President Maverick

If this analysis is correct, the world crisis should accelerate rather than diminish in the coming years and months, not in the least because the United States seems to have no plan to fill the power vacuum with anything. The promotion of democracy is at heart an act of faith in the self-organizing ability of nations; it means getting rid of one dictator without necessarily having another waiting in the wings. It is so counterintuitive to disciples of realpolitik as to resemble madness. Or put more cynically, the promotion of democracy is a gamble only a country with a missile defense system, control of space, homeland defense and a global reach can afford to take. If you have your six-gun drawn, you can overturn the poker table.

FEEDING TUBE

As if we all weren't sick to effing def of FEEDING TUBEs, guess who done gone and got hisself one? That's right, the motherloving Pope. Thank you, mainstream media, for instantaneously doubling the number of times, per day, that I have to hear the words FEEDING TUBE. Assholes.
Relatedly, did you know that Terry Schiavo has a blog?

BTW, whoever did that is going to hell. Ferreals. (link via DataWhat)

Last days of disco

The Supreme Court is trying to cockblock your constitutional right to download free music. Thankfully, some of my favorite people, protestors, showed up on the scene to let their voices be heard. "Hands off my iPod!" "Save Betamax!" Err..."Free Mumia!" Heh. More here.

If the Court relies on precedent, one of the key issues in the argument is whether or not file sharing techonology has uses beyond distributing copyrighted material. The Decemberists to the rescue! They've thrown the video for a track from their new album up on BitTorrent, no doubt depriving record companies of the profits they desperately need to promote the new J. Lo album. Although, it remains unclear how many people want to listen to some whiny dude strummy-strummy-la-la about pirates and shit.

Hippie Rant (an occasional series)

Althouse hipped me to this article, about a local Madison "politician." Excerpt excerpt:

Austin King says he has accomplished a lot in his two years on the Madison City Council. But he boils the race down to this: "This district is a very young and progressive district," he said of the downtown District 8, populated by many students. "My opponent's an older conservative guy. From a purely demographic point of view, I don't think he stands a chance." ...

King said the city gets a bad rap as being too idealistic."People are always telling us that in Madison, we're in a bubble. I used to fight that. We're in a bubble where people around us don't think logically," he said.

Althouse links to point out the fact that the kid (he's only 23) gets flak for being too liberal, and how that affects the prospects of other Democrats who have, shall we say, somewhat more practical policy goals.
I'm linking to this because I know this kid. He lives with my ex-girlfriend's (of the late, lamented Bethlehem Steel blog) sister, and I've hung out with him on a significant number of occasions. I saw him on the Capitol Square in Madison in 2000 at an Al Gore campaign rally*, holding his Ralph Nader sign higher than anyone else there. Which is why I found this bit that Annie emailed me so hilarious:

We like to tease Austin because he had a role in keeping Nader off the ticket for Wisco in the [2004] election and he was talking about how [working to defeat Bush by helping to consolidate Democrat and "progressive/green" votes for Kerry] was important to the election, nay the free world, because as a swing state, Wisconsin would be pivotal in the outcome [of the election]. He then got a far-away look on his face and said, "I think I may have prevented another world war." Now, when we obviate a bad situation, we always say the same thing. The more inconsequential, the better. Like catching a spoon before it falls off the counter, then: "I think I may have prevented another world war."

That is unambiguously rad.
Let's return to the article, though, for a final point:

"People are always telling us that in Madison, we're in a bubble. I used to fight that. We're in a bubble where people around us don't think logically," he said."How can you ask someone who thinks Jesus is coming back to Earth to care about global warming? Yeah, Madison's my bubble. It's a bubble of intellectualism and deliberative democracy and discourse. I love my bubble."

Again, it's not the obvious hypocracy that bothers me so much as the condescension. Notice the contrast he draws between logical thinking and Christians. I'm sorry, but that's not only offensive and intolerant, it's just really pathetic thinking. If someone can explain to me why Christianity and environmentalism are mutually exclusive, I'd love to hear it. Or why Christianity and logical thinking are mutually exclusive, for that matter. But to blithely ascribe both sets of beliefs to the entire (what I'm assuming he's referring to, at least) Republican party, or to conservatives in general, is intellectual laziness to the extreme.


*See? Fair and balanced.

Old school

Here's a pretty interesting article about the clique of Ben Still, Vince Vaughn, Judd Apatow, Jack Black, Will Ferrell, Owen Wilson, et. al. Looks like Favs is on the outs, which is a shame. The good news is that Mos Def is in!

Y'know, I was getting kind of sick of hearing about the all-ACC Final Four that was all but destined to happen. Mr. Binghampton, I called your house...too embarassed to answer the phone?!?!? I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Julius Hodge: OVERRATED. The UW Badgers are a force of nature. BIG TEN, BITCHES!

Whitney Houston Brown Jesus Crack Rock

Stereogum's got a pretty neat mp3 of David Byrne (of Talking Heads fame) performing a straight version of Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody."
As far as cover versions of pop songs by "alternative" artists, it's nowhere near as revelatory as Travis' take on Britney's "Baby One More Time," or Ted Leo's stab at current 'Pod fave "Since U Been Gone," but still fun.

Solar death ray

Some guy built hisself a solar death ray. No, really. Check it out.

Shut up, internet

Probably no posts today, kids. I'm going to try to stay off the internet today, as I think I'll need to start shooting if I see or hear the words "feeding tube" one more goddamned time today.

GODDAMNED FEEDING TUBE

Playground love

Howard Dean is still totally, awesomely, clueless:

''The reason the Republicans call names is because they have nothing to say about balancing the budget, creating jobs or doing anything about health care or education.''

One major reason his party lost the 2004 race to the "brain-dead" Republicans is that it has a "tendency to explain every issue in half an hour of detail," Dean told the semi-annual meeting of Democrats Abroad, which brought about 150 members from Canada and 30 other countries to the Toronto for two days.

Never mind the obvious hypocrisy, what bothers me more is that Dean, and by extension the Democrat party, thinks that they keep losing elections not because people don't agree with their positions, but because Democrats are not doing a good enough job explaining their complexity to an America populated by drooling morons. If they continue to persue a strategy of "Hey, Stupid, vote for us" kind of strategy, expect them to keep losing elections.

Where's the Jell-o?

Totally unfair. They're MESSING with my MIND. NOT COOL, Maxim...not cool.

MORE, because I'm fair and balanced. Also? Whoa.

(both links via Wonkette)

Crushing of dissent!

“I was walking through the Dallas airport with some colleagues and one of them recognized two of the same protestors we had seen outside the event in Albuquerque. We had some extra time, so we decided to talk to them. They were very polite and explained to us they had just come from protesting an event nearby. One of them very quickly identified themselves as professional protestors.”

“Not that they just liked to protest, but that they actually got paid by liberal interest groups to travel the country protesting. Here they were, sitting in the airport TGI Friday’s having a burger and getting ready to travel to New Orleans for another protest. They were good kids and wanted to talk. We tried discussing some of the benefits of Social Security reform. They listened, but weren’t too interested. Not because they had opposing views, they just said they weren’t too educated on the details. They even admitted they didn’t know who it was they were going to protest in New Orleans.”

So brave! So dedicated!

D-Fence

Let's us get a few things straight, Mr. Binghampton. Your outlet for man-on-man agression has obviously been sublimated in the wake of the recent slackening of the our hectic gridiron confrontations. According to tradition, your second seems to have chosen blog-smack as the new weapon of choice. Kudos. A fine sidearm it is. Howevs, your initial volley hath fallen well short of the target. I mean, seriously, the man who can't take a punch is going to pose a challenge to the guy with the hottest girlfriend in all of college basketball? I thinkn't.

Your five points were quaint, and mildly amusing. But that's it? Oh, you were finished? Well, then allow me to retort!

1. Ok, I'm not really sure why Corvette's belong on an isthmus? But damn, don't they look good there! Proof positive that isthmuses (isthmi?) are rad. Also? I saw a Lamborghini Countach the other day in Chapel Hill. Radmobile.
2. Yes, it is undeniably cold in Madison. I remember once in college when it was so cold that they cancelled classes for the day. Weather dudes told us that it was so cold that the tears in your eyes could freeze. No joke. And that's "Athletic Director Barry Alvarez" to you, Mr. Binghampton.
3. Other famous Madisonians? Garbage. That dude from "The West Wing." And the late, lamented Chris Farley. Plus, Lake Mendota has the dubious honor as being "The Lake That Killed Otis Redding."
4. I'm offended at any accusations of Canadianness, or any fealty to our French-lookin' neighbors to the north. See here for a measured, reasonable, fact-based listing of greivances against Canada. Here's a taste:

I know a Canadian and he hads shifty eyes. They are a society funded on lies because they call ham Canadian Bacon when they know it's just ham. Canada outlaws Howard Stern and took him off of the radio because they are scared of free thought. Canada has cheap prescription drugs to lure our elderly over the boarder . . . then they rape them. That last sentence is a true story, look it up in USA Today, it happens all the time.

5. And finally, it comes down to racism. Now, I know that you're still upset about the whole "reign of William of Orange" thing, and I can understand that. I mean, the Dutch kicked your ass. Hard. And that's gotta hurt, y'know, cos of the wooden shoes and all. Look, it takes more than whiskey and popery to get rid of us Dutchmen. And wooden shoes make you run fast and jump high.

Thus: Badgers 64- Wusspack 48. On, Wisconsin!

The brests they grow on trees

Ok, this will undoubetdly be the stupidest post ever, but have you seen that Burger King commercial where Hootie sings about a chicken sandwich? WTF? Between the Subservient Chicken, "The Office"-esque spots, and this crazy-ass ad, the guys running that campaign have clearly lost their minds. I still don't eat at Burger King, because the food makes me kinda sick, but I've had this fucking song in my head for like three weeks.

I love the Tender Crisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch
The breasts they grow on trees
And the streams of bacon ranch dressing
Run right up to your knees
There's tumbleweeds of bacon
And cheddar paves the streets
You get to veg all day
All the lotto tickets pay
There's a King that wants you
to have it your way
That's the Tender Crisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch
The Tender Crisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch

Mmmm....tumbleweeds of bacon....
An inauspicious return for the Sunday Song Lyric, to be sure, being that it's Tuesday and the song is mostly about bacon.

The Big Aristotle

In the past, O'Neal played with three up-and-coming shooting guards, but never before has Shaq taken one under his wing quite like Wade. Shaq compared playing with a young Penny Hardaway in Orlando, a young Kobe Bryant with the Lakers and now a young Wade with the Heat.

"The difference between those three is the Godfather trilogy," O'Neal said in classic Shaq-speak. "One is Fredo, who was never ready for me to hand it over to him. One is Sonny, who will do whatever it takes to be the man, and one is Michael, who if you watch the trilogy, the Godfather hands it over to Michael. So I have no problem handing it over to Dwyane. I would love to see the ball in my hands, but I'm not the best player or the best shooter on this team," O'Neal said. "I don't mind handing it over to Michael Dwyane Corleone."

Rad.

Effing HALLIBURTON, man!!!

I sure am glad that whole "war for oil" thing worked out for us. Unless this is "President" Chimpy McSmirkypants' idea to distract us from the fact that his war for oil was so deviously successful that all the oil he stole...no, wait... Ok, this must be Karl Rove's idea, and he's got it set up so that the oil we exploit from the Iraqi people will flood the market, thereby driving down profits that the Iraqis would've...no, wait...How was that supposed to work again?

Totally rad rap video

Featuring Chali 2na from Jurassic 5, and some other dudes, this is easily the coolest video I've ever seen that features a bear with his own jambox throwing down some cardboard and showing mothas how it's done, b-boy stizz.
Best: when the tiger breaks it down in the field.

It's pretty slow-loading, but stick it out and watch the whole thang.

Free Fiona!

I saw this on Instapundit this morning, and it reminded me that I've been meaning to blog about it. I've been listening to Fiona Apple's new, unreleased album for about a week or so. Tracks have been leaking steadily for the past few months, and now what we're being told is the full album is available on file-sharing networks.
If you can BitTorrent, you can get it in one shot, in CD quality. It's really, really good. Weird (duh), but good.

Also, the massive South by Southwest music festival is making available a ridorkulously huge (2.6 gigs) file containing 750-odd songs by bands who performed at this year's festival. Again, BitTorrent makes it possible. Go git ya some!

The McCain-Feingold boondoggle

National Public Radio openly accepted $1.2 million from liberal foundations to provide such items as "coverage of financial influence in political decision-making." Its campaign finance reporter, Peter Overby, is a former editor of the magazine put out by Common Cause, a major supporter of McCain-Feingold. No one suggests there was direct collusion between NPR and campaign finance lobbies. With the money and personnel available to NPR, there didn't need to be. Sympathetic stories on the need for campaign finance reform flowed naturally. Sounds like the kind of "faux news" that liberals are complaining the Bush administration was guilty of engineering when it put out video press releases or provided conservative commentator Armstrong Williams with a grant.

Yes, it does.

Sumday

Kung-Fu Hustle will be released nationwide on April 22. I sincerly hope y'all are prepared for the best kung-fu movie ever, cos this is gonna be it.

Time gets away from you – and unfortunately you realize that just when the amount ahead is exceeded by the amount behind. Best to think yourself as a playing card on a kid’s bike frame; don’t think about the speed at which the wheel is turning, just be grateful each time a spoke picks you up.

Neat.

I like yer wrist cuff

Hahaha...you got SERVED!
'Bout time, too, if yer axing me. Loved it, loved every minute of it. Buncha effing 35 year old students with nothing better to do than lazily emulate their vaunted moderator. Ladies, get a spine and a brain, then use them to form your own opinions and stand up for them. Are you honestly saying you've never heard "asshat" before? Get out of the house!
And enough complaining about the "meta." Please. What sets this show apart is that when they finally do jump the shark, the episode will have Ryan tearing ass on a motorcycle through SeaWorld.

Plus? I would murder someone, in front of their own mama, for a Harbor sweatshirt.

Nice article...

...about The O.C. here. I thought this was interesting:

It’s part of the show’s subtle refutation of teen clichés that Marissa’s teen alienation is presented instead as a spoiled rich girl’s selfishness.

It also throws some props to Veronica Mars. Nice.

Shouldn't it be "Belgian?"

For those that care, Mario Vazquez gave his reasons for quitting "American Idol" on Letterman last night. List here.

(Link via Althouse)

Me, Wally, and the Angry Hippie, if we were on South Park.

Man, what an asshole

P.J. O'Rourke quotes John Kerry and his views on why he lost the election:

Addressing the audience of tame Democrats, Kerry explained his defeat. "There has
been," he said, "a profound and negative change in the relationship of America's media with the American people. . . . If 77 percent of the people who voted for George Bush on Election Day believed weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq--as they did--and 77 percent of the people who voted for him believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11--as they did--then something has happened in the way in which we are talking to each other and who is arbitrating the truth in American politics. . . . When fear is dominating the discussion and when there are false choices presented and there is no arbitrator, we have a problem."

America is not doctrinaire. It's hard for an American politician to come up with an ideological position that is permanently unforgivable. Henry Wallace never quite managed, or George Wallace either. But Kerry's done it. American free speech needs to be submitted to arbitration because Americans aren't smart enough to have a First Amendment, and you can tell this is so, because Americans weren't smart enough to vote for John Kerry.

Hey, I got an idea. Let's conduct a smarmy poll of people who listen to NPR and watch CNN, and let's see how many folks hold the mistaken beliefs that Bush claimed Saddam Hussein was an "imminent threat," or that outing Valarie Plame was a crime, or that Bush claimed that Iraq was looking for uranium in Niger.
I mean, fucking hell, I'm all about trashing the mainstream media, but let's at least try to even fake it and look bipartisan here.

Petty revenge

Drezner links to a mildly amusing NYT article about how folks fight back against everyday annoyances. In that it mostly lists things like calling grande coffees "medium," and using fake names for website registrations, it comes off a bit like a Seinfeld act. Example:

... his own habit was to write "England" rather than "United Kingdom" on letters he sends to his British friends. He described this as his way of disregarding British claims to Wales and Scotland.

Ooooh! Snap! Take THAT, colonialism!
Howevs, it got me thinking about what I do to protest daily annoyances. My own treasonous acts of tiny rebellion, conceived with varying degrees of childishness and executed with varying degrees of success.

• I may or may not have mentioned this before, but I have to attend monthly administrative meetings where the most important item of business is for my boss to, literally, read aloud emails that we all received about administrative matters. "Next is the email from Susan reminding everyone to use the proper charge code when making a long-distance telephone call. She sent it on February 18th..." On one occasion, I secreted away to the meeting room 45 minutes or so ahead of the start of the meeting time, and set out everyone's sodas so they'd be warm when they arrived. Then I skipped the meeting. I win!
• Sometimes I steal or switch people's office chairs with mine for really no reason. I haven't been confronted yet. Losers.
• Our division VP keeps a case of Coca-Cola and a case of Diet Coke in the refrigerator for his personal use. Both are labeled "Don's sodas!" as if we were small children who would, if caught pinching one of his sodas, say, "I don't see your name on it!" and at which point he could point triumphantly at the post-it note. This is much like the episode of "Full House" where DJ actually went to the trouble of labelling all her popsicles so Stephanie couldn't "legally" take them. Well, I steal his fucking sodas anyway. WOOT.
• My building has 6 floors, and while I haven't yet devised an overly clever way of expressing my disapproval of those motherphlucking ass-clowns in accounting who step in on the first floor and chirp, "Two, please," as if that were not the lamest thing one could possibly do in an elevator (I work on 5), I do take a long pause, loudly punch the button, and stare at them in what I hope is an intimidating manner until they leave the elevator, heavy with shame. There shouldn't even be a 2 button on elevators.
• This last one I'm not terribly proud of, as I don't even really have anything against the guy except for the fact that he went to Wisconsin'g Big 10 rival University of Iowa for his PhD. But I do it anyway. The dude, who we'll call Doug, as that's his name, brushes his teeth at about 1:30pm each afternoon. Now it's not that I necessarily schedule a daily dookie for that time of day, because who can? It just so happens that I'm usually in there while he's trying to brush his teeth, choking on the stench, trying to maintain his composure against a horrid cloud of fetid, noxious fumes. To paraphrase....uhm...some rapper, I think...Yeah, I got a PhD...Pretty Huge Dookie!
• The Angry Hippie has also come up with a variation on this theme, the Friday Floater. The plan is that each Friday, we would each leave a floater in a bathroom at our respective places of employment, then leave it there for someone else to happen upon. Propping open the bathroom door upon exit is optional, but encouraged.

Have an annoying day!

Best new music

I've been listening to a stream of Brendan Benson's new album, "The Alternative To Love," all morning. I'm a bit of a Benson partisan, even to the extent that I take his side in the minor tiff he had with 'Pod rocker Jason Falkner, but the album is really, really good.

The free stream is here, and the album hits stores next Tuesday. You should also listen to "Lapalco."


(Link via Stereogum)

Maturity

At the race, the petite woman racer caused yet another upset by beating off her fellow 12 Proton teammates -- all of whom are men -- much to the delight of the small group of female fans watching from their part of the segregated stadium.

Hahahahahaha....

Soldier on, brave readers

First, apologies for the paucity of blogging as of late. Blogger has been a total beeatch, chewing up and spitting out at least two posts, which are now irretrievably lost. Which is probably for the best, considering that one post featured as it's main creative input that last refuge of the uncreative, the rearragement of song lyrics to fit a particular situation. In this, "Welcome Back, Kotter" to herald the return of nobody's favorite polemic troll, TJ.

HOWEVS, now that bloggish things seems to have stabilized, there can be no excuses for me to not spew forth the traditional slate of unconsidered opinions, wild generalizations, obscurantist rants about technology and bands nobody knows or cares about, and, of course, "The OC."

But here we open up a new front in our war against relevance. We all saw the new trailer for "Revenge of the Sith" during "The OC," RIGHT?!?!?! Pssh. As if you needed another reason to watch that show. Hands down, that was an indisputibly bad-ass trailer. It is also, perhaps not coincidentally, terribly dark. As G-Luc himself noted on last night's somnabulent "60 Minutes" interview:

"I don't think I would take a 5- or a 6-year-old to this. It's way too strong," Lucas says on the Sunday, March 13 edition of CBS' "60 Minutes." "My feeling is that it will probably be a PG-13, so it will be the first `Star Wars' that's a PG-13."

He also mentioned that he's ok with that. You brave, brave man.
The shit drops on May 19, which, according to my calendar, is a Thursday. This is a bit strange, since movies usually drop on Wednesdays or Fridays.

Best: "The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be un-natural."

Reading music

That is, music to read by, not the ability to read music itself.

Althouse asks her readers what music to listen to when reading. I recommended Sigur Ros' ( ) album. Anyone else got any suggestions?

I prefer music without words, and ( ) is good enough cos all the singing is in a made-up language anyway.

--And, damn, she's already wrote back to say thanks. That was quick.

Since U Been Gone

Mario Vasquez, the Latino heartthrob who won fans with his smooth renditions of Stevie Wonder's "Do I Do" and the Bee Gees' "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart," "has withdrawn from the competition for personal reasons," Fox announced Sunday
afternoon. A Fox spokesman refused further comment.

"Personal reasons?" That ain't what I heard.

But despite Mario's instant casting as the Latin Ladies’ Man, some viewers’ gaydar was triggered from the get-go by this New York prettyboy. Was it when he declared his mother his personal hero? The footage of that doting but perhaps overbearing mother telling a childhood story of him whining about singing practice “mami, mami, I’m so tired”? The adorably femme way he screeched that he was not losing his hair just because he likes to wear hats? The cute, post-preppy style popular among New York banjee boys? The flirty way he batted his lashes when he thanked his friends from home for giving him good luck charms?

Meanwhile, the show has subverted the democratic will of the people, and brought back the talented, yet bland Nikko Smith. How the excrable Constantine remains in the competition is a source of continual amazement to me.

UPDATE:

But Vazquez's mom, Ada, said she knew of no problem involving the family and had not idea why he left the show. "Look at me, I'm fine, I'm still kicking," she told The Post. "I don't know his reasons, but whatever they are, I respect him for it and will be very supportive." ...

Semifinalist Nikko Smith, who was voted out last week, will return to the competition, taking over the vacated slot. Smith, son of Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith, was picked because he received more votes than Travis Tucker during last week's competition.

Didn't know that.

Clear Skies denied

The Bush administration's "Clear Skies" initiative was a joke, right? Well, yeah, because it... Well, it just is.
I'll admit that I heard sentiments like the above way too often during the campaign, and when the proposal was first introduced. Because he's a republican from an oil-industry background, it was naturally assumed that Bush had zero interest in actually improving environmental standards, especially when it meant alienating his cronies in Big Energy.
But this article, written in the liberal Washington Monthly magazine, details not only the policy proposals, but also how it's most likely the fault of the environmental groups that this actually fairly progressive policy got torpedoed.
What I found interesting was that Clear Skies is basically a "cap-and-trade" system to regulate emissions, much like the vaunted Kyoto protocol that America politely declined to be a part of.
Very much worth your time. Read the whole thing.

(link via Volokhs)

Shitstorm! Redux

Our long, national nightmare has finally ended:

The tour bus driver for the Dave Matthews Band today admitted to emptying liquid waste onto an architectural tour boat as it passed beneath a bridge in downtown Chicago. ...
Several lawsuits are pending against Wohl and the band in connection with the Aug. 8, 2004 incident. About 800 pounds of liquid waste were dumped from a bus holding tank onto a sightseeing cruise boat carrying more than 100 passengers as it passed beneath the Kinzie Street bridge on the Chicago River.

(Thanks, Lindsey)

Playing on grass

For the first time in four decades, the National League is free of plastic grass. As a result, 10 National League teams... will play all 162 regular-season games on the real stuff. A baseball fact of life that began when the Astrodome in Houston introduced artificial turf to the major leagues in 1966 is now officially over for one-third of major league baseball.

Neat.

Arab dictatorships

I think this guy is correct when he points out:

But look around the Middle East and you see example after example of people turning against their own repressive governments rather than directing their anger at Israel. ...
The faster the Arab and Iranian dictatorships fall, the sooner we will see a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is chiefly a proxy war between those dictatorships and their own people.

Certainly, with Arafat still alive and in power, any workable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue was dead in the water; the progress that's been made since his death attests to that fact.
But I think the Bush administration understood this when it made it's decision to go install democracy in Iraq. There were two schools of thought at the time: that the road to Baghdad lead through Jerusalem (meaning that we had to solve the Israeli-Palestinian issue before any nation building in Iraq could be successful), and that the road to Jerusalem lead through Baghdad (meaning that success in Iraq would lead to new progress in the Israeli-Palestinian issue).
Bush bet on the latter, and while there's certainly a long way still to go, I think that considering recent events in Iraq, Lebanon, Kuwait, and elsewhere, at the very least, the strategy at least deserves some respect.

My $50 million iPod

Fucking Blogger trashed the post I had just written about this, and I don't feel like doing it all over again. So, go read this article, and then read this one, and think about how stupid the strategy of suing downloaders really is.

Activism I can get behind

Via Instapundit...
Next Tuesday is International Eat An Animal For PETA Day. All are encouraged to eat meat in brazen defiance and open hostility towards PETA. Follow the links to see how it started.
Anyone up for a meaty lunch or dinner next week?

How Jedi are you?

:: how jedi are you? ::


Are we allowed to ask the professor a question during the quiz? Ah, yes. I'm wondering, which version of Princess Leia are we talking about here? "A New Hope" Leia, or "Return of the Jedi" Leia? In the absence of more clear information, I'm going to have to go with Padme.

UPDATE: Purple lightsaber! DUH!

Another reason Wisconsin is so rad

They're actually considering letting people hunt feral cats.

UW Wildlife Ecology Professor Stanley Temple says his 1995 study conservatively estimates there are 1.4 million feral cats in Wisconsin. And those cats kill and eat a lot of other animals.
"So 1.4 million cats times 28 kills a year and 20% of those kills being birds adds up to at least, and I'll emphasize at least 7.8 million birds that are killed by free ranging cats a year. That's an alarming number," says Temple.

Those numbers are why this April the Conservation Congress will be voting on a proposal to identify feral cats as an unprotected species in Wisconsin–basically meaning they could be hunted.

(Link via Althouse)

Dear Rochester,

I'm sorry I burned your face.
If it makes you feel any better, I showed up fer football, but none of those other whiny tittiebabies did.
Sorry you had a bad day.

See you soon.

I love you.


Matt

What is up with John Stewart these days?

I wrote the following post back on Feb. 18th, back when the whole 'sphere was discussing whether or not John Stewart was trying to retro-actively claim credit for the war in Iraq. I never put it up, though, cos...well, I don't really remember why. So, read it, and then we'll meet again in a minute.

Is Jon Stewart retro-actively claiming credit for the success of the Iraqi elections? Read the discussion here, then watch the video here. Or do it the other way around. I don't care.

First, I think anyone would be pretty hard pressed to say that Jon Stewart could ever get away with claiming support for anything that's gone on in Iraq. Even if he did manage it, though, I think his audience would quite literally lynch him. Like, on camera.

At the opening of the segment, Stewart is saying, I think, "Ok, we gave 'em an election. That's democracy, right? Let's bail." Zakaria, quite rightly, puts Stewart's opening remark in context by chastising him and Ted Kennedy for supporting a withdrawl of American troops from the region. It would be disastrous, and completely negate all the work and the sacrifice so far.

Stewart then, I think, tries to ask Zakaria about the political implications for anti-war folks, but again Zakaria shows his smarts, and points out what Bush et al. were right about. This would be the much-discussed "domino effect." Stweart smarmily snarks, "Oh! Great! Civil war everywhere!" Uh, no, Jon. Democracy everywhere. That's the goal, dipshit. It's not about whether or not Bush was right; it's about democracy blooming, thereby drying up the tyrannical regimes that allow terror to take root.

Maybe it's just cos I'm still a Kilborn partisan at heart, and have never really liked Stewart all that much, but I think he's cynically playing to the audience here, and taking every opportunity to spin what should rightly be construed as a positive event to slam Bush. Listen to how the audience applauds when Zakaria calls Sistani "more rational" than Bush. He's given no time to explain how or why he feels this way. Nor do I think the audience knows. But they know it was a slap at Bush. And they love it. Kilborn was never afraid to openly challenge or insult the audience. Stewart here just seems like he's pandering.

Ok, so I decided to finally post this today because I read this transcript of his interview last night with some book-peddling joker who is some sort of Democrat Party foreign policy mainstay; she's advised the campaigns of Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, and John Kerry. Go read the transcript, and then tell me what you think. Would Stewart ever come around on the war? Would his audience let him? What would it take?

Did you see the memo about that?

DataWhat? has a ton of rad stuff today. Be sure to watch those SuperFriends movies.

Come together...right now

In another happy confluence of events, like how I found a grape Blow-Pop in my pencil holder yesterday, Stereogum reports that next week's The O.C. will run a trailer for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The Star Wars website also reports that the trailer will be shown on the big screen in front of Robots.

The 'Pod wonders what the big deal is: Didn't we already see a trailer? And why can't they show it this week? Oh, right, cos Fox is showing re-runs...I mean, "encores." So if you missed last week's fab Spider-Man homage (last week on NPR, I totally heard this reporter pronounce it "home-age." TWICE.), catch that shizznle again tonight. The bonus episode is another happy confluence of events. Everything's coming up 'Pod!

Assimilation? Or religious intolerance?

Last year, a virtual tectonic shift occurred when Germany -- long considered a Mecca of religious tolerance by Muslims -- took its first step toward enforced secularism. Five of the nation's 16 states voted to ban teachers and other public officials from wearing headscarves to work.*

Now, is this considered a step towards assimilation, or an expression of religious intolerance? Where does assimilation begin, and outright intolerance end? Could the government next force Catholics to remove visible crucifixes if they say that the religion promotes intolerant views towards, say, homosexuals? Can laws even be effective here?:

"These girls are frightened for their lives," she said. "If they do manage to get away, it would be an illusion to say the girls would run to the police." Besides, laws only cover civil marriages -- not religious ones. In many cases, families force their young daughters into Muslim weddings at very young ages (sometimes as early as 12 years old) and then only unite the couple civilly when the girls turn 18.

Before you answer, consider whether assimilation can take on situations like this:

One of the unsettling truths about Hatin's death and the plight of many Muslim women is that it took the comments of three Turkish boys and the outrage of a male school director to get people to notice. When the murder first happened, it sent no shock waves through the mainstream German press. It only became big news when a group of 14-year-old Turkish boys mocked Hatin during a class discussion at a school near the crime scene. One boy said, "She only had herself to blame," while another insisted, "She deserved what she got. The whore lived like a German." The enraged school director not only sent a letter home to parents, but also to teachers across Germany. The letter ignited a media fury. Less known, however, is that the letter also hit a nerve among educators. "Teachers from across the country wrote back saying they had had similar experiences," Boehmecke said. They reported Turkish boys taunting Turkish girls who don't wear headscarves as "German sluts." "That's the part no one has written about. Clearly there is huge potential for similar violence across Germany," Boehmecke said. "Not just in the big cities, but all over. It's a problem many politicians haven't been willing to face."

And the ones that do get murdered, like Pym. I'm frankly surprised that Le Pen has survived thus far. Are you wiling to let more "sluts" die while Muslims assimilate themselves? Or should Europe "band-aid" the wound while it can, before it becomes infected? (An unfortunate choice of words, for which I apologize, however necessary to rebut the metaphor.) It may in fact be "relocating" the problem, but consider the alternative: More and more Muslims flood the tolerant streets of Western Europe, ghettoizing themselves as they find that Europe's civil and criminal laws do not gel with their religion. More and more Europeans flee, leaving no society into which remaining Muslims can assimilate. Instead of confronting the problem, it has been allowed to spread.

Personally, I think the brah is out his head with this noise. I know that some folks have issues with the uber-cute Little Ms. Wheeler, but "annoying" and "unfunny?" Hello? 'Member the snark when Chino scatters her tampoons e'erywhere? And the yamaklaus, for crissakes! Brilliant!

Plus, the Spider-Man bit was rad. It ain't just that Seth likes comic books, dude. Sure, that's why he's got the mask, but it's about the fact that Summer knew what to do when she saw him suspended thusly. Alex woulda given him a good shove and watched him swing for a bit. Anna...well, Anna might've kissed him, too. But Anna's in Pittsburgh, dudes.

The OC might jump the shark next season, and the ramp will surely be the umpteenth Ryan/Marissa make-up/breakdown. At this point, is anybody still rooting for these two? Well, you shouldn't be.

Finally, I'm not entirely sure why watching Wes Anderson movies would improve the show. In fact, I'd be mighty suspicious of the soundtrack. And plus, Bill Murray would probably have to be involved, and if you get excited by Bill Murray, brother, you've got bigger fish to fry.

straight from the camel's mouth

I don't think it's simplistic; I think he's right on.

Al-Qaeda was founded with the explicit goal of re-establishing the caliphate, a Muslim super-state encompassing the entire Islamic world that would be primed for perpetual conflict with the West.

Bin Laden’s caliphate would be ruled according to the strict version of shariah law typified by the Taliban, where homosexuals and those preaching non-Islamic faiths were executed, women were kept in burkas, and men were imprisoned if their beards were not long enough.

"Perpetual conflict with the West." The article you linked to quoted several imams who said that strict Koranic interpretations call for the death of anyone who rejects Islam, including Christians and non-believers. Al Qaeda was founded on the priciples of jihad; how is the theory of an Islamic war against the West and it's values "overly simplistic?" I'm curious, what do you think the ultimate goal of jihad is?


UPDATE: Are you ok? Because it looks like you may have pulled a muscle during that astounding logical leap you made. Look, the day that militant homosexuals brutally murder Mike Nichols is the day I will stand with the Dutch when they call for their deporatation (to...where?), but not before. Homosexuality has almost never hurt anyone. So I'll kindly thank you to refrain from impugning my motivation, dear. Meanwhizz, I'll speak with the same caveats, and say that I think you and your Dutch fwunds misunderstand the nature of the threat.

"Van Gogh's alleged assassin, Mohammed B, a 26-year-old Dutch Moroccan, spoke and wrote excellent Dutch. The farewell letter found on him when he was arrested was written in rhyming couplets, in the style that Dutch families send to one another each Sinterklaas (Santa Claus) Day, December 5. He had studied at a well-regarded lyceum before dropping out of a technical institute." ...

Slums and poverty played no part in Mohammed B's background. He grew up in pleasant, low-rise housing in west Amsterdam, graffiti-free, with open spaces and playgrounds. When arrested, he was living in good council housing. The street has small, modern houses, with well-tended gardens, the hedges trimmed, and a heron often standing on a rooftop. Lace curtains mark the Dutch houses; satellite dishes are the ubiquitous indicator of immigrants.

More effective integration? We'd all love to see the plan.
As for the Israel/Palestine issue, haven't you been amazed at the progress that's been made since Arafat died? It's almost as if it has nothing to do with who is in charge in America.