Laugh and the blog laughs with you...

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Laugh and the blog laughs with you...

Postby banned » Sun Nov 06, 2005 1:52 am

...so check out this latest hilarity from the ever ebullient Dood Abides on dKos:<br><br>The Three Banditos starring Dubya, Rove, and Scotty McClellan<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/11/5/215133/942">www.dailykos.com/story/20...215133/942</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>========<br><br>Cry and you cry alone, maybe, maybe not...<br><br>I've been in a fog of my own misrubbleness for months and very little has gotten through, RI being one exception to my omphaloskepsis. Tonight at my local bookstore I happened on Joan Didion's newest book, "The Year of Magical Thinking," about the death of her husband and simultaneous serious illness of her daughter. <br><br>Didion has been one of a handful of icons or touchstones for me ever since I read "Slouching Toward Bethlehem" back in the early 1970s. I had heard of her husband John Gregory Dunne's death, but not that she had written about it. When I got home I checked Amazon and was sadly shocked to read that Quintana Roo, her daughter, died a few days before this book was published.<br><br>Not to overdramatize, but I felt like the last shoe dropped on my youthful idols...<br><br>RFK. Political hero, murdered June 1968.<br>The other night watching "The West Wing" I had a mini flip-out when Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda cut through a hotel kitchen, I literally screamed at the teevee "Don't go through the pantry!" One of the central images of my adolescence was waking to my mother crying "They shot Bobby Kennedy" and seeing the picture of him lying on the floor dying.<br><br>Jim Morrison, musician/poet, died in Paris 1971, or did he?<br>Mr. Mojo Rising checked out fast. I've wanted to believe he's alive somewhere, that he just skipped out like Arthur Rimbaud, but at this point I really don't want him to pop up fat and bald and go on tour.<br><br>Freddie Mercury (Farokh Bulsara), musician<br>Died of AIDS, 1991<br><br>Frank Zappa, musician and satirist<br>Died of prostate cancer, 1993, same year I was diagnosed with cancer.<br><br>Christopher Reeve, actor and philanthropist<br>Quadriplegic after a riding accident in 1995; died at age 52 last year. He and I were born 5 months apart. His accident came just as I was recovering from cancer.<br><br>Joan Didion's work always was shot through with what she herself called in "On Keeping a Notebook" a 'presentiment of loss':<br><br>"Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether,<br>lonely and resistant rearrangers of things, anxious malcontents,<br>children afflicted apparently at birth with some presentiment of loss."<br><br>This all makes me wonder if indeed she didn't have exactly that, a presentiment or premonition, and if I myself didn't have some sort of premonition in the people I chose to admire, all but one of whom would die before their time, and that one would probably have given anything to go before her husband and daughter.<br><br>The title of the famous book on "The Doors" sums it up. <br><br>No one gets out alive.<br><br>Or unscathed by grief.<br><br>But--Dood Abides' photoshopstravaganza is still hilarious. They can kill you, but as long as you can, laugh every chance you get. As Hemingway said, it's what some of us have instead of God. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Laugh and the blog laughs with you...

Postby RollickHooper » Sun Nov 06, 2005 2:03 pm

<br>{{{{{banned}}}}} <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Laugh and the blog laughs with you...

Postby FourthBase » Sun Nov 06, 2005 5:54 pm

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>They can kill you, but as long as you can, laugh every chance you get. As Hemingway said, it's what some of us have instead of God.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>If God actually exists and lives unnoticed as an omniscient entity somewhere deep in everyone's mind, God probably wants to laugh at our world all the time, so laughter could be nothing less than union with God.<br><br>BTW, I love Hemingway, been feeling Hemingway-like existential nausea since I was 11. Where did he say that? Novel? Story? <p></p><i></i>
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It's from "The Sun Also Rises"...

Postby banned » Sun Nov 06, 2005 11:50 pm

...Brett says "You know it makes one feel rather good deciding not to be a bitch...It's sort of what we have instead of God."<br><br>You probably know that Hemingway committed suicide but did you know that his father, sister, brother, and daughter also did? Most likely it was genetic bipolar disorder, similar to what runs in my family (we only have 3 suicides so far, but 2 alcoholics drinking themselves to death should probably count too).<br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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hee

Postby Jen » Mon Nov 07, 2005 1:10 am

Lovers of Didion and Hemingway--on this board. How great. I had no idea. Kisses, all. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: It's from "The Sun Also Rises"...

Postby FourthBase » Mon Nov 07, 2005 2:59 am

Right, I remember now. I thought he might have actually said the laughter part somewhere else, but that was you paraphrasing.<br><br>Hemingway had some bogus ways of dealing with the void - like the hunting, bullfighting, and war bullshit...and of course, blowing his head off. I figure a lot of his pseudo-death-cult shit (he was a big-time exaggerator) was probably overcompensation due to his insecurities about having a lisp, being dressed like a girl when he was young, and latent bisexuality. But he was deeper and more intelligent than most people give him credit for. He's still my go-to guy for what it means to be authentic and inauthentic in a meaningless world. Except for TSAR, novels were not his strength - he was more of a prose poet ahead of his time than a bestselling novelist. His short stories are his masterpieces, like "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" and "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" and I especially love the vignettes from <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>In Our Time</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->.<br><br>I'd love to see what he would have written had he treated his depression with marijuana and compassion instead of alcohol and antagonism. Never got the impression he was manic much, in his writing anyway. Of course, remorse over blabbing rapidly and loosely when he was manic/hypomanic could have led to his code of not talking about things. Ahhh...the code. <p></p><i></i>
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My favorite Hemingway phrase...

Postby banned » Mon Nov 07, 2005 3:09 am

...is "built in shock resistant shit detector" <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :D --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/happy.gif ALT=":D"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> .<br><br>Actually "Papa" was not a very nice person. He used people as steppingstones and then insulted them--satirizing Sherwood Anderson in "The Torrents of Spring", snarking about Scott Fitz, being mean about Gertie Stein. <br><br>I believe marijuana is, like alcohol, a CNS depressant--not good for someone with an inherited depressive disorder.<br><br>Hypomania, the mild form of the 'up' end of bipolar, generally involves egotistic, aggressive, self absorbed behavior.<br><br>It would be interesting to know what his life would have been like on lithium. IF he'd have gone on it. Many bipolars (present company included) find lithium has a dulling effect which is why they won't stay on it. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: My favorite Hemingway phrase...

Postby FourthBase » Mon Nov 07, 2005 4:04 am

THC is being considered as a legit treatment for depression.<br>The only problem with people self-medicating with weed is the erratic dosage.<br><br>If Bipolar-1 is involved, then you might have triggering complications.<br>But someone with a hypomanic history shouldn't be too afraid of pot. <p></p><i></i>
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I don't drink...

Postby banned » Mon Nov 07, 2005 5:20 am

...nor do I see any need for pot.<br><br>Most of the time I can handle my moods with Zen meditation and Co-Cola <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :D --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/happy.gif ALT=":D"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> . When I can't, I need to tweak the neurotransmitters with serotonin. Potatoes not Prozac, or 5 HTP.<br><br>I'm always amused by all the "therapeutic" uses that people advance for pot. (Reminds me of the 'social drinker' argument among people who don't 'get it' yet that they're alcoholics). It's a mild hallucinogen which I'm sure some people find recreational, but I don't have any interest in screwing my brain chemistry up beyond what nature already has. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: I don't drink...

Postby FourthBase » Mon Nov 07, 2005 7:53 am

Not sure how much credit you give the research on Wikipedia...<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipolar_Disorder">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipolar_Disorder</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Bipolar disorder is often complicated by co-occurring alcohol or substance abuse. Traditionally this has been viewed as an attempt by patients to self-medicate the condition. More recently, some have doubted if this is an entirely accurate description. <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Cannabis particularly can alleviate symptoms of depression and may also have a mood stabilizing component in bipolar disorders, but the random titration of drug abusers usually does do more harm than good. There is growing evidence, however, that carefully titrated dosage of delta-9-THC tincture, taken sublingually, may prove of some benefit when taken with other mood stabilizer medications.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> In some cases, the substance abuse seems to begin before the onset of bipolar disorder, which is difficult to reconcile with the idea of self-medication (at least initially). Nicotine addiction is very common in bipolar sufferers, and in the view of some, may be an active precursor to mature onset of both bipolar affective disorder and other forms of clinical depression in general.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Grass may affect the 'symptoms' of depression...

Postby banned » Tue Nov 08, 2005 5:30 am

...as in, makes people feel better temporarily. So does booze. But again...grass and alcohol are both CNS depressants. So are anti-anxiety meds.<br><br>If someone would rather smoke a doobie to 'treat' their depression than increase their serotonin production, I sure can't stop them, but it's the typical American dumbass solution, short term fakery instead of long term solution.<br><br>God, this is a stupid country. No wonder I'm always depressed. <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :lol --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/laugh.gif ALT=":lol"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Grass may affect the 'symptoms' of depression...

Postby FourthBase » Tue Nov 08, 2005 11:24 am

Are you sure <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>all</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> grass is a CNS depressant? <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Grass may affect the 'symptoms' of depression...

Postby professorpan » Tue Nov 08, 2005 5:47 pm

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>If someone would rather smoke a doobie to 'treat' their depression than increase their serotonin production, I sure can't stop them, but it's the typical American dumbass solution, short term fakery instead of long term solution.<br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Banned, you're showing your ignorance and your remarks are callous. <br><br>"Short term fakery"? So you speak for all depressed people? You have *the* solution to depression for every person?<br><br>Everyone is biochemically different. What works for you (dietary serotonin) may not work for others. <br><br>Marijuana is medicinal for some people and not helpful or harmful to others -- it's biochemical individuality that makes that determination, not your fuzzy ideas of treatment. To broad-brush people who disagree with you as "dumbasses" is not only rude, but shows a lack of understanding of the differences in individual biology. <p></p><i></i>
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Fine, I'm ignorant.

Postby banned » Wed Nov 09, 2005 12:01 am

I think people who keep finding 'medicinal uses' for pot are potheads and their self serving bullshit is not of any interest to me, even if backed up by medical studies most of which whether about pot or not are designed to grind some axe or another depending on who's funding the study.<br><br>Smoke all the pot you want, believe it's good for you--that's your right.<br><br>And thinking you're a dumbass is mine. <br><br>So is your thinking I'm ignorant.<br><br>That's the beauty of a free society. Even the dumbasses and the ignorant are entitled to express their dumbass, ignorant opinions.<br><br><!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :rollin --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/roll.gif ALT=":rollin"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Fine, I'm ignorant.

Postby FourthBase » Wed Nov 09, 2005 12:03 am

Well, you're a seratonin-head.<br><br><!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :hat --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/pimp.gif ALT=":hat"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <p></p><i></i>
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