Space is Cold

Very Creepy

2012-01-28T05:46:00.000-08:00

The NSA is scary enough - who knows what they are doing - but they have an element with the creepy title "Central Security Service." What is that? If that isn't Orwellian then what is?

Movie Reviews

2012-01-19T03:40:00.000-08:00

I recently struggled a bit with a few movies. I struggled in the sense of “Did I like them?”, “Are they good movies?”, and “How does one decide?” I saw them for free on recent long airplane rides. The first was “Thor,” the second was “Inglourious Basterds,” and the third was “Gran Torino.”

Now the first item might have been my mood. That could have affected my ultimate judgement of each. Harder to judge.

The second is it could be based on expectation. For Thor, I generally enjoyed it as a movie without much thinking involved. I knew it would be an action movie based on a comic book and all the expectations for those. I knew it was generally well received but not great. It did the job of entertaining me, but I would neither have sought it out nor will I choose to watch it again. It was entertaining and had its moments but ultimately followed a formula and is forgettable.

Inglourious Basterds was a bit different. I heard it was good and knew it was Tarantino, so I had some expectation. The separate elements of the story were very well done and entertaining, but overall I felt that the approach was not the right one for the material (WWII, Nazis, and the Holocaust tangentially). The material was more important and was mis-handled for the tone and theme. Maybe I’m just being overly sensitive and prudish. I realize it’s a cartoon and should not be taken seriously. But I guess I’m afraid its cowboy approach will infect the minds of the youth who will think of WWII and the Nazis in this way – too simplistically and the celebration of moral ambiguity (rather than its recognition). That the allies committed acts that are immoral and likely against the Geneva Conventions is likely true (so the killing of unarmed, captured Nazis is wrong but to the audience, emotionally satisfying that evil gets its due, damn the niceties of the legal world). I don’t doubt that tough moral choices had to be made. But to show the celebration of it is just cruelty and torture. Did this happen on the allied side? I don’t doubt it. But to show it in a light, comical, no consequence world doesn’t work for me. I guess it’s all right to kill people in this manner because they are pre-supposed to be evil. It’s tough to do the right thing and treating prisoners humanely, regardless of how the adversary does, so why bother. In addition, the Nazis are shown to be cartoonish, except the SS Colonel (who ultimately is a bit cartoonish himself). Should I defend Nazis? No. Should they be portrayed more realistically? I guess my answer is yes. This is not a total comedy but attempts to have some serious elements of moral choices. Making it a cartoon cheapens it. But did I like the movie? In many ways yes. Tarantino has absorbing scenes, dialogue and situations. The set pieces are entertaining (the farm house, the beer garden, etc). But the material of WWII and Nazis and the Holocaust is not the venue given his approach. I’m sure I sound like an old fuddy duddy for putting these topics on a pedestal and saying they need to be treated differently. So be it. So I had a hard time. In most ways this is a better movie than Thor – more engaging and entertaining and crafted. Yet the approach to the material left a bad taste in my mouth which makes me question whether I liked it.

The third movie in this recent series, Gran Torino, fits the same category. I was absorbed into the movie and found it entertaining. But the story was fairly well predictable (ok, maybe not the ending per se, but I could guess the three ways it could go). We knew he was a grumpy Gus who would eventually have his heart melt (while maintaining a tough exterior) and “do the right thing.” The one positive, from a storyline perspective, was the protagonist’s strained relationship with his real family that was not resolved in a Hollywood ending of reconciliation. The bad part was the cartoonish way it was portrayed along the way – the gold digging granddaughter with her simplistic reactions, for example. Also, he may be a racist, but his implication that everyone talks the way he does was just silly – most especially the interaction he has with his barber and his former co-worker. I don’t doubt people of a certain age think and speak in terms of derogatory ways about other ethnic and racial groups, but having been around some of these people, it is not the only way they talk or address each other, even in jest among friends. Unrealistic. But again the movie entertained me even if it was generally predictable and the characters’ changes were generally unrealistic in the timeframe shown. So is it better than Thor? It was and yet, I judge it more harshly.

So are reviews based on the movie itself and its relationship to artistic standards or is it relative to expectations of genre? I guess the proof is that I would not watch Thor again, not watch Gran Torino again, but might watch Inglourious Basterds again (but not likely a third time).

More Predictions!

2012-01-15T06:58:00.000-08:00

While I'm in the mood to predict things, I think I will.

Football:

I didn't publish any predictions prior to yesterday's games, but I would have predicted Patriots and Saints wins. Would I have predicted a Pats blowout? Likely not. Is the outcome satisfying? No lies, it is.

Today: Ravens over Texans and Packers over Giants (these are straight up, no spread).

Next season: I predict that the Denver Broncos do not make the playoffs. I predict the Tebow is not the starting quarterback in the last four Denver games of next season.

Politics:

If Romney wins the Republican nomination AND there are no significant improvements in the economy by July 1, the Romney beats Obama. I know what you're asking. What are the "significant improvements." Hard to define but I'll stick with basic ones: unemployment rate going down (but no particular number, just a delta month to month) and increase in GDP. If people aren't feeling it in July, then they will vote out the incumbent.

Republicans keep the House and win the Senate by 2-3 Senators. 53-47ish.

Kathy Hochul, D-NY-26, loses her seat.

Blah

2012-01-13T16:39:00.000-08:00

I have absolutely no motivation to do anything right now. None. What a waste of a free Friday night. There is a lot I could do, but I don't feel like doing it. I assume this is some sort of problem.

Knee-Jerk First Round Predictions

2012-01-02T10:11:00.000-08:00

With the NFL playoff games settled, I will now offer my quick picks for the Wild Card round next week not based on the any points spread.

Pittsburgh v. Denver – Pittsburgh wins. It seems like the conventional wisdom would choose this, but I think that Pittsburgh has some injuries that combined with Tebow magic, could mean an upset.

Cincinnati v. Houston – Houston wins. Neither looks all that good, but I think home-field advantage kicks in here.

New York Team A v. Atlanta – Atlanta wins. I’m sure the analysis is that Atlanta is the better team but have to play outside in New York (really New Jersey) in early January and might not make it. I still think the Giants lose this.

New Orleans v. Detroit – New Orleans. I really want Detroit to do well and it’s too bad these teams play each other so early. But I don’t think Detroit can stop New Orleans.

As a side note, who am I rooting for, regardless of the above predictions? Baltimore, Detroit, Houston, and Cincinnati. The rest I’m not against but I’m not rooting for them for a range of reasons.

New Year's Day

2012-01-01T08:14:00.001-08:00

Nothing changes on New Year's Day.

Matthew 6:19-21

2011-12-18T09:06:00.000-08:00

"Treasures in Heaven

¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Well that's very curious. I never seem to hear that one. Sounds to me like an injunction by Jesus from collecting wealth.

1:35 AM Saturday

2011-12-17T22:35:00.000-08:00

I'm drunkish. It's, as the title say, 1:35 AM. I've been doing this for at least 20 years and apparently it doesn't get old. I go out and drink and talk to girls and waste my time. Why do I say that? Because 96 percent of the time I go home by myself. I'm sick of it. He blew his mind out in a car. He didn't notice that the light changed. A crowd of people stood and stared. A crowd of people turned away. Be that as it may, if I'm so smart, why a, I like this? There is no excuse. I could ramble on and on but in then end the last 20 years are generally a waste. That's a bit extreme. But what do I want to do with my life? I read the news today, oh boy. The holes were rather small. I'd love to do something.

Joe Dimaggio's done it again.

So it's a week from today and what am I doing? I'm sleeping in a bed in my parent's place like a child. No wife. No kids. Just a 43 year old man by himself. Is this a joke? Is this real life? what a waste. I can please myself all I want, but I am not happy. I do the same things over and over again. Like I said, what a waste.

Is this life? Is Black Sabbath life? What do I need to do to be immortal? Is that the goal of life? To create something this will be bigger than you? That will outlast you? Or is it to lead a comfortable life that will be forgotten in 20 years or less? Why will anyone remember you in 20 years past your death? Are you just the flotsam and jetsam of life. Another body to be disposed of at some point. Do you need to be remembered? Stop feeling sorry for yourself and do something.

Ok. Time to get serious. The truth is that his has been your life for over 20 years. You are not improving. You do not know what it takes to be successful. Except maybe obsessive behavior. It's time to obsess about something and achieve it.

Top 50 Cities, Re-visited

2011-11-21T04:13:00.000-08:00

Five years ago I posted about the top 50 cities by population and how many of them I had visited. It was 24 of 50 back then. Now, five years later, using the same source list (updated through 2010) I can say I’ve been to 29 of 50 - a five-city improvement!

Of those I had not visited from the 2006 list, I have since been to San Francisco, Memphis, Nashville, Portland (OR), and New Orleans.

Now some of the cities I’m not counting are what we would consider parts of other cities and generally have no reason to visit. I’m talking about Long Beach, CA, Mesa, AZ, and Arlington, TX. (So I can probably say I’ve been to 32 on the list because I’m sure I’ve been to these places as part of LA, Phoenix, and Dallas respectively.)

Of the remaining list, I can only see myself going to specifically see these cities:

Houston - I’ve researched it and I’m not in love except that NASA is there.

San Diego – I think it has enough attraction to be the purpose of a visit.

Boston – I was there as a kid, but leave it off because I need to go as an adult. It’s probably not just one visit.

Las Vegas – I did drive through it once on the way to Utah but have not experienced it yet. I’m fairly sure it’s worth one visit. I’m fairly sure that it’s only worth one visit.

Kansas City – I’ve done some research and it’s a bit thin. I’ve heard good things about the BBQ.

Miami – A definite on my list.

Detroit – Sounds like a shithole but it still deserves a visit.

These others will have to be for another reason - near a national park I want to go to, visit a friend or attend a wedding, or for work. I can’t see myself just going to them for their own sake.

San Jose – Is this significantly different than a trip to SF?

Jacksonville – I’ve done only a little research, but it doesn’t sound promising and it’s not near anything that I would be at that would make a trip here a logical extension.

Indianapolis, Columbus (OH), Charlotte – I’ve done some research for these but I still can’t find a real reason to go to them for their own sake. Indy and Columbus are only 2 ½ hours from each other so maybe one trip could be worth it for the two (but I doubt it).

Louisville – This may be like KC in terms of there is enough to do something, but I’ve done no real research. It is only 2 hrs (probably less) from Indy, so it could be part of a triangle of uninteresting cities with Columbus.

Fresno, Omaha, Tulsa, Oakland, Wichita – I haven’t a clue what is there.

If you have any information to improve my view of any of these cities, let’s hear it. Please, defend your cities.

Travelling with Big Brother

2011-11-20T08:21:00.000-08:00

I’m taking a trip across the pond and am flying on Lufthansa. In preparation for my trip, they sent me an e-mail with information on my flight, check-in, etc. as well as weather reports and links to other information. That’s fine. But at the end of the introduction they get a little creepy…

Dear Quinch,

We are pleased that you have chosen Lufthansa for your next trip. To assist you with your travel preparations, we have put together some valuable information on your flight and destination. We have thought of everything for you!

Maybe it’s the translation or maybe it’s a German thing but that last sentence edges towards disturbing. It reminds me of HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey – “The 9000 series is the most reliable computer ever made. No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error.”

I feel like they are saying, “Lufthansa’s knowledge of all elements of travel makes it omniscient in these matters and therefore knows everything you could possibly ask about travel and provides everything you would need. Relax. We are in control.” It’s fairly big brother-ish – “You did not ask for information beyond the transport we provide but we know what you need and have taken care of it. I’m also watching you.”

Leave it to the Germans to take something like a courtesy e-mail and turn it into something vaguely disturbing and threatening.

Heavenly Call

2011-11-19T14:57:00.000-08:00

Sounds like wishful thinking for the religiously devout.

Newest Obsession

2011-11-08T18:39:00.000-08:00

My newest mini-obsession is Nazi-occupation of France, both directly and Vichy France. I'll admit it all started by watching "The Sorrow and the Pity."

There's something about the idea of how the French coped with the occupation and the myriad stories about why they collapsed and what collaboration and resistance meant. There is also the idea that France has created a myth that the collaborators were few in number and that many people resisted. Evidence has mounted that the number who resisted was much lower than the myth. So there must have been logical reasons for what they did. Looking back now with hindsight and the simplicity of black and white (Nazis bad, everyone else good) the knew jerk reaction is, "Why did they collaborate with evil?" or "I would have resisted." Is that true? Or were things more muddled and therefore interesting?

One nuance that I've seen in the literature in when the right and the left lay blame for the defeat to the Nazis. The Right views the Third Republic has weak politically and militarily and advanced policies and politics that weakened France and made it soft in relation to Nazi attacks. In addition, maybe it wasn't so bad to get rid of this regime that had connections to Soviet Russia.

On the left, they see the right as implacably hostile to the Third Republic and almost view the military collapse to the Nazis as a stab in the back; that the right wanted to see the French government fall and that the right saw a connection to Nazi ideas.

This obsession may fade but for now, that's what I'm interested in.

Arthur Treacher's

2011-11-06T08:38:00.000-08:00

Just a little nostalgia. I don't remember if this place was any good, but all of my memories of it are steeped in the 1970s. Forget Long John Silver and don't ever ask me about Captain D.

Some research shows the remaining locations use a new logo that educates the viewer by including the British flag.

Party Differences

2011-11-05T07:45:00.000-07:00

The problem with Democrats is that in order to sell their policies, they have to lead with their hearts. They have to appeal to people’s emotions that someone in power (typically private power) is screwing someone else over and that it is not fair. They have to appeal to the emotion that helping someone is the right thing to do and that otherwise, you have a hard heart.

The problem with Republicans, at least of late, is that they fight against thoughtful and/or complex answers to complex problems. All problems can be fixed by a simple answer based on conventional wisdom and common sense. Complex problems don’t require thinking, only the native intelligence and gut instincts of the common man. The common man may not be too educated on the issue at hand (not that they are dumb, they just don’t know the issue), but an instinctual feel for what is right and wrong will come up with the answer. Too many solutions are based on overthinking and over complicating the answer by the effete intellectual elites. This leads to Republican anti-intellecualism.

Both are appealing to the emotions and the masses. Democrats: What an outrage! We need to help! Republicans: If there’s a problem, simple answers are needed, even in our complex world! Anything else is an outrage that offends common sense!

Still Lingering

2011-10-31T19:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, she's still lingering in my mind, and not just as a memory, more like a feeling. I think it will fade by the weekend.

The Party

2011-10-30T08:54:00.000-07:00

I talked to her in the kitchen. I don’t even know how it started – did I talk to her or she to me? I don’t remember. Eventually I was alone with her in the narrow kitchen at the crowded party. It was the least noisy location so I could generally have a conversation. The details escape me from most of the conversation. I couldn’t get her name – it was something non-traditional and it was too loud to really make it out. But I looked into her eyes and liked what I saw. I liked her hair (it was a wig for a costume). I liked the fact that we could converse and although a bit odd, she seemed to like it or at least not dislike it. And I liked her eyes. Not just the eyeballs, but the whole package – makeup, eye lashes, and all. I didn’t even scope out her body as I normally might try to do. I looked into her eyes. And we talked.

And now she’s in my head. It’s the Sunday after the party and the image and the feeling still linger. It will fade as the week goes on and the emotional connection to the image will go away. But today it’s still there. It’s haunting, and I guess that’s the spirit of Halloween.

Literary Device

2011-10-26T18:17:00.000-07:00

I was reading a review of a book and it mentioned that the next book in the series contradicts some elements of the first book and is an example of the "unreliable narrator." I believe, as a philistine, that it's more about an "inconsistent writer."

Wedding Trip

2011-10-23T06:54:00.000-07:00

If you are a 51 year old man at the airport wearing visor, a t-shirt, , and old grey sweat pants, does that mean you've given up on life?

Drink Canada Dry

2011-10-09T21:57:00.001-07:00

It's a slogan, not a command.

“Mormonism is not Christianity”

2011-10-08T05:58:00.000-07:00

As an anti-religious person (is that the same as atheist? I dunno), I live for moments like this. It’s a cheap thrill that is based on my dislike of religion (religious people?) and is like sugary candy – it makes me feel good for a bit, but it has no real value. Be that as it may, here we go.

I may have mentioned this before (I’m too lazy to search my old posts for this) but I REALLY enjoy when factions of Christianity fight or even better in this case, label the other as non-Christian. In this case it’s the conservative/evangelical/fundamentalist/whatever Christians versus the Mormons. I remember in 2008 when Mitt Romney was running and I was listening to some religious radio program (I know what you’re thinking, that’s for another post) and it basically was about why Mormonism is not Christian. They weren’t explicitly saying Mormons are bad but they were trying to say that their form of Christianity was right and based on the Bible whereas the Mormons were not and therefore not Christian. I loved it!

Now that Romney is running again I haven’t heard all that much until this. Apparently Romney was at some nut-job conservative event (Values Voters! Hah!) and someone spoke out and called Mormonism a cult. Just because I love it so much, I’m not just linking to this, I’m going to put the whole article in here.

Mormonism takes center stage at conservative event
By Rachel Weiner, Published: October 7
Washington Post

The uneasy relationship between Mitt Romney and the evangelical wing of the Republican Party over his Mormon religion has been part of the quiet subtext of the primary contest so far. On Friday, the quiet ended.

At the Values Voters summit in Washington, prominent evangelical leader Robert Jeffress told reporters that Mormonism was a cult and that Romney was not a Christian.

“Mormonism is not Christianity,” Jeffress declared.

Jeffress is a supporter of Romney rival, Texas Gov. Rick Perry , and introduced Perry at the summit to rousing applause.

Jeffress, whose church is a prominent member of the Southern Baptist Convention, began making his point during the introduction: “Do we want a candidate who is a good moral person, or do we want a candidate who is a born-again follower of Jesus Christ? In Rick Perry, we have a candidate who is a committed follower of Christ.”

The pastor revved up a sleepy crowd — as Perry himself said when he took the stage. “He really knocked it out of the park!” Perry said.

Speaking with reporters later, Jeffress made his allusion clear. “Mormonism is not Christianity,” he declared. “It’s not politically correct to say, but Mormonism is a cult.”

Romney’s religion was the subject of much debate in the 2008 presidential campaign and Jeffress was making the same charges back then. Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, even gave a high-profile speech on the topic to address the allegations. This time around, his faith has gotten far less attention, until now.

Jeffress said that while he had nothing against Romney as a person, he did consider the candidate a “conservative out of convenience” who was inconsistent on social issues.

“I think he’s a fine family person,” Jeffress said. “It is only faith in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone that qualifies you as a Christian.”

A spokesman for the Perry campaign released a statement saying that Perry did not agree with Jeffress about Romney’s religion. “The governor does not believe Mormonism is a cult,” wrote Robert Black in an e-mail. “He is not in the business of judging people. That’s God’s job.”

Black was quick to add that it was the conference organizers, not the Perry campaign, who chose Jeffress to introduce Perry on Friday.

And Jeffress made clear that he was not speaking for Perry. “I did not talk about my Mormon views” with the governor, he told the press, “and I’m not insinuating that the governor shares those at all — he may not share them at all.”

Jeffress and Perry partnered on an August prayer event in Houston hosted by the governor called “The Response.”

Jeffress said that many evangelicals agreed with him even if they were afraid to voice their opinions.

About 20 percent of Republicans and 23 percent of Protestants tell Gallup they would not support a Mormon for president, according to recent polling.

Perry, who has faltered in recent debates and has been trying to win back some support, went on to give a passionate, confident speech in which he did make an oblique reference to Romney’s past support for abortion rights. “For some candidates, pro-life is an election-year slogan,” he told the crowd. “For me, it’s about the absolute principle.”

Most of the GOP presidential contenders are speaking at the summit, a three-day convention for conservative Christian voters. Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich all spoke Friday as well. Most emphasized their Christian beliefs and their family values — Santorum even brought his wife and children up on stage. Of the speakers, Cain got the most standing ovations and the loudest applause.

Asked about the Jeffress remarks later, Cain told CNN: “You know, I respect everybody’s, you know, religious beliefs and Mormonism’s been around a long time.I don’t think it’s appropriate to say, but he said it.”

Romney will speak on Saturday morning.

You’re likely asking yourself why I enjoy this. Part of it is watching the goofy religious people fight over their stupid distinctions. They are basically arguing that their made-up fictional belief system with almost no basis in fact is true relative to the other guy’s made-up fictional belief system with almost no basis in fact. Mormonism is easy to take pot shots at because it so new relative to other religions. Sure we can all believe (apparently) that 2000 years ago a deity became really involved in human affairs and all these events occurred. But to say that it happened in the U.S. in the 1820s seems weird and modern – and we all know religious are ancient! And the beauty of it is that this dogma that separates them is so unimportant relative to what unites them, at least politically. Romney (and Mormons) likely support almost every issue that the conservative Christians support and are natural allies, but in this case, they are fighting over made-up differences that do not help their cause. I love it!

The Fall of the House of Sloan

2011-10-03T18:03:00.000-07:00

“I knew him a bit growing up. He came from a home of some affluence. He was a bit odd, a bit nerdy, but not anymore so than me. He might have had a higher opinion of himself than he deserved but his family wasn’t tight and maybe that was compensation.

I mostly knew him through other people but certainly we had our moments in Boy Scouts and school. Not close friends but certainly we could talk. By high school he was exploring a bit – probably drugs, edging toward the Deadheads, but not fully one of them – almost an identity to try on to see if it fit him and if they accepted him. I don’t know if either came about.

By late high school and college I saw him much less. Can’t even remember the last time I spoke to him. I just know the house now. It’s on the corner where the street with money meets the suburban stretch of road that look like all suburban stretches of road. Not the overly commercial kind, but it does have stores and shopping areas. It’s the suburban road of my youth – the extended one that I didn’t control (I controlled my subdivision and the 5 tentacles that emerged from it – I didn’t control the rich street and the suburban stretch was controlled by no one, at least no one that I knew).

His area was particularly desolate in terms of people. Beautiful, modernish houses of the upper middle class, typically low-slung but very stylish. Some rather large. But my street had people on it. When I say people, I mean my people – the kids; the kids I controlled in my gang. We added life to the street. We knew all about our streets and how to go through short cuts, who had dogs, who were hermits (and thus monsters) and whatever else we needed to know. His street was dead – didn’t see any humans or kids out on its lawns or playing in its streets. But that doesn’t reflect anything in particular about him.

I left town after college. I had my degree but I couldn’t work there. I moved to a bigger city with more prospects. I kind of felt like I was making it. I’d come back and visit. But not him. I really didn’t know him. But I still had the place in my blood and while I wasn’t very social, I did want to know what became of them.

Here I was leading what I thought was a useful life away from there. But I’m a tad nostalgic. I want to know what happened to them. With the internet and before that Lexis/Nexis I could look people up if they made news or something else happened to them. I started keeping track of them. He was not any more interesting than them. Then during one of the nostalgia look up sessions, I saw that he was arrested.

His mother had died many years before, probably accounting for some of his family issues, but his father had died eight years prior. I may have known this, I might not have. I would drive past his place on visits and wonder what he was doing, with his younger brother, in that big house. The house on the corner.

The story in the paper talked about a house that was a place for kids to get together. Likely to use drugs and drink, maybe even underage drinking. He was arrested with his brother according to the story. Apparently there was underage drinking. He was not a young man anymore – 30s. She was apparently too young. It was a felony. The papers don’t say if he did any time. Maybe it was a first offense or a very good lawyer. It changed my attitude. What was going on in that house when I drove by after that? Did he learn his lesson? Was he still doing this? Was he sitting in his inherited house cursing his fate, numbing with drinks and drugs? Was he spending money wildly or had it all been frittered away and the house all that was left? What about his younger brother?

I wasn’t that intrigued to find out more, just an internet search every nine months to year. Would any thing pop up? Last time it did but it didn’t strike me as hard. He was caught. As a registered offender he had a picture on the website of the town. A disheveled look in a hoodie. Deer in the headlights look. A little more searching showed a blotter piece. He had been arrested in the next county with a woman ten years younger (late 20s) for drugs. He also had failed to register in that location. The words “felony” and “assured two to three years” were there. I don’t know if that fazed me as much.

More recently I dug a little bit and found that news report from a year or so ago about urban blight and absentee landlords who let properties go to pot. The places draw squatters, drug users or drug dealers and ruin already shaky urban neighborhoods. The city is trying to pay to have them torn down.

A comment in the piece indicates that the two brothers own some of these properties. I watch the video that was linked to the post. A local news station, but the story is on the web. It’s long and interesting – this likely was never shown on television; too interesting and thoughtful for a televised local news story – only on the web could the station post such a thing.

In the middle of the piece absentee landlords are discussed and they choose to focus on one – a corporation owned by the brothers to shield themselves from having to pay to tear down the condemned properties, leaving it to the city. They show where the brothers live. It’s a quarter of million dollar house. It’s the house on the corner; the one that I wonder what is going on in. They don’t mention the names but I know.

A comment posted on the site breaks it open and names the brothers, the name of their company, and the address where they live in the quarter of a million dollar house.

What goes on in that house? There has only been a truck parked out there when I drive by, if anything. It’s on that street with no outdoor human life – no one walking the sidewalks. No kids. The commentator seems to know that they inherited the houses. I presume from the father but don’t give it the attention I will later. So slumlords? Is that what is going on the house? I dig a little more.

What became of them? A search shows the younger one changed his last name. He is now married. A little more research shows that she was a former cheerleader with a kid. They had known each other since early teens and over the years, so they say, it became natural for them to get married in their 30s. But his name was different. Was he running from his brother’s bad name? Was he running from the lawsuits over the housing in the city? Perhaps both.

A little more research showed that the younger brother now owned the house. The older one seems to have sold his share a few months before the first “party house” arrests. What was going on in that house? What was happening when I drove by? It was a big house, and it only had two of them, and maybe only one.

It was likely too much house for one person. I envision it cold, and dirty, as bachelor males are likely to leave it. The décor was probably not touched since the mid-1980s. The mother passed away before then and it was three males in the place. Not a situation where major décor re-designs would occur. And with the father passed away as well and two bachelor men, likely into drinking and drugs, décor and cleanliness were not likely high on the agenda. It probably reflected the human void out in those suburban streets, most of the house was empty, dark, and cold. One of them might sits in the living room carelessly watching TV and eating take out. The phone might ring. Drugs may be purchased. A trip out may be required or the party may come there. This was the place to be on Friday nights. Tuesday evening it was back to cold and dark and a bit dirty. Bring the empties back and buy some smokes.

By now only the younger brother may have lived there. He changed his name and was looking to get married. The older one was drifting a bit. The house was not his and he had met this girl. Maybe he was wired, maybe he lived in a drug and booze stupor, maybe it didn’t occur to him, but he moved in with her and didn’t register.

The report says they were arrested at a home in the next county. A home with an address that had a “1/2” in it. A duplex? An old post-war duplex with bad heating and poor siding? With a drooping chain link fence? With a dog scrounging in the backyard? It didn’t say. But they were arrested there. How did the cops know? Why did the cops come? Were they called, alerted, or something else? She was busted for drugs. He for possession and not registering in his new locale. What was going on in that house?

But I knew all of this. I read it previously. He had already been sentenced. I went for the records. I found his parole information. He was serving time; still in prison. Doing the math it appears he got up to eight years. Is that why the brother changed his last name? Did he foresee this? Was it an accident or inevitable? His initial parole was denied. He might be there for years.

I could imagine him living day to day in that prison, or what I imagined prison to be. Was he happy? Was he looking to score something? What was it like? I had his prison numbers. He was a number. What would he be like when he got out? I didn’t know what he was like prior to going in, but I knew I had changed and so must have he. When I last saw him it was likely late high school, maybe college. I’m different from then to. What would he be like?

I could now follow him at the prison site. Would he get out in a few months or would it be six more years? I then thought about the father. I looked up some tidbits about the father. And the fall began. He was born in a small town just outside the city and the suburbs of my (and his sons’) youth. He went to a local college. Later he went to the big local university and got a masters and a PhD. I found his dissertation title. It was an appropriately academic and convoluted title, masking whatever it was that was being studied and analyzed. He was a Dr. (not a physician). His son was his Jr. He was the superintendent of a local school district.

Putting the pieces together he was a man of some respect and influence. A localish boy who climbed the educational ladder to earn a PhD, become a pillar of the community, and buy a very nice house (at least upper middle class) in a very nice neighborhood (with real physician doctors and lawyers), to take his bride and raise his two sons. They had the advantages one seeks. Two well liked boys. Neither particularly charismatic or smart, but capable and had the advantages of attention and money.

They went to the good local public schools, the kind that you move into a neighborhood to send your kids to and from which college is the destination for a large swath of kids. If the father had risen from the small town to a PhD and that house, imagine what the boys could do. Maybe they’d be great successes building on this, but not worse than very comfortable middle class.

I can imagine a sadness entering the house from the mother’s death, especially with the younger brother so young. The story is that the father was ill for a while before he passed away. But he died years after I left so the older one was a man, someone who this should have been painful for, but he had already grown; was making his way in life in his late 20s. But the father passed away and left the boys the house on the corner and the properties in the city.

The dream, if there was one, of the boys using this high base as a launching pad to something better was not materializing. Maybe they were too comfortable and the desire to fit in with the deadheads had taken its toll. A teen with weak parental controls grown into a young man with no parental control, money to burn, and a chance to live high school and college, but doing it right this time. To use the money and life experience, however stunted, to show them how cool he could be. To drink with them. To do drugs with them. To have a community and family of sorts. The party place. What was going on in that house?

Any dream of striving and improvement and leaving a legacy for the children to build upon was extinguished. The name was one of shame and had to be changed while the younger brother sought to assemble a life. The house would not be the home of the older brother, at least not for now while he sat in prison. Would he ever read his father’s dissertation? Would he look up old scanned newspapers punctuated with his father’s name and actions as the school superintendent? Would he care about the friends he grew up with on the wealthy street and think of what their paths were? Would he just be bitter, sitting in his cell, thinking about drinking, drugs, acceptance, getting out? Would his mind wander back to that house on the corner, the one of extinguished dreams? What would I think when I drove by it next time? Would it fill me with a sense of loss?

It will be cold next time I see it. The sky will be gray and the wind biting as it blows. The day will be short when I drive by it. I will not see any lights on inside. I will know what I know and fill the rest in through later research and my imagination of the meteoric rise and fall of the House of Sloan.”

College Football 1984

2011-09-04T07:19:00.000-07:00

In the classic George Orwell novel 1984 words are used to control people and bend reality. “War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery.” “Two plus two equals five.”

I know you will think this is quite a leap to college football but here it is. First a caveat, this is not about the NCAA or the college football conferences having complete control or seeking to impose such control. I have no thesis there. Any you can think of is entirely yours and must be based on your facts. I don’t have any in that regard.

But what I do have is this moderately delicious little item. It sort of stems from branding and spin that what I say is what is. Until I change it. Then what I say now is and the other thing is of no consequence or the change is perfectly logical.

What am I talking about you ask? Oh wait, you’re not reading this so you have nothing to ask. Anyway, the Big Ten and Big Twelve conferences faced some changes in the off season. The Big Ten (which had eleven schools for a few years any way) picked up Nebraska from the Big Twelve. The Big Twelve also lost Colorado to the PAC Ten. So what are we left with? We have a Big Ten conference with twelve members and a Big Twelve conference with ten members. There is some fun symmetry there.

In addition, the Big Ten now has a conference championship game and split into two divisions to accommodate that. They chose to name them the Legends Division and the Leaders Division. That seems very goofy. If I were a betting man, and there is no evidence that I am, I might bet that by the start of the 2014 season, there will be another naming scheme, likely based a bit more on geography.

“He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.”

I believe it's called a rainy day

2011-08-28T05:37:00.000-07:00

I don't doubt that Hurricane Irene had all the elements of a hurricane at one time. And I don't doubt that people who live along the coast that experienced it took it on the chin. But from this gentleman who lives inland but still in the zone that they media hyped as living in danger, I think I just experienced a rainy night.

My information yesterday was that the storm would build up in the evening with the worst part being from 11 PM to 3 AMish for my area. I was out to dinner and didn't head home until 9:30 PM. At that time, driving home there were some gusts of wind and a bit of driving rain but not much worse than a bad rain storm (and in general, less rain but more wind that some of the worse storms I experience around here). Clearly the winds were a general issue because I saw a lot of small branches in the street and one big tree that fell. When I walked from my car home, it was windy and rainy, but again, nothing that bad.

When I go into my place, had you told me nothing about the weather forecast, I would have just assumed it was a rainy night. I kind of heard the rain but I almost never heard the wind. I've been in other storms in my current place and know that I usually hear much more of the wind and rain.

I fully expected to see some sort of story this morning about how we dodged a bullet or the storm weakened faster than they thought. So far, no such story. Just headlines about "East Coast Pounded" and "Power Outages Throughout Region." Those all may be true but given the broad sweep of the storm, they are also untrue. Maybe those on the coast got pounded, but we did not where I live. Maybe they need to be more specific in their reporting. How about "The coastal towns of X, Y, and Z got pounded. If you were more inland, you got some wind and rain."

Obviously the concern is that this is a situation of crying wolf. It wasn't just a hurricane I was sold. I was sold the most powerful one to hit the east coast in over 20 years. That I should take it seriously. Well I didn't and I lived. When is the time they say this for the 8th time and it is right? Don't hype it for local media ratings, otherwise people will suffer when a true event occurs (which will lead to great ratings for local media).

Very Cute

2011-08-22T16:45:00.000-07:00

The Russian's are trying to develop a stealth fighter like the F-22. It's had some ups and downs. Recently it was at an airshow and going to takeoff to demonstrate its capabilities. However there was a malfunction and it aborted takeoff on the runway.

Cue the jokes: "At Moscow air show, Russia shows off its new stealth fighter's clever radar-avoidance technique of 'not actually leaving the ground.'"

Getting Closer

2011-08-08T17:29:00.000-07:00

So you found my weapons lab, huh?

“Bio Station Alpha”? Really? It’s called “Earth’s Destruction Factory #4R”. You people are so naive.

It will do you no good to know about it because when the attack comes, you’ll be completely unaware. Now that your space shuttle is done flying you have ceded to us the arms race.

On top of that, who is this guy with his, “I couldn't imagine why anybody would want to live on Mars.” Uh, how about us 69 million Martians, that’s who. Not to mention all that space junk you keep sending to our planet. Seems like you want to be here, jerk.

Debt Deal Lessons

2011-08-05T18:09:00.000-07:00

I think this sums up things very well.

"At the level of political culture, we have learned some other sobering lessons: that compromise is dead and that there's no point trying to explain complicated matters to the American people. The president has tried reasonableness and he has failed. It has been astonishing to watch Obama's sheer unwillingness to give up on his opponents after their refusal to work with him on the stimulus package, health care reform, or the extension of the Bush tax cuts last fall."

The truth

2011-07-31T13:06:00.000-07:00

You are at fault.

Cycle of Revolutionary Change

2011-07-30T08:22:00.000-07:00

I don't have to like it but this pithy view of social revolution makes sense. While it says anarchy, I think it has wider applicability to ideological movements.

"The probable result of any attempt to realize anarchist principles would be a brief period of revolutionary zeal, followed by chaos and social breakdown resulting from the impracticality of the revolutionary policies, and finally ending in a brutal dictator winning widespread support by simply restoring order and rebuilding the people's sense of social stability."

The End of Civilization

2011-07-24T17:38:00.000-07:00

This is it.

I was at a friend’s house last night and he had previously told me it’s his favorite TV show on. While hanging out at his place it was on and people were watching it. It consisted of people in the house sitting around a fake backyard (with that fake astroturf grass) playing a version of PIG (the basketball game) with one of those floating basketball nets, but not in the pool.

So instead of living life, people are watching these people not live their lives. Unbelievable.

Unseemly Celebration?

2011-07-23T08:34:00.000-07:00

Were spontaneous celebrations of bin Laden’s death unseemly?

When I first heard the news I was surprised. It was taking so long to find him, I figured he would never be found and would die in anonymity, likely in a cave. Am I happy? I can’t say so. He deserved his fate, although a little more suffering would have helped. I don’t mean torture (although it is emotionally satisfying to think of that happening). I would rather he see his ideas not embraced and failing. That they are a dead end. But that’s another point for later.

Forgetting that not much may change, unless it turns out that he had more operational control than was commonly expected post- Tora Bora. It’s one thing to feel relieved that it’s over and that he got some sort of justice. It’s another for people (young people?) to gather at the White House or Ground Zero and cheer and chant as if they are at a U.S.-Russia hockey game in the Olympics. This is conflict and war, not a sporting event. Violence has occurred and it’s nothing to be gloating about or boasting about. The military personnel involved can likely do so privately, they did a great job and put their lives at risk. But to see crowds of American youth chanting and boasting is…I’ll say it…unseemly. I later saw a headline that another later reaction was to hold a memorial ceremony for the 9/11 victims. The perfectly appropriate response.

But is there much difference between those who cheer with blood lust the death of bin Laden and those in the Arab world who might have cheered at times we would find distasteful? Not perfect analogies, but it is tribalism. Is the long nightmare these people are facing over? Not really. Gathering to be patriotic would have been fine, but taunting, chanting and boasting over this is unseemly. Even if it weren’t, the look it provides of blood-lusting, revenge-filled Americans is bad optics (too use an annoying phrase). It has a feeling of jingoism and machismo. Isn’t that a mirror image of the some of the behavior we dislike? If you are an Arab and your house was bulldozed by what you perceive to be an American-backed Israeli bulldozer, or a strike on your country killed civilians and you blame the U.S., might you not cheer as America is struck? All of this is emotionally satisfying but of little long term value. We saw those Arabs who cheered on 9/11 or at other times as out of bounds, anti-American and blood thirsty fanatics who hate our way of life. But their experience and perceptions led them to that point. Do we look like them, even only visually?

I imagine I am very much in the minority on this.

Other views

The Economist Experiment

2011-07-17T06:59:00.001-07:00

First off, I very much like the Economist. It is well written, has good information and insights, and provides me a slightly different perspective from the one I normally get in the U.S.

As an experiment, back in the fall of 2007, I bought a six-month subscription. I was hoping to read each issue in full in the week they came out to keep up with world events. I even budgeted time to do so.

Well, let me tell you how much work it is to do this. During the week I would be a little too tired after work to read more than an article. More than likely I spent significant amounts of time on the weekend reading – every page.

I love the breadth of the Economist and its regional news. Most stories are good (I love their maps) but some cute stories not so much. The article type that most stuck out for me was the party politics article. EVERY issue has at least one, if not more, article about an internal political party struggle for leadership or an impending election between two (or more) parties. If one is studying party politics, the Economist is your key source for the ups and downs of parties and their internal struggles.

A weak area for me was the finance section. I read every one of these article hoping that I would understand what the heck was going on, especially in the turbulent economics of early 2008. Only very occasionally would an article give me a big picture. Usually it was a detailed account of some particular bank, firm, or regulator and the esoteric financial instruments they dealt in. I tried but still don’t understand a credit default swap. Sadly, it was like watching a soap opera for the first time. It has a significant history to it with many players and unless you know this in advance, you will be lost.

My subscription ended in June 2008. By that time I had given up on trying to keep current on every issue and let a back log pile up. Now, three years later, I finally finished reading all of my copies this week. It’s July 2011!

Now there are some mitigating factors. Once my reading schedule slipped by several months, the pressure to read the remaining issues was off: if I was reading something 2 weeks old, 2 months old, or 2 years old, it was still old. So I was in no rush to read them. Also at the same time I began reading more books. Sadly, even book reading has fallen by the wayside and so I returned to finishing my magazines. Don’t ask about my past Atlantic subscription (I think I’m reading an issue from August 2001 – just before the September 11 attacks).

Fun fact: Up until this week, Senator Obama had not officially even secured the Democratic nomination and the financial problems looked much more manageable. There was a scare in the spring of 2008, but the worst seemed over. What a difference three years makes.

Secret shoutout: Chauncy, if you read this, know that I never ordered tomato juice or V-8 on a plane while reading the Economist, nor did I drink either at home.

No FT? No comment.

2011-07-16T13:06:00.001-07:00

The Financial Times gets it right on the Republicans. In this piece on the debt ceiling negotiations, they rightly point out...

"These are proportions that a moderate Republican might prefer, if there were any such thing as a moderate Republican."

"With no shred of intellectual justification, and controlling just one house of Congress, the Republicans say, “No tax increases, ever” – and Mr Obama, instead of resisting, moves three-quarters of the way toward their position."

But the modern Republican party doesn't believe in intellectual justification or facts. It already knows everything it needs to know, viewed through an ideological prism and damn reality.

Sunset

2011-06-21T03:24:00.000-07:00

Still wonderful isn’t it.

And no dialogue.

We didn’t need dialogue; we had faces.

The Truth

2011-06-20T20:24:00.000-07:00

In 100 years, nobody will know my name, what I did, or anything else about me. My life experiences and all I worked for will be gone forever, because no one will remember.

More Poe

2011-05-28T06:42:00.000-07:00

“And then,” said a cadaverous looking personage, near the foot of the table, taking up the thread of the conversation where it had been broken off, -- “and then, among other oddities, we had a patient, once upon a time, who very pertinaciously maintained himself to be a Cordova cheese, and went about, with a knife in his hand, soliciting his friends to try a small slice from the middle of his leg.”

“He was a great fool, beyond doubt,” interposed some one, “but not to be compared with a certain individual whom we all know, with the exception of this strange gentleman. I mean the man who took himself for a bottle of champagne, and always went off with a pop and a fizz, in this fashion.”

Here the speaker, very rudely, as I thought, put his right thumb in his left cheek, withdrew it with a sound resembling the popping of a cork, and then, by a dexterous movement of the tongue upon the teeth, created a sharp hissing and fizzing, which lasted for several minutes, in imitation of the frothing of champagne. This behavior, I saw plainly, was not very pleasing to Monsieur Maillard; but that gentleman said nothing, and the conversation was resumed by a very lean little man in a big wig.

The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether

Offensive Art? Try This!

2011-05-27T03:47:00.000-07:00

Periodically, as part of our culture wars, there is a hubbub about a work of art that offends someone, usually over religious sensibilities, but not always. There was a flare up in the early and late 1990s and more recently at the Smithsonian portrait gallery. Now the argument that “we,” the tax payers, shouldn’t fund this “degenerative” art that attacks the values of the majority of Americans is a decent debate. However, the question is: who decides and why should we fund art that promotes our values? Is that the role of government?

Putting that aside for now, what about the offense these people are taking? Are they so weak in their beliefs and values that seeing this art will move them to abandon them? Are they concerned that others have a such a precarious hold on these values that this art will move them to abandon them and then the whole world goes to pot? Are they concerned that impressionable young children will adopt these alternate views and become future degenerates? Egads! If your values are that weak, that should be your main concern. I thought about what art might offend me such that I would seek it to be censored. Well I can’t think of any.

What about art I think that the government shouldn’t fund? Ok, there I can think of things like art that is racist, encourages violence towards others, particularly women or children. But I can’t say those shouldn’t be created. I think their existence says more about the creator and allows us to discuss why we feel it is inappropriate.

But this is still all very tricky. What if in protest of U.S. "enhanced interrogation techniques" (i.e., torture) an artist depicts a photorealistic scene? What if an artist hoping to show the “violence inherent in Islam” depicts the beheading of Daniel Pearl? Am I offended by that? Maybe. Do I think it should not be created? I might think that but would I restrain someone from doing so? Do I think the government should fund it? More problematic.

Do you know what offends me? This depiction of George Washington.

Since I’m not religious, I don’t care if symbols of Christianity are used in ways that believers don’t like. Too bad. But this depiction of Washington as an emperor (or Zeus) is atrocious. The ideals of the revolution were freedom and liberty and ostensibly against monarchy, yet this statue betrays these by establishing Washington as a god or emperor. Washington went out of his way to retire after two terms. He likely could have run many more times and established a kind of U.S. monarchy. He chose not to. So the fact that this piece was commissioned by the U.S. Congress makes me annoyed. It should not have been funded by the taxpayer. However, should it exist? Of course, if someone wants to create it. It gives me the opportunity to criticize what I think it stands for and the values I think it offends, which I believe are worthy of defending. However, we could also call it true, that it unmasks the imperialism of the U.S. in its current form. But that might not be what the artist intended. (This person doesn’t like it either but is less explicit why.)

Fuck Yeah!

2011-05-25T03:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm not supposed to admit where I'm from in case anyone can link this blog to me. But so what, it's been over five years and no one knows.

It is likely to be short-lived, but for at least for 1.5 years, my old hometown will be represented by a Democrat for the first time in at least 40 years.

The Republicans can spin this all they want and it might be fleeting, but in the end here is the fact: an open seat that they should have won handily was lost to the Democrats. It's a beautiful thing. For all those years, I voted Democratic in the district and never prevailed. Now the Republican-majority voters of the district, rejected their nominee such that the Democrat won.

Amazing.

I'm so proud of the the party right now and the candidate. The glow will likely fade, but I know this feeling and post will always be here.

The Upstate NY Special Election

2011-05-24T03:52:00.000-07:00

The New York 26th Congressional District has a special election today to fill in for the former Representative Christopher Lee who resigned over a personal scandal.

News reports indicate that polls show the Democrat had a lead and may now be tied, which is a surprise in a safe Republican district. The Republicans have a 27,000 voter registration advantage and a Republican has represented the general area (the district number has changed over the years due to census redistricting) since at least 1970.

Democrats are hoping for a win that demonstrates the House Republican plan to make large cuts to government spending and re-structuring Medicare are anathema to voters. If this is true, Democrats hope to use the win to highlight this fact and ride it through the 2012 election to Presidential and Congressional victory. The Democratic dream is that this is a message to Republicans and that it signifies a larger trend or shift.

That dream may come true elsewhere, but in the case of this particular race it may but will be short-lived.

If the Democrat does manage to win, she will very likely be unseated in November 2012 and be out of a job in January 2013. The three-way race in a special election means fewer voters and unique circumstance. In the 2012 election, the Republicans will have gone through a primary process that includes Tea Party representation and unless they produce an extreme candidate, the Republicans are likely to be better unified with one candidate to face the incumbent Democrat. This will take place in the context of a Presidential race. The Democrat, if she wins the special election, should enjoy her 20 months on the job and start looking for a new one. This is not about some major shift in the ideology of Republicans in the district who will now vote for Democratic candidates. It is a unique circumstance, mostly based on a three-way race and low voter turnout.

In addition, if the Democrat does win, she will not appreciably alter the partisan split in the House of Representatives. The Republicans will have a significant majority with which to pass or block legislation it favors or opposes.

In sum, this is a fun event for Democrats that will not amount to much. The will attempt to run against the Republican budget proposal in 2012 and they will use it as a fund-raising tool. It may provide some electoral victories in other districts, but in a 2012 general election, this particular seat will revert to the Republicans, assuming they lose it in the first place.

Why Did The Media Cover This So Much?

2011-05-22T07:04:00.000-07:00

I don’t have enough data to rant yet, but I will outline my ideas.

I’m curious as to why the gentleman who predicted the world would on May 21, based on Christian Biblical beliefs, was afforded so much attention by the media? Why was this such a ubiquitous new story? Might it be more appropriately have been mentioned in a humorous or weird section of the news and received scant attention after that brief mention?

First off, I get it. The media are here, in part, to respond to what is popular. I may not like that but I get it. If they can get stories that get people to click on the link (or read the paper or watch the news, etc.) than they will do so. For some reason this story strikes a nerve and people liked it (possible reason: “let’s look at the freak” – i.e., the weird preacher who is predicting the end of the world, “how dumb is he and how smart I am”)

Second, maybe he had a lot of followers and this is a big deal? I don’t know how many he had and the breadth, but stories indicate that certainly it crossed the U.S. and maybe the globe. Maybe this group is bigger than I think and should be covered. The only information I could get about his following internationally is that they used media (billboards, signs, radio, etc.) in other parts of the world to spread the message. But it’s unclear how many adherents this gentleman had around the world.

The other part that is curious is that the media knew this was a fringe group. They found several other evangelical Christian groups who thought that this other group was incorrect in its prediction of the end of the world. So it’s clear the media knew from a Christian community standpoint, this group was on the fringes of the fringe.

It’s unclear why the media covered this and any comments from my readers would be appreciated. I’m not blaming the readers, per se, and I’m not condemning the group that started this whole thing (at least not in this posting). I’m really saying that the media do choose to cover and not cover certain things and the level of their coverage of this needs to be justified to me.

Missed Opportunity

2011-05-15T07:47:00.000-07:00

I was randomly thinking today and realized we all missed a big opportunity that will not occur for another 91 years. The year 2002 should have been the year of oxygen. Given that we typically call a year by the last two digits - 02 or "oh two" in this case - it was a perfect opportunity to link this with oxygen (which is found in nature in an O2 configuration). Think of the awareness raising opportunity that would have been. I did a quick internet search of 2002 and "year of oxygen" and found nothing, so it appears no one else thought of it either.

Given that we rely on it to breathe and that oxygen bars were the rage for a bit, think of the possibilities. No really, think of them because beyond a small bit of education, I can't come up with too much, so I'm relying on you, dear reader. The comments are open.

Definition of a Bad Day?

2011-05-11T18:51:00.000-07:00

It wasn't all that bad, maybe just weird. However, what is it called when:

- Your mother text messages you that, "That is the most disgusting Mother's Day card I ever saw," in response to the card you sent her?

- The grocery store cart clerk tells you that taking the cart too far into the parking lot to your car is a felony and you can be fined $250?

- The mail order gift you ordered for a birthday party in the next several days arrives but it's the completely wrong item?

I'm sure I've had stranger days, I just can't remember.

Modern Street People

2011-04-17T06:48:00.000-07:00

There is a new breed of crazy street person – those people roaming our streets with blue tooth and similar cell phone transmitters in their ears. How does one know the difference between the people talking on the phone and the crazy street person of yore who talks to him(her)self about a range of nutty topics? The fact is, you don’t. So, clearly, all the crazy street people of yore have to do to gain respectability is to put something in their ear and – just like that – they are normal functioning members of our society. Who knows whether they are crazy or talking to their co-worker about whether that spreadsheet was e-mailed to the client? Ok, so it may be more about a conspiracy theory, but you’re not supposed to listen too close anyway.

Secondly, those people who have those things in their ear have lost the right to friendly chitchat with strangers while waiting for and riding in elevators, in line, or other spaces where strangers quickly meet and engage in pleasantries about the weather, traffic etc. How do I know you are talking to me? It’s pretty embarrassing to respond to one of your comments that were directed at someone you are talking to on the phone. I will not be embarrassed and you should not be offended that I don’t respond if you actually are talking to me because I don’t know if it is directed at me. You lost that right with that thing in your ear.

Finally, what may be worse is the small minority that has them in their ears all the time. I mean all day. There is a guy at work (and he appears to be in his early 60s) who has the thing in his ear all the time. Again, I mean all day. Is it music as well as the phone? Is he in constant contact? Is it really a hearing aid?

Christian Fiction

2011-04-16T08:10:00.000-07:00

Here’s a visual to accompany a story I wrote a long time ago. This will also be part of my stand-up comedy act.

The bit:

So I walk into a bookstore and roam the aisles of books on history, self-help, hobbies, and Christian Fiction. Then I stop and think, “Wait a minute. Christian Fiction? Isn’t it all fiction?!”

Coyote

2011-04-12T17:54:00.001-07:00

I hear a coyote.

Sunday Afternoon Text Message Exchange

2011-04-11T05:13:00.000-07:00

1:41 PM to me: “Hey-come over-we are day drinking on my roof!”

[I went for a run, took a shower, and a couple of other things]

4:27 PM from me: “are festivities still occuring and if so do you need more libations?”

4:30 PM to me: “Justcome over No more lobstions beefed”

4:32 PM from me: “how drunk are you?”

4:32 PM to me: “A normal amountp”

NHL Nationality

2011-04-10T09:01:00.000-07:00

As the regular hockey season ends, I’m due for a hockey post. Whenever I think of hockey, my mind gravitates to how many players are from the U.S., Canada, Russia, and elsewhere. I guess it’s interesting to know that this major U.S. sports league (yes, it’s probably the 4th of the big four and I’m sure someone could tell me it's behind car racing and/or golf) is dominated by Canadian players. In the 2010/2011 season, just over 53 percent of the players on the ice were from Canada and 24 percent were from the U.S. I can’t show you a direct link; I did the math myself from the NHL site. See how much I love my readers? I do my own statistical analysis rather than relying on others.

Just for fun I also looked into which teams have the fewest and most numbers of U.S. and Canadian players (or skaters, as the NHL calls them).

U.S. skaters on a team in 2010/2011:
- Calgary and Philadelphia tied at 3 for fewest
- Pittsburgh leads with 14 (Montreal and Ottawa tied with 8 as the Canadian teams with the most U.S. skaters)

Canadian skaters on a team in 2010/2011:
- Detroit has the fewest Canadians at 6
- Minnesota has the most of any team at 23
- Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary tied with 22 each for Canadian teams (San Jose also has 22)

What does all of that mean? Damned if I know. I imagine teams go for the best person for the job at the price and hardly look at nationality. Now I know that Canadian radio and television have Canadian content laws (CanCon) that describe the amount of Canadian material in broadcasts, but I don’t know if that holds for the hockey teams. However, it does seem with an overwhelming number of Canadians in the league, Detroit is doing something to avoid Canadians. That is a surprise given that it’s on the Canadian border and might try to appeal to fans in Windsor. I could see Phoenix or Texas doing this because of their lack of Canadian connections. Los Angeles and Miami less so, because there are supposedly many Canadians in LA in the movie industry and Canadian snow-birds do travel to Florida to escape their crazy cold winters.

Why Not Shut It Down?

2011-04-05T17:18:00.000-07:00

I'm still trying to find a reason to not shut the U.S. Government down. If they close it down we'll save some money (but waste it in the long-term for the inefficient operations when they re-open) and get people to understand whether they can live with it or without it. If the Tea Party and Libertarians are right, things will only get better. Time to test their theory so that this generation can learn whatever lesson they will learn and not bother with this again (or continue it). I'm fairly sure that we don't learn from history, really, and that this would only impact the current generation, assuming it lasts for any length of time. A week or less will be meaningless. We need at least two weeks of incessant finger-pointing and local and national media struggling to come up with dumb stories on how this affects "you" and "people in the local area."

So please, shut it down.

Shooting Fish in a Barrel

2011-04-02T11:04:00.000-07:00

Stuff like this makes my job too easy. When the notorious infield at a horse race decides it went too far in stopping shenanigans and uses this mascot and ad campaign to attract the partyier demographic, we know genius at work. Not of course, because it is good but because it sucks beyond words. Now of course I could take easy potshots at the guy's long hair, nipple ring, gut, ridiculous manner of speaking like he's from Elizabethan times, and the bestiality implicit in the back story of the creature. I could marvel at the ad campaign's designers, who though this would appeal to their party demographic. If they think he's going to roam the infield prior to the race, they better have lots of security guards, not just the couple of minders they usually give to mascots at sports arenas and amusement parks. That guy will be pelted with so much beer it will be unimaginable. Not to mention what might happen to the horse portion of the costume. I can see it being hoisted up a pole as a trophy.

No, what I'm going to comment on is one small city's paper that uses the usual techniques to cover the story. In this case the Buffalo News. Their article (ok, it's an AP article, but they may have altered it a bit) starts off, "Not everyone's thrilled about the new half-man, half-horse Preakness Stakes mascot that sports a nipple ring and a beer gut." The obvious question for the reporter is "Is anyone thrilled about this creature? If so, do a story on them, not the thing itself." Can you imagine the type of person that would be un-ironically "thrilled" by this? Dungeons and Dragons fans? LARPers? Video game in the basement with Mountain Dew enthusiasts? That's the story you're missing.

As a friend pointed out, didn't the Simpsons kill this sort of thing years ago with Duffman?

Integrity

2011-03-27T09:45:00.000-07:00

One version of integrity I subscribe to is not doing something that you are capable of doing so as to be in line with your implicitly understood or explicit stated values. Or rising above easy or cheap actions that do not really line up with your values just because it makes money or puts you in a better position.

What am I talking about? Two examples: The Simpsons and Jerry Springer.

The Simpsons started in the late 1980s, and continues today, with a significant element of social commentary and critiques of American society. This includes all political views, media, culture, you name it. Certainly they take pot shots at the media and entertainment, as they often had throwaway lines about TV being bad or biting the hand that feeds them by mocking Fox in some manner. All well and good and very enjoyable. However, several years into their run (the 1992/1993 and 1994/1995 seasons) they ran a clip show.

A clip show, for those who don’t know because they were more popular prior to the 1990s, was a long-running show’s move to put together a whole new episode with clips from past episodes that were considered classic or interesting. It might include new material as a framing sequence to set the show up or to give the show a reason to reminisce about its past. Clearly they were a way to tread water and save money. Back when I was younger, I disliked them. So by the time the Simpsons did it I was very annoyed. The reason? The Simpsons creators also know that the reason to do one is to save money and tread water; filler in the season that has limited value, especially with syndication where shows are on all the time.

If memory serves me correct, one of the episodes includes the character Troy McClue (with the wonderful talents of Phil Hartman) speaking to the audience. He tries to make self-referential jokes that the clip show is filler. All very meta, I guess. But the problem is, by using the vehicle of a real clip show to maybe make a joke about them doesn’t work if you are deriving all of the benefits of that type of show (cheap filler material) and providing all of the negatives to the audience (not providing anything new and re-hashing the past). The creators gave up on being creative. They cheated their audience. They didn’t show integrity: they knew the clip show cheats the audience to save money; they new it was an exploitative element in Hollywood. While the show attempts to mock Hollywood’s antics, it faithfully acted in the same manner. You don’t get the benefit of mocking clip shows and producing one. You just get my contempt.

Had they wanted to be creative, they could have created a clip show with fake clips – making new material that no one had seen that would be zany, wacky, or whatever that could change the shows old history (perhaps a fourth child or another “actor” in place of one of the recurring support characters like they sometimes do in soap operas – such as drawing someone completely different and have her be Ms. Krabappel in the flash backs).

In terms of Jerry Springer, basically he knows better. His show is shit and repetitious and appeals to well-below the common denominator. It takes advantage of people who don’t have the education or means to realize they are being exploited for the show’s useless purposes. Springer himself barely disguises his recognition of this during the show and is very explicit about it when he talks about it in other media. What is worse is that Springer is a smart, thoughtful person when it comes to politics. He is the former mayor of Cincinnati. He appeared to flirt with a 2003 Senate run in Ohio. He has spoken in policy and political fora and has a coherent, intellectually interesting perspective on the issues. In these appearances, it clearly shows that he is doing his TV show for a paycheck in almost complete contradiction to his political values. Sure he is not a cultural conservative railing against the decline of U.S. society and culture (which would make him a complete hypocrite) but he talks of community and helping people. He knows that his show does neither.

Not even a thin rationalization that his show gives common people a chance to appear on TV and maybe make money (I assume they get something for appearing on the show) washes. It’s clearly exploitative and designed to shock and titillate to get ratings. If a show wants to expose us to the hard, working lives of those of lesser socio-economic means there are much better ways to do so without exploiting them as over-sexed, ignorant hill billies. Jerry Springer knows better and has an integrity problem. Too bad because I think he could contribute usefully to politics and government.

Awesome Yahoo News Headline

2011-03-25T05:30:00.000-07:00

For some reason I maintain Yahoo as my homepage (no I'm not going to link to them - go find them yourself). I guess it’s out of laziness. Also my first internet e-mail account was from Yahoo so it was convenient to keep that the homepage to check mail.

Yahoo’s main page has a news item right at the top center (I imagine one could modify this and alter the “content” that one sees but my life is not about learning how to “customize” my interface with Yahoo, it’s using the damn thing as a tool). Over time I noticed how vapid and manipulative the headlines and stories were. Clearly they were teasers on some topic “YOU” should care about or be titillated about so that you’d click on it. Basically stuff like “Top Ten Worst Things To Do On A First Date” or “World War II Secret Revealed – Not What You’d Expect.” After a while it got real annoying: if you can’t give me straight headlines about useful information then I’m going to opt out. And I did – I switched my homepage over to Yahoos “Everything” page that shows me categories of functions without the clutter and the inevitably lowest common denominator headlines and news stories.

But after I start at the Everything page during my internet session (is that what we call them?), I sometimes just go back to Yahoo and see those stupid headlines.

Well it finally paid off. Below is a screen shot from the Yahoo front page from this morning (you'll have to click on it for a clearer view).

The Onion couldn’t produce a more misleading, stupid, and signpost-not-to-read-this-story headline. Are you serious? First off, who believes this? Was there a poll taken along with the 2010 elections that I missed? I don’t remember being asked on the ballot whether I “believed” Generation Y are slackers. Now it just so happens I believe it and they are but that’s a whole different matter for another time. Yahoo’s genius editors (whose only job is to get you to click for advertising revenue purposes) came up with a doozy. So the headline tells me that they are not slackers, that this was widely believed and/or studied as true, but now the scientific truism had been turned on its head. The sub-item strengthens this by indicating a study was conducted to overturn this rock-solid truth that was “believed.” Thankfully someone conducted a study to overturn this and wipe a stain off of a whole generation.

Also, it’s hard to get past the fact that the woman they show in the photo’s foreground is fairly ugly.

Let me a deconstruct this a little more. The premise is that Generation Y is “known” to be slackers. Yet for the history-addled, which Yahoo loves to play to, it is well know that the generation prior, X to those who are alphabet and history challenged, was first labeled as slackers. There was a movie that supposedly defined that generation called, wait for it, “Slackers.” By the way, it’s a good movie. So the tagging of a younger generation as slackers is not new and heck, I’ll admit that I didn’t know that I was supposed to “believe” this about Generation Y.

Now I do have opinions about Generation Y but that’s for another time. But thanks to Yahoo’s goofy and inane headlines, I know this belief is false. This is why the Onion is either genius or painfully redundant. (For fun, I clicked on the current Onion page to see its fake stories and life could not imitate art better – or is that vice versa here? The headline? ”Time Between Thing Being Amusing, Extremely Irritating Down To 4 Minutes” – That is EXACTLY the headline that Yahoo news would run with (and the type of story to boot).

(Okay - I just noticed that I ran a similar piece back in 2006 - sorry, I guess somethings are timeless.)

Strategic Thinking Over Libya?

2011-03-20T08:17:00.000-07:00

The Cable reports that there was a contentious meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) on whether to seek a no-fly zone over Libya that the U.S. would participate in. The report describes two sides – those who thought this would be an implementation of the fairly new responsibility to protect (R2P in the annoying short-hand that seems to be frequently adopted, presumably as some sort of attempt at marketing and branding – a rant for another time) and those who didn’t see it in U.S. national interest. Obviously both sides have a more nuanced argument, but you should read the piece for those details.

In terms of the policy’s fairly immediate objectives, a later piece cites an NSC staffer: “The United States will contribute our unique capabilities to neutralize air defenses and military equipment that threatens civilians and civilian-populated areas to enable ongoing enforcement operations led by our partners.”

I’m concerned whether these really smart people have thought through what they want and what the possible and likely outcomes might be, and the contingencies to be ready for. It’s called thinking and planning. The Cable piece doesn’t go into detail but I hope these people did. Given my outsider perspective on this, I can think of a whole slew of things.

What is the goal?

What outcome would be best and what can we live with?

How far up the escalation chain are we willing to go and do we know that now, or will it all be reactive and we will end up somewhere we didn’t think about or plan for?

Let’s say that we are successful in taking out the Libyan air defense system – then what? Do we fly patrols over their airspace and only attack aircraft? Do we strike large military vehicles that are engaging rebellious forces? Does this make us effectively the air component of the rebellion? Do we then have to coordinate with them? Are we only doing this to repel offensive actions of the regime and not to support offensive actions by the rebels? In either case, are we only providing battlefield support and not attacking the power of the regime behind the immediate battlefield (depots, bases, command centers, military HQs, regime targets)? And even if the answer to many of these is “no” right now, are we prepared to not escalate if the situation warrants it and stick to our more limited actions? Or are we going to muddle through with a slow escalation that is driven by events rather than by our goals and policy?

The NSC staffer’s statement on objectives is fairly broad. Establishing a no-fly zone is fairly bounded. Destroying “military equipment that threatens civilians and civilian-populated areas” is essentially attacking the Libyan military. Does “threaten” mean actively threaten as in forces in combat or does it mean equipment that could be used to threaten civilians? One implies being the battlefield air component for the rebels, the other implies attacking all military equipment at bases, facilities, etc. and therefore a much wider conflict. Now I know why they do this; adding the modifier “civilian” to the statement makes it look a) more limited and b) like we’re only doing this to protect people. But it could end up in full conflict with the Libyan military because their whole force is capable of threatening civilians. Have they thought through this and are not telling us? Let’s hope so.

Additionally, I’m looking for information on this, but what are the capabilities of the rebellion? Clearly they don’t have an air force, that’s what we seem to be providing. Do they have the capability to mount offensive operations against the regime? Or are they just a bunch of civilian protesters who have some weapons? In other words, do they have a real shot at winning militarily or are they hoping that the regime’s military will refuse to fight or start to defect; will just collapse or lose the will to fight; will succumb to the damage that the air campaign inflicts?

This is all fairly mid-level stuff. Larger questions about our role in the Middle East and the recent uprisings must be asked as well (Why Libya and not Bahrain?). What does this do for our image in the world? Does this precedent mean we will do more of this in the future? What does this mean for nonproliferation (i.e., would we have done this if Libya had a nuclear program? If not, one policy response by our non-nuclear adversaries is to go nuclear to deter us in the future to save their regime)? If this is about humanitarianism, why don’t we do it in other places where the people are clearly being repressed by their regime (e.g., Burma, North Korea)?

I hope these smart people who have these important positions have thought of this.

LA is New Jersey

2011-03-17T04:35:00.000-07:00

Whenever someone tells me they are from New Jersey, I like to say, “I’m sorry.” New Jersey may have some wonderful parts and places but in general it has a terrible image and having visited, I can see why. But recently, I’ve thought about it and I’m now going to say the same for people who tell me they are from LA. Sorry, LA, you’re ugly. You’re strip malls and traffic. You’re a fake downtown and a fake industry filled with vacuous people who don’t know what the people want and are deathly afraid of new ideas.

Are you from LA? I’m sorry about that.

A Note To The Culture

2011-03-15T20:27:00.000-07:00

Bobble heads were never funny, amusing, or interesting. They are just stupid. Please stop embracing them or including them in sitcoms and commercials. Again, they never were, nor will they be, funny.

Fantastic Movie

2011-03-13T06:58:00.000-07:00

I forgot how I heard about Fantastic Planet, but when I did I searched for it on the internet and found that it is on YouTube. I saved the link to it but didn’t immediately watch it; I only knew it was a 1970s European animated sci-fi-ish movie.

Well, it’s really good. Less for the plot and more for the images, approach, concepts, and creative thinking that went into it. The plot is a ok and it ends rather quickly, but the imagination that went into this was excellent. I’m not going to repeat the plot, there are plenty of reviews that will do that for you.

I just wanted to stress that there are some really cool, alien images of landscapes and other-worldly creatures. They also did a great job with the dubbed English voices. The humans are ok, but they generally give the aliens impassive voices and the hypnotic voice of the woman in the aliens’ learning device is great; as is the pseudo-science they give her to say.

Obviously, this is also an excuse to post some stills from the movie that I found elsewhere.

Still Life

2011-03-08T02:58:00.001-08:00

Հայաստանի կառավարությունում

2011-03-07T04:13:00.000-08:00

Մարտի 4-ին Հայաստանի կառավարությունում տեղի է ունեցել տեսչական բարեփոխումների համակարգման խորհրդի երկրորդ նիստը, որը վարել է վարչապետ, խորհրդի նախագահ Տիգրան Սարգսյանը։

Ինչպես հաղորդում է ՀՀ կառավարության մամլո ծառայությունը, նիստում, ըստ հաստատված օրակարգի, խորհրդի անդամները քննարկել են «Հայաստանի Հանրապետությունում ստուգումների կազմակերպման և անցկացման մասին» Հայաստանի Հանրապետության օրենքում փոփոխություններ և լրացում կատարելու մասին» ՀՀ օրենքի նախագիծը: Վարչապետը հանձնարարել է մեկշաբաթյա ժամկետում նախագծի վերաբերյալ հնչած առաջարկություններն ու դիտողությունները ներկայացնել տեսչական բարեփոխումների աշխատանքային խմբին։

Օրակարգի երկրորդ հարցով հավանություն է տրվել ՀՀ առողջապահության նախարարության պետական հիգիենիկ և հակահամաճարակային տեսչությունում ռիսկերի վրա հիմնված ստուգումների համակարգի մեթոդաբանությանը, որով հնարավորություն կտրվի վերանայել, վերլուծել ու դասակարգել վերահսկման օբյեկտները, ձևավորել տվյալների բազա` ըստ գործունեության ոլորտների և տնտեսվարող սուբյեկտների, ներդնել ստուգումների նպատակադրման առավել արդյունավետ մեխանիզմներ:

Ի թիվս օրակարգում ընդգրկված հարցերի, ներկայացվել է նաև Պետական հրդեհային տեսչությունում բարեփոխումների ընթացքի վերաբերյալ հաշվետվությունը: Մասնավորապես, զեկուցվել է 2010թ. հուլիս-2011թ. փետրվար ամիսներն ընդգրկող ժամանակաշրջանում տեսչական բարեփոխումների շրջանակում իրականացված գործողությունների և արդյունքների մասին։ Նիստում քննարկվել է նաև «Քաղաքաշինական գործունեության հսկողության և վերահսկողության մասին» ՀՀ օրենքի նախագիծը

Santa’s True Nature

2011-03-06T05:14:00.000-08:00

This painting of St. Nick by Robert Walter Weir from around 1837 says all you need to know about the “jolly old fellow.” He looks anything but. The image I get here is a nightmarish dwarf who has just ransacked a house and may or may not have killed the inhabitants. Look at the strange smile on his face – he looks less happy for bringing joy and more maniacal for getting away with something as he leaves the scene of the crime. I guess the real question is what would you think if you heard a noise around 1 AM and came down stairs from your bedroom to see this scene? I doubt you’d be happy and in fact you may have thought it was a scene from a horror movie. Beware once December rolls around.

WTF!

2011-03-05T06:32:00.000-08:00

I think I once wrote that the phrase “book club drama” shouldn’t exist – who has drama at a book club? Well I’ve got a new sentence I never thought I’d write: I got into an argument with the reference librarian.

Is it the budget cuts?

Is the world rising up to oppose me?

Did I not smile enough when I spoke to her?

Not my recent library experience

The funny part was, all I was trying to do was get a copy of a book that is supposed to be kept behind the reference desk. I didn’t ask her how to research something or for some piece of information. All I did was mention the title of what I was looking for and the call number so she could look for it. However, in doing so, she started to question my source material and ultimately my approach. What the fuck? I didn’t ask for that. I asked for the book. How hard is that? Even worse, she didn’t even have the material I wanted. The electronic card catalog said she did but she didn’t find it.

What does this mean for 2011? Is this a preview of hard times ahead when everyone will question me when I ask for something? If so, I have a long year ahead of me.

As a side note, perhaps this particular librarian had listened to one too many episodes of “Ruth Harrison, Reference Librarian” from A Prairie Home Companion.

Also not part of my recent library experience

Democracy promotion through cash or combat?

2011-02-20T05:57:00.001-08:00

The Christian Science Monitor estimates that since 1975, the U.S. has provided Egypt over $50 billion in aid of various sorts. That was a 2004 article. If the rate of assistance has continued through 2010, let’s say it’s very close to $60 billion.

The American Thinker, a publication with a more conservative outlook, cites a Congressional Budget Office report that the war in Iraq cost $709 billion.

So the question is: which is a better policy to promote democracy? To ride out a dictatorial regime for 35 years at a cost of $60 billion, granted with less control over the direct overthrow and subsequent form of the new government or to invade and overthrow the dictatorial regime you used to support for $709 billion in which you have more significant control in regime elimination and likely more influence in the creation of the new one? In both cases, we do not control the end point, but for nearly 12 times the cost in Iraq, do we have 12 times the influence? This, of course, does not count the lives lost in the Iraq war.

So which democracy promotion method is better?

Now come the quibbles with my simplistic argument:

Egypt: We were not paying the money to democratize Egypt but to buy a cold peace with Israel and to have some influence in the country. But when push came to shove, our military-to-military connections with the Egyptian army seemed to bear some fruit that they did not, on the whole, shoot at the protesters, a la Tiananmen Square, and that they nudged (pushed?) Mubarak from power. Obviously the outcome of this situation is not close to known, so the jury is still out, but so far, better than Iraq.

Iraq: We paid the money in Iraq to eliminate a threat and not to promote democracy. Or maybe we used the threat as a pretext to begin to promote Middle East democracy by pounding an easy target. Or maybe it was for oil (just kidding-sort of). But in any case in terms of threats, Iraq was not a direct threat. We have many threats in the world but we have to prioritize them. Iraq was not worth the cost. In terms of democracy promotion, yes Iraq seems like a emerging democracy, but the jury is still out and the way it happened, put a bad taste for democracy in the mouth of the region.

A Realization

2011-02-15T19:37:00.000-08:00

Work interferes with my social life. I am between jobs rights now so I have some time off. I have had more fun socially in the past few days then I've had in a while. Obviously I have no responsibilities and all that, but I also realize that work intrudes on my life in ways that are not helpful nor useful. I hope that I realize this in the midst of my next job and do something about it rather than this aberration.

In Which My Analysis Will Not Be Read

2011-01-30T12:44:00.001-08:00

My knee-jerk reaction is that we are at this moment because we couldn’t or wouldn’t push the Egyptian government hard enough in the past few decades to do something that would alleviate just such a situation as we have now. Like a lot of government action, crisis leads to action because “something” needs to be done and the space for options has become limited. Reasonable, nuanced, moderate steps are not possible because the balance has changed.

The question for U.S. support is really what does a post-Mubarak Egypt and Middle East look like? Can we get the same cooperation from a post-Mubarak government on peace with Israel, Hamas, counter-terrorism, and as our counter-weight to Syria and Iran? If we support change, do our current allies (Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Gulf states) cooperate less with us? If we don’t support change, do Egyptian protesters and those elsewhere know that the U.S. only cares about stability and not the aspirations of the people? Do they take on an anti-American character?

The realist says support Mubarak because we have significant interests. The idealist says we should support the protesters and be on the side of a potentially tumultuous transition that hopefully will lead to long-term peace and a sounder stability.

Support The Protesters

2011-01-29T13:10:00.001-08:00

The U.S. Government should take more positive action to seek the peaceful transition of the Egyptian Government of Hosni Mubarak out of power. Unfortunately we don't know what the outcome will be, but in this case, the crowds do not appear to be anti-U.S. or composed of Islamic extremists. Also unfortunately U.S. policy has allowed the Egyptian Government to decimate any opposition - religious or otherwise - but the religious-based groups are probably more organized. In any case, we should seek the end of the regime and shape as much as possible one that can work with the U.S. and address the legitimate aspirations of the Egyptian people.

Also, it appears that Mubarak is already a mummy.

P.S. I am more that willing to address this in one-year to see what happened and encourage you to hold me accountable then and to comment on your thoughts now.

Gulf War Memories

2011-01-16T08:24:00.000-08:00

Twenty years ago, the U.S. began air attacks on Iraq and Iraqi-occupied Kuwait to start the Gulf War. It just sort of struck me today and was not prompted by anything I read. I decided to go look to see if it was an anniversary that was being celebrated or at least discussed. My search for “Gulf War” in Google’s news search showed 57 articles.

CNN (which emerged as a force in news during the war for its live coverage) has the top story, “Tensions remain, 20 years after Gulf War.” The piece is about how Kuwait is still seeking information and reparation from the invasion and has little to note about the actual war.

The New Jersey Star-Ledger’s piece is from a first person account of the war.

Lehigh Valley Live and the Washington Post both give it a mention in their “Today in History” sections.

WRAL, a CBS affiliate in North Carolina, including Fayetteville, home to Fort Bragg and the Army Rangers, has a fairly lengthy piece. Given the audience it serves, this is not surprising.

In general, the snapshot of news shows that it is not a major anniversary and that the lens through which the Gulf War is discussed is more about the current than the past (I guess that’s why they are newspapers and not history papers).

What was I doing 20 years ago today? I remember watching the network evening news and it being interrupted by the announcement that air operations seemed to have begun. We did not have cable and so we could not switch to CNN, although back then CNN, as I mentioned, was not known for its coverage, having earned that because of the war. I think I then was interested in a girl who worked at a record store, so I went over to look at records and then talk her up.

Numerologists Delight

2011-01-11T04:07:00.001-08:00

Today is January 11, 2011 or in another formulation, 1/11/11. What does this mean? Is this the beginning of end times? Will strange occurrences happen today? While not as loaded with "meaning" as the impending 11/11/11 (get ready for that!), should I stay home today? Should I buy a lottery ticket?

As a side note, here is the "mascot" for the UK national lottery - I wonder if he talks in commercials? Does a mascot like this, a cartoonish hand with crossed fingers, encourage children to gamble? Well as long as it goes for funding education, then it should be ok.

Al Michaels is HUGE

2011-01-08T20:08:00.000-08:00

Yes, another football post. Sorry, but it's the playoffs and it's the best time of the year. So I watched a bit of both games today. I'll admit I was very surprised that the Seahawks won; I would not have predicted that. But I was sort of rooting for them - I want them to go all they way to the Super Bowl and win as a 7-9 team (well I guess 8-9 now). The Jets were less of a surprise but I still would have predicted the Colts would have beat them.

Who am I rooting for generally? The Ravens. But I won't be upset with victories by the Eagles or Chiefs.

But this is not the reason for this post. I mostly want to complain about Al Michaels. I've watched him over the last couple of years on Sunday night football and have noticed an annoying habit. I can't stand the way he says "huge" and "good." And he says those things a lot. I.e., "that was a huge play" or "the extra point is good." He says "HEWJJSHH." He say "Goooo-d." Listen to a broadcast with it and you'll hear it, and you'll hear it often.

Happy New Year

2010-12-31T16:30:00.000-08:00

This blog is over 5 years old and I didn't even commemorate it! I'm sure I'll rectify that later. Happy 2011!

Marathon of Trash

2010-11-21T05:46:00.000-08:00

Scene from a Marathon

Proud Ignorance

2010-10-23T07:34:00.000-07:00

This article does a good job discussing Christine O’Donnell’s willful ignorance and her attempts to make it sound like she didn’t say what she said about the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in relation to establishing religion.

However, the more interesting part of the piece is a comment made by a reader. While I 100% agree with the article and find emotional (and intellectual) satisfaction with it, the truth is fleshed out in this comment:

“The sad part is that the people who will vote for O'Donnell completely and utterly do not care about her knowledge of anything. You can write a million articles about her loony idiocy but it won't make a shred of difference. She has already denied evolution, admitted to practicing witchcraft, argued against masturbation, alleged that scientists have created mice with human brains, and denied that the First Amendment provides for the separation of church and state. All of these wacko statements have come from her own mouth and they have been recorded and her supporters know it and absolutely do not care.

I applaud any attempt to publicize her stupidity but it won't matter to voters. These people are partisans the same way that sports fans are partisans. You can tell them that Kobe Bryant is a rapist, but they will always root for the Lakers regardless. There is nothing O'Donnell could say or do to lose her supporters except to agree with the Democrats on something. This is politics as national sporting event and her supporters simply hate Democrats the same way that soccer hooligans hate and attack opposing team fans.”

First, to be a little fair, this can likely apply to some Democratic supporters as well; they are just not as prominent now. Second, I think this also could describe Sarah Palin and other tea-partiers. They don’t know history, except cartoon history, and just know what they feel and think they like, history, nuance, and facts be damned. As a previous post I had quoting someone commenting on Palin, these people are proud of their ignorance.

Devil Squirrel

2010-10-10T05:34:00.000-07:00

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

2010-10-08T20:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, it's just a great movie and has some great quotes.

"Oh yes, yes. She was a communist too. She believed in free love. At the time it was all I could afford."

"Mr. Leamas, go back, please....To your own side, Mr. Leamas."

I highly recommend it. As most reviewers point out, it is an antidote to the James Bond crap of flashy cars, technology, and unbelievable stunts.

Typical

2010-09-29T03:57:00.000-07:00

All you religious folk out there don’t know who you are praying to or why. Those who are not believers know more about your supposed beliefs than you do.

Do the religious gain from this that they should learn more about their religions, its assumptions, and its tenets? Do they simply continue to “believe” in ignorance? Does it disturb them that they take these beliefs as handed down from a deity but don’t know squat about what their deity really is saying to them?

Or if they get educated they will realize that they are following a ritualized and institutionalized philosophy that has good elements that they want to retain and bad elements they don’t care to follow. Perhaps they’ll learn the claims to ultimate truth and certainty of their religions are questionable.

Perhaps but not likely. These people will retain their ignorance and interpret their religion through a personal lens and be influenced by whatever religious authority can appeal to their “faith tradition.”

What You Get For Your Taxes

2010-09-25T06:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Democrats,

I wrote you a letter on how to handle the tax cut issue. Now it’s time to handle the spending issue. It’s time to tell the American public what it is they get for their money. Yes, you heard me, their money.

They live in a democracy and they pay taxes; it’s their money. It is their government. They voted for politicians who passed programs that should benefit the whole or some important segment that needs help (children, the poor, the elderly, etc.) because there is market failure or distortion.

So start off by telling people that it is their money, that they voted for the people who established the programs, and that they are both responsible for the state of affairs and deserve to know what their tax dollars are buying. If they squeal that THEY didn’t vote for these people who created these programs and that therefore these programs are not theirs, tell them to blame “the greatest generation” or the baby boomers (their parents!) for doing so. Why? These programs are anywhere from 80 years old on down. These complainers know the people who voted for these programs if they themselves did not. Are they saying the “greatest generation” wasn’t so great? Are they saying their boomer parents are wrong?

Tell them to look in the mirror and they’ll see who to blame. No one is forcing them to vote for anyone, last I heard. If they are, they should report it to law enforcement to prosecute for voter intimidation.

They want term limits? Tell them they already have them. Every two years in the House and six years in the Senate, members of Congress have to face the electorate. Their term expires unless they get re-elected. They vote for them! So either they are out of touch with their district/state or they live in a district/state where people don’t pay attention or are stupid.

Tell them what it would mean if we didn’t have Medicare/Medicaid. Tell them what it would mean if we didn’t have Social Security. Tell them what it would mean if we didn’t have defense. Tell them that the individual behavior of people investing in 401K accounts is pretty bad. (This link on how to improve the 401K is from the right. However, read its recommendations – they would put many limits on people and how the plans could operate - sounds more like government intrusion than a freedom-loving market orientation)

Tell them that investing Social Security funds in the market would have been a rough idea in this down market. Tell them that our defense is an export that provides for security around the globe and gives us influence overseas. Why do I focus on these three (Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, National Defense)? They make up 61 percent of federal outlays.

As you can see debt makes up another 9 percent. That leaves 30 percent of the budget (social programs and human development) that require explanation for what the American public is getting. If you can’t defend a program, then don’t. Government spending is not an end in itself, but what it delivers. Tell us what it delivers. I know that is possible, you just choose not to defend these things because you are cowed by Republican rhetoric that all government spending is waste.

Sincerely,

Quinch

Really People?

2010-09-09T18:40:00.000-07:00

This is one of those hyperbolic internet ads that seeks to get an emotional reaction from you such that you are compelled to click on it. Of course you're likely to go to some site where I'm sure they want to sell you something. But really, "spoils or war?" This makes me sick that this is the narrative being followed and even sicker that it plays on both Muslims and Christians in the worst way. I can imagine some Muslims saying, "Yes!" and some Christians saying, "Yes, see they are evil!" And you wonder why I rail on religion?

Tax Holiday

2010-09-08T04:49:00.000-07:00

Dear Democrats,

You never seem able to match Republican obfuscatory rhetoric. Remember “death tax” for the estate tax? Remember “pro-life” when they are actually anti-abortion? I could find more.

Anyway, my purpose is to tell you to start using tax holiday in reference to excessive or unfair tax cuts. Try this on for size:

“For nearly 10 years, the wealthiest in our country have taken a tax holiday. A holiday at the expense of the American people. This luxurious holidays helped fuel the bubble that brought down the economy. Now we have record deficits, but the party is over. It’s time to come home from this excessive vacation. It’s time to end this tax holiday for the wealthy. It’s time for responsibility; to get back to work; to return from this holiday. Extending the Bush tax cuts is like going on an expensive vacation, ignoring responsibilities back home, overindulging and then when its time to come home, you pull out the credit card and extend the holiday on money you don’t have. It’s time to end this tax holiday.”

I imagine smarter people than me can hone the message and others can add some facts to back up the idea that the wealthy made off like bandits during the holiday and will not suffer as Republicans say if they come home from their tax vacation.

You’re welcome, now go out and fight the battle and win some elections.

Happy Labor Day

2010-09-06T12:56:00.001-07:00

Phone First

2010-08-31T19:33:00.000-07:00

I was at work and made a phone call to a number someone gave me. To protect the innocent and the guilty I will use a random number for this purpose: 451-3920. So I called the number and got voice mail. The person at the number had not set up voice mail so the computerized voice told me: "The person at four million five hundred thirteen thousand nine hundred twenty has not set up voice mail..." I was flabbergasted. Having been calling numbers and getting automated systems for almost all of my adult life, I've never heard a system spell out the whole phone number as if it were a number rather than a series of individual digits.

I dare you to start telling people your phone number this way, especially if you give the area code. That would make it in the billions.

My Supernatural Being is Real - Yours is Not!

2010-08-29T12:03:00.000-07:00

I generally enjoy when religious folk fight amongst each other rhetorically (not violently, because that has spillover effects for those of us who have no use for either of them, plus I generally don’t believe that to be the best way). Anyway, I really enjoyed listening to some Christian radio and commentators when Mitt Romney was running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. A few that I heard were bashing Mormonism as non-Christian and providing their viewpoints as to why. I really enjoyed that. If we had to have a Republican president at this point, I think I could likely live with Romney, as opposed to some of the other, let’s face it, yahoos in that party. Sure he’s Mormon but he seems to be able to separate that from his governance.

I also remember going to a Serbian Orthodox church for an ethnic festival a few years back. I went inside to see what the church looked like and noticed in the foyer some pamphlets. Most were about various aspects of the Serbian Orthodox faith, but one that caught my eye took an extremely negative view of Mormonism and the Jehovah Witnesses. I really enjoyed reading that one.

Just today I ran across this item that some church in Florida wants to celebrate the anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 by burning the Koran. I love it when Christians also attack Islam (again rhetorically). (They are also selling cool t-shirts, “Islam is of the Devil.” You think they'll sell that one at Old Navy?) This is tied into, in my view, the debate over building a mosque near the World Trade Center. People seem to ignorantly believe that all Muslims were in support of these attacks and that there is a unified Islamic effort and that therefore this mosque is a victory for Muslims or an offense to victims of the terrorist attacks. What hogwash! Until you can show me that this particular mosque will embrace the kinds of rhetoric and actions of Islamic extremists, then what’s the deal? Islam (if such a thing is possible) did not attack the U.S. on that day. Several individuals using that faith to justify their actions in their mind attacked. There is no one unifying Islamic center directing these actions. Why are we blaming all Muslims for the actions of these people? Should I condemn all Christians (Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian, etc.) for the Crusades? For suppressing Galileo? For priest child abuse? For anti-abortion killings and bombings? Hopefully you get the idea. (Oh by the way, the Muslims are just as wrong as the Jews, the Christians, the Zoroastrians, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, etc.)

Anyway, I think we should burn the Koran, and the Bible, and the Torah, and other religious texts only in the sense that they are not sacred, not revealed truth, nor strict guides to life (or the afterlife). In a real sense I don’t think they, or other books, should be burned at all. You don’t like something that someone wrote? Write a counter to it, write what you think, make your case.

But I still smile when one group of people believing strongly in a supernatural source of authority and/or guide to life that is ultimately unprovable bashes another for their equally strong belief in a different supernatural source of authority and/or guide to life that is ultimately unprovable.

My Netflix Queue

2010-08-28T12:29:00.000-07:00

Jesus Fish Wars

2010-08-27T04:06:00.000-07:00

I never had much interest in the Jesus fish. It’s only when the Jesus fish wars started did I become interested. I think the first salvo in the attack was the Jesus fish with “Darwin” written inside and a pair of legs to show the fish had evolved. Then I think the Christianists fought back with a “survival of the fittest” scene with the Jesus fish eating the Darwin fish. I’ve seen a couple of other Darwin fish alternatives, but the most fun is this one.

I don’t know if they’ve produced one yet, but the Jesus fish people need to produce a T-rex eating a human, because in their creationist belief, humans and dinosaurs were around at the same time. How did Noah keep the velociraptors from eating everything on that ark anyway?

300

2010-08-26T17:28:00.000-07:00

It’s hard to believe that I made it to 300. This blog was started nearly five years ago (or it will be in December). Back then I was just dumped by a girl who I fell for harder than I should have given that we were dating only a few weeks. I was blissfully at the end of year five in my job and began looking for a new one. Sadly, I wouldn’t move on until earlier this year so my job hunt was like four years long (and sadly still continues). I was living in the same place, except now I have a real couch instead of a futon. I was in the middle of my travel period. Lately I haven’t gone to too many places. I was also in the heart of my urban tribe’s social life. Now it’s tapered off due to age and marriage. Yes, I can become very nostalgic very quickly – at my age you should know such things about yourself. I’ve periodically gone back to read different posts but have never read the whole blog from start to finish. I know there is some good writing here but mostly not. I know that with the passage of time I would certainly edit about 95 percent of these posts and they would be improved – these posts are typically first drafts with light editing, this one included. I don’t know if the blog has a theme except whatever crap I can think of in the media, politics, my life, etc. So it’s more like a diary than a coherent web log (you know that’s where blog comes from, right?) Anyway, happy 300th post and near 5th year anniversary. I’m sure I’ll attempt to do a fifth year anniversary post as well when the time comes.

Sequence Days

2010-08-25T03:44:00.000-07:00

A while back, I put together a list of special dates based on their calendar number dates. Obviously these have very little meaning except the patterns we see in them that we provide meaning to. Let’s call these Sequence Days. So I just missed 8/9/10, but happy belated Sequence Day to you.

1/2/03
2/3/04
3/4/05
4/5/06
5/6/07
6/7/08
7/8/09
8/9/10
9/10/11
10/11/12
11/12/13
12/13/14
1/2/34
2/3/45
3/4/56
4/5/67
5/6/78
6/7/89

Ambassador of Death Brings Peace and Friendship

2010-08-24T19:58:00.000-07:00

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled a new unmanned bomber. In doing so he said, “The jet, as well as being an ambassador of death for the enemies of humanity, has a main message of peace and friendship.” Paging George Orwell. Paging George Orwell. Does 2 + 2 = 5 in his world also?

Bare Base Facility Erection

2010-08-22T08:48:00.000-07:00

I don’t know why there is such debate about repealing the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy for gays and lesbians serving in the military – clearly the Air Force repealed it as far back as 2008. How could someone in the Air Force leadership have non-ironically approved the title of this document?

Colonel My Ass

2010-08-21T05:29:00.000-07:00

I was walking through the grocery store, as I’m wont to do when hungry and looking for food, and I came across the visage of this fine, upstanding southern gentleman. He was associated with the state of Kentucky, as demonstrated by his head floating above an outline of the state and the fact that the product is called “Kentucky Kernel.”

Now I’m not one for conspiracies, but I believe this “Kernel” is somehow being used to make the purchaser of this product think of another “Colonel.” Luckily this “Kernel” doesn’t need glasses to see through my admittedly blurry photo (sorry, camera phone). Well imagine my surprise when I looked further at the box to determine which part of Kentucky produced this fine seasoned flour product that might make chicken as good as the other “Colonel.” I know it’s hard to see, but if you click on it and blow it up, you’ll see that the “Kentucky Kernel” seasoned flour, produced since 1810, is a product of Hodgson Mill of Illinois!

Now I know that Kentucky and Illinois share a border, but come on. This is definitely false advertising. The “Kernel” should be ashamed that he is not from Kentucky and that he is shamelessly ripping off the other “Colonel.” Damn Yankees!

Even worse, the “Kentucky Kernel” is the student newspaper for the University of Kentucky! Can they sue?

Note: In doing my research, I found someone who has only praise for the “Kernel’s” seasoned flour.

A Hole In One For Rationality

2010-08-20T17:42:00.000-07:00

Ah the Tea Party movement. Well-intentioned ignoramuses. I can understand some of their frustration with the growth of government spending which they perceive as wasteful. I want to have the government spend our money wisely. But these people don’t understand that they are also the ones that demand government spending, actions, and programs that benefit them. Do they really believe government is the problem and that left to the free market, we will be free and prosperous? Why didn’t that happen in the late 1800s and early 1900s? Why did we have robber barons and child labor? Why did unions and government regulation arise?

Anyway, my point here is not to get into a lot of discussion about the movement but to point out this awesome (and I’m being half ironic) item that one of the Tea Party candidates said in his run for Senate.

First off, I hate when politicians use puns and analogies. They are extremely weak at doing this. I’d be willing to bet that if you typed in “Groundhog Day,” the Bill Murrary movie about repeating the same day over and over again, into the Congressional Record, you’d get a lot of hits. That’s because members of Congress love to say, “This is deja vu all over again. This is like ‘Groundhog Day’ with this attack on [name your issue].”

And the worst is sports analogies. A few years back we had a “three strikes and you’re out” criminal justice law. What basis is baseball for criminal justice policy? Why couldn’t it be “one and done” or “4th down, time to punt”? What rational, fact-based reason was given for three crimes as opposed to one or 100? Well, the answer is it sounds good and people can relate to baseball.

Anyway, I was listening to NPR. They were covering a story on the Washington State senate race. The point of the story was that the electoral system in Washington favors moderate candidates, even though there is a Tea Party candidate running. The piece spoke to the Tea Party candidate (no, I won’t give him free advertising) and he started talking about the failures of Republicans in Congress in the past decade. He then started to use annoying football analogies (disclaimer: I really like football) about “fumbled the ball” and “fourth down.” Finally he ended with this:

“If you want to put another establishment Republican back there don’t think that we’re not going to go into this end zone of socialism.”

OMG! What the hell is he talking about? What the hell is the “end zone of socialism”? And is he implying that once in the end zone, it’s all over? My dim recollection of football’s rules are that the team that scores the most, wins. So let’s say seven points go to Team Socialism but Team Capitalism scores three field goals and wins 9-7. So Team Capitalism can suffer a trip to “the end zone of socialism” and still win. Maybe he should have said we would lose the tug of war with socialism. This more appropriately conjures images of a struggle back and forth, and without the right people on the side of capitalism, we will end up in the “watered mud of socialism” or whatever it is that they put in the pool in the middle of a tug of war contest.

Obviously the whole point is for sports figures to stay out of politics.

Not All Ideas Are Good Ideas

2010-08-11T17:54:00.000-07:00

I don't doubt I could use this post title as a blog unto itself and post about it every day. But this one is really up there.

I was shopping for a birthday card and as usual was not having any luck. As a tangent, I think almost all "greeting" cards suck. Suck big. Suck monster cock. They are inane, insipid, stupid, or blah. I tend to buy the blank cards with some interesting or at least not too bad scene or picture on it.

So I was at the drug store, staring once again at the cards. What to buy? An ironic card? One that is a specified age older than the recipient and laugh that they are not 90? A card in Spanish they wouldn't understand? Ah the choices of mirth.

Then I can across a card with a monkey on the front. Everyone likes monkey cards so I read it. OMG! I will not describe it, but use the equivalent of 2000 words. See below and be amazed that someone thought of this and then it was accepted by their boss for sale to the public. And I didn't buy it at Spencer's Gifts but the family-friendly local drug store.

I didn't believe it either. I'm not clever enough to write more to top this. I will note I bought two and will send them to people throughout the next few months.

I am a Passenger

2010-07-10T09:32:00.000-07:00

I am a passenger in my own life. I am on a ride in someone else’s vehicle. I am along for the ride. I see out the window of where they want me to see, their route. I am Iggy Pop’s Passenger. I can tell the driver what I want, but he takes me to where he wants. I am living in their life. My experiences are shaped by where they drive. My reactions are based on where they take me. I sometimes utter a preference, but in the end I don’t control it. Unless I get out of this car and become my own driver. But I don’t. I sit as a passenger in this life and look out the window.

Smokers' Rights

2010-06-22T16:13:00.000-07:00

I’m not a smoker but have smoked a few cigarettes in my time. I’m not a fan of them and specifically remember dating a smoker once – it is like kissing an ashtray. But smokers are feeling put upon with recent smoking bans in public places and being forced to go outside and smoke. This makes the bar or restaurant much more pleasant but we now have to run the smoker’s gauntlet when we enter, leave, or decide to hang out on the patio. I won’t go into the health problems they get that we end up paying for through our health insurance premiums.

But today is about the long-held right that smokers have had since time immemorial: the right to litter. Obviously because they are so oppressed they are due some just compensation, which is the right to litter. Throw your butts wherever you want! It doesn’t matter. It’s your right. While you might not drop an empty soda can or bag of chips on the ground casually as you walked down the street, you have no problem flinging your used cigarette butts onto the ground, into the bushes, or into the street. Why are you given the right to litter? Which article in the Constitution provides that right? Just checking.

I say we should ban filters on cigarettes. The rest of the cigarette would readily dissolve if left to its own devices in nature. The filter takes that much longer. Oh, what is that you say, the filter takes out some harmful elements of the cigarette? Too bad, you smokers obviously lost the right to that because you don’t know how to properly throw things out. Oh, without the filter your health problems may increase? Oh too bad, then maybe there will be fewer of you around. You can say, why am I picking on your vice, don’t I have vices? Yes I do, drinking. However, I don’t throw my bottles and cups and cans on the ground when I’m done. In fact in every situation that I can control it, I recycle my cans and bottles. So not only am I not littering, I’m taking the extra step of making sure my vice ends up in a situation that is not filling up a land fill.

In case you don’t get the message: Fuck you, throw your cigarette butts in the trash. You are not special and your breath stinks.

Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.

Proof God Exists

2010-06-16T03:41:00.000-07:00

They say that God works in mysterious ways. Well as Martian, I'm not inclined to believe in this God creature, but you Earthlings seem to have a thing for it. While it seems a bit silly, given what Glorab discovered about 15,000 years ago on Mars, there seems to be emerging proof of your God. Apparently he doesn't like your stupid homages to him. While the leader of this organization says it's not a sign from God, don't be fooled: your God exists and takes an active participation in your small human lives. Unfortunately, it's not the participation you believe he takes - burning down the statue is only one thing. Did you consider the BP spill? What were the chances of that, given the safety measures in place? Only God could cause that. You want peace and prosperity? Well God can inspire Muslim fundamentalists to engage in terrorism to kill people and then Christian fundamentalists to invade countries and torture people, all while Jewish fundamentalists oppress a whole country of people in one big prison camp. Thank God, you Earthlings, and his mysterious ways. Someday, maybe you'll understand Glorab.

Image from Mars of Jesus begging to be hit by lightning:

As the Bible says, "Ask and ye shall receive." One canny observer believes this may be Jesus in burning in Hell.

The Challenge

2010-06-06T08:07:00.000-07:00

For a while now there has been a semi-joke among my friends that I blog. I play coy like yes I do and tell them what I blog about or I'll say I don't blog what are you talking about. They then invariably say that I do blog and that they will find my blog. Well in the words of our former commander-in-chief, "Bring it on!" Unless they know some key words about this blog they will never find it. Indeed if they do, they will not know it's me. I don't put enough identifying information in here for search engines. Believe me, I’ve tried to search for this blog in the search engines. Basically you have to type in the name of the blog and then a few key words. Well, obviously if you already know the name of the blog, you're pretty much here anyway.

So my friends, if you read this, send me an e-mail (you know my address) and post a comment, then enjoy reading the one post before you get bored and realize there is no here here (sorry, Gertrude Stein).

John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave

2010-06-02T03:39:00.000-07:00

A Vacation From Ourselves

2010-05-31T07:10:00.000-07:00

I didn’t go anywhere for Memorial Day this year. In the past, I’ve left town to go to places like Denver or London because I can leverage three free days off into five with a couple of vacation days and suddenly I can do something interesting.

This year, however, it was not to be. For a host of reasons I didn’t plan early enough and a couple of other things came up that made it not quite possible. So with all this time off, I still needed to do something. And given that most of my good ideas come from Seinfeld (that’s a different post) I took the idea from one of their episodes to do a vacation from myself, inspired by this opening sequence to a Seinfeld episode.

I convinced my hipster, cool friends to go to a part of town that they would normally not go to because it has the air of yuppie, preppie, moneyed culture. I did not take them to a place like that, but the lower end bars that inhabit this part of town (which, of course, are not that low end). Part of the vacation was not just going out in a part of town we normally don’t go to (and they dislike) but also to be who we are not. We took on roles as out-of-towners seeing the sites a couple of days prior to “the convention.” If push came to shove, we would announce that we were in town “for a grocers convention.” I added, given my brilliant creativity, that it was the “national association of grocers and frozen food proprietors,” to give it even more authenticity. And since we do not inhabit that world, we thought of stereotypical conversations such people might have, such as loudly discussing various sales meetings over the years and exhibitions we attended, heavily implying various hi-jinx with booze and women.

We were fairly bad at staying in character, often just bursting out laughing. We even tried to take our knowledge of the local area and pretend we were completely ignorant, by asking directions to places and mispronouncing them horribly to see the reaction that the other person would give us when they heard our ignorance. I’ll say I had a fun time, but who knows what my friends thought. But I will say it was a bit amusing to get them out of their comfort zone.

But Who Will Open The Door?

2010-05-30T05:29:00.000-07:00

I had wanted to post about this when it was happening but never got around to it. Nevertheless, it’s still a bit ridiculous. The quotes by these people on how they will lose the necessary services performed by their doormen are hilarious. I’m comfortably middle class but these people are pampered. I’m crying for them! Yes the strike was averted, but that doesn’t change one iota of my commentary.

Doesn’t this guy look like an ass? Why would you give your name? So I can mock you?

“Harold Gerber, who runs a real estate business and has lived in his co-op on East 75th Street for more than two decades, said he was already worried about security, and grumbled at the prospect of hauling his own trash. ‘It will affect us tremendously,’ he said.”

Another awesome line from one of the pieces:

“New Yorkers who had to cope with [a 1991] strike said they hoped not to have to endure another. Some said they and their neighbors were willing to try to handle duties themselves, but they had little confidence in their abilities to keep things running smoothly.”

Tears are welling up in my eyes at this human tragedy averted.

Creepy

2010-05-29T07:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, something about this robot mule REALLY freaks me out. Maybe it's the way its legs move up and down so precisely rather than casually. If I saw this coming down the street at me, I would definitely be scared. Don't send any of these to Mars. You might just win.

Visit Mars!

2010-04-04T07:56:00.000-07:00

Ok, sometimes I've been pretty harsh to you humans. I know I always warn you that we might attack again and that you should leave our planet alone. We have decided to change our tack a little and welcome you as tourists. Come visit Mars! Especially my hometown of Tharsis Montes. To get your appetite going, I've included some photos. Call your travel agent today!

Travel Guide Tales

2010-04-03T10:37:00.000-07:00

I’ve traveled a decent amount, both in the U.S. and abroad. I am a planner and like to get a couple of guide books to see what my plans will entail, so I am familiar with how guide books and websites work. I tend to like Lonely Planet, but Frommer's or Rough Guide will work as well to get differing perspectives. Lonely Planet very often will discuss sites in one of two ways:

Tourist destination that everyone flocks to for well-known sights: “While X is known for A, B, and C, you would be remiss not to spend a little more time to get to know the real X, which is more F and G then it lets on or that just seeing A, B, and C would allow. Get to know X beyond the superstar sights and you will be enriched and just might learn to say “LMNOP!”

Destination that is small, quaint, out of the way, not popular or famous: “While X is not on the tourist circuit, is does have charms that require some time and digging. The A is a down and dirty place that allows you to get a real feel for X. The B surprises with its sophistication. And C will put X into a new perspective for you. So X requires some time but the effort is worth it and you are likely to want to return again – potentially to see the new friends you’ve made.”

This has now changed.

I am going to Dallas, TX for a wedding later this month. I’ve been to Dallas before with a girlfriend from there, so we did a few things and it was ok. I had no burning desire to go back, but am not opposed. I assume that Dallas has more to offer me and it’s been a while so I think I can find something fun to do. I will also admit that I am tempted to try to also go to Oklahoma for hiking and to Oklahoma City for whatever tourism I can find (the capitol, the OK City bombing memorial, etc.)

So I am doing my research on Dallas to see where I’ll be staying and maybe finding a few new sights to see. I go to the Lonely Planet website (the book was not available at the library - hell no, I typically don’t buy guide books, they go out of date by the time I get back to the location) and begin to read their description. I don’t get past the introduction. Here is what Lonely Planet has to say about Dallas, a fairly major, if not generally known for tourism, city:

“Big hair, big egos and big guns. Flashy TV-show millionaires and heroic/criminal football players are what outsiders see of Dallas. The reality is not unrelated. OK, while the hairstyles have been tamed, the ‘Big D’ is still highly image-conscious. That’s all right, the upscale ethos in this town of 1.2 million makes for a great dining scene – you can tell which place is hot by the caliber of cars the valet leaves out front. Then there’s all that shopping. Oh, and some folks come for the history of JFK’s assassination (and memories of JR Ewing being shot). Visit for a couple days, but don’t try to scratch the surface too deep – you’ll come up empty.”

OUCH!

While the description started off the way I would expect (list some popular stereotypes about a place that define it in the national consciousness) and edges off into telling me there is good in the stereotypes, it then should tell me that there is more to Dallas than the stereotypes and I will find it in other, smaller places in the city or it’s soul is found somewhere else in the city. No, they say “Dallas is glitzy, that can be ok for a bit, but otherwise it is a shallow and soulless city.” I guess they must be in some sort of fight with the Dallas Tourism Board. That is not how Lonely Planet does things. I guess if Lonely Planet can’t find a redeeming value in you as a destination, you have some problems.

OMG

2010-03-27T07:20:00.000-07:00

I have goals in life. I want to be creative. This blog is one attempt at that, but I realize it is a miserable failure. More importantly, I have just seen my failure put into stark relief. I was roamin' the interwebs and I came across this: a rapping leprechaun. I believe it is from some movie. I am very jealous. If I can’t be creative and successful in making something good, I want to do a 180 and be creative and make something so bad it is good. This is atrocious, in a good way – short, stupid, outrageous, memorable, and painful to watch. I can only hope some day to achieve this level. My hat is off, and I’m green with envy.

The Land of Milk and Honey, or something like that

2010-03-22T20:19:00.000-07:00

I just spent four days in My Hometown hanging out with my parents. The trip consisted of eating at chain restaurants (Cracker Barrel, Bob Evans, and IHOP), listening to Rush Limbaugh and watching Faux...I mean Fox "News"...I mean Fox News screech anti-Obama propaganda, and going to a casino to gamble. Yes, I love my parents. My mother is not politically oriented and my father is. He is an old school Democrat who, apparently, believes the last great Democratic president was Kennedy. Even I find that a suspect proposition. Johnson was supremely flawed but probably did much more and was more influential. That debate is for later. Unfortunately my father listens to argumentative debate instead of informed debate. I wish he would read the Weekly Standard and National Review. That's a debate I can have. Instead he rattles off the propaganda he hears on talk radio or on Fox News. The best part is hearing him complain about the health care plan, but yet he lives with government-run health care now. He defends Social Security and Medicare as "well run programs." A) That's a debatable proposition and B) how does he know the health care program also won't be well run? Because it's new? Because it's not the established thing? Oy. I could go on, but I won't. I will point out that all those old people at the casino are taking the Social Security money that we are paying them and dumping it into a casino. Isn't there a better use for their money? Couldn't they at least buy subscriptions to the National Review and The Weekly Standard and attempt to find intellectual underpinnings for their grumpy Republicanism? Maybe buy themselves some copies of Hayek to burnish their arguments. Maybe use their brains.

Parents Do The Darnedest Things

2010-03-18T03:44:00.000-07:00

My parents are fairly old, in their 70s. My father has embraced the computer and now that he has retired, spends a decent amount of time on his computer. I mention this to say he is not computer illiterate, but he's not the swiftest at it. I've gone home to visit and had to explain some fairly basic items to him about cataloging his photos or sending attachments via e-mail.

So recently I was a bit surprised when I received an e-mail from my father. He said that I might be interested in seeing an article from the local newspaper, which is also on-line for free. Instead of sending me the link to the article, he took the newspaper (yes they still have the local newspaper delivered to them!) and took three photos of the article and send them to me. He actually went out of his ways to photograph the beginning of the story on page one of the section, then to two jump pages. So instead of a simple e-mail with a small link, he sent one with three attachments totaling 10 MB! It was too funny, but I guess not unexpected. Ahhh, parents do the darnedest things!

A Book

2010-03-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

When is a book a book? Is it only those items big enough to have a spine upon which the title can be written? When is it a pamphlet or an article or an essay? Is a diary a book? Is this blog a book? Is this entry getting stale?