January 2002 Archives

Always check snopes first.

Some stories I've heard recently that just ain't true:

Coincidence Design's rent-a-stalker service? False. (Actually was vaporware -- they've received enough interest in the service, they just might start it up anyway.)

Groom smothered by stripper's breasts? False. (We're going to see more of this sort of thing, now that Yahoo! has the Weekly World News as a news source.)

Cat with its head stuck in garbage disposal? True! (Don't worry, the cat's just fine.)

(I keep getting hits.) The best source of information is the DOT and the NYPD. A public service brought to you by Ishbadiddle.

Did y'all catch the state of the onion? Kudos to W for pushing volunteerism (and good news for my dad and my aunt, both employed by the Nat'l Corp for Community Service) -- lets hope this goes farther than his dad's 1000 points. Beyond the whole axis-of-evil thing (er, how exactly are we going to go to war against Iran, Iraq, and N Korea? Wm. Safire's got a plan, but sadly it does not involve destabilizing their regimes with our superior use of grammar), beyond the tax-cut-while-raising-spending-on-just-about-everything- but-God-help-the-Congress -if-they-think-of-spending-on-anything-not-in-his-budget -- where was New York? Not even a nod to Rudy. What about the promises to help us rebuild? Where's our fucking money? We have a 16-acre mass graveyard that's now a tourist attraction ("Get the camera, Irv! They found a body!"). Let's see -- the feds will start deficit spending (the only option is to put it on plastic). New York is facing its own budget problems -- after you finish paying off 1199, there's not much left, and we're looking at cutbacks here at Project Renewal -- so the net effect will be to screw us over. New York is always a net exporter of taxes -- we give more to the feds than we take in. Unless we receive the promised aid, we'll probably still export taxes (any economists out there want to back me up?). Meaning we foot the bill. Have a nice day.

Oh, and did you catch the moments when he dropped character? That smirk. Like he's in a school play and mugging for mom, or a frat boy who's delivering the valedictorian speech -- "Look at me! I'm the Prez! I'm delivering the State of the Union! Whoo-hoo!"

While I'm ranting on W, did you miss this one? Here's what he had to say about Ken Lay: "He was a supporter of Ann Richards in my run in 1994. And she did name him the head of the Governor's Business Council, and I decided to leave him in place just for the sake of continuity. And that's when I first got to know Ken and worked with Ken, and he supported my candidacy."

This is such a lie that even the National Review and George Will called him on it (although both managed to make it seem like it's somehow Clinton's fault.) Sure, Ken Lay gave money to Ann Richards' campaign in '94: $12,500. But he gave $37,500 to Bush in the same campaign, while Enron kicked in $146,000. This is the same tactic the GOP has taken on Enron from the beginning of the stink -- trying to remind everyone that they gave to the Dems, too. Of course they gave to both sides. Every company gives to both sides. It's called hedging your bets. But for every dollar Lay and Enron gave to the Dems, they gave three to the GOP. Hell, before this whole thing blew up in their face, everyone knew that Lay and Bush were tight. To say that he first "got to know" Ken Lay in 1994 -- what a whopper. The equivalent of "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" -- it's only true if you change what the meaning of "is" is. Here are some more articles on this one, from Bushwatch, the Houston Chronicle and Progressive.org.

The latest in the Ashcroftian Moral Government? Well, there are the $8,000 togas we bought so he wouldn't have to be photographed in front of a nekkid lady statue. One of the Three Toms (Tomorrow, Toles, and Dancing Bug) hit that one on the head with this cartoon. Now we have to worry about calico cats, which are, of course, demonic:

Shortly after becoming Attorney General, John Ashcroft was headed abroad. An advance team showed up at the American embassy in the Hague to check out the digs, saw cats in residence, and got nervous. They were worried there might be a calico cat. No, they were told, no calicos. Visible relief. Their boss, they explained, believes calico cats are signs of the devil. (The advance team also spied a statue of a naked woman in the courtyard and discussed the possibility of its being covered for the visit, though that request was not ultimately made.)

This from Democratic Party treasurer Andrew Tobias, as recently reported by Maureen Dowd.

I'll bet the merry marketers are simply salivating that the Olympics are coming, because now they can use patriotism to sell products without seeming crass. Speaking of which, two "now more than ever" ads I could do without -- the "Subways: Now More Than Ever" posters the MTA has put up, and Randi Weingarten's "Teachers: Now More Than Ever" TV spot for the UFT. Probably no worse than Chevy's "Keep America Rolling" campaign. (Forget about the death of thousands with zero percent financing!)

By the way, why is Elton John going to the WEF? And has Trip seen him yet?

link via misc.

Only in the Post, only in New York, etc. etc. This is the kind of story that would end up on that god-awful Ally McBeal, prompting me to yell at the TV that such cases never actually reach a judge. Except they apparently do.

One would think the Radio Program Recorder is the first step on the road to the long-awaited and much clamored-for Radio TiVO, but on further inspection, it appears it’s not. In addition, it looks like you can only record conservative talk radio with it. How’d they do that?

Just added a comments field, courtesy of Yaccs. Needs a bit of design tinkering but looks like it works. So go on, say sumthin'.

White House Downplays Veep's Influence Over Seasons

Washington, D.C. -- Vice President Dick Cheney emerged from his secure, undisclosed location to make the rounds of the morning news programs this Sunday, but then immediately returned to his hiding place -- indicating that America may be in for six more weeks of winter, according to experts.

While appearing with Tim Russert on NBC's "Meet the Press," observers say, the Vice President seemed distracted, looking over his shoulder repeatedly as if trying to see his own shadow. A review of the broadcast indicates that Vice President Cheney, in fact, appeared to locate his shadow towards the end of the program. He then abruptly concluded the interview, cancelled an appearance with CNN's Wolf Blitzer and returned to his secure, undisclosed location, which is believed to be underground.

Experts were divided as to impact of Cheney's brief appearance and sudden disappearance upon the duration of the current winter season. "You can read anything you want into Cheney seeing his own shadow and going back underground," one Cheney-watcher said. "Yes, it may mean six more weeks of winter, but it may just mean that he's trying to stay as far away from this Enron mess as possible."

At the White House, press secretary Ari Fleischer attempted to downplay the increasingly widespread impression that Vice-President Cheney can influence the seasons. "Vice President Cheney is a respected voice within this Administration, but he does not control the weather," Fleischer told reporters. "Only the President can do that."

From Nancy!

Since I can only post in one place in a timely manner about the goings-on of the WEF, I’ll be writing more at my own personal blog, Bleahh, for the next five days or so.

But one thing needs to be thrown up here, to wit, the news about the virtual WEF sit-in taking place beginning tomorrow. Check out the Electronic Civil Disobedience’s site for more on what and how.

[NB: You should also check out the somewhat-more-cogently-written rtmark. Hey, they pointed to this cool tool, which generates the path of least surveillance between any two points in Manhattan. Don't you wish Vindigo could do the same?]

In case you ever wondered where you stood in the grand Geek Hierarchy ... now you can check.

From the Washington Post (by way of MetaFilter,) a thoughtful piece about the future of global capitalism:

The question is: Do we maintain the status quo and hope that the genuine magnificence of the American experience is persuasive to those for whom it is but a remote video image? Or do we recognize the challenges we face? Granted, the specter of communism no longer haunts us. Instead, there are only seeds growing in far-away fields, perverse seeds that thrive when neglected.

We must begin by recognizing that the genius of capitalism is not, as Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill suggested recently, that it allows companies to die, but that it continually reinvents itself. Democracy shares this genius. We have made American capitalism work here and other brands of capitalism work elsewhere in the developed world. But we must recognize that we have notcome close to perfecting global capitalism. We must create stakeholders in globalization, in capitalism and in democracy by reforming local systems so that the disenfranchised have access to the capital, education, legal institutions, market efficiencies and other benefits that can only come when the grasp of the elites on limited national assets is loosened and the opportunity to own and build wealth is genuinely offered.

This telnet show is the web equivalent of a wayang kulit, Javanese shadow puppetry. Except instead of Hindu epics, it's Star Wars. And instead of Java, it's ASCII. (Sorry, I couldn't resist that one.)

(via prolific.org.)

Update from Trip:

You didn't mention that it's Telnet ASCII art! That's the best part! [NB: OK, you're right. Now I've mentioned it.] That, and that there's no sound, so you can put on whatever you want as background. Though it doesn't sync up perfectly, I put on Hükser Dü's Land Speed Record, a nonstop ultracore live set from '79.

So we’ve got a veep with a bad ticker, a prez with loose wiring in general and in particular a bad ticker. Who’s third in line? Hastert? What are his health problems?

WEF or WTF?
A friend in a building several blocks from the Davos-Astoria got a memo from her company about the upcoming summit. In particular, it’s good to know that:

The New York City Police Department will be enforcing street closings and will be taking other initiatives designed to protect the city against potentially violent disruptions by opponents of the WEF. The NYPD is taking these precautions in order to prevent possible injury and property damage, which unfortunately have taken place at previous demonstrations in other cities.

From public radio station KPCC in Pasadena:

President Bush has a heart arrhythmia called sinus bradycardia that makes him more prone to fainting when he gags or chokes. It's why he passed out January 13 in the highly publicized pretzel incident. . . .

Had the press known that President Bush has sinus bradycardia, and that fainting is a common symptom of bradycardia, the story might have been reported much differently. But the press didn't ask the right question, and the White House didn't volunteer the right answer. Instead, the Bush White House focused on the pretzel, and the press swallowed the story whole.

Those of you who had a good time with the pseudo-EC that was perpetrated for Matt and Jessie’s honeymoon postcard may get a thrill out of a planned 1000-panel comic strip Exquisite Corpse that waferbaby is running. The rest of you will probably just shake your heads slowly.

So for the last few weeks our neighbors Lynn, Colin, Chris, and Rozie have been making plans to see our latest DVD arrival, L'Avventura. Schedules were coordinated, dinner plans made, watches synchronized. Last Wednesday the party gathered, ready to chow down on my guacamole and Lynn's excellent picadillo. Now why eat Mexican food during an Antonioni film? Well it makes perfect sense -- if you think you're about to see Aventurera, the 1950 Mexican cabaretera/musical/melodrama, which they'd seen at Film Forum a number of years back. Somehow watching a "haunting study of contemporary alienation" didn't quite go with the mood, so we went and rented Blow Dry instead. Which turned out to be quite enjoyable, in the tradition of Strictly Ballroom and Best in Show -- big competition, strange subculture, quirky characters. Proving you can make this movie about anything, this time it's British hairdressers and their annual competition. Well written, funny, great cast (incl. Alan Rickman, Natasha Richardson, and Rachel Griffiths) -- a perfect popcorn movie. Goes well with guacamole too.

On a completely unrelated note, I've just finished reading I Thought My Father Was God, a collection of stories edited by Paul Auster. Auster went on NPR and asked people to send in stories -- they had to be true, and they had to be short. The book is a selection of the 4,000+ stories he received. They are, quite simply, amazing. Ranging from heartbreaking to heartwarming to eerie to funny to thoughtful, the stories stay with you. As if you just got off the bus, where the person next to you told you their story ("Here is my story, the story I tell you when I know you well enough.") The good folks at Rain Taxi have a review too. Check it out.

My office is at 50th and Lex, right across the street from the Davos-Astoria, site of the World Economic Forum, scheduled to start in two days. Giving new definition to the word retrograde, the NYPD (remember them? they’re heroes) is planning to enforce an 1845 law that prohibits gathering in groups of three or more and wearing hoods or masks. Can I post bail via Blogger? The Voice has your guide to some of the planned uproar. (Uproar, but not ruckus. They’re officially staying home.)

From today's NYT featured wedding:
"Ms. Gray, an acting coach, whose clients include Mariah Carey and Julianne Nicholson, said she usually has to work for months to develop that mix of confidence and vulnerability in actors. She hesitated, then gave Mr. Bagdade her phone number."

’Parrently the Mac turned voting age yesterday, and Blog of Note at Blogger happened to point to someone who points us to the story of the fantastic first advertisement for the original Banana Jr.

UPDATE: CBS is going to run a program called Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials II, and the ad for it indicates that the “1984” spot will be on it, but the web page doesn’t confirm.

A short/interesting article below. For those who wonder how I do what I do (i.e., corporate communications) without yakking on a daily basis, well, this won't clear up that mystery any...

Full op-ed from the NYT is here; excerpts below:

January 19, 2002
Enron's Vision (and Values) Thing
By JAMES S. KUNEN

Well, at least Enron's leaders thought it important to produce a statement of values. Imagine what they might have done had they found themselves without this moral compass.

Then again, maybe adherence to ethical conduct really should go without saying. Every company's statement ends up rehashing the same things, anyway: We will maintain the highest ethical standards, treat our employees with respect, encourage teamwork, make quality products, respect the environment. . . . As opposed to what? We will maintain fair- to-middling ethical standards? Treat our employees like old shoes, foment backstabbing, make shoddy products and lay waste the environment?

I know one writer who, while struggling to draft one of these corporate credos, threw up her hands in despair and observed: "Why not just come right out and say it? 'We will strive to make as much money as we can without going to prison.' "

She was joking, of course. But had Enron's leaders adopted her statement and lived by it, their employees and shareholders might be a lot better off today.

Get your war on just gets funnier and funnier.

On Trip's site, he's been reviewing independent, non-corporate web-sites that are worth checking out: the Realm of Redheads, Evolt.org, Need to Know, UnosUnosYUnosCeros.com, Exploding Dog, and Linkdup. I'm sure he'll have lots more for us.

...unless you've got some time on your hands; a seriously cool webtoy. Thanks to i.s.o. labs for the pointer.

You have until Monday to comment to the DOJ on the Microsoft anti-trust settlement. Do it now.

via blogdex.)

Ron Taylor, the man behind BGM, was also the man behind Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors on Broadway.

This article in the SF Chronicle reveals that Ashcroft "vigorously urged federal agencies to resist most Freedom of Information Act requests made by American citizens" in an Oct 12 memo. Link via randomWalks.

From today's Nothing Personal on Salon.com:
In what can only be called a coup for drape-headed actors everywhere, a production company called Five Mile River Films has bought the screen rights to "Rudy Giuliani: Emperor of the City," a biography of New York City's former mayor by Andrew Kirtzman. Actors including Robert Duvall and James Woods are said to be under consideration to take the lead role in the TV movie. According to the Associated Press, Five Mile River has backed such TV classics as "Abraham," "Moses," "David" and "Jesus." Maybe they'll call this one "God."

Last week’s Voice describes the plight of Jones Diner, “one of the last great original hash houses in lower Manhattan”. Support your local (or regional) greasy spoon!

For those of you who missed it, there was a small piece in the NY Times a couple months ago about two guys who photographed the defacement of Britney Spears subway posters, the ones advertising her then-upcoming gig in Las Vegas to be broadcast live on HBO. I finally got around to seeing the web page they put up with their results, and it isn’t as interesting as it seemed from the Times’s piece, but it’s still worth a quick look. (You’ll probably get redirected to the main page from the link above, but look in the nav on the left frame of the main page.)

[NB: It's been a while since I visited Mr. Beller's Neighborhood, host of the Britney site, but it's worth looking at in its own right -- a mapping of stories to the grid of the city. Andrea's kind of thing. Also, you should check out the illuminating reactions to the Britney posters.]

Ooh, and I just heard on WBGO that today is National Measure Your Feet Day and tomorrow is National Compliment Day (confirmed at HolidayInsights.com). What’re the lobbying organizations that pushed these through our estimable national legislative assembly?

More on the selectively Ashcruftian moral government: Wired news says that we are punishing Ukraine, but just bumpin’ our gums about China when it comes to policing software piracy.

January's XP Surprise: The Giant Paperweight

Spinsanity is always worth checking out, if only to see what lies the pundits are spreading these days. Currently considered: The GOP straw man, "Daschlenomics," and the Dem's straw man, "Enronomics." OK, I'm biased, but I just have to quote this WSJ op-ed piece on Enron:

Rather, the ultimate lesson may turn out to be that Enron was able to play fast and loose in a financial boom and Clintonian moral climate, and was called to account in a recession when the moral climate has turned Ashcroftian.

Oh yes, and ignorance is strength, freedom is slavery, etc.

Had a good discussion with my father this weekend about the nominal status of the Afghan prisoners, be it POWs or “Unauthorized Combatants”. Today’s Washington Post has excerpts from the relevant portion of the Geneva Convention, but I’d love to see what the non-excerpted portions read.

Whoa there! Found it. The little-known full title is the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, and the parts not excerpted by the Washington Post are illuminating. Apparently there’s a touch too much nuance in them for the Post’s readers.

In an effort to get everyone watching CNN twenty-four hours a day, the folks at AOL-TimeWarner have given us a report entitled How Prepared Is Your City? and I’m glad to note that New York city is given the title of Most Devastated Most Prepared. That way, if those dang terreristas try to attack a tall building in New York again, we’ll feel safer having ignored the fire drills in our office building. (Trying to be nice, CNN didn’t give a Least Prepared; but it seems that you are in tough shape if you live in Detroit, Boston, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, or Philadelphia.)

And, since it seems that today is Enron day at Ishbadiddle, I’ll point out that CNN also reports on Veep Dick Cheney’s dunning India for money owed to Enron. It doesn’t feel better to hear that “no one at Enron asked Cheney to raise the issue”.

Want to buy the Enron Code of Ethics? How about their Risk Management Manual? (Bidding stands at $1000). Or an "Ask Why" Enron Stress Ball? I am sorely tempted to bid on the Enron Values "Tangle Puzzle" -- the irony must be worth at least $20.

How to eat a Pretzel

Thanks, Nancy!

To go along with NS’s post of faux Bollywood posters, there’s a site with real Rare Bollywood LP Cover Art.

Mmm . . . meta Pong. For those on a corporate-type connection.

Want to see how Enron's board is connected to the military-industrial complex, where their donations go, and how Sam Nunn is at the center of the corporate universe, all using Flash? Go to They Rule.

It's official - according to Reuben Bolling things are back to normal. It's even OK to make fun of the President's mysterious incident. Does anybody know what kind of pretzel it was, by the way ? Was this a big soft pretzel, a smaller hard pretzel, a pretzel stick ? And have they explained how he ended up with that weird hickey on his face out of "fainting and falling onto the floor" ?

Not that Ishbadiddle isn’t my second fave blog or anything, but Sweet Jaysus, you’ve gotta look at Coudal Partners, where they have a running journal that would put the old K10K in a cold sweat, and where I found the poster stuff. Now if only the new K10K would appear.

Fear not, I’ll be putting more than oh-so-cool design-y posts here.

The Aesthetic Apparatus posters are indeed lovely (thanks Trip). Those wishing to track the Apparatchiks' aesthetic to one of its most venerable sources should check out Some People Can't Surf, a newish monograph on Seattle graphic designer Art Chantry, by (full disclosure) my pal Julie Lasky.

Link via blogdex -- yeah, I know, I'm a meme fiend.

Noelle informed of us an idea whose time has come -- Zipcar, a car-sharing network that's environmental and economical. Looks like they're well situated in Boston and DC, and coming to New York. Now if only someone would do the same for bicycles....

I would have these posters on my wall. And I would have been to some of the concerts. Or at least heard of the bands... But really, the Ryan Adams/Brooklyn Bridge poster would look great anywhere, and it's only $20. Maybe I'll replace that Bryan Adams poster I've got up. Just kidding.

Tip from Trip.

When Punxsutawney Phil pops his head out of his hole on Feb. 2 to tell people whether or not they will experience six more weeks of winter, the famous groundhog may see more than his shadow. Because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, security will be stepped up at Phil's home, Gobbler's Knob.

The whole inanity can be read here. Do they really think that Al Qaeda would attack a groundhog?

Emily forwarded me this very interesting Slate (online) article. Food for thought. -- CMM

NYSE Guys Finish First
Why did Rudy Giuliani give the New York Stock Exchange a billion-dollar handout?
By Michael Grunwald

Everyone knows that Rudy Giuliani went out on top, ending his operatic eight-year reign over New York City as the Person of the Year. But hardly anyone noticed that he left behind a parting gift. On his last day in office, Rudy signed an agreement to proceed with the largest corporate subsidy in New York history: up to $1.1 billion in cash and tax breaks for the New York Stock Exchange. Even when the deal was announced three years earlier, it committed money the city didn't really have to a new trading floor the exchange didn't really need in order to generate a new skyscraper no one really wanted in response to a flee-the-city threat no one really believed. And that was before the city began to hemorrhage cash, skyscrapers began to look like targets, and flee-the-city threats began to feel like municipal treason. . . .

[NB: This of course comes on the heels of Giuliani's 11th-hour Yankee Stadium loophole.]

I can't let today go by without writing of the Great Boston Molasses Disaster, which happened 83 years ago today. Here's is Zeitler's account:

On January 15, 1919, an unseasonably warm day in Boston, tragedy struck. Neither this Massachusetts city nor any other has ever experienced a disaster quite like it. Around noon, the molasses tank located near North End Park, designed to hold up to 2.5 million gallons of molasses (one and a half times as heavy as water), burst, unleashing a torrent of sticky goo on the unexpecting community. Within minutes, businesses and houses were destroyed. A giant wave of sweetness unfurled its wrath on the city as a thirty-foot wall traveling with a speed of thirty-five miles per hour. The incredible force of two tons per square foot was enough to knock the firehouse on its side and bend the supports under the local elevated train. People were engulfed despite attempts to outrun or swim the flood. In total, the disaster took the lives of twenty-one people and left 150 injured.

Cleanup crews spent months attempting to remove the remnants of the sticky flood, eventually quitting when they realized the once-sweet smell of molasses would continue to linger for months longer. It took weeks just to find all the dead; the mothers crushed under their own houses, the children caught unaware in their own backyards, and the working man swallowed while enjoying the weather and perhaps discussing the possibility of Prohibition on his lunch break. The Boston Harbor was stained brown for over half of a year. This was not an event Boston would soon forget.

According to the memories of this Bostonian, printed in Smithsonian, on summer days the North End still smelled of molasses decades later. Also worth reading is this article from a 1965 Yankee Magazine. There's an article on the Wikipedia on the disaster too. On this page an engineer discusses why the accident happened, and how it increased government oversight of building safety. So perhaps some good came of this deadly, sticky day.

I suggest this satire of them by AnnuMathew.
My favorite is Bomb

[Just in case I screwed up on the links here is the URL:
http://www.annumatthew.com/Portfolios/Bollywood%20Satirized/Bollywood.html]

NS in his debut direct post to Ish

Interesting article from the St. Petersburg Times on prime-time diversity. Via PopPolitics.

I must, MUST, I say, take issue with your preference of Bring It On over Sugar and Spice. The faux "can't we all just get along" schtick of BIO, the pseudo-just ending (so why was it that the southsidaz weren't able to get to the championships for all these years if they're so good?), and, above all, the gall of actually taking cheerleading seriously left me mouth agape. In a country where mothers conspire to kill the competition to their daughters' cheering aspirations (from the director of Fletch and The Bad News Bears, and starring Holly Hunter, Beau Bridges and Swoosie Kurtz*) or assault cheering coaches, I didn't know what to say. Sugar and Spice, however, was nuthin' but a good old-fashioned heist movie, and one that ripped off The Usual Suspects in many ways, to boot. As cotton-candyish as the gals themselves.

Tk

*Damn! Forget about all these other movies, this seems like a real gem, right here.

MS sent us to Zeek, a new culture-and-ideas-journal. I particularly liked this article on how the Beatles are beyond coolness:

But what are we supposed to do with the Beatles now? ‘We’ the musically progressive, post-punk, neo-this-or-that wannabes who feel what other people don’t understand but which theologians from Miriam to Tolkien did – that God is in music. What does a Sonic Youth fan, or an Erikah Badu fan, or a Radiohead fan, do about the Beatles?

Also, an interesting article on our nation's real counter-culture: Christian Rock.

MS also writes:

I found the article about the Karine A. scary as shit. I'd prefer that Arafat be responsible and the Iranians merely his allies rather than Iran acting as a rogue party fucking things up for everyone else. I get the impression that Arafat is kind of clueless, which is more dangerous than if he were really on top of things.

As for your bad movies of the year, my unhesitating vote is for Pearl Harbor.

Speaking of movie recommendations, somehow Julie Taymor's Titus failed to make its way onto our list -- a glaring error I hope you'll all forgive.

This story comes from It's a Mystery, an informative blog on religion:

Leading Them From Temptation? Ministers deliver a prayer-not-porn message at an adult trade show in Sin City.

"I say the rosary three times a week," Weigel says. "I believe in prayer and in God. It's made me a better person." Weigel finishes her prayer, crosses herself again and climbs up a ladder to begin her striptease.

These ministers have taken their message to the web in a suprisingly well-designed site.

This via The American Cynic:

Simply by using the "Insider" stock trading records available through Yahoo! or other financial sites, we enjoyed monitoring what Enron CEO Kenneth Lay was doing throughout 2001. It appears that on just about every possible trading day, he had ordered his stockbroker to sell 2,500 of his shares of Enron along with another 500 in the name of his trust or his spouse (we can't tell which, but we suspect it's Linda Lay).

For those of you who don't know about this -- Enron is a once-multi-billion-dollar company (at least on the cooked accounting books, it was) that has crashed into bankruptcy in just a matter of months. While the board of directors and principals of the company were able to personally extract billions of dollars from the stock's value, the common employees were not allowed to divest any of their holdings from their retirement funds.

Now, the CEO was trying to assure his employees that all was well. On August 14th of last year, he wrote in a company-wide e-mail, "Our performance has never been stronger; our business model has never been more robust. ...We have the finest organization in American business today." We suspect to punctuate that point, just one week later, Mr. Lay purchased almost $1.5 million in Enron stock for himself, plus another $500,000 for his wife -- just to show his confidence in the company's value on Wall Street. What he probably DIDN'T trumpet to many employees is that for the previous 8 months, he had extracted about $45 million in SALE of stock.

For the complete story, go here; for the details of Lay's trades and contributions, go here.

You can view the PSYOPS pamphlets we've dropped on Afganistan here. Some are creepy:

But most are just badly designed:

Can't we get better looking propaganda than this? It looks like a still from South Park. I mean, there's an army of unemployed designers out there. Compare to this Ben Shahn WWII propaganda poster:

PSYOPS link via boingboing.

Contact these folks. Things didn't work out? Hire these folks.

Thanks to Ennis for the wakaresaseya stories.

I forwarded this article about Battle Mountain, NV -- the "Armpit of America" to my co-worker Amanda, whose parents live in Nevada. She writes:

A follow-up on this article: my parents informed me that the editor of the Battle Mountain paper was fired because of the way she represented the town to this reporter. The merchants in town demanded her resignation, and threatened to pull all advertising from the paper if she stayed. Another lesson about small town life, I guess.

Maybe the Washington Post will give her a job. . .

I'm still trying to figure out why this came from the Economist, but whatever. Fascinating.

The week, to which we are all enslaved, has a strange and erotic history

Why does The Economist appear every seventh day? The answer is because we, like you, still regulate our lives by a septimal law that Mesopotamian star-gazers framed, and local warlords imposed, more than 40 centuries ago. Our weekdays and weekends and weeks off, our dress-down Fridays, hectic Saturday nights, Sundays sacred or profane, and Monday-morning blues all have their origin in something that happened around 2350BC. Sargon I, King of Akkad, having conquered Ur and the other cities of Sumeria, then instituted a seven-day week, the first to be recorded. . . .

Why should the Sumerian system have not merely endured but become an almost universal conqueror? Ur's posterity now sways regions Sargon never knew. Its lead has been slavishly followed by Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Hindus ancient and modern, Muslims and most of the present inhabitants of Europe and the Americas. Even China surrendered a good thousand years ago. . . .

[Read the whole article here. Personally, I wish the Sumerians had also invented the 3-day weekend while they were at it. The article fails, however, to mention the Mayans, who had 3 concurrent calendar systems, including the Tzolkin religious calendar that combined a 13-day week and a 20-day week. How's that for confusing?]

Patrick writes:

(Picture from the New York Times.)

These guys wake up in the morning, put on clothes that makes them invisible in the woods, go stand on a metal bridge and wear vests to make them super visible. Our tax-dollars at work!

Get your war on, the best use of clip art in 2001, has been updated since I last linked to it. Thanks for the tip, CMM!

Too funny for words. You must especially read the letter to Shifman about 80% down the page, the one that begins: "Mr. Spammer, you swine," a tour de force of insults.

A headline I never thought I'd see -- Bush is restoring food stamps to legal immigrants. This was one of the more regressive elements in the 1996 welfare law. Essentially, we said that if you emigrated here legally that was fine, but we'll let you starve unless you become a citizen. That law was the reason I couldn't vote for Clinton on his last run (I threw my one-vote support behind Nader's first non-campaign).

So it's somewhat of a jaw dropper to hear Newt Gingrich say this:

"I strongly support the president's initiative. In a law that has reduced welfare by more than 50 percent, this is one of the provisions that went too far. In retrospect, it was wrong. President Bush's instincts are exactly right."

Both the New York Times and the 52-member strong Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus claim that Bush's actions are aimed at wooing more Hispanic voters to the GOP. Let's hope he doesn't cave under pressure from the right-wingers.

Last Thurdsay, the cargo ship "Karine A" was intercepted by the Israeli military, carrying a load of missiles and other weapons. Israel says they were bought by Arafat and headed for the Palestinian Authority (PA). Mike Watkins sent us this article, with another possible explanation. He writes:

I picked this up from an international Iranian news service. It offers a plausible account of these events. In particular the alignment of interests makes sense. Hardliners in Iran want to poison any effort by moderates at rapproachment with the west. Hezbollah and PFLP-GC want to undermine the peace process and weaken Arafat. Israelis would like to see Iran labelled a terror-supporting state and want to further weaken Arafat. The extremes on all sides want to sabotage any effort by the US to broker negotiations. And so the escalation continues...

Mr. Alireza Noorizadeh, an independent Iranian journalist told Iran Press Service that the operation had been worked out by a section of the Iranian Revolutionary guards under the control of the Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, the Lebanese Hezbollah and Mr. Jibril "without the knowledge or Arafat and Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Khatami, the Iranian President".

Observing that the lamed and widely unpopular Khameneh’i, Mr. Jibril and the Lebanese Hezbollah, an organisation that is controlled by the Iranian leader, are all staunchly against the Chairman of the Palestinian Autority, Mr. Noorizadeh said the three had smuggld arms into the PA-controlled areas in the past using same methods "hence, he said, the presence on the ship of a member of the Lebanese Hazbollah and Palestinians beloging to the PFLP-GC". . . .

Reminding also that the policy of Mr. Khatami and his government concerning the Palestinian issue is "very different" from that instructed by the leader, who has the upper hand in the conduct of the regime’s foreign policy, Mr. Noorizadeh pointed to recent speeches by three reformist personalities criticizing the "Palestinisation" of the Iranian foreign policy.

Speaking at a recent a seminar on the "Palestinian issue from Iranians views" Mr. Mohammad Reza Tajik, an adviser to President Khatami and Director of the President’s Centre for Strategic Researches observed that while the Palestinians had adopted the strategy of dialogue (with Israel), Iran on the contrary advises the strategy of "war, war until victory, a position that is not progressive nor approved by any other nation".

You can read the whole article here. The folks over at Stratfor (no bleeding hearts they!) also doubt that Arafat was directly behind the arms smuggling in this article:

At the same time, logic argues against the idea that the Palestinian Authority was involved in the incident: The presence of Palestinian naval officers aboard the vessel, including one who later directly fingered two of Arafat's top lieutenants, limits plausible deniability. Though the Palestinian Authority does not govern a state, it nonetheless must behave as a government -- and governments engaged in covert or illegal operations usually act in a manner that allows plausible deniability. It would be either extremely stupid or sheerly lunatic for the Palestinians to think that a weapons-laden ship might transit the Red Sea and the Suez Canal undetected at a time when both are under heightened surveillance.

Furthermore, there are contradictory reports about the vessel's ownership. Israel claims Palestinians owned the ship, but Lloyd's List, a premier shipping publication owned by Lloyd's of London, reported Jan.7 that it was owned by an Iraqi national. According to Lloyd's, it was a Lebanese-flagged vessel operated by the Beirut-based Diana K. Shipping Co. and was sold in August 2001 to Ali Mohammed Abbas for $400,000. The ship was then re-registered in Tonga as the Karine A. Although a Lebanese Transport Ministry official has disputed the Lloyd's report, it lends credence to the Palestinian denials and countercharges that Israel manipulated the seizure to derail peace talks.

Ultimately, it matters little whether the Israeli assertions are true. The many apparent discrepancies, the illogic of the idea that the Palestinian Authority would attempt such an operation and finally the Lloyd's List report have combined to cast doubt on the Israeli claims.

So, is it possible that conservative elements in Iran are trying to push Israel and the PA into war? Or is this just another way that Arafat is ducking responsibility?

This article in yesterday's Washington Post quotes a "U.S. official" on the Iran-PA relationship:

"The Iranians and Arafat have been sworn enemies since September 1993," when the Palestinians launched peace efforts with the Israelis in Oslo, a U.S. official said. "Alliances and rivalries can turn on a dime, but I haven't seen any evidence of rapprochement, government to government. It would depend on who in Iran was behind the rapprochement and who they thought they were dealing with on the Palestinian side."

Still, the official said, if Iran is inserting itself into the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, "it's important."

In a speech today, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel warned of what he called an emerging alliance between the Palestinian Authority, Iran and Hezbollah and said it posed a grave threat to Israel.

"This would have changed the strategic balance, putting Israel in an impossible situation where all of Israel becomes hostage to Arafat's terror strategy," he said. "The great danger is those relations that were developed between the [Palestinian Authority], led by Arafat, and Iran. Iran at the present time is the center of world terror."

It comes down to whether or not we believe Captain Akawi's claims that he was acting on official PA orders. According to this NYT article, the U.S. government now does, after initially expressing reservations. (So do William Safire and Michael Kelly.) And today's Debka claims that the PA Security Chief Mohamed Dahlan's recent travel intinerary suggests that he was directly involved.

So, pick your scenario: Arafat has joined forces with the Iranian militants, or he's a helpless pawn of militants both inside and outside of his territory. Neither suggests that peace is at hand any time soon.

"Maybe we'll give them 'the girls of Afghanistan.'"

-- Larry Flynt on how he'd really like Hustler to (un)cover the war in Afghanistan, to Reuters.

Thanks to Ennis for the quote of the day.

Corporations Behaving Badly

White House defends use of 'Pakis'

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House has said that U.S. President George W. Bush meant no disrespect to the Pakistani people by referring to them as "Pakis."

"The president has great respect for Pakistan, the Pakistani people, and the Pakistani culture. Pakistan has been a strong member of the international coalition in the war against terrorism," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

Bush used the term in remarks to reporters on Monday when discussing the possibility of nuclear rivals India and Pakistan going to war.

"I don't believe the situation is defused yet, but I do believe there is a way to do so, and we are working hard to convince both the Indians and the Pakis there's a way to deal with their problems without going to war," Bush said.

Most Americans are unaware of the sensitivity of the term. In Britain, however, it is considered an ethnic slur toward Pakistanis who emigrated there in large numbers in the 1960s and '70s.

At least he didn't call the Indians "Injuns".

It's a shame, but even with the approximately 752 awards shows given out to the movies of the year, there are no honors given for cameo appearances -- those brief performances that often outshine the rest of the movie. We're taking nominees for 2001's films; send your nominations to me at ishbadiddle@yahoo.com. Our first nominees are:

Cate Blanchett as Galadriel (the goood witch and the baaad witch) in Lord of the Rings.

Chris Kattan for his use of duct tape in Monkeybone.

Greta Kline for her dance (with dad Kevin) in The Anniversary Party.

Burt Kwouk for his role as Uncle Tai in Kiss of the Dragon.

Illeana Douglas as the art teacher in Ghost World.

Send in your nominations! No Academy membership necessary!

muslimsAGAINSTterrorism. A first-rate site by our friend David Ball, who is doing some very important work with this organization. Tell your friends.

It was a big movie-going year for the Everett-Lanes, what with trying to cram in as much theater-time as possible before Ben arrived, and the constant arrival of DVDs via Netflix. So, herewith:

Best movies we watched during 2001:

Jill W. writes:

Okay.

I'm not usually a "raver"--someone who gushes uncontrollably over things she's heard, seen, or read. Nor am I a giggling teenager going berserk over some hideous boy band.

However . . .

Those of you who have not yet leapt onto the Josh Groban bandwagon are missing out on one seriously enchanting and incredible talent. You might have caught him on Ally McBeal, seen him on Charlotte Church's recent PBS special, or seen him on The Today Show this morning (1/1/02).

If you have, you cannot help but agree that this kid's got talent. And yes, he's only 20, so my idiotic schoolgirl crush will never amount to anything but some drooling and panting. I love the earnest, nerdy look. But alas, I am TOO OLD for the sweet boy:-)

Anyway, check out his self-titled web site for clips of his music. I have his--well, I gave my Mom has his debut CD for Christmas-- and it's terrific.

And yes, you guys could enjoy his album too.

Rave over. Happy New Year!

Jilly

We're out here in San Francisco, and 2002 arrived here just fine. We took Ben to the aquarium today which he much enjoyed. I think the sharks were his favorites. Or maybe the sturgeon. I told him that sturgeon tastes much better, but he's still on that milk kick, so I don't think it will make any difference to him.