The Sleeper Cell

Running

2010-05-08T11:43:00.000+01:00

In my dreams, I'm running again, and so happy, loving it.

I don't know when it started, within the last few weeks, I suppose; lately, when I wake up, it's after dreaming about running a cross-country style race. Any fledgling psychologists out there would be wise to hold their tongues; these dreams aren't about running from something, but maybe about running toward something. I'm inclined to take them literally, though; I think I just miss running, and it's finally making it's way to my conscious mind. Unfortunately, I don't currently have good running shoes, and I hate running on roadways. London is not a convenient place to go for a nice, satisfying run. I may have to look into this some more, though, and see if I can find a proper solution.

Maybe I should re-name this blog "The Sleep Runner" in the meantime.

Martin Luther King Day

2010-01-18T17:09:00.000Z

I have nothing particularly profound to write here, except to note that Dr. King, like President Obama, won a Nobel Peace Prize. Unlike President Obama, he had spent his life working for non-violence and opposing war, to the extent that other leaders in the black community worried his opposition to the Vietnam War would make it more difficult to pass civil rights reform. Of course, Henry Kissinger won a one, too.

Anyway, happy birthday-ish, Dr. King.

2010-01-13T15:46:00.002Z

Governor Rell not running in 2010

2009-11-10T15:09:00.000Z

Gov. Jodi Rell has decided not to run for re-election in 2010. Whoever wins the that job will receive all the blame for the state's budgetary woes (the Gold Coast turns out to be Tin, still struggling to get going again after the banks crashed) and will have an incredible uphill battle. If a Democrat wins (looks like Susan Bysiewicz is the Dem front-runner), it'll take an incredible amount of success and skill to avoid tarnishing the party in CT for the foreseeable future. If a Republican wins, it will be much harder to blame Democrats for the state of the state's finances (though not impossible by any means), and the success or failure of the Republican party/governor will be based mostly on their ability to shift the blame to the legislature. I also don't think I'd approve of the choices a Republican governor would make, but, frankly, I don't think I'll like many of the choices the next governor is going to have to make. It's going to be an interesting few years to be a nutmegger.

Maine

2009-11-04T15:25:00.000Z

Last night the voters of Maine decided to invade the privacy of millions of citizens of their state to tell them that they had decided to rescind the marriage rights that had so recently been granted by the state's government. There are so many ways in which this is frustrating and offensive, but only a few worth mentioning. At its broadest, the idea that a majority of citizens can decide that another group of otherwise law-abiding citizens cannot get married is incredibly offensive. The idea two people in love who want to get married should be unable to because of their gender just doesn't sit right. Does it demean marriage? Can an institution which fails 50% of the time be demeaned? Not so easily. Can an institution which has historically been used to further careers, both political and non-political, be demeaned by people who love one another? Surely that's a joke. On the same level, then, the vote against allowing gays and lesbians to have the same rights as straight couples has nothing to do with the institution of marriage at all; it is all about homophobia, whether weak or strong. Weak homophobia says "I don't really like seeing two gay guys kiss... I've got gay friends, though, I've just never seen them with their boyfriends." Strong homophobia says "I hate gays, they're disgusting and they should all be killed." Although one is slightly softer than the other, they both end up voting the same way, to deny their brothers and sisters the rights they themselves have.

In the long run, though, gay marriage will win. At one point during the night, apparently, polling data from the University of Maine area was flashed on-screen showing 81% of the votes from the campus in favor of gay marriage (in opposition of the referendum question). That hatred is centered primarily among the older and aging populations, so it is inevitable that their movement will peter out. The broader curve of history is toward greater, not lesser, equality regardless of sexuality.

James Bond

2009-11-04T12:31:00.000Z

I don't think I mentioned this previously, but a few months ago I read my first James Bond books. Specifically, I read a Penguin Modern Classics book containing Casino Royale, Live and Let Die and Moonraker. They were actually very interesting, although as a reader you have to remain constantly aware of the fact that the novels were written and published in the 1950s. In particular, the novels contain casual racism and sexism but, interestingly, they also move away from the stereotypes occasionally. Perhaps that is only as a nod to what Rudyard Kipling considered "the White Man's burden," but either way, they hint at a social enlightenment one might not expect from Ian Fleming or James Bond.

Reading the novels also reminds me of the age-old debate over the best Bond actors in film. In my opinion, you can only have this discussion if you leave Sean Connery out of it, since he essentially created the role and ought to be the touchstone against whom the rest are judged... not that I will entirely follow through on this. So, my ranking would be something along these lines: (Connery), Dalton/Craig (tie for best non-Connery), Brosnan, Lazenby and finally and worst, Moore. What Timothy Dalton and Daniel Craig did was to take the role of James Bond fairly seriously and Dalton, at least, had read the books and was a great fan of them. The James Bond of the novels doesn't have a one-liner or a quip ready for every occasion; rather, he's a serious guy who does what has to be done and, though he's willing to die for Queen and country, would really rather not. Roger Moore turned James Bond into a camp joke. Moore hadn't read any of the Bond novels and never really cared to. By the end, with his man-boobs and flopping, protrusive stomach, he simply had no credibility for the role.

As for my opinion of Lazenby, I thought he was actually a pretty decent Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. He wasn't spectacular, but he outshone his successor by actually taking his character reasonably seriously and attempting to act. He did come off as a bit clumsy, but he was an interesting half-way between the Roger Moore silly/campy Bond and the incredibly serious and focused Bond of Timothy Dalton and, more recently, Daniel Craig. At the end of the day, in fact, I think Lazenby is the most underrated Bond actor, as most casual fans won't even have heard of him or his movie. I've also just read a bit about OHMSS on IMDb, because I was curious about Lazenby's story, and I learned that OHMSS is one of the most faithful adaptations to film of a Bond film, for which I give it quite a bit of credit. For those wondering why Lazenby was only in one film, IMDb says:

The main reason for George Lazenby refusing to reprise the role of James Bond was because he considered the tuxedo-clad secret agent to be out of touch with the newly liberated 1970s. Lazenby had been offered a seven picture deal and had signed a letter of intent to star in Diamonds Are Forever (1971). He had even been paid an initial fee installment which he later refunded.

The film came out in 1969.

Final note: I think Brosnan could have been higher on the list as he was a talented actor and took the role reasonably seriously, but every single film he was in was such incredible dreck, a holdover from the Moore days, that his reputation as Bond was forever sullied. However, we do owe Pierce Brosnan a debt of gratitude for being the caretaker for the character of Bond during the silly days that allowed for the franchise to be reset with more serious films and a more serious Bond.

Whoops

2009-10-09T10:54:00.001+01:00

One of Roman Polanski's biggest defenders in France, Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterrand, admitted in a 2005 autobiography that he paid for sex with young boys in Thailand.

Bank of America Screws Me Again

2009-10-01T13:43:00.002+01:00

It seems as though all Bank of America really exists for these days is to screw people, whether or not those people are customers. After all, they were heavily involved in the collapse of the world economy not too long ago, for which they were punished by having billions of dollars handed to them by the government. I guess they've already burned through that money, though, since they have now decided it would be a good idea to charge for bank accounts... unless you open your account online. I've had an account with Bank of America (and Fleet prior to the takeover) for 6 years or so, but the fact that I opened my account before they changed their rules doesn't exempt me from them. No, rather, I have to pay their $8.95 fee to have a bank account every month or, after paying the first month's fee (I received no warning of this change in policy), I can close my account and open a brand new account. What the fuck's the point of that? It seems pretty damned idiotic to say "ok, now we're going to charge you for having had an account with us for 6 years... or, you could close that account and open a brand new one for free!"

On a moderately related note, apparently Credit Default Swaps, which were the nuclear bomb that blew up the world economy, are back! Because, really, how could anyone think they're bad?

Oktoberfest

2009-09-28T12:14:00.003+01:00

This past Thursday, Julie and I went to Oktoberfest in Munich, where we also visited a friend of ours.

I had always thought of Oktoberfest as a gigantic beer festival, with big tents full of long tables and benches, gigantic beers and huge numbers of roaring drunk Germans. It turns out Oktoberfest is also a temporary amusement park with rides that make my stomach clench just to think about. From the Tower of Terror type ride that drops in near free fall for something like 66 meters (approximately 216 feet) to a ride resembling the traditional swings (swings attached to an arm coming off a spinning center) but which also rises high into the air to roller coasters and haunted houses. Frankly, it seems like a bad combination, beer and roller coasters, and I gather that it often is... but generally speaking, people seemed to be enjoying themselves and in enough control when on the rides.

The tents are really incredibly large buildings which appear permanent, though presumably they are temporary, filled with long tables and long benches. Unfortunately, we did not get to sit in any of the tents (and therefore could not get any beer in the tents) as we had not made reservations a year in advance. We didn't end up spending all that much time at Oktoberfest, as it happens, since Julie dislikes beer and I dislike crowds. Also, despite some of what we hear about Europeans and their ability to control their drinking, it seemed that one person in every group of 3 or more was stumblingly, incoherently drunk. Sitting in a small cafe that also served wine (which was nearly empty, as this is a beer festival after all!), we were fortunate enough to have one of these vomit on the floor behind me as her friend attempted to guide her toward the bathrooms.

I did have some beer at Oktoberfest, however. There was a carousel bar that was selling half-liters (probably about the size of an American pint). The slow rotation of the bar as I waited and ordered my beer was a bit disorienting while I was sober, and I wondered how the drunken people standing on it would fare getting off... most of them did pretty well, though. Julie enjoyed a sekt-orange (prosecco and orange juice) from another outside bar at the same time.

After about 4 hours spent at Oktoberfest, spread over Thursday and Friday, we decided to spend Saturday differently. Corinna, our friend in Munich, had recently decided to lease a car, a very nice Audi with leather seats, a built in GPS, etc, and suggested that the three of us should drive out to Starnberg Lake. It was a very beautiful lake and, Corinna said, on a clear day one could see the Alps from the shore. We couldn't quite see the mountains, but we did see the easily hundreds of sailboats in the water. We enjoyed some dessert before going for a short walk along the shore and then getting some lunch with some friends of Corinna's. This meal was to be our last in Germany this time around, and after Corinna drove us back to Munich we had to leave her and catch our flight from Munich back to London.

All in all, despite the moderate disappointment of Oktoberfest, it was a great trip. With regard to Oktoberfest, the lessons appear to be as follows: 1) Organise a decently large group to go with; 2) reserve space at a table as soon as they start taking reservations (a year in advance, give or take); 3) drink beer abusively. Maybe we'll try again in two years' time.

A Visitor from Abroad

2009-09-23T10:40:00.002+01:00

This past weekend, from Friday evening, my friend and active-blogger The Invisible Ben paid a visit to olde Londontowne mostly for a conference in which he was participating. Anyway, although I had to work at the pub both Friday and Saturday nights, the visit was good. I hadn't seen the Invisible Ben in quite some time, so it was good to catch up with him. Hopefully his European trip has been productive.

We saw District 9 on Saturday afternoon. Even with the obviously intented parallels to apartheid, it was a really good movie. I felt it was a rare beast, pure sci-fi that reversed the standard "they're here to enslave us" trope (I don't know the proper name for this trope, so I haven't linked to it at TVTropes). Anyway, I do recommend that everyone go and watch this film.

Tomorrow through Saturday I'll be in Munich attending Oktoberfest for the first time, with my wife, staying at a friend's flat. I have no real idea of what to expect, except that there will be gigantic glasses of beer and there will be dirndls and I gather there are tents. It should make for a fun time.

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T10:45:00.000Z

Wow... so now that Obama's won (a good 3 weeks ago), I have even less to say than I used to. So, that said, this blog is officially on hiatus until I feel like I've got something to add.

Biking to Work

2008-08-13T10:48:00.001+01:00

Every morning I cycle about 6.5 miles to work, and every evening I cycle approximately the same distance back home. Up until yesterday, it was reasonably simple: ride bike, arrive at destination. However, yesterday London's demon-wind hit and is unlikely to dissipate for another 9 to 10 months. Basically, London is an incredibly windy city, with the streets acting as windtunnels. A lack of regular intersections combined with fairly narrow roads conspires to build wind up into some serious levels of speed and results in interesting vortices. London gets hit by at least one mini-tornado a year as a result, with whichever street that is hit getting pretty badly torn up.

It's not so bad riding to work; somehow, the wind seems to be going in roughly the same direction as me. Going home from work, however, it can be killer. Yesterday, I was fighting a relatively mild wind, but when I turned a corner a gust of wind hit me so hard that it felt like my bike came to a complete halt, despite the fact that I was still pedalling. Conveniently, I'm not in any particular rush on my way home, but it certainly makes the ride that much more exhausting. I'd been hoping to be in slightly better shape before the winds hit so that I might be able to handle them better. Now that they've started, though, they'll only get worse through the winter and into the spring, when they'll finally start to lessen, only considering a brief hiatus in London's two-month (if you calculate only based on the wind; otherwise, it's only about two weeks) summer. Well, at least it's some kind of exercise, so maybe I'll be in some semblence of shape in the not-too-distant future.

Russia Tests the World

2008-08-09T22:07:00.003+01:00

Russia has essentially invaded Georgia and annexed the breakaway region of South Ossetia. Officially, of course, Russia is responding to attacks by Georgia on Russian peacekeepers in the region, but the reality is that this is technically an act of war. I suspect that there are a few reasons for Russia's moves here. First, Russia has wanted South Ossetia back ever since the fall of the USSR (in fact, Russia wants all of the former Soviet Republics back under Kremlin control, or at least in their sphere of influence, something they'll never formally admit). Second, Russia does not believe that NATO, the OSCE, the EU, the UN and any other relevant international organizations will be able to force them to give South Ossetia back now that they've "freed" it. Third, I think Russia is reminding the world that they've got a big... er, military, and the world would be wise to pay attention to them at least as much as they pay attention the US and EU.

I think Putin and Medvedev have been getting frustrated with the west recently, and particularly with the US (and particularly in the context of the UN). Russia and China seem to have been getting friendly again, which hadn't been true for nearly 30 years, but comes as a result of international pressure on both countries regarding human rights as well as their financial support of the Sudanese government. Russia wants everybody to know that they're tough and that they will take what they want. And frankly, I don't see how anybody can stop them, any more than anyone was able to stop the US from invading Iraq. The difference, though, is that most South Ossetians probably want Russia there, as most South Ossetians apparently have Russian passports. It's going to be very interesting to see what happens, particularly given the fact that Russia has no reason to pay attention to anything Bush says, considering the President's weakness both at home and especially abroad. Putin and Medvedev probably won't try to take the war any farther than they need to to secure South Ossetia, but Georgia's unwillingness to give up the region could well lead to an expanded war there.

Bizarre as it sounds, this particular conflict makes me think of the start of World War I with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the way in which seemingly small things can spiral out of control quickly. Especially because Russia is so big and has been treated as so weak since the fall of the USSR, it will be hard for them to stop under anything but the most optimal conditions. On the other hand, given the Georgian government's (and people's) interest in keeping South Ossetia as part of Georgia, it's hard to see them giving up easily either, potentially forcing Russia to take over all of Georgia in order to be victorious. At the same time, the Western governments will be endeavoring to find a way to end the conflict in a way that allows both countries to save face. At the same time, expect President Bush to say something incredibly stupid in a press conference, which will likely exacerbate the situation, rather than ameliorate it. All that said, the opening of the paragraph is more about the issues of things escalating out of any one country's control very quickly, and should not be taken as a suggestion that I think we're seeing the start of World War III here. I do not, but I do think that this issue will not be solved quickly and, frankly, I don't see any solution to this that works to keep Russia more restrained.

If Russia is allowed to keep South Ossetia, the government will learn that they can get away with annexing regions that once belonged to them, and so will likely do so again. If Russia is forced to return South Ossetia to the control of the Georgian government, then there will be a lot of bitterness within the government that could lead to problems down the line. If Russia and Georgia are forced to allow an independent state of South Ossetia to come into existence, the new country will still end up becoming a de facto part of the Russian Federation, which would piss off the Georgians. Also, there is another breakaway province in Georgia; if South Ossetia is allowed to become independent or join Russia, what's to stop them from asking Russia to invade their region as well, in the hopes they'll get the same treatment?

Although this post is somewhat long, the upshot is this: the situation in Georgia is a lot more serious than it may seem and will likely result in a continuation of Russia's military resurgence. The world's balance of power has been moving eastward for some time (though its overall tilt is still just barely to the west) with the economic growth of India and China, and now Russia is capitalizing on that re-balancing.

UK Mortgage Crisis

2008-08-08T12:03:00.000+01:00

The UK is facing a similar mortgage crisis to the US, in that people can no longer afford to pay mortgages that they were sold by the so-called "high-street banks" (in American, that means, basically, Main Street banks). The organisation that represents/lobbies for the mortgage arms of the banks insists that the mortgages sold were not "unrealistic" but rather that the people who can't afford to pay them must have "overstretched themselves in other areas." I can only presume he means areas like food, clothing, electricity, gas for heating and cooking and fuel (which is skyrocketing here just as much as in the US). So see, it's not the mortgage lenders' faults, it's the fault of those irresponsible people who got mortgages they couldn't afford! Classic blame the victims mentality.

Biking

2008-07-31T10:12:00.002+01:00

I may have mentioned before that I'm currently residing in the lovely city of London, Olde England (as opposed to New London, CT, in New England... someplace I've never actually lived). I recently got around to buying myself a bicycle to ride to work so I could avoid the Tube, save money and maybe get a little exercise and daylight on a daily basis. So far, I've ridden in 3 times, and I've almost got the route down. One of the things that makes biking difficult in London is that, unlike many US cities, there are really no straight roads, no blocks, nothing like that, so you really have to follow all sorts of interesting routes. Also, since I live in southwest London, I have to cross the Thames to get to work everyday. On the way to work, I cross at Southwark bridge and on the way home I cross at Blackfriars bridge. Anyway, this is all incredibly irrelevant to most anyone who may end up here.

While this probably isn't interesting to anyone but myself, I ended up riding most of my route to work today with a giant bug in my eye. About 15 minutes after leaving home, I felt it smack my eye (very painful). I had to stop and scrunch my eyes to at least kill it, but I couldn't find it to pull it out. About 2/3 of the way to work, I stopped for a traffic light and my eye started bugging me again. I poked around a bit and popped out the corpse of a fully-grown housefly, all green and shiney. That was pretty disgusting, but it was nice to get it out of there. Maybe I'll start wearing sunglasses or something for the ride.

Watchmen

2008-07-21T15:47:00.002+01:00

I loved the Watchmen graphic novel. I'm under 30 years old and only read Watchmen for the first within the last 5 years, and again more recently when I received it as a Christmas gift. Now they're making a movie, and I think it's going to be awful.
Go here for the trailer: http://www.empireonline.com/video/watchmen/

In my opinion, Dr. Manhattan's CGI looks awful, especially coming from the director of 300. That said, the only redeeming quality of 300 was the CGI, so add that these two movies share a director and my misgivings increase. Admittedly, my opinion is based on all of 30 seconds of trailer, but still, something about this one doesn't sit right. We'll see, since my movie predictions are not always right (and are often wrong).

British Media Sucks at Covering the US

2008-07-18T15:41:00.004+01:00

The British newspapers and other media are leaps and bounds better than their American counterparts. Granted, there is obvious bias in British papers, but unlike Fake Noise, they never pretend otherwise. If you want good news, the BBC is usually very reliable... except when covering the US.

I listen to the BBC World News podcast every morning on my way to work, and have seriously appreciated it and the connection it gives me to the rest of the world and to understanding the world. However, this morning there was a piece on former VP Al Gore's recent speech about switching to all clean energy within a decade in which the BBC got "played," as the kids say. I don't think the BBC understands that many (most?) American think tanks are partisan, and many are Republican leaning. They interviewed someone from the American Enterprise Institute who informed BBC listeners that Al Gore's plan is impossible, that it's sad that Al Gore is squandering his legitimacy by pushing such ridiculous plans, that Al Gore should have done something about the environment when he was VP and that the American environmental movement was thrown into a ditch during the Clinton-Gore years.

The gentleman interviewed alternated between outright lying and being incredibly misleading. Al Gore's plan may be impossible, but perhaps not. After all, who would have thought we'd get to the moon in by 1969 when Kennedy issued his famous challenge? As for Gore squandering his legitimacy, which the man from the AEI kept insisting was "sad" (you could almost hear him grinning as he tried to get across how much Gore was "squandering"), it's clear that that's the rightwing message on this. Gore is pushing a bad plan because he's crazy and dishonest (wait, that sounds like the right-wing's 2000 election strategy, as well). Gore should have done more for the environment when he was VP... I mean, besides pushing for expansion of the endangered species list, pushing for enforcement of clean air and clean water legislation, etc., all of which led to him being mocked in 2000 by the right-wing for his environmentalism. And the idea that the environmental movement was thrown in a ditch by Clinton-Gore was a too clever way for the man from the AEI to divert attention from the fact that Carter started the US down a path to self-sufficiency and oil independence only to have Reagan throw away (in some cases literally) all his efforts. But somehow, that's really Clinton-Gore's fault because, well, everything's Clinton's fault in the world of modern Republicanism.

I suppose the worst bit was that the BBC reporter never really challenged any of the AEI man's assertions. Ordinarily the BBC challenges everybody on everything they say, even if it's only about an assertion that the sky is blue. I can only assume that this acquiescence to the lies of the AEI were based on the reporter's unfamiliarity with a) the AEI and b) the actual issues being discussed. I hope that's the case, anyway. However, it seems clear to me that the BBC simply has no idea how to cover "political" events in the US.

Oddly Enough

2008-07-17T17:15:00.003+01:00

The people at Thomson Reuters (and previously just plain Reuters) in charge of the Oddly Enough column have a rather odd sense of humor. Essentially, the Oddly Enough column should report on humorous events and/or news from around the world. Instead, it usually contains something like this "Ravers lose sight at laser show." I wish I were making that up.

I can just see them sitting at their desks, guffawing "Hey, a whole bunch of people went blind because of lasers refracting into their eyes! Hi-larious!" I just really don't get it. I mean, I appreciate the Darwin Awards and all of that, but that, at least, honors people who improve the species by removing their genetic material from the bloodline. The Oddly Enough people seem to think suffering is funny. Occasionaly they write about something legitimately humorous, but generally, it's this level of stupidity and mean-spiritedness.

I get to see their headlines scroll across the top of my GMail, and usually all I can think is "good grief, they think that's funny?" Sometimes it's a light-hearted article about some people who died as a result of governmental or corporate incompetence or malfeasance, and on those ocassions, of course, all I can do is laugh and laugh. Fucking idiots.

Jet Lag

2008-07-17T15:25:00.001+01:00

Jet lag really sucks. I flew back to London Tuesday, arriving at the airport sometime before 11 and napping through the cab ride back to my flat. Then I napped some more, took a walk, ordered take-out and tried to watch a movie. Then I napped through most of the movie and went to bed. Yesterday, I didn't feel great, a bit more tired than usual, but dealable. Today, I feel like shit. I'm completely exhausted. It seems like I was in the States just long enough to get used to EDT, but now I'm in the UK and can't get used to British Summer Time. And then next week I go to Sweden, where I'll jump forward an hour. With any luck, though, that won't matter so much since it's just an hour, but that only works if I'm finally recovered by then.

Doc Ock wasn't wrong!

2008-07-16T09:31:00.003+01:00

One of the fun things about GMail (leaving aside the worrying aspects, like the fact that keeping e-mails forever opens one's e-mail account up to all sorts of government snooping) is the articles that scroll across the top. For example, you never know what kind of "oddly enough" story you'll see there on any given day.

Today, however, I saw something more interesting: an article entitled "Giant Laser in the Works to Achieve Fusion." Fusion (of the normal, hot variety, not the mystical and magical self-sustaining cold variety) works, as I imagine anyone who ever bothers to read this blog probably knows, by basically putting so much force on two different isotopes of Hydrogren (tritium and deuterium) that they combine to form Helium, and in the process release tremendous amounts of energy. Obviously the testing of a process using 192 laser beams in a gigantic chamber, surrounded by concrete, aluminum and more concrete has incredible environmental ramifications in that fusion leaves behind no long-term radioactive waste (the phrasing in the article leaves it a bit vague as to the presence of any radioactive waste, though I would guess there would be none; the key, though, is no long-lasting waste), produces huge amounts of energy and requires nothing that every country cannot provide for itself domestically.

That's all very well and good, but the article did raise a few questions for me. First of all, since it describes an American project, the scientists had to find a military use in order to receive government funding. In this case, the military use involved providing a way to test American nuclear weapons to ensure they are still working without exploding them in the air or underground (both of which are illegal under international law). Articles like this always raise questions for me as to what promising research is being ignored or going unfunded for lacking a military benefit.

The other issue goes back to the main purpose of fusion: power production. Apparently "the lasers can only fire every few hours because of the extreme heat generated by the 500 trillion watts, more than 1,000 times the power generated in the United States at any moment, necessary to power the lasers." That's a lot of power needed to get this thing going. At the non-specific rate of "once every few hours," we'll estimate that the lasers go off 6 to 8 times a day, using 3 to 4 quadrillion watts. For one thing, I think it would be more useful to measure the power input in something other than straight watts (like gigawatts, for example). For another, while the energy produced probably far outweighs the energy consumption, one has to wonder where the initial 500 trillion watts would come from, how other countries would accomplish the same feat, and how all that power would be stored. After all, if the US uses 500 billion watts at any given moment, that means that the current infrastructure does not exist to store and communicate that power across the country. (It would also probably require switching to direct current high-tension power lines to transport the power long distances, as AC is apparently very inefficient for that purpose).

Anyway, just some thoughts on fusion after a long hiatus and a brief break in the US for Sevensor's wedding (Congratulations, Matt!)

What American Accent Do You Have?

2008-07-02T21:31:00.001+01:00

What American accent do you have? Your Result: North Central "North Central" is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw "Fargo" you probably didn't think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.
The West
Boston
The Midland
The Inland North
The Northeast
The South
Philadelphia
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

The Great Dictator

2008-03-13T13:15:00.003Z

Watch this clip from Charlie Chaplin's 1940 "talkie" The Great Dictator. Pay particular attention to his comments around the 2:30 mark.

UK v. US Politics

2008-02-29T16:10:00.003Z

I read a comment on the LiveJournal of a friend of the Invisible Ben lamenting the fact that the American left is so far to the right compared to Europe. The only way that statement can be read as accurate is if you exclude the UK from Europe or if you treat the Democratic party as the entirety or even the majority of the US left. In the UK, the Labour party, abandoned the left when the party rebranded itself as "New Labour," which meant, in actuality "Screw Labour" Old Labour were originally founded primarily by members of the Fabian Society. The Fabians believed in bringing Socialism to the UK gradually rather than through radical change. They believed a slow change would be more palatable and more lasting than a sudden schism from traditionalism.

With that background, it's funny to think that both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were Young Fabians in University. After all, the switch to "New Labour" was intended as a split from the very socialist leanings that founded the party in the first place, moving the party significantly farther to the right. At the same time, though, the Conservative Party is pretending it is farther to the left than it actually is, attempting to claim green credentials with their used-car salesman leader David Cameron. He's not actually a used-car salesman, but he certainly seems as genuine and honest as one... a little bit too slick, too well-groomed (but at the same time carefully produced to not appear so well-groomed). Anyway, in the UK, there is a genuine race to the middle by the main parties, which is abandoning those who are slightly more conservative or left than the parties are willing to be.

Getting back to the main point, though. I feel like the difference between the American left and both the British left and the European left is that the American left is less inclined toward control and authority over people's lives. There's been a significant rise in libertarian leftists in America, who on the one hand don't want the government fucking with them or getting in their way, while at the same time willing to accept the help of the government and willing to fund government programs aimed at improving people's lives. The US is not a country where a socialist or communist party could ever truly thrive, not since FDR's victory in the 1930s took the wind out of their sails, anyway.

The European left tends toward more traditional right-left distinctions (so long as that is understood as either having your life controlled by the left or the right, with little to no option of actual freedom). It seems that claiming the American left is incredibly right relative to Europe assumes the classic dichotomy. Though there are undoubtedly problems with the model, I find I prefer the 2 dimensional option used by the Political Compass, which judges left and right (which primarily comes down to economic/social programs distinctions) on the x-axis vs. authoritarian and anti-authoritarian on the y-axis. Thus, one would find that the European left is in the upper left quadrant and the European right is in the upper right quadrant

With that said, let's return to the UK for a moment. Here, the three main parties would probably all fall into the upper right quadrant, with Labout being slightly less right, though as authoritarian as the Tories and the Liberal Democrats slightly to the left of Labour, though still on the right, and slightly on the anti-authoritarian side of the axis). As for the Greens, they would fall roughly smack in the middle of the lower left quadrant (at least according to Political Compass. I find the Greens are probably also on the authoritarian side of things, but perhaps I'm not looking carefully enough).

A "modern spiritual"...

2008-02-13T15:38:00.002Z

Something tells me these two really believe that...

We're not unreasonable,

2008-02-12T15:57:00.000Z

I mean, no one's gonna eat your eyes.

Way to kick your allies, NOW

2008-02-07T16:12:00.000Z

Anyone else think it's ridiculous that the Massachusetts branch of NOW, the National Organization for Women, felt the need to scrap their entire relationship with Senator Kennedy simply because he endorsed the wrong candidate?

They called it an "ultimate betrayal" when Senator Kennedy chose to endorse a candidate who happens to not be a woman. Funny, I would have thought the ultimate betrayal would involve him voting to remove all rights from women and return them to the legal second-class status they held before they had the right to vote. I mean, I understand that an organization with "for Women" in its name is likely to endorse a woman, and I am comfortable with that; but for them to imply that any good work Senator Kennedy has done in the past for women is meaningless because he doesn't think Senator Clinton is the best candidate for the Presidency smacks of a complete lack of sense of proportion. Or, to put it more simply, reasonable people can disagree on some things without being enemies.

No Dog in this Fight

2008-02-07T10:45:00.000Z

It's strange, but since John Edwards dropped out, I've felt like I have no real dog in the Democratic nomination fight. I tried to get excited about Obama, but he leaves me tepid. As for Hillary, I have a hard time forgiving her for some of her political decisions, such as supporting bills banning flag burning in protests and promoting war with Iraq (the distinction with Edwards on that second one being that he acknowledged that he'd fucked up royally when he supported it and Hillary doesn't). I feel a bit like I did in 2004, actually, after Dean dropped out. Philosophically, ethically, and ideologically I was most inclined to support Kucinich, but given his 0 chances of winning anything, I looked at the other candidates. They all bored the hell out of me, and I realized I couldn't strongly support a single one of those still in the race. The difference, of course, is that I think both Obama and Hillary could win the general, and I did not feel that way about anyone in 2004. Still, I find I don't care too much who is chosen by the rest of the Democratic electorate, outside of a more clinical curiosity.

Connecticut's primary was Tuesday. I sent in my absentee ballot a few weeks ago, duly marked for John Edward, and about a week later he "suspended" his campaign. I suppose the only reason he didn't completely drop out was so that he could keep his delegates to the convention, and so have a say on the platform committee. I can't imagine he'll endorse either Obama or Hillary, since both their platforms fall far short of his grand goals, his version of the New Deal. It would be interesting if a winning Democrat asked him to be his/her Attorney General; that's the only administration position that traditionally (obviously not applicable under W) has real independence. Well, we'll see.

Has the Obama-girl met her match?

2008-02-05T12:45:00.000Z

Has the famed Obama-girl met her match? No, I'm not talking about Hillary, I'm talking about the Huckabee Girl! Boo-yah!

Someone left the cake out in the rain...

2008-02-03T17:58:00.000Z

Once upon a time, there was a song written with some absolutely ridiculous lyrics.

Spring was never waiting for us, girl
It ran one step ahead
As we followed in the dance
Between the parted pages and were pressed
In love's hot, fevered iron
Like a striped pair of pants

Written by Jimmy Webb, it was rejected by the band The Association. And although the name of the song is MacArthur Park, the Irishman who originally sang it as MacArthur's Park.

MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!

But the best part of this whole song? The aforementioned Irishman is most famous these days not for singing, but for acting. Yes, MacArthur Park was originally recorded by the late Marcus Aurelius - or rather Professor Dumbledore - no wait, it's Richard Harris.

Here are the lyrics in their entirety. I love this song, because it is just so absolutely, nonsensically ridiculous

Spring was never waiting for us, girl
It ran one step ahead
As we followed in the dance
Between the parted pages and were pressed
In love's hot, fevered iron
Like a striped pair of pants

MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!

I recall the yellow cotton dress
Foaming like a wave
On the ground around your knees
The birds, like tender babies in your hands
And the old men playing checkers by the trees

MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!

[break]

There will be another song for me
For I will sing it
There will be another dream for me
Someone will bring it
I will drink the wine while it is warm
And never let you catch me looking at the sun
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
You'll still be the one

I will take my life into my hands and I will use it
I will win the worship in their eyes and I will lose it
I will have the things that I desire
And my passion flow like rivers through the sky
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
I'll be thinking of you
And wondering why

[extended break]

MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!
Oh, no
No, no
Oh no!!

This is unacceptable!

2008-02-01T09:55:00.000Z

I know this is hardly an original point referring to a still from the new Indiana Jones that is hardly new, but what the fuck? Indiana Jones drives the motorcycle, he doesn't ride bitch!

I can't decide if I should be blaming George Lucas or Shia "the Beef" Labeouf for this outrage. Whoever I decide is to blame will face the wrath of a sternly worded blog post!

I'm not dead!

2008-01-23T21:01:00.000Z

I feel fine!
Well, actually, I've got a bit of a cold... but that's cool. Yesterday I had a birthday... another year older and another year... colder? I somehow doubt that's the right word, given the way the world is going, what with the "global climate crisis," as Gore put it. Ah well.

Spent a few days in Munich, actually, visiting a friend of mine. That was a good time. I don't have the kind of fantastic pictures The Invisible Ben does, though I did go to the Frauenkirche and compare my foot to the Devil's footprint. It seemed that the devil's boots would have been roughly the same size as my shoes, though I think the ol' IB found something similar (though his feet were bigger, I think). I also did just about the cheesiest thing one can do in Munich (outside of attending Oktoberfest, which I may do this year): I bought a beer stein.

Since my birthday was yesterday, at midnight Monday night/Tuesday morning, the friend with whom Julie and I were staying decided it was time to celebrate my birthday. We'd already done some drinking that night, but she whipped out a marble cake on top of which she had placed and lit three tea lights. That was actually pretty funny. The cake, of course, was very good. All the food in Germany seems to be good, though that could be something to do with the fact that you drink all the time when you're there.

For a birthday present, my friend gave me The Big Lebowski soundtrack. Excellent choice. The version I have has a slightly different cover, though, with a black and white version of the Dude's head wearing psychedelic sunglasses.

Julie and my brother both gave me non-gift gifts. What I mean is, they gave me gifts for other people. For example, Julie got me a gift certificate to Good Gifts and my brother gave me an Alternative Gift which paid for a month's worth of classes for 5 children in Battambag City, Cambodia. With the gift certificate from Julie, I eventually decided to buy 1/2 an acre of rainforest, based on the theory that the more carbon sinks that are bought, the more people who are helped. It was a difficult decision, but if I start to feel I made the wrong one, I can always just go back and buy something else, such as eye tests for poor people in India. Anyway, it was all very cool stuff.

Finally, I'll just end with some pictures of my foot next to the devil's footprint in a church in Munich (with my face blurred out to protect the... innocent).

I'm a lazy fuck

2007-11-29T11:35:00.001Z

I'm a lazy fuck, at least as far as this blog is concerned. I doubt I'll ever formally close it down, preferring to go whimpering into that good night. I need to do like Samay and post really short posts to things of interest. The politics will probably take a back seat for a while.

ebay

2007-10-24T21:53:00.000+01:00

I'm new to this whole ebay thing. It's not because it wasn't around when I was younger, because I remember friends watching auctions desperately hoping for a win (generally on Magic cards, of all things, if I remember correctly). No, I avoided ebay for a long time for two reasons: 1) whenever money's involved, I'm instantly uncomfortable and 2) I'm not generally inclined to be as trusting as one needs to be on ebay. Nonetheless, Julie and I have been trying to sell a desk, a chair and a "retro" orange phone for a little while now via Gumtree.com and craigslist.com (gumtree is sort of a British oriented craigslist), and failing miserably. Well, that's not entirely true; we managed to sell the chair that way. Anyway, we finally decided to try out ebay.

I had created an ebay account years ago, apparently, but since it was an American account, it caused all kinds of issues. I tried changing my address to London, but it didn't care that I didn't live in the US; no, it still insisted that international sales required special approval (or some similar nonsense). I tried switching my currency to pounds, same problem. In the meantime, Julie had set up a new account and put all our stuff on ebay.

We monkeyed around a bit with reserves and starting prices, and ended up listing the desk with too high of a reserve, so we didn't manage to sell it. The phone, on the other hand, had no reserve, so we hoped it would go. It was getting down to the wire with no bids, when finally a small bidding war started and we managed to sell the phone for about what we had hoped. We've since re-listed the desk. With any luck, we'll get that sold, too, but since we've already dismantled it and posted a catalog picture, some people are a mite suspicious (and not unreasonably).

I have created a new account since then and won an auction on an ipod shuffle which I hope to put to use while running (I also hope to take up running again...).

I find myself wondering, though, if the fact that I'm using ebay for the first time makes me a bit of an old fogey. It seems most people my age have put it some use or another, whether to pick up some extra cash or purchase some product on the cheap, and yet here I am, just getting started on the whole thing. Soon I'll have my first transaction rating which, I imagine, will be pretty good, since I paid within minutes of winning the auction.

Missing things

2007-10-16T15:36:00.000+01:00

Today I felt my first twinge of missing America. I'm pretty good at being happy where I am, generally, but today I got hit by a wave of missing home. I haven't been in America in over a year and haven't minded that. And to be honest, I didn't, strictly speaking, miss home, so much as I missed DC. I was reading some of the Overheard in DC archives on DCist and one of the items that was Overheard occurred on the escalator at Woodley Park, my old Metro stop. Suddenly I kinda missed DC and the folk I knew there. Oh well. I'll get over it.

Pretentious

2007-10-09T20:51:00.000+01:00

At some point after moving to the UK, I posted to this blog using British terms and phrases, to which Samay objected. I was mystified at the time, but somehow something clicked tonight: I had become that pretentious jackass who spends a weekend in England and comes back with a "British accent," blogger version. So, with that in mind, I will be sure to keep my phrasings American. No more "university," but rather "school;" no more "-re," but rather "-er." Anyway, you get the picture.

As regards Everyone's a Critic, it hasn't really picked up steam, I've noticed. I haven't posted anything because I had wanted everyone officially signed on before it got started and I still haven't heard back from Invisible Ben. However, considering that he's probably an overworked grad student, I suppose we can move on without him (as Julie already has). Hell, I may even add it to my blogroll!

When is Eliot Spitzer running for President?

2007-10-03T19:44:00.000+01:00

In all seriousness, I'm pretty confident that Spitzer will run for President one day, potentially against the Democratic VP in 2016. Something about a posting of his on Daily Kos (Why I'm Suing the Bush Administration) convinced me of this. Barring any serious scandals or failures as Governor of NY, I absolutely see him running. I'm not saying he wouldn't have some serious issues to overcome in a general election (liberal from the Northeast, unless that becomes a good thing by then, Jewish), but I think he might be able to. He's certainly shown he's a fighter, which is something we can't say for most Democrats in Congress. What do you folks think?

French Failure

2007-09-25T11:07:00.000+01:00

This is about me, not the so-called cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys. I have failed in my efforts to post regularly to fill in the details of my French holiday. I will be working to remedy this situation, but instead of sitting here bored, go visit Everyone's a Critic.

France

2007-09-11T12:23:00.000+01:00

Back in June, Julie and I took our first trip in Europe outside of England, hopping a ferry over to France. We spent a week renting out a room in a gorgeous bed and breakfast in the Burgundy region of France. Burgundy takes up a good chunk of eastern France and is also home to quite a few wines that Julie and I are quite fond of (which is how we chose where to go).

The ferry took us from Dover over to Calais in about 2 hours, though we arrived 3 hours after we left: somehow going from England to France involves changing time zones. Our trip got off to a rocky start as soon as we set foot in Calais, however, as we had chosen a rental car company that is located where the train comes in from London rather than at the ferry terminal. The rental cars at the ferry terminal bottomed out around £100 a day for a much bigger, uglier car than we needed. However, getting to the rail area proved a bit more difficult than it looked on my google map, so we ended up paying a taxi driver way too much to take us there. One of the oddities of France is that the entire country shuts down for an hour or more in the middle of the day so people can go home for lunch. This particular car rental place shut down for two hours, and we had missed their closing time by about 5 minutes.

Conveniently, however, we were in easy walking distance of the only part of France that most English tourists see: a big fucking mall. English tourists will typically take the train via the Eurotunnel, which lets them out literally in the mall, where they can buy cigarettes and wine for less than they would cost in the UK. It was a bit depressing, frankly, to start our journey this way, since we were still only hearing English, and fairly ignorant English at that. Still, it was our only option for the next hour and a half, so we made do, getting lunch and wandering around until we could pick up our car.

By this point, we were running about 3 hours late for when we had planned to pick up the car and leave Calais. Because we were driving in France, it seemed like a good idea to me to buy all the extra insurance, and I had to pay for an extra driver because for some reason I was the one who had to rent the car, even though I couldn't actually drive. Embarrassing revelation: I can't drive a manual transmission car.

The car itself was a Toyota Aygo, which I've never heard of before, but which, on a glance at the Toyota website, appears to be designed for city driving. We, instead, drove it about 6 hours or so, mostly south and then somewhat east, to find our B&B. As we were getting close to our B&B, we were pretty hungry, as it was nearly 8 PM. We decided to stop in the nearest big city to our B&B, Nevers, where we had a lovely meal, and in which city we would often find ourselves on this particular trip.

After we ate, we finally moved on to our bed and breakfast which was located roughly dead center in the middle of nowhere, a good mile back from the one small road that passes near it. It was a gorgeous building, like a small chateau for a not-too-wealthy French nobleman from before the Revolution. Our room was incredibly comfortable and our hosts were very friendly. It was only after our arrival that Julie's practicing of French before this trip proved useful, as our hosts spoke barely a word of English (though the place was advertised as having owners who spoke English). Now we were exhausted, so we went to bed in the kind of absolute silence and darkness you cannot get in a city.

More to come, as I'll try and go through one day of the trip each day for the next week.

Everyone's a Critic

2007-09-08T00:20:00.000+01:00

All right, so I've gotten some responses... that's good. I'm trying to decide where the best place is to host something like this. I don't exactly love the blogger layout, where you have to see the entirety of posts all at once (and I'm not sure how or whether the tags work). I think Movable Type powers blogs pretty well, but I don't know how to use it to create something. I'll look into this over the weekend and try and figure something out.

Everyone's a Critic

2007-08-24T16:50:00.000+01:00

I've had an idea floating through my mind for several months now, so I thought I'd float it out here, see if anyone had any thoughts or comments.

Basically, I have an idea for a blog I'd call "Everyone's a Critic" (or something similarly cheesey... I like cheese). The concept is pretty simple: write critiques about anything, movies, books, CDs, bands, concerts, dance, a pair of shoes, computers, etc, and post them on the blog. Use the tags to identify the product being critiqued by product name, type, location (where relevant), etc. There would be a small group of official posters (myself and others, perhaps Samay, Invisible Ben, Annie), who would post the critiques, though we wouldn't necessarily have to write them all ourselves. Obviously at first, we would, but ideally it would attract others to submit their own critiques. Just a thought. Any opinions, that's what comments are for.

(Oh yeah, I turned on comment moderation to block spam comments. Even if I don't like your comment, I'll still post it if I think you're a human being).

On Blogging

2007-08-24T16:40:00.001+01:00

Everytime I go for a while without any kind of consistent posting, I swear I'm going to change things, start blogging again. It never really works. It's not like I have nothing to blog about: I live in London, I've travelled to Bristol, Bath, Canterbury and a few other places in the UK; I've been to France and Germany, a well. Of all of that, I've only posted, as far as I can recall, about Germany.

I suspect that some of my issues stem from the fact that early on, blogging was exciting, new, and, well, people actually read the blog on occasion and commented. Nowadays, it's not so new, barely anybody reads the blog and nobody's commented here for months. Samay only complains about my lack of blogging on his own blog, these days, though now I'm just part of the "nobody's blogging anymore" type of statement. Of course, early on I could always fill space with my political columns for the Villanovan. Those were always fun. Nowadays? Nada. All my political stuff happens at Daily Kos though, to be honest, I'm a bit too exhausted by American politics right now to say much about it. One voice crying out in the wilderness is one thing, but one voice crying out in a sea of voices that express themselves more skillfully is quite another. Anyway, I'm pushing myself to get blogging again. I'll aim for once a week for the moment, and if I manage that, I'll push it to 3 times a week. Expect a new post here either Sunday or Monday.

It's all because of the gays

2007-07-28T14:39:00.000+01:00

A funny video explaining why everything that's wrong with the world is because of gay marriage:

Pics from Germany

2007-07-21T19:11:00.002+01:00

This picture shows some of the approach to the Zugspitze (if you don't know what I'm talking about, read the previous post).

This is a shot from the ride up, looking up the mountain.

This is a panoramic shot from the just below the peak of the Zugspitze.

This is another shot from just below the peak.

This is a shot of the peak, which is marked by the golden cross.

This is the inside of the highest church in Germany. It was locked shut with a grate similar to the kind used by stores, so I had to stick my camera through a small opening to get this shot.

Finally, two shots with the Invisible Ben himself.

Here he's in front of the highest church in Germany. Note, I did not alter the image in any way; the Invisible Ben has no face to speak of, hence the nickname Invisible Ben.

Here he is preparing to crush the smallest snowman ever made! On the highest mountain in Germany! Again, same caveat re: his face.

Deutschland!

2007-07-21T18:05:00.000+01:00

Last weekend, I went to Munich for the birthday of my compatriot, The Invisible Ben (or his German equivalent) who is studying at the Goethe Institut for the month. Also residing in Munich is Corinna, who stayed with my family as an exchange student way back when in 1998 or so, and who I last saw 4 years ago, give or take. It seemed like a good opportunity to see both these folk, so I went for it and I did.

My trip got off to a bit of a rocky start when I got to Heathrow Airport a good 20 minutes before the main part of the airport actually opens. Oh well, at least I wasn't late. Still, since my flight was at 8:20 AM, and the airport opens around 5 AM, and since I travel on an EU passport, I found I had a good 2 hours to kill before my gate was even identified, and then another hour before my plane started boarding. Good times. I changed planes in Amsterdam, where for the first time in my life I boarded a plane from the tarmac. It was a Fokker 700, the smallest plane I've yet been on.

Once I got to Munich, I took a bus to the Munich Hauptbahnhof (Munich central station for trains, subway, etc), where I was to meet the invisible one at a Burger King. As it turned out, there were 2 BKs at the HBF. Thinking I was being clever (and since I was at the HBF about an hour and a half before we'd intended to meet), I thought I'd wait at the one nearest the subway, because obviously Mr. Invisible would be coming via underground transit. After waiting a while and not seeing the IB, I thought perhaps I'd go upstairs to the coffee shop near the other BK and get myself some caffeinated nectar. A quick scan of the BK confirmed that IB hadn't turned up there, either, so I ordered a nice cold Bermuda Coffee (or somesuch, an frapped drink with coffee and sweeteners), and as I waited for the drink to be finished, who should tap me on the shoulder but the Invisible Ben, who had apparently been waiting for me at the upstairs BK since the moment I'd arrived. Whoops!

Anyway, to shorten the rest of the story, we called up Corinna and met her for dinner in the shadow of the Frauenkirche, my first real meal in Germany. Corinna helped to translate the menu so we could identify the vegetarian friendly dishes (which weren't many in the land of -wursts). We sat there eating and drinking for a long time, sharing a table with a number of other Germans. At some point, we started chatting with these other folk about, of all things, the Borat movie. One point that sticks in my mind is one of them noting that there were certain parts of that movie that were very uncomfortable for them to watch, as Germans. Fair point.

The next day, IB and I awoke relatively early (I think 10 or so?) to catch a 2 hour train to the Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany, part of the Bavarian Alps and part of the border with Austria. We took an hour and a half train ride up the mountain, pausing occasionally to take pictures or just photographing the view through the windows. The train stopped some distance below the summit at a ski lodge-like area where we could walk around. We took numerous photos here as well. Despite the fact that it felt very warm, there was quite a bit of snow at this point on the mountain. We made the world's smallest snowman and wandered into Germany's highest church, before eventually getting in the cable car for the final ascent to the summit.

Why bother going to the summit? Not just because it's there, but because that is where the Highest Beergarden in Germany (tm) is located at 2,962 meters (9,718 feet). I have now had beer at the highest point in Germany, and it was good. Side note about Germany: though I'm generally not into lagers, German lagers are actually very drinkable, especially when you're thirsty (other side note: in Germany, beer is cheaper than water... helluva country).

After the Zugspitze, we returned to Munich where we again met Corinna for dinner. This time we went to the Haufbrauhaus, the most famous beergarden in Germany, where all the tourists go, particularly around Oktoberfest. Our server was rude, which made me feel like I was eating out in London, but otherwise it was good. They only serve beers in full liter glasses at the Haufbrauhaus, whereas elsewhere you can get beers in .3, .5, or full liter increments. Again, Corinna translated the menu so I could have a traditional Munich dish that also happened to be vegetarian: German macaroni and cheese. It was actually really good, and it certainly but Kraft to shame. They also sold pretzels the size of a laptop which certainly compete with Philly pretzels for quality (though we had better pretzels in other parts of Munich). Also, the Haufbrauhaus is a place where people can feel comfortable wearing lederhosen and dirndls. It was quite an experience.

After a long dinner and much drinking, Corinna then took us on a tour of Munich. Ironically, the IB knew more about Munich than Corinna, though she's lived there for several years, because he'd recently had the official city tour. It was quite fun, and ended at Corinna's, since I was curious to see where she lived.

Munich's a gorgeous city. Absolutely love it. Julie and I are hoping to go for Oktoberfest and stay with Corinna. We just need to work out the when and the how.

I hope to post some of the pics I took on this trip soon, probably in another post.

Fantastic Four

2007-06-22T21:37:00.001+01:00

Not only does Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer look awful, but so does Jessica Alba in the preview.
And whoever's in charge of the F4 movies is clearly someone who comes from the school of thought that a hero-based movie is only good if the hero(es) is/are hopelessly outmatched by their opponent. Look at the first F4 movie, where Dr. Doom is clearly a bazillion times more powerful than our heroes, and yet they manage to beat him (though not destroy him). In this movie, it appears that the Silver Surfer is, essentially, untouchable and invulnerable. Bo-ring. All I'm saying is give the heroes a fighting chance, none of this "and at the last minute, they figure out x, y or z, and just in time, too.

All the King's Men

2007-06-03T23:38:00.000+01:00

Just watched All the King's Men. First thought: despite having so many brits in it (Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins) the worst Louisiana accent has to come from Tony Soprano himself, James Gandolfini. What were they thinking casting him as a Louisianan?

Huey Long, now there was an economic populist. John Edwards can only dream of giving as effective speeches and inspiring as many people as Long did. Edwards is trying, though. I hear he's pissed off all the DC Democrats, the Establishment Democrats, and that can't be a bad thing, since these are the same Democrats who were too cowardly to push a real bill to end the Occupation of Iraq before the Memorial Day weekend. They claimed that would give the Republicans easy talking points over the long weekend. What, weren't the Democrats going to THEIR home states, too? Weren't THEY going to explain why they pushed for withdrawal from Iraq? Were they planning on abdicating even one news-cycle to the Republicans? Or was the earlier Iraq Funding bill that Bush vetoed just a farce, some red-meat, so to speak, thrown to the activists of the party and that small minority of Americans (in the 60 to 70% range now, I hear) who want the war ended, who want Congress to force Bush to end the war?

Now, I'm not out to defend everything Huey Long said or did; he wasn't perfect. But he damn well knew how to give back to the same people who got him elected! He wasn't beholden to Standard Oil, but a lot of Democrats and Republicans out in DC certainly seem to be. Or maybe they just owe a few favors to Halliburton/KBR or Blackwater. I sure as hell hope that the party activists can get their shit together to primary some of these sell-outs, these defectors. At the worst, we can put the fear of the PEOPLE into these Senators and Representatives. And I don't want to hear anybody, not Markos, not Jerome/Stoller/Bowers not ANYBODY who's in a position of influence in the blogosphere try and talk me down. In a two-party system, a primary is the ONLY weapon we've got to bring our people back in line. And Iraq is the one damn issue where we should be able to draw a line in the sand and say "if you're not on the right side of this line, we will take you down!" And it's high-damn time we did it.

UPDATE: To clarify, I got a bit carried away as I was writing this... what I originally intended to focus on was the way Willie Stark/Huey Long spoke and the absolutely fantastic speeches he was able to give, and the fact that John Edwards wishes he could give speeches that effective and stirring. A lot of the rest was me connecting things that shouldn't necessarily be connected (and, oh yeah, just a touch of speechifying myself there).

America to Destabilize Lebanese Government?

2007-05-25T12:21:00.000+01:00

The Lebanese government has been shelling Fatah Islam militants who are holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp for the past few days. Like all militant Islamic groups, Fatah Islam is always connected to Al Qaeda in news accounts; this group is, according to CNN, "al-qaeda-inspired," which could be true. Bush has decided that America must help Lebanon fight these guys as part of the War on Terror, but all I can think is that by openly supporting the Lebanese government, he's actually going to weaken the government of a country where the US is not held in high esteem. Just because Bush thinks people welcome America and American help doesn't make it true. Sadly, given America's current stature, a bit more quiet, not-quite-under the table help might be more appropriate, to avoid making the government of Lebanon appear to be too closely connected to the US government. Just my two cents.

DC Vote Rules Debate in House

2007-04-19T19:55:00.000+01:00

In the House there was a bit of debate on the Rules that would govern the way that the bill granting DC the vote and adding one representative to the Utah caucus, with the Republicans wanting "open rules" for "fairness' sake," which would allow them to add all sorts of fun provisions to the bill to kill it before it was ever born. The highlight? Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton responding to Rep. Dreier's request that she yield the floor:

Dreier: Will the gentlewoman yield?

Holmes Norton: I will not yield, sir. The District of Columbia has spent 206 years yielding to people who would deny them the vote. I yield you no ground. Not during my time. You have had your say, and your say has been that you think the people who live in your capital are not entitled to a vote in their House. Shame on you.

In the video, the shout-down is at about 1:46 (it's worth watching her actually SAY the above because it is so much more powerful that way).

Just plain awful

2007-04-19T16:53:00.000+01:00

FoxNews has an... unusual take on the shooting story at Virginia Tech. Apparently, their "Religion Correspondent" Lauren Green believes that Cho was either "oppressed" or "possessed" by the Devil.

When unexplained violence takes center stage, we tend to turn to modern psychology to explain it.

But there is an alternative explanation, one that has been played out in film, stage and writings since the beginning of history.

Was Cho Seung-Hui schizophrenic … psychotic … manic-depressive? Or were the shooting deaths of 32 people, including Cho himself, at Virginia Tech University part of the ongoing struggle between God and Satan … good against evil … lightness and darkness?

Could Cho have been possessed by the Devil? Could that explain the massacre at Virginia Tech?

Dr. Richard Roberts, president of Oral Roberts University, shouts an unequivocal “Yes!”

“Based on what I’ve seen in the news," Roberts said in an interview, "there’s no doubt that this act was Satanic in origin."

Roberts added that he doesn’t know if it was Satanic “possession” or “oppression.” Possession, he said, occurs when Satan takes over a person’s life, and the person’s actions are dictated by demonic possession within. Roberts says he’s seen this type and has seen the Devil cast out of a person.

Satanic “oppression," on the other hand, is "that which comes against." "It’s not in a person, but is coming against them, trying to put evil thoughts in their minds,” Roberts said.

He said that the evil thoughts in Satanic oppression can be fairly innocuous, or they can be harmful. And the oppression can be in the form of fear, depression or discouragement, he said, because “Satan comes to kill, steal and destroy.”

Roberts says we’ll never know whether Cho was "possessed" or "oppressed," because the killer has died. But he did leave a note blasting everyone around him, calling them “rich kids,” and “deceitful charlatans,” and then blaming them, saying “you made me do this.”

Roberts describes Cho's writings as “just words,” and says words are one of Satan’s tools to bring about Man’s destruction.

In Judaism, however, there is no belief in a supernatural evil and no belief that demon possession is at the heart of what happened in Blacksburg on Monday.

Rabbi Peter Rubenstein from New York’s Central Synagogue, says, “… Every human has two inclinations, one to do evil and one to do good…. Our hope is the individual tries to access the inclination to do good. There is a balance." But, he said, evil is done "when we enter that other side.”

Rubenstein is convinced that Cho, who reportedly was taking anti-depressants, may have been sick.

"Every human being has the ability to control that kind of rage," Rubenstein said. "This is a person that lost contact with anything decent in their lives, including their own inclination to do good.”

It’s not only theologians who talk of evil. A new book by psychologist Philip Zimbardo, “The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil,” offers a perspective that may shed light on Cho’s inner demons.

"The Lucifer Effect" is based on the Stanford Prison Experiment of 33 years ago. It exposed how the prison environment creates evil and violent behavior, like at Abu Ghraib. It also explained the group or systemic evil that occurred under Hitler, communist regimes and during the genocide in Rwanda.

Zimbardo says there are prisons that are not confined to a place or building — emotional prisons of “normal” individuals that can create aberrant and evil behavior. Whether that prison is shyness, loneliness, anger or hate, it can grow and manipulate an individual into believing his only course of action is to break out, using any means possible, including violence.

In the case of Cho, he said, the “rich kids,” the “deceitful charlatans" and the women who rejected him may have been people he saw as his “jailers,” the wardens responsible for his emotional incarceration. Cho vilified them, found them guilty of great offenses and then methodically executed his warped sense of justice: the murders of 32 people.

Atheists don’t believe in the Devil or demonic possession, but there is some respect for the theological idea of evil. Michael Shermer, editor of the Skeptics Magazine, acknowledges Christianity’s take on Satan has a great deal of weight to it. “Religion figured out long before science the pervasiveness of man’s 'vil'side, that’s why they created so many rules," he said.

Shermer, of course, doesn’t believe in anything like demon possession. And surprisingly, he has an unlikely man who almost agrees with him: Rev. Robert H. Schuller, founding pastor of the Crystal Cathedral, who says he’s “not prepared to give the Devil credit for insanity.”

In addition to his theological accolades, Schuller has a background in psychology. He says of Cho: “I think it’s pure psychotic crack-up.

“I’m not denying that Satan himself could have been in this act. I’m just saying if he was, I’m not giving him credit for it.”

But the scenario of demonic possession fits neatly in the Christian paradigm. It says the whole of human existence is predicated on the narrative of man’s fall from Grace in the Garden of Eden, after Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve, and that wherever there is good, there is Satan trying to destroy it.

The battle of good vs. evil in all of us is not a simple choice between two forks in a road, but a cosmic war being waged over our souls.

Says Dr. Richard Lints of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary: “The lesson, I think, is that when we don’t take our own evil seriously, we are much more liable to perpetrate acts of evil.”

It seems to me that articles like this are more harmful than they are helpful, seeing as it tends to remove responsibility from the person engaging in horrible acts, as well as to suggest that psychology and psychiatry are valueless and could easily be replaced with the equivalent of exorcists.

To turn the act of an unwell man in Virginia into part of the battle of Good vs. Evil seems incredibly offensive when you consider the level of violence seen everyday all over the globe. Not to diminish the horror of the shootings in Virginia, but they hardly rise to the level of the bloodshed seen in Darfur, for example, yet I don't see Christianists insisting that the African genocide is also part of the battle between the forces of Good and the forces of Evil. I just cannot begin to describe the ways in which an article like this SHOULD be offensive to Christians, let alone joe-average person with average levels of compassion.

And yes, I was afraid to make fun of the article directly because I feared it would appear I was making light of the shootings themselves.

An Expected Visitor

2007-04-06T16:10:00.000+01:00

Alex came to visit this past week. Technically he stopped off in the UK on his way to Italy to play in the World Beach Ultimate Tourney (which is actually called Paganello) in Italy. Somehow it worked out to be cheaper for him to fly into London and then fly from London to Italy on RyanAir than it was to fly directly to Italy. He is the first of our friends from home to actually make the trip out here.

Alex, like Mikey D and his brother, has become a bit of a beer connoisseur. He and Scott are now brewing in Boston, and it sounds like their concoctions have received rave reviews. Of course my friends get into brewing after I leave the country (or start to really expand their obsessions in the case of the D brothers). Still, I'm really glad things are working out for them. Alex's obsession, by the way, manifests itself when one goes drinking with him in the form of writing his "beer diary," which consists of notes he takes on the various ales (and some lagers) on which he sips. Stylistically, he tells me he's trying to decide how lyrical and artistic his descriptive jottings should be (for example, should he talk about a beer's "inky blackness" or just note that it is very dark?), so these run the gamut. All, of course, is kept on an Excel spreadsheet.

Anyway, while Alex was around, we ingested large quantities of alcohol, primarily lagers. Though I was not always able to retain full sobriety, Alex didn't seem to have any such difficulties. Dude can hold his beer. I also had an opportunity to meet some of Alex's friends in the London area, one of whom actually lives right down the road from Julie's university. Very cool. Good guy.

And a visit with Alex would not be complete without the requisite "tossing of the disc." We did, in fact, toss a bit, both on Clapham Common and in Hyde Park, the latter with one of his frisbee buddies from Bowdoin (who we drank with, with his girlfriend, the night before at a place called the Porterhouse).

Let me tell you about a place called the Porterhouse. Go to the website and take a viddy at the various beers they brew. The location in Covent Garden also has a huge variety of bottled beers from around the world, managing to hit most continents and a significant number of countries. One of the best beers we had, though, was their Celebration Stout. 10% alcohol, 500 ml. This stout was fantastically flavorful, tasting of chocolate and malt, and flowed nicely down my throat. British beers, including home brews and cask ales, tend to be around 3.7 to 4.5% alcohol by volume; in America, abv for fancy stouts and ales will generally range from 7 to 15%, though there's a huge variety outside that range. Thus, though this was a highly alcoholic beer for the UK, it was pretty standard for Alex, who's used to drinking good American home brews/cask ales. A quick note on one of the more unusual beers on tap at the Porterhouse: Oyster is actually really good, tasting a little bit on the savory side, slightly salty, but essentially just very good. Don't be put off by the name.

Alas, Alex eventually had to go, and yesterday morning at 4AM a taxi picked him up to take him to Liverpool Street station, from whence he should have caught a train to Stansted Airport to catch the plane taking him to Bologna. All in all, it was a good time.

(This post may be updated in the near future with comments from Alex).

Happy Good Friday

2007-04-06T16:03:00.000+01:00

Happy Good Friday everyone! What's so good about it? Well, here in the UK, we get it off. We also get Easter Monday off. That's pretty fucking good, as far as I'm concerned.

What else is good? I found out today that somebody used my debit card to buy £347 worth of clothing in Italy. The good part of that is that Barclays Fraud Detection called me about it and said "uh, did you REALLY do that?" And of course the answer was no. I think they may have been tipped off by the fact that I was making withdrawals in London at the time of the fraudulent purchase. I'm still a bit miffed that somebody stole my debit card info, but they're sending me a new card and the old one's canceled, so that's handy. On the down side, this means I can't access buy anything until I get my new debit card, and who knows when that will be. They say 4 to 5 days, but over Easter and two bank holidays, I find it hard to believe I'll see my card before the end of next week.

My handy dandy old 120 GB external hard drive has also arrived, which is nice, as there's a lot of good stuff in there, and I can start putting more stuff on there. We'll also be backing up most of Julie's stuff onto this baby, since her computer's yearning for a crashing. Anyway, that's the Easter news. Other news to be updated right above this post.

Hemp Beer

2007-03-21T13:32:00.000Z

On a note vaguely related to my previous post, I tried a hemp beer for the first time this weekend. It was surprisingly tasty, on the sweet side. I think it would be considered a lager, though it didn't taste like piss. Alcohol content was 4.8%, so fairly standard. The taste was very unique and, as I say, surprisingly good.

Daily Mail's War on Cannabis

2007-03-21T13:21:00.000Z

The Associated Newspapers Limited group, which manages the Daily Mail, the Evening Standard and shitty free morning paper The Metro seems to have declared war on pot. Today there were two articles about marijuana, one titled Murders Turn the Heat on Cannabis and the other titled Teen Cannabis Addict Jailed for Killing Friends. If you go to the Metro's website you'll see that the Cannabis Addict title has changed, but the Murders one has not. In fact, if you look at the Murders article, you'll notice that there's a variety of links to anti-marijuana articles.

Here's the thing... yes, abuse of any substance is bad. And yes, sometimes pot makes people bug out. But the only real argument made by the anti-marijuana prohibitionists seems to be that pot is stronger now than it was in previous generations. Of course, something like that would be far easier to control if marijuana was legal but heavily regulated, which would minimize pretty much all other issues with marijuana usage. The way the paper discusses the issue is reminiscent of reefer-madness.

When kids smoke pot, it makes them crazy! And then they kill people! Like when they listen to heavy metal music and then go kill themselves!

Doesn't make the damnedest bit of sense to me.

Xubuntu!

2007-03-20T18:22:00.000Z

Remember a few posts back where I talked about switching from Windows to Debian? Never quite happened... Debian just wouldn't install properly on my computer, no matter what I did, which culminated in my entire harddrive being formatted. That was actually fine, as the only thing I had that I didn't think would be easy to replace was my music, and I learned a few ways to move music from the iPod to other places. Anyway, I then tried out Ubuntu, which comes highly recommended as being very user friendly, intuitive, and good for people who just want a new OS and don't expect to be doing major development work... like me. Well, that wouldn't install properly either, so I installed the slimmed-down version of Ubuntu called Xubuntu, and that worked like a charm. I am a big fan and definitely recommend Ubuntu (or a relative like Kubuntu or Xubuntu) to anyone looking to switch from Microsoft dependency but not eager to move to Apple dependency. Xubuntu is smooth and fast, and it's really easy to add programs. And community support is fantastic. Having a problem? Just do a quick Google search and you've got semi-professional programmers telling you the solution. And, if you're not into making the full conversion, you can always go dual-boot.

Frankly, one of my favorite things about Ubuntu is a little something I first ran into in college with a little program called Litestep. Basically, Litestep was like a mask you could put on Windows to make it look like anything you wanted that was infinitely editable. This cool feature was the option to have multiple desktops. In Litestep it was standard to have 4 separate desktops on which you could work. It's a bit difficult to explain. Essentially, you have 4 tiny gray boxes in the bottom of your screen which represent each possible work space. If you click on one that's empty, you switch over to an empty workspace without losing anything in the previous workspace. It's a very nice way to keep things from getting too cluttered.

Anyway, part of the reason I haven't blogged in a while is that I've been dealing with the pain in the ass that was Debian (in case any Debian fans see this, the problem is that I'm not sophisticated enough to run Debian).

Updated to Ubuntu section: On the suggestion of Ubuntu Forums in the comments, here are some good places to learn more about Ubuntu.
http://ubuntuforums.org
http://ubuntu-tutorials.com
http://help.ubuntu.com
http://help.ubuntu.com/community

I also took the day off work today because I feel terrible. I only went in yesterday because I felt like I had to be "responsible" and help someone finish off a project. Responsibility sucks, man. But at least I got paid till 12:30 AM. Meh.

backBlog Comments

2007-03-11T19:05:00.000Z

I apparently chose the right time to start allowing Blogger comments as well as my old fashioned, ugly-green blogExtra comments. Back in January, blogExtra was sold, and two days later the comments went down, though I guess they got them back up pretty quickly that time. Then in February, they officially switched owners, and the comments collapsed on Friday, March 9th. On their website, the last piece of news from blogExtra is

March 9, 2007
We are currently having some techical problems with our database. We are working on it right now, and hope that all will be running again smoothly later today.
Thank you for your understanding.

Considering that the error message one gets when trying to use this comment system on Samay's or my blog, I wonder if our accounts were deleted in the changeover. We'll see. If they're back up soon, then it was just a glitch, otherwise, if I've been dropped from backBlog, I'm going to switch all the way over to Blogger's comment system. In fact, the only reason I kept the old comment system when I allowed Blogger comments is because I didn't want to lose all the old comments, going back to the birth of this blog. There's some good ones back there that still make me laugh. So we shall see what happens in that regard. Could make some things easier. It's always been a pain to try and migrate the blogExtra's comments to any new template I use. And much as I hate to do it, I have to say that I'm inclined to suggest that Samay allow the Blogger comments, at least until backBlog comes back online... not that I can tell him that on his own blog, since his comments are down.

On a Quest

2007-03-04T15:47:00.000Z

Ever since my sophomore year of University, I've been interested in finding proper yerba mate and all the accoutrements of its production and ingestion. Though I haven't, typically, been questing after it terribly actively, it's been on my mind for quite some time. Since Julie and I moved to London, I've become more actively interested in finding yerba mate, as there's a huge tea culture here, so it seemed natural mate would be easy to find. I was wrong, of course, as I've had a terrible time finding what I was looking for.

I was introduced to yerba mate in my second year at Villanova by my friend Sean. One side of Sean's family was from Argentina, where Sean would often go and visit them. His Argentinean family introduced him to a drink that is popular in Argentina (and Uruguay, Paraguay, eastern Chile and southern Bolivia and Brazil). Yerba mate is a sort of tea, with all the usual social associations of tea drinking as something to be done with family and friends, with a hint of ceremonialism tossed in. I say it's a "sort of tea" because of the way in which it is made: essentially, one fills a hollow gourd (or in Sean's case, a special metal cup) with the tea leaves and then add water just shy of boiling. You drink the tea through a special metal straw (called a "bombilla", the bottom of which is closed, but with small holes on one side to filter out the leaves. It is, in my opinion, an absolutely fantastic drink.

A few weeks ago, I suddenly put my quest for yerba mate together with the fact that the woman with whom I share an office at work is Argentinian. "Maria," I said, "do you know where I could get yerba mate in London." I was thrilled when she said that yes, indeed, she did. She told me of a small outdoor market near Sloane Square, which is not far from where many of London's art museums are located, as well as the Natural History Museum (which is a gorgeous building, more a Versailles-esque palace than a museum). Yesterday, I was finally able to attempt my mission of visiting this market, where I found myself a 1/4 kilo bag of yerba mate, a hollowed-out gourd from which to drink it, and a bombilla with which to ingest the drink.

I also learned that before you use the gourd properly, you should "cure" the inside of the gourd by preparing the yerba as you normally would, and then let it sit for 24 hours. After that, you must scrape and smoothen the inside of the gourd. Today at 4:30, that process will be done and, with any luck, I'll finally be able to taste yerba mate again.

My Awful Neighbors

2007-03-04T15:31:00.000Z

I think I've mentioned on this blog before that my upstairs neighbors are not my favorite people in the world. They are incredibly loud, playing their music at volumes so high that our furniture shakes at relatively early hours on the weekends. They are constantly vaccuuming, often at 8 AM on a Saturday after they were up drinking and blaring their so-called music until 4 AM. As I said, not my favorite people.

Around Christmas, Julie and I visited them and explained that we would really appreciate it if they could keep the volume down, especially late at night. They responded by blaming the building, saying that they often hear their upstairs neighbors, too. That's all well and good, but that's not really our problem, I thought. It all seemed good at that point. In fact, they turned down their music that night, and were better about the volume of their music and the times in which they played it... at least for a little while. For the last month and a half or so, they've been slowly increasing the hours of the day they feel comfortable playing music so loudly that it must actually be damaging their hearing. Certainly, they play it loudly enough that it sounds like their stereo is in my flat where it would still be too loud for me. Our neighbors have also, however, introduced a new irritation: one of them thinks he's a singer. He will start yelling out song lyrics so offkey that even if we knew the songs he was singing, there's no way we'd recognize them from his vocalizations.

This morning, however, was above and beyond. At roughly 8 AM, Julie and I were awoken by our singing neighbor yelling from the room above ours to who-knows-where something in Polish. What the fuck was that? I'm a poor sleeper at the best of times, so at Christmas Julie bought me some earplugs, which I inserted after the unnecessary screeching. At 10, they decided it was time to really boost the noise on their sound-system. It all reminds me now of the scene in Spinal Tap when they explain about their amps going up to 11:

Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...

Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi: I don't know.
Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.

We decided it was time to visit these folks again, and remind them of our earlier conversation. Actually, Julie decided to visit them because I think she's more inclined to politeness than I am, and I expected I would end up swearing at them. I would have been wrong, as you'll see.

Julie went up the stairs and knocked on the door. The music turned off. Julie knocked again, and the music blared again before being turned down a bit. Julie knocked once more, and again the music turned off entirely, before coming back on again, once again with lowered volume. Very strange.

In the end, we wrote them a note reiterating our conversation of Christmas. We also used this opportunity to make it clear that if they continued to be so offensively noisey, we would make a formal noise complaint to the police. I have friends who've gotten their neighbors evicted for being bad neighbors. There was also recently an article in one of the free evening tabloids over here about a woman who would sing so loudly (and poorly) when she bathed that her neighbors called the police on her numerous times. Eventually, the local council (municipality) decided to place an ASBO on her. An ASBO is an Anti-Social Behavior Order, which typically is placed on youths convicted in gang activities enjoining them from going to certain areas or neighborhoods. In this case, the ASBO placed a legal obligation to refrain from singing in the bath. I can't say that an ASBO would be my preferred solution as I don't like the idea of the government regulating that level of one's personal life (let alone the issue of having to live in the same building as these people who might be inclined to find a way to retaliate).

As it stands now, our neighbors controlled their volume acceptably for the past 5 hours or so; here's hoping it lasts longer than that.

"Hell. Too Good for Some Evil Bastards"

2007-02-25T11:30:00.000Z

That's the writing on a billboard for Hell pizza in New Zealand. Next to the writing? A black and white photo of El Presidente Bush. In fact, here's the billboard:

Unfortunately, there was a complaint against this billboard for "the use of slang in a public place, the alleged denigration of Mr Bush, and perceived blasphemy."
Blasphemy? I'm confused... is it blasphemy because Bush is God? Or is it blasphemous to refer to hell? Interestingly, the advertising firm that put this ad up made the following claim about the use of the word "bastard:"

The agency also said that use of the term "bastard" is widespread and can be considered a compliment.

I'm not sure how it can be considered a compliment, but I give them full points for creativity. Some people had complained that the billboard was perpetrating a "smear campaign against an openly Christian person." That sort of argument always strikes me as a bit odd. Are there a lot of closeted Christians, afraid to admit their religion for fear of persecution, loss of job, friends, and family? "Oh man, that guy's a flaming Christian. Why doesn't he just come out already and admit he thinks Jesus was the messiah who died for our sins?" Do these closeted Christians get together in parks to pray and take communion? Considering that the vast majority of Americans are "openly Christian," is there really any risk one's taking by admitting one's religious preferences? And isn't it odd that people who use their religion as an excuse to be homophobes would use the language of homosexuality to refer to their religious leanings?
"Openly Christian."
"Openly gay."
Well huh.

(hat tip to Paddy at Cliff Schecter's blog, where I first heard about this)

A Harrowing Experience

2007-02-05T21:13:00.000Z

I'm installing Debian on my laptop as I write this (on Julie's laptop). It's a harrowing experience (as you may have guessed) for a relative computer novice like myself. When my computer froze early in the install process, I was a little nervous my poor baby was dead. Fortunately, I looked for help in all the right places (I Googled it, as Debian's own site did not address my issue) , and now I'm praying the rest goes smoothly. The partitioning process scared the bejeesus out of me, as I was constantly worried I would accidentally delete all my mp3s. You see, I did a very silly thing, which was to install a new OS on my computer (well, a secondary OS, anyway) without actually backing all my shit up. All the really important stuff has been saved, but most of my music is in serious danger here. Scary stuff. I hope it's worth it, though. If it's good, I may end up installing it on Julie's laptop as well, depending.
I'm not really sure I'm worthy of anything Linux related, as I certainly can't really give back to the community, technologically, at the moment, but I felt it was time to bid "adieu" to Windows (especially given that Vista's DRM is apparently so draconian as to prevent playing music and dvds that one has purchased legally!). And, if Illiad's telling the truth, then the French are following my lead.

A brief note

2007-01-19T15:40:00.000Z

Some people may recall that the Democrats won Congress on a promise, in part, to enact certain legislation within their first 100 hours. It was a pretty far-reaching and ambitious promise, but, impressively, the Democrats accomplished it all within just 42 hours. They passed laws to enact the 9/11 commission's suggestions, raise the minimum wage, and a few other things; they changed Congressional rules to make ethics regulations stronger and to give more teeth to the Ethics Committee. All in all, a pretty good first half. Wonder what they'll get up to in the second half of their 100 hours? One thing we can say for certain is that this Congress has already done far more than the previous Do-Less-Than-Nothing Congress that made the Do-Nothing Congress Truman campaigned against seem positively active and energetic. I'd like to think that America is on its way out of the storm-clouds of the Bush Administration coupled with a Republican Congress. And, in my opinion, to make matters better, Hillary Clinton is losing her momentum, giving it up to John Edwards and Barack Obama (on the down side, Clark is also losing the minimal support he had, primarily, it seems, to Edwards).

I'm going to say it: I like John Edwards more now than I did in 2004; I'm not a huge Obama fan (from the perspective of him acting on his words... or, hell, him even saying anything remotely concrete and meaningful), and I have very mixed feelings about Hillary, but I like her far less than Obama. Edwards, though, has spent the last four years working on the issues he promised to work on as President and then as VP, primarily poverty (the "two Americas" theme). Though it may have seemed like a bit of a publicity stunt to some when he announced from New Orleans, I would point out that there are differences between his visit down there and Bush's. For one thing, Edwards seemed to actually be doing work, as he was sweating, red-faced, and had dirt smeared across his face in a way you wouldn't expect from a man usually so well coifed. I think he truly stands for and believes in the things he says.

All that said, all that really matters is that the Democrats manage to nominate a better candidate than Kerry. I have a theory on this, by the way. I think Kerry is a fine Senator, but that his years in the Senate have dulled his edge, as a Senator's voting record is always touched by nuance. And Kerry got so used to speaking one on one with people who had the time to follow where he was going that he forgot how to speak like an ordinary person. I suspect this is why very few Senators ever become Presidents (can you name both who have?) Anyway, what's so exciting about this particular primary cycle is that the Democratic nominee (and thus potential President) could be a black man or a woman. Given that everyone seems to have opinions of Hillary by now, I suspect the black man has better odds than the woman, but we shall see, shan't we?

On the intentional obfuscation of professional scholars

2007-01-15T10:16:00.000Z

At my law firm's holiday party several weeks ago, I met a theoretical physicist. We got to chatting a bit about physics and what he did, which related to, essentially, trying to explain why the properties of substances change in certain ways when they get really really cold (i.e., approaching absolute zero). I admitted to him that I am a scientific dabbler, in that I don't have the mind or focus to do science of any kind professionally, but I do have an amateur curiosity about the sciences, particularly physics. His response*, and this is my point, was that dabblers like myself are the kind of person most hated by his colleagues.

There is a certain bias, at least at Oxbridge, against scientific dabblers. Newton wrote the Prinicipia in an intentionally dense manner in order to avoid discussions with dabblers who could not truly understand what he was getting at; rather, he only wanted professional mathematicians and scientists to know what was going on. (I just read about this in A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, by the way, a great book for dabblers and amateurs to pick up and check out). The Invisible Ben has previously noted his experience with going to readings of papers and being utterly befuddled. Now I know the story: Yes Invisible Ben, scholars intentionally embrace obfuscation.

*As a side note, the gentleman in question went out of his way to write the first page of his dissertation as simply and obfuscation-free as possible so that his parents might be able to understand at least one page of it.

Cake or Death!

2007-01-11T14:15:00.000Z

I've just seen a post at Paperwright's Fair Shot that uses an Eddie Izzard sketch to illustrate current American politics.
Here, I've stolen the good bits:

Republicans: DEATH!
Democrats: What? Are you insane?
Cake.
Centrists: Look, here Democrats, you need to back off of this
shrill cake position and be reasonable. Compromise a bit. How about
a cookie and a maiming?
Democrats: What? How about just a cookie,
no maiming?
Centrists: Now, Dems, be reasonable. You have to meet
the Republicans half-way. They want death. Seems to me that a little
maiming isn't too much to ask.
Democrats: Wha? But death is
insane. A cookie and a maiming is still insane. That's not much of a
compromise. Why don't you ask the Republicans to ask for something that's
not insane?
Centrists: Well, they did win the last presidential
election by around 3% of the popular vote. That's clearly a mandate. You
need to go their way. Do you want to be in the minority forever? Be
reasonable. Maybe just a little maiming, like losing a foot or a couple
fingers on your off hand?
Democrats: I really think just cake is the
way to go. Maybe pie. Or some kind of food. But no death or
maiming. I don't care if that's the Republican position. It's really
insane.
Centrists: Well, you're going to lose my vote. I can't
understand why you're so unreasonable that you won't accept some maiming.

Update: I don't know what she did, but Annie seems to have broken my comments, so I've enabled Blogger's comments.

Update the second: And they're fixed again. I'm thinking of switching over to the Blogger comments, though.

States' Rights

2007-01-06T21:24:00.000Z

Some folk like to defend the Civil War (War of Northern Aggression or War Between the States to these people) as being about states' rights. If you push on them further, you rarely hear more than recycled arguments about the rights of states not to be pushed around by the federal government. I don't think it's particularly difficult, however, to make the point that the only right the Confederacy was fighting for was slavery. After all, most of the speeches made in the South to rally the people to fight for this righteous cause relied on the idea that Lincoln was going to free the slaves, and make them equal to white men, an idea that was particularly intended to resonate with the most powerless of white men who desperately needed to feel superior to somebody. Also, considering that the states most worried about states rights that decided to join the Confederacy all happened to be slave owning does make it seem that, at its essence, the war truly was about nothing more than fear that the Northerners were going to take away Southern slaves.

However, a thought came to me tonight that is based, in some ways, on my Political Science learning at Villanova. The more philosophically minded of Southerners who happened to support slavery and the Confederacy were able to argue that secession was based on each individual state's right to secede from the Union. Essentially, if each state had to sign on to the US Constitution for it to come into force (which was true, for all practical purposes) then each state also had the right to withdraw from that union. In other words, federal supremacy did not apply if a state decided to leave the union. There was nothing in the Constitution to address what would happen if a state decided to leave, only how many states were required to agree to the Constitution in order for it to come into force. In fact, the Constitution implies that states have the right to leave the union if they so desire in the form of the 10th Amendment (The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.) Since the Constitution did not prohibit states from seceding, one could assume this right was reserved to the states.

I have always wondered about the Civil War being called the War of Northern Aggression, but now it becomes clear: if the Confederate States seceded legally, then the North must have invaded a sovereign country, at least in the minds of those who truly believed in the legality of the secession. I suppose it's lost on people using that name to point out that the southern states actually attacked a Federal fort to start the war, putting the blame squarely on the shoulders of the seceding states. With these two points in mind, it's not terribly hard to argue that the Civil War was, in fact, the Union defending itself from an enemy nation which had attacked it, and then continuing the war to ensure that said enemy would be unable to repeat the attack on some future date.

Ok, so with all that said, what's my point? Well, since I've shown the legal basis for secession and its philosophical underpinnings (leaving aside the practical and psychological bases of slavery, slavery, slavery), it can be argued that the Civil War did not determine definitively the illegality of secession. Now, look at the sidebar of my blog, where you'll see my comments after the 2004 elections about secession and the creation of various new nations based on Northern Progressive values. If in 2004, a state, perhaps Massachusetts or Connecticut or Rhode Island, decided to secede but did not attack a fort or outpost owned by the United States would it have been legal for the US government to invade? Well, yes, I've shown that. But... would all those people who wave Confederate flags be cheering for the Federal government's intervention, missing the hypocrisy and stupidity of their actions (probably) or would they stay true to the philosophical and legal basis for secession in which they claim to believe (or imply they believe, anyway, even if they don't understand it)?

Been a bit

2006-11-24T20:04:00.000Z

Right, so the obvious apology first for going so long without posting. I was on a real role there, and then I started my new job. Working as a paralegal at an American lawfirm has it's plusses over here, as the Americans pay better than the British. However, since I temped before this, I was drawing a weekly paycheck, but have now moved to a monthly check. That means nearly a month of having no income, and having to really count each and every penny. Not very pleasant.

In other news, I was at my local library last weekend, and I found there the next book in a series I had started reading in High School (or possibly Junior High?). The series is called Wild Cards, edited by George R. R. Martin of Song of Ice and Fire fame. Essentially, each book is a collection of short stories by various authors occurring in a alternate history. The basic storyline is that in 1946 an alien species that was physiologically very similar to us decided to test a virus on humanity. The purpose of the virus was to increase the alien race's mental and physical powers (e.g., telekinesis, telepathy, physical brute strength, etc), but they weren't sure if it would work. The answer to the question is that it turned out to not be a particularly reliable virus, killing the vast majority of people infected (called "drawing the black Queen"), and horribly deforming the majority of survivors (called Jokers). The luckiest survivors gained powers of various sorts, as described above, and are called Aces, while people with useless or nearly useless powers, like the ability to turn water into orange juice were called Deuces. The theme is pretty obvious.

Anyway, what was funny about finding the book is that my library had exactly one book from the series, the 6th book, which happened to be the book that I had been unable to find in any bookstore anywhere after I had finished book 5. It was entirely accidental, me finding the book, as I had not gone into the library looking for anything in particular, and it hadn't even occurred to me to see if they had anything by or related to George double R. Life's funny like that sometimes. I suppose Ben's the only person who might read this who has a clue what I'm talking about, but that's fine.

GOP got Owned

2006-11-09T21:50:00.000Z

GOP Got Owned
To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about that particular site, but I'll link to it nonetheless.

UPDATE: Shit... hope nobody opened in a non-private place with their speaker volume on. The thing's pretty loud. Hope everyone gets this warning in time.

Good news and some bad

2006-11-08T21:31:00.000Z

The bad news first, is that Lamont lost. The good news, is that he kicked Lieberman's ass once before the national party stabbed him in the back by not actually helping him out at all. Lamont was a fantastic man, and a good candidate, and I think he's ensured that Lieberman will not run for CT Senate again in 6 years (yes, it's a small consolation, but it helps nonetheless).

In better news, however, Chris Murphy kicked Nancy Johnson's ass. This race was the one pundits all insisted was a lost cause at first, but then when the tide started to kick in, a tide started by Lamont's primary victory over Lieberman, they realized that this was the bellwether. Sure, CT-02 and 04 would probably go D, but 05? Please, nobody could beat Nancy. But then, Murphy had the medical creds to do it.

Even so, with all his good work negating Nancy's traditional strength with the elderly, it was going to be an uphill battle for a man who has made a career out of beating the unbeatable. But Nancy decided to help him out. First, she stumbled through the debates, failing to come off in her typically grandmotherly way, and seeming somewhat disoriented a lot of the time (it was really sad, to be honest, and I mean that in the way you say it's sad that your grandmother is losing it). Then, Nancy completely gave up on her grandmotherly image by producing some incredibly nasty ads that, given Johnson's image, completely and utterly backfired, allowing Murphy to not just win, but to completely dominate her, 56% - 44%.

Then there was Montana, a state that Democrats should have had a hard time winning; and they did have a hard time, but they seem to have managed it. Tester is leading by a half a percentage point with only blue areas left to report, and the race has to be within a quarter percentage point to allow a recount.

Jim Webb in Virginia looks to have beaten George Macaca Allen, who had put so much into his Presidential groundgame it looks like he may give up on a recount and disappear. He has no chance at the Presidency now, and he spent the last year or so telling Iowans he did not want to be a Senator anymore. We'll see what happens, though; he is an asshole, after all, and probably has a legal right to demand a recount.

Harold Ford (D) lost in TN. He made a big deal about the New Jersey court decision saying NJ needed some kind of legal equivalent of marriage for gays (though it did not say it had to be marriage). Oh well, I don't mind that loss. However, there is a school of thought that suggests this loss will make Obama think twice about running for President (which is good, in my mind; Obama needs to win a tough election for his Senate seat once before I'm willing to let him be the Democratic bannerman. Also, his tendency to run away from the Democratic party bugs me. He's no Lieberman, but he's of a similar mold).

There's a lot of other news, of course, such as the official banishment of Senator Man on Dog Santorum and Senator Mike Dewine. Casey's not a perfect candidate, but with a Democratic majority (assuming Lieberman didn't lie, again, during the elections), he won't have a chance to damage reproductive rights. Sherrod Brown is a pretty solid liberal, and he's very clearly an economic populist, so he'll be fantastic.

Slight aside: Rahm Emmannuel (sp?) (D-IL), chair of the DCCC, is going to try to take credit for the Democrats taking the House. Ironically, his handpicked candidates mostly lost in the primaries to actual Democrats, or if they had no primary challengers, they lost in the general elections. Emmannuel likes anti-liberal Democrats, again of the Lieberman variety, and, outside of CT Republicans, that kind of Democrat was solidly repudiated by the American people on Tuesday night. You don't have to be a liberal to be a Democrat, but you're a better Democrat if you don't reflexively bash liberalism.

Overall, a bad night for the Republicans whose reign was based on fear and on hating America. Throw the bums out? Oh yeah, we did that.

Nervous wreck

2006-11-07T23:16:00.000Z

Waiting to read returns. Have to wait till the morning.
Reporting record turnout in CT; hoping that favors Lamont enough that he'll win. We'll see. Someone has noted that the Secretary of State has said that turnout could reach 70%, which is huge, even for a Presidential elecetion year.
I'm also told Lieberman is so far down-ballot that it's hard to find his name to vote for him; hoping that's true, too.
From Colin McEnroe's blog on Courant.com:

"You'd have to be stupid to vote for Lieberman. And then they make it hard for stupid people to find him. It's not fair!"

I'll post more on the elections after it's all over, and once I've recovered enough of my faculties to be remotely rational.

Evil Dead: The Musical

2006-11-02T11:24:00.000Z

Yes, it's true. And since Kael isn't blogging these days, it's up to me to point this out. Evil Dead: The Musical is currently playing in New York City, and has apparently already appeared other places. It includes such songs as "All the Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed by Candarian Demons" and "Hail to the King." Frankly, I'm hoping the show comes to London at some point so I can go see it. And tonight in New York, Bruce Campbell will be there for "Talk Back with Bruce Campbell." Man, I would love to see that.

Laura Bush is nuttier than I thought

2006-11-01T10:31:00.000Z

Via ThinkProgress:

Q: One of the issues that’s come up. Michael J. Fox. The whole issue of stem cell research. Your reaction to the events of the past week.

LAURA BUSH: Well, I don’t have any idea about any of those. I mean, I’ve watch on television just like you have. But the fact is President Bush is the only president that authorized funding for stem cell research. And, um, you know, it’s an issue that it’s easy to try to manipulate people’s feelings about and I understand that. My dad died of Alzheimer’s. You know, there’ s nothing I’d like more than to think there was a cure for Alzheimer’s. Especially before I get to be the age he is, but knowing also how he suffered. It’s always easy to manipulate people’s feelings, especially when you are talking about diseases that are so difficult.

(emphasis mine)

I'm sure by now that everyone's heard about the Michael J. Fox ads in Missouri where he asks people to vote for Claire McCaskill because she supports stem cell research that might help find a cure for Parkinsons. In the ad, he's got the violent twitching that is associated with Parkinsons under treatment (with no meds, his body becomes incredibly stiff and immobile, whereas with treatment and on medication, the body moves spastically and uncontrollably). Rush Limbaugh instantly accused Fox of faking in the ads. Now we've got Laura Bush, the only person associated with the administration the American people don't despise, basically accusing him of being manipulative. That's rich, coming from the wife of this particular President. Michael J. Fox started a foundation after he was diagnosed with Parkinsons for the specific purpose of finding a cure for Parkinsons, and all his doctors say that the best chance lies in stem cell research; maybe, just maybe, that's what he's going for with his ad.

Also, with regard to Laura's comment that Bush is the only President to authorize funding for stem cell research, well, there's a few problems there. First, he's the first President to be asked to authorize funding (I don't recall Congress passing any laws funding stem cell research and then being vetoed by Clinton). Second, scientists all complain that the limits on the research imposed by federal law are too limiting, in that there are barely any stem cell lines were made available for research. As a result of the limited lines available, Bush and the Republicans make it clear they would rather see fertilized eggs from in vitro fertilization clinics thrown out (i.e., aborted) than have them used to try to find cures for some of humanity's most awful diseases.

Bath

2006-10-31T09:42:00.000Z

A week and a half ago, Julie and I went to the city of Bath for the weekend, both as a holiday excursion and to see a friend of hers. Short comment is that it was a great time, with lots of drinking, centered around food. The way the days broke down, we started with a meal, wandered through the commercial area of Bath, grabbed lunch, grabbed tea and scones, and then finally visited the Roman Bath complex.
Clearly, the Baths were the key reason one visits Bath, though, in general, it's a gorgeous city, with lots of Georgian architecture, and a fantastic abbey (since, like all English cities, Bath is nearly centered on its major religious building.)
Moving on to the Baths. Well, for whatever reason, Bath is the location of natural hot springs, which have been worshipped as a spiritual place where one could commune with the gods since pre-Roman times. When the Romans came, they added Minerva's name to the local name of the god honoured at the springs, and kept up pretty much the same style of worship (though they did add a temple complex and marked off one section of the springs as "sacred," thus denying access to that area to absolutely everyone.

At some point in time, they added a sauna complex as well, for health purposes, don't you know. The Romans built a stone floor about 2 to 3 feet above the dirt floor, held up by stacks of tiles. Then, in the room next door, they stoked furnaces to high temperatures, and created a vaccuum on the other side of the sauna room, thus pulling the hot air through vents into the space between the raised floor and the lower floor. This hot air heated the tiles, and heated the room: insta-sauna. As they say in the audio tour, though, just think of the poor slave who had to clean off the coal dust from between the floors.

After the tour of the baths, by the way, you are given a chance to have a glass of the Bathwater, an opportunity which I could not miss. It smells of sulfur, and tastes of iron; I couldn't finish a full glass.

We also touched off a bit of controversy. A friend of Julie's has a boyfriend who tends to drink far too much. I'd argue he's verging on alcoholism, if not over the line. As one might imagine, his girlfriend isn't particularly thrilled with taking care of him every time they go out and he drinks so much he thinks the floor would make a lovely place to have a lie down, followed by the inevitable vomit. As it turns out, the boyfriend of the woman we were visiting (they live together) also tends to overdo his drinking a bit, and does so without his girlfriend being around. She's not so thrilled about this.

As Julie and I had started to discuss Julie's other friend a bit, apparently S, whom we were visiting, gave A (her boyfriend) a dirty look, which Julie caught, but I, alas, did not. I continued on, blithely describing C's boyfriend's abusive drinking habits, not realizing I could be causing some trouble for A and S. Well, wouldn't you know it, the next day A goes to a pub to watch some football, gets drunk, and comes home just in time for the supper he was supposed to make. The rest of the night is made only slightly awkward by the dirty looks S sends his way, as well as the occassional snide comment or snap. Oops.

So... if you're ever in Bath, visit the Baths, drink some Bathwater, and please don't discuss problem drinking behaviors: you just might get somebody in trouble.
(Also, if you're in Bath, visit The Raven, which has a great selection of Ales and has won numerous awards from the Campaign for Real Ales).

DST

2006-10-28T13:48:00.000+01:00

Don't forget, everyone, to turn your clocks back one hour at 2 AM tomorrow (Sunday) morning. Next year, y'all Americans will be doing your daylight savings stuff a bit early at the beginning and a bit late at the end. Ordinarily, daylight savings begins the first Sunday of April and ends the last Sunday of October (or at least it did this year), but next year, as an experiment in energy conservation, the United States will start DST the second Sunday in March and end it the first Sunday in November.
The theory is that having more sunlight during waking time will allow people to use less electricity and thus conserve energy. Some people think that's ridiculous. The idea, then, next year, is to have the Department of Energy study energy use in America and figure out who's right. Kind of interesting.
An interesting fact about Daylight Savings Time during WWII (DST had been out of vogue for a few years at this point, and had not been used for several years).

DST was reinstated in the United States on February 9, 1942, again as a wartime measure to conserve resources. This remained in effect until World War II began winding down and the requirement was removed on September 30, 1945. During this period, the official designation "War Time" was used for year-round DST. The year-round War Time was double daylight saving time without reverting back to standard time during the winter months. When entering double daylight saving time, clocks are advanced two hours instead of one hour.
Source: Wikipedia

Job news

2006-10-27T15:14:00.000+01:00

I hadn't quite realized how lame I've been with regard to blogging lately, until I went back through the archives, and then clicked on this month and realized there was one substantive post. LAAAAAAAAME. Oh well. Will work on remedying that.

In other news, I've got a new job, starting November 6th, working as a paralegal at Clearly Gottlieb Steen Hamilton in London. It's a solid pay rise, actual benefits, and paid vacation time! Woo-hoo! I'm kinda looking forward to that.

Flashback

2006-10-26T15:50:00.000+01:00

I've just been reading old posts of mine, as well as comments on this blog. Man, when we were all first blogging, before Kael turned into a leafy vegetable and stopped posting, and when Eric still wrote things, and even Ken wrote (I know, it's hard for me to believe, too), we were really into it. If I failed to blog one DAY I got angry comments, and if I missed a week, well, I was in for a real blistering. Now it's mostly just Samay and Annie left still blogging (and Ben, but he doesn't allow for comments, which counts against him now he's no longer teaching). I post once in a while, but since I discovered DailyKos, I've been spending all my time over there, letting my own blog rot.
Ah, yes, the good ol' days, when Annie would say something like: "and ashcroft probably needs a hug. and to realize that he's a giant asshole that's ruining the world." Or the Kitty Blending episode. And this set of comments after I suggested my family was driving me to alcoholism:

anniecat () @ 12/26/2003 22:19:
dude-you like never drink...3 or 4 beers would make you an "alcoholic" ^_^
el samayo grande () @ 12/30/2003 07:51:
well, is that 3 or 4 beers a day, or 3 or 4 beers an hour?
Colin () @ 01/06/2004 11:34:
3 or 4 beers a month.
anniecat () @ 01/06/2004 11:50:
its colins gone wild!

And now all the old standbys are gone, Kael has disappeared into wussy non-posting, Eric hasn't been heard from in a long time (does anyone know if he's alive?), and Mikey D loses interest in every blog he starts within a week.
All the energy and excitement is gone; no more comments feuds. Reading a lot of the old comments still makes me laugh out loud (which can be awkward at work, as the office is open-plan [i.e., no individual cubes or desks, we all share one giant table with computers on it]). Personally, I suggest everyone should take a few moments at some point to appreciate their archives and archived comments, if they're still available (again, except Ben who has no comments). It's good times, even the painful bits.
[Really Cool (r)(c)(TM)]

Googlebombing the elections

2006-10-26T10:50:00.000+01:00

The idea here, which originated at Mydd.com, is to associate the names of some truly awful Republican candidates for various seats with unflattering news articles so google searches for these folk turn up said news articles.
--AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl

--AZ-01: Rick Renzi

--AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth

--CA-04: John Doolittle

--CA-11: Richard Pombo

--CA-50: Brian Bilbray

--CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave

--CO-05: Doug Lamborn

--CO-07: Rick O'Donnell

--CT-04: Christopher Shays

--FL-13: Vernon Buchanan

--FL-16: Joe Negron

--FL-22: Clay Shaw

--ID-01: Bill Sali

--IL-06: Peter Roskam

--IL-10: Mark Kirk

--IL-14: Dennis Hastert

--IN-02: Chris Chocola

--IN-08: John Hostettler

--IA-01: Mike Whalen

--KS-02: Jim Ryun

--KY-03: Anne Northup

--KY-04: Geoff Davis

--MD-Sen: Michael Steele

--MN-01: Gil Gutknecht

--MN-06: Michele Bachmann

--MO-Sen: Jim Talent

--MT-Sen: Conrad Burns

--NV-03: Jon Porter

--NH-02: Charlie Bass

--NJ-07: Mike Ferguson

--NM-01: Heather Wilson

--NY-03: Peter King

--NY-20: John Sweeney

--NY-26: Tom Reynolds

--NY-29: Randy Kuhl

--NC-08: Robin Hayes

--NC-11: Charles Taylor

--OH-01: Steve Chabot

--OH-02: Jean Schmidt

--OH-15: Deborah Pryce

--OH-18: Joy Padgett

--PA-04: Melissa Hart

--PA-07: Curt Weldon

--PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick

--PA-10: Don Sherwood

--RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee

--TN-Sen: Bob Corker

--VA-Sen: George Allen

--VA-10: Frank Wolf

--WA-Sen: Mike McGavick

--WA-08: Dave Reichert

Didja hear the one about the Congressman and the pageboy?

2006-09-30T13:43:00.000+01:00

Oh wait... it's not a joke, it's a currently exploding Republican scandal. Apparently Representative Mark Foley (R-FL) had incredibly inappropriate conversations with an underage pageboy via e-mail and IM. About 11 months ago, the congressman who sponsored that particular pageboy was informed, but he declined to do much about it, because the pageboy's parents said they were "comfortable" with it. This congressman did inform the Republicans in charge of the House Page Board, which has three members, two Republicans and a Democrat.

The Page Board Republicans interviewed Foley, apparently, without bothering to inform the Democrat, Dale Kildee (D-MI) of the meeting. They did, however, inform House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who said, in effect, "sure, do what you want... just remember he's one of ours." Now we learn that current House Majority Leader Boehner learned about the sex scandal a few months ago and asked Denny Hastert about it, and Hastert said, again I paraphrase "don't worry your pretty lil head about it, we're taking care of it." The cover up collapsed, however, when ABC learned about some of the e-mails and asked Foley about them. He eventually admitted they were real, has since resigned, and is seriously helping to collapse the Republicans with him.

In essence, the ENTIRE LEADERSHIP of the House Republicans knew that one of their members was having inappropriate conversations (and just generally acting inappropriately) with underage pageboys, and instead of doing anything about it, they went into instant cover-up mode. And this has all come out just in time to impact the mid-term elections. Craziness!

Still Alive in London

2006-09-24T08:03:00.000+01:00

(copied from my LJ... which I am now abandoning in favor of blogger)
I'm not dead! I feel fine!
I'm just lazy is all.
In news that is interesting to me and me alone (which is the point of blogs and LJs no?) I have a new mobile phone. It's got a 3.2 mega pixel camera on it which is, I'm pretty confident, better than my actual digital camera. I can even check my e-mail on it without it costing me extra. Of course, if you do the money conversion on what I'm paying for my mobile, even though it's dirt cheap for over here it comes out to be pretty pricey for an American plan (especially considering I get minimal minutes and texts... texts are king over here). Anyway, the great thing about mobile plans over here is that you always get a free phone, but even better than that, you can get ANY PHONE YOU WANT that the company is capable of supplying as your free phone. Thus, this 3.2 mega pixel camera phone, with video phone capabilities, that plays radio, stores and plays MP3s, etc etc cost me nothing beyond my £25 a month. I really enjoy that.
I'm reading A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius currently, just a few years after everyone else on the planet read it.
Oh yes, also read The Fountainhead recently... every single word, even the pseudo-intellectual pseudo-philosophical multi-page speeches about how awesome true selfishness is (not to be confused with the actual definition of selfishness, of course.) The Fountainhead was useful in a way, though... At one point, our selfish hero, an architect, explains that anytime you see one of his buildings and love it, you then own it. Well, if it works that way for buildings, shouldn't it work that way for music? "Oh, hey, I like that song! Hey, now I OWN it, which means I can do pretty much whatever I want with it, because theft is impossible. As long as people hear the song before they download it, burn it, copy it, or whatever, they own it and are free to do what they like with it." I like that.

Rumours of my death have been exaggerated

2006-09-10T01:46:00.000+01:00

Digital, online, free iPod (sadly, you can't actually download the music to your harddrive). It has an interesting selection of music, with a decent indie selection, but an iffier poppy-rap-hip-hop section. Interesting range, as I say.
http://blogmusik.net/
I enjoy it, anyway, since I'm too cheap to actually buy any of the songs I really like for my iPod these days.

London Bound Blog

2006-07-16T19:45:00.000+01:00

I'm now posting about my move and life in London on my livejournal account, A Yank in London.

Tom Delay is French!

2006-06-16T19:55:00.000+01:00

TomDelayIsFrench.com has been started. Check it out.

DSCC Considers Selling out CT Dems

2006-06-15T16:57:00.000+01:00

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, who's job is to elect democrats to the US Senate and which is chaired by Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, is considering endorsing Lieberman, should he leave the party and run as an independent. That's right, an organization with one job, to elect democrats to the Senate, is considering abrogating that responsibility if CT democrats choose a candidate that DC insiders don't like. It's this kind of anti-democratic action that pushes people out of the party. People are describing CT democratic primary voters as "weirdos" looking to radicalize the party. That's funny, because for Ned Lamont to poll as high as he does among the state's Democratic voters, he must not be all that radical, or else democrats in CT are just a bunch of weirdos. And by democrats, I mean the Connecticut Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, the UAW, Catholics, the former head of Connecticut's National Organization of Women, CT NARAL, Democracy for America, MoveOn.org, and roughly 40% of likely primary voters. What a bunch of weirdos.

Also, I just got this e-mail from Democracy for America chairman Jim Dean:

Dear Colin,

Have you seen the news in Connecticut? Hot off a DFA-List endorsement, Ned Lamont is surging. Two recent polls show him within striking distance of Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut Senate primary.1 He also recently won key endorsements from teachers' unions -- both AFT Connecticut and the Connecticut Education Association announced their support for Lamont this week.2

Senator Lieberman knows that Ned Lamont is for real. A few days ago, Lieberman told reporters that he is refusing to rule out leaving the Democratic Party to continue his run for re-election as an Independent. In fact, he told reporters that he is not "going to close out any options."3 While that's his prerogative, it's still outrageous. Joe Lieberman seems to believe that he is entitled to keep his Senate seat, and he's open to leaving the party to do so.

Like the vast majority of other Connecticut Democrats, myself included, Ned Lamont has promised to support the winner of the Democratic Primary, even if he doesn't emerge victorious. Please join me and urge Senator Lieberman do the same:

http://www.democracyforamerica.com/standtogether

Joe hasn't confirmed that he's planning to run as an Independent. But his campaign seems to be laying the groundwork, courting important Beltway insiders from both sides of the aisle. Amazingly, Senator Chuck Schumer, Chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), has said that the DSCC will not rule out supporting Lieberman if he runs as an Independent.4 The DSCC's mission is to elect Democrats to the Senate. Yet in this case, they would prefer to back an incumbent who leaves the party instead of a principled progressive who's proud to be a Democrat.

Primaries are healthy for the party, and Democrats in Connecticut will decide their nominee on August 8. The winner should receive the full support of all Democrats. We need to stand together in November. Please join me and ask the Beltway Democrats, including Joe Lieberman and Chuck Schumer, to do the same:

http://www.democracyforamerica.com/standtogether

Last week, over 400 Connecticut DFA and MoveOn members came out from around the state to attend our Ned Lamont endorsement rally in New Haven. After the rally, State Representative John Geragosian said, "I've been in politics 20 years, and I don't know anyone in this room." This is how we start a movement. Together, we're taking our country back.

Jim Dean
Chair

Army Ads

2006-06-13T23:21:00.000+01:00

Has anyone else noticed that army commercials these days are about what you'll be doing after you leave the army, rather than what you'll be doing in the army? For example, there's the commercial involving the gentleman who gets a job as a helicopter mechanic. When asked if he's ever been around anything like the helicopter before, we see a flashback to him waving at a military helicopter, in full army get-up.
"Yeah, in my last job," is his response. The commercial is about what skills the army gives you if you're lucky enough to survive back-to-back-to-back tours in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. No mention of what he'll be doing while in the army, namely shooting at people who never threatened him until American forces showed up in Iraq in the first place.
I can only assume this is because the army is aware that nobody in his right mind would join the army for the killing, and likely dying part. The only selling point they've got left these days is that the army gives you "skills," though they don't seem to delve too much into that except to say "see, after being in the army, you're cooler than anyone else because you've seen it all before." Granted, you're probably going to be physically disabled, mentally damaged, or even dead.
Well, I'm off to join the army.

Death to NPR and PBS

2006-06-08T23:00:00.001+01:00

A letter from MoveOn.org to its members regarding Republican attempts to destroy public television and radio:

Dear MoveOn member,

Everyone expected House Republicans to give up efforts to kill NPR and PBS after a massive public outcry stopped them last year. But they've just voted to eliminate funding for NPR and PBS--unbelievably, starting with programs like "Sesame Street."1

Public broadcasting would lose nearly a quarter of its federal funding this year. Even worse, all funding would be eliminated in two years--threatening one of the last remaining sources of watchdog journalism.2

Can you ask 3 friends to sign the petition telling Congress to save NPR and PBS again this year?

http://civic.moveon.org/...

Last year, over 1 million of us signed the petition, and Congress listened. We can do it again if you pass this message along to any friends, neighbors, or co-workers who count on NPR and PBS for news or children's programming.

This would be the most severe cut in the history of public broadcasting. The Boston Globe reports the cuts "could force the elimination of some popular PBS and NPR programs." NPR's president expects rural public radio stations may be forced to shut down.

The lawmakers who proposed the cuts aren't just trying to save money in the budget--they're trying to decimate any news outlets willing to ask tough questions of those in power. Americans trust public broadcasting more than any corporate news media.3 This is an ideological attack on our free press.

President Bush's budget proposed cuts to NPR and PBS4, but Congress is going even further: slashing 23% of this year's public broadcasting budget--$115 million--and denying NPR and PBS any funding in two years. The cuts immediately terminate support for commercial-free children's shows like "Sesame Street," "Clifford," and "Maya and Miguel."

The House and Senate are deciding if public broadcasting will survive, and they need to hear from viewers like you. Ask 3 friends to sign the petition at:

http://civic.moveon.org/...

Thank you for all you do.

-Noah, Eli, Adam G., Tom, Marika and the MoveOn.org Civic Action Team
Thursday, June 8th, 2006

P.S. You can learn more about the threat to public broadcasting from our
friends at Free Press at:

http://www.freepress.net/...

Political Corruption

2006-05-22T20:30:00.000+01:00

They say power corrupts, etc. (How's that for a cliched opening?) Next to the litany of Republicans who have been accused of or found guilty of some form of corruption (Burns, Cunningham, Frist, Delay, Libby, Abramoff, Ney, etc) we can now add the name of a Democrat: William Jefferson of Louisiana. Make no mistake, party affiliation is not cover for corruption.

Representative William Jefferson of Louisiana (and, let's be honest, when you think of a corrupt state, isn't Louisiana the first place you think of?) has apparently taken something like $2 million in bribes. Not only is he corrupt, though, he takes corruption to a whole new level by keeping money he was given to use for bribing someone else. A businesswoman gave him $100,000 to use for bribing the Vice President of Nigeria, and $90,000 of that was recently found in Jefferson's freezer. That's right, even his corruption is corrupt. But he's doing the honorable thing and denying everything, including all the things they caught him on tape saying (which includes the following tidbit: "But we need him. We got to motivate him really good. He's got a lot of folks to pay off.... He's gotta, if he's gotta pay Minister X, we don't want to know. It's not our deal. We're not paying Minister X a damn thing. That's all, you know, international fraud crap. We're not doing that.... Whatever they do locally, that's their business.") Unlike Duke Cunningham, who pled guilty 5 months after the case was opened, Jefferson has been in the FBI's crosshairs since March of 2005).

So, to clarify, William Jefferson (D), of Louisiana, should not only be removed from office (which I think has to be done by the voters or his own resignation; I don't know if there's a procedure for removing a sitting Congressman from office otherwise [CORRECTION: the term is "expulsion" and it can be done by Congress and has happened on multiple occassions]), he should be indicted and sent to jail. As should anyone else found to be taking bribes or to be otherwise corrupt. Just as Republican corruption should be rooted out, so must Democratic corruption. To jail with the lot of them!

This one's for El Samayo Grande

2006-05-16T19:48:00.000+01:00

From the Atlanta Progressive News

Gore May Run Again in 2008 for US President, Warns of Global Warming

By Matthew Cardinale, News Editor, Atlanta Progressive News (May 15, 2006)

(APN) ATLANTA - Al Gore may be a "recovering politician," but "You always have to worry about a relapse," Gore told Atlanta Progressive News.

The in-person exchange with the former Vice President took place following a special screening of "An Inconvenient Truth," here at Atlantic Station in Midtown Atlanta.

Following the screening of the absolutely breathtaking and monumental film about the grave and present threat of global warming to this planet, Atlanta Progressive News's Editor asked the former Vice President, "Will you please, please run for President?"

We thought it might help if we asked politely.

After the crowd cheered Gore in encouragement, he told the audience, "I'm a recovering politician, on Step Nine. Thank you for your sentiment." Things seemed a bit gloomy for a while.

But then later, after the larger crowd left the theater, APN Staff Writer Susan Keith brought the issue up again in a more private, yet informal gathering in the theater after the show. "It's not a sentiment!" she said, while others in attendance offered their campaign support and said, stop listening to those consultants.

Then, Gore said: "Like I said, I'm a recovering politician. But you always have to worry about a relapse."

A relapse indeed. Such language appears to have been chosen very carefully.

But the more important thing about tonight's event is how meticulously and powerfully Mr. Gore and his production team have documented the causes, effects, and dangers of global warming for the mass American public.

The American people need to go out and see this movie in a major way.

Gore said it's not too late to reverse the trends of global warming, but that some scientists say we might be about ten years away from that point.

It's an inconvenient truth, but one we must, must as a global community take action upon if we are to avoid massive catastrophe, flooding, displacement, more hurricanes and storms, extinction of species, destruction of the coral reefs, and potentially unbearable warming on this planet.

"Young people can lead this change," Gore said in his remarks. During the Civil Rights Movement, "It was young people who went to the lunch counters," Gore said.

Global warming needs to be discussed as a moral issue, Gore said. "This is a moral issue. It should be lifted above partisan politics. Young people can have a much bigger impact than you can imagine you made up your mind to do it."

Gore also praised independent media, especially Internet media.

"The Internet is a source of real hope," Gore said.

"Kind of like Star Wars, there is a rebellion," he said, "and it's alive on the Internet."

One of the biggest take-home points of the film is Gore's debunking of the Republican claims that the recent increases in temperature are simply parts of cycles in nature, like the Ice Age.

The recent increases in carbon dioxide, that is, are "off the charts," beyond anything we've ever seen before, and that includes 650,000 years of the Earth's history, Gore said.

Increases in carbon dioxide have historically been correlated with increases in temperatures. Therefore, we must worry that the planet will become hotter, 5 degrees at conservative estimates, Gore said.

"It's real; we're causing it; the results are catastrophic; we have to start fixing it; and it's not too late," Gore said. Those are his main five points, he said.

The mainstream media has posed the most serious impediment to Americans and politicians understanding the scientific consensus and knowledge of global warming, Gore said.

A striking slide in the film showed that 0% of a large sample of peer-reviewed scientific studies disputed global warming or its man-made, or anthropogenic, causes. Meanwhile, 53% of media accounts portrayed global warming as a debated issue, according to one study cited in the film.

Hurricane Katrina may have also been exacerbated by the warmer ocean waters in the Gulf of Mexico which are a result of global warming, the movie also showed.

"There are two symbols in the Chinese word for crisis: danger and opportunity," Gore said.

"We probably have ten years, maybe a little less, in which to make a significant start before we cross a point of no return," Gore said.

"Nothing else matters so much," Gore said.

"If we face down the danger, we have the opportunity to make a lot of changes," Gore said.

"The biggest opportunity not faced by other generations is a shared moral purpose, to transcend limitations... pettiness, and bickering," Gore said.

About the author:

Matthew Cardinale is the News Editor and a National Correspondent for Atlanta Progressive News and may be reached at matthew@atlantaprogressivenews.com

Syndication policy:

This article may be reprinted in full at no cost where Atlanta Progressive News is credited.

http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/...

(Emphasis added)

The War Prayer

2006-05-12T15:25:00.000+01:00

The War Prayer, by Mark Twain

It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and sputtering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spreads of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country and invoked the God of Battles, beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpouring of fervid eloquence which moved every listener.

...

Read the rest.

Where the hell do we live?

2006-05-11T15:27:00.000+01:00

Back in the late '90s, I read about something called the Echelon Project, in which the United States placed listening stations in the UK, Canda, Australia and a few other places in order to listen to every telephone call in the world. The various intelligence agencies worked together, to some extent, to flag calls that were picked up in which certain words or phrases were used. According to stories at the time, Echelon fell apart due to nepotism and the incredible amount of data being collected. Later, they had Project Carnivore, where the NSA wanted to attach black boxes to all ISP servers so they could read every e-mail sent in the world (or at least the US, but since the US controls the internet, that essentially means all e-mail could be searched).

Now, they've got a new plan: work with BellSouth, Verizon, and AT&T to create a database of every phone call within the United States. Qwest was also asked to take part, but they refused, apparently out of concerns the program is not legal. (Side note: AT&T and BellSouth are in the process of merging.) BellSouth, Verizon, and AT&T are working under contract to the NSA, which means they're being paid for their part in the new program. According to the article, the NSA started work on the program back in 2001, starting after 9/11, and met with the heads of the major telecoms in 2002.

Qwest's CEO at the time, Joe Nacchio, who has since been indicted on 42 counts of insider trading with regard to Qwest's financial improprieties and near-collapse, was concerned about who would see the customer information, how it would be kept private, and the NSA's assertions that court orders, including a FISA Court order, were not necessary. After Nacchio's indictment, Qwest's new CEO, Richard Notebaert also could not reach a satisfactory agreement with the NSA, and he pulled Qwest entirely out of the negotiations. Qwest serves mostly states in the West and and Northwest, though the other companies provide some of the long distance service in those areas, helping to fill the NSA's spying gap.

This is just a little something to keep in mind when people insist Bush is only spying on international calls of people believed to be associated with terrorists (in order to get around FISA).

Revelation

2006-05-10T17:44:00.000+01:00

I had a revelation today about the Democratic leadership, especially in the Senate, and how it's holding back the party. I'm a bit iffy on Senator Harry Reid. When he shows up ready to fight, he's fantastic, but a lot of the time, he seems far too comfortable just listening and letting the Republicans get their way. I was thinking about this, when it occurred to me that he had something in common with Daschle: He was from a state where being radical could get you in electoral trouble. Daschle was from South Dakota, as you may recall, and he would sometimes use impressive rhetoric to fight the Republicans, but mostly he just capitulated to them.

Republicans, on the other hand, have their leaders from fairly safe states like Tennessee (Bill Frist) and Mississippi (Trent Lott). Thus, they can say pretty much anything they like, and be the forefront of the party politically, even if not every other Republican Senator is comfortable with the particular policy involved. Republicans lead from the forefront, but Democrats seem to be leading from the middle.

The same is true in the House. Nancy Pelosi, despite being from California, is a pretty solid moderate. She's not going to push for policy debates on universal health care or against a bad bankruptcy bill, because she doesn't feel strongly about these things, and neither do her constituents (at least, they don't appear to be putting her feet to the fire). The Republicans, of course, had Tom Delay and now another pretty far right Republican in Boehner (leaving aside the Speaker, Dennis Hastert, who's mostly just a slug playing follow the leader).

By having a party leader from a safe state, one's party is put in a position to more safely take more risks than a party led by a moderate from a potentially dangerous state who will be more, pardon the wording, conservative about taking risks. There are, of course, disadvantages to having a leader way out there on the policy fringes, but the only real advantage I see to having a fairly moderate leader is that the party, in theory, lessens its chances of being savaged by the press for boneheaded moves (like Frist's decision to push for a federal law affecting exactly one person on the planet, Terri Schiavo).

Right now, when the Democrats are looking to take back the House and potentially the Senate, they need a leader who's out front, though not necessarily incredibly radical, like a Barbara Boxer (CA) or a Dick Durbin (IL). Not that I don't like Harry Reid, I just don't think his leadership style is the kind that will result in a tidal wave for the Democrats to take back Congress and start undoing a lot of the damage the Republicans did so that one day bipartisanship will be possible again.

Lieberman vs. Rape Victims

2006-05-05T15:18:00.000+01:00

Lieberman recently came out in opposition to a measure that would have required all Connecticut hospitals, regardless of whether they were private, Catholic, or public to provide emergency contraception to rape victims. According to the New Haven Register, Senator Lieberman showed his sympathy for rape victims by noting "In Connecticut, it shouldn't take more than a short ride to get to another hospital." Because after someone's been raped, they want to drive from hospital to hospital to get the minimum appropriate medical care one deserves.
And, oh yes, here's another interesting thing about this issue: A Quinnipiac University poll (scroll to end for relevant question) shows that 74% of CT Catholics actually disagree with Lieberman and feel that all hospitals, regardless of denomination, should provide emergency contraception to women who have been raped.

33. Would you support or oppose a law requiring that 
all Connecticut hospitals, including Catholic hospitals, 
provide emergency contraception to rape victims?

          Tot   Rep   Dem   Ind   Men   Wom   Cath

Support   78%   69%   85%   79%   75%   81%   74%
Oppose    17    27    11    16    20    15    21
DK/NA      4     4     4     5     5     4     5

McCain the Maverick

2006-05-04T16:36:00.000+01:00

When he first ran for the Republican nomiation to be President in 2000, McCain ran as a maverick straight-talker. McCain looked almost ready to win the nomination, or at least the South Carolina primaries, when something strange happened: somebody called registered Republicans and asked them if they would be more or less likely to vote for McCain if they knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child (McCain and his wife have an adopted daughter from Bangladesh who often appeared at his rallies).

In the years since, McCain has embraced the same man who sponsored those phone calls, President George W. Bush. Though he has managed to retain his reputation for being a maverick, he doesn't seem to vote against the party when it truly matters.

An article on Democrats.com shows a few good examples of McCain's tendency to vote against the national security on bills and amendments sponsored by Democrats. And though Democrats.com is a partisan website, it doesn't change McCain's votes. What is most telling about the votes chosen for this article is that they are all votes on amendments to bills, meaning he was voting only against the substance of a particular amendment and not against a bill with a poison pill provision.
To quote from the article:

* Senator Daniel Akaka's (D-HI) S.Amdt. 3007, which was intended to increase Veterans medical services funding by $1.5 billion in 2007 by closing corporate tax loopholes.

* Three bills by Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) -- S.Amdt. 3056, S.Amdt. 1687 and S.Amdt. 1217 -- that would have provided critical funds for interoperable communications equipment for emergency first responders so that they could effectively communicate with one another during natural disasters, terrorist attacks and other public safety situations.

* Christopher Dodd's (D-CT) S.Amdt.2735, which was intended to “…support the health needs of our veterans and military personnel and reduce the deficit by making tax rates fairer for all Americans.” In short, the measure proposed additional funding to shore up the failing infrastructures at Veterans hospitals all over the country. The bill would have mandated a minor rollback in the capital gains tax cuts the Bush administration has given to the richest one-fifth of one percent of Americans.

* S.Amdt.2737, sponsored by Jack Reed (D-RI) sought a rollback in capital gains tax cuts to purchase much-needed equipment for troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. “We have the responsibility to be responsible, not only give the troops what they need but pay for it so we do not increase the deficit,” argued Reed on the Senate floor at the time. “I hope we respond by supporting my amendment which takes care of the troops but does so in a responsible way by providing the resources to pay for this necessary equipment.”

* Charles Schumer (D-NY) had two amendment defeated by the GOP (S.Amdt. 1189 and S.Amdt. 1190) that would have provided $70 million to identify and track hazardous materials shipments and fund new security programs for inspection of air cargo containers.

* S.Amdt. 16, by Dick Durbin (D-IL), would have exempted military people from some facets of the GOP's hideous 2005 Bankruptcy Bill by disallowing "… certain claims by lenders charging usurious interest rates to service members, and to allow service members to exempt property based on the law of the State of their premilitary residence."

* Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Patty Murray (D-WA) both had legislation killed -- S.Amdt. 2634 and S.Amdt. 344, respectively -- that would have funded additional medical care and readjustment counseling "…for [Iraq] veterans with mental illness, post-traumatic stress disorder, or substance use disorder."

Colbert Addresses White House Correspondents Dinner

2006-05-01T16:47:00.000+01:00

Stephen Colbert addressed the White House Correspondents Association Dinner this past weekend, and boy did he have fun. President Bush was sitting about three people down from the podium and was, I hear, incredibly pissed off by the time he left. Here's the video, broken up into three parts (the third part is quite possibly the best, as he shows a video he made of him trying to be the new Press Secretary... hilarious shit).
P.S. A website has been put together to endeavor to collect 1,000,000 thank yous for Stephen over here.

Five Congressmen Arrested

2006-04-28T20:40:00.000+01:00

Five Congressmen were arrested today for participating in a protest at the Sudanese Embassy regarding atrocities in Darfur. The Congressmen were told they could not set foot on the embassy's property, and after making statements from off the property, they then stood on the embassy's steps. After warnings from the police, they were arrested one by one. Those arrested were Tom Lantos of California, James McGovern and John Olver of Massachusetts, James Moran of Virginia, and Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas. As you might imagine based on the topic being protested, they're all Democrats.

Source: Reuters "US representatives arrested at Sudan embassy protest"

High Gas Prices

2006-04-13T20:47:00.000+01:00

There's a lovely article on CNNMoney.com (the article is published by Fortune since, well, they're all part of Time-Warner) entitled "Who's to blame for high gas prices?" The article makes the intelligent point that one thing that politicians seem to not be talking about is the fact that one of the causes of high gasoline and oil prices is high demand and relatively low supply. This issue could be, in part, addressed by Congress pushing for higher fuel efficiency standards on cars as well as pushing Americans to go out of their ways to buy more fuel efficient, non-SUV autos. Of course, Congress can't really push too hard against the purchase of SUVs since those have been, at least until recently, the only vehicles American companies could make a profit on. (Now, I'm not sure American car companies can make a profit, period. Meanwhile, Toyota's rapidly becoming the largest car manufacturer in the country).

Congressional leaders are, however, pushing for greater oversight of OPEC (which, really, would be completely unenforceable) and large oil companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron, etc. According to the Fortune article, that's a fine idea but would not produce any real results, cost-wise, since oil companies get such a small percentage of their profits from the sale of gasoline. However, that avoids the issue that one of the reasons gas prices are so high is that oil prices are high, and if oil prices are high because of supply-demand issues (as the article argues in part), then isn't it possible that oil companies are, in fact, decreasing their rate of oil delivery and drilling in order to raise the cost of a barrel of oil in order to pad their bottom lines? That's not the only reason, certainly, but it is a legitimate question to ask.

It's also been argued that the reason gasoline and oil prices are so high is because of futures speculation. That part confuses me, in part because I don't fully understand how that works. However, isn't the idea behind futures speculation that you're essentially betting that the price for a certain product will continue to go up at a rate higher than inflation, thus earning you more money? So wouldn't there be a hard limit at which point speculators would guess the value has gone as high as it will or as high as it's worth risking and then start pulling out? After enough have pulled out, the price will start dropping, resulting in more people pulling out, etc. Sure, some people would use dropping prices as an opportunity to start the upward spiral again, but the point is that there's a point at which the costs would start going down if the cause was mostly or entirely speculation. There's more to the price of gas than people betting it will keep going up, and I think it's disingenuous for a financial magazine to pretend anything else.

Kansas School Board: That's Not What We Meant

2006-04-13T17:25:00.000+01:00

This past November the State School Board of Kansas voted to "allow" the teaching of "criticisms of evolution." And yet some of these same school board members were offended when they went on a tour of a high school in Kansas and saw this:

(Source: Wichita Eagle)
Or something similar, anyway. Yes, they were offended at the idea that one critique of evolution could lead to teaching the theory of the Flying Spaghetti Monster as creator. Apparently when they said to teach criticisms and alternatives to evolution, they only had one specific alternative in mind: creationism/intelligent design.

The chair of the school board has said he finds the Flying Spaghetti Monster silly. He also said "personally, I think it's juvenile."
Silly, huh? Any more silly than the idea of a white man in white robes with a big white beard and a big, bald spot on his glowing white head reaching down and creating things with a few words and maybe a snap of his oh-so-white fingers? (Hey, I never realized there could be a racial element to the whole God thing before).

(Note: Yes, I'm trying out a new template... the old one's been bugging me for a while, as it felt too constrained and narrow. I wanted to have more horizontal space for everything. I don't know if I'll stick with this template, though).

Irish Passport Pain in the Ass

2006-04-01T18:33:00.000+01:00

My efforts to secure my Irish passport are driving me nuts. When I first filled out the passport application and sent it in, they returned it all to me with a brand new application slightly different from my previous application. Ok, fine, I used an old application. The original app didn't request my American passport though, and now they needed that, along with an additional $13 (for a total cost of around $130). I sent all that stuff in and NOW they've decided they want one of the business cards of the attorney who signed my applicaiton insisting I'm who I claim to be. No wonder it takes 4 to 6 months to get a fucking Irish passport.

Scientologists Need to Come Out of the Closet

2006-03-23T20:37:00.000Z

(This should be the full episode, unless I'm much mistaken)

Captcha

2006-03-23T16:47:00.000Z

I've always been a little bit suspicious of the Captcha system used by many blogs to prevent spammed comments. Captcha is that pain in the ass "look at this picture of a word that has been so skewed half the letters look like other letters, then type in the letters you see to prove you're not a spambot." Looks like my fears were not unfounded, as Karlo over at SwerveLeft has discovered an apparently unbreakable captcha.

Now I realize that it looks pretty clear that this says "smenita," but if you thought that you'd apparently be wrong. "smenita" and "srnenita" both fail to allow one past this hurdle. In an attempt to clarify the possibilities, I saved the image, zoomed way way in, and discovered that the image does, in fact, say "smenita." If anyone manages to figure out what the correct answer is, however, please let me know.
I'm posting this in part because I can't even comment on Karlo's post regarding captcha because that's the image I get.

What is Gore Up To?

2006-03-20T22:01:00.000Z

El Samayo Grande suggested in the comments on an earlier post (Who Wants to be President) that I had left someone out: "What about the last Democrat to win an election: AL Mothafuckin' GORE." I'll be honest, my first thought was "ha ha, that's funny." But I remembered hearing good things about Gore lately, how all his speeches for the last six years have been real barnstormers. The man turned from stiff, boring, consultant controlled automaton into energetic, excited, populist. And unlike many others out there, he knows what he's talking about.

In 2004, Gore endorsed Dean because Gore had wanted to run his campaign with an internet emphasis, apparently. He started Current, a TV network, to challenge the conventional wisdom that TV can only talk at us, we cannot talk back. He has proposed a true, single-payer health care system for the US (after blasting Bill Bradley for suggesting a far more modest system in the '90s).

I didn't already know most of that, I just had this gut feeling of a Gore resurgence of personality. And then I saw an article in American Prospect Online (the online version of The American Prospect) entitled "The New New Gore." If Gore ran, he would be one of maybe 3 candidates I could get excited about.
(Did I mention I voted Nader in 2000 almost solely because Gore was so boring, so corporate and so un-populist?)

Stephen Christos Marks

2006-03-17T02:44:00.000Z

Look, this pathetic dude, Stephen Christos Marks, wants to be on the web, and this should be indexed by sometime mid-tomorrow.

Science Proves Women Want Assholes for Sex, Nice Guys for Marriage

2006-03-16T21:51:00.000Z

Ok, so it doesn't surprise anyone that women have sex with assholes but marry nice guys. But apparently the reason is that assholes have the ideal genes to pass on to their kids whereas the nice guys will stick around to raise the kids (while assholes ditch post-coitus). Thus, women are basically in relationships in order to cuckold nice guys.
Don't believe me? Check out this article from The Economist. Basically, they tested first to see men's dominance (which turns out to be equivalent to asshole-itude) and then had them avoid food and drink that could affect their odors. Then they had them put cotton under their 'pits to pick up their odor. Next they did the women, by having them smell the cotton and indicate relative sexiness of the odors, and by getting a saliva sample to determine a woman's relative position in her menstrual cycle. They found that when women are at their most fertile, they find the more dominant men's odors sexier. The article doesn't make clear if they otherwise found nice guys' odors sexier, or if the preference was relatively random.
I remember seeing an article, maybe from CNN.com, a few years ago that talked about the same kind of thing. They showed women at various stages of menstruation different celebrity men (from relatively womanly looking Leonardo DiCaprio to really tough guys, examples of whom I'm blanking on) and found that when a woman was at her most fertile/horny, she was most interested in the butch, manly men, but otherwise preferred the more gentle seeming men.
Also, I thought this sort of explained Tucker Max, of whom Samay's such a fan.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention that women found asshole-smelling men most attractive most often when they were already in relationships, tying into the whole thing about women having sex with an asshole to get his DNA and then cuckold her nice-guy mate into raising the kids thinking they're his.

Censure

2006-03-15T15:23:00.000Z

Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin submitted a resolution to censure President Bush on Monday which, unsurprisingly, resulted in a foaming-at-the-mouth, mob fury among Republicans and conservatives. Funny thing, though, is that the democrats are still too cowardly to support censuring a President with a 34% approval rating, even though a recent Zogby poll shows that a majority (52%) of Americans support impeachment if the President wiretapped Americans without obtaining a warrant from a judge. Explain to me how censure is a political risk, then, if America supports impeachment? Additionally, 77% of Americans actually believe the President cannot suspend the Constitution on his own under any circumstances, with 25% of that group stating that the President must get court or Congressional authorization to suspend certain Constitutional freedoms.
To recap: Americans support impeachment by a majority not just a plurality; they believe the President cannot suspend the Constitution; Democrats are afraid to censure the President. The Democrats have nothing to lose (literally, since they control neither house of Congress, the Presidency, nor the courts) and everything to gain by supporting censure.

Update: here's a breakdown of approve/disapprove of Bush by party affiliation:

(Image courtesy of Greg at the Talent Show)