Open note to whomever checked out "Paris 1919" before me

Dear Sir or Madam,

I hope that you enjoyed "Paris 1919" as much as I have. What a rich subject, so ripe for analysis and new perspectives! The author's writing style goes a long way toward illuminating some of the more complicated aspects of diplomacy and statecraft at play following WWI. Your habit of underlining what you see as key points, however, does not.

Aside from the questionnable ethics of making underlines in a book owned by and lended to the general public, I'm a bit concerned by the substantive points you seem to be trying to convey to the next reader. (Here I assume that you realize that the book is not, in fact, your property, and thus the underlines are not for your own edification, or to aid in memory recall when flipping through for a later review.) Further, your underlines of some of the passages leads me to the conclusion that you've missed some of the larger points at issue.

For example, when you underline a passage quoting Trotsky, to the effect that "everyone knew that the capitalist nations were responsible for creating wars," it can seem as if you are perhaps willfully ignoring some of the more... shall we say "credited" causes of the Great War. This, of course, is aside from your apparent troubling willingness to sympathize with one of history's more caustic ideologies. Your emphasis of a passage citing President Wilson's strong belief in American exceptionalism (which, in the interest of context, it should be noted has also been attributed by certain parties to our current president in regards to our current overseas conflict) is also troubling, since it should be noted that this belief, at least as so far as it lead to American intervention in the conflict, was not widely shared, especially in the Congress. I'm not certain, but I think this may undermine your point.

I think it's well known that certain constituents see the current conflict largely as being the result of a corrupt administration, motivated to action by a strong belief in American exceptionalism and a healthy relationship with the "military-industrial complex." However, your attempt to propogate this view by pointing to what you see as historical parallels through your underlines, while somewhat clever, is laughably transparent, and historically tendentious. At least from my point of view. Maybe I'll find some sentences to underline in the book to illustrate these feelings to the next reader. Or maybe I'll just not be a horrendously inconsiderate asshole, and refrain from defacing public property.

Sincerely,

-Matt




To my readers: Yes, I'm pompous and affected. But seriously, who takes the time to do this kind of shit. People who do that should be put against a wall. Ha ha! Irony!

gasses of mass destruction

I've been sick all week, hence the non-blogginess. But there is still fun stuff on the tubes.

Like Tarantino defending "Grindhouse," and laying out plans for his next movies. I thought "Grindhouse" was fantastic, btdubs. I'm not sure if the terrible movies me and 3000 and the rest of the crew watched technically count as grindhouse movies, cos we rented them on video instead of seeing them in the theater. But they sure were terrible. And I think you'd be hard pressed to not see a "Gone In 60 Seconds" vibe in "Death Proof" (which, I think they even mention that movie in DP dialogue), or a "Night Trips 2" vibe in the trailer for "Werewolf Women of the SS." That's totally a movie I would go see, too. But "Grindhouse" was super funny, bloody, violent, sexy, had zombies and explosions and Kurt Russell... I honestly don't know what else you could want from a movie.

Also, this is hilarious. I love that this happens and Sheryl Crow isn't all up in Hillary!'s grill, yappin about corn oil and wiping paper. Plus, man, Dog bless the Smoking Gun. They do good work. I mean, if Dick Cheney was a rock star with a touring flotilla like that?

"What is carbon dioxide?" a reporter asked. "I hear it's dangerous."

"Does Cheney make carbon dioxide?" another reporter asked. "If so, how does Halliburton profit off of it?"

A reporter ran forward. "Did the Bush Administration claim that Saddam had carbon dioxide so as to invade Iraq? Also, isn't it true none was ever found?"

Oh, plus, I missed this the other night, cos at this point you'd have to bribe me with Cadbury Creme Eggs to get me watch the results shows, but....



...Jack Black is awesome. I mean, that's not news, obvi. Still.
Finally, I'd like to say that 30 Rock is the funniest, best written show on tv right now. I can't wait for the dvd. "I go in, I get bird flu, I don't come out." Brills.

That's all I gots the energy for right now. And I think I strained my tricep just doing this.

"If..."

In my lifetime, musicians with itchy consciences have declared themselves opposed to four things, more or less: Nuclear Power, Nuclear Missiles, Global Warming, and playing concerts at Sun City. They opposed the first because nuke plants poison the earth; they opposed nuclear missiles under the general auspicies of the Bad For Children and Other Living Things Comprehensive Banality Act of 1968; they were opposed to Sun City because of apartheid – bully for them, but let’s see any of them refuse to sell their products in China to protest the occupation of Tibet. They were wrong about nuclear power; wrong about the Soviets, misguided about the effect of depriving South Africa of their presence, and now it’s this. It would be amusing if this stuff wasn’t starting to saturate nearly every single aspect of modern life, turning the most incidental of choices into signs of moral failings.

Click Here for more great videos and pictures!

Skip this if you haven't been watching the Sopranos

If you haven't been watching these last few episodes, and you don't want spoilers, skip to the next post... the one with the gigantic dog.

Ok, so, after Tony had that lunch conversation with Little Carmine about the leadership vacuum in the Lupertazzi family, didn't anyone else get the impression that Tony was thinking about taking over? I mean, it's more than likely he won't, but I just got the idea that he was so dismayed at the anarchy in that family, and that nobody even wants to step up into a leadership role, that he could take over with really very little effort, and make a cubic assload of money. Of course, now it looks like Phil Leotardo may step up, which would make such a power play very bloody, but still. Thoughts?

dog problems

That's a real dog, yo. Mofo weighs 282 pounds.

just like heaven

Interview magazine once said his playing "does nothing less than tell human beings why they bother to live."

Really fantastic article about a world-famous violinist busking in the DC Metro to general ambivalence. Like two people recoginze the guy for who he is, but most people at least recognize his talent.

Scenes from the modern office

So, I just got out of a meeting, and am 10 minutes away from another one. I have one more after that before I can go home. That brings me up to four meetings for the day, and I have three more tomorrow. Anyway, at these meetings, I will hear lots of unacceptable terms for e-mailing. Which terms are and are not acceptable, you ask? Let me school you.

In the phrase, "I will _____ you an e-mail later today with that information," unacceptable terms include, but are not exclusive to:

• zap
• shoot
• blast
• zip

The acceptable term is:

• send

Lesson OVER!

euro-nifong

"Paul Wolfowitz, meet the Duke lacrosse team."

the feds

I prolly shoulda told everyone this a while ago, but... You may get a form in the mail from the federal government, asking about me. Please fill it out and send it in. I'm aware of it.
Basically, the work I do for the Department of Education allows me access to confidential information. The gov't is cracking down on data security issues after some high-profile breaches of confidentiality, so they're investigating their contractors more thoroughly now.
I'm sorry it's a hassle, and I promise they won't look into you or your background. So, thanks.


We now resume our irregularly scheduled incoherence.

Scenes from the modern office

I went down the vending machine in the next building to get a coke. On the way back, I step into the elevator in the lobby with a woman. She pushes the button for the second floor. When we get to the second floor, three women get on, and push the button for the first floor. They give me a dirty look when they discover that they have to wait for the elevator to go up to the fifth floor before it can take them down to the first.

I have personally asked the president of my company, along with several vice presidents, to remove the elevator button for the second floor. This is the kind of shit that happens when they don't pay attention. Your company breeds idiocy!

white people gone wild

The war must be going well, because Anna Nicole is in the headlines again. Now, the DNA tells us who gets her money. I mean, fathered her child. It took only a few weeks for us to get the DNA evidence naming the baby daddy. Meanwhile, it took over a year for charges to be dropped on the Duke lacrosse players, based in part on exonerating DNA evidence. Between this shit and Sanjaya, America, you've certainly got your priorities straight. Way to go.

Another rich white guy fucking up is Imus. What's funny is that even though he hates Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld; hates the war; lives on the upper west side of Manhattan; and is a huge tree-hugger; apparently saying some racist shit automatically makes him a conservative. Amazing. How long till we see a story alleging that Seligman, Finnerty, and Evans donate money to the RNC? Just get Rather to phony up some documents. Hmmm... Rather worked for CBS, so does Imus, 60 Minutes doubted the rape charges... Which brings me back to the number 5. 5 letters in the word "Cheney." 5 syllables in "Halliburton." Shit. I have no idea what I'm talking about.

Added: But this guy seems to.

SANJAYA IS FOR THE CHILDREN

Ha. Anyway, that shit was boring as hell. But J-Lo was there, and I watched "Out of Sight" again the other night, and it convinced me that the scene with her and Clooney in the hotel bar (then back to the room) is probably my favorite movie scene of all time.

Everything about it is perfect. The lighting, first of all, with the snow in the background lit to look like thousands of little lights falling in the background, is just beautiful. The dudes hitting on her is hilarious, Clooney comes in with the lighter and that awesome suit, reflected off the windows... Just great. They banter, they share a drink, the music is wistful, and reflective of the fact that they both know what's about to happen will never happen again. Soderbergh brings it with a few freeze-frames that just showcase the fantastic photography. Not to get too Queer Eye with it, but I even love J-Lo's clothes (costume, whatever) here. She takes charge in the room, which keeps with her character, the snow is still falling outside, and after they get it on, Clooney leaves behind the gun he stole from her earlier. Fantastic. Just perfectly done on every single level.

Favorite movie scenes evs in the comments, but no ragging on mine.

Who's that drivin?

PATRICK SWAYZE!!!

Do not fear my beard! I am a lover of America!

real iTunes becoming more like Russian iTunes

After the unfortunate, much-lamented demise of the Russian site, one of the world biggest music companies is finally sacking up and planning to sell downloadable music with no copy protections, and with a choice of format and bitrate (sort of). They sellin that shit through iTunes, too. Can I get a "fuck yes"!?!?!

Higher-quality music files, which will play on any computer and any digital-audio player, will not replace the copy-protected EMI music currently sold through iTunes. Rather, they will complement the standard 99-cent iTunes downloads and will be sold at a premium: $1.29 per song. ...

After initially selling the premium DRM-free music through Apple, EMI plans to expand the program to other music outlets. Retailers partnering with EMI, which also plans to remove DRM from its video downloads, will be able to choose from a variety of levels of sound quality. Retailers will also be able to choose whether to sell files in the MP3, WMA or AAC format.

In iTunes, music will be sold in a 256 kilobit-per-second AAC format.

This will be a yuge success. Mark it, dude.