The Paragon Of Animals, My Ass...

Earlier today I started to write a long post-- a series of links (in typical Dr. J fashion) that illustrated all too well the infinite stupidity of some people ('O what a piece of work is man' was going through in a much more thoroughly ironic sense than Hamlet meant them). The links were numerous, to stories about an African man who cut off his own penis 'to teach his wife a lesson,' a woman suing the Coca Cola Bottling Company for not including instructions on how to open a pop bottle, an Australian advisory warning people against inserting ice cubes into the recta of overdose sufferers, a man who tried to smuggle dangerous snakes that were strapped to his legs, a celebrity who can't tell the difference between Peru and Brazil (and who has no idea what the word 'ironic' means), a church that is PC-ing up the Bible in the most insipid ways, a man who has redefined the term 'hot beef injection,' a house that gives new meaning to lowering the property values, and a game called Creepy Freaks that will certainly teach our children well. And in that surveyance I was, as always, aghast at the cosmic stupidity of our pitiful species. I simply could not, and in many ways cannot, believe these people were of the same species as Shakespeare, Milton, Homer, Gandhi, Mozart, Dante and Michelangelo. Yes, it's an old thought, an old rant even, one I think we're all given to at various points in our existence. But let us just say that it hit me with unusual force today, and prompted me to think not only that this world is too much with us, but that this brave new world is unfortunate to have some of us in it. As Einstein once said, "There are only two things that are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." (Or something to that effect, anyway.)

And then something screwed up: Blogger registered some sort of internal error, and the whole damned post was lost, and I frankly couldn't be bothered to go back and get the links to do it all again.

Then I was coasting around and happened upon a few sites that helped to restore at least some of hope for humankind. They're worth checking out:

A Poetry-Lover's Guide To the World-Wide Web has some nice links on -- guess what-- poetry...

Leon Malinofsky has an interesting collection of material too on poetry, including a lot of good sound files...

And there's a surprisingly rich collection of material on poetry in English at this site in Japan

And then there's Hobson's Choice, a blog primarily on public policy run by a regular visitor to this site, a blog (he says repeating himself) on public policy that is two things most such things are not, erudite and interesting. And no, I am not saying that because it says something very kind about this site.

Suffice it to say, it's tempting to think the world a bunch of incredible cow-fucking, penis-slicing people incapable of opening a bottle of cola without injuring themselves and blaming it on somebody else. And while I can't agree with Leonard Cohen's F. that the world is 'all diamond,' it's at least consoling to remember that there is diamond amidst the shit. It just gets too easy to be repelled by the effluent aroma.

And I need to think things as positively as possible today. Very much so. Once more unto the crap, dear friends.