I'll be away from the keyboard until Monday -- going down to DC (OK, so that's not exactly "Down South", but it's south of Brooklyn) for quality time with the Everetts, and of course, my father's traditional post-Thanksgiving waffles. Mmmmmmm. Waffles.
Will resume blogging upon my return. Have a happy holiday! It's a good time to be with family -- however you define it.
Thanks to Emily for finding this one: Barbie's Blog.
11/7/2002 Who "New"?That's right, not only does Barbie shop, she burns! Take that, Britney!
Went to visit Chelsea at the flea market today. The booth next to hers had some fab jewelry. I'm usually into buying "new" but this is the kind of stuff you just can't find in a store. Way cool.
11/6/2002 Play It Cool - But Look Hot
So Robbie finally called. His band is playing downtown tonight. I probably should play hard to get, but he is just such a hottie. No girl worth her credit cards could resist him. I must go fabulize.
11/5/2002 No Cell...Oh Well
Was in a rush and ran out without my cell phone today. Can you believe it? Barbie without her connection to all things fabulous? I actually had to use a public pay phone! Gross!11/4/2002 Hip Hop Rocks (so does Robbie)
Just chillin', listening to some hip-hop. Burning copies of the hottest new CDs. Speaking of hot, it's been 4 days since my cutie Robbie called. Not that we're boyfriend and girlfriend or anything, but we definitely flirt. Hmmm... I wonder what's up with that...
Now I just have to see if I can get them listed on NYCBloggers.
Update: Hey! It's my first ever link from Boing Boing! Thanks, Cory!
Roll Your Own Me-Zine. Kind of a neat multi-blog syndication thingie.
Wired reminds us that this Friday is Buy Nothing Day, a latter-day holiday from conspicuous consumption, originated by Adbusters. Try it — you might like it.
And if you watch CNN’s Lou Dobbs Moneyline (and especially if you are a Nielsen household!), tonight there will be a commercial from Adbusters for BND. So watch!
Debbie emailed this to me, also found at kottke.org:
Hu's on First
By James Sherman
(We take you now to the Oval Office.)
George: Condi! Nice to see you. What's happening?
Condi: Sir, I have the report here about the new leader of China.
George: Great. Lay it on me.
Condi: Hu is the new leader of China.
George: That's what I want to know.
Condi: That's what I'm telling you.
George: That's what I'm asking you. Who is the new leader of China?
Condi: Yes.
George: I mean the fellow's name.
Condi: Hu.
George: The guy in China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The new leader of China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The Chinaman!
Condi: Hu is leading China.
George: Now whaddya' asking me for?
Condi: I'm telling you Hu is leading China.
George: Well, I'm asking you. Who is leading China?
Condi: That's the man's name.
George: That's who's name?
Condi: Yes.
George: Will you or will you not tell me the name of the new leader of China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir? Yassir Arafat is in China? I thought he was in the Middle East.
Condi: That's correct.
George: Then who is in China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir is in China?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Then who is?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Look, Condi. I need to know the name of the new leader of China. Get me the Secretary General of the U.N. on the phone.
Condi: Kofi?
George: No, thanks.
Condi: You want Kofi?
George: No.
Condi: You don't want Kofi.
George: No. But now that you mention it, I could use a glass of milk. And then get me the U.N.
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Not Yassir! The guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi?
George: Milk! Will you please make the call?
Condi: And call who?
George: Who is the guy at the U.N?
Condi: Hu is the guy in China.
George: Will you stay out of China?!
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: And stay out of the Middle East! Just get me the guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi.
George: All right! With cream and two sugars. Now get on the phone.
(Condi picks up the phone.)
Condi: Rice, here.
George: Rice? Good idea. And a couple of egg rolls, too. Maybe we should send some to the guy in China. And the Middle East. Can you get Chinese food in the Middle East?
And also, via The Virtual Stoa:
To be sung to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands":
If we cannot find Osama, bomb Iraq.
If the markets hurt your Mama, bomb Iraq.
If the terrorists are Saudi
And the bank takes back your Audi
And the TV shows are bawdy,
Bomb Iraq.
If the corporate scandals growin', bomb Iraq.
And your ties to them are showin', bomb Iraq.
If the smoking gun ain't smokin'
We don't care, and we're not jokin'.
That Saddam will soon be croakin',
Bomb Iraq.
Even if we have no allies, bomb Iraq.
From the sand dunes to the valleys, bomb Iraq.
So to hell with the inspections;
Let's look tough for the elections,
Close your mind and take directions,
Bomb Iraq.
While the globe is slowly warming, bomb Iraq.
Yay! the clouds of war are storming, bomb Iraq.
If the ozone hole is growing,
Some things we prefer not knowing.
(Though our ignorance is showing),
Bomb Iraq.
So here's one for dear old daddy, bomb Iraq,
From his favorite little laddy, bomb Iraq.
Saying no would look like treason.
It's the Hussein hunting season.
Even if we have no reason,
Bomb Iraq.
Yeah, there's nothing like humor in the face of impending doom war.
Keep Big Brother's Hands Off The Internet -- written in 1997 by that champion of civil liberties, Senator John Ashcroft:
There is a concern that the Internet could be used to commit crimes and that advanced encryption could disguise such activity. However, we do not provide the government with phone jacks outside our homes for unlimited wiretaps. Why, then, should we grant government the Orwellian capability to listen at will and in real time to our communications across the Web?Lest we forget, the Clinton Administration was no great friend of civil liberties -- of course Ashcroft now makes Clinton look like Nat Hentoff. Link via This Modern World.
Bryant Park goes Wi-Fi! Now we can IM while we're watching movies next summer.
from the New York Times:
"'What can we do to make people stay in the park? Why do they have to go back to their offices at 2? They have to go back to get on the Web. Why don't we give them the Web?'
Enter NYC Wireless, an ad hoc group committed to the creation of free wireless access in public spaces throughout the city. Bryant Park would be the perfect showcase for their vision.
With some clever engineering and hardware from Cisco Systems and Intel, the wireless park was born. Just as park users could sit wherever they liked, so too could they gain access where they liked. The eight-megabytes-per-second connection was as free as the sunshine and the green grass."
OK - who are they selling this to ? Why make a segway so uncool ? What's up with the guy ? Where are the vespa rider types ? I had wanted to buy one until now ...
Update 11/30/02: The image is not showing up right now, so if you want to see it you’ll have to hie yourself to http://www.segway.com/images/p/fall_02h.jpg.
Update 12/02/02: Image is back, but may go out again. See link above if necessary.
Thanks to Trip for (indirectly) pointing to it: Logical Fallacies. Should be required reading for all bloggers.
Oxnard, California reserves the right to shoot you in the eye and badger you while you lie bleeding. Per department policy, "the Miranda ruling does not include a 'constitutional right to be free of coercive interrogation.'" Bush II likes the cut of their jib. Rehnquist, et al, hear arguments next week.
"A union representing Massachusetts firefighters said yesterday it had convinced WordsWorth Books in Harvard Square to cancel an appearance by a journalist whose articles chronicling the recovery effort at New York's Ground Zero questioned the conduct of some firefighters who helped clear the wreckage."
See the Harvard Crimson story on this for more on this
Got it. My mistake. What was I thinking? Here's a fun headline so you can play along at home:
U.S. Eases Pollution Rules to Spur Work on Power Plants
"Ms. Whitman's announcement made official what had been known for many months: that the Bush administration wanted to revise some sections of the Clean Air Act in ways that would answer utilities' complaints that the rules tied them up in paperwork and deterred investment in new power plants..."
I thought Internet time was supposed to be shorter. Anyway, I was in the Wall Street Journal on Monday, in an article on blogs. [If anyone out there still has a paper copy of the 11/18 edition, please save the page for me. Thanks!] You can't see it on the WSJ's site without forking over cash, but it's been mirrored here by this helpful blogger from MetaFilter.
A ways back I got an email from a WSJ reporter asking about how to find good blogs -- you can read my whole response here. Here's what made it into the article:
"NYCBloggers, of course, is the best place to find the blogs of the most opinionated and interesting group of people on the planet: New Yorkers," says co-creator Mike Everett-Lane. "You can find who's blogging at your subway stop; maybe that guy you see on the train every morning has a noteworthy blog."So there you have it. I still think it's funny that I'm now a blogging "expert", of sorts, in the media.. . . .
Of course, there's still something to be said for serendipity. "Sometimes a random click will take you to a stupendous blog -- and sometimes to one that's stupendously dull," says Mr. Everett-Lane. The founders of NYCBloggers found each other through a happenstance surf, and hope to facilitate the same through a "random" button on their site. Blogger.com offers a similar option.
What's your ominosity quotient? I have an OQ of 5, which makes me "somewhat more ominous than average." Found on The Illuminated Donkey, who is not very ominous at all.
A coalition of religious and environmental groups is asking the age-old question, "What would Jesus Drive?" Apparently, the suggestion is that Jesus would be more conscious of fuel economy than, say, all of my neighbors. It isn't clear whether Jesus will be endorsing a specific car or, for that matter, cars at all. I'd like to think Jesus would embrace a Segway, or maybe even be willing to hoof it every now and then.
Personally, I'm hoping it will be announced that Jesus has decided to drive "Jesus the Monster Truck."
There are others, but this was the most oblique. The others hit you over the head (so to speak) with it. Check them out at the Masturbate for Peace website.
Yup, that's a centaur from Fantasia. And her black servant. The scenes were edited out in 1960; Disney denies they ever existed. And you thought it was bad when the centaurs paired off by color.
Place: Corner of Houston and Varick. Time: Mid-afternoon. Me: Walking toward my office, I happen to turn my head just in time to see a guy toss a pizza crust on the ground. Six paces from the nearest city garbage can. I must have given him a litterbug look, because as I walked on, he shouted: "Don't look at me like that! It's for the birds! Don't look at me like that!"
Small is good. First: Tiny Windows Games, a collection of games that take up a very very small screen space. Second, from Avon no less: 10 Atari Games built right into the joystick. Yup, just plug the joystick into the TV. Too bad they don't include Pitfall.
Translations of excerpts from an AP article about the passage of the Homeland Security bill:
“This bill still needs work,” said Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., voicing the misgivings of Democrats who opposed the pro-industry provisions. But he said he supported the legislation because of “the tremendous challenge facing the country” to combat terror.
Translation: I have no idea what my constituents want from me (and I’m not about doing things based on whether I think they are right, just on whether they are expedient), so I’ll cover myself by making deprecating comments and also vote for the bill. The best way for me to get re-elected is to not take a firm stand on anything.
Democrats resisted Bush's bill because it restricted labor rights of the new agency's workers. But many reversed course after their Election Day loss of Senate control was attributed partly to the homeland security fight.
Translation: In case you missed it with our leader’s spineless actions, our new position is: Assume the position. Hmm . . . maybe people will feel sorry for us in the next election. Yeah, that’s what will get us elected. Never mind that the other party may have gained power by managing to articulate positions, whether duplicitous, whether based on sleight-of-hand, whether sincere or not.
If the Democrats can’t muster the decency and courage to vote in for what they think is right and against what they think is wrong, then forget ’em. I’ll continue to vote for the Greens, the Reds (that’s the Commies, not the Republicans), and the Pinks.
For a limited time and in limited quantities, you could buy the entire run of Speed Racer on DVD. Signed, numbered, and the only authorized version. Then again, you might go to eBay and bid upwards of $500 for the pleasure.
Via the subaverage memestream: Introduction to Patterns for Personal Web Sites. An interesting analysis of what makes a personal website worth visiting:
Content patterns focus on what a site offers.Interestingly, most of the "temporal patterns" are built into standard blogging services, but the others are not.
Structural patterns describe three levels of organization: the site, individual pages, and links.
Temporal patterns influence how a site changes over time.
Navigation patterns simplify navigation.
Technology patterns use technology to improve a site's usability.
And who parodies the The Onion? Mad Magazine does, apparently.
Click here for a sequence of photos showing how his face has changed over the years. He looks like the man in the iron mask right now, trapped behind his face. Even worse than Phyllis Diller.
Sorry folks, I hope you enjoy reading the blog after I'm gone. It's just that, Debbie and I saw The Ring last Friday, so our 7 days are up. I was going to write a review of it, but who writes movie reviews when they only have a few hours left before their television decides to kill them? I sure don't. Let's just say it's a scary movie that will probably freak you out for the 7 days you'll have left after you see it. Or more, hopefully.
Note to Dreamworks: Stop running those ads where you interview "real people" who love the movie. Don't you know that's the kiss of death? Any movie that resorts to this lame-ass ad strategy makes my kill list automatically, so it's disappointing to see it used on one I actually liked. And showing people actually in the theater jumping and screaming? Really lame-ass.
Liz sent me a link to the latest Flash abuse that's making the rounds of blogdom: a Kikkoman hero cartoon. We were both seriously disturbed by the little cat hanging himself. Excuse me while I go have an epileptic fit.
I found this list of 20 Strange Books over on the book club at House Arrest. The lister, John Cartan, writes:
A complete catalog of my library would be tedious; a list of my favorite books would be mostly titles you already know. More interesting by far would be a short list of books that took me by surprise and then changed me, odd little books you may never have heard of. After several decades there are only a handful that stick out in this way. Some are truly wonderful and cry out to be shared. Others, frankly, aren't as good - but are genuinely strange.Looking over the list, I'd read a quarter of them -- The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, Flatland, Borges' collection Labryinths, Maze, and Gödel Escher Bach.
I wasn't a fan of Christopher Manson's Maze, described as a "paperback Myst", but mostly because it was just too hard! [This was before you could just look up the answers online. There's an online version, but the pictures are unfortunately too small.] And Chris Van Allsburg's Mysteries, a book of illustrations in search of stories, was a later (but welcome) addition to our library. The other three, though, were definitely well-thumbed as a kid, and helped warp me into the strange person I am now. I think my copy of GEB nearly disintegrated by the 8th grade, and somewhere I may still have the bad philosophical dialogues it inspired me to write. If you're nice to me I won't share them with you.
Fans of the Maze should check out Masquerade, equally beautiful and unsolvable. And if you liked Flatland, you should read the Planiverse, a computer scientist's take on 2-dimensional life.
Bottom 50 Urban Legends. Via Jane Galt's Asymmetrical Information.
Since I've obviously in the mood to play gadfly for a day or two I feel I should also contribute some content about different ways our civilization is falling into decline (other than the merciless censure of the Greens).
I think this link nicely shows how we can easily stand for more tax cuts and the expense of deep cuts in education funding.
Maybe this will catch on throughout education. I mean, if the 92nd Street Y had such enterprising leadership, maybe they wouldn't have to turn to peddling their admission slots in exchange for stock tips.
POLICE had to break up an animal rights protest yesterday when schoolchildren in Aberdeen pelted activists with cartons of milk.And who says activism is dead? Story via film fatale.Sean Gifford of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and an unidentified man in a cow-suit had planned a peaceful protest at the gates of the Grammar School to let pupils know about the claimed hazards in milk.
But they had to be rescued by two female police officers when the teenage pupils launched a violent protest of their own.
About 100 children, shouting "milk for the masses" and carrying banners, surrounded Mr Gifford and his "cow" partner and drenched them both in milk for about ten minutes. The police eventually intervened and escorted the PETA members back to their car.
Make your own Bush speech! His lips move and everything! Found on film fatale.
A follow-up, of sorts, to the earlier discussion, including information on the Stuber story. Reported today in Salon (a site worth subscribing to):
"But now, a spokesman for the new Transportation Security Administration has acknowledged for the first time that the government has a list of about 1,000 people who are deemed 'threats to aviation' and not allowed on airplanes under any circumstances. And in an interview with Salon, the official suggested that Olshansky and other political activists may be on a separate list that subjects them to strict scrutiny but allows them to fly.
'We have a list of about 1,000 people,' said David Steigman, the TSA spokesman. The agency was created a year ago by Congress to handle transportation safety during the war on terror. 'This list is composed of names that are provided to us by various government organizations like the FBI, CIA and INS ... We don't ask how they decide who to list. Each agency decides on its own who is a "threat to aviation."'
The agency has no guidelines to determine who gets on the list, Steigman says, and no procedures for getting off the list if someone is wrongfully on it.
Meanwhile, airport security personnel, citing lists that are provided by the agency and that appear to be on airline ticketing and check-in computers, seem to be netting mostly priests, elderly nuns, Green Party campaign operatives, left-wing journalists, right-wing activists and people affiliated with Arab or Arab-American groups."
'Nuff Said
Karl Rove, who has been engineering Bush victories ever since W decided to get out of baseball (what, nine years ago? Sorry, eight), recently spoke at the University of Utah:
"The audience included several dozen protesters who held signs critical of various issues, including war against Iraq. But they were largely quiet and respectful. In the question-and-answer session, a woman politely asked Mr. Rove if the administration was concerned over the possibility that 200,000 innocent Iraqis might die in an American-led invasion.
Mr. Rove responded, 'I'm more concerned about the 3,000 who died on 9/11.'"
So, instead of finding Osama Bin Laden, who has attacked the U.S. (here and elsewhere) four times in the last ten years, we're going after Saddam, who hasn't. Bin Laden: alive and attacking us. Care? Not so much.* Saddam: alive and not attacking us. Totally care, even if it means two hundred thousand dead Iraqis and an indeterminate number of dead American soldiers.
Don't worry, I see the big picture. Weapons of mass destruction, bad. But can someone convince me not to file this under "Playing Right Into Their Hands"?
_________________
*"This is about more than any one man." -White House Spokesman Scott McClellan. When did "Dead or Alive" become "Neither"?
Update: Story may not be true. See comments.
Speaking of independent parties -- remember several months back when the feds wouldn't let the head of the Green Party fly? Well, they haven't let up. Liz L. sent me this article from the Green's newsletter (which unfortunately isn't up on their website -- try updating it, fellas).
November 8, 2002
HARASSMENT OF GREENS AND OTHER ACTIVISTS AT AIRPORTS ACCELERATE
Doug Stuber, North Carolina Greens
I was at the airport trying to make an important trip to Prague to gather artists for Henry James Art in Raleigh, NC, USA when I was told (ticket in hand) that I was not allowed to fly out that day. Curiously, I asked "why not" and the answer at Raleigh Durham Airport (RDU) was that, because of the DC sniper attacks, no Greens were allowed to fly overseas on THAT DAY.
Naturally, I went back the next morning, and instead of paying $670 round trip was forced into a $2,600 "same day" air fare. I was mad enough about the money, but what happened in the next 24 hours was mind-boggling.
So, it was 6 am and my first flight wasn't due out until 11:45, so I had plenty of time to kill. At exactly 10:52 am, just before boarding was to begin, I was approached by Officer Stanley (the same policeman I was ushered out of the airport the day before), and he said he "wanted to talk to me." I went with him, but reminded him that no one had said I could not fly, and that my flight was about to leave. The officer took me into a room and questioned me for one hour. By noon Stanley introduced me to two gentlemen I will refer to as Secret Service A and Secret Service B.
SS-A and SS-B took full eye-open pictures of me with a digital camera. They then asked me all the details about my family, where I lived, who I ever knew, what the Greens are up to, etc., etc. At one point I asked if they really believed the Greens were equal to Al Qaeda. They showed me a document from the Justice department (Ashcroft and friends) that actually DOES state that greens are likely terrorists. I wish I had had a camera to be able to copy THAT document!
We got out of there at about 12:45 -- enough time to catch the later flight. They walked me to the Delta counter and asked that I be given
tickets for the flight so I could make my connections. The woman (she is a tall blonde with short hair and works for Delta at RDU) quickly printed out tickets so that I could make the flight, and I was relieved that the SS hadn't stopped me from flying. I was wrong again. Just as I was about to board the plane, officer Stanley ONCE AGAIN ushered me out the door.
To be fair, he told me this: "Just go to Greensboro, where they don't know you, and be totally quiet about politics, and you can make it to Europe that way." I felt like I was being set up, but I went to Greensboro anyway. In Greensboro, NC I showed my passport and was told flat out that I could not fly anywhere. Are Greens throughout the US being barred from flying? (Our former national Co-Chair, Nancy Oden, had already been denied a flight from Maine to Chicago eight months ago.)
Not to be denied, I then traveled to Charlotte. This is another hour and a half away, so I'd been up for 40 hours, with a 1.5 hour drive ahead. I stocked up on Dr. Pepper and decided I would not be denied. Of course, at Charlotte the same thing: get this terrorist out of here was the mode the cops were in. I then drove three hours home (43 hours trying to catch a flight) and crashed hard in bed. It appears that greens, who have ten key values that include nonviolence, social justice, etc., are considered terrorists by the Ashcroft-led Justice Department. I had always speculated that capitalism had gone too far. Now I know for sure.
Get your own World Peace Keepers Battle Station! (Found on Insufficient Unnecessary Place.)
...I'd go see a movie and a play.
Support NYC Indymedia
Sat, Nov 23, 2002 8 PM ET
56 Walker Street, New York City
1 block south and west of Canal Street subway
email markpickens@indymedia.org for more more information
Celebrate two years of the Indypendent, with Greg Palast and a screening of Counting on Democracy. The Indypendent is the newspaper of the New York City Independent Media Center, leading the movement for media democracy by extending the tools of reporting to the common man. $10, all proceeds support The Indy, moving into its third year of being a thorn in the side of the powerful.
COUNTING ON DEMOCRACY
Narrated by Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee
...investigates charges of disenfranchisement and 180,000 uncounted Florida votes cast largely by the working poor and people of color, uncovering racial exclusion, voting rights violations and the subverting of a recount in the most contested and controversial election in U.S. history.
____
FILTHY STINKING RICH
a new play
directed by Robert Davenport
developed through improvisation and performed by David Guion, Julia Dion, Kristin DiSpaltro, Melissa Guion, Rasmus Johansen
November 8-24, 2002
11/13-11/16 at 8, 11/17 at 7
11/20-11/22 at 8, 11/23 at 3 & 8, 11/24 at 3
at the Ground Floor Theatre, 312 W 11th Street, NYC
for reservations or more info call 212.561.0508
Today's Daily News has an article on NYCBloggers.com. There's even a big picture of me and Matt and Liz (dead tree edition, not the online one. see page 6 of the "lifeline" section). Yeah, I know, she tags me as a "Harvard graduate." I'll have to wear a Yale t-shirt all week to compensate. It's a good article on blogging in general -- I still think it's a scream that Liz and I are now called upon as blog experts, but I think we've made a good case for the medium. (Although, for the record, I said that blogging could turn us into a "republic of letters," not a "country of letters.") I hope the article encourages more folks to start blogs and write more. Writing is good.
It’s the Linguistic Map survey, put up by some of the pointy-heads at hARVARD. A self-selecting survey, sure, and not that short, but you can find out just how you compare to legions across the country in how you pronounce (or mispronounce) and/or define various words and phrases. Mumblety-peg, anyone?
(via Rebecca’s Pocket)
Silver lining in the Dem's poor fortunes in New York on Tuesday: the scrappy Working Families Party got 90,000 votes statewide. Their numbers were up, even though McCall's were in the basement. (FYI, the WFP votes were for McCall -- 6% of his total was from the party). This from an email I got from their co-chairs:
Above all, these results suggest a Party that actually stands for something, and that articulates its beliefs honestly and with no double talk, will be rewarded by voters. We don't mean to over-hype it. We're still a minor party. But this was a major step forward.
Dems, take note: move to the center, lose these votes. (Hey, that sounds like a chant. Lets go to a rally!)
Update: piece in today's Voice on the WFP -- and how it triumphed over that real patronage machine, the Liberal Party.
Jill sent this over, from Bishop Sisk of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. The full statement is here.
I find no moral ground for translating that Congressional agreement into the actual use of force. I hold this conviction for a simple reason - I do not believe that the President has made a remotely convincing case for military action. I have heard claims but I have yet to see evidence that there is an imminent threat of a magnitude sufficient to justify the enormous destruction that a full-scale invasion would necessarily entail. Peaceful means, such as inspections and international diplomacy, require and deserve to be given time to work before the decision is made to send troops into harm's way. If we need help remembering the danger of a hasty decision to use force, the assaults in Waco, Texas or the Moscow theatre are vivid reminders.Moreover, we can be sure that any attack on Iraq will cause significant casualties among a civilian population that is itself held hostage by Saddam Hussein. Before we shed the innocent blood of civilians in Iraq, or the blood of our own brave sons and daughters, we must be absolutely certain that the danger is real, immediate and commensurate with the enormous destruction and suffering that an invasion will inevitably cause. We need to be sure that every non-violent option has been exhausted.
I am reminded of Jesus' story of the builder who was advised to count the cost before undertaking the building of a tower. I am deeply afraid that we have not yet counted the cost. Should we actually go to war, it will be without having adequately measured the dimensions of the task we are considering.
From this WSJ article on University dining -- evidently Yale took top honors in their taste test. Go Berkeley!
Yale University Rating: ****After punching our meal ticket across the country, we found our winner in a baronial hall in New Haven, Conn. At Berkeley College, one of Yale's 12 residential colleges, we settled into huge red-leather chairs beneath chandeliers for some gourmet offerings. No food-service specials like mashed potato flakes here -- the spuds were fancy fingerlings, three times the price of ordinary russets. Likewise, the roasted portobello and tofu salad was subtly spiced, and crusty French loaves were accompanied by a roasted garlic spread, plus olive oil for dipping. "If I were a kid, I wouldn't ever leave this place," said our expert, Glenn Harris from New York's Jane restaurant.
The school says things will only get better: Next year, Berkeley plans a 100% organic "sustainable-foods initiative" that, with the help of celebrity chef Alice Waters, will bring in local produce and antibiotic-free meat. "I don't think anything on this scale has ever been attempted in the annals of institutional food service," says Berkeley co-master John Rogers. Uh, what time's dinner?
This has made me as suspicious as I've been lately of being hoaxed by a major news organization. (This morning's election returns don't count, since I only wish those were a hoax.) This is really, like, a stealth marketing campaign for a dating website, right? I mean, has anyone out there in NYCBlogLand ever seen this woman at a bar? Paging Lynn Harris...
So I turn on CNN this morning and I see a woman from something called the "Family Research Center" talking about how this is a good day for anyone who wants to see the Senate actually do things. Her examples included making the tax cuts permanent, Bush's judicial appointments, and partial birth abortion. Now that that pesky Tom Daschle isn't there to ruin everything, they can get down to the "business" that the "country" wants done.
True, this is a liberal nightmare scenario. And people are saying this is Bush's "real election" (when, in fact, it's proof only of their acceptance of the theft of the election, which is, in some ways, worse). My only comfort comes from the fact that many of the races were very close, so no one can tell me I'm entirely out of touch with America. This election is a huge victory for Bush, and I'll give him credit for earning it (at the expense of actually running the country, but there are other people to do that). He's a great cheerleader. A perfect GOP candidate.
And all demerits to the Dem leadership -- they lost this without ANY help from Nader (though if Gore were in D.C., it would have been a different story). From Gephardt, I've learned to expect worst-case scenarios. I was hoping Daschle wouldn't be frozen in the headlights of a manufactured war, but he was. (Bush was clever... or rather Karl Rove was: by rattling their sabres so loud, they got the political effect of war, without paying any costs before the election. But now, I expect people like my cousin, in the Reserves, will be going over to Iraq and either killing people or dying themselves. Meanwhile, back at the Al-Queda Ranch....) Bush borrowed a page from the Ariel Sharon playbook: invent a war and then ride it to victory. (See, he's got an international policy!)
So, I'm sure conservatives everywhere feel a great vindication. And perhaps they should. But IMHO, it's more a case of the voting public falling for an old shell game. What part of massive deficits, increasing unemployment, and loss of privacy don't people understand? If only people who would benefit from the tax cuts voted for the tax cuts, there'd be no contest. So what is it? I think it's the cult of self-interest: I'm rich, so vote red and maybe you can get rich too. When, in fact, it's more like: I'm rich, so vote red so I can get richer and you're on your own. And man, do they have it down to a science. If people simply voted their own true self-interest, we could get rid of these guys and their moral Laser Light Show.
Today (and for years to come), we take this on the chin. But don't let any conservative bully you into thinking this is what's best for America. It's what's best for a thin crust of affluence. It's a bad day for blacks and hispanics and probably arab-Americans; for homosexuals, who get to put progress on hold for a while; for working men and women, who make more under Democratic presidents; for people who care about clean air and water, those damn pollyannas; and for people in Oregon who (perhaps because of unclean air or water) want to die on their own terms. It's the (temporary) victory of "Us and Them" over "Us."
Anyway, that's my rant. (And believe me, Mike, this is the civil version.)
The Working Families Party, a scrappy young thing from the New York streets, has put together a little activist website called (and URI-ed at) IWillPayMyShare.com. I don’t know why I haven’t heard about it before now, but there you have it.
The essence of the site is that a message needs to be sent to the policymakers in the Bloomberg(tm) administration and the city council, a message that there are plenty of us who think that a properly executed tax increase is just fine in order to not only keep the city from sinking but in fact to also keep it moving strongly forward.
The main actions of the site are two: A message is sent to relevant parties in the city gov that you have declared your willingness to financially support the city through a graduated income tax increase, and a calculator is provided to show just how much each week will cost you in this system. For me, it was $0.24. (I suppose if you really wanted to, you could now find out my annual income, but you’ll just be disappointed.) And that’s always been one of the cornerstones of my political philosophy, that I’m more than willing to pay my fair share in order to have clean streets, good schools, and safe neighborhoods. Facile? I always thought so, but it seems no less rare for that.
Triptronix.net, the parent domain of Ishbadiddle, is going to be moving servers some time this week, probably sooner than later (sorry for the notice this way, ME-L). If you experience any turbulence, please use the air sickness bag from the seat pocket in front of you. Thank you for flying, and have a pleasant day.
Update
The switchover has begun, and is supposed to take 24–48 hours to kick in. If you start seeing dead pages in the next day, please email your happy landlord.
Update -- 11.07.2002
Everything seems to be working all right; carry on.
. . . on the Triptronix style menu (though it has been autumn for some time now, yes). If you were happy with your current color and font setup, it’ll last for 120 days after you first had it set. But sooner or later you’ve got to get with the squashes. Then again, in 120 days, it’s possible there will be another set of stylesheets available.
Driving up to CT last night, radio playing Run-DMC, I forgot how many great songs they produced. Chris has a great piece on Jam Master Jay's contribution to hip-hop over on his blog. Read it.
