Curb Your Blogging...

Larry David from Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld fame posted over at Huffpost. He was having trouble sleeping. Excerpt of what was going through his mind as he tried to get some shut-eye:

No matter how hot it is, the bottom of the pillow still stays cool. One day I’d like to ask a scientist about that. Of course, I never really get to meet any scientists. You’d think I’d run into a scientist at some point. I like how they keep saying the science isn’t in on global warming. They just don’t know. No proof. But, of course, it’s in on God. Lots of proof on that. Tons of empirical evidence. They got God’s DNA...You'd think anyone who believes this stuff would be so embarassed they'd keep it to themselves. But those maniacs shout it from the rooftops and they're running our country. God talks to Bush all the time. I don’t care if you’re President, if you say God talks to you, you’re a schizophrenic and a menace to society. You should be on drugs in a mental institution, like the Son of Sam. What’s the difference between God or a dog talking to you? It’s still a voice in your head. That means you’re certifiably fucking crazy!

Holiday Readership Roundup

Over the course of the holidays, I ran into quite a few of our lurkers (people that read the blog religiously, but don't comment). All of them had great things to say, so obviously we're doing something right. And there's way more regular readers than just a half dozen people.

One of my goals for the next year is to continue to expand our readership modestly. I have no goal to be a big national blog, but I want to encourage more vigorous debate like we've seen on the Tookie issue or the textbook debate. If you know people that might enjoy the forum, feel free to forward the link.

I also hope to enlist more regular contributors to increase and diversify our content. I'd really like more commentary on books, music, sports, social issues and culture. If anyone would like to be a contributor, feel free to either comment or send me an email at steve_buck_1999@yahoo.com.

Also, several folks have refrained from commenting because they were unaware that one can comment anonymously or under a pseudonym. You can and please do. When you click the comment link, you have the option to either register, comment under a name of your choosing, or comment anonymously.

Another common theme seems to be that because I devour all news, I assume everyone else does as well and don't give enough background on many of my political posts. I'll try to improve in this area; not by toning down the content or spoonfeeding in any way...just doing a little more setup.

Thanks to all readers and contributors for your participation and your comments.

Clydesdale Blogging

To ring in the holidays, this end-of-week blog brings us the Clydesdale, mascot of Budweiser - a company that will benefit greatly from my patronage over the next four days. The Clydesdale is a proud breed...something I will not be after I drink a couple of dozen Buds. The Clydesdale is a hard working draft horse. I will be working hard drinking drafts like a horse. The Clydesdale is noted for its distinctive large furry hooves and powerful gait. Note how my erratic gait makes it appear as if, instead of feet, I'm walking on large furry hooves after consuming a bunch of buds.

Happy Holidays...may they be over soon and may I remember little of them.

Update: MJ reminds that they can also kick field goals.

Christmas Sourpuss

I'm a Christmas sourpuss. I've yet to seek confirmation, but I may very well be afflicted with SAD (Seasonal Affected Disorder, or some such). Every year the tandem of Thanksgiving-Christmas-Valentines collude to put me in a low place. This year, I've tempered the effect somewhat by dramatically increasing my comsumption of alcohol and cigars. It's helped.

Christmas is the crawfish of holidays. It's too much work for not enough meat. My opinion of the season has been further jaundiced by this year's War on Christmas schtick from Fox News. It's allowed both political edges to get way too much play: the righteous right and the PC pissy-pants left. How about all of you shut the fuck up and chill. With that sentiment in mind, I encourage everyone to read Christopher Hitchens pantsing of Christmas. For those that don't, enjoy the passage below:

A revealing mark of [Christian enthusiasts] insecurity is their rage when public places are not annually given over to religious symbolism, and now, their fresh rage when palaces of private consumption do not follow suit. The Fox News campaign against Wal-Mart and other outlets—whose observance of the official feast-day is otherwise fanatical and punctilious to a degree, but a degree that falls short of unswerving orthodoxy—is one of the most sinister as well as one of the most laughable campaigns on record. If these dolts knew anything about the real Protestant tradition, they would know that it was exactly this paganism and corruption that led Oliver Cromwell—my own favorite Protestant fundamentalist—to ban the celebration of Christmas altogether.

No believer in the First Amendment could go that far. But there are millions of well-appointed buildings all across the United States, most of them tax-exempt and some of them receiving state subventions, where anyone can go at any time and celebrate miraculous births and pregnant virgins all day and all night if they so desire. These places are known as "churches," and they can also force passersby to look at the displays and billboards they erect and to give ear to the bells that they ring. In addition, they can count on numberless radio and TV stations to beam their stuff all through the ether. If this is not sufficient, then god damn them. God damn them everyone.

Buddhist-wear

We've made some progress learning about other religions and so-called intelligent design. There seems to be mixed feelings among the Jewish community, with many abstainers. Bruce chimed in today with this article divorcing intelligent design from Buddhism and suggested (probably with tongue in cheek) that Buddhism may be the path for him (pun intended).

This reminded me of a funny t-shirt that I need to buy. It contains the following quote, "Buddhism, the religion that offers nothing...and Delivers." Check the site out, there's some other interesting Buddhist merch.

FISA Rubber Stamp

Regarding the domestic spying scandal, a lot of critics, including myself, have indicated that the president didn't need to circumvent the law because the FISA court would have approved his requests. We hear that the FISA court has only rejected five court orders out of, what, 15,000 requests? Given those numbers, I have to question how effective the oversight of domestic spying is even with FISA.

Domestic Spygate Watch

So some former NSA types have chimed in on their thoughts about domestic spying over at the Defensetech blog. I especially liked this quote from a former spook:

"It's drilled into you from minute one that you should not ever, ever, ever, under any fucking circumstances turn this massive apparatus on an American citizen," one source says. "You do a lot of weird shit. But at least you don't fuck with your own people."

Couldn't agree more. Diane Rehm had three conservatives on her NPR show yesterday, all of which were outraged by the President's actions on this matter. It seems we may have the makings of true bipartisanship here. Let's hope.

Satanic Design

My brother sent me this fine article about the evolution vs. intelligent design non-argument. It contained this interesting passage:

Many who accept the fact of evolution cannot, however, on religious grounds, accept the operation of blind chance and the absence of divine purpose implicit in natural selection. They support the alternative explanation of intelligent design The reasoning they offer is not based on evidence but on the lack of it...It is in essence the following: There are some phenomena that have not yet been explained and that (and most importantly) the critics personally cannot imagine being explained; therefore there must be a supernatural designer at work. The designer is seldom specified, but in the canon of intelligent design it is most certainly not Satan and his angels, nor any god or gods conspicuously different from those accepted in the believer’s faith.

I like the formation of Intelligent Design with Satan and his angels as designers. Maybe that will be my new dogma...what a great contrarian position. It would go like this:

I.D. Believer: And because you haven't found the missing link in your so-called "fossil record," that's proof enough that there must have been a divine hand involved!

Me: Yes, I totally agree, and that divine hand was undoubtably the hand of SATAN!

That should be fun. But really, if this is such a neat way to wrap up the existence of a divine being, why haven't I heard an outcry from all religions of the world. I ask this seriously. Why is it just Christian Evangelicals that believe this? Do Sikhs, for example, believe in I.D.? Hindus or Jews? Are Christians the only major religion that has had to reconcile religion with modern science because Christian society tends to be more scientifically advanced? If that's the case, I'd expect to encounter some Rabbinical backing for I.D. somewhere.

I'd like to know the perspective from all the major religions in the world on evolution. Despite the solid base within the scientific and non-believer community, statistics tell us evolution hasn't caught on. How long can the masses of the world deny science? Are other religions trying to gin up some intellectual alchemy to marry God with science?

Hypocrisy Update

Building on the Domestic Spygate post below, I just got smacked in the face by a wet paintbrush full of hypocrisy. The government is claiming that the president has the right to do whatever the hell he wants to protect the country as commander-in-chief. I'd say justifying spying on Americans by using his "Commander-in-Chief" powers as enumerated in the constitution represents a break from the oft-repeated line about "strictly interpreting" the constitution. Would a true strict-constructionist see that the constitution allows the president to break laws in times of war? Especially spying on citizens? Or is that whole strict-constructionist slogan just b.s. shorthand for the Constitution not explicitly containing a right to privacy and therefore rendering Roe null and void.

He could have handled this all through FISA, they just didn't want to hassle with it and thought they were above the law.

Domestic Spygate

Let me begin by saying I have no problem with the government using wiretaps to catch bad guys. This has been going on forever and allows for some pretty creative law enforcement (especially for fans of the excellent HBO drama, The Wire). But, I'm still firmly atop my civil liberties high-horse, and therefore oppose the arbitrary way in which these wiretaps have been implemented by King George II. I have problems with their justification on the following fronts:

1. Speed. They claim that they have to circumvent the existing laws because of speed. However a special court has been set up precisely to address this concern (FISA court). According to reports, this court is generally able to turn around a warrant in a matter of hours. If the need is more urgent than that, the NSA is allowed to pursue the wiretap provided they notify the court later. This court almost never refuses a wiretap and certainly wouldn't refuse a wiretap on someone who's supposedly linked with Al Qaeda. I think this sufficiently bollixes King George's argument about speed.

2. Unchecked Executive Power. King George claims he has sworn to defend the country and that his powers as commander-in-chief allow him the latitude to do what needs to be done in this pursuit. Consider the Congress emasculated because the president is in charge. Can't he then pretty much do whatever he wants under the guise of "protecting Americans." Take for instance the Patriot Act. Most of the provisions of the Patriot Act are responsible measures necessary to prosecute the war on terror (how I hate that phrase). If King George is so pissed at the Senate for not making permanent the Patriot Act because one or two provisions have nasty civil liberties implications, why doesn't he just declare these provisions necessary to protect the country based on his commander-in-chief powers? Govern by executive fiat.

3. He's briefed congress. I think King George's defense that he's "briefed congress" is the biggest red herring of them all. I say, "so what?" The law says you need a warrant from the courts to wiretap someone domestically. So he tells Congress? Shame on them for not raising a stink, but they're separate from the main point here. His notification of Congress just spreads out the blame a little bit.

4. International calls. Oh, hey, don't worry...these were all international calls. Since when is there a wiretap just for international calls? I'd like to trust the NSA to look at an incoming or outgoing number and upon seeing an international country code, put on their headphones. But really. They've made it quite clear that the goal of these taps is to prevent attacks. What's stopping a zealous wiretapper from listening to all calls hoping for a juicy nugget? I wish I could I say I trusted the government to do the right thing, but they've shown nothing but scorn for the law with respect to intelligence, torture, rendition, and political opponents (and probably lots of other things that we'll be learning about soon).

They don't have a cogent rationale for their actions circumventing law. Given that the existing law wouldn't have required much of an effort for compliance, it appears that they just thought it to be a hassle (or maybe quaint, in their parlance for the Geneva Conventions).

Update: And to take it to an Orwellian doomsday syllogism... We know that our own military has been spying on protesters in the name of national defense. The military claims that these protesters were a threat to military personnel or equipment, and this, therefore, justified their surveillance.

So, now it's obvious that there are those in the government/military that feel that criticizing the government endangers the military.

The president has the virtually unlimited power to do anything, including spying on Americans, against threats.

Therefore, if you criticize the government, you're fair game for wiretapping and surveillance.

Freedom Erosion Watch

More evidence of Bush playing fast and loose with civil liberties: the NSA has been spying on people in America without courd orders. Next thing you know I'll be forced to quarter troops in my house. Do laws mean anything to these people? When can we have an accountability moment?

Also on the "Freedom Erosion Watch," it appears that the GOP is going to exercise some political passive aggressiveness with respect to the Patriot Act. Even though there's a compromise on the table and there's very little standing in the way of passage with improvements to its civil rights implications, the GOP is going to refuse to compromise on allowing the FBI into people's library records. The reason...the can then say the Dem's refused to extend the Patriot Act and are therefore Pro-Terrorist; and they believe this will make a good campaign issue for the 2006 midterms. They don't have much more to run on, so they're willing to feign principle and hurt the country to get a political issue.

Best and Worst of 2005

I've begun my end-of-year stock taking and so I'm publishing one of those ass-whip end of the year best of/worst of lists. Like the Oscars, I can only remember what's happened in the last few months.

First things first:

In Memoriam: Hunter S. Thompson, Gonzo Journalist, who I can identify with about breakfast: "I like to eat breakfast alone, and almost never before noon; anybody with a terminally jangled lifestyle needs at least one psychic anchor every 24 hours, and mine is breakfast. In Hong Kong, Dallas or at home - and regardless of whether or not I have been to bed - breakfast is a personal ritual that can only be properly observed alone, and in a spirit of genuine excess. The food factor should always be massive: four Bloody Marys, two grapefruits, a pot of coffee, Rangoon crepes, a half-pound of either sausage, bacon or corned beef hash with diced chilies, a Spanish omelette or eggs Benedict, a quart of milk, a chopped lemon for random seasoning, and something like a slice of key lime pie, two margaritas and six lines of the the best cocaine for dessert...Right, and there should also be two or three newspapers, all mail and messages, a telephone, a notebook for planning the next 24 hours, and at least one source of good music...All of which should be dealt with outside, in the warmth of a hot sun, and preferably stone naked." From The Great Shark Hunt.

Medical Treatment of the Year: Epidural Steroidal Injections (ESI) - While the first ESI shot was one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life, it has tremendous upside. I went from being literally crippled due to a herniated disk between L-4 and L-5 to no pain at all in about two days. I've been virtually pain free for the last five months. Thinking about those shots gives me the willies, but it's powerful medicine.

Lowest Point of the Year: Montezeuma's Revenge. Period. I don't possess the vocabulary to accurately describe the sheer horrible-ness associated with this malady. The abdominal distress was seismic. There were hallucinations of animals being slaughtered.

Rockinest Song of the Year: MC5, Over and Over. MC5 was described here as a band that refused to be listened to quietly. But wait, you say, this song is 35 years old. Well, it was new to me. I've pretty much listened to three types of music this year: pre-punk (like the MC5), punk (like the New York Dolls), and post-punk (like Mission of Burma).

Smoke of the Year: Cuban Montecristo #2.

Accomplishment of the year: It's really sickening to think that one spends over 2000 hours a year working, and this time doesn't yield anything of which to be proud. Discussing this with a co-worker the other day, I realized I had a greater sense of accomplishment about the little red table I built for the patio than anything I had done at work. But the little red table isn't the accomplishment of the year...it took too long to build. Instead, it's the thirteen minutes I spent finally slaying the Jeopardy test. I'm now in the active contestant pool and could be contacted any day to appear. Those of you that saw me that morning realize the scale of the accomplishment.

Book of the Year: I really can't remember anything I've read. I'm reading a good book right now, Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. Maybe I need to switch back to fiction. I know I've enjoyed some Paul Theroux this year. Didn't David Sedaris have a new book out?

Wine of the Year: I'm not that fond of wine. I prefer Scotch. Like Chivas.

Regret of the Year (a.k.a Last Year's New Years Resolution I Failed to Accomplish): Exercising. I was either too busy or not busy enough, or my back hurt, or a million other excuses. I did buy an MP3 player to listen to when I exercise. I usually use it when I'm sitting on the patio smoking cigars and drinking scotch. This is pretty often.

Experiment of the Year: Q. Will a couple of big ice blocks cool down a hot as shit swimming pool in July. A. No, but it was worth doing.

Soup of the Year: Every year this is the most eagerly awaited category, which is why we present it last. Drum roll please. Second runner-up: Shrimp Bisque at the Parthenon. First runner-up: Red Posole at Sapristi. And the winner is.....Caldo de Pollo at El Asadero. The chicken soup at El Asadero is brothy goodness. Served classic style with a dark meat quarter on the bone and full of coarsely cut vegetables, this dish will cleanse your head physically and spiritually. Best enjoyed with a Negra Modelo cerveza (or two) on a Saturday afternoon when there's chill in the air.

Check back soon for final results of the "Beast of the Year" competition. Last I heard, Kinky the Backyard Rat was surging. Update: Kinky the Backyard Rat is a mighty bold beast at that. You should know that Kinky is a rat that lives in some brush by a big tree in my backyard. His/her food source is about 15 feet away in our compost bin. This is adjacent to our patio. Usually the rat does his food foraging while we're gone or inside. Well, the other day I was sitting on the patio and damned if the beast didn't just skitter right up to about five feet of me. I'm not sure this behooves him with respect to Beast of the Year, but it's mighty bold considering 90% of the time I'm outside I have Poofus the cat with me. Poofus has a reputation for cutting short the lives of rodentia. Stay tuned, dear reader.

Freedom Bites the Dust

If this MSNBC report is to be believed, we can hope never to hear "they hate us for our freedom" again from the president - because our freedom will be gone. Freedom is definitely not on the march here at home as our right to peaceful assembly has now fallen by the wayside. The report describes how the military is now spying on protesters. This joins other freedoms such as speech (criticizing the government is treasonous), religion, and many human and civil rights. I think all we can count on is the right to bear arms.

Australian for Ridiculous.

So I was reading a garden-variety news story about this rioting that's broken out in Australia between white supremacists and middle eastern types. Nothing terribly shocking there, as these are two groups that seem to find themselves amidst violence frequently. Nationalism and class/race warfare seems to be on the rise many places: like France, Belgium, Netherlands, and most scarily, China.

So while we're on a roll with some stereotyping, what took me aback was this quote:

The state government will also increase the jail term for rioting from five to
15 years and double the penalty for affray, fighting in public, to 10 years.

In Australia you used to get five years for fighting in public??? Now ten years?? That's Australian for the punishment not really fitting the crime. They're going to ruin their reputation. I hope no cops ever drop into an Australian Rules Football game.

Beaver blogging

As I'm far busier today than a typical Friday, I'll have to quickly opt for some busy beaver blogging. Be aware that the beaver is the largest rodent in North America. An interesting FAQ on beavers and their role in ecology can be found here. More pics here.

Pots, Kettles, etc.

Rumsfeld says:

"We've arrived at a strange time in this country where the worst about
America and our military seems to so quickly be taken as truth by the press, and
reported and spread around the world, often with little context and little
scrutiny, let alone correction or accountability after the fact."

Blame the press, sure, but who the hell is he to talk about context, scrutiny, correction, or accountability after the fact? The gall of these people is astounding.

Sloth Blogging

I'm really feeling like some Sloth blogging today. Thank goodness I found sloth.com. I always thought they were bigger, but actually there just a little bigger than a cat. According to the website, however, their ancestor, the Giant Ground Sloth, grew to the size of an elephant. I'm trying my best to evolve into the Giant Bed Sloth, which grows to the size of a big fat man.

Laptop Cameras

If there can be a digital camera in every 69.99 cellphone, every laptop computer should also have one built in.

I was facilitating a meeting today where I wrote a bunch of stuff on a whiteboard. After the meeting, I set about typing all of it into my laptop. I should have been able to just snap a digital pic of the whiteboard with a camera mounted on the back of the screen, and gone on my merry way.

So pass this along to HP, Dell, Lenovo, or Toshiba.

Word.

The Powerpoint President

If there's one thing that drives me nuts, it's excessive sloganeering. We corporate types see it in the workplace all the time, encouraging us to "Think Customers First!"and similar Orwellian exhortations. W. Edwards Deming, who pioneered many modern management techniques, included the elimination of slogans as one of his "Fourteen Points" to improve management because they're basically PR and don't do anything of value.

I'm sorry Mr. Deming, but slogans are alive and well, especially with the President. It's very fitting because slogans typically bespeak vacuity in lieu of actual ideas. Let's look at some examples:

Below, Ben Stein's doofus-head is interfering with an important message:



Below is his first big War Slogan:



Followed by his second big War Slogan:



And ironically to his current big War Slogan:



And finally, the perpetually deer-in-headlights Laura gets in on the act:



I wonder if anyone in the administration has a background in business consulting? Judging by approval ratings, the failure of all these initiatives, and a credibility gap the size of Hell's Gate, the Powerpoints are not convincing the general public of anything (nor is the accompanying rhetoric for that matter). So my deficit reduction idea is to eliminate the CMS (Chicks Makin' Slides) department at the White House and cancel the account with FastSigns.

Otter blogging

No turkeys this Thanksgiving. When we visited the aquarium in Monterey, the wife wanted to sneak one out in her handbag. Check out the sea otter cam.

No Shit Headline of the Week

Vatican: Sexually Active Gays Unwelcome

...in the Priesthood.

Centralizing Textbooks

Commenting on this post, Bruce said:

I happen to think we need more government in some areas. e.g. A National Policy on Education. I want the best people in our country to come up with one Math book and one Science book.

Bruce, you are a communist. Really, though, "how to teach math and science" is not fixed. Teaching is a science, too, where there is constant innovation. The best way to embrace this innovation is to allow competition in the market. Let inventors invent. We must allow people to take chances with new and progressive teaching styles. By centralizing textbooks, you bury it in the bureaucracy of the Department of Education where it will reek of mediocrity forever.

And science is constantly evolving. Some textbook makers will be quicker to adopt new theories than others. Being a Texan, my community will likely never be as progressive as I would like to see it with respect to science. However, let those progressive communities choose progressive books. Let ethnic communities use books that are targeted to better teaching their children. Give them the freedom to choose.

May I recycle that coffee for you sir?

Saturday morning I received a wake up call to have breakfast. As I don’t normally have breakfast out I quickly declined. Later, I realized that Rip Van Steve wasn’t going to wake up until much much later in the weekend. I decided to go and experience breakfast. BIG MISTAKE!! I was still slightly under the influence of the Sapphire Lounge so I may not have been making the best decisions for myself. I headed to Old South Pancake House, a place I have previously gone only at the end of my evening in high school. Not at the beginning of my day. Upon arriving, my dining companions informed me that there was a good chance catching Hepatitis C. This is not the way you want to start out breakfast. Apparently they had been served coffee in a ‘gently used’ coffee mug. I don’t mean it wasn’t brand new I mean that some one quite recently had been drinking coffee out of it and some of it was still in the cup. Ewwww! I could go on about what we ate but really. .at this point it just doesn’t matter. It is safe to assume I will not make this mistake twice. I should have known. It did break one of my dining rules. No bar. The time being before noon I didn’t think I should have stick with this rule. I was wrong. There are other rules but this one should have ruled our Old South quickly.

Admin Note

I've removed the requirement for a commenter to be a register user. Hopefully, this will allow for a more lively discussion of topics.

Now that we've gotten our feet under us, I recommend distributing the blog to a larger readership. Please feel free to forward the address to anyone you like...

Bloggers Roundtable

We had a rountable of all existing blog posters this weekend. Unfortunately, after mulitple pints at the Shamrock, buffalo tartare, ostrich, veal, and other delicacies at Bella, we all got shitfaced and ended up listening to Six Feet High and Rising at the Saffire lounge. Not much blog discussion occurred. I smoked about forty cigars and slept most of Saturday and Sunday (but I've bounced back for some late-Sunday Chivas and a couple of Fuente Rothschilds).

Based on some limited feedback, I have made a few changes to the site.

A Third Way

Commenting on one of my posts from last week, Lee wrote:

So are you suggesting that Dems are just as unprincipled as GOPers when it comes to their constituencies? They seek nothing more than re-election, and vote with what their polls indicate is popular sentiment? As a Bush initited reformed Republican, that scares the hell outta me. If you guys are wrong, where do I turn? And don't suggest a third party. I'd like to be on a team with a chance to win...

I've always claimed that there's a form of Libertarianism that combines the best from both parties. From the Dems, I want to keep the belief in privacy and social freedoms. From the Reps, I'd like to keep fiscal discipline and minimal government. I don't see why these can't coexist. Less government is going to give me more freedom. This is the party that I want to support, but it seems a far cry right now. The Reps have been co-opted by the Religious Right and the Dems have been co-opted by the pseudo-socialist left. To me, these are the least compelling parts of each party.

Andrew Sullivan, a gay fiscal conservative who used to be a reliable Republican, and an eminently talented social critic had this interesting post the other day which echoed the need for a "third way".

Rethinking Energy

Now that there seems to be some momentum behind fiscal sanity in Washington, I would propose that we revisit the Energy bill passed earlier this year that contained millions of dollars in giveaways to the oil companies.

There have been discussions on holding back the prescription drug benefit for a year or so to save money. If we can revisit this effort, why not the energy bill? Now that the windfall profits from all the major oil companies have been publicized and investigated by Congress, it seems obvious that they really don't need a bunch of government handouts. Let's repeal these craven giveaways to the President's cronies and put it towards reducing our dependence on foreign oil, deficit reduction or Katrina rebuilding. I would especially be behind new research on renewable energy sources or hybrids.

Panda blogging

So I was remiss in my new Friday tradition of Friday animal blogging. Who could forget the timeless efforts of the last two weeks including cat blogging and lemur blogging? This time we bring you panda blogging with a live cam of the newborn cub in Washington D.C.

Demonic or unprincipled

E.J. Dionne is correct in saying that there's something missing from the debate about the runup to war. This occurred during the 2002 midterm elections. The GOP strategy was to paint the Dems as unpatriotic and baldly use 9/11 as the hammer with which to drive it home. So, many of the Dems caved in and voted for the war because, in light of the public context, they felt it would have been politically disastrous to do otherwise.

So while the Reps behaved more crassly than imaginable,

In New Mexico, Republican Steve Pearce ran an advertisement against Democrat John Arthur Smith declaring: "While Smith 'reflects' on the situation, the possibility of a mushroom cloud hovering over a U.S. city still remains."


many Dems, admittedly bullied, revealed themselves to be wholly unprincipled and desperate to maintain their loose grip on power. Remember, before the midterms, the Dems were the majority in the Senate with Daschle as leader thanks to Jeffords defection from the GOP.

Friday lemur blogging

Major developments in the world of lemurs...

The lemur's long legs are the only physical attribute it shares with Cleese, Thalmann told New Scientist magazine. "Woolly lemurs can't really walk - but they do enjoy silly jumps," he said

Political Compass

Here's a fun parlor game...see where you land on the political compass. This is better than some of the others out there. It also includes measurements of current political leaders and reading lists for each quadrant.

I came in as pretty much an economic centrist and heavy social libertarian.

Economic Left/Right: -2.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.74

Share your results in the comments section....unless you're skeered.

Pat's Pissed

My favorite dunderheaded protectionist Catholic-extremist Pat Buchanan is not happy with Bush. To wit:

Under Bush II, social spending has exploded to levels LBJ might envy, foreign aid has been doubled, pork-at-every-meal has become the GOP diet of choice, surpluses have vanished, and the deficit is soaring back toward 5% of GDP. Bill Clinton is starting to look like Barry Goldwater. (bold mine)

As predicted...

The French far-right has gone off the reservation. Money quote:

"Le Pen said people with immigrant backgrounds who commit crimes should be stripped of their French nationality and sent 'back to their country of origin.'"

And more scarily,

"We are receiving thousands of new members, tens of thousands of e- mails. All of our offices are submerged, we don't know how to respond because we don't have the staff to reply to the wave of people who, 95 percent of them, salute and approve our positions,"

Although I'm sticking with the gist of my previous post regarding the violent nature of Islam, I endeavored to educate myself a little more about the French situation. It appears that in France we have a permanent underclass mixed in with some racism and a heavy dose of no-growth Socialist governance. There's a nasty miasma over that country. My solution: get those folks off the government teat and get them jobs. How to do that? Reduce the crushing tax burden. And give the rioters a lesson in civil disobediance. For further reading on the nature of the unrest in France, Jim Hoagland had some interesting commentary in the Post today.

The Islam Problem

Islam in general needs to take responsibility for their right wing. If they don't, their religion will become synonymous with violence even to left-leaners like me. This shit in France is preposterous...as well as jeopardizing my vacation plans for next year. I'm sure the reactionaries over there are already calling for mass deportations. Look at the major flashpoints in the world:

1. The World. Bin Ladenists have proven they have global reach to blow people up just about anywhere, from Bali to Tanzania to London and New York.
2. Iraq.
3. Israel/Palestine
4. Afghanistan
5. Kashmir
6. Chechnya
7. Sudan
8. Political assasinations in Lebanon by Syria.
9. Iranian support for terrorist groups inside Israel/Palestine.

It's pretty clear what all these have in common. And America neither has the means, the mandate, or the intelligence to straighten this out. I frankly don't see much leadership among moderate, peaceful Muslims denouncing the extreme actions of the fringe. Are they scared?

I'm no fan of the Iraq war or the American boneheads behind it and I realize that American actions have resulted in tens of thousands of deaths of innocent Iraqis. Conversely, how can tactics like arbitrary beheadings build popular support for the "insurgent" movement among rank-and-file Iraqis. What Iraqi mother in her right mind would align herself with barbarity?

So now we have a lunatic minority and a mute majority. Absent stong leadership, it won't be long before those of us that still want to believe that Islam is a religion of peace will declare we have a billion pariahs.

Calvin and Hobbes...

Calvin and Hobbes, along with Bloom County, were my favorite comic strips during my adolescence/early adulthood. Slate writer Chris Sullentrop pays tribute to Calvin in a brief article and a slide show accessible at the bottom of the article.

Also out is the Complete Calvin and Hobbes collection.

Quote for today....

Extracted from an ariticle on Rock Snobbery. He starts out wistfully, "it's because genuine pleasure—that enemy of both snobs and satire alike—will always take precedence over the need to condescend." Then debunks, "But the reality, alas, is otherwise...Because let's face it, only one thing is more incorrigible than my snobbery, people, and that's your indefensibly crappy taste in music."

Lola - The Three Hour Meal

Lola www.lola4dinner.com –This restaurant is housed in a house that has been transformed into a charming restaurant. I immediately noticed the shaded patio that reminded me of the courtyard at Palmers in San Marcos, TX www.palmerstexas.com minus the big orange cat. This made me wish were there in the spring not the beginnings of fall. As you make your way through the residential style single door opening you are hit with fantastic smells and the sounds of chatting people. Dinner comes in the form of two options; the full menu or the tasting room. We opted for the tasting room. You have your choice of 10 or 14 taste size portions. These are broken up in to 4 courses. A pleasant option is that Chef David Uygur (for a bit more cash) has paired these courses with wines. Giving you to opportunity to try the wine alone and then with food. That is something that I equally enjoy and fail at doing at home. My companions agreed that over all we enjoyed everything. One of us wished for a “bucket” of the sweet potato soup with curry. I would have not complained if I was served a dozen Island Creek oysters with cucumbers. Others loved the seared rabbit rillett with faro, root vegetable and a mustard jus. I would have wished for a full bar. I prefer a savory rather than a sweet something after a meal. Scotch usually fists that description. There isn’t much of a bar, 3 or 4 stools, as the owner decided that cocktails were not needed. This isn’t a place you hang out waiting for friends. It is however a place to have a wonderful meal.

How we went to war...

From Arianna:

Sunday Sept. 8, 2002 was a red letter day in the White House Iraq Group’s efforts to market the war. That was the day the administration’s war salesmen scored one of their biggest propaganda coups.That morning, the New York Times ran a front page story co-written by Judy Miller about how Saddam was trying to get a hold of aluminum tubes to be used in building nuclear weapons. Perfectly timed to coincide with this planted (and bogus) info, the administration blanketed the Sunday shows with its big guns -- who all used the New York Times’ credibility to bolster their case against Saddam and scare the American people. Dick Cheney did Meet the Press, citing the Times story as evidence that Saddam was “actively and aggressively seeking to acquire nuclear weapons”. Condi Rice went on Wolf Blitzer and warned that the "smoking gun” in Iraq could turn out to be “a mushroom cloud”. Colin Powell on Fox News Sunday, Don Rumsfeld on Face the Nation, and Richard Meyers on This Week all made similar points, raising the specter of a nuked up Saddam. A month later, the House and Senate hastily authorized the administration to go to war.

Shameful. The New York Times becomes the governments house organ.

Cat Blogging

I'm not opposed to some occasional cat blogging. A lioness at the Fort Worth Zoo just had kittens.

More ranting against the government...

So of all the dumb shit they say, the thing that pisses me off the most is....

...we have brought to justice...three-quarters of the more senior al Qaeda leadership and associates.

Thanks to Bush spokesman Scott McLellan for reiterating that nonsense today. They are obviously trying to show that they are great stewards of the National Defense. However, the logic is so risible that it makes me shiver with anger. I just want to ask Bush, "So by that logic, as soon as we've killed or captured the remaining 25% the war is over and we can all rest easy again, right?" Of course not. Stupid. Takes us for a bunch of boobs. But they still say it all the time.

I've killed 3/4 of the fire ants in my front yard. Just tryin to find the other 1/4 and then I'll be sittin' pretty.

And on the same topic...

I'm sick of Bush referring to everyone who's not on our side in Iraq as a terrorist. This is another disingenous way of conflating Iraq with 9/11. I grant you there is plenty of terrorism in Iraq and I'm happy to call a spade a spade. But someone that pops out in the street with a rocket launcher and fires it at a tank is not a terrorist...they're the enemy. Someone who bombs a police station is not terrorist. People that kidnap members of the press and behead them...well, that's a terrorist. There's civilian casualties in any war and our beloved military has been on the business end of it plenty...see Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, or My Lai to name a few. Roadside bombs are the tactic our enemy has found successful in fighting their enemy.

Update: Bush spokesman Scott McLellan conflated again today in his press conference about violence in Iraq, "there's great progress being made, but there are those who continue to carry out violent attacks against innocent civilians." So the enemy in Iraq are just plain terrorists and the only people they target are civilians (non-military targets). That's just hogwash but it's same conflation with 9/11 that got them elected. If his statements are true, I guess the 2022 American military casualties and countless Iraqi Army/Police casualties were accidentally in the way because the enemy only aims at civilians.

Judicial Activism

How is it that Bush gets away with this constraint refrain that he wants judges who won't "legislate from the bench"? I think it's another case of picking and choosing. If it's a liberal judge, it's legislating from the bench...but when conservative judges make new laws, it's OK. The right-leaning judiciary has largely given Bush the right to detain people indefinitely and to torture them. Nothing could be more contrary to the settled law of the land. And we know that Roberts, Miers, and Alito support that position. How is that not making law? If the court overturns Roe, isn't that making new law? Wasn't the court right to make new law with Brown v. Board of Education?

He just goes around squawking the same ol' bullshit and gets away with it. "Fight 'em over there so we don't fight 'em here." Right, ask London. "They hate us for our freedom." Love that chestnut.

Oil Update

So I managed to scare up an MBA to comment on the Petroleum Bonanza of Riches. Phil quotes this article and writes:

"With oil futures above $60 a barrel for much of the
third quarter, Exxon's profits from petroleum
exploration and production increased by $1.8 billion
to $5.7 billion. Soaring prices for gasoline, diesel
and jet fuel lifted refining and marketing profits by
$727 million to $2.13 billion."

So, my take on this is that Exxon has a lot of fixed
costs associated with production, such that when
prices rise per barrel their E&P business makes a
killing.

Their downstream businesses are also making money. I
suspect this is because there are a lot of fixed costs
(e.g., real estate) associated with gas stations.
Yeah, there are a lot of variable costs (namely the
gasoline and it's distribution), but there is still
room for more profits based on the fixed component of
the costs.

In the same article it describes about $100k that they
expect to lose as a result of the hurricane though
some of this may be offset by insurance claims).
Clearly, this is not enough to offset the gains.

Clearly.

So, while I still don't understand the fundamentals of the business, I'm getting closer. It looks like the majority of the profit came from increases in their own exploration and production, where oil is selling for twice what it sold for back in the day. So here's my question, how much of the total crude oil that ExxonMobil eventually sells comes from their own wells compared with what they have to buy.

Wish I knew an accountant that was familiar with the financial statements of oil and gas companies...

Atomic Musings

I'm currently reading A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson which does chapter length surveys on all aspects of science. One of the initial chapters goes into all things atomic and quantum...of which I know next to nothing. I ran across two things that needed further exploration: 1) E=mc2, and 2) The notion that Newtonian physics doesn't apply at the nuclear level.

Well, I'm still completely buffaloed by #2, but I'm smarter about Einstein thanks to a recent Nova called Einstein's Big Idea. I'm still not ready to be empaneled on a blue-ribbon committee of leading theoretical physicists, but the most simple and salient thing I learned was that "time" is not the universal constant I thought it was. Einstein turned things around by theorizing that the speed of light (c) is the real universal constant and time is a function of the speed of light.

Another key revelation was, obviously, the relationship between Energy and mass. When you multiply just about any amount of mass by a gigantic number like the speed of light squared, you realize that there's a tremendous amount of energy at the atomic level, a la nuclear (or nucular in Bushese) weapons. A small amount of something incredibly dense like uranium (lots of mass despite limited size) can provide a ton of energy...in the form of a mushroom cloud.

Hopefully it will be replayed or available with other PBS documentaries on Netflix.

By the way, Bryson's on of my favorite non-fiction authors whose oeuvre includes everything from the aforementioned scientific survey, to British travelogues, to an insightful study of language, to a hiking trip up the Appalachian trail.

Welcome to Lee

Lee has joined as a new contributor to the site to provide some different perspectives. Hopefully we'll hear from him soon.

He's promised to provide us an abstract from his current research on the connection between Quantum Theory and the "deja vu". I'm certainly looking forward to that.

Embarassment of Riches

I need some help from my astute readership (all two or three of you). Why are the oil companies making out like bandits? If the price of a barrel of oil from a foreign supplier goes up, aren't they paying the higher price too? Their internal cost to refine and distribute that oil hasn't changed. If a refinery gets beat to hell by a hurricane, I see how basic supply and demand would cause the price to increase. However I don't understand how this loss in refining capacity equals windfall profits? Anyone have any ideas about what's going on here?

Original Intent?

Miers has bitten the dust. Fair minded people should prepare themselves, for Justice Jesus is in the wings.

This is so appetizing a development for the right because they will now get to frame the debate the way they like. Screw what really matters, we'll have wedge issues on the front page every day. The dems will have no choice but to filibuster Judge Jesus which will likely lead to the so called nuclear option where the Republican led Senate changes the rules of the game and fundamentally changes the nature of one branch of government.

Concurrently we will have corruption trials of Republicans everywhere. The Plamegate probe will likely widen to include the Italian forgeries. If possible, we're going to be much more divided as Republicans, under fire, go to the mattresses and Dems amp up the red meat as the 2006 election cycle gets under way.

The next year will be fucking chaos. While I admit being a limited fan of political anarchy, I'm feeling a pretty good dose of Weltschmerz. Why can't movements spring up from the Center? Pragmatism will go the way of the dodo bird taking with it any hope of sensible debate. Cindy Sheehan will likely end up self-immolating on the White House lawn, while James Dobson will hold the "Million-Fetus" march on the mall.

Miers' Qualifications

I'd love to see an attorney's take on the following article questioning whether being president of the Texas bar and managing partner of a firm are really all that significant achievements...

Road Trip

Who wants to go to Austin and see the Klan!

The fish rots from the head first

The net needs to be cast far and wide on this Plame thing. Every day seems to peel back another layer of the onion, and today has been an especially juicy layer. To wit: The NYT reveals that Cheney and Libby had spoken about Plame long before Libby testified that he found out about her from a reporter and Cheney claimed he didn't know who Joe Wilson was.

Now comes this morsel out of La Repubblica in Italy...home of the original Niger yellowcake forgery. Pollari is Italy's chief of intelligence:

Today's exclusive report in La Repubblica reveals that Pollari met secretly in Washington on September 9, 2002, with then–Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. Their secret meeting came at a critical moment in the White House campaign to convince Congress and the American public that war in Iraq was necessary to prevent Saddam Hussein from developing nuclear weapons. National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones confirmed the meeting to the Prospect on Tuesday

So our new National Security Advisor is potentially complicit, then:

The forged documents were cabled from the U.S. embassy in Rome to Washington after being delivered to embassy officials by Elisabetta Burba, a reporter for Panorama. She had received the papers from an Italian middleman named Rocco Martino. Burba never wrote a story about those documents. Instead her editor, Berlusconi favorite Carlo Rossella, ordered her to bring them immediately to the U.S. embassy.

So it now appears that not only was Cheney controlling what was getting into the US press by manipulating Judy Miller, his noted "coalition ally," Italian President, and Media Tycoon Silvio Berlusconi was manipulating his own media to build the case for the Iraq invasion.

Never mind that it was all based on a forgery. From the same article as quoted above:

Nicolo Pollari, chief of Italy's military intelligence service, known as Sismi, brought the Niger yellowcake story directly to the White House after his insistent overtures had been rejected by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2001 and 2002. Sismi had reported to the CIA on October 15, 2001, that Iraq had sought yellowcake in Niger, a report it also plied on British intelligence, creating an echo that the Niger forgeries themselves purported to amplify before they were exposed as a hoax.

This is starting to smell really, really suspicious (and conspiratorial). Remember, the fish rots from the head down.

We love Helen Thomas...

Her questioning of Bush and McLellan is always a must read, I thought yesterday's briefing as written up on the White House site was great:

(McLellan) We mourn the loss of each and every one of our men and women in uniform ...They have given their life in defense of freedom, and the best way to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice is to prevail in the war on terrorism. And that's --

Q (Thomas) And kill more people?

MR. McCLELLAN: -- and that's exactly what we will do.

More Consistency Issues...

Major consistency issues for our girl Kay from ABC:

Hutchison hopes that if there is an indictment, "it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn't indict on the crime and so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation was not a waste of time and taxpayer dollars.

When President Clinton was going through his little adventure, Sen. Hutchison said that perjury and obstruction of justice were pretty serious charges. Each, she said, "is calculated to prevent a court and the public from discovering the truth and achieving justice in our judicial system." This comes from her remarks in the Senate's closed deliberations on the articles of impeachment against President Clinton. She submitted them for the record on February 12, 1999.

Alternate titles, "I'm an unabashed shill." or "What little credibility I ever had is now gone."

Speaking of Freedom

Mark Cuban paraphrased on Slate in an article worth reading:

(Cuban) argues that movies should be made available simultaneously on cable television, DVD, and in movie theaters, letting consumers decide whether they prefer to see it at home (even if it means paying a premium for a new release) or in the theater.

Well, duh. But it ain't happenin' because of more anti-consumerism from Wal-Mart. If our society wasn't so controlled by mega-corporations that call the tune we all follow, it would be a much better place. (Update: Upon rereading this last line, I think I came off a little more lefty than I really am. It's true that I think many of the giant corporations that run the country don't have what's best for the consumer at heart...like oil companies...but there are true innovators out there that DO have customer focus and are making the rest of the world stand up and take notice...Apple, Google, hybrid manufacturers like Toyota).

Seems like we're just creeping down the adoption curve for truly transformational technologies and until we hit critical mass, we'll be spoonfed the same ol' crap. Not only is Blockbuster already a relic, so is Netflix. They're all on borrowed time and better think about a "harvesting" strategy.

So speaking of transformational technologies, I firmly believe DVR/Tivo is at the head of the list. But not far behind will be the small device that combines all the little devices we now carry around. Phone, MP3, Email, Camera, GameBoy, Radio w/RadioTivo, and probably Video. The hybrids that I've seen so far are pretty clunky.

Intellectual Consistency

Bruce commented:

OK, so lets say the prohibition on drugs is lifted. Then what? Do you buy a pack of columbian gold at the 7-11? Who will be the big pot growers? Phizer? Marlboro? How will our weed compare to the world's weed? Will a pot smoker be able to buy it on Sundays? How does this impact the immigration problem, or does it?I would like to hear your "and this is how it plays out" rrhea.

Those are all good questions, and I'm sure it would be heavily regulated like you suggest.

But I don't think we're ever likely to be faced with the implementation specifics.
The religious community is too powerful when it comes to imposing on personal freedom. You think social security is a third rail!

I think it's all about intellectual consistency. I'm by no means always a consistent thinker, but the bar should be higher in this country for consistency. We hate abortion but we love the death penalty. The right wants freedom for guns but wants to restrict freedom of thought or ideas...i.e. censorship. It's all about how we deal with dangerous things. I think we should be consistent and we should consistently support personal freedom in all cases.

I'm sure I'll say something inconsistent pretty soon and that I'll be revealed as a hypocrite. This is an ideal. In reality, I'd support more of a "pragmatic libertarianism".

Kool-Aid Republicans

This TNR article investigates the division among conservatives because of Miers and Bush's liberal spending ways. He hits the nail on the head here:

In other words, the real split over Miers is between conservatives who worship Bush and those who worship conservatism. One camp believes in the infallibility of the president. The other camp believes the evidence before them.

I've experienced both kinds and I'll take the latter. I'd much rather deal with a thinkin' man than a cult captive. These people that refuse to criticize the president for anything have taken leave of their senses. What's in it for them? Is it just easier? Is it because carrying water for Bush just requires no intellectual rigor? Being in Texas you meet a lot of people that love Bush just 'cuz and any attempt at critical thinking is slander. I understand a lot of people choose not to think and resign themselves to herd politics. But thinking people...real thinking people...are part of the cult. I don't get it.

Just about everything Bush has ever touched has turned to shit and these people can't see it. They've drunk the Kool-Aid.

Wilma Schadenfreude

Looks like Wilma might level a pretty heavy blow on the Mayan Riviera. This is a place for which I have no love. I hope the nice doctor and his nice nurse who treated me for my Montezuma's Revenge have escaped inland for safety. The hell with the rest of it...

Why are guns more ethical than weed?

In arguing against gun control, John Stossel writes:

The Centers for Disease Control did an extensive review of various types of gun control... It found that the idea that gun control laws have reduced violent crime is simply a myth.

I think I could substitute "Drug Policies" for "Gun Control" and that statement would be just as accurate.

It seems that his main point is that gun control doesn't work and that gun control is a kind of modern day Prohibition. There's a quote in his article that says:

"There's guns everywhere," said another inmate. "If you got money, you can get a gun."

I don't doubt this or aim to argue his conclusions. But it seems an exact parallel to the so called War on Drugs. In the quote above, replace "guns" with "drugs" and it's just as salient. I think the statistics that support the failures of the drug war are probably more compelling than anything the CDC has on guns. So stop the prohibition of drugs! It was ineffective for booze and guns, so lets stop fighting it.

So where does this argument break down? I know the libertarians are down with me, but what about social conservatives...beyond just 2nd Amendment talk. Why are guns more ethical than weed?

Plamegate + Steve learns a new feature...

Excellent writeup on the hot water the Bush administration is in on the CIA Leak investigation. This guy continues to be a step ahead of most reporters.

And I'm a step ahead of where I was yesterday because I can include links in blogs.

Blog Goals

The goals of this blog are a general forum for short-form writing. I want thinking people to have the opportunity to share thoughts. This includes, but is not limited to:

General Criticism and Comment: politics, culture, music, movies, food

Creative Writing, Essays, Poetry, Diatribes, Humor: about anything

Comments: Enabled for all posts. Conversation and community is what it's all about.

Distribution: Feel free to distribute to all civilized people. If this becomes a problem, we'll worry about it then.

Politics: The more ideas the better. I do not intent to have a bias, although the population of posters may indicate such. I will delete explicitly racist, sexist, or otherwise discriminatory posts.

Cursing and scatology are not discouraged.

Because I'm overly pedantic, spellchecking is encouraged (exept for my wife).

Diaries are discouraged. Hopefully none of our readers or contributors want to know what I had for breakfast today.

Crickets

One of the good things about the Underground Garage is that they span the gamut of RnR. Now I'm listening to the Crickets.

I'm just testing out how I include other posters...

Logorrhea Definition

I don't care what Webster says. In my book, Logorrhea is "diarrhea of the mouth". Not sure what the exact meaning of the suffix "rrhea" means in latin or greek...but you know what I think.

So...

So it's started. I have to give props to Sirius Channel 25. This is Stevie Van Zandt's Underground Radio. It makes for good listening while smoking a big Patron and drinking Chivas. Right now I'm listening to "Heart of a Rat" by Rocket from the Crypt...which rocks.

Next steps:
1. Figure out something interesting to write about other than liquor and cigars.
2. Get some other people to join
3. Figure out how the fuck to work this shit. Maybe this should be number 2.

The Dictators sound like a pretty rockin' band as well.