Check in at 9 AM, come back 9 hours later and there are pages and pages of comments to sift through.

Kovie seems to have a grip on it. Let me echo someone's thought up thread. We didn't get to where we are over night. And, we won't get out of it in one election. There is no magic bullet.

How do you lose 100 pounds?

How do you swallow an elephant (pun intended)?

How do you climb a fourteen-er?

How do you go from couch potato to triathlons?

How many states does it take to turn a B-52"

How did the Berlin Wall come down?

I am old enough that this work won't be done by the time I die. It's okay. I'll contribute where I can.

Remember, the beginning of the demise of the Berlin Wall was with graffiti. We got lots of graffiti going on. "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else. (Winston Churchill)"

Patience, folks. This is a marathon, not a sprint. It's going to take endurance more than speed.

Thanks for that first person report. In MA, or all places. Ghosts, indeed.

John Cole has done I couple of great rants. I ran into one at CrookedTimber awhile back, and liked it so much I saved the link.

John Cole is driven into shrill unholy madness

Posted by Henry

Friday, August 24th, 2007 at 6:07 pm

http://tinyurl.com/3aebk7

John chimed in with a comment. It’s his comment (#5) in response to Henry’s post that pompted me to preserve the link. It begins, I’m mad. Plain and simple.

When you hold a group to be so sacrosanct that they are above criticism, then you invite and encourage abuse by that group. - Paul Dirks

You also set that group up to be abused by those who won't criticize them but will use them for their own purpose as they "protect" them from criticism.

I believe I have witnessed my first Triple-A, Cat 5, Gold Star, Certified Attention Whore. I wasn't sure that category of folk was well defined before, but it is now. Pages and pages of the serpent swallowing its own tail. No matter how hard you all tried to keep that Whore from choking on him/herself, they were bound and determined to do it anyway.

I'm going back to Duality. It's much more productive, and a higher and better use of your time Paul R. This turkey is third rate, and dishonest at best.

I believe I can safely assume you know the previous description was not of you. But, just in case... it wasn't.

I don't think it's sacrilegious, Anon. I'm just waiting for you to better explicate what you mean. You've been somewhat cryptic so far. Since I'm not clear on the point/alternative you're offering, I don't have anything to say.

I think we all did this yesterday, and I have no real desire to repeat the experience, so I may regret making this suggestion... My apologies to all here in advance if this is another Pandora's Box best left closed.

It doesn't take a lot of imagination to write out what it is you have to say, break it up into 200 word chunks, and post it as Part I, Part II, etc.

If it's more than 1,000 words (5 * 200), then it's likely not particularly well thought out, in which case you could spare us.

Hint: A good thesis will fit on a matchbook cover.

No, you are not. The only part of a PhD that matters is getting all the way through the final oral defense with a UMI abstract on file. And, as I have admitted here before, ABD (all but dissertation) is looking better and better to me all the time. Particularly, when I find myself absolutely underwhelmed by some who claim to have one.

I've dated myself. UMI is the former name of a company now called ProQuest. ProQuest is a microfilm and electronic archive company. When you complete your dissertation at my university (and I believe this is true for most) your last step is getting a copy of your dissertation off to an archival company. Abstracts, which the author must write, are on file with the company and can be read without cost. If someone has done research close to your own, it's wise to see what they've done. Dissertations are supposed to be original research. You can't replicate someone else's work, unless there's something really unique about the way you intend to approach it. So you need to check that stuff out. UMI/ProQuest is where I've done all of my searches for copies of dissertations my university library does not have on file, or can't obtain through inter-library loan. I knew the company first as UMI, and have continued to think of it that way.

Wikidpedia reference: http://tinyurl.com/23hg8j