2011-05-30

Red Queen's Race

Why do trees grow tall? 
 if they could grasp game-theory 
 they'd cooperate

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back seat

Don't tease your sister! 
 if I have to stop this car. . . 
 Summer vacation

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crass

New amusement park 
 on the theme of Burning Man 
 can't you just see it?

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stuck

Coddled through childhood 
 wearisome narcissism 
 warps them forever

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fire arts

In the crucible 
 between each parent and child 
 the Self is crafted

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in the rough

Sweet young Keith Richards 
 sang soprano in school choir 
 he found art later

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2011-05-27

personal motives

Likud's policies 
 non-war, non-peace and nonsense 
 are good for Bibi

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three-faced liar

For his own reasons 
 Kayani takes our dollars 
 but he's no one's friend

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2011-05-22

discord

horned owl and peacock
 sing their dissonant duet
melodic as Glass

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shocking

So indecorous!! 
 Richard Strauss' Elektra 
 shocked Victorians

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make the grade

Treat them like pylons 
 tiny European cars 
 can't climb the grapevine

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herring

Tip your chin sky-ward 
 herring doesn't require teeth 
 Gravity's enough

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sold!

Ronald McDonald 
 keeps shilling unhealthy food 
 'he's a force for good'

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open field

No stars are rising 
 in the silence of the Right 
 Santorum could win

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appearance of impropriety II

Criminal conduct 
 warrants hiring a big gun 
 Benjamin Brafman

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hopeless

Netanyahu knows 
 fear keeps the voters in line 
 hope makes them restless

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but he's our son of a bitch

For many allies 
 political repression 
 'made in USA'

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fig-leaf

'Til Mugabe's dead 
 'power-sharing agreement' 
 means he holds the reins

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maybe it's me

Gravity's constant? 
 Newton can't explain it all 
 some days, I'm just dense

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still here

One more messiah 
 didn't read the calendar 
 morning-after ache

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be here now

The End of the World 
didn't come--again--today 
 plant one more fruit tree

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fungible

In the cytosol 
 ATP is currency 
 glucose for export 

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bite your own chic

Lengua fills tacos 
 but sweetbreads need a showcase
 offal's on waffles?

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guardian angels

Better than gargoyles 
 lizards adorn my deck-chair 
 guarding me from bugs

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masters of the Universe

For big-shot bankers 
 the lives of little people 
 are of no interest 

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comic relief

We'll miss you, Donald! 
 great theatre needs a clown 
 to provide contrast

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enraptured

You keep warning me 
 'the world will end Saturday!' 
 can I have your bike? 

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not our problem

Marketing replied 
 'TB's a third-world problem 
 there's no profit there'

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hit list

For Papilloma 
 is there a wild reservoir? 
 can we wipe it out? 

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crass

Rod Blagojevich 
 tried to sell a senate seat 
 it's fucking priceless!

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stalled

The way the game's played 
 the threat of filibuster 
 keeps us paralyzed

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carpe diem

Declare victory! 
 this chance to bring our boys home 
 can't be repeated

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appearance of impropriety

DSK's worried!
 hiring Benjamin Brafman
 means it's serious

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instrumentality II

Man, horse and monster 
 for Aphrodite's revenge 
 killed Hippolytus

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instrumentality

Aphrodite, spurned
 used gods and men for revenge
Hippolytus died

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busted

Dominique Strauss-Kahn 
 asserted droit du seigneur 
 the judge spoke no French

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2011-05-18

less than equal

Germans grant women 
 Kinder Küche und Kirche
 men own the boardroom

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mortality

we, who are dying
dance our season in the sun
 but, in the long run...

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Xanadu

lost in the knocking
Coleridge's dream vision
 sketches Xanadu

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doubt

hire a teenager
while he still knows everything
 doubt comes with wisdom

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Phaedre

Aphrodite, spurned
used gods and men for revenge
 Hippolytus died

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dangers of celibacy

Man, horse and monster 
 for Aphrodite's revenge 
 killed Hippolytus

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2011-05-17

terrified

what Benazir guessed
about where Osama was
scared the ISI

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martyred

Benazir Bhutto
challenged the military
she had to be crushed

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goes around comes around

prison guards' unions
lobby for harsh sentences
job security

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sensitive

how would his schoolmates
have teased a lad named "Ashfaq"?
maybe he's still sore

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selected

the most inane ploys
to get a girl's phone number
works, often enough

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oldest profession

bartering carrots
male macaques get what they want
Darwin finds a way

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what's in a name?

Eomer's tribute:
"Strider is too poor a name:
Wingfoot I name you"

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what utility?

Dead philosopher
mummified in a glass case
rather odd bequest

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2011-05-15

poor sod

Kayani's schoolmates 
 mangled his name to taunt him 
 he's still bloody sore

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gamesman

For Netanyahu 
 Peace isn't the highest good 
 fear rallies voters

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two-faced

Ashfaq Kayani 
 a perfidious ally 
 plays a double game

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brat

Chutzpah's poster-child 
 wants rewards for his failures 
 Ashfaq 

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Skinless, boneless

 The Castro's culture 
 sacrifices food for sex 
 false dichotomy

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instead of food

In most recipes 
 skinless boneless chickenbreast 
 tastes just like tofu

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foresight

Plan for one lifetime 
 'in the long run, we're all dead': 
 John Kenneth Galbraith

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retarded weather

Funny May weather 
 maybe I'll carry tire chains 
 a few weeks longer

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narrow minded

Fundamentalists 
 claim to own the only Truth 
 science has no place

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teen spirit

Soaring the storm clouds
 never mind that it's not fun 
 hell-bent on heaven

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block by block

at every stop-sign
 regenerative braking
makes cities greener

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2011-05-14

justice

Ashfaq Kayani 
 could die of embarrassment 
 if he's not hanged first

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prophet III

For the true prophet 
 deep social maladjustment 
 is prerequisite

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prophet II

For A. J. Heschel 
 maladjustment was the key 
 to prophetic truth

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utilitarianism

Jeremy Bentham 
 exalted utility 
 as the greatest good

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out-standing

Prophets must be strange 
 unbearable extremists 
 uncompromising

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what is it good for?

Ironic coda 
 Jeremy Bentham's mummy 
 no utility

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false charges

Watch Iran this month 
 arrests for 'demon worship' 
 mean strife is brewing 

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prophet

Abraham Heschel 
 writing in his fourth language 
 made the mountains ring

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dissent

It is our duty 
 as citizens to say no 
 when our nation sins

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slant

All books are biased 
 victors write the histories 
 the losers be damned

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sacrificial lamb

Offer up Pasha 
 to distract the journalists 
 from Kayani's sins 

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inherit the wind

Philip's son Alex 
 built a vast inheritance 
 to leave to no sons

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not that way

Seek peace through justice 
 the sword is the pride of man 
 bringing only death

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O brave new world!

MicroSoft bought Skype 
 trying to stay relevant 
 in a changing world

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assassin

David Margolis 
 gutted OPR's report 
 he deserves as much

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lashon harah

Once tweets go viral 
 the object of ridicule 
 has no real redress

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me! me!

Frantic young women 
 vie to catch prince Harry's eye 
 he's their destiny

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ridiculous

Some politicians 
 invite public ridicule 
like Rick Santorum

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arrogance

Less than two percent 
 of your genome codes proteins 
 don't sneer at the 'junk'

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pathetic

Playing the victim 
's angry puppet 
 blames the 

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back-end

Under the surface 
 sexual innuendo 
 makes most humor work

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irresponsible

playing the victim
 Netanyahu thanks Mitchell
and accepts no blame

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2011-05-09

xenia II

Hector's kid brother
took Menelaus' wife
this cannot end well

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aged to perfection

the older he gets
the better he used to be
in the fireside tales

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blind ambition

Pride and vanity 
 mired us in Afghanistan 
 with no clear way out

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goose that laid the golden egg

Ashfaq Kayani 
 nurtured the terrorist threat 
 to bilk us for aid

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crybaby

Ashfaq Kayani 
 swears that he's the real victim 
 of CIA schemes 

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Mickleburg

 Barbary pirates 
 watched the straits of Gibraltar 
 Norse rowed the east route

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responsibility

Ashfaq Kayani 
 could die of embarrassment 
 if he's not hanged first

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thou shall not follow a majority II

For the true prophet 
 deep social maladjustment 
 is prerequisite

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thou shall not follow a majority

For A. J. Heschel 
 maladjustment was the key 
 to prophetic truth

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2011-05-08

malleable

In Scalia's hands 
 foundational documents 
 crumble like wet pulp

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paradise

Abandon all hope 
 ye who would write of heaven 
 hell gets the best lines

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sussurus

Dreams of roaring brooks 
 fade to grey reality 
 wind pummels the trees

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de gustibus

Is that voice lovely 
 just because it's so high- pitched? 
 not my aesthetic

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creepy

Trump's going nowhere 
 his appetite for young girls 
 turns off the voters

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the official story

Bin Laden's coda 
 'killed while resisting arrest' 
 inevitable

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be afraid

Bin Laden's terror 
amplifiied by John Ashcroft 
diminishes us

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chickenhawks

No one remembers 
 war on American soil 
 talk has become cheap

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2011-05-05

dance club

Five big tom turkeys 
 tails splayed up and wings stretched down 
 pay court to one hen

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into that good night

Aldous Huxley's death 
 like the prophet Elijah's 
 flaming chariots

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bad client

Ashfaq Kayani
 incompetent? complicit?
 we don't need this clown

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values

Lombardi's credo: 
 'winning isn't everything 
 it's the only thing'

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blinded

Pakistan's leaders'
 egos trumped Intelligence
 they all look foolish

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changes

aesthetics adapt
 hair migrates from scalp to chin
as the years scroll past

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`connected

Ashcroft's new day-job
 Blackwater's head of Ethics
grants him strange powers

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personhood

Corporate profits 
came unmoored from real persons' 
 nothing in common

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California dreamin'

Nine billion people 
 can't live like Californians 
broadcast smaller dreams!

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ya know?

I know what I'd mean 
 if I had spoken those words 
 with you, I'm guessing

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2011-05-03

appearance of impropriety

Abbottobad's police 
 incompetent? Complicit? 
 looks bad either 

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puppetmaster

Ashfaq Kayani 
formerly of ISI 
 still runs key assets

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power grab

the "War on Terror"
 tips the Balance of Power
 towards autocracy

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...and when did he know it?

Kayani's silence 
 about bin Laden's hideout 
 appears complicit

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priceless

Ashfaq Kayani
 still insists he knew nothing
 and that's what he's worth

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chief of ISI

Ashfaq Kayani
 still insists he knew nothing
 such intelligence!

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2011-05-02

turn about

Vengeance is served cold 
 nine-banded armadilloes 
 give leprosy back

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agenda

Ashfaq Kayani
and his Haqqani assets
 don't play for our team

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acceptance

Kayani's guard-dogs  
never barked at bin Laden 
 he's like family

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appearance of impropriety

Abbottobad's police 
 incompetent? Complicit? 
 looks bad either 

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higher bidder

Osama's rent checks 
 kept the ISI at bay 
 until we paid more

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eviction notice

Bin Laden's rent check 
 to his ISI minders 
 bounced for the last time

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Im tirtzu

Peace isn't abstract
pursuing social justice
puts flesh on the dream

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fear monger

Helen Caldicott
sincere and charismatic
cultivates our fears

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unbalanced

the "War on Terror"
 tips the Balance of Power
 towards autocracy

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