February 29, 2004
Brilliant parody? Or Sign of Right-Wing Interbreeding?
From this gem of a blog, via Atrios.
"Once I realized what happen I moved to where there was an open seat by me. My brothers did not say anything at first. But after class when they saw why I changed seats. And found out what happened the night before led them to make some very hurtful accusations. Specifically that I was starting to be wiped........
If you are a women or an under educated man let me explain the seriousness of wiped accusations. And the even greater seriousness of actually being wiped.
Though out human history men have always been the leaders. It is the natural way things should be. And is also the case in most other species. As men we have the ability to make decisions with a clear mind. We are not slaves to our emotions. That is why our nations for founding fathers in their great wisdom decided that only men should vote and hold office.....
All of this to say Men have a responsibility to make sure things is kept under control. Part of this is peer to peer accountability. That is why when you see your friend is taking orders from a skirt. You have the moral and social duty to give him hell. So he sees the air of his ways and turns to the light so that he can reclaim is manhood.
So now you know why them saying this is so serious. Because their false accusations show that they are starting to question my manhood.
But when they were giving me a hard time about this at lunch new more troubling problem came to light about another one of my fraternity brothers. He legally went to go see Vagina Monologs last month with his girl friend. If these acquisitions are true. I don’t think I could look at him again the same way. If you go to see that satanic worship you are wiped beyond repair. You would have already been wiped before you went to see it but now she is just running up the score."
February 27, 2004
Brain Interfaces
The rat went on pressing the lever, but now the scientists gave the rat a drink of water when it simply produced the "press lever" command in its brain. After a while, the rat stopped bothering to lift its arm, and just thought about lifting it.
I've posted about this in the past, but Popular Science has a nice, detailed article about the recent advances in this field. Some of the highlights include the above-mentioned rat, telepathic fighter jets, thought-activated phones (which I have long predicted), and the nightmarish image of monkeys sitting motionless, thinking about robots while wires snake from their skulls. One day I will be an omniglot.
Escuela!
My odyssey to return to my personal Ithaca of Cyberspace is nearing its end. My hard drive stopped working in December, and after several conversations with Dell employees (outsourced, of course, to the Indian subcontinent), they sent me a refurbished hard drive. Because I bought this computer from my father's company, it had all of the corporate software installed, but I didn't have any of the installation discs. Some anonymous sources have provided replacements (presumably purchased out of gratitude for my continued friendship) and my computer is almost complete.
Right before my typing box pooped out, I had installed a home wireless network. The law school has a wireless network also, which brings me to the point of this post...
The school's network was installed last summer, so most of the 1Ls (first year students) have laptops and wireless cards, and spend classtime chatting with friends or playing games online; I imagine this works some effect on their grades. Twice a week, I have to sit in the back of a 1L writing class as a TA, and I can never get any work done while the prof lectures on writing briefs, so today I decided to join the fray and bring my newly updated puter to school and surf during class. The 1Ls have a major brief due next week, so right now the prof is droning about paralellism or some such. As soon as I'm done with this post, I think I'll go see what JD has to offer...join me here. (Um, link NSFW.)
Mmm.. Tasty
Slate is running a good run down on how meat gets to your plate. This information is all readily available online, but they do a good job of combining it all and supplying handy, informative links along the way. My only quibble is that they leave out the process for dairy cows, though it's mentioned in passing.
NYTimes Ignoring Haiti?
Seriously, what the fuck? A nation is collapsing in our backyard, and not only is there nothing on their front page, but all they've got, period, are wire stories and Washington bureau pieces. That is fucked up. What the hell is going on down there?
February 26, 2004
I Did It For Science
As part of Nerve's ongoing feature, Grant Stoddard does it to a RealDoll. NSFW, but funny as hell.
Supreme Court Rules Against Theology Students
The Supreme Court, with a decision written by Rehnquist, has ruled that states are not obligated to fund the education of theology students. Bloomberg has a fairly thorough rundown of the implications. I'm quite unfamiliar with theology as a discipline, and I guess I have for a while operated under the assumption that it is a legitimate academic field concerned with the study of religion as a part of the human experience. I figured that, while most theologists were probably religious, they consisted of some noble mix of hard-nosed Jesuits, aspirational Muslims, questioning, vaguely bitter Catholics, and humorously disillusioned Jews. But the SCOTUS is clearly operating from the belief that theology programs are specifically intended to train clergy - probably much more accurate than my heathenish presumption of evenhandedness.
More on Gay Marriage
Joan Walsh's moving account from San Francisco.
February 25, 2004
Googlemania
In honor of the upcoming Google IPO, Wired has a roundup of articles on Google. Good reading.
Mass. Supreme Court Mandates Gay Marriage For All
"This is a victory, not only for our state, but for America," Festa said. "Simply allowing consenting gay adults the same rights as heterosexuals was never the point. By forcing everyone in the state into a gay marriage, we're setting the stage for our more pressing hidden agendas: mandatory sodomy and, in due time, the legalization of bestiality and pedophilia."
I normally don't link the Onion, but this is just too good.
February 24, 2004
Another Take on Gay Marriage
When bigotry-based lawmaking was all the rage during the earlier part of last century, race mixing, at least for marital purposes, was seen as being so immoral that 31 of 48 states criminalized it to protect, you got it, the sanctity of marriage.
Now, these were all states that had already legalized divorce, which Jesus himself had proclaimed during his Sermon on the Mount to be the greatest threat to the sanctity of marriage and a sin greater than coveting thy neighbor's wife. If the sacred institution of marriage, and I do mean sacred, can withstand legalized divorce despite Christ's clear instructions to the contrary, and it can withstand the immoral affronts of mixed-race couples, I'll guarantee all who read this that marriage can withstand, heaven forbid, the legalization of gay marriage.
Answering mallarme's questions
Do we really want to enshrine intolerance in the constitution?
This question, of course, is a little loaded. Obviously those of us who wish to maintain the traditional definition of marriage don't see this as intolerant.
Shouldn't this remain a state-decided issue? What happened to the conservative belief in federalism?
I would prefer to leave this in the hands of the states. Unfortunately it is becoming quite clear that the question will not be left to state legislators but instead will be decided by the courts where it does not belong. Since judges are unwilling to leave the question in the hands of the voters I see a Constitutional amendment as the best alternative.
And why do Christians obsess about homosexuality when the Bible pays so little attention to it compared to other problems and sins?
Homosexuality simply didn't have the prominence in Jewish culture that it does today in America so the Bible pays less attention to it. There is little question that traditional Jewish morality was strongly opposed to it despite what some revisionist might say. There was no movement for same-sex marriage during Jesus' time, as there is today, so we shouldn't be surprised that the bible doesn’t devote much ink to the question. I think we "obsess" because we now see homosexuality celebrated in almost every media: TV, film, print, etc. . . And it is now getting to the point where we are told that we have to re-define marriage. I think a big head butting was inevitable. I don’t think we are obsessing anymore than gays are obsessing over the right to get married.
With all that said, I don’t see this as having much of a chance of getting off the ground.
Bush already attacking Kerry as a "waffler"
Will this resonate?
"The other party's nomination battle is still playing out. The candidates are an interesting group with diverse opinions," Bush said. "They're for tax cuts and against them. They're for NAFTA and against NAFTA. They're for the Patriot Act and against the Patriot Act. They're in favor of liberating Iraq, and opposed to it. And that's just one senator from Massachusetts."
Grey Tuesday
Though we're not hosting any of Danger Mouse's Grey Album (since I forgot to ask our host's permission) we're still going grey for the day in support of better copyright laws. More information is available here.
Bush Backs Marriage Amendment
Unsurprising, but Bush will back a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. This is wrong for so many reasons. Do we really want to enshrine intolerance in the constitution? Shouldn't this remain a state-decided issue? What happened to the conservative belief in federalism? And why do Christians obsess about homosexuality when the Bible pays so little attention to it compared to other problems and sins? What effect will the complete loss of the gay vote have on the election? Will Bush's attempt to energize his right wing base with this issue result in a net gain or loss in votes?
UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan writes Those of us who supported this president in 2000, who have backed him whole-heartedly during the war, who have endured scorn from our peers as a result, who trusted that this president was indeed a uniter rather than a divider, now know the truth.
February 23, 2004
Scary John Ashcroft
Are there any calico cats at the residence?" they inquired of embassy staff. Ashcroft, who would be dining with Schneider, considered such creatures "instruments of the Devil," his people explained.
This reproduced article from Vanity Fair paints Ashcroft as bigoted against women, minorities, gays, and non-Christians and an extreme fundamentalist. It amazes me how horribly people can twist Christianity into justifications for their own narcissism, intolerance, and power-lust. John Ashcroft is a seriously scary man to have the kind of power he does.
Greens on the rise
Greens from across Europe have gathered in Rome to form a pan-European party. And according to Stratfor’s analysis, the future of the E.U. will be closely tied to such “narrow-issue parties” as the Greens because they will be able to transcend national borders.
Pan-European support for the Greens will not occur overnight. Party representation in European governments has been on the decline, and Green parties do not yet have a solid foothold in the 10 Central and Eastern European countries set to join the European Union in May. The new member countries -- mostly poor, former communist states -- place environmental issues low on their list of priorities. As a result, the Green Party will not pick up many seats in the European Parliament from new-member countries in the June elections.So I want Scott’s feedback. How do Germans generally feel about the Green party? What role does it play there? My other question is what are the chances of another narrow-issue party gaining influence if their issue is opposition to immigration – specifically Muslim immigration? I’m thinking here of someone like La Pen. I know people like to downplay his success as being a sort of aberration but it seems like the 17 percent of the vote he received is comparable to the Greens. Is there an anti-immigrant sentiment bubbling below the surface in other European countries? Could it become an issues in the E.U.?
As an expanded European Union matures, however, the Greens will be able to expand their power base, focusing first on the more advanced of the new members, such as Hungary, Slovenia and Cyprus. For example, they received a rather large boost in Latvia, where Indulis Emsis, a Green Party lawmaker, was named prime minister Feb. 20. This is the first Green Party member to become prime minister in any European country, but it certainly will not be the last. The Greens are on the rise.
The Hell That Is Tech Support
Salon is running its version of the Tech Support Horror Stories that periodically appear. It's a good read, especially for anyone who used to work on the phones. My own experience was a bit different, probably because I worked in-house for a small company, but it started to converge with the reality he describes towards the end.
When I started there, we had significant free time between calls, sometimes as much as half an hour. We would spend it chatting online, reading, playing games, or just browsing the web. Then the call volume started to go up so that those of us in the first tier were almost always on the phone. Tier Two, staffed by the more advanced and knowledgeable techs, became quite attractive as they still got to sit around most of the time. In theory, Tier One would stay on their calls until they either fixed them or had taken way too much time on the call (usually no more than 15-30 minutes). Then they'd escalate the call to a Tier Two tech, who usually fixed the problem. After a while, call volume increased again so even the Tier Two techs were almost always on call, but still, everyone sincerely tried to fix the caller's problem. Random monitoring of calls ensured that people were actually competent and friendly.
Then the company went public and moved into new buildings. Our customer base had grown steadily for several years and was now fairly significant. As a result, the tech support staff had easily doubled in size and call times became increasingly important. Managers began running 7 and 10 minute drills to keep the call times in Tier One low. These meant that after the designated number of minutes, if you hadn't solved the caller's problem, you escalated the call to Tier Two, where I now resided along with the other, more experienced techs. Whereas once we could rely on the lower tier support to actually have at least isolated the problem, logged it, and began some relevant troubleshooting, increasingly the logs, when they existed, stood as testimonies to the incompetence of our newer tech support employees. Rather than troubleshoot, they would, if halfway competent, simply try to rebuild everything that might possibly be wrong, a long and frustrating operation, particularly with the less-than-savvy callers will typically dealt with. The completely incompetent techs just flailed about randomly until the time constraints relieved them of further effort and they could escalate the call.
Clearly the concern had begun to shift from problem-solving to generating good statistics. Hold times had also increased dramatically. At first, callers would reach a tech almost immediately, then waits of 10 to 15 minutes became common. After moving to the new building, 30 to 45 minutes waits were the standard, and that just to speak to the initial, likely incompetent technician. Hold times for the Tier Two techs could be upwards of an hour. So, by the time I got a hold of the caller, they had probably been on the phone for almost two hours, talked to at least one idiot (provided this was their first call) and been subjected to the same soothing "music" for a very, very long time.
To preserve my sanity, fix the caller's problems, and get off the phone as quickly as possible, I developed serious mind control techniques. By this point in my career, the caller only needed to say a few words about the problem for me to correctly diagnose the problem and know what to fix. However, this was a minor concern. The caller was invariably confused, tired, frustrated, angry, or all of the above by this point. In order to counteract this, I would start the call by quickly asking for their username, pulling up the log of their calls, and stating the problem to them. Then, I would give a token commiseration or apology as appropriate while at the same time declaring my confidence that I would fix their problem quickly and they would be on their way if they would just calm down and work with me. Keeping a calm, soothing tone of voice was paramount. Even those who had become insane with rage and cared more about slaking their now rampant blood-lust than fixing their computer could usually be calmed this way. Once I had placed them in the proper, receptive state of mind, I would begin leading them through the troubleshooting process. I told them what to click on, then miraculously described precisely what was on their screen each step of the way, pausing only for confirmation from them that this was, in fact, the case. I had every obscure menu and checkbox memorized and knew the quickest way to describe it so that even the oldest, most terrified luddite would instantly recognize it. I never told them to 'right-click' or to 'close that window'. I said 'click on the right-hand mouse button' or 'with the left-mouse button click the "X" in the upper right hand corner'. Such wordy phrases would seem inefficient, but they poured from my mouth in rapid, dulcet tones, lulling the caller into a near trance. They did exactly what I told them quickly and without questions.
Having memorized the steps for every problem and the script I would use to guide the now compliant caller to a quick resolution, I increasingly became free to do other things while my mouth worked. I would read and reply to email, browse the web, or sometimes, sleep. By the time I returned my full attention to the caller (or woke up), their problem would be fixed, they would be happy, and I would be logging the results of the call and hanging up, thanking them for calling. I had discovered the Zen of Tech Support. The troubleshooting was important, but only insofar as mastering it allowed one access to the more important work of controlling the emotions of the help-seekers and guiding them to the calm of resolution. Not only that, but I stayed relatively unstressed, while keeping my call times spectacularly low.
Of course, the unending barrage of calls would eventually leave even a Jedi Master such as myself drained and depressed, leading me to learn new skills to try and advance into the coveted positions that would insulate me from the customers for good. Much like the Salon story I linked at the beginning, no one with any competence stayed on the phones for long after things got really bad. We all either moved up, away from the customers, abandoning them to the poorly trained idiots still on the phones, or quit to find less stressful, better paying jobs. Eventually, the company was bought by a much larger one, the call center was closed, and all the existing customers redirected to what I assume was an outsourced call center much closer to that described in the Salon piece.
May their troubled souls rot on hold.
February 20, 2004
Spreading the Meme
Instructions:
Step 1: Open your MP3 [CD] player.
Step 2: Put all of your music on random.
Step 3: Write down the first 20 songs it plays, no matter how embarrassing.
See lists here, here, here, here, and here.
I already put together one list (posted in the comments at hiphopmusic.com) but for fun, here's what I get second time around:
1. The Nonce - On The Road Again
2. Jazzanova - The One-Tet
3. Dr. Dre - Stranded on Death Row
4. The Beatles - Run For Your Life
5. The White Stripes - There's No Home For You Here
6. Curtis Mayfield - We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue
7. Santana - Savor
8. The Cure - Just Like Heaven
9. The Nonce - On The Air
10. Jazzyfatnastees - Show Your Face
11. Nightmares On Wax - Dreddoverboard (DJ Food mix)
12. Outkast - Nathaniel
13. Tom Waits - Bad Liver And A Broken Heart (In Lowell)
14. Outkast - Intro (from Stankonia)
15. Nightmares On Wax - Survival
16. Bjork - I've Seen It All
17. Moby - Rushing
18. People Under The Stairs - We'll Be There
19. People Under The Stairs - E Business
20. Louis Armstrong - Hesitating Blues
Wow. Almost no jazz on this one. My first list had quite a bit more on it. Ah well. I'm realizing that the randomize function on my Rio Karma regularly places songs from the same artist near each other. That's ok though, since that's what random is all about, it just makes for slightly less interesting lists than when every song is by a different artist.
Dizzeling Dreams of Cosmic Craving
I think this is supposed to be art. It's much funnier if you take it straight though.
Making sense of Tony
A thoughtful piece on Blair over at Salon.
February 19, 2004
Governor Perry in Gay Sex Scandal?
I can hardly believe it - I actually have a bit of a scoop. Apparently, the 1st lady has left the Texas Governor's Mansion, after finding Scary Perry in bed with Secretary of State Connor. Connor is apparently the next best thing to openly gay, and rumors about this have been going around since January.
Sources, including former and current aides of Connors', indicate that this is more than just a wild rumor. But we'll do what we can to help make it that, too.
Here's a source link.
Grey Tuesday
Tuesday, February 24 will be a day of coordinated civil disobedience: websites will post Danger Mouse's Grey Album on their site for 24 hours in protest of EMI's attempts to censor this work.
I'm listening to the Grey Album right now and contemplating posting the album next Tuesday. I'll have to clear it with the owner of the server we run from first though. :)
Grow
This is a fun, slightly illogical game. The best score is 20,000 with every item at its max level. Enjoy.
ElectionProjection
I don’t quite get this guy’s methodology but it seems to be thorough and pretty fair. Using a number of different polls (approval ratings, head-to-head, right track etc. . .) he is projecting the election results for each state (if the election were held today). He admits to being a Bush supporter but claims to make a point of being Democrat bias in his calculations. Anyway, he currently has Bush winning 300 electoral votes to 238. I think this site along with the Swing State Project will be fun to watch as the election nears.
Ivory Tower . . . of TERROR!
Okay, this isn't actually funny yet, but should serve as a stern warning to those of us considering making our way into the professoriate. You could end up decapitated by a former student, who will then run into oncoming traffic naked.
February 18, 2004
Boulder Controversy Round-up
Goddamit. It seems that juicy Boulder news has a way of surfacing when I'm out of the country.
First of all the College Republicans are making a lot of noise this year, after being practically invisible (for all I knew) last year. They put up a website where students can report any incidents of anti-conservative bias they encounter with faculty, which even made the news here in Germany. In principle, I have nothing against this......
I think liberal bias can be a legitimate problem at CU. I remember two idiotic French TAs (from France) who actually devoted class time for discussion of the Iraq war, as if this was a burning issue for anyone interested in French culture. Then they got quoted by the local newspaper saying American students don't think very hard about world affairs.
But these were stupid grad students. It seems more unlikely that grown-up professors would display insensitive bias in the classroom, but then again it's certainly possible. One of my Sociology professors was an outspoken Marxist and certain undergraduates didn't like her much. Personally I found her bias refreshing and I don't think she would disrespect conservatives (though I don't know, since there were none in my class!). For me the important thing is keeping in mind the difference between a healthy normative bias and disrespecting students.
In any case, I don't think it's good for education if professors avoid linking subject matter to current events for fear of getting complaints. Sure, universities need to hold professors accountable, but it would be tragic if this comes at the expense of vigorous self-expression and debate. Michael Berube blogs a lot about this issue, though I don't always agree with him.
Additionally, the College Republicans are now having an affirmative action bake sale, which is also a way to mock the many leftist/hippie groups who sell baked goods. Especially the "Meet New Buds" group which organizes a weekly smoke-out and promotes pot legalization. When I bought their cookies, I would always be sure to ask if there was bud in the baked goods, as I was often on the way to class.
And even better, new sexual assault scandals are emerging.
Should Johnny go negative?
Well well well, it seems the race goes on. Advisors from the media argue Edwards needs to let loose on Kerry if he has any hope of winning. Merely being the nice guy won't cut it in the soundbyte primary. Edwards' best opening seems to be attacking Kerry's support for "free trade", but until recently Johnny has been reluctant to do so.
I find myself torn on this because although I believe Edwards is the stronger candidate and would like to see him win, I'm not so sure a civil war between Democrats over NAFTA at this juncture is a good thing. We should have been having this discussion months ago. I wonder why it is only coming up as an issue now, even though Gephardt, Kucinich, and to a lesser extent Dean have been pushing it all along.
If Edwards makes trade a big issue and loses in an ugly negative campaign, I'm afraid it might serve to exacerbate the already problematic relationship between Kerry and fair trade activists, leaving us a divided party going into November. But then again, perhaps it would be good for the party to have this discussion. I find it especially ironic that the unions are now getting behind Kerry, just as the debate they've always wanted is emerging and Kerry is turning out to be on the wrong side.
Is defeating Kerry and making Edwards our GE candidate worth the risk of a negative campaign? Or should Johnny just keep smiling?
February 17, 2004
The Apocalypse Hastens
Disney now owns The Muppets. This makes me sad. I'm sure we'll see Disney milk the "brand" dry.
Patriotism does not swell in the heart of the American bear.
Paris Ads
What Paris might look like in the future. It's sacrilicious.
UPDATE: On a related note, postcards from the future.
February 16, 2004
Paper Skin
We're so fragile.
Photographs flake from
Our bodies like confetti.
Strangers stalk them
To organize into albums.
But how do you decode a paper life?
In black and white:
A mechanic's shirt,
Hair greased back,
Cigarette box straining a shirt pocket,
He lifts his baby boy up
And smiles—
In another,
A broad suit on
A short man,
A cocked hat,
He scowls at the camera, smokes.
In the background a windmill
Turns wistfully.
Of course,
It does not turn.
It's only imagination
Forcing air into dead lungs,
The awful experiment of memory—
If I could sneak behind myself
And snatch my photographs
Fluttering from the sky,
Would they show
A smile or a scowl?
Children lifted like
A sacrifice?
Dusty fields and
Rust-frozen windmills?
None.
Or all.
Moderation is absurd,
Impossible.
Page by page,
I burn my book.
Otherwise what am I
But a library asleep in dust?
Ridiculous . . . or Sublime?
The Headline at CNN: "Bush says Democrats would threaten fiscal health." I'm tempted to give this a subtle, pointed "Guh?"
But since there was some spice about minimalist posts recently, I'll go into a bit more depth. When you get to the meat of the statement, Bush is actually talking about the economy, not the budget, so it's a pretty misleading headline, using terminology that's not contained in the speech. But then the Man recoups his quotient of shamelessness by having Air Force One do a fly-over of a NASCAR race. Yee-Haa!
On an unrelated note - When was the last time you heard about anything happening in Kentucky? I've heard that name about three times in the last year, and every time I have to stop myself from asking whether or not it's a state. I'm convinced that's where they're keeping the aliens, and they're just trying to get us to forget that a whole state even exists.
February 15, 2004
Andrew Sullivan Announces the Revolution
Read the entry titled The Empowerment of Marriage.
February 14, 2004
The Galaxy's Largest Diamond
The newly discovered cosmic diamond is a chunk of crystallized carbon 50 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Centaurus. (A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, or about 6 trillion miles.) It is 2,500 miles across and weighs 5 million trillion trillion pounds, which translates to approximately 10 billion trillion trillion carats, or a one followed by 34 zeros.
A bit extravagant, I would think.
More on the Guardsman Documents
Files released by the White House last night from President Bush's Vietnam War-era service in the National Guard show that the future president was an exemplary pilot whose military record contains numerous gaps in the last two years of his six-year commitment.
Read the whole thing.
It really seems like the White House released a bunch of documents that don't really support their position. Not only that, they still didn't release everything. What's going on here? I guess it's best to just wait and see what else turns up.
February 13, 2004
Bush Orders All Records Released
Finally! Was that so hard?
That is, provided this is what it seems.
How Bush Made the National Guard
So in 1999, as George W. Bush was running for president, Barnes and the Bush military record were going to court. Barnes told his story in a five-hour deposition and then told the reporters what he had told the court. As speaker of the Texas House, he would sometimes find slots in the National Guard for the fortunate sons of friends and supporters. It had already been reported that two of his aides would take the names of the lucky young men who won the legislative lottery over to the commandant of the Guard, who would find space for them. In 1969, a Houston oil-service company executive called on Barnes and asked him to get George W. Bush into the National Guard.
Certainly a partisan article, but it seems well-researched and consistent with what we've heard in the past. If it was fair to label Clinton a draft-dodger, then it should be applied to Bush as well. Turnabout and all, you know...
February 12, 2004
Here we go....
Drudge has a scoop on a Kerry infidelity. Personally speaking, I find the Clark quote in the article pretty far-fetched. But I think it's unlikely Drudge would put his rep on the line if the mainstream media wasn't really investigating this story as he claims.
I think Teresa Heinz is pretty damn sexy for an older woman, and Kerry with a 23-year old seems pretty difficult to imagine, so don't count me among the believers. Seems counterintuitive for the moment.
UPDATE: Interesting discussion going on over at The Corner. The fallout from all this according to one commentator---it clears the way for Hillary!
Sigh.
How JPL Fixed Spirit
A nice article that describes how the Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers fixed the problems with the Spirit Mars rover. It also explains how they communicate over 100 million miles.
Bush's Guard Service Roundup
TNR asks why Bush "still refuses to allow full access to his military records" and points out that this refusal implies why. They also discuss what it means to be honorably discharged.
Josh Levin and Timothy Noah make the point that even if Bush served all the time he claims to have, he's still a draft-dodger.
Josh Marshall points out the new storylines, mentions the bizarreness of releasing only dental records, and makes dripping noises.
However, the best coverage of all comes courtesy of Kevin Drum who has been all over this story.
My take on it so far is that Bush used his political connections to secure a place in the National Guard to avoid service in Vietnam. He then decided he'd rather go to school and work on political campaigns of family friends, so got regularly transferred, blew off physicals, failed to show up for about six months, got discharged early, then suffered no consequences. In other words, he acted on his sense of entitlement as a fortunate son. Maybe Bush will, at some point, release all the documents related to his service and prove us all wrong, but if so, why is the administration hedging and spinning now? Why give the impression of guilt when there is none?
UPDATE: Minor spelling change to preserve David's sanity.
February 11, 2004
Talk About A Memory
Before turning 5 years old, Abby could tell you the governor of every state, all the past presidents and many facts about them, countless world leaders, and all of the First Ladies and vice presidents in U.S. history.
Conservatives Doubting Bush
Bill O'Reilly is now "much more skeptical about the Bush administration". Andrew Sullivan says Bush is "a captain on the fiscal Titanic who thinks he's in the Caribbean". Bush seems to be losing the absolute, unquestioning devotion of his base, which does not bode well for his reelection. I still think he's the favorite in the general election, but not by much. It's going to be an interesting race.
February 10, 2004
Fake vs Real Smiles
I only scored 14/20, but at least that's better than guessing would have gotten me. :)*
*fake smiley
February 09, 2004
Details of Bush's Service Record
Kevin Drum has some new information that sheds light on where Bush actually was in 1973. A key quote:
To make a long story short, Bush apparently blew off drills beginning in May 1972, failed to show up for his physical, and was then grounded and transferred to ARF as a disciplinary measure.
February 08, 2004
Fisking Bush
The Center for American Progress compares Bush's statements on Meet The Press with the facts. Good read.
Scratch My Box and The Iffy Stiffy
The UK National Health Service launches a new print, radio, and online campaign tomorrow to help stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among young people. As our tipster writes, "Do think the Bush administration would allow the CDC or FDA or NIH to put out materials that included on-line games called 'Iffy Stiffy?' or 'Scratch My Box!'? I sure don't."
(via FleshBot NSFW)
Bush the Wordsmith
Some of the greatest hits from the interview with Tim Russert. The quotes below are for humor, however the interview in its entirety is anything but funny. Bush basically admits that he lied when he claimed there was "no doubt" Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. Bush says his true sentiment was Saddam had the capacity to make WMD and that "we thought he had weapons". Naturally, Russert didn't press him on the difference between "a threat" and a regime that certainly had WMD.
Should the necessity arise for a justified military action, I just don't see what basis of trust the nation can have with this administration.
"I'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office in foreign policy matters with war on my mind."
"So, we need a good intelligence system. We need really good intelligence.....There is a lot of investigations going on about the intelligence service, particularly in the Congress, and that's good as well."
"Saddam Hussein was dangerous with weapons. Saddam Hussein was dangerous with the ability to make weapons. He was a dangerous man in the dangerous part of the world."
"Well, I think we are welcomed in Iraq. I'm not exactly sure, given the tone of your questions, we're not. We are welcomed in Iraq."
"Yeah, they re they're just wrong. There may be no evidence, but I did report; otherwise, I wouldn't have been honorably discharged. In other words, you don't just say "I did something" without there being verification. Military doesn't work that way. I got an honorable discharge, and I did show up in Alabama."
February 06, 2004
Pizza Party U.S.A.
This idea would solve all our problems.
Ok, maybe not all of them, but at least we wouldn't have to worry about lunch that day.
Life on Mars
Remember the Mars meteorite from 1996 that NASA claimed had evidence of bacteria fossils in it? There is now further confirmation of the claim.
Of course, with rovers actually on Mars that have already found evidence of water, I wouldn't be surprised if they also find even stronger evidence on the planet itself. Maybe we're all Martians.
Let's get pragmatic!
Hilarious Mike Kinsley article on the hapless Democratic desire to be pragmatic.
February 05, 2004
PETA Super Bowl Ad
One of the two ads CBS wouldn't air during the Super Bowl. One thing you gotta give PETA, they've got a sense of humor.
Two Heads Worse Than One
The first operation to remove an undeveloped second head from a baby born with an extremely rare birth defect is to go ahead on Friday.
Fascinating, but grotesque.
M.Y. Sully Smack Down
Heh. Matthew Yglesias quickly takes apart Sullivan's ridiculous complaint that Atrios is anonymous. This wouldn't really be worth linking to except for the hilarious last line.
February 04, 2004
Eastern Standard Tribe
Cory Doctorow's second novel, Eastern Standard Tribe, is available online. His last one was a great read and this one seems like another (I'm halfway through). Less SF than culture prediction and exploration of the near future.
UPDATE: A speed-reader version and hyper hyperlinked version, i.e. remixes.
February 03, 2004
Video of Edwards
Related to the post below, here is a compilation of Edwards clips. Towards the end of the clips, there is a prayer breakfast where he gives a simply jaw-dropping opening prayer.
One thing to be said for Edwards is he is, with the possible exception of Dean, the most worthy of the kind of literary treatment given to Clinton in Primary Colors. That is, not only is his intelligence and charm clearly one of a kind, he is also an exceptionally chameleonic figure, capable of charming as well as identifying with widely divergent swaths of people, without experiencing cognitive dissonance or having to fake his way through it. While this kind of character might be more vulnerable to unprincipled or at least inconsistent behavior, the truth is that being able to empathize with different kinds of people, simultaneously understand multiple ideological positions, and take advice from all sort of camps is actually the kind of thing the president ought to be able to do. He's got to convince people and build coalitions, not only in the interest of liberal goals, but also the national interest. In this sense, I really do think Edwards would be the best president of the current field.
Still, I'm a bit leery, when it comes down to it, of making Edwards the candidate. My appreciation for Edwards is very much linked to his abilities and his talent--as a performer. Of course, he has good substantive ideas and has politically smart positions and I believe he's quite sincere about them. But I wonder how many people feel, as I do, that much of his appeal is essentially one of flash and razzle dazzle. Does his appearance and media image lend credence to this impression? If so, will people decide not to take him seriously?
Nevertheless, I'm relatively sure he's more electable than Kerry, so I'd vote form him in a 2-man race.
Good Vibes on Edwards
For the interested, I just found out that Edwards' Volunteer Coordinator for Texas is a friend of mine. He just got back from New Mexico, and had some very excellent things to say about Ms. Edwards in particular, who is apparently apt to get overexcited at football games. Pretty much what you might expect otherwise - Edwards himself is just as down-to-earth as you could hope.
Related is a recent article in Details (or GQ, I forget) that describes Edwards choking on a chicken nugget and excusing himself by saying "I got something went down the wrong way." There's some real Clinton in that country grammar.
Edwards is definitely my second choice at this point, which practically speaking makes him my first choice. Now that Dean has self-destructed, can Edwards tap into his disillusioned base? Discuss.
February 02, 2004
Pro-Coffee 'Til I Die!
I know this was not the main point of our previous discussion, but I just found this article on the health benefits of coffee. So if they hate, let 'em hate.
February 01, 2004
Pats, 32-29
Just a note: John Kasay, who kicked the ball out of bounds with a minute and eight seconds left in the game, should be fired. Any deep kick would have all but sealed the Pats in their own zone. Instead, he let it go out of bounds--in a dome--and gave the Patriots the ball at the forty. Brady didn't have to go far to give Vinatieri range to kick a second Super Bowl winning field goal. Kasay's the goat.