But how could I deny that I possess these hands and this body, and withal escape being classed with persons in a state of insanity, whose brains are so disordered and clouded by dark bilious vapors....
--Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy: Meditation I
Glenn Reynolds goes all soft on the ACLU -- "they've become overly partisan in recent years, but they still do good work" -- and over thirty right-wing blogs de-link him.
(þ Unfogged.)
Brock on 08.31.05 @ 10:26 PM CST [link] [ | ]
who hit a grand slam in his first major league at bat. This is a feat that hasn't been accomplished since Bill Duggleby did it in 1898 (when he was pitching for the Phillies; the grand slam was Duggleby's only homer for that season).
The pity: there are so few fans at the Marlins' ballpark that poor Hermida didn't get much of an ovation, and the crowd (such as it was) didn't demand a curtain call from him.
That's a shame; the ESPN announcers were just pointing out that if this game were being played in St. Louis, the crowd would have undoubtedly given him a standing ovation, and probably demanded a curtain call. Just because St. Louis fans are like that.
Len on 08.31.05 @ 09:27 PM CST [link] [ | ]
I just drove home next to one of these…
World Class UGLY Mercedes Trucks:
This thing looked like a rolling enameled refrigerator with windows and big wheels.
James Berardinelli clues us in to an interesting DVD release scam (no permalinks yet; scroll to the August 31 entry on "Unrated DVDs"):
...studios are using the lack of a rating as a marketing tool, typically with raunchy R-rated movies targeted at teenagers and twenty-somethings. The scam goes something like this: take the R-rated movie and add "new, hot" content with "scenes they wouldn't let you see." (I'm not sure who "they" are… Theater owners? The MPAA? Uncle Sam?) The intention is, of course, to apply to the prurient element in all of us. We're expecting nudity and hot sex. And, if it's "Unrated," that means it has to contain content that the MPAA deemed to steamy for an R rating, right? Uh, not quite. The reality is usually different.
Instead of salicious material, we are usually presented with a few short outtakes that were removed from the theatrical version because they weren't good enough to make the final cut. (The term "good" being subjective.) Sometimes, there's a little sex or nudity, but most of the time the material is not as "naughty" as we are led to believe. Those expecting NC-17 "additions" are likely to be disappointed. (Unless, of course, a reliable source has informed you differently.)
Here's how the DVD ratings process works… If a movie is released on DVD with exactly the same content as its theatrical counterpart, it gets the same rating. But if anything is added - even a quick, inoffensive scene - the DVD version has to go before the MPAA for classification. So if a studio alters a theatrical cut and does not re-submit the film to the MPAA, it must be released as "unrated" (even if the content level has not changed). Therein lies the origin of what has become a marketing bonanza.
The key thing to look for is whether the DVD is labeled as an "Unrated Director's Cut" or an "Unrated Longer Cut/Special Edition." In the former case, there's a good chance that the DVD may be "harder" than the theatrical version, since it will contain material the director was forced to eliminate (either because of length or classification concerns). In the latter case, it means that the studio is trying to sucker you into buying or renting something you might otherwise ignore by running the "Unrated" scam.
Even with Director's Cuts, caveat emptor applies. For example, Oliver Stone recently released a re-edited version of Alexander. Among the many changes, approximately 1/3 of Rosario Dawson's nude scene has been eliminated. Admittedly, this is a rarity, but if you buy the new version of Alexander hoping to see "new, hot" content with "scenes they wouldn't let you see," you may find that there's less flesh than you remember from theaters.
This is simply astonishing:
Dr. Miller's data reveal some yawning gaps in basic knowledge. American adults in general do not understand what molecules are (other than that they are really small). Fewer than a third can identify DNA as a key to heredity. Only about 10 percent know what radiation is. One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth, an idea science had abandoned by the 17th century.TWENTY PERCENT of adult Americans do not know that the Earth revolves around the Sun?
Hope she doesn't mind me stealing one of her pieces; I swear, Mad, it's just to give you greater circulation:
Bush Vacation Haiku
By Madeleine Begun Kane
Bush on vacation.
So can you tell the diff'rence?
DC less toxic.
In addition to the haiku (a poetic form I've never mastered; then again, I've never mastered any poetic form, to speak of), Mad's got a couple limericks about our "Crackpot Pats" (Robertson and Boone), and a poem on Bush's summer reading list. Or, if you prefer, give the audio version a listen
Len on 08.31.05 @ 12:18 PM CST [link] [ | ]
here's an interesting, different look at Hurricane Katrina: Microseismic Effects of Hurricane Katrina
Hat tip to Stan Schwarz.
Len on 08.31.05 @ 11:53 AM CST [link] [ | ]
"Volunteers from the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago announced today one of the organization's largest relief efforts ever to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.
The group has deployed 17 people to the southern U.S. and expects to send up to 20 more volunteers during the next several days, said LaForice Nealy, director of field operations.
The group will meet up with nearly 1,000 other volunteers deployed from the 85 Red Cross chapters across the country at staging areas in Texas, Alabama and parts of Florida. From there, coordinators immediately will send volunteers to places most in need.
The volunteers' priorities will be to provide temporary shelter, food, clothing and medication for victims, Nealy said. The relief workers will be stationed in the disaster areas for three weeks before being replaced with other volunteers."
Courtesy of Erika Slife (Chicago Tribune).
And hoping for help for so many folks devastated by this Hurricane Katrina. :-)
Karen on 08.31.05 @ 09:43 AM CST [link] [ | ]
...Along the lines of the post Len did a bit ago about the “Post-it-Note Elvis”:
Here is a KOOL of Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry night:
...Would I ever GET a tattoo. But...
A while back Stan (Stan, Cathy & Lucinda’s Page) treated us to some tattoo show pictures and body art photos.
Now here’s a site link for some for GEEK Tattoos.
Check it out. :-D
Karen on 08.31.05 @ 08:25 AM CST [link] [ | ]
A few "plastinated" corpses as yet another Reason to visit Chicago Museums:
`Body' to pull 2 all-nighters: Exhibit to stay open for marathon weekend:”Looking at cadavers in the wee hours of the morning might not seem like everybody's idea of a fun time, but the Museum of Science and Industry believes thousands will pay for that privilege over Labor Day weekend.
The museum announced Monday it will keep the hall housing the "Body Worlds" exhibit open around the clock for the three final days of the exhibit, which has drawn sellout crowds to view a collection of "plastinated" corpses.
Since Feb. 4, more than 700,000 visitors have been through Body Worlds, making it the most successful temporary exhibit at the museum since 850,000 paid to see recovered artifacts from the sunken ocean liner Titanic in 2000."
Karen on 08.31.05 @ 08:16 AM CST [link] [ | ]
From the Annals of improbably research come this BATMAN piece: Who is Fledermausmensch? ”Who is Fledermausmensch? The word "batman" translates into German as "Fledermausmensch." Please help us identify the one, true Fledermausmensch. Here are the few things we know about Fledermausmensch. He or she:
(1) is real, not fictional
(2) is a supreme expert on bats
(3) is either is German or Austrian or has some other strong connection to German bats, language, science, and/or culture
If you have info that can help us identify and honor Fledermausmensch, please send it to us, with your email subject header reading: WHO IS FLEDERMAUSMENSCH?”
And this Follow -Up:”Fledermausmensch kibitzer
Investigator Wolf Roder complains in reference to the search for the one, true Fledermausmensch:
You wrote that "The word 'batman' translates into German as 'Fledermausmensch.'"
Batman surely is, and always has been, a man (male of the human species). Thus "batman" would translate as "Fledermausmann" (with two n, please). Now that you have batman translated, how about "batty" asuming this means bat-like? Fledermausisch?”
Karen on 08.31.05 @ 08:09 AM CST [link] [ | ]
Star Trek Adventure…
Trek prequel script goes to The Beginning."Band of Brothers screenwriter Erik Jendresen told Dreamwatch magazine that he's turned in a draft for a proposed new Star Trek prequel. The film, tentatively titled Star Trek: The Beginning, won't use any existing Trek characters and will be a prequel to the original series.
"This would take place just a couple of years after the end of the events in Enterprise, but well before the original series, and it would look at the inciting incident that started everything," revealed Jendresen. "The story is big and epic, and it isn't as antiseptic as the television stories had to be."
Jendresen also revealed that his draft doesn't center on the enterprise.
"We're looking at a very small group of men and women, particularly focusing on one character. There are a couple of ships, including a principal ship, but this is not a traditional captain-and-crew-of-a-starship story in the least."
Very excited about the project, Jendresen thinks that the chances of it getting made are good. "It all depends on what the studio thinks, and Paramount has been through significant changes lately. But the people who are making the decisions are pretty responsible folk with a fine body of work behind them. So we'll see. Right now, I'm optimistic."
Karen on 08.31.05 @ 07:53 AM CST [link] [ | ]
Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune is this GEM: Cities not high on `Pot Suckers': Celebrities may like herb-flavored candies, but some towns want nothing to do with them"The likes of Snoop Dogg, Nelly and Paris Hilton aren't mentioned in many city ordinances, but two new laws banning the sale of marijuana-flavored candies--one in Chicago, the other in the northwest suburbs--take a swipe at the celebrities for endorsing the bitter-tasting products.
Schaumburg last week became the latest to say no to the hemp-flavored candies, which are popular with young people even though they don't contain the main ingredient in marijuana that causes a high.
With names like "Pot Suckers," the candies were sold for about a year at Woodfield Mall's Spencer Gifts amid the lava lamps, gag gifts and "High Street" signs.
Lawmakers say the candies send the wrong message to children, but young people and the candymakers argue that they're nothing but sugar-filled novelty items and contend that such laws will have little impact on actual drug use.
The Pot Suckers brand is produced by ICUP Inc. and was sold for about a year in stores nationwide. Another company, California-based Chronic Candy, sells its version of hemp-flavored lollipops and gumdrops at concerts and on the Internet in druglike quantities such as "Nickel Bag" with the slogan, "Every lick is like taking a hit."
….
A few of the green lollipops are still available in a handful of Illinois Spencer stores where they haven't been banned and cost $1.99 each with a wrapper that claims "tastes like the real `deal.'"
Those fighting to legalize marijuana, while against banning the sweets, say the candies taste awful.
"Foul, and the word `nasty' is what is usually evoked," when describing hemp-flavored candies, said Allen St. Pierre, director of NORML, or the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
Tom Durkin, a Chicago lawyer who represents Chronic Candy, described the taste as grassy and oily and said the product contains hemp oil.
St. Pierre said marijuana candy has been around forever but the celebrity endorsements are what created the buzz in council chambers….”
Hmmm...sounds DELICIOUSO, if I liked POT that is. :-)
Karen on 08.31.05 @ 07:49 AM CST [link] [ | ]
The Arizona Daily Star in Tuscon is dropping Ann Coulter's column, because even the conservatives are complaining:
The Arizona Daily Star in Tucson has had enough of conservative commentator Ann Coulter.With luck, she'll soon find herself out of a job as a "pundit", and might have to look for a job more in keeping with her low moral standards.
In a column announcing a wide range of changes in the paper's opinion pages Monday, Editor and Publisher David Stoeffler revealed that the paper was dropping Coulter's syndicated column.
"Many readers find her shrill, bombastic, and mean-spirited. And those are the words used by readers who identified themselves as conservatives," the recently appointed Stoeffler wrote.
Indeed, no intelligent design hypothesis has even been ventured as a rival explanation of any biological phenomenon. This might seem surprising to people who think that intelligent design competes directly with the hypothesis of non-intelligent design by natural selection. But saying, as intelligent design proponents do, "You haven't explained everything yet," is not a competing hypothesis. Evolutionary biology certainly hasn't explained everything that perplexes biologists. But intelligent design hasn't yet tried to explain anything.
To formulate a competing hypothesis, you have to get down in the trenches and offer details that have testable implications. So far, intelligent design proponents have conveniently sidestepped that requirement, claiming that they have no specifics in mind about who or what the intelligent designer might be.
--Daniel C. Dennett
Len on 08.31.05 @ 07:00 AM CST [link] [ | ]
J.P. Morgan senior economist Anthony Chan agrees that higher energy prices will curb both regional and national economic growth in the near-term.
"I think a 0.2 percent decline in economic growth due Katrina's impact on oil and the regional economy is a realistic assumption," Chan said. Longer-term, Chan believes hurricanes tend to stimulate overall growth.
Said Chan, "Preliminary estimates indicate 60 percent damage to downtown New Orleans. Plenty of cleanup work and rebuilding will follow in all the areas. That means over the next 12 months, there will be lots of job creation which is good for the economy."
Prof. Doug Woodward, with the Division of Research at the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina, has researched the economic impact of hurricanes.
"On a personal level, the loss of life is tragic. But looking at the economic impact, our research shows that hurricanes tend to become god-given work projects," Woodward said.
Disasters are good for the economy, he said. Within six months, he expects to see a construction boom and job creation offset the short-term negatives such as loss of business activity, loss of wealth in the form of housing, infrastructure, agriculture and tourism revenue in the Gulf Coast states.
Why Anthony Chan is wrong.
Brock on 08.31.05 @ 12:41 AM CST [link] [ | ]
Karen directed me here; she says she got it from Rook's Rant. If she's brave enough to post her scores she can give you the URL.... :-)
| Tri-Lamb Material 78 % Nerd, 43% Geek, 56% Dork |
| For The Record: A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia. A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. You scored better than half in Nerd and Dork, earning you the coveted title of: Tri-Lamb Material. The classic, "80's" nerd, you are what most people think of when they think "nerd," largely due to 80's movies like Revenge of the Nerds and TV shows like Head of the Class. You're exceptionally bright and smart, and partly because of that have never quite fit in with your peers or social groups. Perhaps you're realized, or will someday, that it is possible to retain all of the things that you like about being brilliant and still make peace with the social cliques around you. Or maybe you won't--it's really not necessary. As the brothers of Lambda Lambda Lambda discovered, you're fine just the way you are and can take pride in that. I mean, who wants to be like Ogre, right!? Congratulations! Thanks Again! -- THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST |
 |
My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
|
| Link: The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test written by donathos on OkCupid Free Online Dating |
Another review of those Hot Diggity Dog Items: from this article by Charles Leroux (Chicago Tribune) NOMINATED AS ONE OF CHICAGO'S WONDERS: Chicago Hot Dogs :”Not much in this world is perfect.
The Chicago Hot Dog is perfect.
Boiled or steamed, not grilled, it lies regally in a lightly steamed poppy-seed bun and is anointed with: Diced onion
Tomato wedges
Pickle relish the color of Kryptonite
Yellow mustard
A few sport peppers
A dill pickle spear
A shake of celery salt
There's your classic Chicago-style dog, a perfect teaming of tastes and colors and textures.
We don't have to mention, no ketchup! None! Ever! Do we?
Some readers nominated the genre; others, specific local shrines -- Fluky's, Murphy's, Byron's, Gene & Jude's, Superdawg, The Wieners Circle, etc. -- though with 1,800 hot dog stands ensuring that you're never more that about a half mile from heaven, a pilgrimage isn't necessary.
So far this year, there have been 231 mentions of "hot dog" in the pages of the Chicago Tribune. We've reported that Vienna Beef Co. -- dating to two Austro-Hungarian immigrants selling franks at the 1893 World's Fair -- signed a deal with Target to sell Chicago-style dogs in 1,350 Target food courts nationally, a blessing for America.
----------
7 WONDERS OF CHICAGO
NOMINEES SO FAR
2. Water Tower
3. The "L"
4. Wrigley Field
5. Millennium Park
6. Sears Tower
7. Chicago Hot Dogs
YUM !!!! :-)
Voting take place on September 9th. (Go to this link if you wish to vote).
Karen on 08.30.05 @ 04:47 PM CST [link] [ | ]
"Last week, even as Bush was taking a break from his vacation to denounce “immediate withdrawal of our troops in Iraq or the broader Middle East” as a step that “would only embolden the terrorists,” the Financial Times was reporting details of the Pentagon’s plans “to pull significant numbers of troops out of Iraq in the next twelve months.”
The chilling truth is that no one really knows what to do. No one knows whether the consequences of withdrawal, quick or slow, would be worse or better—for Iraq and for the “war on terror” of which, willy-nilly, it has become a part—than the consequences of “staying the course.”
It is a matter of judgment, and the judgment that will count, more chilling still, is that of George W. Bush.
— Hendrik Hertzberg (New Yorker): WAR AND ANTIWAR
Karen on 08.30.05 @ 03:16 PM CST [link] [ | ]
Check out this article: Asleep at the energy switch, by Neal Pierce (Seattle Times), advocating some ideas for how our states and communities can do more for improving 1) energy-efficiency measures, 2) green roofs and 3) local cogeneration of electricity to keep in step with..."... our new super-competitor — China. Growing pell-mell, it is already one of the world's leading polluters and faces immense environmental challenges.
But the Chinese will start their first offshore wind-power complex next year; they're building the world's largest tidal-energy project; they're implementing auto-fuel standards more stringent than the United States. On top of all that, they've undertaken a massive solar-energy program, according to the Web site worldchanging.com.
By the end of 2010, Beijing expects all Chinese cities to reduce their buildings' energy use by 50 percent, and by 2020, 65 percent.
...
What a fresh breeze of inventive, common-sense thinking, and relief from official Washington's energy myopia and toadying up to the special interests!
Karen on 08.30.05 @ 03:09 PM CST [link] [ | ]
...Ole Fearless Leader and Family:"BuzzFlash is urging George W. Bush to prove that his "noble war" is not just for poor, middle class and rural Americans to die in. Of ten eligible offspring of the children of George Herbert Walker and Barbara Bush, not one is serving in the armed forces, let alone in Iraq.
BuzzFlash.com is urging Americans to sign a petition that reads: "I demand that George W. Bush's daughters, and his eligible nieces and nephews, serve in Iraq to prove their support of Bush's 'noble war for a noble cause.' If the Bush family does not believe in 'sacrificing' for the war and is not willing to put their lives on the line, then Bush must bring the troops of middle class, rural and poor Americans home now."
"If George W. Bush believes that Americans should 'sacrifice' their children for his 'noble war' in Iraq, why are no Bush children serving in the armed forces or risking their lives in the Middle-East?" asks Mark Karlin, editor and publisher of BuzzFlash.com
The petition asks: "Why do George W. Bush, his siblings, and their children think that the war is 'noble' enough for kids like Casey Sheehan to die in, but not them?
"Sign this petition, demanding that the Bush sibling children serve in George's 'noble war' or he must bring the troops home now. Because if it's not 'noble' enough for the Bush family to risk their lives fighting for, it's just a disastrous graveyard for poor and middle class Americans, dug deep to advance Bush's partisan agenda.
"Bush can be brave with other people's children, because he has nothing personally to risk. Sign the petition now on behalf of the lives of the real Americans."
The petition, along with the names of the Bush offspring who are service eligible, an extended family photo, and an Uncle Sam recruitment poster can be found at this link.
---
BuzzFlash.com is a pro-democracy news and commentary site, which has experienced up to 5.3 million readers a month. "
Courtesy of US News Wire.
Karen on 08.30.05 @ 02:40 PM CST [link] [ | ]
...The World Fact Book is now available:"The World Factbook, a popular Central Intelligence Agency reference manual, provides a wealth of information on over 260 separate nations and other entities, listed alphabetically, in over 700 pages. There are also 12 terrain maps and three world maps included. The official government release of the 2005 World Factbook is now available from the National Technical Information Service (NTIS).
Each entry includes a map of the nation or entity, full color picture of its flag, and information in the following categories:
-- Geography
-- People
-- Government
-- Economy
-- Communications
-- Transportation
-- Military
-- Transnational issues
In addition, there are six appendices that provide cross- referencing information lists, international environmental agreements and information organizations and groups.
The World Factbook 2005 is available from NTIS, call 1-800-553-6847 or 703-605-6000, for $99 plus $5 handling fee, no additional charge for shipping; quote order number PB2005-928005KTI. Most major credit cards accepted. Fax orders to 703-605-6900. For more information or go to order online.
Access information on more than 600,000 government information products on the NTIS Web site:
The National Technical Information Service is the federal government's central source for the sale of scientific, technical, engineering, and related business information produced by or for the U.S. government and complementary material from international sources. NTIS also offers thousands of multimedia, training, and educational programs produced by federal agencies. Approximately 3 million products are available from NTIS in a variety of formats: electronic download, online access, computer products, multimedia, microfiche and paper."
Courtesy of US News Wire.
Karen on 08.30.05 @ 02:33 PM CST [link] [ | ]
"2004 was a banner year for CEOs and a dismal year for workers, according to a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy, "Executive Excess 2005: Defense Contractors Get More Bucks for the Bang."
The ratio of average CEO pay (now $11.8 million) to worker pay (now $27,460) spiked up from 301-to-1 in 2003 to 431-to-1 in 2004.
If the minimum wage had risen as fast as CEO pay since 1990, the lowest paid workers in the United States would be earning $23.03 an hour today, not $5.15 an hour.
The report found that CEOs are individually profiting from the Iraq War, with huge average raises at the biggest defense contractors...."
Courtesy of US News Wire.
Karen on 08.30.05 @ 02:24 PM CST [link] [ | ]
I've several times in this pulpit voiced my opinion that the waging of the war in Iraq constitutes the crime of waging aggressive war, in violation of the precedents set by the International Military Tribunal convened in 1945. Just in case y'all don't want to take my word for it, here's a data point in support of the proposition that I haven't completely flipped my wig: Michael Mandel, an expert in (among other subjects) the law of war and international criminal law at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, is of the same opinion:
This month marks the 60th anniversary of the London Charter of the International Military Tribunal, the basic legal document for the trial of the major Nazi war criminals that commenced in November 1945.So when are we going to do the right thing, impeach Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their co-conspirators, and deliver them in handcuffs to The Hague to stand trial for their crimes?
One of the great innovations of that charter was the charge of "Crimes Against Peace," defined as the "planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances."
In a famous passage from their judgment of the following year, the four judges of the tribunal (American, British, French and Russian) declared the crime of aggressive war to be "the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."
The innovation of the crime of aggressive war was in fact denounced by the Nazi defendants as "ex post facto law," but Justice Robert Jackson, America's prosecutor at Nuremberg, had an answer for this: Illegal wars were nothing more than mass murder, and there was nothing ex post facto about the crime of murder. Here's what Jackson said to the tribunal in his opening statement on Nov. 21, 1945:
Any resort to war — any kind of war — is a resort to means that are inherently criminal. War inevitably is a course of killings, assaults, deprivations of liberty and destruction of property. An honestly defensive war is, of course, legal and saves those lawfully conducting it from criminality. But inherently criminal acts cannot be defended by showing that those who committed them were engaged in a war, when war itself is illegal. The very minimum legal consequence of the treaties making aggressive war illegal is to strip those who incite or wage them of every defense the law ever gave, and to leave the war-makers subject to judgment by the usually accepted principles of the law of crimes.
The crime of aggression is nowhere to be seen in modern international criminal codes, and leading the charge against including it has been the United States itself. It's easy to see why. The war in Iraq, for one example, constitutes the quintessential war of aggression, falling very far short, rhetoric apart, of any justification in self-defense or authorization by the Security Council of the United Nations, the only two accepted legal grounds for war in international law. The U.N. Charter is one of those "international treaties" mentioned in the London Charter of 1945.
And with the best estimates of the cost in Iraqi civilian lives ranging between 25,000 (Iraq body count) and 100,000 (Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore), all well within prewar predictions, it seems perverse to keep on insisting that this was a "humanitarian intervention," itself a dubious legal ground for war. In fact, it amounts to rather a lot of counts of murder on Jackson's definition.
Via Talking Points Memo, we read that in Kentucky, a grand jury handed down indictments of a number of government officials in a scandal involving possible disregard of Kentucky civil service provisions against firing employees for political reasons.
The governor's action? He issued blanket, unconditional pre-trial pardons to everyone indicted.
Need I mention that the governor is a Republican?
Nah, I didn't think so.
If this one interests you, Josh Marshall refers us to Bluegrass Report for the details (no direct link, because there are a number of posts about this one there; just start scrolling). What interested me is that the Kentucky attorney general's been in contact with the FBI (since the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, which is apparently the focus of the grand jury investigation, receives Federal funding). We may have to keep an eye on this one.
But props to Josh for a hell of a good line about Gov. Fletcher's chutzpah:
I think this is what Republicans call decisive leadership.
Karen called it to my attention that Randy "South Knox Bubba" Neal is guest blogging at Facing South. Dare we hope that SKB might find his way back to Left Blogistan sometime soon?
The subject of the SKB guest-post I linked to is some racial incidents in the high schools in Blount County, TN, as a result of which authorities implemented a "safety policy" which implicitly, though not explicitly, result in the banning of displays of the Confederate flag, an action which, of course, rubs salt in some old wounds 'round these parts. As SKB points out:
We’ve all heard the arguments for preserving this Symbol of Pride in our Great Southern Heritage. The Confederate Flag is not a symbol of racism and hatred. It’s a symbol freedom and independence, and particularly freedom from the oppressive tyranny of a Federal government too big for its britches. Oh, yeah, and the Civil War was not about slavery. It was about States’ Rights. (Which presumably includes the state’s right to allow its citizens to own slaves.)In response to that "canonical argument" in favor of homage to the Confederate flag, a commenter adds this:
Jim said...
What was the Civil War about? We needn't guess, as four of the Seceding States set forth Declarations of the Causes of their Secession (similar to the Declaration of Independence). You can find them at:
http://members.aol.com/jfepperson/reasons.html
(note the links to each state's declaration at the top of the page)
Mississippi’s has, as the second sentence:
"Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth."
That of Texas closes with:
"[I]t is meet that our own views should be distinctly proclaimed.
We hold as undeniable truth that ... the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations..."
The secessionists made no bones about the fact that they would fight to preserve their right to hold other people in bondage. Let us take them at their word.
Baseball writer (well, he's got a book published, it looks like, which is more than I'll ever accomplish in my wasted life) Al Pepper examines the origins of the term "Mendoza line", in the context of baseball stats (the quick and dirty explanation, for those of you who may be unclear on the concept: the "Mendoza line" is the notional boundary between those batters hitting above .200 and those hitting .200 and below).
Mr. Pepper starts his article with the definition of "Mendoza line" from Dickson's Baseball Dictionary (a most awesome work, btw; I own both the first and second editions, which reminds me that I need to check if Paul Dickson has revised it yet). The "original" meaning of "Mendoza line" was the division between hitters hitting over .215 and those hitting .215 and below; the reason for that being that the career batting average of Mario Mendoza (the player immortalized by the term "Mendoza line", of course) was .215. Since the introduction of the term, however, there's been some blurring of the line, and now the "standard" meaning of "Mendoza line" has settled at a batting average of .200.
I realize I rail against the standard usage in vain, but I think this sucks. As a long time admirer of Bob "Mr. Baseball" Uecker, who was himself a career .200 hitter, I think that, if anything, the .200 average should be immortalized as "the Uecker line". But for some reason (probably the fact that Mendoza had a longer career, by three seasons), it's Mendoza who's been immortalized as the embodiment of the .200 hitter, even if that apotheosis isn't quite accurate. Oh well.... At least that gives me the chance to end with a bit of Mr. Baseball's wit and wisdom:
Anybody with ability can play in the big leagues. To last as long as I did with the skills I had, with the numbers I produced, was a triumph of the human spirit.
--Bob Uecker, lifetime .200 hitter
"The Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) is releasing data showing the untapped geothermal power potential in the West. The data, extracted from publicly available reports and studies, show almost 100 undeveloped geothermal power sites. These sites have a total production potential approaching 25,000MW of electrical generating capacity -- enough to meet more than 70 percent of California's electricity needs.
GEA pulled together these estimates for the Western Governors' Association's (WGA) on-going assessment of the ability of geothermal and other clean energy resources to meet the substantial growth projected in the region's electric power demand. The data demonstrate significant geothermal potential from identified but undeveloped hydrothermal sites in eleven western states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
These estimates exclude unknown, undiscovered resources. Substantial undiscovered geothermal resources are expected to exist, and they are generally considered to be much larger. USGS Circular 790, for example, estimated that 72,000 to 127,000 megawatts could be supported by undiscovered hydrothermal resources not included in its assessment. Hydrothermal resources, which use steam or hot water to transfer the geothermal resource from the ground to the power station, are one of the four main types of geothermal resources. Hydrothermal resources are used for geothermal electricity production today, while the other three types, geopressured, hot dry rock, and magma, remain in the initial stages of development."
Courtesy of US News Wire.
Karen on 08.30.05 @ 06:53 AM CST [link] [ | ]
The specific metaphor of a living, evolving Constitution arose in the 1920s to explain how a broad view of federal power that came with World War I (and later, the New Deal) was consistent with the American constitutional tradition. The Constitution's words, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote in 1920, "called into life a being" whose "development … could not have been foreseen completely by the most gifted of its begetters." Hence we must interpret our Constitution "in the light of our whole experience and not merely in that of what was said a hundred years ago."
Holmes was right: The living Constitution is central to the American constitutional tradition, so central that even its loudest critics actually believe in it. Many Americans fail to realize how much of our current law and institutions are inconsistent with the original expectations of the founding generation. A host of federal laws securing the environment, protecting workers and consumers—even central aspects of Social Security—go beyond the original understanding of federal power, not to mention most federal civil rights laws that protect women, racial and religious minorities, and the disabled from private discrimination. Independent federal agencies like the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Federal Communications Commission would all be unconstitutional under the original understanding of the Constitution. Presidential authority would be vastly curtailed—including all the powers that the Bush administration regularly touts. Indeed, most of the Bush administration's policy goals—from No Child Left Behind to national tort reform—would be beyond federal power.
Conversely, a vast number of civil-liberties guarantees we now expect from our Constitution have no basis in the original understanding. If you reject the living Constitution, you also reject constitutional guarantees of equality for women, not to mention Brown v. Board of Education and Loving v. Virginia, which struck down laws banning interracial marriage. Liberals and conservatives alike would be discomfited. The original understanding cannot explain why the Constitution would limit race-conscious affirmative action by the federal government, nor does it justify the current scope of executive power.
Even the Supreme Court's two professed originalists, Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, believe in the living Constitution. Scalia's concurrence in Raich v. Ashcroft—this term's medicinal-marijuana case—demonstrates that he long ago signed on to the idea of a flexible and broad national power that came with the New Deal. And Thomas argues for First Amendment protections far broader in scope than the framers would have dreamed of. Both Justices joined the majority in Bush v. Gore, which relied on Warren Court precedents securing voting rights under the 14th Amendment. There was just one tiny originalist problem with that logic: The framers and ratifiers of the 14th Amendment didn't think it applied to voting.
Nobody, and I mean nobody, whether Democrat or Republican, really wants to live under the Constitution according to the original understanding once they truly understand what that entails. Calls for a return to the framers' understandings are a political slogan, not a serious theory of constitutional decision-making.
--Jack M. Balkin
Len on 08.30.05 @ 05:50 AM CST [link] [ | ]
isn't from Engrish.com, but it should be:
Punish the Real Whistleblowers - Reward the Inept Leakers and Cowards....
The Chicago Tribune has this article (Army demotes Halliburton contract critic -
Reassignment cites poor job performance) about the demotion of Bunnatine Greenhouse, who "dared" question the "2003 series of corps decisions involving the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, which has garnered more than $10 billion for work in Iraq" and owing to "her strict adherence to procurement requirements."
Such proto-typical Bushie retribution for anyone who stands up for anything good, proper, ethical or legal in this Administration.
Karen on 08.29.05 @ 11:11 AM CST [link] [ | ]
"A new way to borrow audiobooks from the library involves no CDs, no car trips, no fines and no risk of being shushed.
Rather, public libraries from New York City to Alameda, Calif., are letting patrons download Tom Clancy techno-thrillers, Arabic tutorials and other titles to which they can listen on their computers or portable music players — all without leaving home.
Librarians say such offerings help libraries stay relevant in the digital age....
There’s still one big hitch, though: The leading library services offer Windows-friendly audiobook files that can’t be played on Apple Computer Inc.’s massively popular iPod player.
Also, many audiobooks can’t be burned to a CD, the format preferred by many car commuters.
Vendors such as OverDrive Inc. and OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc.’s NetLibrary have licensing deals with publishers and provide digital books using Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Media Audio format, which includes copyright protections designed to help audiobooks stand apart from the often lawless world of song swapp"
Courtesy of The Daily Herald.
Karen on 08.29.05 @ 11:04 AM CST [link] [ | ]
Another reason to enjoy playing my Manhattan Transfer version of the Ink Spots song, "Java Jive," from the 1940:"When the Ink Spots sang "I love the java jive and it loves me" in 1940, they could not have known how right they were.
Coffee not only helps clear the mind and perk up the energy, it also provides more healthful antioxidants than any other food or beverage in the American diet, according to a study released Sunday.
Of course, too much coffee can make people jittery and even raise cholesterol levels, so food experts stress moderation.
The findings by Joe A. Vinson, a chemistry professor at the University of Scranton, in Pennsylvania, give a healthy boost to the warming beverage.
"The point is, people are getting the most antioxidants from beverages, as opposed to what you might think," Vinson said in a telephone interview.
Antioxidants, which are thought to help battle cancer and provide other health benefits, are abundant in grains, tomatoes and many other fruits and vegetables.
Vinson said he was researching tea and cocoa and other foods and decided to study coffee, too”
Courtesy of The Kane County Chronicle: Healthy coffee? Java top source of antioxidants By Randolph E. Schimid (Associated Press)
I love coffee, I love tea,
I love the Java Jive and it loves me
Coffee and tea and the java and me,
A cup, a cup, a cup, a cup, a cup!
I love java sweet and hot,
Whoops, Mister Moto, I'm a coffee pot
Shoot me the pot, and I'll pour me a shot,
A cup, a cup, a cup, a cup, a cup!
Oh slip me a slug from the wonderful mug
and I'll cut a rug 'til I'm snug in a jug
A slice of onion and a raw one,
Draw one!
Waiter, waiter, percolator!
I love coffee, I love tea,
I love the Java Jive and it loves me
Coffee and tea and the java and me,
A cup, a cup, a cup, a cup, a cup!
Boston beans (soy beans)
I said the little itty-bitty green bean
(cabbage n' greens)
You know that I'm not keen about a bean,
unless it is a chili chili bean! (Talk it, boy!)
I love java sweet and hot,
Whoops, Mister Moto, I'm a coffee pot (yeah)
You shoot me the pot, and I'll pour me a shot,
A cup, a cup, a cup, 'an dat zat bootle!
Blow me a slug from that wonderful mug
And I'll cut a rug that's snug in a jug
Drop a nickel in my pot - Joe
Takin' it slow
Waiter, waiter percolator
I love coffee, I love tea,
I love the Java Jive an' it loves me
Coffee and tea and the java and me
A cup, a cup, a cup, a cup - BOY!
Michael Froomkin has a GEM of a political cartoon from the creative pen of Miami Herald's cartoonist, Jim Morin, at Discourse.net.
Good Job pointing out the latest Iraq War flawed "rationale."
Karen on 08.29.05 @ 10:29 AM CST [link] [ | ]
...From the bAdmin - Mr. "Clear Skies" and "Steward of Our Environment." Bah-Humbug!!!
”An ongoing and secret Interior Department attempt to rewrite and override 90 years of laws, rules and court rulings governing the 388 sites in the U.S. National Park System would "hijack" the American's national parks, leaving them wide open for what are now barred uses and making it extremely unlikely that the sites would survive as unspoiled treasures for future generations of Americans, according to the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees (CNPSR), which is a watchdog group of 410 NPS veterans accounting for 12,000 years of collective park management experience.”
Foggy windows and lenses are a nuisance, and in the case of automobile windows, can pose a driving hazard. Now, a group of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) may have found a permanent solution to the problem. The team has developed a unique polymer coating - made of silica nanoparticles - that they say can create surfaces that never fog.
The transparent coating can be applied to eyeglasses, camera lenses, ski goggles ... even bathroom mirrors, they say. The new coating was described today at the 230th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.
Researchers have been developing anti-fog technology for years, but each approach has its drawbacks. Some stores carry special anti-fog sprays that help reduce fogging on the inside of car windows, but the sprays must be constantly reapplied to remain effective. Glass containing titanium dioxide also shows promise for reduced fogging, but the method only works in the presence of ultraviolet (UV) light, researchers say.
"Our coatings have the potential to provide the first permanent solution to the fogging problem," says study leader Michael Rubner, Ph.D., a materials science researcher at MIT in Cambridge, Mass. "They remain stable over long periods, don't require light to be activated and can be applied to virtually any surface." Coated glass appears clearer and allows more light to pass through than untreated glass while maintaining the same smooth texture, he says.
….
The same coatings also can be engineered to have superior anti-reflective properties that reduce glare and maximize the amount of light passing through, an effect that shows promise for improving materials used in greenhouses and solar cell panels, the researcher says. So far, the coating is more durable on glass than plastic surfaces, but Rubner and his associates are currently working on processes to optimize the effectiveness of the coating for all surfaces. More testing is needed, they say.
Funding for this study was provided by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Science Foundation (via the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers, or MSREC).
The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization, chartered by the U.S. Congress, with a multidisciplinary membership of more than 158,000 chemists and chemical engineers. It publishes numerous scientific journals and databases, convenes major research conferences and provides educational, science policy and career programs in chemistry. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
Courtesy of US News Wire.
Now, when they get around to a "cure" for Foggy-Bottom -- That'll be the day...
Hahahahahahahaha!!!
Karen on 08.29.05 @ 07:47 AM CST [link] [ | ]
G.B. Trudeau weighs in....
And as an extra bonus, today's strip deals with blogging....
Len on 08.29.05 @ 07:30 AM CST [link] [ | ]
...It’s time for their Photo essay on “What did I DO on MY Summer Vacation…”
To see the Photos and FUN stuff at - Camp Birch Knoll - Click on the "more" button.
:-)
Karen on 08.29.05 @ 07:27 AM CST [more..] [ | ]
The QuikHouse.
What puzzles me is, are there really people who are going to spend $150,000-178,000 to live in a bunch of shipping containers? If so, that says something about the housing market. I'm not sure I know what, exactly, but it surely says something.
Len on 08.29.05 @ 06:25 AM CST [link] [ | ]
The unfortunates in Hurricane Katrina's path at this time. It doesn't look like things will be very pleasant in the Crescent City for quite a while to come:
When Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans on Monday, it could turn one of America's most charming cities into a vast cesspool tainted with toxic chemicals, human waste and even coffins released by floodwaters from the city's legendary cemeteries.Some of the comparisons being made aren't exactly reassuring:
"We need to recognize we may be about to experience our equivalent of the Asian tsunami, in terms of the damage and the numbers of people that can be killed," said Ivor van Heerden, director of the Louisiana State University Public Health Research Center in Baton Rouge.As if that isn't bad enough, van Heerden went on to leave us with this delightful picture:
Some 25 feet of standing water is expected in many parts of the city -- almost twice the height of the average home -- and computer models suggest that more than 80 percent of buildings would be badly damaged or destroyed, he said.
"So, imagine you're the poor person who decides not to evacuate: Your house will disintegrate around you. The best you'll be able to do is hang on to a light pole, and while you're hanging on, the fire ants from all the mounds -- of which there is two per yard on average -- will clamber up that same pole. And, eventually, the fire ants will win."Puts a new perspective on Monday being the worst day of the week, doesn't it?
I was as entertained as anybody this week by Pat Robertson's remake of the Sam Peckinpah classic (this time with the president of Venezuela in the title role) and I certainly enjoyed watching the old devil wriggle on the hook of his own words, but I have to say I was amazed by all the media attention.
I mean, the fact that Pat Robertson babbled something completely insane (and dangerous) to his TV cult followers has a definite dog-bites-man quality to it. When Robertson says something sane, that will be big news. But I wouldn't keep a hole waiting on page one for that story.
--Billmon, "Bring Me the Head of Hugo Chavez"
Len on 08.29.05 @ 05:42 AM CST [link] [ | ]
New Rule: You don't have to teach both sides of a debate, if one side is a load of crap.
Now, President Bush recently suggested that public schools should teach intelligent design, alongside the theory of evolution. Because, after all, evolution is quote, "just a theory." Then the President renewed his vow to drive the terrorists straight over the edge of the earth.
Now, here is what I don't get. President Bush is a brilliant scientist. He's the man who proved you can mix two parts booze with one part cocaine, and still fly a jet fighter. And yet... yet he just can't seem to accept that we descended from apes.
It just seems pathetic to be so insecure about your biological superiority, to a group of feces-flinging, rouge-buttocked monkeys, that you have to make up fairy tales. Like we came from Adam and Eve, and then cover stories for Adam and Eve like, intelligent design. Yeah, leaving the Earth in the hands of two naked teenagers. That's a real intelligent design.
I'm sorry, folks, but it may very well may be that life is just a series of random events. And that there is no... master plan. But enough about Iraq. Let me instead restate my thesis. There aren't necessarily two sides to every issue. If there were, the Republicans would have an opposition party.
And an opposition party would point out that even though there's a debate, in schools, and government, about this, there is no debate among scientists. Evolution... is supported by the entire scientific community. Intelligent design is supported by guys in line to see "The Dukes of Hazzard."
And the reason there is no real debate, is that intelligent design isn't real science. It's the equivalent of saying that the thermos keeps hot things hot and cold things cold, because it's a god. It's so willfully ignorant you might as well worship the U.S. Mail. It came again! Praise, Jesus!
No, stupidity isn't a form of knowing things. Thunder is high pressure air meeting low pressure air. It's not God bowling. Babies come from storks is not a competing school of thought... in medical school. We shouldn't teach both. The media shouldn't equate both. If Thomas Jefferson...
If Thomas Jefferson knew we were blurring the line this much between church and state, he would turn over in his slave. Now as for me, I believe in evolution and intelligent design. I think God designed us in his image, but I also think God is a monkey! God bless you and goodnight!
--Bill Maher
Len on 08.28.05 @ 03:02 PM CST [link] [ | ]
Among Washington's Democrats, the only one with a clue seems to be Russell Feingold, the Wisconsin senator who this month proposed setting a "target date" (as opposed to a deadline) for getting out.
Mr. Feingold also made the crucial observation that "the president has presented us with a false choice": either "stay the course" or "cut and run."
That false choice, in which Mr. Bush pretends that the only alternative to his reckless conduct of the war is Ms. Sheehan's equally apocalyptic retreat, is used to snuff out any legitimate debate.
There are in fact plenty of other choices echoing about, from variations on Mr. Feingold's timetable theme to buying off the Sunni insurgents.
-- The Vietnamization of Bush's Vacation by Frank Rich (NY Times).
Or consider this one from Mr. Babbling Brooks himself: Winning in Iraq:"Andrew Krepinevich is a careful, scholarly man. A graduate of West Point and a retired lieutenant colonel, his book, "The Army and Vietnam," is a classic on how to fight counterinsurgency warfare.
Over the past year or so he's been asking his friends and former colleagues in the military a few simple questions: Which of the several known strategies for fighting insurgents are you guys employing in Iraq? What metrics are you using to measure your progress?
The answers have been disturbing. There is no clear strategy. There are no clear metrics.
Krepinevich has now published an essay in the new issue of Foreign Affairs, How to Win in Iraq, in which he proposes a strategy.
…
But the strategy has one virtue. It might work.
Today, public opinion is turning against the war not because people have given up on the goal of advancing freedom, but because they are not sure this war is winnable. Why should we sacrifice more American lives to a lost cause?
If President Bush is going to rebuild support for the war, he's going to have to explain specifically how it can be won, and for that he needs a strategy.
It's not hard to find. It's right there in Andy Krepinevich's essay, and in the annals of history.
-- David Brooks (NY Times).
Karen on 08.28.05 @ 10:16 AM CST [link] [ | ]
So, consider this for your next reason to visit Chicago. (*wink*) Why just come for the sights and culture: Your contribution to science: Chicago's a hotbed of clinical trials, and there's probably one going on right now that could use you."You don't have to wait until life is over to donate your beleaguered body to science.
Right now researchers need women with regular periods as well as excessive body hair. They need impotent, overweight men.
They need older teens and young adults with cancer. And even if you're the picture of health, they need you to act as the "control" specimen.
In Illinois, a research hotbed, 948 federally and privately supported clinical trials are registered with the National Institutes of Health's Web site, clinicaltrials.gov, hundreds more than any other state. The epicenter, the University of Chicago, has about 250 open trials in cancer alone.
The pay, if any, for participants is often minimal. And people sign on knowing they aren't guaranteed a lifesaving treatment, or any health benefit for that matter...."
Click on the link above to read further and I KNOW this is sure to make a lot of you reconsider your next option for "where to go on a family vacation." LOL
Karen on 08.28.05 @ 09:56 AM CST [link] [ | ]
…I’m “allowed” to post on this one by Leslie Goldman from the Chicago Tribune (and poke a little FUN at it Too. LOL):Nice Legs There, Fella:”…Calvin Brown, 38, has been rockin' the kilt since 2002 for various reasons, mainly for comfort.
"As soon I started wearing them, I truly didn't understand why women fought to wear pants," Brown said. (He buys his at sportkilt.com, where they start at about $60.)
Plus, they have gotten him more female attention than a golden retriever puppy. Not only have "numerous, very attractive women come up to me and started talking, just because of the kilt," but he met his ex-fiance while wearing a red and blue crosshatch number.
Steven Villegas, co-founder of Seattle-based utilikilts.com, was in town touting his wares at North Halsted Market Days in early August. Since starting his company in 2000, he has sold 40,000 kilts, a number he believes represents a nationwide hunger for sartorial change.
"Instead of being bossed around by fashion, we're addressing comfort," Villegas said. "It's like wearing a towel but with pockets, and it's legal."
Kilt customers tend to be middle-age men, who are "ready to declare the cojones," Villegas said. "They don't need to follow anybody." (Of course, we're talking about kilts worn for fashion, not cultural heritage.)
In terms of accessorizing a kilt, Brown said, it all depends on what one dons on top and on the bottom. As with jeans, motorcycle boots and a leather jacket make an entirely different statement than a sport coat and lace-ups.
And as for the question everyone wants to know, I didn't even have to say the words. Brown and I locked eyes for a few seconds, and he soon cut to the chase: "There's nothing but air under there."
Now, Leslie, since you're writing for the Tribune, I *assume* you live in or near Chicago. Need I even mention it's nick-name??? The WINDY City??
And sans-undies, any men brave enough to choose this for a sartorial statement will soon find out WHY women fought to be allowed to wear pants. (When you've been standing for 30 minutes on an open EL platform in the dead'o'winter with a -20 degree windchill whipping the skin off your face; then will you see just how much FUN skirts can be while you - FREEZE - pondering WHERE that damn EL Train is down the line.)
;-)
Karen on 08.28.05 @ 09:38 AM CST [link] [ | ]
....But just won't be able to take her anywhere...(without a burka and a male escort - that is.)
Colbert I. King (Washington Post) wrote this piece, Rallying the Troops and Avoiding Reality:"...Get ready instead for some form of Islamic republic in Iraq that gives special status to clerics and majority ethnic groups, and less deference to women's rights. A new Iraq free of violence and divisions? Oops, never mind.
Which brings us back to the troops who are doing the suffering and dying. Are their sacrifices worth it?
Consider the Iraq now unfolding on the ground
What's the value of Americans giving their lives so that cleric-dominated Shiites and northern Kurds can get their hands on political power and oil revenue?
Why are American women and men sacrificing lives and limbs in a country where women may have to settle for less?
Stay the course. What course? So religious-based militia can divvy up the northern and southern portions of the country? So Islam can be enshrined as a principal source of new Iraqi legislation?
Are any of those things worth dying for? Do any of those likely outcomes represent an American victory? They certainly aren't why Bush said we went over there.
Okay, the Bush folks also promised us weapons of mass destruction, and greetings with rice and rose water, and Iraqi oil money to pay for reconstruction, and a model new democracy in the Middle East, none of which has happened.
But this is different.
President Bush is out selling a vision of victory in Iraq while U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad are resigned to settling for less. George Bush can't make good on his original promise, and they know it. They also know that more Americans are going to die in Iraq for what may end up as a theocracy-tinged spoils system.
When those carrying the burden of this war realize what they have sacrificed and died for, the worst days of George W. Bush will have just begun.
But, apparently, for people like Christopher Hitchens and Andrew Sullivan those “realizations” are NEVER gonna come, no matter what the realities:
Hitchens pens in A War To Be Proud Of things like:“… Just say plainly that we shall fight them everywhere they show themselves, and fight them on principle as well as in practice, and get ready to warn people that Nigeria is very probably the next target of the jihadists. The peaceniks love to ask: When and where will it all end? The answer is easy: It will end with the surrender or defeat of one of the contending parties. ….Surrender to such a foe, after only four years of combat, is not even worthy of consideration.
…: It is out of the question--plainly and absolutely out of the question--that we should surrender the keystone state of the Middle East to a rotten, murderous alliance between Baathists and bin Ladenists.”
Cough- Ghaaak - Sputter...How about just turning the country over, via the Iraqi Constitutional processes, to an Islamic Republic of Shi’ites with close ties to Iran?? Hmmm…I didn’t notice this on his list of options???
And here’s as good a delusional puerile fantasy as any from 'ole Andrew Sullivan who writes: "Iraq is a rare case where we have real leverage for a short period of time."
Hahahahahahahaha!!!
Sheesh, I’d really like some of the mind altering DRUGS he’s are apparently enjoying with such relish. I feel most direly in need of some of this faux optimism.
But in case anyone hasn’t been paying close enough ATTENTION...we (as in the U.S.) have no leverage what so ever in Iraq over this Constitutional process and are in fact working hand-and-glove with the repressive mullahs to chisel this Islamic Republic based on the Shi'ite interpretation of religion down in Granite.
The realities of this process will tell the tale once it is finished but the notion that what is happening in Iraq is going to be “winning” anything beneficial to long tern US interests in the Middle East…well, there aren’t enough mind altering drugs in the world to make this pig with lipstick look good in bed.
Karen on 08.28.05 @ 07:09 AM CST [link] [ | ]
(Oh...you fill in the blank)...
But read this article (pdf. file) from the Smithsonian Magazine about the Nigerian Slave "caste" of people, called "the Bellah," who live as unpaid chattel in Niger:
Born into Bondage.
"Despite denials by government officials, slavery reamins a way of life in the African nation of Niger."
Karen on 08.28.05 @ 06:41 AM CST [link] [ | ]
"...of customer service bordering on the sadistic.
For many years, AOL customers who tried to cancel their accounts only to find a fresh bill each month on their credit cards have gone through their own specialized stages of grief. Denial: They can't do this to me! Anger: I'm going to complain to a supervisor, and heads will roll! Bargaining: OK, my last request disappeared from your computer, so I'll pay for this month, but then it's over, right? Begging: Please cancel my account. Please. Please. Please. Please. Acceptance: I am now and will always be billed by AOL, even though I no longer use AOL.
That's why it was heartening to read this week's reports that AOL will pay New York state $1.25 million in penalties after an investigation revealed that AOL paid tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses to customer service representatives who essentially refused to process cancellation requests.
The probe found that to qualify for this extra pay, as of August 2004, employees had to rebuff 49 percent of customers who called to end their service, whether through offers of price breaks or by simply ignoring the requests.
AOL denies wrongdoing, but the fact is that the Time Warner company has lost 6 million of the 27 million customers it used to have and has been desperate to stem the bleeding. Reports about the New York investigation are only likely to make things worse.
Good. If any company deserves headaches, it's the one whose customer service motto amounted to "suffering builds character."
Courtesy of the San Diego Union Tribune.
Karen on 08.28.05 @ 06:35 AM CST [link] [ | ]
A Dumbya Supporter....You get to have ANOTHER "Mom" meeting with the ole Fearless Leader:"The Two-Meeting Mom
The White House has frequently pointed out that Bush already met with Cindy Sheehan once.
Blogger Eli Stephen calls attention to Dawn Rowe, an Iraq war widow, who just met with Bush for the second time."
Courtesy of Dan Froomkin (Washington post).
Karen on 08.28.05 @ 06:28 AM CST [link] [ | ]
According to Lee Sinins's baseball stathead email newsletter, the Kansas City Royals, by losing yesterday to the New York Yankees, were mathematically eliminated from any chance of making the postseason.
Also noteworthy, today is the 70th birthday of Ernie "traded to the Cubs for Lou Brock" Brogio.
Happy birthday, Ernie!
Len on 08.27.05 @ 07:38 PM CST [link] [ | ]
A 7 day waiting period to buy a gun? That's stupid. Nobody can remain mad that long.
--Emo Philips
Len on 08.27.05 @ 07:29 PM CST [link] [ | ]
Last night we went on a “double date” with another couple to go to Zanies Comedy Club and see a comedian, Ian Bagg. He’s a Canadian transplant to L.A. and does a most different *routine* than the usual stand-up monologue.
What Ian does is create his “off the cuff” comedy by “working the room.” It’s a total audience participation and involvement show (and WARNING for folks who sit in the front rows – he’s gonna be after you – ALL NIGHT. LOL)
But he’s very clever and witty in using audience answers to questions as a running commentary for his humor. He also bestows “nicknames” to his victims based on these conversations, and keeps interconnecting them back into his routine. It was a very different and unusual format that I’ve ever seen at most of these comedy clubs, excepting maybe the Second City after-show improvisation group (but that’s an entire group of comedians and they take suggestions for skits – Ian is a one man show where the whole effort at “Funnie” is on him.)
If you click on the Zanies “link” above you’ll see they have 3 clubs in the Chicago area [Chicago, St. Charles and Vernon Hills] and even one in Nashvegas. But, of course, my luck was that this comedian was in the Vernon Hills location – Hell and Gone from where I live in DHC (which as the Tri-Cities includes St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia). But NOOOoooo – It’s not the St. Charles locale, But Vernon Hills. Oh, Boy, but a comedian would have to be Purty Funnie to be worth a tank’o’gas for driving hither-an-yon these days and at these prices!!! But Ian Bagg was worth it and we all had a very good evening of laughs.
:-)
Karen on 08.27.05 @ 07:42 AM CST [link] [ | ]
....to be a marine biologist, a la Jacques Cousteau - Except for one *teensie-tiny* Detail: SELACHOPHOBIA.
So here’s another entry in this summer's Selachophobia Tales:
Diver fought shark before it killed him by Rod McGuirk (Associated Press) “CANBERRA, Australia -- A marine biologist killed in a shark attack had calmly fought off the predator before it returned and pulled him deep into the water, his diving partner said Thursday.
Police have abandoned the search for body of 23-year-old Jarrod Stehbens after the attack Wednesday off Glenelg Beach on Australia's south coast, a region that has seen five fatal shark attacks since 2000.
"Jarrod fought it off initially, then it came back again and grabbed his leg and just took him deeper," Stehbens' diving partner Justin Rowntree said Thursday.
"He seemed quite calm--he was trying to get his leg out of its mouth."
Rowntree and Stehbens, both marine biologists at the University of Adelaide, were diving to collect cuttlefish eggs when the shark attacked close to the popular beach in the city of Adelaide. The men were 16 feet from the surface in water 60 feet deep.
Rowntree said he felt helpless in the few seconds before his colleague was dragged to the depths and out of sight….”
Karen on 08.27.05 @ 07:19 AM CST [link] [ | ]
I'm back from my vacation to Mattituck, NY, and Manchester, NH. Here are a few vacation observations.
I've been in a lot of airports, and hands down, Boston is the worst. Having to go out on the street and take the bus to get from one terminal to the other sucks. Detroit is by far the best: the seats in the terminal are comfortable, and the bathrooms are excellent, with hand sensors on the sink that are responsive, and water of just the right temperature. The train to get you from one end of the Northwest terminal to the other is fast, and runs frequently.
I will never again book a trip that involves changing airlines in the middle. It's a recipe for major SNAFUs.
And without laying the blame on one side or the other, it appears to me that the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association made a major mistake in choosing to strike Northwest. Northwest seemed to be running without problems on Thursday. I think the AMFA is going to lose this one.
There was an odd incident in the Detroit airport that I observed during my layover, possibly related to the strike. There were three clean-cut men wearing golf shirts with an "AISC" logo sitting nearby at gate 6. A Northwest agent approached them, and asked them to go sit at another gate, since they were "upsetting" one of the agents working at a nearby gate. One of the men said something like "We're not wanted anywhere here."
Who were these men? Scab mechanics? Googling "AISC" doesn't turn up anything useful.
Enough about airlines, on to fun vacation activities.
I saw the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (AA afiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays) beat the Norwich Navigators (AA afiliate of the San Francisco Giants) at the new Fisher Cats Ballpark. (It's nice to see a new ballpark not named after a corporate sponsor.) It's a great little park, and it was a very enjoyable game, even if they did play We Will Rock You way too many times. If you're ever in Manchester during baseball season, you should make it a point to go to a game.
At Neo Tokyo comics and anime store, I met the most unfortunately named child I have ever met in real life. (As opposed to this poor child, whom I only know of online.) The woman working there, apparently the owner of the store, had actually named her child -- and I'm not making this up -- "Anakin."
One can only hope the child doesn't follow in the path of his fictional namesake.
Brock on 08.26.05 @ 08:25 PM CST [link] [ | ]
A while back (in April) I was commenting on the “Lawrence Summers” "flap" and musing about Guy Things and Sports Trivia and IF these DNA differences between the sexes *mean something* on a statistical basis. I was posing that IF there really was a reason few women *pursue* math at the advanced levels as men that "Why" is the question...as to "what makes this the case" if it is indeed the case?
I sent a query to Alan Schwarz (Senior Writer at Baseball America) and did get back this reply:
Karen--
I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to respond. Work has been incredibly crazy this season. Hope you understand.
I think you are correct, though I would phrase it all a little differently. I would say that people who grow up liking baseball, and specifically scorekeeping and box scores, etc., wind up with greater instincts and facility for arithmetic (I would not necessarily say mathematics). Whether they are boys or girls, I don't think makes any difference. It just that more boys have grown up baseball fans than girls, at least until recent years. I think if all of a sudden baseball became the Next Big Thing among girls, they would catch up or pass the boys.
Not exactly a scientific argument, but I think a logical one. Strange, given how I grew up with George Steinbrenner's 1970s Yankees, that I would have any idea what logic means, huh?
Hope that helps. Have a great rest of the 2005 season...
Best,
--Alan Schwarz.
"…It reveals mathematical errors, logical errors, and the misuse of statistics (i.e. the purported "IQ" test actually has questions on subjects as involved as Trigonometry, thus measuring educational attainment, not innate intelligence).
Stephen Jay Gould, author of the 1981 bestseller "The Mismeasure of Man," added a chapter in the 1996 reprinting of his book, specifically dedicated to critiquing The Bell Curve. Anyone seriously interested in Murray should read this book. To get a flavor of what Gould has to say, take a look at the outline of his critique [as stating it was]:
• Disingenuousness of content
• Disingenuousness of argument
• Disingenuousness of program
• GHOSTS OF BELL CURVES PAST”
Okay… a Friday review of Engrish (for Len *teehee*) and a few funnies:
For the “undecided” in you: Go With EVERYTHING.
Has anyone forwarded this one to Sharon Stone yet? Get With The NEW Program.
Just how I LIKE ‘em: When Ya Can Get ‘Em.
And just because it’s YUK: Oakie Doakie. (But this link will move off the front page...so get a look while you can...)
:-)
Karen on 08.26.05 @ 08:36 AM CST [link] [ | ]
"...At stake is not just the leadership of the Democratic Party and the nation but our nation's honor, our nobility and our principles. Franklin D. Roosevelt established a national community based on social justice. Harry Truman created international networks that repaired the damage of World War II and defeated communism. John F. Kennedy recaptured the ideal of the republic and the sense of civic duty. To expect to enter this pantheon, the next Democratic leader must now undertake all three tasks.
But this cannot be done while the water is rising in the Big Muddy of the Middle East. No Democrat, especially one now silent, should expect election by default. The public trust must be earned, and speaking clearly, candidly and forcefully now about the mess in Iraq is the place to begin.
The real defeatists today are not those protesting the war. The real defeatists are those in power and their silent supporters in the opposition party who are reduced to repeating "Stay the course" even when the course, whatever it now is, is light years away from the one originally undertaken. The truth is we're way off course. We've stumbled into a hornet's nest. We've weakened ourselves at home and in the world. We are less secure today than before this war began.
Who now has the courage to say this?
-- Gary Hart (former Dem. Senator from Co.) writing an Op-Ed in WaPo: Who Will Say 'No More'.
Karen on 08.26.05 @ 08:18 AM CST [link] [ | ]
TRANSCRIPT OF JESUS CHRIST'S REMARKS AT A REPUBLICAN PARTY FUND-RAISER, CRAWFORD, TEXAS, AUGUST 2005
...
Ken Mehlman asked me to come down here today to meet with you good people and clear up a few things you've been wondering about. I told him I'd be glad to eat a little crow for a good cause. You'll forgive me if I read a brief prepared statement, but Ken and my Dad want me to get this just right. (LAUGHTER) Here goes.
"In My youth, I made certain ill-advised statements that I now regret. If I offended anyone, I apologize. I want to clarify that it is easy for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven. (CHEERS, WILD APPLAUSE)
"I'd like to apologize specifically to the money-changers. It is My sincere hope that you will come back into the Temple free of charge as My guests." (WILD APPLAUSE, CHANT OF "U.S.A! U.S.A!")
Finally—and this is Me speaking for Myself now—I want to say to the meek: Once we finally get rid of the death tax, you're not inheriting anything. Not while you're meek, so buck up. (CHEERS) And that goes double for you peacemakers. (LAUGHTER) Good night and Dad bless America. (CHEERS, WILD APPLAUSE)
--Tom Peyer in "The Parable of Jesus and the Rubber Chicken: What if Christ spoke at a Republican Party fund-raiser?"
Len on 08.26.05 @ 08:11 AM CST [link] [ | ]
75 Degrees South is Visiting the Penguins. Great pictures.
:-)
So, go take a peek and see for yourself!!!!
Karen on 08.26.05 @ 07:54 AM CST [link] [ | ]
….between Google “talk” and Skype and Vonage.”…A decade after the first commercial Voice over Internet Protocol services launched, Voip's growing popularity is beginning to threaten traditional carriers.
The promise of free, or dramatically discounted, calls via personal computers attracted an estimated 3m people in the US to internet telephone services last year. IDC, an IT and telecoms consultancy, predicts that will rise to 27m by 2009. An estimated two thirds of large US businesses are using Voip for all or some of their telecoms needs.
Google is entering a crowded field, but some early leaders are emerging. Vonage, which charges $24.99 (£13.89) a month for unlimited calls, has signed up 700,000 people in three years. Skype, which has grown through word of mouth, has signed up 2m paying customers before its second birthday.
As an OECD report published yesterday spelled out, the march of internet telephony threatens traditional, fixed-line revenues, particularly for lucrative international calls, where online upstarts can offer the steepest discounts...”
Karen on 08.26.05 @ 06:45 AM CST [link] [ | ]
Paul Krugman (NY Times) has a good one about why the bAdmin "Feel Good" economic numbers just don't Feel Good for many Americans:
Summer of our Discontent:"For the last few months there has been a running debate about the U.S. economy, more or less like this:
American families: "We're not doing very well.
Washington officials: "You're wrong - you're doing great. Here, look at these statistics!"
....
But when your numbers tell you that people should be feeling good, but they aren't, that means you're looking at the wrong numbers.
American families don't care about G.D.P. They care about whether jobs are available, how much those jobs pay and how that pay compares with the cost of living. And recent G.D.P. growth has failed to produce exceptional gains in employment, while wages for most workers haven't kept up with inflation."
Gee - ya think this has anything to do with any of the other "Less Than Feeling Good Numbers" of the sinking Dumbya bAdmin poll numbers showing 58 disapprove to 40 approve of his handling of anything - Iraq, Gas Prices, Ecomony, Vacations.
Karen on 08.26.05 @ 06:38 AM CST [link] [
