Dark Bilious Vapors

Yuk o'the Day:

An old HS buddy forwards this one. I think it was already in my collection of lawyer jokes, but I don't think I've ever used it here:

The United Way realized that it had never received a donation from the city's most successful lawyer.

So a United Way volunteer paid the lawyer a visit in his lavish office.

The volunteer opened the meeting by saying, "Our research shows that even though your annual income is over two million dollars, you don't give a penny to charity. Wouldn't you! like to give something back to your community through the United Way?"

The lawyer thinks for a minute and says, "First, did your research also show you that my mother is dying after a long, painful illness and she has huge medical bills that are far beyond her ability to pay?"

Embarrassed, the United Way rep mumbles, "Uh... no, I didn't know that."

"Secondly," says the lawyer, "my brother, a disabled veteran, is blind and confined to a wheelchair and is unable to support his wife and six children."

The stricken United Way rep begins to stammer an apology, but is cut off again.

"Thirdly, did your research also show you that my sister's husband died in a dreadful car accident, leaving her penniless with a mortgage and three children one of whom is disabled and another has learning disabilities requiring an array of private tutors?"

The humiliated United Way rep, completely beaten, says, "I'm sorry, I had no idea."

And the lawyer says, "So... if I didn't give any money to them, what in the hell makes you think I'd ever give any to you?"

Len on 09.30.05 @ 11:18 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Thought for the Day:

So here's what ID proponents are offering to teach your kids: They won't say how ID works. They won't say how it can be tested, apart from testing Darwinism and inferring that the alternative is ID. They won't concede it has to be falsifiable. All they'll say is that Darwinism hasn't explained some things. But that's what the first half of the Dover policy says already. So there's no need for the second half—the part that mentions ID.

The Dover School Board thinks it's getting a bum rap. All it asked its teachers to do was to mention ID. It never ordered them to teach it. "The theory of Intelligent Design shall not be taught to the students," says the board. Of course not. There's nothing to teach.
--William Saletan

Len on 09.30.05 @ 07:01 AM CST [link] [ | ]

No surprises

You are a Social Liberal (80% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (21% permissive) You are best described as a: Socialist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Via Mr. Mike.

Len on 09.29.05 @ 07:17 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Most interesting geek idea I've seen today....

Feral Robotic Dogs.

Thanks to Josh Schulz for the pointer.

Len on 09.29.05 @ 06:51 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Must be a propitious alignment of the planets, or something....

because Mad Kane's been quite creative the last couple days. today we get a bit of a longer poem than the limericks and haikus she's graced us with. Audio version, too!

Len on 09.29.05 @ 06:47 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Gem o'the Day:

From the blogger formerly known as SKBubba (now blogging at Facing South):

Check this out:

The Katrina Reconstruction Summit
Monday, September 26, 2005
Senate Hart Building, Washington, DC

The Katrina Reconstruction Summit is hosted by U.S. Senator Mel Martinez and organized by Equity International as a public service.

...

Confirmed participants include top executives from KBR [a division of Halliburton], McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, L3-Titan, IBM, DynCorp, Accenture, Deloitte, Clark Construction Group, 3M, CACI, Unisys, Lucent, and Parsons, and many government officials and diplomats.

All the heads of all the families in one place!

Though I had a tough time deciding between that and Randy's header for that post: Open invitation to looters

I wonder if Uncle Duke's going to be attending:



Len on 09.29.05 @ 05:53 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Are you frustrated....

by websites with those annoying, no-substance Flash movies which make you wait seemingly forever before letting you into the site?

Well, here's the apotheosis of the senseless, substance-free opening Flash animation....

Len on 09.29.05 @ 12:42 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Hmmmmmm... talk about incongruity...

I'm giving XM's '70s music channel a listen today, just because I can (man doth not live by Air America alone, and impressions to the contrary I don't keep the XM tuned on Air Am all the time).

The programming right now: Donny Osmond singing his hit, "Sweet and Innocent".

What on earth was the attraction in a song about how the object of the singer's affection was too young, too sweet and too innocent for him to corrupt ("But you're too young to know the score/So come back when you're older"), when the singer himself sounds like he's about 12 years old (and I'm not inclined to do the math right now, but from my recollection Donny may well have been 12 or 13 himself when that song charted...)?

Actually, hearing the song now gives me the creeps.

Len on 09.29.05 @ 08:52 AM CST [link] [ | ]

There's an advantage to being an unattractive person....

Namely, I know that I'm not at all likely to have a secret admirer. That's good news because there's a warning out: Beware of anonymous email online postcards

Yet another email online postcard virus has been launched. This time the unsuspecting user gets a postcard from a “secret admirer” or other anonymous source, and when the user follows the link in the email to retrieve their “postcard", what they really end up retrieving is the Dloader-UT Trojan. Dloader-UT in turn then downloads the Trojan virus Dumaru-S which installs itself on your computer, allows others remote access to your system, and records your keystrokes!

Dumaru-S is also known as “Backdoor.Win32.Dumador.az".

Explains Carole Theriault of Sophos, who has been quoted a lot this week (what’s happened to Graham Cluely?), “You may think you’ve received an electronic greetings card from a secret admirer, but in fact it’s a hacker who is going to be showing an unhealthy interest in you.”

Fortunately, most anti-virus programs should have definitions for Dloader-UT and/or Dumaru-S, so as always, update your anti-virus programs regularly!

Remember, forewarned is forearmed....

Len on 09.29.05 @ 08:41 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Paging Captain Cousteau....

First-ever observations of a live giant squid in the wild.

The article includes some awesome pictures, like:

First image of Architeuthis

Len on 09.29.05 @ 07:47 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Thought for the Day:

There are a lot of boring people out there and most of them talk loudly on their cell phone. Business calls: A device used to let the people around them know they have a job. And I can always tell by the nature their circular conversation about nothing, that they are expendable. I die of boredom listening to anyone checking into the office. I was in an airport waiting area the other day and I was literally dying of boredom listening to people talking about how a proposal is shaping up and whether to use chrome or puter for the samples. It was an assault. What flesh was left on my body, after being blown away by their boringness, I picked up and carried onto the plane just so it could melt from the boredom of sitting with the same fucking people for 3 hours. So, I'm offering my Emily post version of what a check into the office should sound like. (guy on phone) -- John here.... Bitchin', I have a total hard on for this project.... Well tell her she can kiss my fucking grandma's kooch.... No what I want is three fingers up my ass, but I'll settle for you getting that report over to Tim by the time I'm done jerking off in the bathroom of this Mcdonald's.... I hope he dies of Cancer.... Great, have a good weekend (click) (scene). I am aware that calling someone boring is a value judgment, but so is calling someone alive or breathing if you want to get metaphysical.
--Mishna Wolff

Len on 09.29.05 @ 07:31 AM CST [link] [ | ]

'I can resist anything except temptation.'
--Oscar Wilde

I'm not a big breakfast cereal eater (which is why I hadn't seen it earlier; I'm usually not putttering down that aisle of the grocery), but when I saw this looking at me from the shelves at Schnucks, I knew what I had to do:

Go Prince Albert!

Of course, the association of Wheaties with celebrity athletes is a long one, which is as deft a segue as I can manage on short notice to my favorite Wheaties story....

Back in the olden days, Wheaties was faced with competition by a now forgotten and probably unlamented rival from Post, called "Huskies". Like the Wheaties folks, Post tried to boost sales by associating Huskies with famous athletes, and one of the ways that they did that was by sponsoring a sports radio program featuring (along with other content) interviews with prominent athletes of the time. The story is told about how Yankee Hall of Fame first baseman Lou Gehrig once made an appearance on the Huskies show and, while being interviewed, stated that every day he ate a bowl of Wheaties for breakfast.

At the end of his career, Gehrig considered making up for his earlier gaffe. According to some sources, Gehrig contemplated beginning his famous "farewell speech" (presented at a July 4, 1939 "Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day" at Yankee Stadium) a bit diffferently:

Before I begin my remarks, I'm told that today my words are being broadcast to the country courtesy of the makers of Wheaties. I remember another time when I mentioned Wheaties on a radio show sponsored by Post cereals, so I just would like to take this opportunity to say: Huskies! Huskies!

This is one of those "if it isn't true, it ought to be" stories. While I love it, I can't vouch for it, although the official Wheaties website does say that Gehrig inadvertently referred to his eating Wheaties on a radio program sponsored by a competing cereal. What makes the story a bit hard to swallow is that Gehrig (who was, incidentally, the first athlete to have his picture on the Wheaties box) also had an endorsement deal with Huskies as well.

Len on 09.28.05 @ 10:57 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Cause for optimism?

Polar Donkey finds some in recent GOP travails:

Last November I was down in the dumps like every other democrat. I kept seeing all the corruption on the Republican side and I wondered if the legal system could withstand the republican asssault on the rule of law. Between Delay's K Street plan and TRMPAC and that lunatic Senator Cornyn threatening judges, I doubted the law could be enforced. But oh how things have changed in a very short time. Bill Frist is being investigated for insider trading worth between $2 and $6 million by the SEC. Tom Delay got indicted for criminal conspiracy. The guy in charge of purchasing for the US government, Savarian, got indicted last week. Jack Abramoff will be going to jail and is currently being investigated by 4 committees in congress. Half of the Republican party of Ohio will be going to jail for coingate. Duke Cunningham in California had to resign for bribes from defense contractors. Grover Nordquist and his organization is being investigated as well. But the biggest one will be Karl Rove in October. It will be great. People are finally figuring out that the Rethuglicans have a pay to play system. They shake down contributors in return for campaign donations and funnel it into slush funds to do dirty tricks and enrich themselves. The Republican Party is ideologically and morally bankrupt. It's ashame it took so much damage to the country for people to see it.

Len on 09.28.05 @ 09:52 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Late to the party again, alas.....

The blogosphere is apparently atwitter over a study showing that the benefits of having a majority of declared religious believers are highly exaggerated, at best. The conclusion of the study, in academese:

The United States’ deep social problems are all the more disturbing because the nation enjoys exceptional per capita wealth among the major western nations (Barro and McCleary; Kasman; PEW; UN Development Programme, 2000, 2004). Spending on health care is much higher as a portion of the GDP and per capita, by a factor of a third to two or more, than in any other developing democracy (UN Development Programme, 2000, 2004). The U.S. is therefore the least efficient western nation in terms of converting wealth into cultural and physical health. Understanding the reasons for this failure is urgent, and doing so requires considering the degree to which cause versus effect is responsible for the observed correlations between social conditions and religiosity versus secularism. It is therefore hoped that this initial look at a subject of pressing importance will inspire more extensive research on the subject. Pressing questions include the reasons, whether theistic or non-theistic, that the exceptionally wealthy U.S. is so inefficient that it is experiencing a much higher degree of societal distress than are less religious, less wealthy prosperous democracies. Conversely, how do the latter achieve superior societal health while having little in the way of the religious values or institutions? There is evidence that within the U.S. strong disparities in religious belief versus acceptance of evolution are correlated with similarly varying rates of societal dysfunction, the strongly theistic, anti-evolution south and mid-west having markedly worse homicide, mortality, STD, youth pregnancy, marital and related problems than the northeast where societal conditions, secularization, and acceptance of evolution approach European norms (Aral and Holmes; Beeghley, Doyle, 2002). It is the responsibility of the research community to address controversial issues and provide the information that the citizens of democracies need to chart their future courses.

The Short Form:

Japan and a number of European democracies have low rates of declared "religiousness" and a high degree of "secularization", and they also score highly on quantifiable indicators of societal health.

The United States has a much higher rate of declared "religiousness" and much lower rate of "secularization", and scores poorly on quantifiable indicators of societal health.

In addition, within the U.S. a similar pattern emerges: those regions within the U.S. which score higher in declared "religiousness" and lower in "secularization" score more poorly on quantifiable indicators of societal health than those regions within the U.S. where there are lower rates of declared "religiousness" and higher rates of "secularization".

Conclusion: There's no correlation between how religious a society is, and how healthy that society is.

There's quite a bit of discussion out there about the study, and unfortunately I don't have the time and space to deal with it now, but I did like an Australian philosopher's pointer to some observations of David Hume:

How happens it then...if vulgar superstition be so salutary to society, that all history abounds so much with accounts of its pernicious consequences on public affairs?

Factions, civil wars, persecutions, subversions of government, oppression, slavery; these are the dismal consequences which always attend its prevalency over the minds of men.

If the religious spirit be ever mentioned in any historical narration, we are sure to meet afterwards with a detail of the miseries which attend it. And no period of time can be happier or more prosperous, than those in which it is never regarded or heard of.

--Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, XII, 220

Len on 09.28.05 @ 08:09 PM CST [link] [ | ]

And the answer is: 'Not long at all.'

The question: "How long will it take before the announcement of Tom DeLay's indictment inspires some poetry by Mad Kane?" (Apologies to Jeopardy!.)

In Mad's case, she uses DeLay's indictment as inspiration for a haiku, as well as reason to revisit a song parody from a while back.

Unusually for Mad, there's no audio feed for this one. However, in compensation, Mad's DeLay indictment haiku has inspired Roxanne of Rox Populi to announce the First Annual Rox Pop "Tom Delay Haiku Slam". Some interesting haikus in the comments; it almost makes me sad that I've never "gotten" haiku, certainly not well enough to actually compose any.

Len on 09.28.05 @ 07:38 PM CST [link] [ | ]

A new variation on an old scam...

The owners of the Florida Marlins, and their co-conspirators, have come up with a new angle for getting to stick their hands in the public pockets in their quest not to have to build a new stadium with their own money. From the Business of Baseball Report in The Hardball Times:

Marlins Stadium Supporters Take New Angle

Weston, Fla. mayor Eric Hersch is coming to bat for the Florida Marlins in their quest for public financing for a new stadium. His proposal has nothing to do with baseball, and everything to do with the recent hurricanes that have wreaked havoc on the gulf coast.

Hersch’s big idea is to help fund the Marlins’ new stadium, but to also make sure the ballpark has a dual purpose. By building a category 5 hurricane-proof stadium, the facility would be able to double as a shelter in the event of a major hurricane hitting the area. The stadium would be stocked with emergency supplies and generators, and the storm refuge aspects of the stadium would be just as much of a priority as the baseball aspects. While the state legislature hasn’t taken up the matter, the plan makes more sense than falling back on the myth that a new stadium would provide some kind of imaginary economic benefit to the area.

In fairness, an interesting concept, and if it's implemented as described here, it'd actually provide some benefit to the local area. But I'm cynical by nature, especially where the privileged are looking to get the public to fund their playtoys; I'll wager that, when push comes to shove (and it will), the storm shelter aspects of the stadium will take second place to the baseball aspects. I'll believe it when I see it, and not before.

Len on 09.28.05 @ 12:55 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Off to a good start:

New addition to the blogroll: Main and Central. This is a group blog founded by Jo Fish at Democratic Veteran, and which focuses on the perspective of "veterans of the Democratic persuasion", as Jo put it, and matters of concern to veterans. By "veterans", Jo includes everyone from folks who left active duty a long time ago to vets just back from Afghanistan or the Mess in Mesopotamia. The gang looks to be an interesting collection of viewpoints:

We've got quite a distinguished group of bloggers (we'll they're all bloggers now, right?), including Terry from Nitpicker, recently returned from a National Guard tour in Afghanistan; Lurch, a long-time and frequent commenter at DemVet and other places, who is a former Army Warrant and was in SE Asia as a LRRP; Jeff Huber of Pen and Sword, a retired Naval Officer and former Commanding Officer of a fleet E-2C squadron, and other veterans who have agreed to contribute. There are also a couple of active duty types who are currently in Iraq who have expressed an interest in contributing, but are weighing the consequences (yes, there are some) of contributing before they take the plunge. I hope they join us, but we'll see. The 1600 Crew are nothing if not vindictive, and these guys need to look out for themselves, after all a couple of them were serious career guys before their second Baghdad vacation.

Best of luck to y'all; I'll be keeping my eyes on you.

Len on 09.28.05 @ 12:46 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Gem o'the Day:

So let's see.

House Majority Leader Indicted for Criminal Conspiracy.

Senate Majority Leader the target of an increasingly serious probe of potential insider trading.

Rumors of October Rove indictment in the Plame case.

Is this a problem yet?
--Josh Marshall

Len on 09.28.05 @ 12:20 PM CST [link] [ | ]

A data point...

In support of those Texas "Aggie" jokes:

I'd have never guessed that there were two ways to board up a window in anticipation of a storm....

Credit: Pete Vonder Haar

Len on 09.28.05 @ 12:10 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Yum...Flying Dog Tire Bite Golden Ale...

"For a beer fancier, there's only one place to be starting today and running through Saturday The Great American Beer Festival in the Colorado Convention Center in Denver.

Upwards of 30-thousand people are expected to buy tickets designated drivers get a greatly reduced rate. Once inside, beer lovers will have the chance to get a one-ounce taste of some 16-hundred different beers on tap, the most in the world.

Every region of the country will be represented, and 350 brewers will be arranged geographically on the convention floor. They will be vying for gold, silver and bronze medals in 67 different judging categories.

Beer consumption by the average American has remained remarkably consistent over the years at about 22 gallons annually.

Courtesy of US News Wire.

Reminds me of the Beers from around the world and nation and the Flying DogTire Bite Golden Ale I had in Memphis at "The Flying Saucer."

Yummy!!!!

:-)

Karen on 09.28.05 @ 11:44 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Hot damn!!!!

On Air America Radio, Al Franken's just announced that Tom DeLay was indicted in Texas.

I may have to rethink my atheism (especially if he's convicted).

UPDATE: DeLay indicted in campaign finance probe

The interesting thing about this is, as Molly Ivins has pointed out on a number of occasions:

DeLay and Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick may have achieved the near-impossible by breaking Texas campaign finance laws. Since Texas essentially has no campaign finance laws, this is no mean feat.
--Molly Ivins

Len on 09.28.05 @ 11:36 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Those Good Citizens....

I have an excerpt from a Driftglass post and some added commentary.

Click on the “more” button” to read further below the fold.

;-)

Karen on 09.28.05 @ 08:16 AM CST [more..] [ | ]

Thought for the Day:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's 2008 presidential campaign has gotten off to a rocky start, what with the Securities and Exchange Commission and a U.S. attorney investigating whether Frist ordered the sale of his shares in HCA, the hospital company his family founded, because he knew the stock was about to plummet.

Frist welcomes the investigation, and he's probably correct that he will be cleared of wrongdoing. Sure, his blind (or perhaps seeing-eye) trust sold shares in the company ahead of a disappointing earnings report in July. But a shrewd investor (or broker) didn't need a personal tip from a company official to dump HCA in May and June. You could just look at sales by HCA executives—widely available to the public through SEC filings and on free services like Yahoo! finance—to see how company insiders were trying to get out before a crash.

The real story about Frist and HCA is just how little he has done to help his family company. As Senate leader, he has done nothing to address the health-insurance problems that have caused HCA's stock to plummet. Republican policies have been troublesome for many health-care businesses, but they have been particularly devastating to HCA.
--Daniel Gross

Len on 09.28.05 @ 07:54 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Holiday to the Big Apple...

I’m off on a weekend Holiday to NY City. So, Len and Brock will certainly continue to “entertain” ya'all if I find myself unable to have WiFi access or the time to post.

But I have few long articles to get posted, like this one about the NOLA shipping canal and the Flooding from Hurricane Katrina.

Click on the “more” button to read further- and Enjoy.

:-)

Karen on 09.28.05 @ 07:47 AM CST [more..] [ | ]

Hmmmmmm.... have we tried everything else?

Bush Orders Flags Lowered To Double-Half-Staff

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Bush issued a proclamation indefinitely lowering the nation’s flags to the double-half-staff position today, in hopes of reversing the string of ridiculously bad luck currently plaguing the United States.

“Flying the flag at full-staff has proven to be very unlucky,” said Bush. “Every time we do that, something terrible happens, and we just end up having to lower it again. It is our hope that flying the flag double-half-staff will bring just as much good luck as full-staff brought bad.”

The nation’s flags had never been lowered to double-half-staff before today.

More of this BS....

[Hmmmmm. Is that "double half-staff" (which sounds like "full staff" to me; after all, 0.5 x 2 = 1) or "quarter-staff" (0.5/2 = 0.25)? --LRC]

Len on 09.27.05 @ 06:21 PM CST [link] [ | ]

The Army in Crisis

David C. Unger (The NY Times - Military affairs expert) has written an excellent piece on the Crisis in the Army:

The biggest casualty of the Iraq War could be America's all volunteer army.

Click on the "more" button to read this long article.

Karen on 09.27.05 @ 03:29 PM CST [more..] [ | ]

Let's See the GOP Majority Quibble Over This One...

...and whether they will shoot this down like the "independent investigation" into the Katrina debacle.

"Congressman Henry A. Waxman and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi introduced the Anti-Cronyism and Public Safety Act, which would prohibit the President from appointing unqualified individuals to critical public safety positions in the government.

"President Bush has handed out some of the country's most difficult and important jobs - leadership positions in public safety and emergency response - to politically well-connected individuals with no experience or qualifications," Rep. Waxman said. "This common sense legislation will end this practice and ensure that public safety is back in the hands of those who are trained and experienced in protecting the public."

The bill would require any presidential appointee for a public safety position to have proven, relevant credentials for that position. In addition, the legislation bars from appointment to an agency any individual who has been a lobbyist for an industry subject to the agency's authority during the preceding two years.

"As Hurricane Katrina tragically demonstrated, serious consequences result when unqualified cronies are appointed to federal public safety positions," Pelosi said. "The Bush Administration's culture of cronyism comes at the expense of public safety. It is unconscionable and must stop immediately - it is literally a matter of life and death. This legislation is critically needed, and I thank Mr. Waxman for his strong leadership in protecting the American people."

Subject to the bill are specific senior-level emergency preparedness offices at the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as any position with the primary function of responding to a direct threat to life or property or hazard to health. "

Courtesy of US News Wire.

And I hope it has a provision to get RID of those *Brownie's* FOR GOOD...none of this *rehire them* garbage going on now.

Karen on 09.27.05 @ 12:53 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Hmmmmmm.... Can U.S. troops be far behind?

Brits drawing up plans to bail out of Iraq; Defence Secretary confident the process will begin by next summer.

Len on 09.27.05 @ 12:07 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Yuks o'the Day:

Bush is keeping track of Hurricane Rita as it hits his home state of Texas. That's Bush's worst nightmare: an electric chair with no power.
--Jay Leno

Hurricane Rita is supposed to make landfall in Texas, which is good for Barbara Bush because she can insult survivors closer to home.
--Bill Maher

Yesterday President Bush made his fifth visit to the area that received the most damage from Hurricane Katrina. In other words, the White House.
--Conan O'Brien

The president believes the government should be limited not in size, Jon, but in effectiveness. In terms of effectiveness, this is the most limited government we've ever had.
--Daily Show correspondent Rob Corddry

Now here's some sad information coming out of Washington. According to reports, President Bush may be drinking again. And I thought, "Well, why not? He's got everybody else drinking."
--David Letterman

Hat tip: dKos's Bill in Portland Maine who compiled these for today's "Cheers and Jeers".

Len on 09.27.05 @ 11:50 AM CST [link] [ | ]

From the "Too True to be Funny" Department:

Via our pals at The Onion: Bill Introduced As Joke Signed Into Law

WASHINGTON, DC—A bill introduced by Sen. George Allen (R-VA) as "just a goof" several weeks ago was signed into law by President Bush Tuesday.

"I was just trying to crack up Frist and some of the other guys," Allen said. "Everyone's been on edge lately, what with the Katrina situation, and I thought we could use a good laugh."

Added Allen: "Looks like the joke's on me. And, I suppose, the American citizens."

S. 1718, also known as the Preservation Of Public Lands Of America Act, authorized a shift of $138 billion from the federal Medicare fund to a massive landscaping effort that, over the next five years, will transform Yellowstone National Park into a luxury private golf estate.

"I thought it was pretty damn funny when I read over the draft of the thing," said Allen, who said he struggled to keep a straight face when he introduced the law. "Especially the part about how it would create over 10,000 caddy and drink-girl jobs. But I guess it went over people's heads."

Len on 09.27.05 @ 08:51 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Visual Confirmation of the Truth of the Matter...

Think Progress has a good post on the under-reported totals for the Peace March in Washington, D.C.; thought to be closer to 300,000 figure than the 100,000 originally reported.

Protest Turnout: A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Lies

"Popular right-wing blogger Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs wrote a post on Saturday called “What If They Gave a Protest and Nobody Came?” It was picked up by various bloggers including Michelle Malkin, who called it “fair and balanced” coverage of the protest.

In the post, Johnson published the photo below as evidence of the “media’s tendency to exaggerate,” arguing that “it looks like the turnout was much less than 100,000 people.” Johnson noted later in the day that “Al-Reuters” had also used the 100,000 number, despite the fact that the picture below “refutes” that claim…”

And HERE is the picture:

To judge the size of a demonstration down 15th Street, it’s probably best to use a photo that actually includes 15th Street, like the shot below. (You’ll notice the throngs of marchers filling up the street for several blocks.)

Karen on 09.27.05 @ 08:15 AM CST [link] [ | ]

From the "Further Comment Would Be Superfluous" Department:

Len on 09.27.05 @ 07:36 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Thought for the Day:

If it were to rain a lot, there is concern from the Army Corps of Engineers that the levees might break. And so, therefore, we're cautious about encouraging people to return at this moment of history.
--George W. Bush

Len on 09.27.05 @ 07:19 AM CST [link] [ | ]

I-Pass - EZ pass

I-PASS can now be used in 11 other states to the east (Jon Davis -Daily Herald):

"Road trips between the suburbs and the East Coast should now be easier for the area’s nearly two million I-PASS-equipped drivers.

With a midnight click of a mouse, Illinois State Toll Highway Authority computers began sharing I-PASS account information with their E-ZPass counterparts, allowing drivers to use their transponders on the other’s toll road systems starting today.

Car and motorcycle owners can immediately use their existing I-PASS transponders. But drivers of trucks, buses, recreational vehicles or cars with towing rigs will have to trade their transponders for new ones compatible with the E-ZPass system.

The toll authority joined the E-ZPass consortium — which comprises Delaware, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia — in April 2004.

But it’s taken 17 months to integrate the two systems’ computer hardware, software and electronics so each system can read the other’s radio signals and charge accounts on 21 separate toll road, bridge or tunnel agencies.

Toll officials did have some words of warning: I-PASS users should make sure their accounts are full before driving east, as E-ZPass tolls generally are more expensive. And I-PASS users who want to know if they qualify for E-ZPass discounts must contact each toll agency separately..."

Now, if only a gallon of gas wasn't so expensive...

Karen on 09.27.05 @ 05:51 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Google Bombs

Being a techno-dweeb, I found this a bit amusing from the Chicago Tribune `Google bombs' put searchers on wrong path, by Steve Johnson:

“Latest on the list of things that engage the computerati but barely interfere with the lives of regular folk -- except to add another new term we vaguely feel we ought to remember -- is the practice known as "Google bombing."

In a resurfacing of an old political jab, anyone typing the word "failure" into the Google Internet search engine gets, as first result, the official White House biography of President George Bush. Ditto for typing the term "miserable failure." Not tested on this computer, because of office rules about profanity rather than because of how much the editorial page loves our president, is what happens if you stick an expletive, undeleted, in between "miserable" and "failure."

These results show up because people who followed their parents' advice to study computer science instead of English literature have analyzed Google and other search engines and figured out that they can be manipulated.
….
How does a Google bomb work? Here's the company's own, reasonably lucid explanation: "Google's search results are generated by computer programs that rank Web pages in large part by examining the number and relative popularity of the sites that link to them. . . . In this case, a number of Web masters use the phrases failure and miserable failure to describe and link to President Bush's Web site, thus pushing it to the top of searches for those phrases."

For this reason, and the fact that other search engines are also affected, some have argued that "link bombing" is the better term.
…
Reading between the lines of this recent posting, the company's bluster fails to disguise that it seems worried about Google bombing. It's something that can be done by a relatively small group of bloggers, for instance, and it can push legitimate search results below where they ought to be.

What the company doesn't say is that failure-equals-Bush is a clunker of a joke. The search result would be funny if you stumbled on it accidentally, by, say, following a blind link sent to you by one of those guys who is always sending around "wacky" e-mails. You got the picture he passed on of the Presidents George Bush fishing in New Orleans, right? First truly amusing thing he sent in a year.

But very few people -- perhaps an inherent defeatist looking for the actual online journal called Failure, or a newspaper writer researching a high-concept feature story -- are likely to type "f-a-i-l-u-r-e" into Google without having been tipped to the result first. And punchline-then-joke just doesn't work.

Funnier is that the second "failure" search result you get, in an apparent act of tit for tat, is the Web site of Bush-bashing filmmaker Michael Moore. Right-wingers can fool Google too.

But most interesting is following the third link, to a legitimate result of the "failure" search. On the site of Failure magazine, we learn that the editors are, in fact, thinking about Katrina.

"We have a front-runner for Failure of the Year (FOTY): The federal government's response to the situation on the Gulf Coast," says the Editor's Column. "The Bush Administration `won' our annual FOTY award two years ago, and it seems destined to become the first two-time winner in Failure's six-year history."

Clearly, this is not a publication run by talentless hack."

Karen on 09.27.05 @ 05:44 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Can I.D. meet the test for "Science" in a Court of Law?

Intelligent design faces first big court test Parents sue after alternate to evolution added to science curriculum:

“A federal judge in Pennsylvania will hear arguments Monday in a lawsuit that both sides say could set the fundamental ground rules for how American students are taught the origins of life for years to come...”

Some of these major I.D. proponent's theories have been analyzed at skepdic.com. And there is this new article from the WaPo: This New Analyses Bolster Central Tenets of Evolution Theory: Pa. Trial Will Ask Whether 'Alternatives' Can Pass as Science

[Hat tip to Pharyngula]

Click on the "more" to read the article in full.

Karen on 09.27.05 @ 05:36 AM CST [more..] [ | ]

Here's what "accountability" means in the bAdministration

Brownie is back.

CBS News' Bob Schieffer just announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has rehired ex-FEMA chief Michael Brown-- as a consultant to evaluate the agency's response to the disaster!

...

CBS says they've confirmed Brown had been rehired. Brown resigned after taking heat when a Time Magazine article revealed that he had padded his resume with bogus jobs.

Must be nice to live in a world where you can fuck up your job so badly, and then just get rehired....

Len on 09.26.05 @ 08:03 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Yuk o'the Day:

Q. How long does it take George Bush to read a book?

A. Nobody knows - it's never been done

Len on 09.26.05 @ 07:54 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Very, very sad news, indeed....

Don Adams, dead at age 82

Requiescat In Pace, Maxwell Smart

Len on 09.26.05 @ 05:09 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Type "D" Personality...

Newsweek is reporting on the dangers of being worried, irritable and socially inhibited.

The article has a simple test may help predict the negative health effects based on this research:

“Years ago, when the psychologist Johan Denollet was first working with cardiac patients at a university hospital in Antwerp, Belgium, he noticed a paradox. Some heart-attack survivors remained cheerful and optimistic despite extensive cardiac damage. They joined eagerly in rehabilitation programs and adhered to them. Others grew discouraged. They resisted rehab, even after milder heart attacks, and spent most of their energy complaining. Denollet, now a professor of medical psychology at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, suspected there was something fundamentally different about these two groups of patients. So he set out to find a way of measuring it. The tool he developed—a simple, 14-question personality test known as the DS14—is now opening a new frontier in cardiology.

Years ago, when the psychologist Johan Denollet was first working with cardiac patients at a university hospital in Antwerp, Belgium, he noticed a paradox. Some heart-attack survivors remained cheerful and optimistic despite extensive cardiac damage. They joined eagerly in rehabilitation programs and adhered to them. Others grew discouraged. They resisted rehab, even after milder heart attacks, and spent most of their energy complaining. Denollet, now a professor of medical psychology at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, suspected there was something fundamentally different about these two groups of patients. So he set out to find a way of measuring it. The tool he developed—a simple, 14-question personality test known as the DS14—is now opening a new frontier in cardiology.
…
Type A's—the weekend-working perfectionist strivers—were deemed likely candidates for heart disease. Relaxed, noncompetitive Type B's were supposed to be models of health. And Type C's—outwardly pleasant people who avoid conflict by suppressing their feelings—were said to be cancer-prone. The ABC model fell apart in the 1980s, when large studies found no reliable connection between the Type A personality and heart disease

The DS14 is looking more and more like a parlor game worth playing. But don't panic if you score at the high end of the scale. Type D personality itself is not a mental illness. It is a collection of normal human traits. And as Denollet is quick to point out, "there are many Type D individuals who are living healthy lives and functioning quite well." A good marriage can be an antidote to social inhibition, especially if your partner's ease with people compensates for your own discomfort. And even the most distress-prone person can learn through psychotherapy to cope with stress and beat back anxious thoughts. Many Type D people have trouble seeking help—by definition, they're ill at ease and afraid to open up—but physicians and family members can help them over those hurdles. And the test itself can help Type D people own up to their fears and frustrations, since it doesn't require any embarrassing social interaction.

Even if you never fully conquer your distress, you can take practical steps to make it less toxic to your health. Exercise and a wholesome diet will reduce almost anyone's risk of a heart attack. And lifestyle changes that protect your heart can improve your emotional state as well. In a 2001 study, Denollet found that comprehensive cardiac-rehab programs boosted people's moods as well as their survival rates, making their lives both richer and longer. "Warding off emotional distress," he concluded, "may be one mechanism to explain the beneficial effect of rehabilitation on prognosis."

It's still too early to know if the Type D will have more staying power than the A, B or C. Researchers have to test the concept across many cultures. And no one has shown conclusively that easing your distress—whether through meditation, talk therapy or antidepressants—can help prevent heart attacks. For now, feeling better will have to be an end in itself. So take the test, and don't fear the result. You can use it to your advantage.”

Take this 7-question test by clicking on this link to find out: Are You a Type D?

Double Dare Ya. LOL

:-)

Karen on 09.26.05 @ 04:54 PM CST [link] [ | ]

"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto...."

How could I resist posting Bill Maher’s New Rules, after seeing his show this weekend...

“Time for New Rules, everybody.

New Rule: The next major destructive storm must be called Hurricane George. You've earned it, buddy! Congratulations. You are officially a Category 5 president.

New Rule: If your razor has five blades, it's not a razor, it's a weed-whacker. With the new Gillette Fusion razor, the first blade lifts the stubble; the second severs the hair follicle; the third slices your skin; the fourth scrapes bone marrow; and the fifth was used by O.J. Simpson to kill his wife, and he wants it back.

New Rule: No more nudity on billboards. You know, I'm all for sex in advertising, but not where horny men drive. I don't want to launch into a big lecture about safety, but the other day, the guy in front of me slammed on his brakes to gawk, and the woman who was blowing me almost hit her head on the steering wheel!

New Rule: If you give a nine-year-old a hunting rifle, expect to have a hole in your head next to the one you already have. That's right. Fathers are signing up their kids to win free hunting trips. Great time to find out she's pissed about not getting that doll. I'm sorry, but the first time your daughter should see a shotgun is at her wedding when she's 14.

And finally, New Rule: Just because we have an obligation to rebuild New Orleans doesn't mean we have to put it back in the same place. For $200 billion, we could put the French Quarter on the moon. Why don't we put it someplace it can stay out of harm and do some good? After all, New Orleans is the Big Easy, and a lot of America is uptight. Which is why I say we put New Orleans in Kansas.

What do you say, Kansas? Put down your hoes and come meet some. Welcome New Orleans to the land that fun forgot. An infusion of color and gayness in the dry Kansas plain. Why, it'll be as if they shot "The Wizard of Oz" on location. You're going to love it! New Orleans is one of the great towns. It's my kind of town, an outpost of free living and sophistication in a sea of - well, now, sea.

You can't tell me that the giant swath of red America that Kansas sits in the middle of wouldn't benefit from thousands of insane Creoles who understand that hangovers only happen to people foolish enough to stop drinking. I read this week that the strippers have gone back to work in New Orleans. They don't even have clothes, and already they're taking them off. Kansas could use some of that spirit.

It could use some jazz, some blues...some blacks. The people of New Orleans are the most tolerant of all Americans. I mean, for Christ's sake, they put up with Anne Rice! And as an extra bonus, they're French, and that'll really piss off Bush. When the French land right in the middle of Bob Dole's Viagra farm.

So, don't think of it as a million-and-a-half black people moving in next door. Think of it as the "March of the Penguins." Only, you know, with a million-and-a-half black people.

Yes, I see a shining city on a plain. New Orleans, Kansas. Where people are learning. They're learning that a gay pride parade isn't something to fear; it's something to laugh at. So what do you say, Kansas? They need a home. You need to get the stick out of your ass. It's a win-win! Come on, Kansas, show some curiosity, show some compassion.

But most of all, show us your tits!!”

--Bill Maher (HBO).

Karen on 09.26.05 @ 02:48 PM CST [link] [ | ]

What next? Bake sales?

Bush has apparently been passing the hat to help pay for his Mess In Mesopotamia:

An extraordinary appeal to Americans from the Bush administration for money to help pay for the reconstruction of Iraq has raised only $600 (£337), The Observer has learnt. Yet since the appeal was launched earlier this month, donations to rebuild New Orleans have attracted hundreds of millions of dollars.

The public's reluctance to contribute much more than the cost of two iPods to the administration's attempt to offer citizens 'a further stake in building a free and prosperous Iraq' has been seized on by critics as evidence of growing ambivalence over that country.

...

It is understood to be the first time that a US government has made an appeal to taxpayers for foreign aid money. Contributors have no way of knowing who will receive their donations or even where they may go, after officials said details had be kept secret for security reasons.

Millions for Katrina aid, but hundreds for Iraq?

Makes sense to me.

But is it just me, or does anyone else remember when Bush and his handlers were telling us that the war would pay for itself, with all those "liberated" Iraq oil revenues?

Len on 09.26.05 @ 12:36 PM CST [link] [ | ]

"Congratulations" to the San Diego Padres, for making baseball history....

According to Billy-Ball email newsletter, the Padres are are the first team to lead an MLB division with a losing record in September.

Sandy Alderson, San Diego's CEO and minority owner, points out, "To me, it will be one more of those esoteric statistics, one more of those historic footnotes that make baseball so great, because it is unpredictable. This is something that happens once every 30 years," Alderson said. "It's an unusual situation. Would it be better if we were one of the other four teams in the division at the end of the year? I don't think so. I'd rather be a footnote to history than not in history at all."

In a later entry, Mr. Ball continues:

DID YOU KNOW?
How good are the 2005 Cardinals? When St. Louis snapped its three-game losing streak with a 2-0 victory yesterday in Milwaukee, they ended their longest losing streak of the season. In the Cardinals' 114-year history (1892-2005), they have never played an entire season without a losing streak of at least four games.

I just hope he didn't jinx the Cards by mentioning that. If they lose four in a row this week (five more left to go; two against Houston Tuesday and Wednesday, and then a weekend series against Cincinnati, so that's not likely), I'll come after him.

:-)

Len on 09.26.05 @ 12:02 PM CST [link] [ | ]

What's in a Word (Choice) ??

George and Mrs. Malaprop:

"It is difficult to listen to George Bush speak and not think of Mrs. Malaprop, a very memorable character in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals, who had the habit of substituting contextually inappropriate words that often bear a certain (usually phonetic) similarity to an appropriate one. Another word that springs immediately to consciousness when thinking of characters in novels and George Bush is "falstaffian," which originated from the name, Sir John Falstaff, who was a character in Henry IV, Parts I and II, and The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare. This character is famous for saying, "Discretion is the better part of valor" (because it saves ones life).

President Bush definitely took heed of Falstaff's advice when he joined the National Guard during the Vietnam War. Let's focus, however, on possible accounts of President Bush's propensity to use contextually inappropriate words. I can think of four. Bush is a Nitwit; Bush is an Ignoramus; Bush is a Sociopath; and Bush may have some sort of speech disorder, perhaps a mild case of anomia.

George Bush has come up with some fairly amazing malapropisms, some of which are presented at the web site, Fun-With-Words, which provides examples from others as well.

(1) "I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but for predecessors as well."

(2) "Natural gas is hemispheric... because it is a product that we can find in our neighborhoods."

(3) "The law I sign today directs new funds... to the task of collecting vital intelligence... on weapons of mass production."

(4) "Oftentimes, we live in a processed world, you know, people focus on the process and not results."
The question arises as to why George Bush makes so many such mistakes. One hypothesis is that he is a nitwit who is controlled by right wing zealots who do their best to protect him from himself by keeping him as far away from microphones as possible.

One might argue that this is hard to square with his Yale bachelor's degree and his MBA from Harvard. These are prestigious schools. The fact is, however, that a school like Yale has historically been a lot harder to get into than to get out of. But, if Yale is hard to get into, how did George Bush get in? It is clear that he got into Yale as a legacy admittee. According to the New Yorker magazine (I am quoting from a secondary source) Bush's verbal and math SAT scores were 180 points below the median for Yale, which suggests he may not have gotten in on his merits. But, of course, Ivy League schools are notorious for accepting legacy applicants because this encourages rich alums to give money to grease the admission wheels. Bush admitted he was a legacy entrant when he once replied to a question, saying, "I thought you were referring to my legacy," Bush said. "In my case, I had to knock on a lot of doors to follow the old man."

Once in, Bush had it made for Ivy league schools are also notoriously easy to get out of. In the 90's, the graduation rate at Yale was in the mid-90's. Maybe they have gotten lax, but I doubt it. So, it is reasonable to assume that President Bush not only eased into Yale, but he eased out as well. He was certainly not a very good student, saying himself in a Yale commencement ceremony, "To the C students I say, you, too, can be president of the United States."

It is alleged that George Bush was also a legacy admittee to the Harvard Business School as well, my source being the the article referred to that itself makes reference to the New Yorker. Certainly, someone who was not just a C student at Yale but also was in the 21st percentile of his class and who had never worked in business would not normally be admitted to the Harvard Business School. I have no data on how hard it is to graduate from the HBS.

So, the Nitwit Thesis has some legs as an account of Bush's propensity to misspeak. However, getting bad grades and getting into major private universities (dare I mention the National Guard as well?) because of who is father is, is not proof that President Bush is stupid -- that Karl Rove, as is believed by some, is Bush's Brain. Many perfectly intelligent people have skated through academia with bad grades but performed excellently in the post-graduate world.

There is a closely related thesis that might explain Bush's malapropisms and this is that he is simply ignorant -- this his education at Yale and Harvard fell on deaf ears. There is a good reason Ms. Condaleza Rice joined him as he tried to prepare to be President: he knew little or nothing about the world. And one characteristic of an ignorant person is that he or she will butcher the language in the process of trying to express himself or herself on matters of some complexity. I am myself reduced to false starts, monosyllables, and speaking with my hands when trying to communicate with carpenters, for instance. In my book on The Language of Politics (now going for the alarming price of $230 -- don't buy it at that price!!!) I discussed some problems President Reagan had with the language when speaking extemporaneously. In his case, I suspected he routinely did not understand the policies of his administration. Since I don't actually know what Bush did or didn't know at any given time, I won't pursue this Bush is an Ignoramus hypothesis attractive though it may be to some.

There is one particularly scary theory of the origin of Bush's malapropisms, and this is that Bush is a sociopath who is verbally facile when speaking of violence and punishment but falls apart when he comes to domestic policies. This Sociopath Thesis is due to Mark Crispin Miller in his book, The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder. One can find a discussion of Miller's thesis in a Toronto Star story by Murray Whyte. This is an amazing thesis but Miller is not alone in holding it. Now, I can believe that most Right Wing zealots are sociopaths to a degree. How else can one explain their utter lack of empathy with those who exist in poverty and suffer from the psychologically damaging and economically limiting effects of racial and ethnic and other forms of prejudice? But the claim that Bush is a sociopath wants some proving. Since Miller's thesis is predicated on a contrast in fluency when talking about violence and when talking about such things as domestic policy, all it would take to knock down the argument is some examples of Bush waxing malapropistically when discussing war, violence, punishment, and the like. In fact, example (3) above would seem to be a case. But the principle underlying Miller's thesis is totally nutty, namely that if a person P is reduced to malaprops and other forms of gibberish when discussing topics of Type T1 but is fluent when discussing topics of Type T2, then there will be a psychological disorder that accounts for the fluency in discussing topics of Type T2.

I have long observed a person who was employed by a radio station in a city I once lived in whose verbal skills were even worse than Bush's. When he talked about sports, especially his favorite sports, he was typically reasonably fluent. But when the show drifted to topics within the sociology of sports verbal errors came flying out of his mouth at an alarming rate. Over time, he improved. He now has a national gig where his focus is exclusively on football and he does reasonably well. There are momentary problems but he is a competent and popular analyst. Now, is this person stupid? I am inclined to think that he isn't because he has a sophisticated understanding of the complexities of American football -- and believe me when I say that that knowledge is not easily acquired. He has a college degree as well but, as we all know, that means nothing but that the person is persistent. Suppose, then, that we move on to a hypothesis along the lines of Miller's Sociopath Thesis for Bush for this sports analyst. The problem is that there is no psychological disorder that can be associated with great verbal facility when talking football, but a lot of verbal blundering when talking about such things as the sociology of sports.

This presents a bit of a problem with Miller's thesis since what is good for the goose (a psychological account of Bush's differential verbal skills) is good for the gander (a psychological account of our sport's personality's differential verbal skills).

There is another possibility that would cover both Bush and the sports analyst and this is that they suffer from some sort of verbal disorder that leads them to be exhibit a certain amount of anomia especially in contexts in which their knowledge is limited to some degree or the person is under stress (i. e., speaking to thousands or even millions of people). I have absolutely no evidence for this but it is the hypothesis that scares me the least. I would much rather believe that Bush has mild anomia than that he is stupid, ignorant, or a sociopath.

I am not an expert on this but if any can direct me to an expert's discussion of this possibility I would appreciate it."

The Language Guy.

Karen on 09.26.05 @ 11:33 AM CST [link] [ | ]

This week Mad Kane finds her muse....

in Judge John Roberts, with a couple poems about why it was (is) important actively to oppose Roberts's nomination, and about Roberts's failure to recuse himself from the Hamdan decision (interviewing with the bAdministration for an important judicial post while a decision to which the bAdministration was a party was pending before him, a fairly clear violation of judicial ethics).

Audio available, of course.

Len on 09.26.05 @ 10:07 AM CST [link] [ | ]

I’m Swiss…

Is the title of the latest Bill Maher one-man show he is performing live at various venues.

We had the opportunity to have some great seats (3rd center) to see him this past Saturday, September 24th, at the Hemmen’s Center in Elgin, Il.

Here’s the program background information on Bill:

It was a Hilariously Funnie show and had some of his new material about the current political stuff over the bAdmin and the Hurricane Disaster.

A couple memorable jokes were his “White-lingo translations” of Black Rap songs. A Howl.

Then was a new airline company he’d like to see created called “Fly At Your Own Risk Airlines.” Where one could have your toenail clippers, your pocket knives, your guns, razor blades and box cutters. You get passed right on through the metal detectors, NO hassles. On the back of your ticket, the FAYOR airline “Waiver Policy” for liability consists of two words – SHIT HAPPENS. Bill reckons we’d be just about as safe under this set of rules than the ones currently in place…and get to our destinations faster and more efficiently. *teehee*

All in all, it was an entertaining evening for political humor. Thanks Bill Maher – Keep ‘em Coming!!!

Karen on 09.26.05 @ 09:25 AM CST [link] [ | ]

This says something significant....

Of course, crowd estimation is a bit of an "art" (read: wild-assed guessing), but a disparity of numbers of this magnitude isn't easy to fudge:

100,000 anti-war protesters.

"Hundreds" of pro-war "counter demonstrators" (the story notes, "far fewer than organizers had expected." Well, if the organizers and their ilk would get their minds back in the real world, instead of the fantasy world they occupy where they seem to think we're "winning" in Iraq, maybe they'd have come up with a more accurate estimate).

Thanks to Bryan for the pointers.

Len on 09.26.05 @ 09:21 AM CST [link] [ | ]

A Birthday Legend...

“One of the nation's folk legends was a real person John Chapman, far better known as Johnny Appleseed thought to have been born on -September 26th -in 1774 in Massachusetts.

For almost 50 years, he roamed the wilderness, devotedly planting apple trees and even whole orchards in a five- state region from Pennsylvania to Indiana. He slept outdoors, walked barefoot and carried no weapons. His clothes were made from sacks, and his hat was a tin pot, which he used for cooking.

For his gentleness and courage, he was respected by both American Indians and settlers. Some of his trees are still bearing fruit. For well over two centuries, Americans have loved apples.

We each eat 16 pounds of apples a year an amount topped only by bananas.

US News Wire.

Yummy apples.

:-)

Karen on 09.26.05 @ 08:12 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Banned Book Week...

“The world of ideas has always been a contentious one but from its beginning, the U.S. has been a leader in protecting freedom of expression and access to the widest possible range of ideas.

This concept is being reinforced by both Banned Books Week and Library Card Sign- up Month.

Very few books are actually banned, but many are the subject of moves to restrict public access to them. Among the most challenged authors recently are Toni Morrison, Robert Cormier and Maurice Sendak.

There are more than 32-thousand libraries across the nation, about half of them open to the public. Most of the remainder specialize, such as law and medicine or belong to colleges and universities.

US News Wire.

Maurice Sendak??? Oh yeah, let’s ban one of my favorite author’s subversive books for children-- like “Where the Wild Things Are”, or maybe his poems like “Chicken Soup With Rice.”

Phuleeease!!!

:-(

Karen on 09.26.05 @ 08:05 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Why schools may want to curb grade inflation....

Well, it worked for Yale, didn't it? :-) From Ironic Times:

Princeton Cuts Number of A's Given to Students Down to 41%
Hopes lower grades will produce a future president.

And from their sports "pages":

Barry Bonds Poised to Pass Babe Ruth
Only record Ruth still holds is Total Hot Dogs Consumed, 60 (for a nine-inning game).

Len on 09.26.05 @ 07:40 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Thought for the Day:

One of the first things that strikes you about baseball, especially compared to other sports, is the sheer volume of it. Last year alone there were 2,464 games, 188,519 plate appearances, and well over half a million pitches thrown. Most of these situations were probably pretty boring, very much like one another. The thrill, however, is when the unexpected slips through the cracks.
--Brian Gunn

Len on 09.26.05 @ 07:05 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Lethal Consequences of Washington's Power Structure...

“For the politically curious seeking entertainment, I'd like to propose two new trivia games: "Find the Brownie" and "Two Degrees of Jack Abramoff."

The objective in Find the Brownie is to find an obscure but important government job held by someone whose only apparent qualifications for that job are political loyalty and personal connections. …

…Two Degrees of Jack Abramoff is inspired by the remarkable centrality of Mr. Abramoff, who was indicted last month on charges of fraud, in Washington's power structure.

The goal isn't to find important political players who were chummy with Mr. Abramoff - that's too easy. Instead, you have to find people linked by employment. One degree of Jack Abramoff is someone who actually worked for the lobbyist. Two degrees is a powerful Washington figure who hired someone who formerly worked for Mr. Abramoff, or who had one of his own former employees go to work for Mr. Abramoff.
….
O.K., enough joking. The point of my games - which are actually research programs for enterprising journalists - is that all the scandals now surfacing are linked. Something is rotten in the state of the U.S. government. And the lesson of Hurricane Katrina is that a culture of cronyism and corruption can have lethal consequences.”

-- Paul Krugman

And these *consequences* are no longer mere "conjecture" as the price of Bad Governance, but paid dearly by the Citizens of NOLA in their Blood and their Lives from their children, sisters, husbands, cousins, aunts, and loved ones. The Criminal Imcompetence of this bAdmin can not and should not be IGNORED.

To read the full piece, click on the "more" button.

Karen on 09.26.05 @ 06:26 AM CST [more..] [ | ]

About Those Expectations...

"Throughout his campaigns in 2000 and 2004, George W. Bush talked about "the soft bigotry of low expectations": the mind-set that tolerates poor school performance and dead-end careers for minority students on the presumption that they are incapable of doing better. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said recently that this phrase attracted her to Mr. Bush more than anything else.

It was, indeed, a brilliant encapsulation of so much of what is wrong with American education. But while Mr. Bush has been worrying about low expectations in schools, he's been ratcheting the bar downward himself on almost everything else.

The president's recent schedule of nonstop disaster-scene photo-ops is reminiscent of the principal of a failing school who believes he's doing a great job because he makes it a point to drop in on every class play and teacher retirement party. And if there ever was an exhibit of the misguided conviction that for some people very little is good enough, it's the current administration spin that the proposed Iraqi constitution is fine because the founding fathers didn't give women equal rights either.
…
Since his failure to notice the Katrina disaster, Mr. Bush has stopped bragging that he doesn't read or watch the news. If he's paying attention now, he should get a message from the outrage over Katrina and shrinking support for his policies in Iraq: The American public has much higher expectations than he does for the president and his government."

NY Times Op-Ed: Hard Bigotry of No Expectations

Karen on 09.26.05 @ 05:43 AM CST [link] [ | ]

As if the alligators in the streets of N'awlins weren't bad enough....

We may be seeing more fatalities resulting from animals being set loose by Hurricane Katrina:

It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.

Dolphins have been trained in attack-and-kill missions since the Cold War. The US Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have apparently been taught to shoot terrorists attacking military vessels. Their coastal compound was breached during the storm, sweeping them out to sea. But those who have studied the controversial use of dolphins in the US defence programme claim it is vital they are caught quickly.

Well, I suppose it could be worse. They could be "sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads".

Len on 09.25.05 @ 01:05 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Thought for the Day:

My strongest impression, however, happened before the game. Great American Ball Park is a nice, though now overly common, place to see a ball game. I think from the upper decks you can get a good view of the river and John Roebling's practice run for the Brooklyn Bridge. But as I walked to the stadium, I was struck by the ugly vacant lot immediately next to GABP. In fact it was so bad that I have an idea for a new website called uglyvacantlots.com. The lot is concrete infested with two-foot high weeds and the usual trash of paper cups, empty two liter bottles and plastic bags. There were some big puddles left over from Tuesday's rain and some huge concrete barriers just lying around for no reason.

Of course what makes the lot especially sad is that piece of land was once occupied by Riverfront Stadium, home to the Big Red Machine. For various reasons I hated that stadium, but it had the kind of history that's difficult to replace. Couldn't they at least treat it better than that?
--Rob@The Birdwatch [www.thebirdwatch.com]

Len on 09.25.05 @ 09:50 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Did Bill Frist's Blind Trust regain its eyesight?

Or, more likely, was it never really blind to begin with? From the AP: Frist Knew About Blind Trust Investments

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., was updated several times about his investments in blind trusts during 2002, the last time two weeks before he publicly denied any knowledge of what was in the accounts, documents show.

The updates included stock transactions involving HCA Inc., the hospital operating company founded by Frist's family.

...

Frist sold his HCA stock from several blind trusts this summer, at a time when insiders in the company also were selling off shares worth $112 million from January through June. Frist aides say he sold his stock to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.

Frist, asked in a television interview in January 2003 whether he should sell his HCA stock, responded: "Well, I think really for our viewers it should be understood that I put this into a blind trust. So as far as I know, I own no HCA stock"

Frist, referring to his trust and those of his family, also said in the interview, "I have no control. It is illegal right now for me to know what the composition of those trusts are. So I have no idea."

Yeah, riiiiiiggggggghhhhhhhhtttttttt.....

Len on 09.24.05 @ 01:56 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Yuk o'the Day:

From a commenter at Democratic Veteran:

Donald Rumsfeld is giving President Bush his daily briefing, and concludes by saying: "Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed in an accident"

"Oh No", the President exclaims. "That's terrible".

His staff sit there, stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President slumps, head in hands. Finally the President looks up and asks...

"How many is a brazillion?"

Len on 09.24.05 @ 01:36 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Is "endangering America" an impeachable offense?

Probably not, alas.

As our problems with Islamic jihadism and terrorism get worse, Larry Johnson reminds us who bears a large part (not all, granted) of the blame:

George Bush got it partially right yesterday (Thursday, September 22) when he said that mistakes made by three of his predecessors, including the Reagan administration, had emboldened terrorists and helped set the stage for the Sept. 11 attacks. Unfortunately he ignored the role his own actions have played in making terrorism worse and pushing the Middle East to the brink of a new war. Instead, the President blindly insisted that he is taking America on the right path in Iraq to confront the threat of terrorism. On that point he is wrong; dead wrong.

Why is he wrong? The U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq is doing the exact opposite of what Bush says U.S. policy was supposed to achieve:

• Instead of reducing terrorism, Islamic terrorism is spreading dramatically.

• Instead of winning new supporters for democracy, the war in Iraq is spurring the recruitment and training radical jihadists.

• Instead of creating a “City on the Hill” that other nations in the Middle East will emulate, Iraq is fissuring and setting the stage for a regional ethnic and religious civil war.

...

Before George Bush tries to pick the splinter out of the eyes of his father, Bill Clinton, and Ronald Reagan, he may want to spend some time removing the huge beam lodged in his iris.

Len on 09.24.05 @ 12:52 PM CST [link] [ | ]

They are all @#%$@&%

The Autoegocrat has a well done diatribe about just WHY these kinds of people (what ever their political stripe) aren’t just bad -- But EVIL.

“…But for the representative of a city with the highest bankruptcy rate in the nation to vote "yea" on that bill is downright criminal.

In addition to having the number one personal bankrupcy rate, Memphis is also home to the single most shameful statistic in the nation. There is only one statistic that could be worse than the murder rate, and in this regard Memphis leads the nation in shame.

Memphis has the highest infant mortality rate in America.

Let me repeat that.

More babies die in Memphis than anywhere else in the country.

Do you think that the two statistics are unrelated? Think again.

The CDC finds that "for infants born to women living in poverty in the United States in 1988, overall excess mortality risk was approximately 60% compared with infants born to women living above the poverty level."

Kinda dovetails into this video piece: “You’re an Asshole”.

[Hat tip to skippy the bush kangaroo.]

These are the "value of life" folks who extole the fetal virtues of zygotes to the HILT and yet ALLOW the poverty and deaths of thousands -- I'm not sorry to say; They are EVIL -- down to the their very Black, Hypocritical Heart of Hearts. EVIL through and through.

Karen on 09.24.05 @ 11:47 AM CST [link] [ | ]

"Deficits Don't Matter" Binge Soon to be OVER

“...As most economists will tell you, one way or another, a "real" (that is, supply-side) shock like Katrina is going to lower living standards, and that consequence cannot be easily or safely suppressed with fiscal or monetary policy. The Fed appears to understand this. But the Bush administration apparently intends to cover the costs of Katrina by borrowing more, rather than by raising taxes or cutting other spending to a correspondingly large degree. In other words, it continues to believe that deficit spending is a free lunch that imposes no costs on the economy -- and that the government, maintaining other programs and keeping taxes low throughout, can simply spend its way out of trouble.

This sounds too good to be true, and it is. Yes, deficit spending is often a good way to stabilize a turbulent economy, or to spread the cost of large investments over time -- but those valuable services do not come free. And remember that Katrina has further tightened an already restricted supply of energy; in those circumstances, the stabilizing role of fiscal policy is severely compromised anyway.

…This has been going on for years, officials point out. Why should it ever stop?

It is a fair question. Actually, it will stop, it must stop: Present fiscal trends are literally incapable of continuing indefinitely. The question is whether the pattern will break gently and over an extended period, or violently and suddenly. Will it be a Category 1 economic adjustment, or a Category 5? Confronting a risk of this sort, as with hurricanes, it makes sense to follow the old advice to hope for the best and plan for the worst
.
But why, you might ask, must there be any such adjustment? Why can't the trends just roll on perpetually? Mainly because of the implications for the country's external finances. This week, the Institute for International Economics published a detailed new study by William R. Cline, The United States as a Debtor Nation. It is the most thorough and up-to-date look at the issue. Cline's analysis is alarming enough, even though Katrina came too late to be taken fully into account. It is to be hoped that somebody with influence in Washington is paying attention.”

Clive Crook (National Journal).

Karen on 09.24.05 @ 09:38 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Thought for the Day:

I'm just happy there's never been a collision between [Mark] Grudzielanek and Doug Mientkiewicz. The fallout would look like alphabet soup.
--Will Carroll ["Under the Knife", Baseball Prospectus]

Len on 09.24.05 @ 08:45 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Stormy Weather...

This is a GEM of a quote from Maureen Dowd (NY Times) today:

" On Wednesday, Stormy tried to make one of his strained linkages, this time with Katrina and terror. The terrorists, he said, were "the kind of people who look at Katrina and wish they had caused it," while he is the kind of person who looks at Katrina and tries to energize himself to deal with natural disasters by thinking, What if this had been done by terrorists?

On Thursday, he tried to move past the image he had projected of a lost boy wandering alone in the storm, and stood at the Pentagon flanked by his war council, talking about how he was moving to "develop a secure, safe democracy in Iraq." Unfortunately, the Saudi foreign minister was in town dropping a bomblet by saying that Iraq was going down the tubes, a judgment other Sunni Arab leaders had been conveying privately."

Click on the "more" button to read this piece in full.

:-)

Karen on 09.24.05 @ 08:43 AM CST [more..] [ | ]

Speaking of those Public Rest Rooms

Ooops: Len Brock forgot to mention that the MAIN Point of the bathroom study is that Men are dirtier than women.

;-)

"So scientists confirmed by spying in public restrooms, watching as one-quarter of men left without washing their hands.

Wednesday's results mark the American Society of Microbiology's latest look at how many people take what is considered the single easiest step to staying healthy: spending 20 seconds rubbing with soap under the faucet.

It also explains why these infection experts tend to use paper towels to open bathroom doors. There is no telling what germs the person before you left on the knob..."

But today the NY Times reports A Long Wait for Public Toilets to be built for Public use in NY.

Click on the "more" button to read further.

Karen on 09.24.05 @ 08:35 AM CST [more..] [ | ]

Braves fans are disgusting slobs

Last month, the research company Harris interactive monitored public restrooms across the nation, surreptitiously taking counts of how many people washed their hands after using the restroom. I found this entirely unsurprising:

• The worst hygiene was at Atlanta's Turner Field baseball stadium, where 37 percent of men left the bathroom without washing, and 16 percent of the women did.

Other findings from the study:

• New York's Penn Station had the biggest gender disparity, where 64 percent of men washed their hands compared with 92 percent of women. Grand Central Station was almost as bad.
• The best hygiene was at San Francisco's Ferry Terminal Farmers Market and Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry and Shedd Aquarium, where only about 12 percent of people left without washing.

Brock on 09.23.05 @ 07:16 PM CST [link] [ | ]

My sentiments, exactly....

Josh Schulz perfectly expresses some thoughts I've had in less perfect form: Those Stupid Little Magnets. The inspiration for Josh's post comes from Fred Clark at Slactivist, who has a modest proposal for encouraging at least some of us to show some real support for "The War President"'s mess in Mesopotamia:

The War Bonds poster above comes from the fascinating, and inspiring, collection of WWII posters at Northwestern University. Go over and browse through this collection. It's a portrait of a different time and a different world. Every American was, at some level -- and usually a level involving sacrifice -- engaged in the war effort. People on the homefront invested whatever they could spare in war bonds. They lived with rationing and recycled everything.

That's not the case now. If you're not enlisted in America's military, you're not involved in the war in Iraq. You have neither the obligation, nor the opportunity to contribute to or sacrifice for the war effort. And your president insists that this is the way it should be.

The American public does not today have the character to support a new war bonds effort. (We don't have the savings, either, since most of us are in debt up to our eyeballs. Our national savings rate is negative -- and likely headed down once the housing bubble bursts. But bracket that for now.)

So here's a modest proposal for a remedial first step: Have the USO start selling "official" versions of those @#&$ "Support the Troops" magnets. Full-sized ones would cost, say, $500. Smaller ones would cost $100. Whenever you spotted someone with one of the unofficial magnets, you'd be justified -- even obliged -- to mock them as a freeloading, fair-weather patriot until finally they were shamed into putting their money where their tailpipe is.

The USO's budget, of course, has little to do with the actual cost of the war. But at least this would ensure that "the troops" would benefit from the intangible, ineffectual "support" which now seems so widespread, smug and shallow. And by reconnecting patriotism with the idea of making a contribution it might help to reshape our national character so that we might, once again, be capable of something like a war bonds effort.

Len on 09.23.05 @ 07:04 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Do We Deserve the Answers?

Dan Froomkin (WaPo):

“White House Briefing reader J. Harley McIlrath of Grinnell, Iowa, e-mailed me yesterday some insightful questions about just one sentence of Bush's speech.

In fact, his questions about that one sentence alone were more penetrating and important than any of the coverage I read of Bush's whole speech this morning.

The sentence from Bush: "The only way the terrorists can win is if we lose our nerve and abandon the mission."

McIlrath wrote:

"1. Who are 'the terrorists?' He's talking about Iraq. Are 'the insurgents' also 'the terrorists?' Has Bush ever defined just who 'the terrorists' are?

"2. What would constitute a 'win' for the terrorists? What do they want? Do we know? Has Bush ever asked himself what 'the terrorists' want and whether or not it's reasonable? Tactics aside, what do they want? Don't tell me 'they hate freedom.'

"3. What constitutes 'losing our nerve?' Is it losing one's nerve to pull resources back from an ineffectual approach and apply them to an approach that is more promising? How many times in WWII did we pull resources off one front to reinforce another?

"4. What is 'the mission.' Can we abandon a 'mission' that has never been defined? To quote George Harrison: If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.

"Imagine if the press corps took this one short sentence and forced Bush to define his terms."

Karen on 09.23.05 @ 04:52 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Time to Impeach "the Messenger"

And for those "Remorse Buyers" to do their part by voting OUT this GOP majority in the next election. Then can there be a Full Investigation into this bAdministration and that long deferred "Accountability Moment" Paid in Full via an Impeachment of this entire grossly incompetent crew.

It's our very lives and safety as a Nation which is ON THE LINE.

What to do about the Bush problem by Robert Parry [Hat tip to The Smirking Chimp]:

“The stark question now before the country is: Should it sit still for the next three-plus years of George W. Bush’s presidency or demand accountability, including possibly the removal of him and his political team from office?

Though it’s true that impeachment of both President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney would be an extreme step, this constitutional option must be judged against the alternative of a continued national leadership that is facing worsening crises while known for a trademark refusal to admit mistakes or to make meaningful adjustments to its policies.

Over and over, Bush has made clear that he has no intention to reverse himself on any of his core decisions, which include the Iraq War, tax cuts weighted toward the upper incomes, tolerance of record budget deficits and rejection of the chief international agreement on global warming, the Kyoto Treaty. (Bush even questions the overwhelming scientific consensus on global warming.)

So, the hard choice is whether the country would be better off starting this political battle now with an eye toward a change in control of Congress in 2006 or simply waiting for the next presidential election in 2008.
….

Future historians will face the task of explaining how and why the world's supreme nation of the late 20th Century - at the height of its power and affluence - put itself into this fix. Why were the reins of national power turned over to a man who possessed so few qualifications for the job? [For my perspective on how it happened, see Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq.]

But the more immediate question for Americans now is what to do next. Should the nation drift for three-plus years while Bush and his allies continue their strategy of consolidating political power (in large part by installing likeminded individuals in the federal judiciary)? Or should the country begin, as best it