On the frou-frou of over-idealism An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells...

If I Were Queen of the World: Look, what do I know? What does anyone know, really, that isn’t all just made up by somebody somewhere on the backside of a stall door of a gas station louie up in Idaho? One driver reads the porcelain newspaper there, repeats the latest jargon to another driver and pretty soon it’s all over the CB’s where it’s picked up on a police scanner by Fox and CNN and NBC from there, and pretty soon it’s being taught in academia and then discalced...

“Just a moment ago we were children… Just a moment from now we awaken as elders…” ** Dear Brave Souls I am sitting here on a snowy night in the Rockies; there’s a fire in the fireplace, it is darkest night out with a big yellow half-bellied moon hanging over the little lake we live on. I am thinking about all of you… and about thankfulness in these times we live in…. One of the things I have been thankful for in years past are the old ones in my family, in all families...

Former Press Secretary Scott McClellan has penned a book called What Happened (due April 08). The book’s highly-regarded publisher, Public Affairs, released a brief excerpt today, one that may pour substantial salt into old wounds… Scott McClellan writes, “The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium...

Look, she’s on CNN tonight in the debates. What do you call it when a person talks about how strongly they’ve made things work legislatively, despite obstacles that men have put in their way? Wouldn’t that be the Gender card? What do you call it, when a person complains when media comments on their age, face, hairdo, manner of dress? Gender card, no? What do you call it when a person gives extra thought to dressing in a way that is careful and thought out, sort of in the Goldilocks...

The story as it came down on air and on TV was this: Old woman said, How do we beat the bit–? McCain laughed. The actual story is different. And you can see the clip (several more are on YouTube) and other persons’ ideas about what should and should not have happened here at Outside the Beltway Also here at Wonkette And, a transcript of the verbatim ‘after’ discussion of the incident on CNN in which we see how a moment in a candidate’s life is rewoven by some. As an...