Infinite Monkeys
"...a sparkly blog..." - James Lileks"Read them only with extreme caution."- Hugh Hewitt
Infinite Monkeys"Where did you learn to set the Man on fire?"
"You, all right!? I LEARNED IT BY WATCHING YOU!"
See, old school burners know that the Man isn't supposed to Burn on Tuesday. The Man isn't supposed to Burn on Saturday. The Man is supposed to Burn on Sunday. So get over it.
Seriously, this whole nonsense of the early burn has brought up what a fascinating experiment Burning Man really is.
It fundamentally was an experiment in libertarian principles. Some people think that it is some kind of hippie socialist thing, but they are wrong. One of the best books about it was written by an editor of Reason magazine: This Is Burning Man. And the earlier attendees were often armed, certainly dangerous, and from a tradition very different than, say, the Rainbow Gathering. As it grew, it added a few hippies (although they, by and large, can no longer afford the ticket price) but mostly it attracted tech geeks flush with dot com cash. I know others have said it, but Deuce was the first to say it to me: walking around Burning Man was like surfing the Internet, in analog.
As it grew, the problems with radical libertarian ideas began to show. For a true libertarian society to work, you need to have some basic shared values (if nothing more than shared libertarian ideas) and you need to have misbehavior not have a disproportionate impact on everyone. That is, one idiot starting a fire is no big deal, but one idiot burning the central art installation does matter.
Which leads to the next problem: Burning Man was always about generosity and sharing, but also respect for each other: each other's bodies, property, and personal experience. One reason I lost my enthusiasm for going after a decade is the amount of theft that started taking place. In 1997, I forgot and left my wallet in plain view on the passenger seat of an unlocked car, with hundreds of dollars clearly sticking out of it. The last two years, my bikes and digital camera were stolen, and the only consolation of the camera being stolen was it reminded me to lock everything else up. But that was late in the week, when I do think professional thieves show up. Worse are the people who would just come into my bar and start reaching for bottles without asking, or those who abused Borrachos y Bicicletas, the bicycle repair camp and some of the nicest people I ever met out on the Playa, into closing up shop.
So now you have the spectacle of the fire department putting out the Man and sheriff's deputies arresting the person who started the fire--that's real firemen and cops, by the way, not some kind of special Burning Man response as some articles implied--a sad sight indeed for a libertarian event.
I'm still a small-l libertarian, but I think there's some important lessons to be learned from this experiment in the limits of how large a society can grow and still remain completely free, and the trade-offs you have to make to stay safe. And to keep your damn bicycles.
Vastly overrated director Brian DePalma has decided that world opinion has not turned enough against America and U.S. troops. So he has made the film "Redacted," to run down the troops some more. And it is bound to be the toast of the Venice Film Festival.
The film tells of "the real-life rape and killing of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl by U.S. soldiers who also murdered her family stunned the Venice festival, with shocking images that left some viewers in tears."
"The movie is an attempt to bring the reality of what is happening in Iraq to the American people," he told reporters after a press screening.
The reality? If DePalma wants to do a movie about rapes in Iraq, he might want to look into the history of dead Saddam's dead son, Uday. Lots of rich material there — enough so one does not have to stretch a single incident into a whole movie.
Yes, the crimes of these handful of U.S. troops are atrocious. It is hardly the "reality" of our troops' actions in Iraq, and those who did it were given 100-year jail terms. To pretend that this is typical of U.S. troop behavior and to make a movie out of it is akin to taking the story of a black guy raping and killing a white girl and saying that tells the story of American urban life. Both are equally stupid.
DePalma —who hasn't made a decent movie since "Carlito's Way" and has many, many flops to his credit — knows all that, but doesn't care. It's the agenda that matters:
"The pictures are what will stop the war. One only hopes that these images will get the public incensed enough to motivate their Congressmen to vote against this war," he said.
No, Brian. The pictures won't stop the war. The anti-war crowd will cheer this movie, especially overseas. But it will be a commercial flop, the great unwashed masses remembering it only for the crude propaganda that it is.
It is so very easy to get really upset by DePalma's picture — which he admits takes liberties with the facts. And many in the blogosphere have done so.
Maybe I'm just getting numb to the left's constant barrage of insults, lies and hate. I seem at the moment to lack the energy to get all riled up and angry in return. Perhaps its better, at times like this, to see DePalma's efforts as merely pathetic. If people like DePalma really think Americans don't know about the horrors of war, he's the one who's sick, delusional and lacking a grasp on reality.
It is a sign of what this whole Larry Craig thing has done to my thinking that I completely misread this Yahoo headline: Nothing in code matches Craig conduct
The "code" is not the "code of the bathroom stall", but the "code of conduct" for the Senate. Pleading guilty to a misdemeanor, apparently, does not create clear grounds for dismissal.
Mrs. Zaius tells me that she was listening to John & Ken on the radio today and a veteran gay bathroom troller called up. He said all of Craig's actions — including the waving of the wedding-ringed hand — is standard operating procedure to initiate such encounters. Indeed, the flashing of the wedding ring is an indication that this will be quick and anonymous — and not a mistake. ...
Argh!!! Make this all go away!!!!!!
Resign, Larry, with whatever dignity you can manage (however small that might be). Spare us talking about this for another week.
Good Lord, have you seen the typos on this blog over the past couple of days? Is there any quality control around here? It's almost as bad as the New York Times mistaking the Constitution for the Declaration.
There may be something to be said for sobriety after all.
By the way, is there a more idiotic anti-war argument around than that World War II was not a defensive war because Pearl Harbor was "provoked"? So does that mean it was not an offensive war for the Japanese? Why do they get forgiven for military action when America is denounced?
Yeah, I'm looking at you, Robb.
Why are there GOP/Conservative commentators opining that the police should not have been conducting the investigation into gay sex solicitations in the mens' room at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport?
Is it just me, or isn't it obvious that unwelcome advances like this should be discouraged? That men (and boys) should not be subjected to such unwanted advances? That this simply is not okay? In light of the complaints that have apparently been lodged by travelers about these solicitations, is the airport authority (and law enforcement) just supposed to ignore it?
For crying out loud, somebody tell me what I am missing?
Bush takes the blame for everything that goes wrong in Iraq. It's "his" war, the Democrats say. And the mainstream media portray the normal setbacks of any war as a "setback for the administration."
So when the NY Times reports that Sadr's murderous militia has been disbanded — you know, the one that has made political reconciliation so difficult — that's good news, no?
Mr. Sadr’s aides declared an unequivocal end to all militia operations. Ahmed al-Shaibani, the chief of Mr. Sadr’s media office in Najaf, confirmed that this `includes suspending the taking up of arms against occupiers,' a reference to American-led coalition troops."
I await the headline: "Sadr weakened thanks to Bush's steadfastness in Iraq"
And I'll be waiting a long time — like forever.
Wouldn't it be cool if someone could invent a wireless system to transmit electricity? Yes, that would be very cool.
(Hat tip: InfoWorld)
John Edwards told labor group in Florida yesterday that he thinks all Americans should give up their SUVs. And he said he thought Americans would be willing to make that sacrifice.
You first, John. Let's see you trade in your fleet of fancy cars — almost certainly one that includes at least one SUV — for tiny hybrids. Let's see you donate your humongous 12,000-square-foot home to the public, and move into more modest and eco-friendly digs befitting a smallish family that will soon be an empty nest.
What? No sale, John?
Same here ... pompous, controlling jerk.
If you're against the war and have a personal stake in how it's waged — like, say, for instance, you're Cindy Sheehan — you have absolute moral authority to criticize the war and will have virtually unlimited access to a fawning media.
If your'e for the war, and have a personal stake in how it's waged — like, say, you've fought in it — you don't have absolute moral authority to support the war. Even if you're war veteran John Kriesel, and you lost both legs in a blast near Fallujah in December 2006, and you want to promote the fact that you support the war — MSNBC tells you to drop dead.
Not only can't the good people at Freedom's Watch get the kind of fawning press coverage Sheehan and her fellow shriekers enjoy, (the coverage Freedom Watch gets is sneering and patronizing), they can't even buy free speech on MSNBC in the form of an ad.
Repeat: Two missing legs. Supports the war. Media says, "Drop Dead."
Shame.
Admittedly, I'm approximately the 4,874,153rd person to jog out a version of that joke on the blogosphere — and I'm pathetically a day late in my commentary. But c'mon. Larry Craig could not be more ridiculous. As our friend Kathryn Jean Lopez noted on The Corner Jon Stewart will not fail to note that the senator opened with: "Thank you for coming out today."
No, Larry. Thank you. Craig's saga is a comedic farce that is bereft of any tragedy — thanks to his breathtaking hubris.
The Idaho senator expects the public to believe that you pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct, but didn't actually try to solicit anonymous gay sex. Because that would be something a United States Senator would do.
Mr. Potato Head has, however, presented the most original defense I've ever heard. "I'm not gay, I just have a wide stance ... when I'm ...um .. unfurling a massive dump in a filthy public restrooom." That excuse might hold water if the police report noted that Craig gave the undercover vice cop a "courtesy flush." Unfortunately for Craig, the police report didn't include such a detail — but included many other incriminating details.
Larry Craig should resign immediately — not for being gay, and not for trying to solicit sex. But for insulting the intelligence of even the dimmest of Americans.
At Burning Man, it's true that a common joke is "it's too dusty/cold/hot/wet/windy/VD infested--let's just burn the Man now and go home."
But it looks like someone really tried it.
I'm just irritated that I forgot to set my alarm to go out and see the eclipse.
It's worth doing a bit of parsing of Vick's apology -- undoubtedly undertaken after vigorous coaching by his lawyers and handlers (yet he still couldn't get it right).
First, I want to apologize, you know, for all the things that -- that I've done and that I have allowed to happen.
Well. That's nice. Love the vagueness of the "things" that he "allowed to happen." The passive voice is so tempting in these situations, but is not really up to the task.
... I was not honest and forthright in our discussions, and, you know, I was ashamed and totally disappointed in myself to say the least.
Yeah. Totally. You know. Maybe it's just me, but "disappointment" and even "shame" doesn't seem strong enough. I'm disappointed that instead of organizing the garage on Saturday, I sat on the couch watching movies. Doesn't quite match. Totally. You know?
I want to apologize to all the young kids out there for my immature acts and, you know, what I did was, what I did was very immature so that means I need to grow up.
Immature? Immature?!
Immature is throwing a hissy fit in the grocery store. Immature is wearing sports jerseys in public when you are neither a professional athlete nor under the age of 16. Immature is using a magnifying glass to burn ants in the driveway.
The definition of immature does not include organizing, funding and directing a dogfighting operation. A stronger, more accurate word is needed to describe the kind of moral depravity that leads to electrocuting dogs that don't perform well enough in your unimaginably cruel blood sport.
I totally ask for forgiveness and understanding as I move forward to bettering Michael Vick the person, not the football player.
Totally. Good luck with that. Won't be getting it from me and millions of others.
I take full responsibility for my actions.
Seriously? Full responsibility? Your lawyers and handlers may think that going to jail means taking full responsibility -- and in the physical sense, that is true. You're freedom will be taken away as punishment for what you were responsible for. But taking full responsibility means directing, head on, what you've done -- with no passive voice and vague language.
I'm totally responsible, and those things just didn't have to happen. I feel like we all make mistakes. It's just I made a mistake in using bad judgment and making bad decisions. And you know, those things, you know, just can't happen.
Again. "Those things." "Mistakes." Yeah, Mike. We all make mistakes. I forgot to bring my lunch to work the other day. That was a mistake that cost me $6 for lunch. I used bad judgment when I decided to go to Sizzler and have the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet. That lump of fried chicken wings didn't sit well with me the rest of the day.
Mike is confusing mistakes and bad judgment with a lack of basic morals. These were choices Mike made -- for years and years on end. For how long is one supposed to go on until they realize they are making "mistakes" and exercising "bad judgment"? In Mike's case: Until the feds uncover your sick and illegal hobby and put a stop to it. Sorry, jerk. No credit for copping to your mistakes when your only real regret is getting caught.
"Dog fighting is a terrible thing, and I did reject it.
Yeah after you got caught you "did reject it." If not for the bust, you'd still be doing it, and hardly thinking it is a "terrible thing." No sale, asshole.
I'm upset with myself, and, you know, through this situation I found Jesus and asked him for forgiveness and turned my life over to God. And I think that's the right thing to do as of right now.
Of course you found God. So many of us do at time of peril. But save it, please. It's really just too much for me to take -- you making it public and all.
Like I said, for this -- for this entire situation I never pointed the finger at anybody else, I accepted responsibility for my actions of what I did ...
Actually, Mike. You did point the finger and you did not accept responsibility for "this entire situation." You tried to pass the buck for as long as you could. We're supposed to just forget the finger pointing you did against your co-conspirators -- claiming that you "never" visited the property, that you didn't know what they were up to -- for WEEKS ... pretty much until the day you copped the plea. Nope. I have a hard time forgetting your early hubris, lies and blame-shifting.
I hope that every young kid out there in the world watching this interview right now who's been following the case will use me as an example to using better judgment and making better decisions.
So nice of you to FINALLY be an example for the kids. Because it's always about the kids. Did you worry about being a poor role model when you were getting busted for pot? Did you worry about being a poor role model when you kept up an entourage of thugs? Tell that sob story to your new boyfriend in the pokey.
Forget the rest of Vick's speech, except to note that he didn't once specifically apologize for what he did to those dogs. He didn't refer to those who suffered the most: The animals he killed. To him, apparently, they're still just dogs. No big deal.
What's the big deal is that he got caught. And he has cost himself at least $100 million in future earnings and will likely never play football in the NFL again.
As it should be.
My curiosity drew me to tonight's Falcons-Bengals preseason game, wondering what would be said about Vick and the dogfighting. As I expected, I was mostly disappointed. Looking at this, I hoped for some strong and unequivocal condemnation for the horrors this bastard inflicted on innocent dogs. Remember folks, these dogs live a life of constant terror and abuse from puppyhood. Just to make them into vicious fighting machines for the enjoyment of Vick and his ilk. Sorry, that's not a "mistake" one learns from. And an apology after entering a plea agreement does not erase the horror of what he did. If he's abused, tortured and killed these dogs all these years, suddenly getting caught is not going to be the epiphany it will be played out to be. And characterizing it as "immature" is a pathetic dodge. It was evil, pure and simple. We all make mistakes? Look asshole, nobody mistakenly enters dogfighting as a "sport" and personally participates in the torture and killing of dogs for fun and profit. What, you meant to raise a loving, happy, well-adjusted puppy, but instead you "mistakenly" abused it from the moment of its birth? Bummer, dude.
Of course, at some point, he apparently found Jesus. Naturally.
And they praise him for standing up and making his statement today. Screw you.
I'm sorry, hearing former coaches Reeves and Mora say they stand behind Vick and support his was, to me, repulsive. If you're a friend of mine, and I find out you are involved in this kind of treatment of animals, F**k You. You're done.
Assholes
The video of the tragically stupid Miss Teen USA contestant is making the rounds, which I won't link, but Rachel Lucas probably had the best analysis:
Last time I encountered anything so completely devoid of brains, I was eating it because it was a carrot.
JUDGE: "Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?"
MISS TEEN SOUTH CAROLINA: "I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because-uh some-uh people out there in our nation don’t have maps, and I believe that our education, like such as South Africa and the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S, should help South Africa, and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future."
Well, it looks like Tony Blankley owes someone twenty bucks. At his normal punditry haunts (e.g. McLaughlin Group and Left, Right and Center) Tony was predicting that Bush would keep AGAG for the rest of his term, partly out of loyalty and partly because he'd be unable to get a reasonably effective replacement through the Democratic Senate. I guess not.
Meanwhile, in the "tooting my own horn" department, I will link to this post where I noted the similarity between Dubya's public praise of Gonzales and FEMA flunkie Michael Brown.
This week, Deuce excerpts Bill Kaufman's Look Homeward, America. "In Search of Reactionary Radicals and Front-Port Anarchists" is the subtitle. A nice quote from a man who has his priorities straight:
"But Berry's preponderant reason for opposing war—any war, not just Vietnam—is located in the innermost of those concentric rings of citizenship: his family.
"As a father, I must look at my son, and I must ask if there is anything I possess—any right, any piece of property, any comfort, any joy—that I would ask him to die to permit me to keep. I must ask if I believe that it would be meaningful—after his mother and I have loved each other and begotten him and loved him—for him to die in a lump with a number hanging around his neck. I must ask if his life would have come to meaning or nobility or any usefulness if he should sit—with his human hands and head and eyes—in the cockpit of a bomber, dealing out pain and grief and death to people unknown to him. And my answer to all these questions is one that I must attempt to live by: No. (99-100)"
I'm just sayin'.
Jamie Foxx said this week that dog fighting is no big deal. That it's part of the "black" lifestyle. And it goes without saying, that Foxx blamed racism for the flak Vick is getting.
All right, then. So, this reality of dog fighting, according to Jamie Foxx, is no big deal:
I'm just sayin'....Must be a cultural thang.
No, really. Because they're friggin' morons.
Wait. On second thought, worry. BECAUSE THEY'RE FRIGGIN' MORONS!
The chaps over at Deputy Dog have a list of 13 of them. It's an amusing list, for sure, that rightly all but disqualifies Keanu Reeves' performance in "Bram Stoker's Dracula" from the list because, well, Canoe should not be called an actor.
It's hard to argue with the John Malcovich selection for his Russian accent in "Rounders." It's a great movie and Edward Norton's break-out role. But Malcovich's accents in all his movies are simply vaguely European or "Malcovichian."
Note how many Hollywood types have such trouble with Irish accents. Which reminds me of my main complaint/giggle about the great TV show, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Angelus, or Angel, is supposedly a 240-some-year-old vampire from Ireland. In flashbacks, David Boreanaz hilariously attempts a brogue, then just seems to give up completely by the fourth line or so. Why the brilliant Joss Whedon couldn't have just made Angel and American Vampire in Britain, I'll never know.
Other candidates for the worst fake accents in movie history? Post below.
First "24" goes green. Then it hires left-wing "comedian" Janeane Garafalo for the cast. From the looks of things, she'll visit CTU headquarters from "division" -- which means she'll be a Class-A a$$hole. I'm sure it won't be much of a stretch for Janeane. In real life, she'd be doing all she could to thwart the likes of a terrorist-fighting Jack Bauer -- like declaring on television that 9/11 was "an inside job." Now she gets to pretend to take part in our fictitious war on terror. Fun, fun, fun.
If anything, though, self-proclaimed "right-wing nutjob" Joel Surnow -- the creator of "24" -- is showing more tolerance than the supposedly open-minded liberals in Hollywood. Could you imagine Aaron Sorkin hiring Tom Selleck or Patricia Heaton to be part of the West Wing cast? Me, neither.
But I see the genius of Surnow's move. The audience is getting too used to seeing Jack slap a terrorist around, cut off his fingers, and dip him in a vat of hot oil. If Jack really wants to torture the terrorists, he can now just subject them to Garafalo's "comedy" routine.
Personally, I don't think I'd last more than 30 seconds before giving up my fellow damned dirty apes.
My dear friend Deuce has a very cool website that is hard to characterize in one or two sentences. One of its features is periodic book "reviews" that consist simply of a series of DoC-selected excerpts that give the flavor of the book. This is amazingly more useful than typical "it has a good beat and you can dance to it" book reviews.
A week or two ago, Deuce borrowed my copy of Reason Magazine senior editor Brian Doherty's current tome, Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement. DoC's excellent summary is right here. My favorite quote at this moment:
[William F.] Buckley mocked what he saw as the libertarians' effete and useless disengagement from the cold war, scoffing at them for shuffling off from serious geopolitics to their little intellectual seminars on demunicipalizing garbage removal.
In 1963, FEE board chairman E. W. Dykes, an Ohio architect, responded to this line of attack by taking Buckley's critique for a given and defending libertarians on those seemingly outrageous terms.War is the culmination of the breaking of libertarian principles, not once, but thousands of times. We are challenged to jump in at this point and apply our principles to get out of the unholy mess, built up over years and years of error on errors. I suggest it would be a very little different challenge had he posed this proposition: "You are a second lieutenant. Your platoon is surrounded. Your ammunition is gone. Two of your squad leaders are dead, the third is severely wounded. Now, Mr. Libertarian, let's see you get out of this one with your little seminars.
My answer—"demunicipalize the garbage service."
Now wait, don't give me up as a nut yet. I have a point. That second lieutenant is a goner. And so is the prospect of a lasting peace until man learns WHY it is wrong to municipalize the garbage service. You can't apply libertarian principles to wrong things at their culmination and expect to make much sense. It is too fundamental. You have to start back at the very beginning and that is precisely what our little seminars are for. There are people who build for tomorrow; there are people who build for a year; there are people who look forward a generation—the libertarian, a part of the "remnant," takes the long view—he is looking forward to the time when war will be looked on as we now look on cannibalism, a thing of the past. . . . What do we do in our little seminars? We make the case for freedom which cannot coexist with interventionism. . . . Again I say: We will never end wars until we at least understand why the garbage service should be removed from the jurisdiction of the police force—that is, government. (260-1)
Max Roach, one of the greatest drummers of the 20th century, died Friday morning. He was 83. As the New York Times notes in its lengthy obituary, Roach was more than just a jazz drummer. His style transcended genres, and his influence spans generations. I first heard Roach in 1988, long after his heydey and when I knew little about the man or his music. It wasn't until 1999 that I really took an interest in jazz and the innovations of the 1940s and '50s. Roach was one of the names I recognized, and his music fascinated me instantly.
Roach always impressed me as a serious musician who never allowed the trappings of fame or the allure of the Bohemian life to pull him away from what mattered most. In fact, that characterization is not quite true. After the untimely death of his friend and greatest collaborator, Clifford Brown, Roach fell into a deep depression that he exaggerated with alcohol. Yet, as the New York Times notes, Roach still managed to work and even compose.
I suppose it's Clifford and Max, together again, in one of the greatest jams of eternity. I hope Mingus and Bird and Bud Powell made the scene. I'm sure Dizzy, Bags and John Lewis are sitting in. Buddy's waiting for his rematch, no doubt. Maybe Miles will make an appearance? Hard to say.
Late last night, I listened again to "Money Jungle," the magnificent album Roach recorded in 1962 with Charles Mingus and Duke Ellington. I think it was one of the first jazz records I ever bought, so it's tough to evaluate it critically. Truth is, I love it without reservation. Listen to "A Little Max" and ponder what the world has lost.
Sen. Barack Obama advocates a change from the traditional American foreign policy:
Obama said Clinton and other candidates appeared experienced because they were just saying what is traditionally expected of a candidate."There is, not just with Senator Clinton, but with a lot of my opponents, a premium on reciting the conventional wisdom in Washington and that's what passes for experience -- how well you do that," Obama told reporters during a five-day tour of Iowa.
"My argument in this race is, it's that kind of rote approach to foreign policy that led a lot of people who should have known better to get into Iraq," he said. "It is an approach that we have to change in a much more far-reaching fashion."
Put aside Obama's pathetic attempt to remove his foot from his mouth with such bluster and a lame attack at Hillary from her left. And maybe Obama is making a very sly anti-Israel statement -- or at least it can be interpreted that way after an intense parsing. But what has the Bush administration been if not a departure from the "rote approach" of American foreign policy?
While inconsistent at times in its application, Bush, after 9/11, announced a departure from the coddling of Muslim "good guys" who nonetheless managed to cultivate and harbor anti-Western extremists that was the "conventional wisdom" with at Foggy Bottom for decades. And I have little faith that a President Obama would scuttle the toadies at the State Department and really change America's foreign policy in a helpful way.
Well, getting the fireplace going, at least. The latest in an endless stream of bad news for my former co-slaves in the newspaper business. And dig (or should it be Digg?) the ominous headline: "Internet use could kill off local newspapers, study finds":
News audiences are ditching television and newspapers and using the Internet as their main source of information, in a trend that could eventually see the demise of local papers, according to a new study Wednesday."As online use has increased, the audiences of older media have declined," Harvard University professor Thomas Patterson said in a report on the year-long study issued by Harvard's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.
"In the past year alone... newspaper circulation has fallen by three percent, broadcast news has lost a million viewers," said the study, entitled "Creative Destruction: An Exploratory Look and News on the Internet."
Meanwhile, the numbers of people using the Internet as a news source have increased -- exponentially, in some cases.
The story notes that traffic to websites that post news produced by a third source, which includes sites like Google News, Yahoo News -- and, of course, blogs like this -- increased across the board between April 2006 and the same month in 2007. In fact, sites like Google News and Yahoo News get 100 million visitors a month. The websites of the major television network (ahem...the MSM)? A mere 7 million a month. Sites like The New York Times and Washington Post? About 8 million a month. Worse news for "medium-sized" newspapers, like ... um... well, a paper I once worked for in Southern California:
But newspapers in medium-sized to small cities saw either a drop in or no change to the numbers of visitors to their websites, which have already taken readers from hard-copy editions.The authors of the study predict that many small newspapers could have difficulty holding on to even their web audience, and counsel that they include "national and international news in the mix."
I don't think even that will save such publications. Stated simply, medium and small newspaper sites are wholly irrelevant in their current constitution. Yeah. If some blockhead in a small town does something super interesting to get into the international police blotter, that makes news. But not on the local site -- but only after Drudge gets it from the wire services, not the local paper.
The slow death of newspapers has been undersold. In 10 years, they'll be glorified PennySavers and crossword books.
My wife's family has experience with Great Britain's terrible socialized health care system. The lovely Jackie's aunt died of cancer in the Shetland Islands because, well, she didn't have the kind of service and care you get in even the worst HMO in America. That tragic story is told thousands and thousands of times in the UK. And now comes word about the latest efficiency report about Britain's health service.
An excerpt:
Cancer patients are still waiting up to seven months for treatment.Patients are supposed to be treated within 62 days of urgent referral.
But figures out yesterday showed only three areas in Scotland were meeting those targets every time.
In the worst cases, sufferers were kept hanging on for 220 days.
"Sicko," indeed.
I love, however, in a macabre way, how the National Health Service bureaucrat explains that the government that caused this catastrophe is on the case.
Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon promised to take action.She said: "It is vital patients get the best treatment, appropriate to their needs, as quickly as possible.
"I have demanded weekly reports on progress from all health boards to ensure they get on track to meet the target."
Yes. Weekly reports. Demands. Action!....and more death while the government figures this out.
Jose Padilla, the wanna-be "dirty bomber" has been found guilty on all charges in his terrorism trial. Padilla and two co-conspirators were convicted of being part of a North American support cell that provided supplies, money and recruits to groups of Islamic extremists overseas. Of note: Padilla was not convicted of being an al-Qaida operative or of trying to construct and detonate a dirty bomb. Indeed, the government never brought those charges against him.
The fact that the government knew it would have trouble convicting him of being an actual terrorist points to the folly of fighting the war on terror in our courts. The burden of proof, and the protections of the court -- namely how it exposes this country's anti-terror tactics -- are too difficult to deal with. We are fortunate that the government was able to get a conviction of this serious threat to Americans on the charges they did, and Padilla faces maybe 30 years or so in prison -- not good enough by my lights.
Anyway, I love the way the Associated Press, ever skeptical of this "war," frames the story in the lead:
MIAMI — Jose Padilla was convicted of federal terrorism support charges Thursday after being held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant in a case that came to symbolize the Bush administration's campaign to stop homegrown terror.
Looks like that detention was justified. And, yes. This case only "symbolizes" the "Bush administration's" nutty "campaign" to ... I dunno, prevent the slaughter of thousands of innocents. Can't be real. Nothing to see here. Move along.
We've mentioned this before, but Carbon Offsets are a crock. Hit and Run links to a WaPo article on some of the problems with the latest Progressive Guilt Absolution scheme. Both links end with a quote from the Sierra Club:
"We would recommend that, instead of taking that $100 and buying a carbon offset, that you take that $100 and invest in something" such as energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs or an insulating blanket for a home water heater, spokesman Joshua Dorner said.
Seriously, how crazy does your environmental scam have to be for the SIERRA CLUB to think it's a bad idea?
I know that, as the cliche goes, nothing fair in politics. Yet we have the spectacle of Elizabeth Edwards, who is dying of cancer, attacking her husband's political opponents.
Will Hillary and Obama react and respond? Let it go, and the smears stay out there. Respond, and you're picking on the poor, dying Elizabeth. They are put in quite a bind by Elizabeth Edwards' overt politicking -- something she refrained from doing in her hubby's first go round. I think that is not an accident, and represents an unseemly level of shrewdness.
Our Phoenix area readers must MUST come experience Seth Horan. Don't check out his website, MySpace, or YouTube. Don't listen to some lo-fi recorded version of what this guy does. Just come see it. I can guarantee you've never seen anything like this solo bass playing singer/songwriter.
"He plays solo bass guitar like Victor Wooten, sings songs like John Mayer and Ani DiFranco, and performs with the intensity of Martin Sexton. He's a freak of nature, and he's phenomenal." - Ocean City Beachcomber
SATURDAY, AUGUST 25th
SOUTHERN AZ - GLENDALE
2 PM (two in the afternoon)
Sam Ash Music
4402 W Cactus Rd
(602) 863-7746
FREE TO ALL AGES
God bless Fred Warren. Here is a man who takes no guff from punk vandals. Instead, he chases them down like the mutts they are.
Here's the story, courtesy of The Press-Enterprise:
When Fred Warren saw three teens tagging a wall next to his home Wednesday night, he didn't report it, police said.Instead, after the spray paint-wielding boys brushed off his wife, the Bloomington man climbed into his Ford Ranger and followed them, Rialto police Sgt. Don Lewis said.
A 10-minute car chase through Rialto ensued, Lewis said, ending when the boys attempted to run Warren off the road but instead crashed into a telephone box and wrecked the pickup they were driving.
The cops, if you can believe it, think Fred was pretty dumb for doing what he did.
"Rather than calling us," Lewis said Thursday, "he was trying to do it all himself. These kids could have been armed, or who knew?"
Sure, sure. Play it safe. Would the police have responded in time? Of course not. The kids would have been long gone. Thanks to Fred Warren, not only are three juvenile delinquents out of action, but so is a filthy meth-head. According to the story:
The boys, all San Bernardino residents, were taken to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, and later released with the assault citation.While there, one of their fathers... began giving police a hard time, Lewis said.
His name was run through the system, and it showed an outstanding felony methamphetamine possession warrant. James P. Simmons, 42, of San Bernardino, was booked at West Valley Detention Center, records show.
So Fred Warren took action. Fred Warren is a hero. And what thanks does he get? Well, at least the cops didn't arrest him:
As for Warren, police sent him home without any charges. His instinct to stop the tagging was correct, Lewis said, but perhaps not his method."It was an 'Ain't gonna happen in my neighborhood' type thing," Lewis said. "But we explained to him afterwards the proper way to do things."
With all due respect to Sergeant Lewis of the Rialto PD, Fred Warren played it right all the way. Give the man a medal.
I missed the party, but yesterday was Lego's 75th anniversary. Apparently, this fellow overindulged on the celebratory grog and wound up at sea. Must have been quite a bash. Playing well never gets old, as they say.
Another thing I didn't know until this morning: Paul wasn't dead. He was just a Lego. So were John, George and Ringo. How about that.
And Muhammad says Legos are haram! As if you didn't know.
Whaadya know. It turns out that MTV hasn't quite exhausted all the ways one can film 20-somethings screwing, drinking, fighting, screwing, whining, fighting, drinking, drinking, screwing, drinking and screwing ... and drinking.
The 719th edition of "The Real World" will return to Los Angeles next year. The show will be filmed in Hollywood in a "green" house Or is it "sustainable"? I'm never quite up on the latest trendy apocalyptic lingo.
According to MTV, the show will “introduce today’s youth to the ways in which they can incorporate environmentally friendly household items and make eco-friendly lifestyle choices, as seen on The Real World, into their everyday lives.”The house will utilize solar energy and feature recycled glass counters, “sustainable” furniture and energy-efficient lighting.
Great. I always wanted to see if fig-leaf condoms could prevent herpes and whether puke is hard to get out of a hemp carpet. Aim for the bamboo floor, kids!
You're not very good at being a person are you?
E.B. White once said that explaining humor is like dissecting a frog--you can do it, but the frog tends to die in the process. Steve Benson demonstrates this very well. I post this mainly because Monkey Brad and I took a cartooning class from Benson 25 or so years ago and a) he hasn't aged well (Benson, that is--Monkey Brad looks great) and b) this is pretty much what the class was like. Which is why I can't draw a cartoon. That, and I can't draw anything. Oh, and I'm drunk. So there's that.
What was I talking about? Oh, Benson. He's funny. An asshole, but often funny, at least in print. Just not as funny as he was 25 years ago.
“Imagine pulling up and seeing a full-on military invasion of your office!”
Update: Link fixed. Thanks, Brad!
Ahh. Loving mother. Devoted daughter. Together again since Paris was released from prison.
Little did I know that the worst horror Paris experienced -- other than the yucky baloney sandwiches the Los Angeles County penal system considered "lunch" -- was the inhumane sleeping arrangements. Apparently, the taxpayers of Los Angeles have provided nocturnal conditions worse than Gitmo.
For Kathy Hilton, the toughest part about daughter Paris Hilton's being in jail – and on the other side of the glass partition that separated them during visits – was "seeing the rashes on her arms and face from the thin sheets." ...For Paris's homecoming, her mother wished to comfort the Simple Life star, so she set up a room in what, she said, "used to be the baby nursery for the grandchildren at [Paris's grandfather's] house. I had fresh, really soft towels, and really soft sheets and one of those really soft, cuddly [blankets] called 'my blankey,' and nice soft pillow cases."
Kathy Hilton's rationale, she said, was that Paris – who currently is "spending time with her cousins in Malibu getting ready to go back to work" – had "been in jail, obviously with the very thin sheets and one pillow and one little thin blanket. That's how [inmates] get rashes. It feels like sandpaper."
I don't know why I'm so interested in this never-ending story. Perhaps because it's as silly as anything that has made "news" in ages. Or maybe it's because I believe that the idea of killing an innocent by driving drunk won't change Paris' ways -- but the idea of enduring another night with sheets at a thread-count under 1,000 is just too much to bear.
Naturally, I would prefer that cops be held to the same standard of obedience to the law as they impose on the rest of us plebes. But this is a step in the right direction.
Good heavens, I've had pizza three days in a row now. I feel like a freshman in college...
Top 10 most recently purchased albums from the iTunes Music Store
1) "I'd Like A Virgin," Richard Cheese
2) "Get the Party Started," Dame (!) Shirley Bassey
3) "Blue Break Beats: 50 of the Best," Various Artists
4) "Thomas Dolby and the Jazz Mafia Horns," Thomas Dolby and the Jazz Mafia Horns
5) "Blue Note Remixed," Various Artists
6) "Smokin' Aces (Original Motion Picture Score)," Clint Mansell
7) "Retaliation," Dane Cook
8) "Werewolves and Lollipops," Patton Oswalt
9) "Duet for Guitars #2," M. Ward
10) "Your Weight on the Moon," Man or Astroman?
Top 10 most recently purchased songs/albums from eMusic
1) "The Simpsons (Original Motion Picture Sountrack)," Hans Zimmer
2) "Babes Say The Hottest Things," Mustache!
3) "Millennium Monsterwork," The Fantomas-Melvins Big Band
4) "Double Exposure," The Trans-Champs
5) "Target Draculon," The Ghastly Ones
6) "Singles 1-12," Melvins
7) "Japanese Groupsound!," Various Artists
8) "Stomp! Shout! Scream! Original Soundtrack" Various Artists
9) "Powerstance," Fleshtones
10) "Hunker Down With...," Th' Legendary Shack-Shakers
Top 10 most recently played songs on iTunes
1) "Cedrics Theme," Jackie & The Cedrics
2) "Footprints," Wayne Shorter
3) "Truck Drivin' Man," James Luther Dickinson
4) "Thank You Boob Lady," Hans Zimmer
5) "Spider Pig," Hans Zimmer
6) "Blue Juice," Jimmy McGriff
7) "Push," The Woggles
8) "Punch the Lion," Melvins
9) "War Ensemble," Richard Cheese
10) "Soul Limbo," Candido
Forward thinkers such as Glenn Reynolds, Hugh Hewett and other utopians whose names I forget and to whom I will neither reference nor link predict the demise of mainstream media and print as we know it. They might be right, and what a pity it is. Blogs are a waste of time. Look around. Visit the archives of this (or any) website and try to click through to a link. Nine times out of 10, you'll get a 404 message. So what does that leave for the reader, or, God forbid, the historian? Not much. Quotes out of context, elliptical observations and undigested thoughts, mostly. Instantaneous punditry has its purpose, I suppose, and even some of the longer-form blog debates are worthwhile up to a point. But they are impermanent to a fault.
These observations are hardly new or novel, I realize. But clicking around on a hot Sunday afternoon, I cannot help but wonder at how so much new media leaves us -- the 21st century reader, consumer, and citizen -- so much poorer.
"Dear God, NOOOOOO!" That's what I thought when I saw this headline on Drudge: GREEN '24': Jack Bauer's Next Mission -- Fighting Global Warming...
Fortunately, the headline is a little misleading. The mortal superhero of 24, the defender of liberty and killer of terrorists, will not be donning the Wonderman suit in season seven. Instead, the producers of "24" will be shooting for the goal of producing a "carbon neutral" show next season.
That would seem quite the challenge, even for CTU's crack team, considering the show is filming a lot of stuff overseas (airplane rides), uses parades of gas-guzzing SUVs that stream up into the hills of California, is fond of blowing stuff up, etc. "24" has got to be one of the most energy-guzzling and expensive shows on television.
But if eating organic celery and drinking "sustainable" coffee makes the cast and crew feel better, who's to argue. It looks like, however, that they are falling prey to the "carbon offset" scam. Sigh.
He's not wrong, either, although I don't think Gingrich is as Churchillian as Gingrich and other lesser beings seem to believe. "None of you should believe we are winning this war. There is no evidence that we are winning this war," the former House Speaker told a group of about 300 students attending the Young America's Foundation conference in Virginia. Amid a sea of blue blazers and khaki trousers, Gingrich gives 'em the truth.
I had planned to interrupt my school year prep to talk about the debacle that was Le Tour and is modern pro cycling. Instead of explaining the blood-doping and illicit performance enhancers that the riders are using, I'm now using the knowledge gained from that research to comprehend the medical program my cat is about to undertake. (Material below is crossposted from BikeJournal.com.)
My cat is getting a blood transfusion tomorrow to boost his dangerously low hemacrit. He has a mystery amemia that has returned three summers in a row. He's been through a tough couple of years, despite being a spoiled indoor kitty. All of the easy and harder diagnoses so far have been fruitless. He may have lymphoma or feline-aids hiding in his bone marrow. But, he's too weak to undergo the most important tests because his red blood cell count is at 13 when it should be in the low 40's.
Yes, it will be expensive. We're seeing veterinary specialists. But, hey, I have a carbon fiber bike, and an obscene stereo system. I can justify spending a ton on the best cat I've ever had in a lifetime of cat ownership. He's only 5.
So, pray for Bigelow the cat. He's the most patient, loving character, and my boys love him terribly.
Transfusion Saturday noon, and tough testing Wed at 9:30 AM.
My God, I wish I could just slash my wrists open right now.
Sure, I'll have another shrimp puff.
Well, maybe not. But they do have an article by one voice who says that Paul is the only Republican candidate who stands for the things conservatives have been saying they believe in.
[hat tip: Hit and Run]
I am ashamed to say that the very first concert I ever saw was The Raspberries and The Grass Roots. Not so much for the Grass Roots part, but definitely the Raspberries part.
Worse was my instant reaction when I heard that there had been a Raspberries Reunion.
"Oh cool."
No! Goddammit. Not cool.
WTF?
God I need help.