Four more years!!!

my RNC blogging

I've just turned on PBS to watch the convention. Dennis Hastert is trashing John Kerry, and looks like he's sweating like a pig. Ooh! There's the Bush daughters! They are much foxier than the Kerry daughters if you ask me.
Hmm...doesn't seem like the crowd was all that into his speech.

Dick Cheney, the focus of all the evil in the modern world, has just arrived.

Wait! Did I just see black people there?!?!? And was Ray Suarez just interviewing a Latino delegate? Didn't Andrew Kohl from the Pew Center just tell us all Republicans are rich and white?!?!?! Does not compute...

Whoa! Hey! That guy was from The West Wing! At the Republican National Convention! Amazing! Bradley Whitford (Josh Lyman on TWW) is a committed partisan Democrat, and an influential fundraiser in Hollywood. Creator Aaron Sorkin is a Democrat, as is (obviously) Martin Sheen, and even the guy who plays Toby. I think he spoke at the convention.

Blah blah blah. Oh, this interesting. Monkeys like to smoke! And they have nic fits, I guess.

Ok, there's some shitty music..some cool tanks and planes and stuff....man, that is an ugly choir...Ok, now they're talking about whether or not the GOP is "exploiting" 9/11 by holding their convention in NYC. To exploit something, one would necessarily need to gain something from its use. In this case, the assumed gain would be political. By reminding the country of 9/11, the thinking goes, the GOP will reap political gain. How? I don't understand how, by going into a city that's enormously hostile to Republicans and risking the impression that they are exploiting 9/11, which would presumably carry a huge backlash from Republicans as well as Democrats, they are expected to gain anything? It seems to me that it would be more exploitative, that is, they would reap more gain, by having their convention in somewhere like Salt Lake City. I mean, seriously, if you're gonna exploit 9/11, exploit the shit out of it.

"I come to tell you: Iraq enjoys a new day." --Zainab Al-Suwaij Executive Director, American Islamic Congress. She's from Iraq, homes.

"Only the most deluded among us could doubt the necessity of this war." --Sen. John McCain

(As McCain gets a huge cheer from the assembled for insisting that we have the right to expect other nations to aid us in our struggle)
What's great about conventions is that its the one time in four years that you get to hear a variety of our nation's best and brightest speaking their minds, uninterrupted and unedited by news organizations. They should do these every year.

And how fucking sweet was it to see John McCain call out Michael Moore's fat ass! Twice! And the crowd goes wild! But can someone explain to me how the fuck MM got in there anyway? Do we really want to trust our national security to people who can't even keep MM out of the Republican National Convention!?!??!! Seriously guys: WTF.

The bit:

"After years of failed diplomacy and limited military pressure to restrain Saddam Hussein, President Bush made the difficult decision to liberate Iraq.

Those who criticize that decision would have us believe that the choice was between a status quo that was well enough left alone and war. But there was no status quo to be left alone.

The years of keeping Saddam in a box were coming to a close. The international consensus that he be kept isolated and unarmed had eroded to the point that many critics of military action had decided the time had come again to do business with Saddam, despite his near daily attacks on our pilots, and his refusal, until his last day in power, to allow the unrestricted inspection of his arsenal.

Our choice wasn't between a benign status quo and the bloodshed of war. It was between war and a graver threat. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Not our critics abroad. Not our political opponents.

And certainly not a disingenuous film maker who would have us believe that Saddam's Iraq was an oasis of peace when in fact it was a place of indescribable cruelty, torture chambers, mass graves and prisons that destroyed the lives of the small children held inside their walls."

Ouch.

Rudy Giuliani seems like he's having fun. He looks natural. Too bad he wasting so much of his speech trashing John Kerry. Don't get me wrong, he's good at it. I just wish he didn't have to do it in primetime, when the GOP is supposed to be putting its best face forward. Let's not stoop to bashing, shall we?

A video of Frank Sinatra? Lame. Terribly, terribly lame. Way to draw in the young voters, guys. They couldn't even get someone to cover the song? Sing it in person? Monumentally lame. Remarkably, historically, unfathomably lame. I'm going to bed.

Let's get juxtaposed

NPR: Peaceful Protests Greet Start of GOP Convention

UPDATE: Matt Labash at The Weekly Standard was actually in the dragon. It's a little snarky about the hippies, but hey, that's what we do here. He points out that it was the Anarchists that set the dragon on fire. I think it's worth noting, though, that nobody tried to stop them.

RNC blogging

Since none of the major networks are showing televised convention coverage tonight, you'll have to get your fix elsewhere. Enter: The Internet. As did the Democratic National Committe for their convention, the Republicans have invited bloggers to cover their convention. So far, it's been a lot more interesting than the DNC blogs were, and the convention just started a few hours ago. I haven't seen one post whining about how there's nothing to write about. Go here for an aggreated blog of posts from all the sanctioned bloggers there. The only one I read regularly is OxBlog, but the others are heavy hitters in the blogosphere.

Eat it, hippies!

These guys are my heroes.

UPDATE: An Instapundit reader, in response to an interview with ProtestWarrior founder Kfir Alfia, emails:

The stereotype that righties are old guys in suits smoking cigarillos made from $100 bills has been spoon-fed for decades; just open a thesaurus and look up "conservative." But just give a quick look around: who's calling for Third Worlders to be given the same rights we enjoy? Protest Warriors, Sabine Herold's Liberté Cherie, Conservative Punk, adjuncts to Daneshjoo; all friends of the right. I don't think Bruce Springsteen and friends understand how silly and hypocritical they look by talking about love and peace while flipping the bird to Iraqis and Afghans.

Go Packers???

John Kerry recently visited my home state of Wisconsin, and its most important cultural landmark. The Frozen Tundra, the home of the exalted Green Bay Packers: Lambert Field? WTF?!?!?
Other amusing curds:

ME: If Favre endorsed one candidate or the other, do you think it matters?
WARD: It would carry the state.
ME: You think it would?
WARD: I know it would.
ME: Who would he support?
WARD: I don't know Brett Favre personally, but a good friend that I hung with every year knows Jeff Favre, his brother. They're huge into hunting. They like their guns, and I'm sure Brett likes his money. So I would say like 8-out-of-10--I don't know Brett personally--but there's an 80 percent chance he's definitely Republican. And if he were to say it, it would definitely carry the state.

("Me" is the Weekly Standard's Steven Hayes. And no, that's not some bit of tortured Bush-ian grammar, because as I'm sure you're aware by now...wait for it....My Name Is Not Steven. ) And this...

The Bush supporters I met at Lambeau Field will have a tough decision to make three days before the election. That's when their beloved Packers--okay, our beloved Packers--travel to Washington, D.C., to play the Redskins. According to the Hotline's Chuck Todd, a noted Packers fan, "If the Redskins lose or tie in their last game before the election, the incumbent's party loses the White House." How long has that superstition held true? For the last 72 years--or 18 presidential elections.

Good thing I'm a Bears fan.

Cos rich folks got no place in politics

Indeed.

Team America: World Police

The new movie from the South Park guys comes out in October. Did you ever see that show from the 60s The Thunderbirds? Yeah, it looks a lot like that. A puppet movie. But better. I'm not sure now where I read it, but I've heard that as it stands the movie now carries an NC-17 rating due in no small part to extremely graphic scenes of gratuitous puppet sex. Knowing Trey and Matt, it probably also has an ludicrous amount of cursing in it as well. MTV.com has a lot of exclusive material, including a few trailers, here. Here's the official site. I think Dick Cheney gets eaten by a shark at one point.

Despite its surely political content, I'm very much looking forward to this movie. Would I be looking forward to it as much if somebody else besides the South Park guys were making it? Like, say (and here I'm searching my brains for others who would actually make a movie about terrorism with puppets), Spike Jonez or somebody? No. The reason is (surprise, surprise) political. For all the profanity, sex, and violence in the South Park movie and TV shows, the underlying message is, I think, more or less conservative. Or at least anti-liberal. The message of South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut was that it is ultimately a parent's responsibility to monitor what their kids see in the movies and on TV, instead of relying on the government or a piece of stupid technology (v-chip) to do it for them. South Park the TV show continually and openly mocks PC culture, and Cartman rails against hippies at every opportunity (although some of what could be construed as his more racist tendencies often see him ostracized from his friends, and rightly so).

Matt Stone once said, "I hate conservatives, but I really fucking hate liberals.” I think he's trying to make the point that liberals have not cornered the market on morality or tolerance.

Yeah, that's what they're doing.

"We felt September 11 was being appropriated by (Republican) spin doctors and they were turning it into a grotesque endorsement of world domination and domestic repression," said demonstration organizer Christian Herold.

This, after 250,000 people marched right in front of Madison Square Garden. Stop crushing my dissent, Bush!

Sunday song lyric

Sorry, I'm a bit behind today. What can I say? It was a long-ish night, involving spilled marinara sauce and Budweiser. There was also dancing, and some guy called "Business Roy." I'm still piecing it together, myself.
Anyway! Having first heard a cover version of this song, sung by Emmylou Harris, I think I came away with a misleading impression of its meaning. Being a huge Gram Parsons fan, it initially struck me that it was written about him, and his tragic death at 26 from booze and drugs. Emmylou and Gram were musical partners, maybe more, and the lyrics struck me as being a particularly heartfelt tribute. But then I learned that it was actually written by Lucinda Williams, and thus probably not about Gram Parsons. It remains, though, a sweet tribute to the lost. "Sweet Old World"

See what you lost when you left this world?
This sweet old world.

The breath from your own lips,
the touch of fingertips,
a sweet and tender kiss.
The sound of a midnight train,
wearing someone's ring,
someone calling your name.

Somebody so warm cradled in your arm.
Didn't you think you were worth anything?

See what you lost when you left this world?
This sweet old world.

Millions of us in love,
promises made good,
your own flesh and blood.
Looking for some truth,
dancing with no shoes,
the beat, the rhythm, the blues.

The pounding of your heart's drum,
together with another one.
Didn't you think anyone loved you?

See what you lost when you left this world?
This sweet old world.

The Redneck Riviera

Cripes. Only in Florida.

Something for everyone

Admit it, at least once in your life you've been called, or have suspected yourself of being, an asshole. No shame in it, like I said, happens to everyone. The twist is that now it can be official:

The International Association of Assholes is a membership organization to permit all Assholes everywhere to proudly proclaim their status as Assholes, and the degree by which they are recognized as such by other Assholes. It also provides a convenient method by which all member Assholes may inform other Assholes in the world that they have been formally recognized for what they are...and a means by which we can make a quick buck by simply being ourselves.
Each newly inducted Asshole receives an email from us announcing the great honour that has been bestowed and the Asshole (w/email or snail address thereof) who has sponsored this blessed event. Upon receipt of each Registered Asshole's snail address we send a really cool certificate on heavy stock printed with Old English type and bearing the Registered Asshole's name (and title c org, if given) - suitable forframing. A walletcard is sent for the next level of membership.

You can also be inducted as an official Bitch, Son Of A Bitch, Motherfucker, or Piece of Shit. Yeah, they're all pretty much the same deal. No, I will not be giving out my address. Jerks.

Pick one

Via Allah:

Stephens notes that in the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the Left propounded a blame-Israel set of views and he cites colorful instances of this thesis, starting with the analysis of University of Chicago professor Fred Donner in the Chicago Tribune. "The Bush administration paints a rosy scenario for the upcoming war in Iraq. It is a vision deriving from Likud-oriented members of the President's team – particularly Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith."

That was then. These days, the Left has found another explanation for President Bush's views – he is Prince Bandar's poodle. Michael Steinberger wrote in October 2003 in the American Prospect that "The links between the House of Bush and the House of Saud are deep, overlapping and notoriously opaque." Craig Unger picked these up in his book, House of Bush, House of Saud. Michael Moore amplified them in Fahrenheit 9/11.

Original column here. Given the hostile relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, and their contradicting national interests, Stevens says that you've got to pick one or the other. Have at it...

Save me, Jeebus!

Housekeeping

A few things about the site:
*Comments: I love comments. It lets me know that someone besides my Mom is reading this (hi mom). So, keep 'em coming. The one rule: please sign your comments! I'm not asking for your full name, but just a first name or your initials will do. Ok, two rules: Obviously, horrendously offensive, racist or illegal posts/links will be deleted. I haven't done it yet, but don't think I won't.
*Sidebar: I've added the Playlist section, which I hope to update regularly with what's in my CD player and/or iPod. Please feel free to discuss/savage/exalt these choices. Also, I'm going to try to be better about linking other sites I'm visiting. If you don't read other blogs besides this one, these are great places to start, and they'll all link to dozens or even hundreds of others. Explore.
*Next blog: On that note, you may have noticed the disappearance of the ads that used to float hilariously atop the site. This has been replaced by the little Blogger toolbar. The search function allows you to search within the site, so don't expect to Google anything from here. But the cool part is the "next blog" button, which will take you to some random blog elsewhere in the Blogspot metaverse. Some are like this site, and talk about politics and whatnot, some are teenagers' diaries (still fun to read sometimes), blogs about sports, or travel, or what it's like to be a hooker...anything you can imagine.
*Thanks: For reading, and for coming back. If you like it, tell yer friends, if you don't, tell me why. I've added my AIM name to the profile section, you can get in touch with me that way. Those that know me can email me.

Sniff you jerks later.

Just one question...

Given this, if George W. Bush wins the election outright; and by outright I mean no shady re-counts (a popular v. electoral college vote split is legit, though, y'know, on account of the Constitution and all); will people finally shut the fuck up about him being an illegitimate president? Will they recognize him as a duly elected leader, with an actual base of support which backs his policies, instead of some idiot-savant product of The Carlyle Group? My guess? No, not so much.

"Peace" protestors in NYC

Fucking hippies.

UPDATE:

There is, for starters, a deadening uniformity of manner and outlook. The same bugbears appear over and over: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, the Patriot Act--even the supposedly hawkish media. The work fairly seethes with dire assessments of our current condition, expressed in trite cliché.

Piracy news

News today that the RIAA is suing another 744 people in it's effort to combat what it calls piracy through file-sharing services.

Since last September, the RIAA has sued more than 4,000 people in its efforts to combat piracy, which the music industry has blamed for a multiyear decline in CD sales. Some music fans have countered that bad music, and not piracy, was to blame for the decline.

Of course, both sides are right, and neither is going to back off until one side stops pissing off the other. I think it's ironic though that the worst music is always the most prevalent on the file sharing services. Try to find the Avalanches remix of Belle & Sebastian's "I'm A Cuckoo" on WinMX. Ain't there. Now search for Papa Roach....yeah. See my point?

In any case, it looks like the "pirates" are winning. Artists who work at it can still sell CDs and make money via touring, which is how it should be. The Onion A.V. Club just interviewed Steve Earle, normally an insufferably self-righteous Marxist crapsack, and he seems to agree on the direction the business is taking:

I think the music business is changing. Artists that don't want to tour and just want to collect royalty checks and stay home are not going to be able to do that anymore. And the more I think about it, the more I think that's the way it should be. I feel like I owe my audience something. They feed my kids. And I really like my job, a lot. Thank God, because the reality of the business is that people have to tour now. ... But that's the way the business is going. There's no way that file-sharing and downloading aren't going to affect the bottom line. But I really believe that if I make records that are indispensable to my audience, they'll go out and spend money to buy them, even if they've already downloaded them. If they can afford it. If they can't, I'd rather they be able to download it than not get it at all.

Ok, so maybe he's not such a bad guy after all.

I don't understand The Beach Boys' theory of spiritual evolution. I don't know how you get from transcendental meditation to being a Republican.

*sigh* Never mind.

Update! DMB still shit!

Hmmm...something about "flooding the market with his shit," or "releasing his shit to the American public..."
Ah, who cares....It was Dave after all!

Sunday song lyric

A bit late? Yes. A bit nonsensical, this being Tuesday? Totally. Do I care? Apparently not.
This isn't the first Joe Henry song whose lyrics I admired (that would be "Date For Church"), and it isn't my favorite of his lyrics either (see "Scar" for that honor...probably this coming Sunday), but it is the latest to capture my attention.
First, the elephant: Yes, he is Madonna's brother-in-law. Yes, he wrote a song for her ("Don't Stop," which is actually pretty cool). But, and the larger the better, it would be a got-dang tragedy to judge him solely on that work. I'll refrain from saying he's a gifted singer-songwriter, as that would imply that is voice is somehow more palatable than hot beer. But his songs, and lately his productions, are much cooler and more intoxicating (sorry, won't happen again).
I'll admit to being more than a bit stumped as to the ultimate meaning of "Trampoline," but perhaps that's part of the allure. Something about not letting bad relationships, or the end of good ones, keep you down. Bounce...

The floor will have its way it seems
It fights me like a trampoline
It won't let me on the ground
So this time I'm not coming down
This time I'm not coming down

I've been talking in my sleep
You once kissed me not to hear me speak
And loved me just so you could leave
Every bit of life wrung out of me

And this time I'm not coming down
This time I'm not coming down
Trampoline

The whole platoon is overfed
and we're in this thing over our heads
My mind has never been so clear
but I stutter like an auctioneer

As the night has come alive with dreams
that hoot and holler, spit and scream
every one of them is sick with lust
But every one of them will outlive us

And this time I'm not coming down
This time I'm not coming down
Trampoline

And if I really thought I could
I'd give up your ghost for good
But I'm not sure it isn't you
that keeps my ghost from leaving too

But I don't miss you half as much
as who you made me think I was
When I could see myself the way you do
I could almost see myself in you

But this time I'm not coming down
This time I'm not coming down
Trampoline

Unfit but you know it

Another reason I've not been posting as much as I would've liked to recently, is that most, if not the entire blog community (often and lamely referred to as the "blogosphere") has centered around the discussion of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and their claims about John Kerry. I've been waiting to post something until I came across a reasonably unbiased summary of the whole scandal, something that depended more on statements and quotes than polemic rhetoric. Some of you have expressed some regret at the perceived level of "Kerry-bashing" on this blog. A charge I would deny, but still take to heart.
However, the article points out, and I agree, that it was John Kerry, not the swiftvets, that interjected the issue of Vietnam into the campaign. I blog, you decide.

UPDATE: This, from an editorial in the Chicago Sun-Times:

A handful of other newspapers joined the Post in writing editorials or columns supporting Kerry. Still the New York Times maintained a dignified silence. Then Kerry delivered a major speech last Thursday denouncing the Bush campaign for secretly (and illegally) orchestrating the veterans' charges. At which point the Times reported the speech and its own analysis that not only supported the Kerry charge that Bush was orchestrating the swift boat veterans but that also sought to disprove their accusations. Here then were the denunciations of the "anti-Kerry lies" that would finally enable Times readers to get the news. At long last they could be told what 57 percent of Americans (according to a poll) had already learned from the Internet, talk radio, a handful of conservative papers and magazines, and other samizdat outlets.

The media is absolutely out of control in this election cycle, and it's only going to get worse.

Militarily speaking

John Kerry and George W. Bush are more in step on issues military than one might commonly think, according to this article in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Kerry's speeches and interviews with his military advisers make clear that he fundamentally agrees with Bush that the United States must maintain its unquestioned military dominance, the ability to project power anywhere it is needed, and that the United States should not just react to attacks, but be willing to launch preventive or pre-emptive wars.
...
Asked if that did not suggest Kerry had more in common with Bush on military issues than was often supposed, Carter agreed. "I think that's right," Carter said of the similarities. "He recognizes that this is necessary for the U.S."

As Kerry put it in his June address, "We must broaden our capabilities to create a military ready for any mission, from armored battle to urban warfare to homeland security. Yes, we must invest in missile defense, but not at the cost of other pressing priorities."

These are basic precepts in the War on Terrorism, which Kerry supporters often heatedly contend that Bush has FUBAR-ed. Missile defense, in particular, is a pet peeve of some lefties, who argue that investing in the technology is a particularly heinous waste of funds. What I'm wondering is if Kerry agrees with Bush on so many of the Big Issues in this campaign, namely the decision to go to war in Iraq (he voted for it, before he voted against it), the wisdom and necessity of pre-emptive war to prevent terrorist attacks, the necessity of force realignment, and the need to project military force anywhere in the world....what exactly is Kerry running on here? That Kerry could do it better? How do I know that?
In any case, those of you who woulda voted for Dean or Kucinich, or will vote for Nader, yer outta luck:

"There is no peace candidate in this race," said Ashton Carter, a Defense Department official in the Clinton administration and now a senior Kerry adviser on military matters who helped craft the June policy speech. "No candidate who is a peace candidate ought to win."

"There's nowhere else I'd rather be."

Perspective: Read this really incredible New York Times op-ed by a Marine who's right in the thick of it in Fallujah.

Fit and working again

Back at ya like that rash you got that won't go away. A refreshing weekend, with only one episode of waking up during the night to the sounds of my own utterly horrified screaming.

I've got a lot of stuff I want to write about, but work has been unrelenting this past week, and shows no signs of...well, of relenting. Plus, we're getting Madden '05 tonight, and St. John brought me two 30 packs of Old Style. Needless to say, blogging may be light for a while.

Until I sober up, and as a quick whippet of info for my loyal readers (all 12 of you), I wanted to point out that President Bush has denounced the anti-Kerry "swiftvets" ads that have been appearing recently. The swiftvets' ads are produced by a Republican 527 committee (so named for the section of the U.S. code regulating their existence), and Bush wants 'em all gone:

In Texas at his ranch, Bush said, "I don't think we ought to have 527s," a reference to the outside groups that have poured millions of dollars over the past year into attack ads. Bush himself has been a main target of ads costing some $60 million.

Bush said all of the ads should be stopped. "That means
that ad," he said, referring to the anti-Kerry ad, "and every other ad."

Of course, these 527s and their ads are a direct result of McCain-Feingold, the disastrous campaign finance "reform" bill passed into law last year.

Bush is on the right side of this issue, but is on somewhat shaky ground anyway. He failed to veto the law when it came to his desk, and now that boat-loads of anti-Bush groups and individuals have popped up in McCain-Feingold's wake, he's finally seeing his folly.

Further, I think it's disingenuous for Kerry and his supporters to support Michael Moore, ACT and MoveOn.org while simultaneously condemning the swiftvet ads. A 527 is a 527, regardless of whose side it's on.

Takin' the weekend off, hippies

I'll be gone all weekend, kids. If you miss me while I'm gone, try clicking the little "next blog" button in the top right corner of the screen. It's fun. If yer lucky, I might be back online in time for a Sunday song lyric, which may or may not have to do with trampolines. Ponder.

However, if you're desperate, you can always click here, and just feel the love. The creepy, greezy love.

P.S. If you haven't clicked on any of the blogs in the sidebar (Drezner, Allah, Yglesias [for you hippies] etc.) yet, you should do that this weekend.

Kerry attacks Bush for "third-party" attack ads

It's a good thing, though, that John Kerry doesn't have any shady, partisan groups working on his behalf in this election, or a statement like this could look pretty hypocritical.

Wsconsinite clinches gold medal...

...in his slender, yet somehow still masculine hands. Just cos we like gymnastics doesn't mean anything. Wisconsin is still secure in its masculinity.

Free iPods (really!)

I'm sure you've all seen the web ads promisings free iPods. The site looks as cheesy as the Jesus endorsement site, but apparently the deal is legit. If anybody wants to get in on this with me, lemme know. Those with Columbia House/BMG bilking experience preferred.


UPDATE: Yes, I know I already have an iPod. But I want a new one. Bad.

Who would Jesus vote for?

Bush! You can read his official statement here. And I'd like to thank John Lennon, who is now an Apostle of Christ, for all his efforts to elect President Bush in 2000. Give war a chance, hippie!

On Pakistan

Yglesias:

Backing AQ/Taliban made strategic sense for Pakistan for many years, then after 9-11 it made less sense so they backed off a bit. But counting on Pakistan to win the war on al-Qaeda before us doesn't stand a high chance of success. I'm the first to admit that there aren't enormously obvious alternatives to cooperating with Musharaf, but this just goes to show the need for a rational discussion about what we're trying to do. Shouting -- Bush doctrine! State sponsors! WMD! -- when the primary state sponsor of our adversaries (and the leading nuclear proliferator) is a giant ostensibly allied country with a bunch of nuclear weapons does not elevate the debate in a useful way. Nor does calling Pakistan a Major Non-NATO Ally actually make it a reliable ally.

Yup.
However, Pakistan has kicked a bit of ass in the tribal areas between them and Afghanistan, where Osama and Ayman Al-Zawarhi are thought to be cold chillin', which is a shit-ton more than fuckin' France is doing for us, the rat-bastards.

Diversity I can get behind

"A businesswoman has been banned from asking for 'hard-working' staff in a job ad because it discriminates against the lazy."

Yes, really. In other news, I am moving to England.

Kerry v. Ashcroft

It ain't a lawsuit, but it should be. This Reason article details some of the, shall we say, "nuances" of Johns Kerry and Ashcroft with respect to their positions on civil liberties. Traditional wisdom would have it that John Ashcroft is the statist, malevolent influence, wielding the USA PATRIOT Act as a particularly racist and intrusive sword. But the article details several positions of Kerry's that could cast him in an equally unflattering light (mixed metaphor alert). For instance, did you know that he wrote several of the most intrusive sections of the PATRIOT Act? No? Well then, you should read the whole thing.

Goddamnit

I had a neat article to link to that would've tied in really well to this post. It was about how the Federal Reserve is starting to use the internet to move, like, trillions of dollars around the country. Apparently they used to use this old, DOS-based system that has obviously become quite outmoded. Anyway, I can't find it now.

But it got me thinking about Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, and his two subsequent books, Quicksilver and The Confusion, which are the first two of an eventual three-novel cycle. They're all really long (each is at least 850 pages), and extremely cool (for nerds, comme moi [AK-check the French]). But what got me thinking about these books in relation to that article was that they all share the theme of how science-- how information technology (mejor dicho) affects finance and the creation and distribution of wealth. It is an historical coincidence (or perhaps not) that the rise of modern science at the hands of Newton and Leibnitz grew hand in hand with the value of the first publicly traded company, the Dutch East India Company. The (stock-) market in Amsterdam grew apace, and information became more important in amassing wealth.

In Cryptonomicon, a cabal of high-tech nerds works to create the first true internet currency, using stashed WWII Nazi gold as collateral. In Quicksilver and The Confusion (the third novel of the "The Baroque Cycle", The System of the World is due out in October), we see the rise of stock-markets, and learn how information equals wealth. Of course, nowadays, the best informed brokers are the most successful, which is why the internet and other modern communications technologies are so important to both the market and those who trade in it. Remember in the movie Sneakers when Ben Kingsley whips his cheesedick pony tail around and spews out in a horrible mockery of an East Coast accent, "It's all about the information, Mahty!" Yeah? He was right.

In any case, I think Stephenson is trying to make it clear that he views technology and free trade as integral to wealth creation, which is a very enlightened opinion to hold. (Even the patron saint of this blog was an ardent free trader.) Plus, The Baroque Cycle novels make it clear that its characters are the ancestors of the characters in Cryptonomicon, which I think is mad cool. Despite my notable lack of enthusiasm for other contemporary fiction, I've been a fan of Stephenson's since I got a free copy of his first novel, Snow Crash, free as a value-added (did I use that right?) promotion with my copy of the eminently cool old-skool computer game "Spectre VR." I highly, highly recommend Cryptonomicon to anyone with a passing interest in history, the history of science, cryptography, nerds, WWII, or modern business.

"The world isn't run by weapons anymore, or energy, or money. It's run by little ones and zeroes, little bits of data. It's all just electrons."

Go on and marinate on that for a minute

"I think we made a mistake when we bought into the notion that secularism is the only way to express tolerance."
-- Barack Obama on This Week with George Stephanopolous.

Sunday song lyric

Despite his nearly Bender-esque repetition of the song's keyword, East River Pipe's F.M. Cornog has crafted a beautiful and affecting song. His economy with words, at times remiscent of Fitzgerald, is such that to comment more would only tarnish the beauty that is his "Shiny, Shiny Pimpmobile:"

shiny, shiny pimpmobile
runnin' through the night
shiny, shiny pimpmobile
runnin' through the night

we're all alone, just get inside
we're goin' for a little ride
the cherry bombs, confederate flags
don't forget that's all you are

shiny, shiny pimpmobile
runnin' through the night
shiny, shiny pimpmobile
run it through the night

Bonus! Microsoft Word spell-check suggestion for "pimpmobile:" "immobile"

Arab reaction to F9/11

Farenheit 9/11 has debuted in the Arab world, and the reviews are in!

"When he condemned the war in Iraq ... he pictured it this way: Baghdad was happy and safe until cowboys Bush and Blair came," Saudi columnist Reem al-Saleh wrote in Kuwait's Al-Siyassah daily. "He ignored 30 years of muscle-flexing invasions, villages massacred by chemical weapons ... millions of bodies, and mass graves. He has no right to hide the full truth."

"I hope that we can come to a point where we can criticize our own governments the way he did -- freely," Rizk said.

But wait...I thought Ashkkkroft was always trying to crush Moore's dissent? You mean he was able to distribute his movie freely? Without government intrusion? And it was so obvious that even those in the Arab world could see that? Hmm. Who'd a thunk it?

"I loved the movie because it showed that Bush was a partner in terrorism through his dealings with the Saudis and (Osama) bin Laden's family," said Sana Rafeh, a preschool teacher.

Housewife Rabab Itani said Moore's take on terrorism was too narrow. "There are Arabs and Muslims dying from America's policies every day and not only because of the Bush-Saudi connection," she said.

Mr. Moore was unavailable for comment.

More about election monitoring

Here, and here.

Also, apparently some folks are having a bit of trouble with the tone of some of my recent posts. So in the interest of edification, let me make it perfectly clear that the links above are from a legitimate news site, and are in no way exaggerations meant to highlight certain of the more ridonculous aspects of politics. Thank you for your understanding.

T.G.I.Folding Shirt Friday

Well, now my weekend's shot. I've got spend the whole time learning how to do this.

More on stem cells

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article debunking the myth that President Bush has "banned" stem cell research. As the article points out, the "ban" simply doesn't exist.

Typical was the press release by the campaign Web site this week entitled "Edwards Calls for an End to Stem Cell Ban and a Return to Scientific Excellence in America." This is no slip: It's the same language Mr. Kerry used in his radio address when he declared he intends to "lift the ban on stem cell research." And it's the same language Hillary Clinton used during her own convention speech, drawing cheers when she invoked the "need to lift the ban on stem cell research."

It's not as polemical as this excerpt would suggest, so you should read the whole thing. I find the bit lauding Bush for being the first president to authorize research dollars for this issue to be a tad disingenuous, as stem cell research is, in my understanding, a fairly recent field of study. It's not like Jimmy Carter could've authorized the money for this, as we simply didn't know it existed then.
The article also points out that adult stem cells, often cited by pro-lifers and other "biological conservatives" as being a more morally acceptable alternative to embryonic stem cells, have been found to be more malleable and diverse than previously thought. (The counter argument to the conservatives' was that adult stem cells couldn't be counted on to form as many different cells as embryonic stem cells.) However, that doesn't strike me as being a strong enough reason to not persue research on embryonic cells.

It's worth noting that other countries, such as Germany, Ireland and Austria, ban even the private sector from creating embryos for stem cell research.

I didn't know that, either.

Wilco show

I just got my tickets for Wilco's September show in Raleigh. It'll be close to my birthday, so even though I can't really afford to buy them right now, I can justify it as a gift to myself for all of my hard work (as evinced by the fact that I'm blogging about something so consequential at 11a.m.).

I've seen Wilco I think four times before in diverse venues, and thoroughly enjoyed them each time. They always struck me as being very professional, and I don't mean that in the sense that (I'm assuming) a band like Journey or Poison would be professional, with lots of dancing and back-to-back (think Stephen Tyler and Joe Perry, not "November Rain") guitar solos and explosions and stuff (although that would be mad cool). But rather in the sense that I always felt like they were very comfortable and in control while on stage. They never just played their songs straight, note-for-note album versions, they always added more...music. Stretched out the songs a bit, or changed the structure around, banded them together or within other songs. And it was different every time.

I've heard them recently described as being very "polished," which I think is distinct from being professional, and doesn't really gel with my previous experiences. (Of course, they've also been described as "classic rock for frat-boys," but let's not play that card again.) When I think of a band being polished, I think of them being distant and detached from the audience; less interested in playing music than in just playing their album live. Part of what I respect about Wilco (and also Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Willie Nelson) is that they have such command of American music styles, and can call them forth at will and in service of their songs. I'm very much looking forward to hearing the band integrate new (old) styles into songs from a very stylistically tight album.


Other musicalia: The Polyphonic Spree will be covering John and Yoko's "Happy X-Mas (War Is Over" for an upcoming compilation. There is no word from the Pentagon as to whether the war will, in actuality, be over, but the Spree are nothing if not optimistic.

Post-modern, ghettoized niche joke of the day

Why does Snoop Dogg carry an umbrella?

Fo' drizzle.

Good neighbors, bad politics

First hand, I can also tell you that he blasts Fleetwood Mac, drunkenly shouting "Don't! Shtop! Thinngin' 'bout tommorow!" at 3a.m. with the windows open. Sometimes I see him stumble out to get the paper at about noon wearing only a stained bathrobe that he's conveniently forgot to sash.

Jim Anthony, who has lived on Alleghany Drive for 10 years, did say that Edwards was a "very disengaged neighbor" who is also out of step with the neighborhood recycling ethos. "He has never put the green container in front of his house," said Anthony, 50, a Bush supporter.

If Bush was more of a uniter and less of a divider, like he promised he'd be in his campaign, maybe Republicans and Democrats could recycle without fear of partisan recrimination.

The essay says, "If you drove past him as he was jogging on the road and didn't slow down enough for his taste he'd flip you the bird. He last showed me his middle finger about four years ago."

Okaaaaay....Maybe not. *

Clinton claims Bush plagiarized '98 speech

Read the story here.


UPDATE: What, no comments? It's a joke people! You hippies got no sense of humor.

It's more of a joke than a riddle

From the supremely rad Protein Wisdom:

Wednesday riddle

Q: How many Teresa Heinz Kerrys does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: Please. That’s what immigrants are for.

Money fer nuthin'

We all know the conventional wisdom that the economy is "the worst since the Great Depression." Tax cuts, outsourcing...all of Bush's policies are wrong for the economy. James Glassman, a fellow for the American Enterprise Institute, points out some numbers that, if what Kerry says is true, makes Hoover look like J.P. Morgan:

But the unemployment rate dropped to 5.5 percent--down from 6.3 percent a year ago and the lowest since October 2001, right after the 9/11 attacks.
The rate today is lower than when Bill Clinton was running for re-election in 1996. It's lower than the average unemployment rate in the 1990s--not to mention the 1980s and 1970s. Plant closings are way down from a year ago, and the threat of outsourcing is a figment of Lou Dobbs's imagination.

So why does everyone think the economy is so bad? Why is the economy seen as a weak issue for Bush?
Kinda makes you wonder.

Popsicle stick joke/ 100th post...(wow, that went fast)

Why did the boy stare at the automobile radio?

He wanted to see a car-tune.


So horribly, horribly lame.

So...what

Is this designed to keep the public cowed and so afraid that they'd be slitting their own wrists by voting for the other guy? Cos I hear that a lot when they do issue warnings about possible terrorist attacks. I'm just sayin....y'know, so everyone's sure there's no double standard at play.

UPDATE: Help is on the way!

I think that's two weeks in a row

"During his term in office, George Bush has relentlessly continued to be president—despite the clear benefits to America his absence would bring to the lives of citizens everywhere," Kerry said. "My one-point plan for America highlights the sort of change that this country desperately needs. And my plan is something that George Bush will never, ever be able to accomplish."

Merry Christmas! Shitter's full!

Dave Matthews: "That shit ain't mine."

UPDATE: Yes, this is by far the classiest website you read.

Score one for the F-bomb

I have to say that I agree with Kerry/Edwards on stem cells. It seems faintly ridiculous to not utilize cells already targeted for destruction for the advancement of possibly life-saving science.

Media coverage of the war on terror

Cori Dauber, a professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (literally just down the road) has an interview with one of the nation's leading authorities on homeland security, Colonel Randall Larsen, and he has several very interesting thoughts about what's been going on the last few days. An excerpt (but you should read the whole thing):

2. How good a job do you think the national media has been doing, this particular alert aside, of communicating the seriousness of the threat, and educating people about it?

Two recent studies (one by the American Red Cross) state that theAmerican public is not psychologically prepared for the next attack. Part of this responsibility belongs to the press, part to government leaders and part to the American public. This fact should surprise noone. We are in new territory. Leaders do not want to frighten the public, particularly in an election year when it could make the incumbents look incompetent, and the population would rather not thinkthe unthinkable. This is a long term situation. The threat will not go away. Modern technology allows small groups to threaten major nations. Fifty yearsago UBL would have been just another angry guy in the desert with anAK-47. Today, he and others can bring large-scale attacks to ourhomeland.

(emphasis added)
I think this is very important. I'd be willing to wager that your vote for the next president this November is based in large part on your perception of the level of threat facing the country from a terrorist attack. People like this guy, who spent most of their professional lives studying this stuff, think it's still gravely serious. Not a matter of if another attack will occur, but when. If you believe that another attack imminent, and you're serious about confronting the threat, then I think you probably will vote for Bush. If you think that 9/11 was a fluke, and that Iraq was a distraction from the real war on Al Qaeda, than you'll probably vote for Kerry.
I've made the point before that the media is not serious about the terrorist threat. This (obviously) will affect their reporting and the coverage of the campaign. Is it a coincidence that they're head over heels for Kerry?


UPDATE: I didn't even use the word "fuck" in this post!

You have GOT to be fucking kidding me

I would say that this is retarded, but that would be an insult to retards.
The was the doing of the State Department, and as such, is another reason that Colin Powell should be fired. Instead of letting a bunch of Eurotrash in to observe moronic Floridians who can't tell the difference between right and left on a butterfly ballot, shouldn't he be...I don't know...on a plane? Talking to people in other countries so they don't hate us and want to blow us up? Alls I'm saying is there better not be any Frogs at my polling place.

Scrubs- The Movie update

Garden State sounds like the feel-good hit of the summer:

Largeman himself has become wholly chemical dependent for his psychological well-being, as his medicine cabinet chock-full of Zoloft, lithium, and other drugs attests. This becomes potentially problematic when he forgets to pack his prescriptions for the trip to Jersey. It will be the first time his body is free of drugs since his father first prescribed them to him at age 10. (The reason for this is a dark one involving Largeman and the accident that left his mother a paraplegic.) But as the week progresses, despite Gideon's insistence his son resume taking his medications, Largeman refuses, thus embarking on a journey of rediscovery--an awakening of emotions long deprived by the pills. (As he admits to Sam, he doesn't shed a tear at his mother's funeral because he's forgotten how to cry.)

Lovely!

Fuckin' Germans....nothin' changes

I first came across word of this festival last year, but as the Walter to my Dude moved halfway across the damned country, it became too difficult to attend. Apparently, it's spread to include NYC this year. I'm just gonna go find a cash machine...

Oil-for-food

In talking with several folks over the last few days, it's become apparent that not everyone knows about the UN Oil-For-Food scandal that erupted earlier this year. Everyone should know about it, howev