Fun, anyone?
Nathanael Berends October 31st, 2004
If I Had Time, I’d Elaborate.
(i look forward to when my life is fun again.)
Archive for October, 2004
Sure thing, dad.
Nathanael Berends October 27th, 2004
All he asked was that I do it better than him.
That’s alot of money.
Nathanael Berends October 27th, 2004
This Just Hit Me:
$652,262,594.00
… that is the total amount - to date - spent on their
campaigns by the top two presidential candidates…
Imagine:
how many homeless people could be given a roof;
how many starving children could be fed;
how many HIV patients could be treated;
how many senior citizens could afford their drugs;
how many families could afford insurance;
how many children would learn to read.
how much could be done?
How can one read that, and not say “fuck america”?
Where are our priorities?
My Turn:
Fuck america.
Northwestern
Thanks, Dan Lynn.
Nathanael Berends October 22nd, 2004
Nate, I only hope that on some night in the future, I’ll be playing
with a sound man half as good as you. Your future only holds
bigger and brighter things, and we were downright lucky to have
you while we did.
-Dan
Don’t bet on Bush
Nathanael Berends October 16th, 2004
Look at the Op-ed Section Of Today’s Newspaper. ‘Don’t Bet On Bush - He’s Not The Man I Know’.
(if you don’t get the paper, please do read on…)
The President Vanishes
By Richard Cohen, Washington Post
Friday, October 15, 2004; Page A23
For months now I’ve dropped bets on the presidential election like Hansel (of “Hansel and Gretel”) dropped pebbles. For honor and money, I’ve wagered on George Bush, not because I wanted him to win but rather because I thought he would. Now I’m changing my mind. It’s not the tightening polls that have done it — I knew that would happen — but rather something I could not have predicted. The president is missing.
The president I have in mind is the funny, good-natured regular guy I once saw on the campaign trail — a man of surprisingly quick wit and just plain likeability. I contrasted this man to John Kerry, who is as light and as funny as a mud wall, and I thought, “There goes the election.”
Where it has mattered most — the three debates — Bush has been wooden, ill at ease and downright spooky. He makes bad jokes, cackles at them in the manner of a cinematic serial killer and has lacked the warmth that he not only once had but that I thought would compensate for a disastrous presidency and give him a second — God help us — term. In short, he could take over the Bates Motel in an instant.
Just what has happened to Bush I shall get to in an instant. Right now I want to quote that newest font of all political wisdom, Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show,” who said at a New Yorker-sponsored breakfast yesterday morning that he had seen at least two Bushes in recent days: the “angry Bush from the second debate” and a thickly muddled one.
Stewart was kidding, but all jokes must be based on truth or else they are not funny. The truth in this case was that Bush has been inconsistent — definitely not the reliably unswerving man we prefer as our country’s steward.
A bit later, Stewart made a serious remark that goes to the heart of what has been Bush’s problem. He referred to the president’s nonexistent “learning curve,” which is indeed troubling. This is a man who is a latter-day Bourbon. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand said of them that “they have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.” I’m not too sure of the forgetting, but when it comes to learning, Bush has shown little growth. In fact, he has ridiculously maintained otherwise.
Historians may someday say that the beginning of the end for Bush came last April when Time magazine’s John Dickerson asked the president at a televised news conference, “What would your biggest mistake be . . . and what lessons have you learned from it?” Bush, who said the question took him by surprise, said he could not come up with one.
Essentially the same question was asked by Linda Grabel, an ordinary voter, at the St. Louis debate. This time, it could not have been a surprise. But this time, too, Bush could offer not a single substantive example. Aside from making “some mistakes in appointing people,” everything had gone swimmingly.
This was a preposterous, dishonest answer. It was either the response of someone who is vastly deluded or sticking to a political strategy conceived by people who do not value truth. Either way, it harkens back to that “learning curve” Stewart mentioned and it demolishes Bush’s pose as a regular guy, someone approachable — someone you could like. It is not possible to like someone who cannot admit a mistake. Iraq is the crazy aunt in the attic that Bush will not acknowledge. When she throws the furniture, Bush says you’re just hearing things. Yeah, sure.
Had Bush admitted that things went wrong with Iraq, he could have been himself. But he was out there three times telling us what we know is not true. This was Kerry’s problem when he was defending his vote in favor of a war that he never, in his gut, thought was a good idea. When he finally was able to say how he really felt, his campaign took off. The man settled into his own skin. He had the better argument. The camera picked it up.
Bush, though, has been hobbled by artifice. The natural has been turned into just another synthetic pol. His only good moments came when he talked about his faith and his family, tapping into a wellspring of emotional truth. Other than that, he was only rarely the politician he used to be — crushed, not empowered by incumbency. If I could, I’d wager differently. The man I bet on no longer exists.
cohenr@washpost.com
If nobody believed in you.
Nathanael Berends October 14th, 2004
Tell me, how would you feel?
You’d probably give up too,
If nobody believed in you.
Don’t you ever wish that there were always…
Nathanael Berends October 13th, 2004
Ha… I go for premium, and then realize that I have been
loosing any inclination to use this site.
(iLaugh)
(recent headlines): Don’t you ever wish that there were always
that one person who you could talk to about anything, anytime?
Yeah… um.. about that…
(any eProps that offer any remote bit of sympathy will be
disregarded. yes, i know that you guys are there, and all
things considered i’ve not got it all that bad… but i guess
that sometimes things just sorta build up…)
((i’ll take care of it))
… Actually… I’m on a role… Can I continue?!?
So lately… things have seriously fallen to (excuse my expletive)
shit.
…it’s funny, because it seems like I’ve had so much practice at
faking things, that I can smile my way through the day, and fool
everyone. On a good day, I might even be able to fool myself!
Where even to start?!?
(i’ll make it brief )
1.) Baxter… Falling to hell in a handbasket. I spent the second
day this week ducking out of class on ‘bathroom breaks’ to field
phone calls & voicemail messages.
2.) School… I first thought I could catch myself back up. This sucks.
3.) Friendships… Don’t you hate it when they aren’t what they seem?!?
4.) 42nd Street… Nancy. (what more can i say?)
5.) My Future… Scares me shitless.
6.) Overdraft notices, and $100 in fines… Who knew you had to
authorize them to take money from my savings account (where
there is MORE than enough), and move it to pay for my debit
account? $100 for an F-in signature… AHHHHHH!
7.) $190 in college app fees to date… Enough Said. (i’ve applied
to one school so far)
(( i really could go on for a LONG time…))
… The only upside to any of this that I see in the near future…
almost ten times ‘that’ from Baxter in hourly fees…
As a last note: Remember when I told you how scared I was of
failure?!?
… wait for it…
Surprise.
Nathanael Berends October 10th, 2004
After Tonight, That Last Post Has Gained A WHOLE New Meaning.
Wow. Didn’t See That Coming…
How Far?
Nathanael Berends October 8th, 2004
There’s a boat, I could sail away
There’s the sky, I could catch a plane
There’s a train, there’s the tracks
I could leave and I could choose to not come back
There’s a chance I could change my mind
But I won’t, not till you decide
What you want, what you need
Do you even care if I stay or leave