Sophocles long ago / Heard it on the Agean, and it brought / Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow / Of human misery; we / Find also in the sound a thought, / Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

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Dover Beach
by Matthew Arnold

The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; -on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanch'd land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Buy Blue this Christmas, or just marvel at how many large retailers, grocery chains and restaurants make their money off of the non-upper class, then turn around and pour that cash into the GOP.

FYI, your share of the national deficit currently stands at $25,000 -- and that's the conservative estimate. Merry Christmas.

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

-- H. L. Mencken, 1920

Something new in my weekly ritual since 1994. Dan Savage is letting a guest advisor— the winner of a charity auction for this very gig—take a crack (bad choice of word? Better than "poke" or "stab") at it. Even more remarkable, it's someone I know: Jill Corral, former coworker and friend from IDG.net. Tomorrow, I'm going to buy a lottery ticket and see if aI win anything.

George Galloway wins his libel suit against the Daily Telegraph
A member of the British Parliament won a libel suit today against the pro-Labour paper formerly owned by the notorious Conrad Black and Barbara Amiel, which dubbed him "Saddam's Little Helper" last year after reporting that he was on the Iraqi leader's payroll. Allegations were based on documents that were proven to be forgeries, and another paper that picked up the same story (The Christian Science Monitor, no less) apologized quickly after the documents were discredited. The newspaper is expected to appeal the judgment, calling it a "blow to the principle of freedom of expression in this country". Oh please. The man had to spend over a million dollars proving that the DT was sloppy and malicious, something even their lowliest copy editor didn't have to be told. Just stop lying and take your medicine.