tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33217502011-04-21T18:20:05.753-07:00The Sore SpotSAPIENTIA.VERITAS.LIBERTAS.Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comBlogger541100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-1079139411292380112004-03-12T16:56:00.000-08:002004-03-12T16:59:09.186-08:00TRUE LOVE WAITS ? OR AT LEAST IT TRIES For years, religious-types have been arguing that a mass effort to teach children the benefits of sexual abstinence -- rather than teaching them how to use condoms, which the pious say is akin to teaching sexual technique -- would eradicate all manner of social scourges, everything from unwanted pregnancy to venereal diseases to premature ejaculation. Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-1079135655127183512004-03-12T15:54:00.000-08:002004-03-12T15:56:33.013-08:00DEATH BY INDOLENCE Alarms were raised this week on news that citizens of our fair nation are dying at a record rate from afflictions related to obesity. According to the Centers for Disease Control, "obesity will become the leading cause [of death] by next year, with the toll surpassing 500,000 deaths annually, rivaling the number of annual deaths from cancer," reported The Washington Post. JulieRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-1078534455315425202004-03-05T16:54:00.000-08:002004-03-05T17:26:51.060-08:00MARTHA THE MARTYR Martha Stewart is often called a "domestic diva." This alliterative appellation is, I am sure, almost never meant as a compliment. "Diva" implies difficulty; Martha is said to be demanding, abusive, exacting, the sort of woman who will cut you from cuticle to cummerbund for fouling up the temperature of her bath. Martha is, in short, tough as nails. This is not mere rumor; it Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-1076115914522786372004-02-06T17:05:00.000-08:002004-02-06T17:06:58.000-08:00NOONAN'S A NINNY No sophistication is required to understand the pleasure -- even if it's just pleasure in shock, which is not a lesser sort -- of seeing a beautiful breast unexpectedly uncovered on live television. None. It is only a breast, and breasts, by design, are meant to be loved. So it pains me to see such featherweight philosophers as Peg Noonan, speechwriter to presidents and moralist Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-1076114685422582362004-02-06T16:44:00.000-08:002004-02-06T16:47:37.390-08:00AIR FORCE TWO Among members of the news media there is currently a fuss over whether Antonin Scalia, strong-headed, stern-minded, activist intellectual Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, ought to recuse himself from an upcoming case involving the Vice President of the United States, Richard Cheney, because the two enjoyed a duck-shooting trip together.
The current hubbub is over the Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-1076034215347870202004-02-05T18:23:00.000-08:002004-02-05T20:46:26.093-08:00RUSSERT THIS As you know, I do not have regular access to a television. But even if I did own a television (not to mention a room to keep it in), I doubt that "Meet the Press" -- NBC newsman Timothy Russert's popular Sunday morning current affairs program -- would be the first thing I would watch.
There are, believe it or not, many homeless men and women who swoon for Russert's hard-hittingRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-1076033697478220822004-02-05T18:20:00.000-08:002004-02-05T19:54:25.280-08:00IRRATIONAL LOYALTY In a moment of serendipitous frivolity, a few months back, I was among those swept up in the swell of interest in Dr. Dean. My fervor was always tepid, and indeed proved to be fleeting, but I was taken enough at the time to sign up for his electronic correspondence. Needless to say, I had no idea I had unleashed upon myself a relentless and perpetual torrent of rather pathetic Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-1075857127690860682004-02-03T17:12:00.000-08:002004-02-03T17:15:48.450-08:00MR. EDWARDS' CHARM I have only seen pictures -- never video -- of John Edwards, the fresh-faced young Senator from the Carolinas, but, my, is he a pretty man. My! Update: I can understand why the fine men and women of South Carolina went for him.Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-1075798027176427022004-02-03T00:47:00.000-08:002004-02-03T00:50:54.966-08:00SIMPLY A BREAST Lacking a television, your correspondent from the streets did not have a chance to bear witness to a certain notorious breast's fall from lace during the Super Bowl half-time show. (Instead, I was at the soup kitchen, lolling about as I do on Sundays with my dog-eared copy of "Tess of the d'Urbervilles.") Therefore I cannot, as so many of my more puerile readers have asked, assessRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-1075593981158397632004-01-31T16:06:00.000-08:002004-01-31T16:12:10.950-08:00A NOTE ON HUNGER In Germany, Armin Meiwes, the man who killed and ate a computer engineer a few years ago, has been sentenced to about eight years in prison, a far more lenient term than prosecutors in the case had been hoping for. Miewes, after all, fried parts of his victim "with olive oil, garlic, pepper and nutmeg," and ate him with "sprouts, potatoes and a bottle of South African red wine onRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-1075583364784931912004-01-31T13:09:00.000-08:002004-01-31T13:12:37.373-08:00THE BLOODY BOWL Your correspondent from the streets has never been one to indulge in the mindless violence of the sport we know as football. It is not that I lack the appetite for athletics, or that I have some deficiency in my thirst for competition; were you to meet me, sir, you'd find me quite willing to engage my fellows in games of fit and wit, and I daresay that against most men I'd win Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-1075580032167418402004-01-31T12:13:00.000-08:002004-02-03T00:52:32.060-08:00AN ELECTION ABOUT ITSELF David Brooks, opinion-maker for The New York Times -- which, owing to indignities they visited upon me, I have not read since December 12, 1977 -- quite deftly comes to grips this morning with the chaotic election the Democrats are carrying on.
Brooks, a prolific chronicler of the well-to-do (115 used!), has an idea that Democratic primary voters, faced with a fieldRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-1075515587417819442004-01-30T18:19:00.000-08:002004-01-30T18:22:05.920-08:00A RETURN Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, Gods and Goddesses looking from heaven down at these parts, rejoice! Your faithful correspondent from the streets, your friend in the smelly vestibules of left-leaning San Francisco, your companion in truth and wisdom, your conspirator in intelligence -- I, dear Robert Sore, sage survivor of the streets, am back.
You might be wondering where Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-757448222002-04-23T16:21:00.000-07:002002-04-23T16:22:55.780-07:00I CONTAIN MULTITUDES Llyod Grove trashes Ricki Lake for her trashy show, which he says contradicts the clean message she's now pushing on behalf of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
She seems to be a muddle on other issues as well: at first losing weight precipitously, then dismissing the loss and gaining it back for the psychological well-being of her children, then saying Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-757429052002-04-23T15:29:00.000-07:002002-04-23T15:38:10.980-07:00KILLING PEOPLE WITHOUT A TRIAL IS BAD, ISN'T IT? There has been a lot of ire on the right regarding the Palestinians' recent summary executions of Israeli collaborators in the West Bank, after those collaborators tipped the Israelis off to an Al Aqsa leader's coordinates. (The Israelis killed the leader and another man in a helicopter missile strike.)
This killing is horrific, of course. Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-757399262002-04-23T14:14:00.000-07:002002-04-23T14:16:53.136-07:00OLD MEN CAN KISS People Magazine reports that Tea Leoni, a screen goddess on the order of Garbo or young Audrey Hepburn, found Woody Allen's 66-year-old lips full of life during the filming of Mr. Allen's latest navel-gazing project, Hollywood Ending, in which Leoni plays the lead.
"It was a real kiss," Leoni told People. "Woody and I did have great chemistry. There were some brows raised. IRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-757351872002-04-23T11:15:00.000-07:002002-04-23T13:58:10.793-07:00HARDLY KNEW HUGHES The news that Karen Hughes will resign stokes, surely, some conspiracy theorists' uncertainties. The highest ranking woman in the West Wing (ever) does not decide, on a dime, to quit all she's worked toward because of a little homesickness --- does she?
My money's on this being on-the-level. Despite her tough-as-nails appearance, I'm inclined to believe that Karen is Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-757116232002-04-22T19:20:00.000-07:002002-04-22T19:33:24.016-07:00A PRESIDENT DEFERRED
What happens to a president deferred?
Does he dry up, like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore, and then run?
Does he stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over, like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe he just sags, like a heavy load.
Or does he explode?
Gore crawled out from his secret bunker this month, criticizing the Bush administration in Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-757082772002-04-22T17:50:00.000-07:002002-04-22T17:50:26.076-07:00JADED ... NO MORE I've heard it often said that a few weeks after setting up one's web site, the initial euphoria of seeing one's thoughts published begins to fade; that slippage is sudden, mysterious, not too different from the beffudlemenmt of the lover who awakens one morning to find, to his horror, that he no longer even likes his mate ... that he finds her -- at best -- irrelevant.
SuchRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-107060202002-03-13T13:34:00.000-08:002002-03-13T13:34:52.383-08:00CLARITY, BUT WILL ANYONE NOTICE Would that there were more clear heads like Amos Oz in the cloudy war between the Israelites and those of Palestine. Would that people would listen.Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-107058932002-03-13T13:31:00.000-08:002002-03-13T13:31:36.930-08:00THE RISE OF FABULISTS The news brims recently with imaginative authors befooling gullible pressmen with tales too tall to believe.
Michael Finkel, a reporter who apparently cared more for style than for substance, wrote a piece for the New York Times Magazine on a supposed African slave whom, it was eventually sniffed out, did not actually exist. Now, Slate explores how it was hoodwinked byRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-105390312002-03-08T14:47:00.000-08:002002-03-08T14:47:31.346-08:00STEEL, AGAIN Is it only myself, or does there seem to be a choir developing? Timothy Noah, in Slate, exposes the administration's shiftiness on steel.Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-105380772002-03-08T14:19:00.000-08:002002-03-08T14:20:31.000-08:00MISJUDGED? This story caught my attention this morning:
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- A woman accused of hitting a homeless man with her car, driving home with him lodged in her broken windshield and ignoring his pleas as he bled to death in her garage, is not the monster being portrayed by prosecutors, her attorney says.
Now, though I believe strongly in the machinery of justice, I Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-105340212002-03-08T12:22:00.000-08:002002-03-08T12:24:51.000-08:00MY WAY ON ASHCROFT So it seems that others are finally starting to see the light on the former Senator from Missouri: Mark Morford, in the San Francisco Chronicle, has a wry piece on AG Nero.Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-105331492002-03-08T11:56:00.000-08:002002-03-08T11:56:08.606-08:00MASTER OF MY DOMAIN In the oft-detestable physical world, Robert Sore is, as you know, homeless. But an online registration service of good repute tells me that www.robertsore.com, .org, and .net are all available, though for the dear sum of some $29 per annum.
If you would like to help a homeless man find an online home, I'd appreciate a donation of any size. (Now, you all well know my Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-105321982002-03-08T11:26:00.000-08:002002-03-08T11:40:24.000-08:00STEELY CHORUS Paul Krugman, George Will, Andrew Sullivan, Rob Walker, and surely others of disparate ideology agree with my stance on Bush's attempts to save U.S. Steel.
Now, if only a similar horde saw it my way on Ashcroft...
Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-104760332002-03-06T19:49:00.000-08:002002-03-08T15:08:28.000-08:00STEEL YOURSELF It's difficult to think of a more unjustifiable tax than the vaunted "import tariff." This is a tax, after all, that is levied simply for crossing a geopolitical line; no actual work is done by the receiving country, no marginal cost borne to handle the incoming good.
So why, in human history, did such an absurd tax emerge? The only answer I can find is this: fear. A less Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-104721172002-03-06T18:10:00.000-08:002002-03-06T18:10:00.796-08:00WIRELESS FIDELITY The Frenchman Paul Boutin tells a good story, in Salon, about browsing the Internet wirelessly. Perhaps someday, a fellow like Robert Sore will have a machine that can browse the Internet from anywhere -- a small, affordable device that would unshackle me from this blasted library.
But there is a darker side to the wireless Internet: sloth. Look no further than Adam Curry'sRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-104184742002-03-05T12:05:00.000-08:002002-03-05T12:05:06.430-08:00ASHCROFT: A NERO FOR OUR TIMES Our nation's top law enforcement official, John Ashcroft, has taken to finishing up his speeches with an a cappella serenade of a patriotic "tune" he wrote himself. Now, according to the Guardian UK, some of his staff are complaining that he has begun to distribute copies of the lyrics so they can join in as their boss belts his little heart out.
To find a Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-102823952002-03-01T16:05:00.000-08:002002-03-01T16:08:42.000-08:00GODLESS VALUES After reading both that I do not believe in God and that I accede to a certain code of conduct, an insightful, if quibbling, reader asks:
Specifically, my question is, 'Assuming that there is no such higher power as God, why should anyone "prize honesty and pride above all else," even to the point that they "end up in a cell for it"? In fact, why should any attribute or Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-102808262002-03-01T15:09:00.000-08:002002-03-01T15:09:38.573-08:00PRIEST-TENSE I am not sure, but I rather hope this is a joke. If it is, it's not very humorous; if it isn't, it's less so.Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-102804452002-03-01T14:55:00.000-08:002002-03-06T18:38:19.000-08:00THE OLD WORLD Life has a way of taking hairpin turns, m'friend.
A number of you have e-mailed to ask where I've been for the past week or so. I thank you all for your inquiries -- yes, I am very well, still alive, and safe.
Tuula B., a friend from my old days -- a matronly Nordic woman who turned, awhile ago, to a life in cellular technology, got pulled into the immense gravitational Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-99107692002-02-19T21:53:00.000-08:002002-02-20T09:56:45.000-08:00EMPIRE FALLS Japan, a nation once renowned for its innovators and its innovations, is now "in a slow, so far genteel decline," according to an insightful piece in the ever-insightful London Economist.
With its mikados unabashedly apathetic and its citizenry seemingly preternaturally content, unruffled by the slow glide into doom, Japan is now clearly a society in which decadence has Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-98989162002-02-19T14:26:00.000-08:002002-02-19T14:30:11.000-08:00THUGS AND OUTLAWS I'm thankfully old enough to remember the glory days of prizefighting, the epoch of Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney and, Jack of all Jacks, big-hearted Marvin Hart. But ever since that slurred-spoken Ali entered the fray, the sweet science has been fraught with thugs and outlaws, street kids with grapefruit-fists and pea-brains.
Michael Tyson is the latest one.
But whenRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-98767842002-02-18T23:01:00.000-08:002002-02-18T23:01:26.153-08:00A HARD WEEKEND They call this President's Day. To a homeless man, it feels like every other day.
It rained today, as well, and my parka has several holes in it.
I pride myself on being able to handle the rough day or too, but this weekend was hellish, friends. Goofy eyed lovers strolling the streets, pretending just for Valentine's weekend that there's nothing wrong with the world. TheRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-97240832002-02-14T09:49:00.000-08:002002-02-14T09:49:48.720-08:00SHERRON, MY HEAVEN She's tough, she's honest, and she's easy on the eyes. Sherron Watkins, Enron's scrupulous accounting authority who presciently and poetically warned that the firm would "implode in a wave of accounting scandals" -- if you're reading this, won't you be my valentine?Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-96984272002-02-13T15:40:00.000-08:002002-02-13T15:40:41.846-08:00LISTENING Some people simply refuse to listen. One "friend" of mine in particular, who is short of stature and quick of wit, erects the most preposterous and unnecessary seige works in the face of Truth that he resembles a medevil villiage to which a more enlighted kingdom has surrounded. Defeat, and hence enlightenment, is inevitable, and yet he resists! To him I say, "Lower thy gate, friend, Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-96950542002-02-13T13:58:00.000-08:002002-02-13T13:58:45.996-08:00THE MARKET SPEAKS: SEX PATCH Of course, the free market system is the best way to allocate scarce resources. That is not in doubt, certainly.
But stories like this one -- about Procter & Gamble investing hundreds of millions into a patch designed to make post-menopausal women more libidinous -- is just one of many indications that even the market system has its flaws. Every female I know hasRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-96944052002-02-13T13:40:00.000-08:002002-02-13T13:41:48.000-08:00BYGONES, BYGONE Robert Sore's opinion is that squabbling over so mere a pastime as "pairs skating" is as ridiculous as squabbling over a presidential election. Fortunately, the Supreme Court did not have to sully its good name in this Canada-Russia mess, as that elitist cabal called the International Skating Union has ruled that Monday evening's score will stand: The Russians win.
One hopesRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-96569352002-02-12T14:17:00.000-08:002002-02-12T14:23:13.000-08:00THE TRUTH ABOUT SNACKS Although I am homeless -- a state of affairs hardly conducive to regular meals -- I make it a point to fortify myself at regular intervals, rather than with arbitrary loads of junk food. In short, I don't snack. Neither should you.
Should I find a tasty morsel, I won't devour it immediately like a beast or savage. Rather, I sequester nuggets of food in a special sealed Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-96462052002-02-12T08:36:00.000-08:002002-02-12T08:36:55.073-08:00TELEVISION ACQUAITANCES The National Broadcasting Company has apparently signed a deal with producers of "The Friends" to continue the television hit for one more year, according to the Associated Press. Each Friend will receive a million shells per episode.
I have never seen the program, since I do not own a television -- but that is almost incidental. Whom among us, television-owning or Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-96235102002-02-11T15:47:00.000-08:002002-02-11T18:40:28.000-08:00PHONIES Today a man gave me his cellular telephone. Just came up and said, "Here, fella, take a phone."
Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-96202452002-02-11T14:10:00.000-08:002002-02-11T14:15:38.000-08:00SALON NOT SO SMART In all their wisdom, the editors at Salon.com, a den of liberal punditry, have generously chosen to let the masses in on the Bush administration's nasty little secret: Al Queda probably does not have 100,000 trained cadres ticking away around the world, and there is at present no credible evidence of a specific and imminent threat against U.S. targets.
The writer assumes Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-96150232002-02-11T11:25:00.000-08:002002-02-11T11:46:01.000-08:00A ROTTEN ONION The journalistic entrepreneurship of The Onion, a small-time news-weekly out of the Middle West, is to be commended; the paper almost always has stories that the bigger media outlets, given their Olympian gaze, seem to overlook.
But my only wish is that reporters at The Onion take on a warmer, less clinical tone in their reporting. The paper routinely reports just the facts Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-96132622002-02-11T10:26:00.000-08:002002-02-11T10:27:10.000-08:00POPULAR CULTURE In his new book, Frank Bruni, a reporter for the New-York Times -- which I have not read since December 12, 1977 -- reveals that President Bush is "no more culturally 'with it' than Bob Dole," according to the New York Daily News.
Bush could not identify Leonardi Di Capri -- a child star, apparently -- or "Sex and the City," a television program that I, too, cannot describe, Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-95705922002-02-10T00:21:00.000-08:002002-02-10T00:31:47.000-08:00"ENRONIC" Ah, another night at the shelter. In San Francisco, your typical homeless shelter brings visions of Dante's innermost circles of hell; indeed, the only reason one submits to such a wretched place is the heat.
Certainly the company here is not to be savored. If they're fortunate enough to have learned to say their first names, most of the souls in this establishment would consider Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-95242822002-02-08T11:43:00.000-08:002002-02-08T11:58:40.000-08:00SKATING NOT A SPORT Ice-skating is lascivious gyration masquerading as sport. This much is clear. The last winter games, in Japan, blared incessantly on the television at the shelter. I can assure you that the audience there, despite their inebriation, did not fall for this sham. The nitpicky commentators kept eyes peeled for slips, and the corrupt judges gave scores, but it was a spectacle more Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-95237812002-02-08T11:27:00.000-08:002002-02-08T11:29:52.000-08:00THE TRUTH Analysis begets truth via eradication of contradiction. Hence, a rational being can easily assess the real threat to the United States is not starving North Korea, raving Iraq, and irrelevant Iran. One need look no farther than today's edition of the Times of India to conclude that the real axis allied against unilateral US domination is India, China, and Russia. China denies interest Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-95227322002-02-08T10:28:00.000-08:002002-02-09T23:40:39.000-08:00PRESIDENT PRAYER I do not believe in a God. The Christians, the Moslems, the Jews -- I think that while they are good people (some of them), and while their religion might bring them solace, they're basically living in a dream world divorced of reality. In reality, people starve, and God doesn't help those people. In reality, people have to make it on their own.
Since I'm an atheist, I take Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-95044432002-02-07T20:48:00.000-08:002002-02-07T20:48:20.210-08:00A NOTE ON REALITY. More than a few people have contacted me with a curious inquiry: "Are you for real?"
I don't understand why anyone would wonder about my reality. Yes, I am real, and yes, I am really homeless. This doesn't make me in any way curious; I choose not to let my homelessness brand me like a scarlet letter.
I am not any less of a man if I happen to be a man without shelter. My Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-94974932002-02-07T17:20:00.000-08:002002-02-07T21:48:44.000-08:00AXIS OF EVIL BURNS I'm still burned up with the State of the Union speech. Heard it on my radio that I found behind Macy's. They throw a lot of good stuff out back after Christmas. (NPR's the only station that comes in well, though.)
Bush was talking about the Axis of Evil so he can steal more money from the people to pay defense companies. The world is a lot like the streets, and out here,Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-94969652002-02-07T17:04:00.000-08:002002-02-07T22:13:07.000-08:00J. LO'S GLOBE I hardly ever read Slate, but I wandered over there this afternoon and stumbled onto a piece about how the tabloids are getting muckier and muckier of late -- I suspect they're essaying to get an apathetic public jazzed over something other than the war. The Globe touts, for example, "I see London, I see France … I See J. Lo's Underpants."
Now, two things I hate about tabloids: Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-94964702002-02-07T16:49:00.000-08:002002-02-07T17:04:52.000-08:00CRY, PAULY. The Washington Post says Robert Byrd almost made Paul O'Neil cry while they were arguing over the new budget. Looks to me like a big show to make it look like these two aren't in cahoots. These two are birds of a feather. Just two more sell outs pretending they care about something other than spending other people's money on aluminum and pork.
Byrd's making himself as a man of Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3321750.post-94920132002-02-07T14:36:00.000-08:002002-02-07T16:56:47.000-08:00HELLO. My name is Robert Sore. I am now at the San Francisco Public Library, a monumental building erected at taxpayer's expense three years ago. The story about the new SF public library is that it has LESS room for books than the old library. They thought all the important volumes would be online.
If there's one thing I hate, it's waste and excuses. Wasted time. Wasted lives. I may be Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16720684449468661446noreply@blogger.com