Dark Bilious Vapors
http://www.cleavelin.net
Philosophical and other ramblings by a pair of Midtown MemphiansenCopyright 2005, Len Cleavelin2006-02-10T13:58:58Len Cleavelin (mailto:leonard\@cleavelin.net)Len Cleavelin (mailto:leonard\@cleavelin.net)Philosophical and other ramblings by a pair of Midtown MemphiansDark Bilious VaporsDark Bilious Vaporshttp://example.com/favicon.ico
http://www.cleavelin.net
Jim (The Waco Kid): Where you headed, cowboy?<br>Bart: Nowhere special.<br>Jim: Nowhere special. I always wanted to go there.<br>Bart: Come on.<br>--"Blazing Saddles"
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<p> The past 72 hours of enforced blogging silence have been wonderful. I'd forgotten that there are so many other interesting things to do. Interesting foods to eat. Entertaining movies to watch. Enlightening books to read. <br /><br />And now that I've been reminded of those things to do, I'm going to go do them.<br /><br />SO.... I'm retiring from the blogosphere, effective immediately. This is the last post that I'll be posting here. [If I get inspired to write something about baseball, I may post at <a href="http://www.thebirdwatch.com/">The Birdwatch</a>, but I have no doubt that those will be very rare occasions.]<br /><br />Thanks for reading. It's been real, it's been fun, and occasionally it's been real fun. And if your path ever takes you to nowhere special, come look me up.<br /><br />'til then, good bye, and good luck. <br /><br /> </p> <p>Len on 02.10.06 @ 07:56 AM CST</p><br><br> <p>Posted by Len On 10/02/06 At 07:56 AM</p>Technical Difficulties... please stand by....
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<p> I'm getting some weird "Internal Server Error" error messages when I try to update the site today. Along with that, I notice that some of the archive pages aren't updating correctly when that happens. I have a way of working around that, but it's a pain in the butt, so I don't want to do it often.<br /><br />The hosting company's tech support has been notified, but until I get a handle on this posting will be light to nonexistent. I'm sure y'all will enjoy the holiday. :-) <br /><br /> </p> <p>Len on 02.07.06 @ 07:56 AM CST</p><br><br> <p>Posted by Len On 07/02/06 At 07:56 AM</p><em>The Onion</em> should have gotten a patent first....
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<p> In his <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2135409/">annual review of Sunday's Super Bowl advertising orgy</a>, Seth Stevenson at Slate notes that Gillette's rollout of the advertising for their five-bladed "Fusion" razor was foreshadowed in a piece that came out two years ago in <em>The Onion</em>: <a href="http://www.theonion.com/content/node/33930">Fuck Everything, We're Doing Five Blades</a><blockquote><em>Would someone tell me how this happened? We were the fucking vanguard of shaving in this country. The Gillette Mach3 was </em>the<em> razor to own. Then the other guy came out with a three-blade razor. Were we scared? Hell, no. Because we hit back with a little thing called the Mach3Turbo. That's three blades and an aloe strip. For moisture. But you know what happened next? Shut up, I'm telling you what happened—the bastards went to four blades. Now we're standing around with our cocks in our hands, selling three blades and a strip. Moisture or no, suddenly we're the chumps. Well, fuck it. We're going to five blades.</em></blockquote>Must be hard to be a business innovator when a satirical news source publicizes your best ideas two years ahead of you. :-) <br /><br /> </p> <p>Len on 02.07.06 @ 07:13 AM CST</p><br><br> <p>Posted by Len On 07/02/06 At 07:13 AM</p>Thought for the Day:
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<p> <em>Usually, when you go to someone's house they offer you coffee. They say, "You want some coffee?" I tell them, "No thanks, I have coffee at home. But I could use a little pancake mix." I try to get things I need.<br /> --George Carlin</em> <br /><br /> </p> <p>Len on 02.07.06 @ 05:54 AM CST</p><br><br> <p>Posted by Len On 07/02/06 At 05:54 AM</p>Compassionate Conservatism
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<p> John "Buggery Buggery Buggery" Derbyshire <a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/06_01_29_corner-archive.asp#089253">shares his thoughts</a> on the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4676916.stm">recent sinking of a ferry in the Red Sea</a>:<blockquote><i><p align=left>In between our last two posts I went to Drudge to see what was happening in the world. The lead story was about a ship disaster in the Red Sea. From the headline picture, it looked like a cruise ship. I therefore assumed that some people very much like the Americans I went cruising with last year were the victims. I went to the news story. A couple of sentences in, I learned that the ship was in fact a ferry, the victims all Egyptians. I lost interest at once, and stopped reading. I don't care about Egyptians.</i></blockquote><p align=left>(þ <a href="http://progressivegoldbeta.blogspot.com/2006/02/know-your-bigots-john-derbyshire-of.html">Progressive Gold</a>.) <br /><br /> </p> <p>Brock on 02.06.06 @ 07:40 PM CST</p><br><br> <p>Posted by Brock On 06/02/06 At 07:40 PM</p>From the "Too True To Be Funny" Department:
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<p> <em><strong>NEGROPONTE, GOSS COMPLAIN TO SENATE PANEL ABOUT ILLEGAL SPYING LEAKS</strong><br />Government's lawbreaking capability compromised when people find out about it.<br />--<a href="http://www.ironictimes.com/">Ironic Times</a>, 2/6/2006</em> <br /><br /> </p> <p>Len on 02.06.06 @ 12:13 PM CST</p><br><br> <p>Posted by Len On 06/02/06 At 12:13 PM</p>And speaking of Frey....
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<p> Over at ReelThoughts, James Berardinelli makes <a href="http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/reelthoughts.html">some interesting and well taken comparisons</a> between James Frey (author of the "memoir" <em>A Million Little Pieces</em>) and Michael Moore (alas, no permalink; navigate to the entry for February 4, 2006).<blockquote><em>That brings us to the movies. On one side, there are the documentaries: fact-based explorations of one subject or another. On the other side, there's everything else (a category dominated by, but not exclusive to, narrative features). It's easy to explain the exaggerations, omissions, and additions of "based on true story" fictional films - their primary reponsibility is not to history or the truth, but to the entertainment and/or enrichment of their audience. As I have often said, never let the facts get in the way of a good story. And that's fine as long as it's understood that what we're viewing is a fictionalized interpretation of real events.<br /><br />Documentaries, on the other hand, must be truthful and fact-based. That doesn't mean they cannot have an opinion or point-of-view, but they cannot lie or distort the facts to promote that perspective. Like news pieces or articles, documentaries need to be rigorously fact-checked to ensure that they are not knowingly or unknowingly providing false or misleading information. And that brings us to Michael Moore.<br /><br />Moore is guilty in the cinematic realm of being as untruthful as Frey is in the literary realm. In all of his films, but most especially </em>Fahrenheit 9/11<em>, Moore wilfully and knowingly violates the tenets of documentaries, distorting the facts and employing staged events. This wouldn't be a problem if Moore's works were presented as propeganda or op-ed pieces, but they are universally accepted as documentaries. (</em>Bowling for Columbine<em> won an Oscar in the documentary category.) <br />...<br /><br />I would never discourage anyone to discount Moore's films outright. Indeed, I highly recommended </em>Bowling for Columbine<em> (despite the Charlton Heston bushwhack). Moore makes good points and challenges people to think. But he doesn't play fair, and those who view the movies need to watch them with a healthy degree of skepticism. Even back in the time of </em>Roger and Me<em>, Moore was not a documentarian. Many of the events depicted on screen in that picture were either staged or re-created. From the beginning, he has been in the business of propeganda. That's the thing to remember when you put one of his movies in the DVD player or sit down to a future theatrical screening of </em>Sicko.</blockquote> <br /><br /> </p> <p>Len on 02.06.06 @ 09:01 AM CST</p><br><br> <p>Posted by Len On 06/02/06 At 09:01 AM</p>Gem o'the Day:
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<p> <em><strong>Ode To Press Hypocrisy</strong><br />By Madeleine Begun Kane<br /><br />The pundits are outraged<br />At Frey's memoir lies.<br />Too bad that Bush falsehoods<br />Don't get such a rise.</em><br /><br />Apologies to Mad for stealing the whole poem. But the good news is that if you just <a href="http://www.madkane.com/notable01_06a.html#02_06_06">head to the source</a> you can find two more poems on the same subject (the Frey memoir/Oprah brouhaha), <em>and</em> <a href="http://www.madkane.com/frey.mp3">an audio link</a>, of course.<br /><br />Also of note: Mad was a judge for <a href="http://humorfeed.com/20060201press.php">HumorFeed's 2005 Satire News Awards</a>. The winner was BSNews's <a href="http://www.bsnews.org/articles/56">Bush Sells Louisiana Back to the French</a> (a piece so good <a href="http://www.cleavelin.net/archives001/00002028.html">we linked back to it</a> last September when it came out; unfortunately in our ignorance we violated BSNews's policies on fair use quotations of their copyrighted material, for which we apologize--go read the original instead). Second place went to Confusion Road for <a href="http://www.confusionroad.com/article.php?article_id=276">Terri Schiavo Dies; Congress Orders Feeding Tube Reinserted</a> (follow that link and check out the accompanying picture, which is a gem), while third place went to a favorite of mine, BBSpot, for their tech satire gem <a href="http://www.bbspot.com/News/2005/01/microsoft_antispyware.html">Microsoft's AntiSpyware Tool Removes Internet Explorer</a> (another one that tickled my fancy so much that <a href="http://www.cleavelin.net/archives001/00000581.html">I linked to it</a> when it came out back in May).<br /><br />Congrats to all the winners, and kudos to Mad and the rest of the judging team, which performed a difficult job (the <a href="http://humorfeed.com/20050117press.php">ten finalists</a> were all deserving) in an exemplary manner. I look forward to next year's awards. <br /><br /> </p> <p>Len on 02.06.06 @ 08:52 AM CST</p><br><br> <p>Posted by Len On 06/02/06 At 08:52 AM</p>T minus 10 days and counting.....
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<p> Pitchers and catchers report to Cardinals spring camp on February 16. <br /><br /> </p> <p>Len on 02.06.06 @ 06:24 AM CST</p><br><br> <p>Posted by Len On 06/02/06 At 06:24 AM</p>Thought for the Day:
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<p> <em>If one gives up reason in the formation of some of one's beliefs, one gives up the only access to truth we have. Humans don't have any perceptual capacity to immediately discern truth, the way we immediately discern color and shape (if the lighting is good and our eyesight is in good order). The closest we can get is to </em>justify<em> our beliefs. Faith is not justification, it is the suspension of all standards for justification. Faith declares that some beliefs - these important ones right at the center of my world-view that shape how I see many other things - need not be justified at all.<br /><br />If one's beliefs cannot be justified, and if one's actions are shaped and motivated by one's beliefs, then one's actions cannot be justified. Oh, the actions of the faithful might accidentally be consistent with justifiable actions - but that would be pure luck, really, and could just as well have turned out otherwise.<br /><br />Those who live by faith are not intellectually inferior. One could even say that it takes a certain brilliance, or at least extraordinary mental flexibility, to engage in the mental gymnastics required to apply reason in most areas of life and then suspend it entirely on other areas. So this isn't really about intellect. And to say that faith is a failure of reason or abdication of reason is just to name it, not to explain what's wrong with it. I think something stronger can be said.<br /><br />Faith is a moral failing. The abdication of reason is the abdication of justification. When people stop even trying to rationally justify their actions in the world - when they decide to act from faith instead - then they might just do anything at all and call it right and good.<br />--<a href="http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=166">George M Felis</a></em> <br /><br /> </p> <p>Len on 02.06.06 @ 05:33 AM CST</p><br><br> <p>Posted by Len On 06/02/06 At 05:33 AM</p>In case I'm not clear on where I stand with respect to the Muslim cartoon brouhaha....
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<p> I am in substantial agreement with <a href="http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/002821.html#002821">Norm's views here</a>:<blockquote><em>Since when does belief in a god trump the belief in freedom of speech as enshrined in the 'sacred documents' of Western Democracies; and doesn't the muslim world's reaction to the cartoons confirm much of the criticism the cartoons express. We don't give others with strong beliefs a free pass from criticism, or from ridicule, why is it that the muslims think their beliefs should be immune to such criticism. The idea that any religion should get a free pass from criticism is absurd. Those who claim they believe in free speech, but who accept the boycotts, the threats of violence, the intimidation as legitimate are liars. The only legitimate response to free speech is the exercise of one's own free speech. Those who attempt to destroy those whose speech they disagree with are bullies and have no place in a civilized world. It is the response of totalitarians who fear open and honest debate.</em></blockquote>However, <a href="http://www.cleavelin.net/archives001/00003231.html">as noted by Josh Marshall</a> (and, indeed, as I've experienced myself from time to time) it isn't just Muslims who claim such privilege from criticism--be honest now, have you heard more Muslims or more Christians in the United States whine about how persecuted they are? (<strong>Hint:</strong> Last year, was it the "War against <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_ul-Adha">Eid ul-Adha</a>" that Bill O'Lielly and John Gibson were complaining about?) <br /><br /> </p> <p>Len on 02.05.06 @ 10:10 PM CST</p><br><br> <p>Posted by Len On 05/02/06 At 10:10 PM</p>I now pronounce you panda and panda...
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<p> Congratulations to Angelica and Gene of Battlepanda, who <a href="http://battlepanda.blogspot.com/2006/02/meet-mr-mrs-battlepanda.html">got married this past Friday</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/photo/060119/ids_photos_wl/r1213422750.jpg;_ylt=AgjM_c6EbBGcFOd0RhWWtzEDW7oF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl">Don't miss the Reuters photos from the honeymoon.</a><br /><br />(Sorry, I couldn't resist.) <br /><br /> </p> <p>Brock on 02.05.06 @ 10:04 PM CST</p><br><br> <p>Posted by Brock On 05/02/06 At 10:04 PM</p>And don't forget those wooden shoes...
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<p> It seems that someone at Pajamas Media needs a remedial geography lesson:<br /><br /><img border="0" src="http://www.cleavelin.net/archives001/danishtulips.jpg" alt="Danish Tulips (56k image)" height="306" width="540" /><br /><br />(þ <a href="http://lgfwatch.blogspot.com/2006/02/dutch-danish-whatever.html">LGF Watch</a>.) <br /><br /> </p> <p>Brock on 02.05.06 @ 07:41 PM CST</p><br><br> <p>Posted by Brock On 05/02/06 At 07:41 PM</p>He's got huge fangs!
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<p> The Children's BBC has a story on <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4670000/newsid_4676900/4676904.stm">Herman, who is possibly the world's largest rabbit</a>. The article says he weighs in at 7.7 kg (that's 17 lbs, for our metrically-challenged readers), but from this picture I wonder whether that's a typo. 17.7 kg, perhaps?<br /><br /><img border="0" src="http://www.cleavelin.net/archives001/herman2.jpg" alt="Herman the Giant Rabbit (21k image)" height="375" width="220" /><br /><br />(þ <a href="http://www.apostropher.com/blog/archives/002999.html">apostropher</a>.) <br /><br /> </p> <p>Brock on 02.05.06 @ 06:49 PM CST</p><br><br> <p>Posted by Brock On 05/02/06 At 06:49 PM</p>