Global Warming Mug When you pour in a hot beverage,
the mug heats up and the oceans begin to rise...
Land mass disappears before your very eyes!
To responsibly recycle Glenn Reynolds on the issue: "I'll believe global warming is a crisis when the people who tell me it's a crisis start behaving like it is a crisis." Alas for poor politicians who are working tirelessly to suck billions and trillions out of the world's piggy bank in the coming decades, Iowans care, well, less than nothing.
Global warming ranked at the bottom in the Post's poll of Democratic voters in Iowa who were asked, "What is the single most important issue in your choice for the Democratic candidate for president?"
Continued...
Sometimes the great ideas are so obvious, you can't see them. Martin @ MVRWC has an Interesting thought
"At what point will a Clinton candidacy prompt the following question of Laura Bush 'Do you feel qualified to run for President, after eight years as First Lady?'"He answers his own question with:
What would be the reaction if she said "being First Lady doesn't qualify you to be President"?Which, to my mind, would be exactly the wrong answer.
Instead, Laura Bush should answer, "My current experience, to judge from those supporting Mrs. Clinton, is exactly the experience one needs. As a result I am announcing today that I am a candidate for President of the United States."
Ronald Reagan-A Time for Choosing, October 27, 1964
.... a personal ad in the London Review of Books:
"The man with a genius For picking losers Is ready for the next in line."
Sort of writes itself, doesn't it?
"I can't live without you,
So I'm leaving today."
You're in recovery from a Turkey coma and don't really feel like relaxing with a small shooting spree down at the mall. Still, you want to do your duty as an omniconsuming American, and give your vote of consumer confidence to the economy by buying a lot of useless shit between now and 9 PM on December 24th.
Well, American Digest is here for you. In a brave new partnership with Harriet Carter (That capitalist Carter sister Jimmy never talks about.) we've made a special selection of "must-have" items for everyone on your Christmas Hanukkah Kwanzaa Wiccan shopping list.
Enter the promo code: "Gerard" for an extra 30% off and free shipping. Now get clicking for a black Christmas!
CHRISTMAS WAR ARMORED VEHICLE
Now you don't have to take the pagan moonbats' efforts to take Christ out of Christmas lying down. This full-metal Rudolph kit will have your ride rough and ready in no time. The plush "antlers" look harmless but they're attached to an Area-51 Bush Ray Generator which detects any Moonbat brains within a radius of 5 miles. Upon detection, small titanium homing chips swarm out of your grill and implant themselves in the back of the moonbat's neck. Once these chips are initiated the moonbat is brought firmly under the control of the Dick Cheney Strategic Control center in Iron Mountain. A switch is thrown and the robo-moonbat begins to repeat "Christ is my personal savior," and registers as a Republican saying, "Anyone but the monster queen."
The 7" diameter "nose" will sniff out any ACLU office in a 50 mile radius and drive the entire vehicle into the building at a high speed detonating the 300 pounds of plastique in the trunk. Hidden speakers play "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" at a high volume during the last half-mile of the approach. Attaches in seconds without tools; won't mar surfaces.
Continued...
10.
Tim Oren's Due Diligence notes in The Newspaper Biz: From 'Controlled Flight into Terrain' to 'Flat Spin'
Having grown up in a General Motors family during the 60's and early 70's, this sounds familiar. Arrogance on the part of both management and labor, a belief the customers have no alternative but to keep paying increasing costs and accept the (low) quality on offer, followed by the arrival of competition to feast on the disgruntled customer base.
Silicon Alley Insider piles on with Newspaper Ads Tank Again, Industry Shrinking Fast
"Newspapers did a brilliant job of ramping their sales smoothly throughout the 1990s by boosting ad rates at will. Those remarkably consistent and predictable sales gains were derailed by the arrival of Internet and other disruptive, new technologies that give readers and advertisers unprecedented media alternatives. Seemingly dumbfounded by the arrival of serious competition for their audiences and advertising revenues, newspapers have been struggling for more than a decade, with meager success, to regain their relevance and economic vitality."Say goodnight Gracie.
Ah, what would we do without science to keep us on the moral path? 
"When to care for, abandon, or eat your offspring: the evolution of parental care and filial cannibalism,"
....highlights the potential importance of a range of factors in the evolution of filial cannibalism using a mathematical model of analysis. It is potentially affected by the ability to selectively consume lower quality offspring, preferences associated with mate choice, density-mediated survival, and population dynamics. Professor Michael Bonsall, a Royal Society Research Fellow and University Lecturer in Mathematical Biology at Oxford University, said: 'This sort of behaviour - cannibalising your offspring - is widespread amongst different animal groups. We show that there is not a single benefit to eating your offspring, and it depends on several factors and explanations.'Unless, of course, you are stranded with a kindergarten class on a desert island in Colorado after global warming kicks in.
==
Plus bonus science fact: Good news for worms ".... a drug used to treat [human] depression can extend the lifespan of adult roundworms."
In a WaPo triple thumb-sucker today ("quagmire" returns in the first graph), you've got Clintonista John Podesta and a couple of his rollicking sidekicks taking Bush to task for succeeding at the surge. Success in a strategy that has reduced violence and brought a semblance of peace back to large sections of Iraq is.... well.... just not good enough.
Continued...At last! At long, long last! Okay, that's it. Western Civilization is a wrap. Over to you, Allah.
"Your photo has just been taken and we will use this photograph to prosecute you. Leave now!"
Where on Earth are they developing virtual emergencies that will improve how first responders deal with real ones?
Where on Earth are they creating underwater systems that can detect explosives on ships entering U.S. harbors
Where on Earth have they developed Fiber optic biosensors capable of rapidly detecting contaminated food and water?
Where on Earth are they developing tiny drones that can zip around obstacles in dense urban environments?
All questions asked (and answered) at the Florida boosting web site with the tag line: "Florida. Innovation Hub of the Americas."
If you are about to struggle with the air transport system, just contemplate this new private plane for Congress. "The C-40C, jam-packed with 40 seats by luxury-jet specialists at Greenpoint Technologies, is the third and last of a batch ordered in 2005." Your air travel taxes at work. Sucker.
Victor Davis Hanson has been given the Humanities Medal by President Bush. Earned and much deserved.
Radio too predictable for you? Check out Talking Head David Byrne's Streaming playlist. Unusual Contemporary Pop Songs is this month's theme.
The Kindle is kindling. Lileks on Amazon's new ebook:"... it looks like a 1996 web page. Grey and black. Make it color, give me free versions of books I already bought from Amazon, and we'll talk. And even then I'll probably say no. If I'm going to buy something to replace books, it has to be Books Plus."
Keeping score? Bush 32, Congress 20
Embryonic stem cells? That's so 2006!
A Nation of Cowards: "By any rational measure, nearly all gun control proposals are hokum." [via The Green Report]
Telstar Logistics: How to Turn NASA Space Shuttles into Modern Artwork
Two Great Stores: 1) "At Nordstrom's we just like the idea of celebrating one holiday at a time." Kudos to Nordstrom! via of Accordion Guy 2) Sears' standard policy: "In September 2004, the company extended its military pay differential (fills the gap between military pay and employer pay) and benefits continuation to 60 months for eligible employees called to duty in the Reserves or National Guard."
In "Google vs. Apple" Google loses: "The iPhone has that carnivorous killer edge. It really is insanely great. Unless my initial impressions are wrong, Android isn't. Unqualified Reservations: Five problems with Google Android
"Trusted" "Independent" "Objective" Yeah, right. Next.
In what is now a common collection of bitching and moaning wafting out of newspaper editorial rooms, The Seattle Times published a cri de coeur Sunday in The Handoff: Newspapers in the Digital Age that quotes this sad bastard child of Prince Don De Lusion:
"While the newspaper is expendable, the tradition it represents and the information it supplies are not. The evolution from Gutenberg to Gates may be irreversible, but as new media replace the old ones there's no official passing of the torch of responsibility, no automatic transfer of the sacred trust the First Amendment placed upon the free press and its proprietors." -- Hal Crowther, columnist, The Independent Weekly (North Carolina)The always unctuous James Vesley of the ST uses this to end his "editorial" because, I guess, he couldn't come up with a zinger for the standard "O woe is us at the newspapers because the Internet ate our lunch" blatherfest. It's the sort of thumb-sucker you see all the time in newspapers from clapped-out hacks who are goin' down slow. They all seem to think that because "they" care about protecting, in the words of Governor William J. Le Petomane, their "phony baloney jobs" that we care if they are employed as a "journalists" or as an overfed hamsters in an Eastern Washington windfarm.
Vesley's chief villain in all this is craigslist:
"I see Craigslist as a negative-editorial product. Why? Because it claims the profits normally shifted to the newsroom. Without the obligations of journalism, e-commerce becomes the anti-newspaper."
Well, God bless Craig Newmark's little cotton socks say I. Long ago, when I and Newmark were both members of the WELL, Newmark took a bare bones budget, an idea, a crappy but now classic interface, and a couple of insights into the uses of the net and the elements of trust in online relationship and built them out into something that performs real and vital services for millions of people every day. And for the most part for free. It is now hard to think of a world of transactions of all sorts between individuals that would operate smoothly without craigslist.
The Johnson CO2 Generator automatically provides the carbon dioxide to meet maximum growing potentials - and operates for only pennies a day. The Johnson Generator can easily be installed in any greenhouse. No expensive ductwork is necessary and CO2 is diffused evenly without supplemental fans.Plants must absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) in combination with water, soil nutrients and sunlight to produce the sugars vital for growth. A shortage of any of these requirements will retard the growing process. Normally there are approximately 300 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere; when this level is increased to over 1 ,000 ppm, results are higher production and better plant quality. The Johnson Generator provides up to 1,500 ppm per unit in an average 24' x 200' greenhouse or an equivalent 50,000 cu. ft. volume based on one air change per hour.
Yes, 12 of these placed around my front yard with a large sign of features and benefits (for educational purposes) would certainly be just the thing for inducing coronary arrest among my neighbors here on Queen Anne in Seattle.
[Via Tim Blair]
The good Dr Sanity @ Dr. Sanity: CARNIVAL OF THE INSANITIES - Turkey Day Edition confesses to being "easily amused" at this:
Well, so say we all. All the "message" of the current crop of Donk candidates with three times the rythum and ten times the melody. And without all the annoying planted questions from CNN's version of "ordinary people, undecided voters."
This little kidploitation video has been making the rounds, claiming to be "just a goof."
It ain't no goof. It's a bit of sleazy politics pretending to be "a joke, just a joke."
Now I'm all for down in the ditches dirty political humor between consenting adults. This isn't it. This is getting a bunch of kids to repeat after their parents or their handlers. For many good and solid reasons I am a liberal no more and haven't been for nearly a decade. This little item of political degradation reminds me why I'm not a card-carrying conservative either.
Don't get me wrong. I think Hillary is just a brand extension of the Classic Clinton Con-Job. That doesn't mean I'm going to start enlisting kids to tell grown-ups about it. That's why I'm give the makers of this bit of merde the "Bad Americans" award of the week.
I follow more than 360 different blogs and websites on a daily basis (Curse you, Google Reader!). As a result I -- at the least -- scan many prominent writers and find much to admire as well as more that is predictably pedestrian. It would be the same if I was flipping through 360+ daily magazines.
Every so often, one writer that I follow finds "the flow," gets "on a roll," and simply dazzles you. These writers go from being merely interesting to something more. At the moment, I'm noting a stunning series of posts by Robert Godwin at One Cosmos.
For the past week, Godwin has been reading from, arguing with, and augmenting a book. In this case it is God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World by Walter Russell Mead. Mead's a protean thinker and engaging writer. I've previously enjoyed and been challenged by his book, Power, Terror, Peace, and War: America's Grand Strategy in a World at Risk.
Godwin's meditations and riffs on Mead certainly made me hit the one-click "buy" button at Amazon. That's pretty much a foregone conclusion. The interest and fascination in his series of posts, however, does not arise from a straight review of Mead's book, but from Godwin's palpable interaction with Mead's mind that create his own idiosyncratic riffs of what Godwin is, is not, and might have been saying.
The result of the series is summed up best by a phenomenon that I've noted before that takes place only on the web: BRAIN JAZZ .
Here's a few cuts from Godwin's long serenade in several parts. You might want to spend the time and brain-listen to the whole thing.
I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night
There are three primary dreams in competition for who will Dream history 1) American classical liberalism (i.e., conservatism), 2) European statist secular leftism (including its American variety), and 3) Islamism. The world is not big enough for all of these dreams, and yet, only one of these dreams is big enough for the world.
Continued...
Golden Slumbers Kiss Your Eyes
GOLDEN slumbers kiss your eyes,
Smiles awake you when you rise.
Sleep pretty wantons, do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby;
Rock them, rock them, lullaby.
Care is heavy, therefore sleep you;
You are care, and care must keep you.
Sleep pretty wantons, do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby;
Rock them, rock them, lullaby.
HT: Patrick Krup @ Anecdotal Evidence: `In Poetry the Immediate Pleasure is Physical'
- I show not the picture. I but run the headline link -- Giant Inflatable Vagina Dentata, Tentacles Writhing -- and move along. [Update: Not enough for commenter Ghagdad who notes, "It's great to live in a country where a giant vagina dentata with tentacles writhing can run for president."]
- Local bars, not liquor stores, associated with heavy drinking Lack of barstools in parking lot probably has something to do with it.
- University of Toronto finds humans and chimps differ at level of gene splicing ... as well as the ability to ride small tricycles in their later years.
- "If you ever had a set of Micronauts – toy robots with removable body parts – you probably had fun swapping their heads..." Or you could try it with a set of Politibots during the forthcoming Presidential debates.
- Freakonomics strains at a gnat and squeezes off early with today's dumbest blog question: How is Abstinence-Only Sex Education Like South Africas Driving Exam? Tune in tomorrow for, "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"
- Revolting blogger of the day confesses: When I was in college if I didn't like the person sitting in the desk in front of me I'd wear my nasty shoes and slide my feet under their seat.
- Foreplay of the day @ The Female Condom: "Open the package carefully. Choose a position that is comfortable for insertion - squat, raise one leg, sit or lie down. Make sure the condom is lubricated enough."
- Woman least likely to use above foreplay method? The new Bond girl. Mexican telenovela star Mayrin Villanueva has apparently landed the role of the Bond girl in the upcoming Bond 22....
- Those who wish to research this item more deeply can start HERE. You can thank me when you get back.
- Back? Good. Now you can review how Shrinkwrapped detects A disturbance in the force: "It appears that a similar intolerance of dissent is brewing on the Conservative side of the Blogosphere and this is troubling." Bad bloggers! No doughnuts.
- Ninme wants new airfare standards: "Hell they should charge people by the ounce. Like the mail does. I'd show up at the airport with my swimsuit." So sez Ms. Slimjim.
- Publishers vie to lose millions. "A bidding war has erupted for the rights to Sen. Ted Kennedy's (D-Mass.) autobiography, which could end up well into the mid-seven figure range." Titles with the word "Bridge" in them now being accepted.
- By their rhetoric ye shall know them: neoneocon looks at the Democrats' compulsions for revenge.
- Elsewhere the soppy Jane Hamsher sez :Writers' Strike Why You Should Care. Sorry, Jane, but as with so many other things you care passionately, deeply, and sincerely about, we just DGAS.
David Wong hits one out of Cyberspace Park with The Ultimate War Simulation Game @ Cracked.com
6. Speaking of innocents, I want a war sim where native townsfolk stand shoulder-to-shoulder on every inch of the map and not a single bomb can be dropped without blowing 200 of them into chunks. Forget about the abandoned building wallpaper in games like the Red Alert series. I want to have to choose between sending marines door-to-door to be killed in the streets or leveling the block from afar, Nuns and all. I want to have to choose between 40 dead troops or 400 dead children, and be damned to hell by chubby pundits from the safety of their studios regardless of which way I go.Play the whole thing.
"No problem. I've done this thousands of times...."
Every time I think that mankind really is "the crown of creation," something like this comes along to confirm we're just God's experiment with "the smart monkey" to see if He can better monologue material for "The Eternity Show:"
A man has been severely injured after attempting to loosen a stiff wheel-nut on his car by blasting it with a shotgun. The 66-year-old American shot the wheel from arm's length with a 12-gauge shotgun and was peppered with ricocheting buckshot and debris. According to a sheriff's office report, he was taken to Tacoma General Hospital with severe but not life threatening injuries. His legs, feet and abdomen were worst affected, but some injuries went as high as his chin.How I would have loved to have been listening in on that thought process:The man had been repairing a Lincoln Continental for about two weeks at his home near Southworth in Washington state, about ten miles from Seattle. He had successfully removed all but one wheel-nut on the right rear wheel and resorted to firepower out of sheer frustration on Saturday afternoon. -- Man hurt after blasting wheel with shotgun
"One damn nut to go.... just one. Just fit this lug wrench over the nut, and t...w....i....s...t, and....."
SPROING!
"ARRRRGH! SHIT! Barked the knuckle.... no problem.... just get this big Visegrip and lock it down.... there.... now just whack the sucker with this small sledge hammer and....."
WHAA-TUNK!
"SAAAYWHAT! YOU MOTHER.....! OH, MY SHIN! MY SHIN!....."
Deep measured breathing and slowly rising wrothful rumblings ensue as the afflicted limps and hobbles about the shop.
"That's it. THAT'S IT! You sombitch nut. You're COMING OFF BABY! OFF! Time for the BIG GUNS!.... Guns? Yes, that's it. I'll just BLOW THIS MOTHER OFF!
"Get that shotgun out of the cabinet. That's it. Load both chambers. Saves time. Won't be effing around this time. Got to get in close. Get that barrel right on the steel nut which is on the steel wheel which is on the steel axle which is on the steel car.... and.... stand at an angle so that there won't be any chance of ricochet and just s..q..e..e..z..e off a round and...."
KABLAMM!
And then a silence over which we hear a slowly rising siren and the a small voiceover saying, "I wonder if they've got Monster Garage on the hospital's cable system...."
Back in Seattle after a month's idyll in the Blue Ridge Mountains, I am reminded why -- although there's no place like home -- there's also no place like home.
Blue Ridge Mountains, North Carolina view last Monday.
Seattle, Washington view this Monday.
A Seattle friend emails:
"I've been out in the rain. It was awful. I think I'd rather get wet while walking than get wet while bearing the futility of waiting for buses."
Shuddering at such pain, I recall this effort of mine to make Robert Frost rotate in his grave:
Acquainted with the Blight
I have been one acquainted with the blight.
I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain,
(And out in rain -- and back in rain,
And out in rain -- and back in rain,
And out in rain -- and .... you get the picture.)
I have been skinsoaked under every city light.
I have looked down every moss-choked city lane.
I have passed drowned dolphins on my lawn
And splashed them with galoshes unwilling to explain.
I have stood up to my kiester in the ceaseless plop of drops
When over head an scheduled cloud's deluge
Sloshed the houses with a mound of mist,
But not to call me back but slather me with slops;
And further still at an unearthly height
One more damned raincloud against the sky
Proclaimed Seattle was neither dry nor Right.
I have been one acquainted with the blight.
When one of these ugly bugs squooshes by
a friend of mine says, "Why don't they just get a bumperstrip that says, "I am a good person," and save money?"
I'll go her one better in the crushing of sanctimonious BS in our time with my new, suitable for sticking, bumperstrip:
Click the link below for your own FREE bumperstrip. Print up a sheaf and stick them on your Dodge Ram Hemi TRUCK or Hummer SUV or what have you. Stick the extras on every Prius in your proximity.
YES! GIVE ME MY FREE PRIUS PRICKING BUMPERSTIP! [0.5 MEGABYTE PDF]
... live together in perfect harmony.
"Michael Jackson granted Ebony Magazine exclusive access for the first U.S. interview he's done in years. The response has been overwhelming!" -- Ebony
Jackson, a twice-divorced father of three, says he has not changed much since releasing his blockbuster album Thriller nearly 25 years ago."That Michael is probably the same Michael here," he says in the magazine's December issue, out on Monday. "I just wanted to get certain things accomplished first. But I always had this tug in the back of my head, the things I wanted to do, to raise children, have children. I'm enjoying it very much." -- Jackson ignores 'freak' reputation
Okay, that's it. Race is officially over in the United States. Nothing to see here. Move along...
On Living with the Loss of a Son in Wartime. Written and first published on Memorial Day, 2003
MY NAME, "GERARD VAN DER LEUN," IS AN UNUSUAL ONE. So unusual, I've never met anyone else with the same name. I do know of one other man with the name, but we've never met. I've seen his name in an unusual place. This is the story of how that happened.
Continued...
It's the oldest shop in Black Mountain, North Carolina. None of the other shop keepers can remember a time when it wasn't here. Nobody in town can remember a time when Pellom himself wasn't here. The Time Shop and Pellom may well have been here before the town was here; before even the Cherokee were here. Nobody can say.
These days Pellom isn't the Pellom he once was. If you want him to come and deal with your time in your space you have to pick him up and bring him back at the appointed time. If your time is more flexible you can bring it in to him if it breaks. He might well have that part of time you need in his shop. He's got all sorts of spare time parts from times past if precious little from time present and even less from time future. Still sometimes he's got time.
Most people look into the cluttered and dust-layered window of the Time Shop and walk on by. The stores full of crafts made the old-time way lure them on. After all, most of those who walk up and down this street in Black Mountain are retired and have, they think, all the time in the world.
Pellom doesn't mind. He knows what time it is. He also knows what can happen to time. How it can come unsprung. How it can run slow and still run fast. How time runs down. How time goes by. How time runs out. That's why he's careful, when he can, to save time.
You can, if he decides he likes you, buy some time at the Time Shop. All you have to do is to step through the seldom used door of the Time Shop and say "Good afternoon, Mr. Pellom." Then you need to look around the shop carefully and slowly. You need, most of all, to take your time.
In time, if the time is right, Pellom will glance up at you from behind his bench, his green eyeshade shadowing his eyes, and say, "What can I get you?"
Not "What are you looking for?," or "How can I help you?," but "What can I get you?"
You'd be well advised to take him at his word and say, "I'd like to buy some more time."
Then, if your request is timely, Pellom will nod and fetch that small cloud-blue glass-stoppered bottle from the shelf behind him and bring it over to the counter and put it down in front of you with a sharp, satisfying clack on the glass of the counter. Looking into it all you will see is, towards the center, the faintest mist made from the color out of space and inside that, towards the core of the mist, a shovel of stars.
"Very good, sir," Pellom will say. "How much time would you like?"
I'd advise you to buy as much time as you can afford, as often as you can afford it, time after time.
Just because Pellom has some extra time today doesn't mean he won't be out of time tomorrow. Most of the time, time is always in short supply. Tonight, while you sleep, your government will be awake printing more money. Nobody is printing more time. Which is why you should be careful how you spend time in the first place. Just ask Pellom down at the Time Shop.
For the past month, I've taken the lease at The Glass Mountain Treehouse. An amazing time of nearly perfect weather and an autumn that would defeat Seurat and challenge Monet.
The house on arrival.
The house now.
Let one tree stand for untold billions in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
I know I am probably the only one who gets an inner thrill when I read headlines like: Hundreds of lawyers arrested
Yes, yes, I know there are greater issues afoot here, and even more trouble and tragedy ahead for Pakistan. Still, I just can't help divorcing that headline from it's content and reading for the sheer, abstract pleasure.
That's just the kind of shallow, uncaring person I am. I am certain I'm the only one.
- July 2008
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"With grim crocodile tears, grim the MSM grimly reported that the grim United states grimly passed the grim milestone of grimness in the grim war in grim [Afghanistan] as grim American grim casualties of grimiosity grimly reached the grim number of [500].
"When grimly asked why the grim MSM grimly gives grim front (grim) page grim-prominence to such an out-of-grim-context number while grimily ignoring non-grim grim-type other grim news about grim-positive grim developments since the grim surge grimly started working with grimness or, indeed, why the grim MSM never reports on grim grim milestones of any other grim conflicts or grim armed grim forces (especially those of the grim enemy), the grim MSM just looked grim." - Ephemeral Isle: Grim Reporting
"I'm not home a lot, so Michelle is usually willing to give it up." - Barack Obama in Entertainment Weekly
Michelle Obama ... on their upcoming vacation: "We're going to Hawaii to visit Barack's grandma" -Playbook 24/7 - Politico.com
"When Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats spent a week holding the people's chamber under house arrest, they made plain a political vulnerability beyond drilling. To achieve greenhouse gas goals in the out-years, they are willing to risk a slowdown now in the American economy. How else can you interpret what happened this week? These Democrats aren't environmentalists. They're enviromaniacs." -Wonder Land - WSJ.com
Academy award winning actor George Clooney is set to host a fundraiser for Barack Obama in Switzerland next month. - CNN
Giving you the skinny on race:
"White people spend a significant portion of their time preparing for the moment when they will be offended. They read magazines, books, and watch documentaries all in hopes that one day they will encounter a person who will say something offensive. When this happens, they can leap into action with quotes, statistics, and historical examples. Once they have finished lecturing another white person about how it's wrong to use the term "black" instead of "African-American," they can sit back and relax in the knowledge that they have made a difference." - Being Offended - Stuff White People Like #101
We Believe in Offshore Drilling and Fares from $9* Each Way
"The Chronicle's announcement pushed the number of layoffs and buyouts this year above 7,000. (There are more, of course, because some papers have not said how many people have been laid off or have accepted buyouts.) Adding in the cuts at the Chronicle and the Modesto Bee, about 17 percent of all layoffs/buyouts this year have been in California."File under "Who says there's no good news?"
"The shamans of contemporary linguistic taboos have adopted nigger, faggot, cunt, and the other forbidden words as passwords, emblems of group membership -- and membership, as American Express has been at pains to remind us, has its privileges. No one outside the shamans' circle is permitted to speak the password; it's an arrogation of a jealously guarded status. He who dares must be cut down, ground into the dust, and forbidden ever to speak at all, to any effect, in any context. For as in all systems of nymic magic, the word is deemed congruent with the thing: the taboo words are at the root of the shamans' power. Failure to enforce the taboo would risk the loss of the group's privileges and immunities, laboriously amassed over the decades of exploitation of others' guilt." -Francis W. Porretto - Eternity Road
The two women married in Canada, obtained identical tattoos and picked out adjoining burial plots with the expectation that they would be together till death and beyond. Then one of them fell for someone else, and without getting a divorce, entered into a Vermont civil union in Stowe with the new woman. Now the woman who says she was left behind -- Laureen Wells-Weiss -- is alleging that her estranged spouse committed bigamy.
"On the official website of the United Church of Christ, where there's something called UCC FIRSTS: A Journey through Time -- a list of the historic achievements of the various Congregationalist and German Reformed churches that joined to form the denomination in 1957. The items run from John Winthrop's 1630 prayer that the Massachusetts Bay Colony "be as a city upon a hill" to the 1995 publication of "the only hymnal released by a Christian church that honors in equal measure both male and female images of God." - The Death of Protestant America: A Political Theory of the Protestant Mainline by Joseph Bottum
HOUSTON -- Gasoline prices rose to a record-high four expletives per gallon Monday, a rate of fuel-price-related cursing not seen since the 1979 energy crisis sparked a nationwide obscenity boom.
"My point is that any discussion of Obama's "skinniness" and its impact on the typical American voter can't avoid being interpreted as a coded discussion of race." - When "skinny" means "black." - By Timothy Noah - Slate Magazine
"If Senator Obama is as exercised about "outrageous" profits as he says he is, he might also have to turn on a few liberal darlings. Oh, say, Berkshire Hathaway. Warren Buffett's outfit pulled in $11 billion last year, up 29% from 2006. Its profit margin -- if that's the relevant figure -- was 11.47%, which beats out the American oil majors. Or consider Google, which earned a mere $4.2 billion but at a whopping 25.3% margin. Google earns far more from each of its sales dollars than does Exxon, but why doesn't Mr. Obama consider its advertising-search windfall worthy of special taxation? - What Is a 'Windfall' Profit? - WSJ.com
"It's clear that in Marin and its environs, Republicanism has become thoughtcrime. This is serious stuff. This is -- if I may use a phrase that has become tainted with controversy -- Un-American. And the only way I can think of to combat it is for individuals to speak out and come out. They may find, as I did, that there's some unpleasantness but that the vast majority of friends and family stick by them, and the ones that don't aren't the finest of the lot. - neo-neocon - A plea to the closet Republicans of Marin: come out, come out, wherever you are
1. The bank account is about to be overdrawn. We can't deposit our way out of this problem.
2. Your bedroom is a mess. You can't tidy up your way out of this problem.
3. I'm hungry. I can't eat my way out of this problem.
4. We're out of food. We can't go grocery shopping our way out of this problem.
5. We are disgusting, fat tubs of goo. We can't exercise our way out of this problem. - Etcetera and so forth @ House of Eratosthenes
"When we are incapable of finding "one good thing" to say about Bush or Pelosi or even someone in our personal lives, we've surrendered reason to repellent hate; the hate owns us. At that point, we are no better than the person we abhor; we may be worse."- Eizabeth Scalia Let's Debate, Not Dehumanize
"When such an overarching absolute standard is rejected -- as it has been by aggressive secularism, atheistic, reductionist, and materialistic to the core -- we can only enforce a form of unity through coercion and power. Inner moral dictates must be subjugated to coerced conformity. It is "acceptable" to hold "values" which are at odds with the secular societal standard -- as long as these "values" are never acted upon in speech or behavior. We may believe abortion to be morally abhorrent -- but must never act to restrain it; we may hold homosexuality to be morally wrong and believe gay marriage to be a threat to a core foundational institution of society -- but to verbalize thus is "hate speech", and "intolerance", and "ignorance." Our unity is the unity of the gag, a multicultural muzzle which celebrates the superficial, elevates the insignificant, tolerates the intolerable -- and punishes the moral. Our unity is the unity of relativism, a superficial solidarity where everything is acceptable but absolutes, where anything is tolerated but truth. Such unity strives for the lowest common denominator, maintaining its forced cohesion by the will to power, destroying in its enslaving solidarity the very soul of freedom and the heart of true human harmony." - The Utopia of Relativism | The Doctor Is In
More to this than meets the eye. Much more. Zombietime took a little stroll through a San Francisco Street Fair and reports back with many pictures from Up Your Alley 2008. So, if you wish to see what passes for acceptable pubic display in San Francisco these days, click the link. Warning. Not work safe. Not child safe. Not safe at all. It is far beyond anything you can imagine. Pretty damning, actually, on all levels: Up Your Alley 2008
"You might not think that dealing with the ongoing plague of disintegrating parachutists might not be the most important problem of our modern age, but it is one that will grow in size and intensity as the baby boom generation ages. This generational cohort, stuck as it is in a perpetual adolescence, will refuse to grow gracefully as previous generations did and will spend an inordinate amount of time doing things any normal person would think beyond the physical capacity of someone of that advanced age. But the baby boom, for whom life means never really having to grow up, will try to deny the biological effects of time passing and as a result of this denial the skies over this our Great Republic will soon fill with dentures, limbs, pacemakers, walkers, bifocals, AARP membership cards, and the occasional veteran of the Summer of Love raining down upon an unsuspecting populace like so much unwanted space debris. Things will definitely get uglier hereabouts before they get any better, folks." -The Passing Parade: Cheap Shots from a Drive By Mind
"Obama should know that for all his own talents, it is rare to have someone with his meager law record selected as Harvard Review Editor, or hired at the University of Chicago Law School, or after a mere two years in the Senate, a presidential candidate. The point is not that his race explains his success, but in America alone it either was irrelevant to it, or, more likely, a great force multiplier. - Works and Days
Calif. Prison Giving Inmates Free Condoms A union representing prison guard supervisors is opposed to the distribution of condoms. The union said that condoms can be used as places to hide drugs or weapons. "They can put stuff in them and use them to throw at staff or other inmates," said Chris Gold of the Prison Supervisor's Union." Ah, isn't that sort of the idea?
Jobless rate rises to 4-year high of 5.7 percentStill somewhat behind the 75 year unemployment high of 24.9 percent set in 1933. But where there's Obama there's hope.
"Here comes the orator! With his flood of words, and his drop of reason." -- Benjamin Franklin 1735
"When the young leader spoke eloquently and passionately and denounced the old system, the press fell in love with him. They never questioned who his friends were or what he really believed in. When he said he would help the farmers and the poor and bring free medical care and education to all, everyone followed. When he said he would bring justice and equality to all, everyone said "Praise the Lord." And when the young leader said, "I will be for change and I'll bring you change," everyone yelled, "Viva Fidel!" - Letters To The Editor - Letters to the Editor - inRich.com
A man who was found with his head severed by a chainsaw was fighting to stay in a block of 70 flats in Hampshire cleared for redevelopment. David Phyall, 50, was the last tenant at the Atlantic Housing Ltd housing association flats in Eastleigh. His body was found by police on 5 July, who said his death was not suspicious.
"You have your sub-bullshit, your opti-bullshit and your supra-bullshit. We get snookered by this blend time and time again, because we have a tendency to say: I know the sub-bullshit is true; I do not agree with the supra-bullshit, but compared to that the opti-bullshit is believable. And so we believe the opti-bullshit, the bullshit calibrated to the optimum degree of self-reproduction. We will repeat the opti-bullshit to people we know. And if anyone dares challenge it, we will treat the challenge as a challenge to the sub-bullshit. Anytime the sub-bullshit is demonstrated to be true, which it will be, we will take that as further proof of the opti-bullshit, and become more convinced of the validity of the opti-bullshit ... which we haven't even tested, or observed anyone else testing." - House of Eratosthenes
"As much as legislators and founders of states ought to be honoured and respected among men, as much ought the founders of sects and factions to be detested and hated; because the influence of faction is directly contrary to that of laws. Factions subvert government, render laws impotent, and beget the fiercest animosities among men of the same nation, who ought to give mutual assistance and protection to each other." - David Hume, Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary, Part I, Essay VIII, OF PARTIES IN GENERAL
Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards is pulling the plug on a scholarship program he started at an Eastern North Carolina high school -- a program he once promised would be a model for the nation under an Edwards presidency. - newsobserver.com | Edwards ending college programNow we know he knows he's kaput. No use throwing good money after good.
"Obama Launches LowRoadExpress.com" - Advertising Age - Campaign Trail
Time managing editor Rich Stengel said he was proud of the Obama puff piece, and that he hoped it would help to redefine the boundaries of journalistic drivel. "When the American people cast their vote this November, this is the piece of fluff they're going to remember," Stengel said. "Not the ones by Newsweek, Harper's, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The Economist, Nightline, The Wall Street Journal, or even that story about lessons Obama learned from his first-grade teacher we ran a month ago." -'Time' Publishes Definitive Obama Puff Piece
"I don't share the beautiful people's revulsion for suburbia. It's just decent people making a living for themselves, and maybe having a patch of grass to play touch football on. Many people do hate suburbia, the whole idea of it, and wish we were all living in concrete urban human dovecotes, where they can keep their eye on us." -Sippican Cottage: Gettin' Used To It
"What we're looking at, essentially, is the beginning of food zoning. Liquor and cigarette sales are already zoned. You can't sell booze here; you can't sell smokes there. Each city makes its own rules, block by block. Proponents of the L.A. ordinance see it as the logical next step. Fast food is bad for you, just as drinking or smoking is, they argue. Community Coalition, a local activist group, promotes the moratorium as a sequel to its crackdown on alcohol merchants, scummy motels, and other "nuisance businesses." An L.A. councilman says the ordinance makes sense because it's "not too different to how we regulate liquor stores.... Supporters of the moratorium call this state of affairs "food apartheid." - Banning fast food in poor neighborhoods. - By William Saletan - Slate MagazineRich whites to poor blacks in South Central L.A. - "Shut up and eat your vegetables."
"Not a few designers are pushing men to expose more of the bodies that they have spent so much time perfecting at the gym. "We have all these self-imposed restrictions" about our dress, said Ben Clawson, the sales director for the designer Michael Bastian. "As men's wear continues to evolve and becomes a little more casual without becoming grungy, it's not impossible anymore to be dressed up in shorts.... "The idea of being threatened by the objectified male body has gone, the process is complete," explained Aaron Hicklin, the editor in chief of Out magazine. "Men are the same as women now."" - Shorts Crack the Code - NYTimes.com
"Come to think of it, maybe the best status for Obama would be that of monarch, of the type reigning in present-day England. After all, it's the ultimate symbolic position: no accomplishments necessary, no policy commitments involved, once you're in you're in for life, you get to go on all those fine world tours, the clothes are classic, and speeches are heavily featured." - neo-neocon - On acting Presidential (or kingly)
"Republicans have been in control of either Congress or the Presidency for eighteen of the twenty years since I left office, and yet in that short time you've managed to double the size of the federal budget, add hundreds of new federal agencies, and destroy the optimism of the American people," ranted Reagan. "Good going, geniuses."
EARTH—Former vice president Al Gore -- who for the past three decades has unsuccessfully attempted to warn humanity of the coming destruction of our planet, only to be mocked and derided by the very people he has tried to save -- launched his infant son into space Monday in the faint hope that his only child would reach the safety of another world.
"How many hours is Michelle Obama actually putting in at her $200,000 hospital administration job these days? Does she still work there? Or, let's not ask about "work" per se -- does she continue drawing a salary?" -AceAnswer: She's on Obamaternity leave!