Lace \’em up via Earth Jam Media.

During yesterday’s PUAC, some of us started talking about a healthier agenda for ourselves for the upcoming year. And how hard it was to keep that going given the level of stress, anxiety and…well…pretty much everything folks are dealing with these days.

Thought it might be a useful thing to create a weekly space for talking about this and encouraging each other to

Hertzberg has an intriguing theory about bipartisanship, Gandhi, and the Obama administration that I’ve been thinking about ever since I read it. See what you think:Fifty years ago, the civil-rights movement understood that nonviolence can be an effective weapon even if—or especially if—the other side refuses to follow suit.

Moon, Venus & Jupiter over Palermo via lorca56.It’s Saturday evening.

Time to slough off a bit of the week’s muck. Sit back, relax and share whatever’s on your mind, cooking in your kitchen, or whatever else might be stewing that needs discussion.

Consider this a catch-up thread.

I’ll start with a potential topic:

Ben Franklin on UPenn campus via TheBigDurian.For those who have been patiently waiting, the video has been uploaded for the panel discussion that I participated in a couple of weeks ago at UPenn Law School in Philadelphia.

The panel discussion was sponsored by the Philly chapter of the American Constitution Society, hosted by Adam Bonin, and including John Aravosis, Baratunde Thurston and Daniel Urevick-Ackelsberg.

Yesterday evening, I posted a quote from George Washington’s first inaugural address. It struck me as supremely relevant in the current whirlwind, given the current economic and political whirlwind in which we find ourselves, and the aftermath of courage, chaos and hardship that led to that address from Gen. Washington. In response to the quote, Millineryman profoundly said: After reading the quote and detaching myself from this mess, I realize that the people who started this experiment must’ve have been faced with a lot of the uncertainty that we have now.

Sunset via Matthew Stewart. Gorgeous shots in his portfolio.This evening’s thought comes from George Washington’s first inaugural address on April 30, 1789:The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment intrusted to the hands of the American people.Seemed like as good a place to end the day — the week

Queso via AustinTX.Although writing the latest Perle smackdown still leaves me with the urge for a good, stiff bourbon and a nice, long rubdown — is that so wrong? — I have to say this:

Spencer’s right. Mockery is better.

My bad.

Today’s selection from The Peanut: Animal, Rita Moreno, and “Fever.”

What’s not to love? Enjoy…

Uber-neoconman Richard Perle yesterday in DC: In real life, Perle was the ideological architect of the Iraq war and of the Bush doctrine of preemptive attack. But at yesterday’s forum of foreign policy intellectuals, he created a fantastic world in which: 1. Perle is not a neoconservative. 2. Neoconservatives do not exist. 3. Even if neoconservatives did exist, they certainly couldn’t be blamed for the disasters of the past eight years. “There is no such thing as a neoconservative foreign policy,” Perle informed the gathering, hosted by National Interest magazine. “It is a left critique of what is believed by the commentator to be a right-wing policy.”

So many things to research, mock and snark about, so little time: Attaturk made me spew my coffee this morning. Bastard. And John Cole followed up with marketing advice for morans. Be sure to watch the Daily Show video at the end. Digby has a problem with moles.