June 11, 2004
We're Supralegal Now!
The Sine Qua Non wife and I are celebrating twenty-one years of marriage today.
Posting will be light.
June 09, 2004
Shithead Scumball (Rhyming Slang)
"Still, I'm not a knee-jerk left-wing guy," Mr. Rall said.
That's correct Ted. There's nothing knee about you.
That's Funny, I Think the Same Thing About Green Party Members
Freedom is a foreign concept to the French (no pun intended):
Bulky four-by-fours could be banned from clogging up the chic streets of Paris after a top official in the capital's left-wing government described them as a polluting "caricature of a car" unsuited to city life.
An anti-sports utility vehicle (SUV) resolution passed by the city council could lead to a ban on the popular vehicles in about 18 months if it is included in an overall project to improve traffic flow in the city, Deputy Mayor Denis Baupin said Wednesday.
"You have to wonder why people want to drive around in SUVs," Baupin, a Greens party member, said on Europe 1 radio.
"We have no interest in having SUVs in the city. They're dangerous to others and take up too much space."
I Will Keep Repeating This Until Everyone Understands It
The embodiement of ethics and morality in this life is each person's battle of good versus evil, not perfect versus evil.
June 05, 2004
I Voted For Him Twice
I am reminded of Secretary of War Stanton's words when Abraham Lincoln died, "Now he belongs to the ages.
The original misunderestimated president.
June 02, 2004
What Liberal Media?
Dan Rather: simple-minded stooge or willful sycophantic shill?
Clinton, who flopped last year as a commentator for the CBS television news magazine, will discuss his upcoming book, "My Life," with newsman Dan Rather for an interview to be aired Sunday, June 20.
I find it amusing that they have to tell us that Dan Rather is a "newsman."
Just An Observation, Not a Value Judgment
Reading the Professor this morning, I began to wonder if Amazon.com is the Wal-Mart of the Internet, putting small mom and pop cyber-operations out of business because of their nefarious ability to exploit economies of scale combined with their ruthless efficiency? Is Amazon.com destroying burgeoning, healthy on-line communities by offering so much under one URL that small proprietors cannot compete? How fair is it that the global corporate interests that run Amazon.com have an on-line database that can be mined for my preferences, offering them a competitive advantage over stuggling, middle class Internet entrepeneurs who are only trying to feed their families? And what's with the personal greetings and suggestions Amazon.com offers me every time I enter their site? It's almost as if some blue-smock wearing Medicare recipient was trying to cheer me up as I cross their portal. Incidentally, the faceless machines of Amazon.com will be putting even the blue-smock wearing greeters of Wal-Mart out on the keisters soon if their hegemonic capitalist thrust isn't stopped soon! How are we supposed to think globally and act locally if all our commerce is conducted without respect to geography? The Internet was supposed to break down the walls of time and distance to give us the global village so many have dreamt of for so long, though the multinationals are exploiting its power to crush the enterprising spirit of the great unwashed masses. Maybe Jeff Bezos thinks he has to destroy the global village in order to save it.
(By this time, I am talking very fast and quite loudly, gesturing wildly as my body starts spinning and rotating with changes to pitch, roll and yaw all accelerating until I have disappeared behind a counter, a la John Belushi on an SNL Weekly Update rant so many years ago.)
Who Said Irony Is Dead?
Did anyone else hear special U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi on NPR this morning sternly admonish the new Iraqi government to remember that they are not elected?
May 31, 2004
Name Change
With a tip of the hat to Abraham Lincoln, I propose we change our country's name from the United States of America to The Last, Best Hope of Earth. Just hearing that said at the UN every time our ambassador speaks or at the Olympics every time one of our citizens wins a medal would make the expense worthwhile. And who really wants to be known as being anti-Last, Best Hope of Earth?
While I'd love to see it happen, I won't hold my breath. But the thought that first crossed your mind when you read the paragraph above probably says a lot about what you think of America, her people, and her ideals these days.
Peace... the Next Best Thing to Freedom
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who has served and paid so dearly for my right to say that this Memorial Day.
May 28, 2004
The Scourge of Richard Cohen, Vol. CVI
(Ed. -- The following is a bit of mean spiritedness that will be an on-going feature of this blog. Normally the author will endeavor to be reasonably fair, but this is an exception.)
Note: This was much better, but MT lost the whole damn thing so I've had to recreate it while drunk, tired and frustrated. Enjoy.
All I want to do is get back to you
Connection, I just can't make no connection.
But all I want to do is to get back to you.
Everything is going in the wrong direction.
The doctor wants to give me more injections.
Giving me shots for a thousand rare infections
And I don't know if he'll let me go
Connection, I just can't make no connection.
But all I want to do is to get back to you.
Connection, I just can't make it, connection
But all I want to do is to get back to you.
My bags they get a very close inspection.
I wonder why it is that they suspect 'em
They're dying to add me to their collection
And I don't know if they'll let me go
Connection, I just can't make no connection.
But all I want to do is to get back to you.
Connection, I just can't make no connection.
But all I want to do is to get back to you.
Rolling Stones or Richard Cohen in Consistently Disconnected?
May 27, 2004
In the Tank
Think tank: Iraq diverted U.S. from major strategic threats
The United States has become preoccupied with the ongoing insurgency in Iraq, the The International Institute for Stategic Studies said.
As a result, the Bush administration is deeply divided over a strategy to contain the weapons of mass destruction arsenals of Iran and North Korea, the leading think tank concluded in an analysis..
Therefore, the report continued, the Bush administration has relayed considerable responsibility for efforts to curb Iranian and North Korean WMD to other countries. The IISS said Washington gave the European Union responsibility to negotiate with Iran while China was asked to deal with Pyongyang, Middle East Newsline reported.
So, everybody would have been happy campers if we had just liberated Iran or North Korea instead, right?
DOWNDATE: Post corrected for an obscure form of Arab-Persian dyslexia, thanks to Mr. Murphy.
At Least Women Are Not Hit Hardest
Report: 1 of Every 75 U.S. Men in Prison
Attorney General John Ashcroft said the report shows the success of efforts to take hard-core criminals off the streets. "It is no accident that violent crime is at a 30-year low while prison population is up," Ashcroft said. "Violent and recidivist criminals are getting tough sentences while law-abiding Americans are enjoying unprecedented safety."
Yea, but coming from John Ashcroft, even lower crime rates must be evil. But perhaps I spoke too soon about women not being hit hardest.
The number of women in state and federal prisons grew by 5 percent, compared to a 2.7 percent increase for men. Still, men greatly outnumber women: 1.36 million to 100,102.
At this rate, women will have broken through the cement ceiling and pass men in 2017 when almost 2 million of each are behind bars. My goodness, who's going to pay for my social security?
What's Wrong With This Picture?
We won a war against a really bad guy in a few weeks thereby changing the future of the hopeless Middle East, the economy is absolutely booming, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is an uptight, out of touch loser -- and the election this fall may still be close. I don't have anything invested in Bush per se, but I can't believe we are ready to surrender to the idea that the UN, France, Germany, Russia and China will do what is best for the United States.
What am I missing -- aside from troll bait?
The Day Before Tomorrow
Multiple tornado warnings all around us here in St. Louis right now.
Posting may be light to non existent...
DOWNDATE: We're ok here, but there have been a couple of tornados spawned by this storm in the area. Of course, if Al Gore was right about his Chicken Little scare-mongering, there would have been a 12-mile wide path of total destruction through St. Louis as a warning to the rest of you to CONFIRM THE KYOTO ACCORDS NOW BEFORE YOU ALL DIE!!!
May 26, 2004
Remember...
We were perhaps one SCOTUS vote away from disaster in 2000:
Don't let it come to that this November 2, which, by the way, is my birthday. Can you guess what I'm wishing for?
May 25, 2004
The Bad, the Ugly, and the Good
Four times today I heard or read Big Media say something along the lines of "President Bush failed to draw any connection between Iraq and 9/11." This is so tiresome. We did not depose Saddam Hussein and liberate Iraq because Saddam or Iraq had anything to do with 9/11. We deposed Saddam Hussein and liberated Iraq because on 9/12 we decided we didn't want any more 9/11s. It's really simple, isn't it? Can we retire this tired old canard now? If not for the sake of the truth, how about because it is so damned offensive in that it implies strongly that we may not do anything except in retaliation or revenge after we have been attacked.
I am thoroughly disgusted with these Big Media people who are supposed to be so much smarter than I am about these things. After all, they get paid to be knowledgeable about this stuff while I try and learn what I can in the spare minutes and hours I have around my job that does not pay me to read, study or pontificate about such matters. Is it so much to ask that they at least grasp the few solid facts there are and draw the simplest of conclusions from them?
And it hailed here today. A lot.
Anyway, I picked up a few things this week:
Peace Kills by P.J. O'Rourke (my favorite right wing humorist)
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (Burrrrrrrr)
The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking (an amazing fellow)
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco (hardback this time for long term note taking -- you know, if you read this you will probably know more about the Kaballah than Madonna; then again, you probably know more about the Kaballah than Madonna even if you don't read it)
Frank's Wild Years by Tom Waits (The bats are in the belfry, the dew is on the moor...)
The Return of the King DVD (now and again later, of course)
Master and Commander DVD (for the sound as much as anything)
And I'm probably going to see The Life of Brian in the theater tomorrow. If posting is light, now you'll know why. Oh, and for those that care, the job is going great.
May 24, 2004
Just an Observation
In the last three years of Dick Cheney's tenure as Chairman, Halliburton made a profit of $924M. In the three years since Dick Cheney retired from Halliburton, they have lost $919M. That's some influence Vice President Cheney's been exerting for his buddies. Don't believe me? Look it up.
On the other hand, Benon Sevan, Kofi Annan and their friends and relatives are widely suspected to have skimmed as much as $10B off the $46B generated by Iraq's oil sales that was to be used for the humanitarian good of the people of Iraq -- even while some kept claiming that 500,000 Iraqi children died because of the UN sanctions. And that's not even counting what Saddam was allowed to steal to keep building palaces, prop up his wicked regime, and bribe politicians and journalists.
Break out the puppets!
May 23, 2004
What Is the Demographic for the Discovery Science Channel?
I've been watching the Discovery Science Channel a lot this weekend because they've been playing Mr. Wizard, James Burke's Connections, and Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man as part of their TV Science Classics Weekend. Great stuff. But the commercials would lead me to believe that they were featuring Jerry Springer or Oprah Winfrey. Do people watching twenty and thirty year-old highbrow serials really buy anything by Matthew Lesko?
May 21, 2004
True Believers
Donald Sensing has a post linking to a story about the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders performing a bayonet charge in Iraq titled:
There will always be an England
Before I got past the title, I thought, "that's true, there will always be an England." But, anglophile that I am notwithstanding, what I meant was that there would always be someone like Lynddie England, human nature being what it is. Once you understand and accept that, Big Media's compulsive obsession with Abu Ghraib looks even worse. The conscious and unconscious bias to defeat President Bush is one thing, but the child-like utopianism that all these earnest young people just can't shake -- even in the face of terrorism -- is what really worries me.
Stupid Is As Stupid Does
Yes, money is the problem with our educational system today:
A group of Democrats trying to court supporters of Ralph Nader are launching television ads Tuesday in Wisconsin and New Mexico. Those are two states where Nader won four percent of the vote in 2000.
The ad features Bob Schick, a high school teacher from Maryland who now believes his vote for Nader four years ago helped elect President Bush.
Al Gore won Maryland in 2000 by 16%.
Far Too Stupid To Be Taken Seriously
Is this related to no controlling legal authority?
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is considering delaying accepting his party's nomination to gain time to raise and spend private contributions and lessen President Bush's multimillion-dollar financial advantage, campaign officials said Friday.
The proposal would let Kerry hold off on spending his $75 million general-election budget for an extra month. The Democratic Party would still stage its national convention in Boston at the end of July, five weeks before the Republican National Convention in New York.
I can't wait to see President Bush's commercials after the Democratic Convention, "Well, I thought I would have had an opponent by now, but perhaps he's having second thoughts." Or, "I understand the Democrats still haven't found anybody willing to accept the challenge to run against me." Or maybe, "I've heard of buyer's remorse, but this is the first time I've ever heard of seller's remorse." Or even, "Late, grossly (criminally?) over budget and an unbelievable waste of taxpayer money in Boston -- and no, I'm not talking about the Big Dig."
Isn't John-boy opening the door for someone else to take the nomination if he doesn't?
"McCarthyism" Jumps the Shark
Unsurprisingly, unnamed "Democratic leader" doesn't know what McCarthyism is:
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco rejected Republican demands Thursday that she apologize for her strong condemnation of President Bush, as raw nerves over Iraq collided with raw politics on Capitol Hill.
Republican leaders accused Pelosi of taunting the troops, inspiring the enemy and putting American lives at risk by telling The Chronicle on Wednesday that Bush is an "incompetent leader'' who lacks the judgment, experience or knowledge to make good decisions.
Pelosi stood her ground, telling reporters that "the emperor has no clothes." With the violence in Iraq threatening to overshadow all other issues in the coming election season, each party claimed to possess the moral high ground in setting the rules for debate.
"She apparently is so caught up in the partisan hatred for President Bush that her words are putting American lives at risk,'' said House Majority leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. "This nation cannot afford the luxury of her dangerous rhetoric.''
Countered one Democratic leader: "Frankly, that's McCarthyism.''
Methinks "McCarthyism" has jumped the shark, not that anyone will notice or care. Of course, Alger Hiss was guilty.
Didn't You Used to Gray Davis?
Remember how Arnold was going to be such a disaster as Governor according to the LA Times? No apology necessary:
A leading Wall Street ratings agency on Friday raised California's credit rating, citing an improving economy, the first such upgrade in four years and a move that promised to bring down the state's borrowing costs on $44 billion in debt.
Analysts saw the unexpected credit upgrade by Moody's Investors Service as an endorsement of the steps Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken to bring California back from the brink of a fiscal crisis that drove its credit ratings near junk levels and had threatened to effectively shut the state out of the bond market for new borrowing.
Citing an "established trend of recovery," Moody's raised California's rating to A3 from Baa1, reversing a downgrade it made in December out of concern over continued political deadlock and a move by Schwarzenegger to cut car license fees.
My Wife Sits Down On the Stairs and Stares Into Air, There's No One There
James Lileks says The Sopranos jumps the shark. Tony Soprano leaps with the fishes.
What's the point of being here all week if no one reads through to the punchline, or, worse, I have to explain it? And when's the last time anybody referenced Robyn Hitchcock in a post? Twice?
Hey, That's My House!
The Learning Channel's While You Were Out episode running right now is rehabbing a fire station in Kirkwood, MO. Take that Webster Groves!
DOWNDATE: Chris of neighboring, decrepit Webster Groves seems jealous. But, why is it that all but one of the MWBB's have been held at the TNG's in Kirkwood after the inaugural bash at TNG's in Webster Groves?