2013-01-29

provocateur

David Petraeus
armed sectarian forces
balkanized Iraq

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"Intelligence"?

senator Feinstein
doesn't even want to know
our CIA's crimes

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grim innovation

suicide bombers
manned the rebel ship Hunley
1864

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what survives

bloodlines just trace genes
if one marks posterity
it's through our students

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ineffable

water-color sky
recalls the day just gone by
impressionistic

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of art, and craft

not bronze, not marble
teachers work in sculpting minds
few are great artists

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all things in their time

Homer acknowledged
"difficultly wrought iron"
but relied on bronze

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the invention of leisure

1851
sewing machine patented
millions out of work

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moderation

FDR's New Deal
rescued Capitalism
from its own excess

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vain pursuit

Sirius gives chase
never catching Orion
dogged, relentless

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the measure of all things

Humanism's roots'
can be traced to Aeschylus
retrospectively

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our son-of-a-bitch

sociopath? prince?
Kennedy bestrode Wall Street
like a colossus

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2013-01-27

torn

as much as lapse rate
buoyancy/shear ratio
divides fun from gnar

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progress?

until HIV
syphilis was the grim scourge
that made sex scary

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rough magic

ten hours of woodsmoke
makes tongue a delicacy
rustic alchemy

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subtraction


flamboyant sunset
particles scatter the blue
unveiling the bling

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new dawn

one night with Venus
earned a life with Mercury
until Salvarsan

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"faithfully executed"

no prosecution
for outing Valerie Plame
enforced in bad faith

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tabula rasa

each approaching dawn
pressure-washes last night's sky
erasing the stars

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cock-eyed

on Bobby Burns' night
it's traditional to drink
'til haggis sounds good

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fade to grey

gerrymandering
hides Republican shrinkage
their base is flaccid

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ho hum

like father, like son
Kennedy's womanizing
wasn't newsworthy

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oooh

flamboyant sunset
orange bleeds into fuschia
dream-like, transient

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legislating from the bench

recess appointments
nixed by an activist court
lawmakers manqués

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fresh eyes

cross-referencing
"cannibal" to "eucharist"
Diderot tweaked priests

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ste. Rose

Joe Kennedy kept
a girlfriend in every port
and nine kids at home

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cabal

senator Feinstein
thinks John Brennan's the right man
to trample our Rights

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Gored to death

not that he's not right...
the world according to Gore
could make sex boring

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entrenched

platinum healthcare
only for Moscow's judges
"some are more equal"

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injustice

unlike torturers
CIA whistleblowers
get prosecuted

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attention span

who reads newspapers?
what can't be said in haiku
just needs editing

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hyponatremic

cardiologists
demonizing sodium
forgot it's vital

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wild

solemn green heron
prowling Chintown's alleys
knows where the food is

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brunost

meanwhile, in Norway
the news is of toasted cheese
and clogged arteries

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official story

"Defense Department"
Orwellian doublespeak
what the world calls "War"

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до свидания

departing Russians
evoke Saigon Embassy
forebode Assad's end

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Logos

the Gospel of John
claims Torah predates the World
but disowns the text

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spineless

Neville Chamberlain
claimed he'd bought "Peace in our Time"
wrong man for the job

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old-school

balsa, linen, teak...
composite materials
start with cellulose

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Free Will

the Q'uran is clear
there can be no compulsion
in matters of faith

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memory

can't find his car keys
wonders if it's Alzheimer's
...where was this going?

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curtains

evacuating
Saigon's U.S. embassy
Slow Death's abrupt end

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dithering

burying carbon
as anthropogenic peat
could fix the climate

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harem

mid-January
Jupiter flirts with our Moon
like four's not enough!

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Occupy this

Netanyahu's friends
wax fat on a nation's wealth
revolution's near

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making sausage

it took LBJ
and Kennedy's martyrdom
to pass Medicare

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insurgent

Jeremy Gimpel
advocated terrorism
then lies about it

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Justice delayed

until we embrace
the "fierce urgency of now"
oppression won't cease

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new start

Thomas Jefferson
neologized avidly
New World, new language

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new start

Thomas Jefferson
neologized avidly
New World, new language

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new start

Thomas Jefferson
neologized avidly
New World, new language

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blooey II

it took a dead whale
to teach the Highway Patrol
that mass is conserved

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blooey I

Oregon's beached whale
covered the Highway Patrol
in fame...and offal

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would you trust such a record?

Chief Justice Roberts
got the Oath of Office right
now, he's two for three

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hevel hevelim


crumbling with each breath
built for the dead, not living
Tutankhamun's tomb

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hevel hevelim

transient as death
built for the dead, not living
Tutankhamun's tomb

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oiutside the law

WaterGate burglars
once J. Edgar Hoover died
lost impunity

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puppeteer

to stoke housewive's fears
J. Edgar Hoover's henchmen
armed the Black Panthers

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computer vision III

cars can't trust vision
trees' shadows loom like chasms
boot up the sonar!

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computer vison II

computer vision
"thinks" chasms look like shadows
of trees in my path

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computer vision I

a yawning chasm
and the shadow of a tree
look oddly alike

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cynic

Sophia "victim"
playing for sympathy votes
hired his own gunman

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2013-01-24

self-serving

unlike torturers
CIA whistleblowers
get prosecuted

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2013-01-22

Judge justly

were there no Free Will
punishment must be unjust
was Pharaoh abused?

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2013-01-20

decoupled

Geithner's stimulus 
 vanished into the Banks' vaults 
 storefronts stay vacant

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2013-01-19

primitivists

tricked out Forties style
lace-up boots and strap binding
unless you snowboard

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man would eat his neighbor alive

vigilantism
grows in where government's weak
towards Hobbes' nightmare

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martinet

J. Edgar Hoover
wanted all his agents lean
slathered in mayo

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historical pattern

a nation of sheep
gets a government by wolves
like clockwork (so far)

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warthog

banana-sized slugs
depleted uranium
tanks explode like gourds

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marketing

beans with leftovers
commands a heftier price
labeled "cassoulet"

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grande luxe

a marrow bone's prize
splats against my uvula
abrupt luxury

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forever

modern packaging
defies mold and Time itself...
...and the consumer

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new paradigm

brick-and-mortar stores
matching internet prices
eat the overhead

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amuse gueule

petits vols au vent
filled with gobs of beef marrow
hard drinkers' delight

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synaesthesia

when haiku succeed
images spring unbidden
to the reader's mind

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selection function

forget class and brains
chicks prefer sociopaths
for casual sex

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defiance

Muslims in Quetta
refused to bury their dead
new Antigones

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Pride incarnate

soaring bridge towers
give form to rampant hubris
in earthquake country

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only so much

Robin Williams' Law
explains courtship behavior
bloodflow's limiting

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hubris in architecture

Felagund's proud bridge
gave Glaurung easy passage
when the tide had turned

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lamentations

in all the known scrolls
no tale tells of Maglor's end
somewhere, he still sings

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Aeschylus' anachronism

Humanism's roots
starts with "the Eumenides"
no one was ready

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liberal

J.R.R.Tolkien
exalted intermarriage
for the noble-born

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Cheney's whore V

Dick Cheney's harlot
quashed the wiretapping scandal
at the New York Times

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Cheney's whore IV

Bill Keller postures
as a sage old journalist
but he's Cheney's whore

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Cheney's whore III

Bill Keller kow-towed
when Cheney called him to heel
cowardly boot-lick

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Cheney's whore

Bill Keller's virtue
as an upright journalist...
Dick Cheney bought that

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tell-tale

as they discolor
conodonts betray heating
and oil deposits

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with the flow

unweight your hind foot
let your snowboard weathervane
it knows the way down

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Red scared

as film roles dried up
Reagan became paranoid
blamed it on "commies"

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illuminated

golden light of dawn
picks out exquisite details
that vanish ere noon

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Putin's PR coup II

Gerard Deparieu
plays the role Putin's writing
useful idiot

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where there is no man

Turin, like Moses
nurtured in the king's palace
killed a jerk, then fled

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couth

unlike the U.S.
no culture of violence
infect Canada

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where there's a will

Russian murderers
without access to firearms
get by with hand-tools

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fear-monger II

politics of fear
keeping Bibi in power
would appall Orwell

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pretty smoggy

high-pressure sunset
particles scatter blue light
all that's left is red

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Science

soul-less physicists
stripping away mystery
unweave the rainbow

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fear-monger

Orwell's disciple
playing Politics-of-Fear
Bibi, by the book

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Cheney's whore

Dick Cheney's harlot
quashed news of Dubya's wiretaps
'til the polls had closed

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triangle

Turin loved Beleg
provoking Mim's jealousy
dwarves have feelings too

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universals?

Turin's sin of Pride
in pre-Christian MiddleEarth
troubled J.R.R.

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sociopath

Ahab chased his dream
around the Norway Maelstrom
monomaniac

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Putin's PR coup

self-exiled from France
Depardieu fled to Russia
"useful idiot"

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love and death

Beleg sought Turin
down the leagues of Dor Lomin
love ill-requited

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Cheney's whore

Keller's cowardice
damaged our democracy
and journalism

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long march

Mark Sanford's reboot
this time on the campaign trail
not Appalachian

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not grass

stray steers in my yard
watch me hanging out laundry
uncomprehending

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easy in

thin edge of the wedge
"military advisors"
went in under Ike

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tyrant

to clear People's Park
Reagan imposed martial law
boots trampled flowers

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our son-of-a-bitch III

Joseph Kennedy
first head of the SEC
shut the banksters down

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our son-of-a-bitch II

shorting the market
Kennedy's father waxed fat
while a nation starved

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zecher yetziat mizrayim

each sabbath recalls
liberation from bondage
closing the week's book

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our son-of-a-bitch

FDR's gambit
Kennedy at SEC
gave the NewDeal teeth

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Jefferson knew

each generation
needs a new revolution
to throw off Pharaoh

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tidal forces

the Potato Blight
depopulated Ireland
to build Boston up

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defeatist

Joseph Kennedy
over-conscious of war's cost
gave Peace a bad name

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Ho Ho Ho

after WWII
France wanted Indochine back
Ho thought that's funny

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talmid chacham

"1984"
shaped Sotomayor's thinking
on democracy

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immoderate

amiodarone's
ludicrously long half-life
exacerbates tox.

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antipodal

waiting to reach
new shifting constellations
relearning the sky

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chacq'un a son gout

Pynchon and Wallace
eschewed haiku's siren song
too few syllables

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all-weather

Hull mountain this week?
really? at this time of year?
good to have new sports!

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turn it and turn it

finding new meanings
in a static sacred text
Midrash multiverse

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2013-01-11

vixen

Ann Boleyn's sister
balanced her arch iciness
nymphomaniac

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words mean what I want them to mean

Humpty Dumpty won!
what candidate is "candid"?
what do vultures "want"?

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tyrant II

Cheney's agenda
circumvent the Rule of Law
centralize power

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goes around

Death and Creation
everything is fluxional
Shiva keeps dancing

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SnowCrash

POOR IMPULSE CONTROL
tattooed above his eyebrows
buys more elbow room

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tylenol

paracetamol
may cure Guam of brown tree snakes
otherwise, useless

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theodicy

justifying God
in a world that maims children
recruits atheists

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shortened horizons

Spokane's Winter fogs
blot out sun and lesser stars
life in a snowglobe

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consider it a divorce

when Pope Clement died
Roman mobs outraged his corpse
Henry didn't mourn

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spa

"exfoliation"
turning over a new leaf
puns lost in English

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unAmerican

J. Edgar Hoover
found an ally in Reagan
to curtail free speech

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stodgy

never recycled
crust from when the Earth was young
Greenland doesn't dance

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cronies

cronies seize assets
externalize all debits
pocket the profits

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transliteration

spelling dhanukah
Tarantino clarified
the "D" is silent

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ahoy

mariners's jargon
"Albion", like "Lebanon"
just means white sea cliffs

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Les Miserables VI

to save a stranger
Jean Valjean blew his cover
lifting a horse cart

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bias

Christianity
reads Torah through Paul's letter
no one's impartial

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egoist

House Speaker Boehner
figures storm victims can wait
'til he's done preening

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no there there

L.A. environs
twenty-seven bland suburbs
orbiting nothing

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Les Miserables V

"Look what I've brought you!"
Valjean cooed to his young ward
"time you had a beau"

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Les Miserables IV

Javert's suicide
atoned for a life of Law
untempered by Love

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salesmanship

silver-tongued devil
he could sell bathtubs to cats
the fish are implied

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smile!

baring incisors
a predator's threat gesture
repurposed to woo

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Les Miserables III

Din pursued Chesed
through the sewers of Paris
never reconciled

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Les Miserables II

Javert pursued Din
Valhean embodied Chesed
two sides of one God

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galut

b'reshit's over
from the Zohar's perspective
galut's normative

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fad

gastronomic stunts
manipulating colloids
don't amount to "food"

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Les Miserables

Javert pursued Din
Valjean embodied Chesed
eternal tension

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timeless

at the burning bush
Moses stepped outside of time
lost in the moment

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coriolis

past the equator
gut feelings could get you killed
storms spin the wrong way

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Bob

all it takes to prove
that you are a sub-genius
thirty-five dollars

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let me turn aside

achar hamidbar
Moshe's tete a tete with God
nowhere. anywhere.

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thoughcrime

Mehanna's verdict
criminalizing intent
Orwell runs the court

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terpenes

pre-seasoned chickens
hopped up on oregano
thrive on fewer drugs

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bluffer

Ovadia Yosef
threatens to leave Israel
I'll buy his ticket

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advice and consent

John Brennan? Really??
swear him to tell the whole truth
we'd like some answers

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form

metrical constraints
keep my mind from wandering
like John Lennon's did

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the whole truth

Nominate Brennan!
we'd like to get some answers
while he's under oath

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damned liars

Florida's Rick Scott
uses numbers to make points
even if they're wrong

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2013-01-10

tyrant

House Speaker Boehner
tramples on democracy
if it's not his way

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sick!

unstable airmass
booming thermals, chance of hail
pilots call in "sick!"

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2013-01-01

patience

never interrupt
least of all your opponent
when he's fucking up

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the way of the world

hard currency's dead
fractional reserve lending
fuels modernity

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deja vu

Alabama hills
loom just out of field-of-view
movie sets, worldwide

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sham fight

don't mourn for Twinkies
once they've broken the union
they'll bring that crap back

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