Weekend randomness

A smattering of fun, random, and/or interesting bits to entertain you over the next few days (since my substantive blogging continues to be preempted by the archiving business)...

• Principles of Economics, unpacked (where ideas meet comedy).
  (via kottke)
  
  
• Here's somebody who takes the art of the Etch-a-sketch to whole new heights. I may never squiggle again...
  (via Your Daily Awesome)
  
  
• Freelancers who want more structure (or social interaction) are teaming up in co-working facilities that give them an office outside the house (or coffeeshop).
  
  
• Ira Glass gives some tips on storytelling, and particularly about finding stories and bringing them to life via taped media.
  (via kottke)
  
  
• Fortune tells the story of at least one lottery winner who hasn't lost his head.
  (via kottke)
  
  
• Here's a music video that's just plain creative and fun (choreagraphed treadmill action).
  (via Rebecca's Pocket)
  
  
• Speaking of fun, here's a chance to relive classic videogame Asteroids, from the perspective of the rock! Revenge!!
  (via boing boing)
  
  
• And finally, a cute puppy. Oh, the cuteness! (Warning: potentially addictive new site...)

Have a great weekend, y'all!

No kittens here

Not in the mood to dig up cat photos, but I bumped across the post from last fall where I noted this adorable image -- it appeals to me on many levels, and thus I offer it for a Friday smile.


The Tao of Pig

Technical oddities

Apologies are in order, I gather, for anybody who reads this blog via a feed. I've been working through my archives, adding keyword labels, and my way of doing it (reading each post, deciding on the keywords, and republishing) apparently generates a "new update" entry for feeds, even though the posts are dated months or years ago. I can't think of a way around that; Blogger provides a great gadget for adding or removing labels from large swaths of posts, but it's done using a title list, which doesn't really help with most of my stuff (which is whimsically titled), especially if it's more than a few days ago. I'll dig around a bit and see if there's a way I can do my stuff through that interface, but no promises. Anyway, only six more months of posts to catch up with, so it might be done by this weekend.

Two steps forward, one step back . . .

Two bits from the spin front

Remember how the Bushies were making a big deal about explosive devices in Iraq that "had to be" coming out of Iran? (I think I scoffed here.) Well, it turns out that they're made in Iraq just like all the other things being used to tell use we aren't welcome...

And, what the heck, remember the terrifying War on Terror? And how national security is paramount (and certainly more important than the Constitution, etc.) and even rational people think there are some gaps that should be filled? Well apparently Bush is considering vetoing 9/11 legislation (only his first second veto, remember) because of a clause that might extend union protection to some airport employees. I guess that everything takes a back seat to Protecting the Corporate Bottom Line...

Quote of the day (forward-looking edition)

Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring. If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature,—if the prospect of an early morning walk does not banish sleep, if the warble of the first bluebird does not thrill you,—know that the morning and the spring of your life are past. Thus may you feel your pulse.

Henry David Thoreau
Journal entry, February 25, 1859

(via the Thoreau blog)

Typical

It's just what we've come to expect from our leaders: when a scandal of neglect is revealed, their response is to punish the whistle-blowers and cut off media access. But all with the best interests of our troops at heart, of course...

(via Talking Points Memo)

Wednesday shrapnel

It's kind of a mixed bag of bits today, some that make you glad, others that make you want to bang your head against the wall. Typical of recent days...

Good news:

A federal court has ruled that bloggers cannot be held liable for the contents of comments left on their posts -- seems like a no-brainer to me, but it involves defining the two authors as separate "content providers" and working from there...

Bad news:

Not only is the Internet addicting, but it can kill you. eesh...
(via dailyKos)

Worse news:

Trying to get dental care through Medicaid is so difficult, that at least one boy died for lack of a pulled tooth. Note too that his original care would have cost $80, while the surgeries and emergency care after it was too late came closer to $250,000...
(via XOverboard = Some Guy with a Website)

Intriguing:

Just realizing that you're getting exercise can help you lose weight. Score another one for the power of positive thinking...
(via Rebecca's Pocket)

Depressing:

Apparently unsatisfied with indefinite detentions of prisoners in remote facilities, we're now keeping a group of immigrants (many legal) in long-term confinement that, among other things, is leaving their children unschooled and/or without their families, and many families chronically undernourished. What are we becoming?!
(via Medley)

Potentially surprising:

Contrary to what conservative fear-mongers would have you believe, immigrants are statistically more law-abiding than those born here, and their presence actually raises local wages.

More of the same:

In the rush to support Bush's "surge," we're sending troops to Iraq without specialized desert training that was previously considered key to their success. As kos says, another blow to the "support the troops" refrain...

I always suspected

Get Your Monster Name

(via Medley, the Malevolant Evil Demon from the Legendary Enchanted Yonder)

I had my cake, but now she won't let me eat it!

A subset of men seem to think that feminism is to be blamed for all the ills of modern life, most explicitly the challenges to their own sense of worth and power. Amanda picks up a typical example (I was going to say "particularly egregious," but then I thought again) in which a guy is utterly emasculated when his wife's salary begins to exceed his own.

Money is a cold arbiter of power, and when a wife starts making more, both spouses may feel that the husband has somehow been demoted.

Rather than blame feminism for "warping" women's priorities away from feathering the nest into self-actualization, perhaps such gents should focus their ire on the patriarchal structure of our society, which provides men (as well as women) with such a narrow definition of worth that they are left "strangely fragile" in the face of the need for change and communication. As one commenter in this thread put it:

There needs to be some movement to support men in reclaiming their identity from belittling, dehumanizing stereotypes like this.

OH wait there is, they call it feminism.

Indeed, feminism isn't about women hating on the menfolks; it's about breaking out of the rigid structures that our parents (and teachers and peers and media and...) have inflicted upon us, and deciding for ourselves what our aptitudes, interests, and general contributions to our families and to society should be. That the answer could be different for every individual (or couple, or family, or...) should be a source of joy, not terror!

(via Medley)

This rings obvious to me

It's never seemed right to me that "all carbs are bad" or "all fat must be avoided" or any of the extremes touted in various waves, not only because they are extreme (balanced diet, anyone?) but because it seems so unlikely that all body chemistries are the same and will respond the same to a range of foods. Never had anything spicey? it might give you indigestion, but leave your Indian neighbor feeling calm and happy. Those who've grown up on vegetarian diets often find the meat and dairy-heavy American diet takes a long time to adjust to, as the necessary enzymes come "on-line." When my g.i. tract acts up, it's a bowl of cereal that is the only guaranteed gentle meal, while others would claim themselves bloated or unhappy after the same. Neither of us are "wrong," just dealing with different chemistries and adaptations.

Anyway, all that was by way of introduction to a new Scientific American review of a new book that indicates that we actually absorb nutrients better from foods with which we are familiar and that we enjoy. Whether that's a side-effect of a happy mood or of the chemistry we've built up by prior exposure to those foods, it's evidence that we're just not all the same and should stop assuming that one-size-fits-all recommendations are reasonable.

(via Rebecca's Pocket)

Amazing if true

Not sure why this isn't getting more coverage on our side of the pond, but it's a pretty substantial development:

"There are four or five generals and admirals we know of who would resign if Bush ordered an attack on Iran," a source with close ties to British intelligence said. "There is simply no stomach for it in the Pentagon, and a lot of people question whether such an attack would be effective or even possible."

There is a strain of military mores calling for resisting an unjust command. Guys who actually manage troops know what these ridiculous Bush ego trips are costing in actual human suffering...

Fun with graphics

Wow, Indexed is a blog that's made up of little graphs and venn diagrams done on index cards, some showing deep truths (see here or here) and others random silliness (try this or this). Brilliant. I'll have to visit again (as well as mining the archives).

And yes, it reminded me of the classic Cartoons Drawn on the Back of Business Cards as well.

(via Hugo Schwyzer, in a round-about way)

Update: heh, here's another good one... (ok, I'll leave you to surf for yourselves now)

Friday cat blogging, nostalgia edition

Looking back through all my old posts (for keyword purposes) triggered a wave of nostalgia, so it seemed appropriate to mine the kitten files for photos. Here are two of Pixel at around three months (so long ago!) looking cute and groggy in the spotlight in our family room...


A great portrait by my father-in-law, with hints of the regal disdain to come...


Between games, lots of sleep.
(She was so dead to the world that we called her "the cutlet"...)


Previous Pixel blogging (in reverse order of appearance): 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, doh!, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, arrival, teaser, homepage

Tiny, tiny steps

Take your victories where you can: Wimbledon will equalize prizes for men and women (after years of advocacy from Billie Jean King and more recently by Venus Williams). Apparently they were the last of the Grand Slams to recognize that the women's game has been as much, if not more, of a draw as the men's in recent years and deserves equal compensation.

There's still plenty of work to be done in other arenas, but let's celebrate those blows for sanity where we can.

(via Bitch, Ph.D.)

Belated silliness

That is, I got Monday off and didn't leave you with any amusements for the long weekend. It's too late for diversions now, but here are two of the funniest things I've encountered over the last year or so:

• The ultimate mock pie-chart, an instant classic. (I won't spoil your fun by giving the title.)
  (via boing boing)
  
  
• Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above-Average Physique. An inspired tribute to the arcane wisdoms and nerdy joys of a life of science. My favorite of their many merit badges is "I work with way too much radioactivity, and yet still no discernable superpowers yet" heh.
  (via kottke)

By the grim light of day...

We've clearly overstayed our welcome in Iraq, but Mithras goes further:

If you're still alive in Iraq, you realize that the Americans are going to leave, sooner or later. So, you focus on your ultimate opponents - other Iraqis, usually - and use the Americans as a shield or a sword or you ignore them, whichever makes sense in light of your aims.

Seems about right. What are we achieving with that surge again? Can we go home now??

What's on your "permanent record"

Katha Pollitt visits TPMcafe to offer her thoughts on the recent Edwards blogger scandal, which boil down basically to the thought that "mainstream America" isn't really ready for the rough-and-tumble norms of the blogging world:

The man is running for president, not king of the blogosphere, and he's running now, not in some putative future when words like "christofascist" and "fuck" have lost their punch.
...
It's all very well to dismiss as outmoded people who respond poorly to obscenities and dirty jokes about religion. Fact is, there are a lot of them. A candidate would be out of his mind to alienate them over a staffing matter.

It's hard to disagree. I've had similar discussions with my mother and others (see, e.g., here), who are sufficiently jolted by certain types of phrasing that they become unable to hear the larger arguments getting made. Further, the heat of even shared frustration can dissipate with time, making excerpts appear even more damaging in hindsight. I myself am pretty comfortable with a wide range of snark, parody, swearing, and other forms of mixing personality with intellectual arguments, but it will be a long time before there majority of the country shares that familiarity.

I was also interested in Rafe's response to this same series of events, which looks at the Marcotte experience and Dooce's long-ago blog-related firing (see, e.g., here) and sees a lesson for the ages: be careful about what you share with the public, for it may come back to haunt you.

I think this is really the bottom line, and it's true regardless of your field of endeavor. Political bloggers are in the spotlight now, but unless you are anonymous, what you blog about will affect your career. If you write ugly things about Microsoft, you probably shouldn't expect to later be hired by Microsoft, or people who like Microsoft, or people who dislike people who write ugly things. Yes, your blog can raise your level of visibility and present you with new opportunities, but it can also foreclose opportunities that might otherwise have been available.

Among other things, he notes that many employers now Google job applicants. (Heck, I once was Googled by a blind date, to disconcerting effect.) You may not mind those linkages right now, but will you feel as cavallier about your bloviation when you're applying for executive positions or running for political office? Eventually people's attitudes about such things may change -- either tolerance for tough language might increase, or people might learn to be more forgiving of adolescent websites abandoned long ago -- but that could take a mighty long time. It might be best to keep in mind that even if you're writing for your friends, the record you leave behind could be revisited by anybody...

Quote of the day -- political edition

The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the goverment.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

(via digby)

Roberts and the Supremes

A flip title to introduce two interesting stories about what's going on at the Supreme Court. One more intriguing, the other more grim, from my point of view:

1. Howard Bashman reports that Chief Justice Roberts is attempting to get more unified rulings in more cases, rather than the close counts and/or flurry of dissents and concurrences that leave lawyers scratching their heads over how to proceed. Roberts says, among other things,

   The whole notion that it's functioning as a Court doesn't seem to appeal to anyone ... I think it's bad, long-term, if people identify the rule of law with how individual justices vote.

   Bashman notes that achieving greater consensus is easier in theory than in practice (noting some of Roberts' own minority positions).
   
   
2. The L.A. Times speculates that Justice Scalia may emerge as the leader of a new conservative majority in some of the major cases this year. If he writes the majority opinions in some of the hot issues coming before the court in the near future, he could leave his black-and-white thinking to guide development of some whole swaths of social issues.

   Even when in the majority, Scalia has written relatively few major opinions for the court. Rehnquist, during his tenure as chief justice from 1986 to 2005, rarely turned to Scalia, because doing so risked losing the crucial votes of moderates, in particular O'Connor and Kennedy.

   His popularity hasn't increased, I don't think, but the substitution of Alito and Roberts for O'Connor and Rehnquist means that there may be more ideological allies for Scalia's conservative views on more cases to come. Only time will tell how that will play out.

(via How Appealing)

Today's schadenfreude

In retrospect it seems almost inevitable, in today's Through the Looking-glass world, that after years of accusing Democrats of "supporting terrorists" by questioning Administration policy, it turns out that the Republicans have been benefitting from likely terrorist supporters of the real (financial) kind . . .

Anything to make a buck!

Quote of the day

Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone.

- Gladys Browyn Stern,
writer (1890-1973)

[The same might be said of unvoiced admiration, or unexpressed love...]

(via A.W.A.D.)

Chinese New Year

We're a couple days into the Year of the Pig, in honor of which Cute Overload offers an appropriate deluge of piglet adorability. Tis the season!!
.

Shamelessley lifted from Atrios

One of the infinite absurdities surrounding the recent "SCARY WEAPONS FROM IRAN" was assertions like this one from Tony Snow:

You cannot deny that these weapons exist. You cannot deny that there is presently no manufacturing capability within Iraq able to produce those kinds of weapons.

It wasn't long ago that Iraq was an existential threat to the United States, and now they can't even manage to produce relatively simple weapons.

Except, of course, they can.

Friday cats -- some spotted, some not

I've been accused of disguising the fact that our household holds *4* cats and not 2, by showing pictures only of the bengals. I can only anwer by noting the difficulty in capturing a picture of a black cat (like our two non-bengals) that looks like anything other than a black blob. Anyway, we do get a decent one occasionally, including this one that pairs Pixel (right) with onetime Master of the Household, Yogi (left).


You're blocking my heatlamp!


Prior evidence of additonal cats:
foursome, playtime!, three-fer, catnip!, Pixel and Yogi, and of course my cats page (where the "blobs" have been Photoshopped lighter until some features emerged)
Update: here's another one -- a solo appearance by a black cat, no less!

Easy come, easy go

Defense Secretary Robert Gates hasn't been around long enough to know that you either march with the Cheney drumbeat or learn to look confused about the particulars....

'For the umpteenth time, we are not looking for an excuse to go to war with Iran,' he said at a Pentagon news conference. 'We are not planning a war with Iran.'

I suppose that the other alternative is that the new guy is being kept strictly out of the information loop, so as to provide him with heartfelt deniability -- it worked with Colin Powell, didn't it? Sigh. I figure he'll be replaced long before we start bringing any of our troops home...

(via Follow Me Here)

More news of the ridiculous

Don't know if you've heard about the story of the Connecticut teacher (a substitute!) who was taken to court because her inadequately protected classroom computer began to spout porn in the middle of a classroom presentation. Probably anybody who's been on the Internet has bumped into things they didn't want to find, but viruses and other malware make this kind of thing the responsibility of the tech folks, not the innocent teacher. Anyway, This Modern World recaps the story (with lots of links along the way) and updates its status, which involves a volunteer-funded legal team attempting to overturn her absurdly unjust conviction.

Sometimes doing right pays off!

Apparently media companies that invest in their newsrooms, upping the quality of their reporting, do better than those that try to get ahead by slashing staff and other costs. That's sure how you'd like it to be, but it doesn't seem like many current executives are willing to think past this quarter's profit line...

(via This Modern World)

Nose buried in a book

Have been putting a lot of my energies into the archives, getting all the images restored and keywords added. Has been fun, to see the kaleidoscope of topics and moments of eloquence along the way, but also a bit mind-numbing in total effect. Anyway, I'm not lost, just stupidly occupied. Hope to be back to normal soon.

Meantime, go check out this thought-provoking post at dailyKos about immigration policy, domestic wages and prices, and the historical view of what we lose by narrow-mindedness.

Bob and weave...

I heard some of Bush's press conference this morning, and I agree with Josh Marshall that he's trying to make a case against Iran by innuendo. I have my fingers crossed that the American people will see the obvious parallels with the "because I say so" proof of the need to invade Iraq, but within an hour I heard the NPR commentators slip from discussing whether there was any verifiable evidence into speculating about the motives of Iranian agents, how they were getting such arms in, etc... Ack.

Neuromancer meets Minority Report

This is just about the coolest thing I've seen in a long time:

Multi-touch, by Perceptive Pixel

Perhaps the hypnotic music contributes to the effect, but watching the way these guys can easily manipulate images and information makes me imagine that the next generation might conceive of time, distance, and information completely differently than even we of the Computer Age already do. A million applications came abstractly to mind, but it was more the feeling of naturalness and seamless integration. Yes, the interface brings "Minority Report" to mind, but it's hard not to feel that the user of such a system would be immersed in the information in a way much more analogous to the "jacking in" envisioned by Gibson a few decades ago...

(via R and some crazy academic long-term planning)

It's good to be on salary

I'm home today because my office is having a snow day. It's even better than in elementary school, because instead of having to camp out in front of the radio all morning, they called me, before I'd even gotten out of bed. Good stuff.

(condolences to Spouse, who went to work today as usual)

Quote of the day

It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way.

- Rollo May,
psychologist (1909-1994)

(via A.W.A.D.)

Showing his spots (installment, the next)

John McCain, perennial media darling, celebrates Darwin's birthday by giving a keynote for creationists. I suppose he hopes it's early enough that it will be forgotten by the general public by next year...

(via Atrios)

But they love those troops!

Bush is asking for billions and billions to slaughter Iraqis and foment terrorism in the Mideast, but meanwhile he's yet again asking to cut funds for veterans just as the number of walking wounded is spiking. How can he continue to make these proposals with a straight face? When will the public start to take notice?

(via Atrios)

Spiff!

Design Within Reach sponsored a contest for best chair made out of a champagne cork and its surrounding metal sheath -- the entries are really very impressive, ranging from the goofy to the extremely chic.

(via boing boing)

Just how I wanted to start my week

With the confirmation of our suspicions that the Cheney administration is gunning for Iran. (Certainly, the weekend papers were full of stories about how "it seems like" some explosive devices are coming into Iraq from Iran. I noted that they didn't talk about how most of the rest of the weaponry there was put into

Update: yes, and then there's this...

Update 2: Josh Marshall spells out why even the evidence proffered is insufficient to the Administration's aims...

Friday non-cat blogging

In honor of our lengthy recent cold snap, which has driven me to pull out all my heavy Yellowstone gear just for the daily commute to work, a little snow-flecked photo of Rob, demonstrating his own winter bundlage (and prize-winning smile)...



Have a great weekend, all!

Blogger does a good thing

There's always time for it to backfire, of course, but today Blogger forced (as well as finally allowed) me to upgrade to their current standard. Things may not end up looking that different, but it's much easier to shift the format a bit, and -- big news! -- add keywords. This is a pretty miscellaneous blog, so hopefully visitors will find some value in being able to read my collection of posts on a particular topic (say, science, or religion, or pesky politicians) if so inclined. Look for a sidebar list of topical headings in the near future.

Note: this is a much slower process than I foresaw. Am unlikely to put keywords in the sidebar until I've worked through my archives, which could be quite a while. (New posts will have keywords going forward, however.)

What passes for news

Apparently some hot chick died yesterday. Bob Harris notes that she dominated all news sites, despite some pretty significant stories in other quarters of the planet (at least the first two of which seem like pretty big deals to me!)...

We are a sad people.

(via This Modern World)

Quote of the day

I was misunderstood growing up and have often been misunderstood since, but then so is everyone else. People are busy, and you can’t expect them to drop everything and try to understand you. If you want to be understood, practice kindness and mercy. Kindness is seldom mistaken for anything else. Small kindnesses reverberate a long time in people’s hearts.

– Garrison Keillor

(via A Mindful Life)

Aftermath to a cleansing

We're not talking about New Orleans much anymore, so it looks like the displacements are becoming permanent. The radically smaller size of the city is given visual expression here, in a comparison of Before and After phonebook thickness...

Ouch.

On the flip side of technology

Is the gap between "having an Internet guy" on the team, and actually "getting" the Internet and how it lets you directly connect with people all around the country. This essay is centered around Obama and whether he'll make the leap to using electronic means for real organizing activity, but the message there is one that many politicians need to learn.

If candidates think they can outsource their emails to “Internet guys,” then why not outsource their role in ads to actors? When they do “call time” to large donors, why not use someone who does a good voice impersonation? You can’t outsource a real personal connection between yourself and your supporters. Come on people: you’re our leaders, this is a new medium for leadership, pick it up with your own two hands and see what you can do with it.

By the time the current crop of college students hits the Insider League, this will be obvious, but right now there's an opportunity to be the first to understand the power of the new medium and make out like a bandit as a result. I hope the one to manage that is somebody I like....

(via Atrios)

Kinda cool

Here's a little YouTube video called Web 2.0, which does a good job of explaining how technology has changed our relationship with information, and gradually our relationships with each other. A kind of information systems anthropology. (And, of course, rather dependent on the current democratic instantiation of the Web, complete with Net Neutrality...) Worth the 4 minutes.

(via boing boing)

Today's debunkery

Marijuana is not a gateway drug, despite what the War on Drug folks might say. Time for a more productive frame of thought about this one.

(via Alas, a blog)

Local boy makes good!

Along with big boys Obama and Thompson, Patrick Murphy is the co-sponser of legislation to force "de-escalation" in Iraq.

"As someone who served in Baghdad with the 82nd Airborne, I can tell you that what's needed in Iraq is a surge in diplomacy, not an escalation of force. This legislation seeks a much-needed political solution and puts forward a tough and sensible plan to end the war," said Congressman Patrick Murphy. "We shouldn't be sending American men and women to referee a civil war. Our troops have done their job, now it's time to start bringing them home..."

Yeah, we worked hard in PA to get a few good prospects into Washington, and it appears we chose well.

Another bit of time-travel, thanks to the Bushies

I'm disheartened, although not surprised, to learn that the Bush Administration has systematically converted the federal government into a giant patronage system -- certainly we know that Brownie wasn't hired for his disaster management expertise...

These are two different pieces of the same story: under the guise of promoting a conservative agenda, the Bush administration has created a supersized version of the 19th-century spoils system.
. . .
Those political appointees chosen for their loyalty, not their expertise, aren’t very good at doing their proper jobs — as all the world learned after Hurricane Katrina struck. But they have been very good at rewarding campaign contributors, from energy companies that benefit from lax regulation of pollution to pharmaceutical companies that got a Medicare program systematically designed to protect their profits.

That they're doing it seems completely in line with everything we've seen; that they have some kind of intellectual argument/underpinning for unraveling the notion of civil service sickens me.

A pleasant perversity

Washington state legislators decided to define marriage as between one man and one woman, and the courts upheld their right to do so based on "state interest in protecting marriage for procreation." Well, ok then; gay rights activists have submitted legislation to require proof of procreative potential/activity from all license-seekers:

I-957 has five clauses that would have to be met for a legal marriage.

It would allow only couples capable of having kids to marry, and that they file "proof of procreation" within three years of the marriage. If not, the marriage would be annulled.

I have to agree with Markos, who says,

Damn right! If marriage is about procreation, then it should be about procreation.

Otherwise -- and I can't believe this is still controversial! - let marriage be between people who love each other.

Amen. Put up or shut up, Washington.

Now that's what *I* call a folding chair!

From couch to book thickness. But is it comfortable to sit on?!

(via boing boing)

Friday cat-blogging

Groggy, slow-moving day. Too much thinking brings me to a halt. Sounds like a good excuse for some bengal pictures! It's been a while since Pixel got a solo showing, so here she is at just under two years.


Crazy look induced by a last-minute kitchen noise.


Previous Pixel-blogging (in reverse chronology): 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, doh!, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, arrival, teaser, homepage

The cruelest holiday

Not looking forward to Valentine's Day? Despair, Inc., comes through with the perfect solution:

BitterSweets

"The Valentine's Candy for the Rest of Us." Too fabulous.

(via a KoL forum poster)

See hole, dig it all the way through the earth

This just makes me grind my teeth.
One disastrous war is more than enough.
.

I love the Internet (installment #483569)

Went looking for a goofy song by a band that was one of my favorite live acts until they went their separate ways, Moxy Fruvous (with an umlaut over that first u). Anyway, I came across an online record of one of their live concerts from some time back, including some favorites and a couple that I swear were never performed elsewhere (Marion Fruvous?!). Has made me happy listening to it all morning, and now I'll have to dig out the one live show tape that I have buried somewhere -- the random patter and musical ad libbing between songs is part of what makes their lives shows much better than their albums. (This isn't their best, but does make me long for another tour!!) Thanks, Internets!!



And there are many more! whoot!! (I think Iron Horse is the one I have from a tape tree...)

Quote of the day

Was home yesterday watching a new furnace come into being. Forgot to blog, which isn't a bad thing. back now...

We too have our thaws. They come to our January moods, when our ice cracks, and our sluices break loose. Thought that was frozen up under stern experience gushes forth in feeling and expression. There is a freshet which carries away dams of accumulated ice. Our thoughts hide unexpressed, like the buds under their downy or resinous scales; they would hardly keep a partridge from starving. If you would know what are my winter thoughts look for them in the partridge’s crop. They are like the laurel buds,—some leaf, some blossom buds,—which, though food for such indigenous creatures, will not expand into leaves and flowers until summer comes.

- Henry David Thoreau
journal entry of January 31, 1854

(via the Thoreau blog)

Another score for Harry Reid

The GOP filibuster of the minimum wage was brought to an end by a combination of threats, not least the declaration by Senate Democrats that Congressional pay-raises would be put on hold until the minimum wage hike passed. (I note with some satisfaction that the same linkage was used to excellent effect in Pennsylvania last year.)

Good news and bad news from the sex wars

Good news: fantastic ad campaign to prevent rape via appeals to men -- "my strength is not for hurting" is the theme (link to a series of posters). Imagine! men can stop rape (link to the sponsoring organization); it's not all up to the women to keep themselves cloistered and/or armed with mace. A heartening development. (Also worthy of note is that a subset of the posters are aimed at same-sex sexual violence: "When I wanted to and he didn't, we didn't.")

Bad news: the latest development in the competitive Seattle coffee market? half-naked barristas. Another opportunity to remind the sex class that even a regular job (minimum wage) should involve showing a little skin. (Or, to quote Twisty, "Is there anything that porn can’t fix?")

(via Twisty commenters, and the blamer herself, respectively)

Through a slanted lens

Recent research by political scientists has revealed that, however much the American people may be ready for black/minority candidates, journalists appear not to be.

Three interesting results emerge from these content analyses of national and local newspaper coverage. First, journalists disproportionately underscore the race of black candidates, while virtually never identifying white politicians by their color, no matter the circumstances. Second, journalists covering a black candidate are more likely to emphasize party affiliation and voter demographics, while providing relatively less coverage of substantive issues; fewer policy questions are discussed in white-black elections than in any other scenario. Finally, journalists tend to muzzle racial messages from candidates, or campaigns, while nevertheless accenting race themselves.

Thus, by anticipating racial concerns from voters, journalists are, in fact, triggering those concerns by their own actions. We can only hope that they will use up some of that energy in these early days of rumble about Obama et al., so that we can talk about more substantive issues by the time that broader attention to the primaries rolls around. There are too many important issues facing our nation right now for us to get bogged down in superficialities...

(via Follow Me Here)

When will they stop hating America?

Vice President Cheney's office won't even disclose how many people work there. What on earth?! Don't we pay them? (I mean, much to boggle the mind, even before the obvious irony about his much lesser concern about Valerie Plame's actual covert employment...)

Bad news, but useful frame

The bad news is that the US Comptroller says budget teetering on the verge of needing a tax doubling to pay things back to health. The good news is that Crooks and Liars comes up with a good frame for this:

The right has done a good job of smearing Democrats as "Tax and Spend Liberals." But those of us in the reality-based community know that the money is still being spent, the question is when we take it in. So in my continuing quest to reframe the debate, I move that we hereby dub the Republicans the party of "Borrow and Spend," because all they're doing is borrowing against our children's and grandchildren's taxes.

About right, and putting it this way might help take the air out of the tiresome "tax and spend" refrain, because doing that would be so much better than the current system (at least the budget would balance that way; these guys just spend and spend and hope that money will grow on trees...). Of course, good rhetoric is no replacement for fiscal responsibility.

(via Medley)

Another powerful veterans' ad

Like the body armor ad that aired before the election, this anti-surge advertisement makes its point in no uncertain terms. The American people and the troops abroad want the same thing; for the latter to come home safely. What does George Bush want?

When does the greed stop?!

Ted Kennedy upbraids the Republicans for their unwillingness to bring the minimum wage to a vote, and their insistance on piling it up with amendments (either for delay or to make it unacceptable to proponents in the end)...

Do you have such disdain for hard-working Americans? ... What is it about it that drives you Republicans crazy? what is it? ... What is it about working men and women that you find so offensive?!

That's about right. He's been around long enough to recognize "filibuster by amendment" when he sees it... How much must be funneled to the rich before the working poor get their crumbs?

(via kwestone at dailyKos)

Friday Sid-blogging

I have heard the clamoring of my readers, and I have responded: fewer cat photos, more Sid! This one comes from this past Thanksgiving (or rather, the Saturday before, at the traditional local feast hosted by pal Karen).


Formal, yet stylish...


Previous Sidly appearances: holidays, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

That McCain sure is a maverick!

Once again he's bucking the will of the insiders American people, by voting to get rid of the minimum wage -- not just not raise it, you realize, but get rid of it entirely. Somebody please tell me that this guy has no real chance as the GOP nominee...?

(via Atrios)

Need a good laugh?

I tripped over Mark Day Comedy as a result of his SoTU rant (which covers everything from politics to Oscars to whoknowswhat), which more than repays a two-minute investment, but it's worth the extra time to dip into the greater random wonderfulness of the House Takeover and Will It Blend vids. Beyond that, you're on your own...

Quote of the day

Evil is like a shadow - it has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it.

- Shakti Gawain,
teacher and author (1948- )

(via A.W.A.D.)

Just because you're paranoid...

...doesn't mean that there wasn't confirmed vote-rigging in Ohio in 2004. Enough to swing an election? Who knows. But those crying foul weren't just wearing tinfoil hats.

(via a Medley furling)

You know global warming is becoming hard to deny...

...when industry executives call on the President to implement mandatory regulations.

The executives, representing major utilities, aluminum and chemical companies and financial institutions, said the cornerstone of climate policy should be an economy-wide emissions cap-and-trade system.

Hard to even take this in!

(via dailyKos)

Well said, sir

I didn't listen to this year's State of the Union, finding a reason to be out of the house all evening. But I found this transcript of Webb's Democratic response quite inspiring. It holds the President accountable both for what he's promised and for what he's overlooked, with a warning that the new majority in Congess doesn't intend to stand idly by. Let it be so!

(via Medley)

Update: dailyKos offers some point-by-point critique of Bush's claims, which appear to have massaged the facts in more than one instance...

Evidence you're doing ok

Wow -- a pop essay in class leads to a work of art. It's good to know that sometimes we can teach our kids just the right things (or at least stay out of the way as they pick up the key things on their own, if so wired).

(via Medley)

Quote of the day

You cannot think straight with a heart full of fear, for fear seeks safety, not truth… A heart full of love, on the other hand, has a limbering effect on the mind.

– William Sloane Coffin

(via A Mindful Life)

Neat idea

Learning a new language, or watching one fade from lack of exercise? An online service called Mixxer allows you to find a native speaker of that language to practice on (and then allow them to practice your native language, which they're learning, on you). I guess you speak online using Skype (a free Internet-based phone system), so you can be anywhere in the world. Better than the average pen pal!!

(via upyernoz @ rubber hose)

Sprawl begets more of same

That is, urban sprawl leads to larger waistlines, as those in the car-dependent suburbs fail to find the daily exercise outlets that are a part of daily life walking in the city. This seems obvious in many ways, but is rarely part of the discussion about regional planning and development (any more than anybody ever mentions the energy-efficiency of city dwelling, where row houses and high-rises cut down on energy waste during heating and cooling seasons)...


(via boing boing)

Not forgotten...

Bob Harris thinks that Hillary Clinton may be unelectable. I think it's hard to judge that at the moment, especially given her strong polling against even such rising GOP stars as Guliani. However, the view of her among Democrats remains quite divided, not least because of the uncompromising positions she's taken during her time in the Senate:

In the wake of 9-11, it wasn't just George W. Bush telling the world "every nation has to be either with us or against us." It was Hillary, as you can hear for yourself.

In October 2002, during the debate about giving Bush authorization to invade Iraq, it wasn't just Dick Cheney telling the world in that Saddam Hussein had links to Al-Qaeda. It was Hillary, from the floor of Congress.

And in February 2005, it wasn't just John McCain claiming that democracy was taking root in Iraq, and that the insurgency was in its last throes. It was Hillary, standing right at John McCain's side.

Yeah. So President Hillary would be soooooo much better about Iraq. Clap louder, everybody. Make it come true.

Plenty of people were wrong on the war initially, but some have continued to make their wrongness a prominent part of their public presence, and I'm not sure this is the time when folks are going to feel interested in rewarding that...

(via This Modern World)

Update: in a different vein, the TPM Cafe offers a comparison of the fundraising approaches of the Clinton and Obama camps...

Not enjoyable, but apt

DailyKos offered a response to Sanctity of Life Day, including frim reminders of our leaders' disregard for human life and dignity both at home and abroad.

Better late than never

It started to feel like winter here over the last week or two, after a December with many days in the 60s (why did we cover up our patio furniture, again?). Today I awoke to a slight coating of snow, which makes it official. Of course, now I'm spoiled and prefer not to shiver on my way to work, but so it goes . . .

Data deluge

Just really cool, and yet with a wealth of deeper levels to plumb, this visual map of per capita income and life expectancy for the world's nations (dynamically shown from 1975 until today) blew my mind. I think I've run it a dozen timea already, following different questions/aspects on each pass.

(via coworker LRP)

Update: a grim observation here -- you can watch the effect of AIDS in Africa by tracking the plummet in life expectancy during the 80s and 90s. eep.

Three bits for Friday

Good news: New York City will pioneer an attempt to let 311 and 911 call centers accept digital images. Probably some danger of spamming, but imagine being able to record real-time images of fleeing criminals, proof of code violations, caller location, etc... If this works, perhaps it will spread to other cities (although really, here in Philly we'd be happy just to have reliable 911 response!).
(via boing boing)

Bad news: Senate Republicans are obstructing a bill on ethics and lobbying reform, holding it captive to their desire for a line-item veto for the President. I'll take mangled priorities for $200, Alex...
(via Talking Points Memo)

Interesting: The Pew folks releases a survey of Internet usage during the 2006 election, including the statistic that some 14 million Americans now consume, create, and/or distribute information online. Lots of interesting analysis of the break-down too -- I like that fact-checking candidate claims is the 2nd most common goal.
(via Talking Points Memo)

(p.s.) have my image hosting account back up and about half reloaded, so I guess you can expect the emoticons and other small images to start trickling in again soon. (however, going back to patch all the broken archives is a much bigger project...)

Thursday cuteness

Tiger cubs might just trump regular kittens, in part because of the oversized squeaky and noddy-ness . . .

Not a bad start

The Democrats have made some hay with the start of their new session:



Of course, there's still the Senate, and/or the veto stamp of George Bush ahead for some of these things, but at least the House has sounded the battle cry of the Reasonable American...

(via dailyKos)

Does this sort of thing have hope? or only as a gesture?

Woolsey, Waters, and Lee introduce a bill to bring our troops home within six months, including additional funds for Iraqi training, and also guarantees of decent veterans' health coverage. I don't know whether there are coordinated plans to pursue something like this, as opposed to Murtha's approach of using his committee to restrict funds for an escalation, and/or others. Is political will building?

Update: Apparently it's a veritable downpour of such measures, both symbolic and substantive. Still the question remains of whether any can pass, and/or whether they will have any effect on the Bushites.

I... I.... but... but...

Are there any laws in the land at all, to Gonzales' eye? Or is the difference between "right" and "wrong" only meaningful in the eye of his Leader? It creeps me out on so many levels, but not least through fear for the future of our democracy...

Another week, another attack on civil rights

The Bush Administration now claims that civilians may be tried in military courts, as long as they had the temerity to visit Iraq, whether as contractors, reporters, or who-knows-what. I never cease to be amazed at the scorn that these guys have for "the American way of life" that they talk so much about...

I had yesterday off

...and didn't blog from home either, so two belated Martin Luther King, Jr., bits for those who might not have gotten a full serving on his Day: the Liberal Street Fighter notes King's strong views on Vietnam, and how they might apply today, and here's my own offering from two years ago, of gleanings from his later (non-Dream) speeches that we tend not to hear so much about...

(first link via Medley)

It's not enough to take away habeus corpus

...or drive the inmates of Gitmo insane; now the Administration is threatening lawyers who have the nerve to attempt to uphold our legal structure by offering representation to detainees. Somehow an accused mass murdere deserves representation, but a poor schlump caught up in a massive neighborhood sweep in Afghanistan deserves to never see daylight again.

This stuff is beyond scary anymore...

Modern-day kibuki

A wonderful visual rendering of the abstraction that passes for safety instruction given by flight attendants.

(via kottke)

Quote of the day

The butterfly counts not years but moments and has time enough.

-Rabindranath Tagore,

poet, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter,
educator, composer, Nobel laureate (1861-1941)

Punished for foresight?

Eric Alterman has a good piece on how supporters of the war continue to demonize war opponents, even after their predictions come true, changing the charges as needed. It does get pretty tiring when predictions that a tactic won't work become morphed into claims that the predictor "wants them to fail." More proof, I guess, that winning the rhetorical war is more important to some than a positive outcome on the ground -- a byproduct of doing rhetoric for a living??

(via Atrios)

A good time for Friday cat cuteness

Given that most of the rest of what I'm going to blog is war and mayhem, I'd like to start with the rather simpler and more enjoyable image of one of our cats in her eccentric routine. For some reason that we can't quite divine, Pasha (now about 18 months old) likes to hop into our soaking tub when we're in the bathroom brushing our teeth et al. Perhaps it's the great echo chamber for her mewps ("you could be petting me!!"), or maybe she once found a splashy puddle in there and lives in hope, but anyway, this is a relatively common sight:


Here she's stretched luxuriously on the tub seat.


Here she's down in the foot well, presumably fresh from worshipping the drain...


Previous Pasha-blogging (in reverse order of appearance): 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, arrival, teaser3, teaser2, teaser1, homepage

Three fronts

This can't be good...

(via ned balzer at TPMcafe)

I won't be marching tonight

I think it's touching that there are so many Stop the Excalation rallies, here in Philadelphia and presumably elsewhere around the nation. But we have to remember the powerful and moving shows of anti-war sentiment worldwide in the run-up to the Iraq invasion, the millions filling the streets of major cities and capitals in all parts of the globe (see, e.g., here), and their complete lack of effect on what followed.

I'm sorry, but it's still the Bush administration. They don't care what you think.

Don't expect a big news story on this

Cracks are showing in the famed Republican phalanx, as Representatives break ranks to vote for the 100-Days Agenda of Sanity (in striking numbers)...

Well said (the elusive center edition)

A Huffington Post piece does a good job of capturing the current state of the culture wars, be it political, partisan, or social issue in substance (emphasis mine):

Beware the dirty hippies. They're immature and irresponsible. They're utopians and dreamers. They meddle with lives and hate Christian values and blame America first and root for terrorists. They want free sex and legalized drugs and mandatory abortion. They want to eat your babies. They heart Satan.

This enormous backlash against revolutionary leftism continued growing and gaining strength long after revolutionary leftism petered out as a political force of any real influence. The narratives and habits of mind bequeathed us by the culture war are with us still, despite the long-ago disappearance of one combatant. It's shadowboxing on a nationwide scale, and it shows no signs of abating.

Any number of examples could be cited. The same dynamic plays out on virtually every issue: there's the virulent far-right position, funded by deep-pocketed reactionaries and pushed by talk radio, an enormous network of mutually reinforcing conservative pundits in every major media outlet, an entire cable news network (three now, really), and numerous powerful politicians in leadership positions in every branch of government. Then there's the avowedly liberal position, represented by some obscure professor or a guy in the comment section of a blog or a random placard at a protest. Then there's the "centrist" position, which is the far-right position with the edges rubbed off.
. . .
In other words, the "center" has become utterly detached from facts, substance, or majority opinion. It's an insular, self-sustaining myth, all about the vanity and egos of powerful people in the Beltway clusterfuck.

Indeed. Much of the energy driving the "netroots," new progressive political organizing, and many other changes in recent politics is the desire to recreate an actual left to balance the (heavily weighted) right, which is why cries of "bipartisanship" and "triangulation" lead to such clamor and frustration.

(via Hullabaloo)

The uppity American

This Modern World offers some thoughts for idiot pundits. heh.
It's hard being a peon.
.

In surprising twist, evidence of Republican hypocrisy!

The old filibuster, once labeled obstructionist and un-American, now discovered to be great tool for minority input into legislation. Would you look at that!

(via rubber hose)

Well ok then!

John Murtha, now chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, reasserts in no uncertain terms that Congress has ultimate power over the pursestrings and that the Executive should be consulting with them before making major increases in military commitment. Will be interesting to see where that leads...

Update: Ted Kennedy introduces legislation to restrict the President's right to plunge ahead without Congressional approval. Party on!

Update 2: There's plenty of precedent out there for such limits-setting by Congress. Not that I expect that to prevent a lot of Republican fist-shaking...

More developments that surprise only those at the top...

The execution of Saddam Hussein has turned him into a martyr. Boy, we're doing wonders with those hearts and minds...

(via XOverboard/Some Guy with a Website)

Good to know that it snows somewhere!

Spent the week around New Years in Yellowstone National Park, enjoying the strange mix of deep snow and steaming thermal features (along with scattered wildlife and a bit of snowshoe and cross-country ski action). Altogether spiff.





(You can take the whole tour via the FlickR set here.)
Now back in Philadelphia, where we hit 70 degrees over the weekend. Am taking solace in the fact that somehow that failed to be a record high . . . Onward, ho!

Two worthy bits on social science and bias

Both from Alas, a blog:

• The thing that's bad for you is being sedentary, not being overweight. Americans are so disgusted by their fat that they constantly try to give that hatred medical underpinnings, but the data just isn't there. An oversized person who doesn't get out of breath climbing a flight of stairs is much better off than a skinny person who does.
  
  
• Discrimination against blacks is pervasive and detrimentary, even in those contexts such as employment and education, where whites tend to complain about "unfair advantages." A white applicant fresh from prison is still more likely to get a second job interview than a black applicant with a clean history, given identical resumes. In related news, those who complain that they've been bumped from college by affirmative action students are way off base according to the actual statistics. The impact on white applicants is virtually negligible.

Ampersand continues to provide some of the best analysis out there of real research data on these and many other topics; thanks to him for his time investment and insights.

Ugh (the ongoing series)

Part of our "new direction" in Iraq appears to be retooling the military for an Iran front. Guess that "message from the electorate" didn't even make a dent...

Quote of the day

Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm but the harm does not interest them.

- T.S. Eliot,
poet (1888-1965)

(via A.W.A.D.)

I wasn't using my civil rights anyway...

Those folks who used to say, "If you don't like America, why don't you move to Russia?!" must have said it a few too many times, because our President appears intent on bringing that cheery Soviet atmosphere to us here. That is, in yet another of his beloved "signing statements," he's claimed the right to open anybody's mail at any time without a warrant.

Remind me, what are our troops fighting to protect, again??