shabletha

2008-03-01T21:50:00.000-05:00

2007-09-26T22:57:00.000-05:00

blogs don't die - they just fade away slowly.

I'm finally sick of complaining. I start my job on Monday, and maybe I'll post here if I have something to say after work, but otherwise enjoy the day.

I want these - I have always wanted them

2007-06-21T11:22:00.001-05:00

I think every toy has been called "too dangerous" for one reason or another. Skateboards, snowboards, rollerblades, those rollerblade scooters, pogoballs. OK, maybe pogoballs were never considered that dangerous.

The bottom line is that kids are kids and you can't grow up a kid being scared of getting hurt all the time. More importantly, you will turn gray very quickly if you are that worried over your child. We are people - animals. We used to live in the wild and we made it this far. If a kid falls and bangs his head on the ground, she'll probably cry and feel pain, but it is highly unlikely that anything that bad will happen. Broken arms and wrists are not fun, but they are part of growing up.

At any rate, I want these shoes. They make them in adult sizes, so it's just a matter of time.

Something for the Fleet of Foot
Shoes With Built-In Wheels Are All the Rage -- and the Source of Some Angst

By Fredrick Kunkle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 21, 2007; B01

They're hard to spot, those Heely kids.

Although millions of Heelys have been sold around the world, turning the sneakers with wheels into a must-have accessory for the grade-school set, you seldom notice a child wearing them until . . . THERE'S ONE! . . . Over there, b y the giant fridge !

Like magic, 8-year-old Anthony Viera has shifted from walking to rolling on the wheels inside his shoes. It's as though he's floating as he zigzags past kitchen appliances, fishtails down another aisle where his grandfather is pricing air conditioners and then -- aye yi yi -- swerves near a display of big-screen, big-ticket TVs.

No one pays him any mind on a recent night at the Fair Oaks Mall, which is fine by him.

"One time, when I went to Home Depot, they told me to stop rolling," said Anthony, a third-grader at Cub Run Elementary School in Centreville. "They think you're going to knock things down."

A fad for some and an annoyance for others, Heelys have hit their stride just in time for summer. Last year, the company, Heelys Inc., had more than $188 million in sales, compared with $21.3 million two years earlier. But, alas, a backlash has set in as some worry whether the sneakers-on-wheels are safe. Some schools, malls and other public places have banned them.

For a company with about 40 employees, Texas-based Heelys has created a worldwide craze since the shoes hit the market in 2000. Many sporting goods and shoe stores carry them. A pair of multicolor Gelato-style Heelys at Finish Line in the Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax will set you back $99.99.

"When they first came out, they hit the market just fierce," said Finish Line assistant manager David Holy, 20, of Manassas. "I've had people in their 30s come in and ask to buy them."

But malls aren't just places to purchase the shoes. They're considered awesome places to wear them.

Look around the average shopping center and you're liable to see a child between 6 and 14 gliding along on wheeled sneakers, perhaps in tow as her mother holds her hand and dashes around on errands.

At Potomac Mills mall in Prince William County, security guards hand out warnings to children who are heeling recklessly. Those who continue heeling wildly are asked to leave. The mall adopted the policy in February after some customers complained about children rolling into them, spokeswoman Caroline Barry said.

World Against Toys Causing Harm, a Boston-based nonprofit group, puts Heelys on its 2006 "10 Worst Toys" list, and two medical studies, including one this month in the journal Pediatrics, have warned of their possible hazards. A 12-year-old Massachusetts boy died in March 2006. Two boys elsewhere were critically injured while wearing wheeled sneakers, though it is not clear whether the shoes were to blame.

The Pediatrics study also put its finger on the tricky thing about wheeled sneakers: Their appeal rests on their versatility, which allows children to be walking one moment and zooming around on wheels the next. How can a kid be sly about his new James Bond-like sneakers if he's armored head to foot like a hockey goalie? And so they forgo helmets and pads, despite warnings by the company and safety advocates.

"Nobody wears any of that stuff with Heelys," fretted Lenore Gelman, the mother of two sons -- Teddy, 11, and Sam, 8 -- who successfully lobbied for Heelys. Gelman, a special education teacher from Gaithersburg, said she had never heard of the shoes until her older son began begging for a pair.

"I saw them on other kids and I said, 'I gotta have those,' " Teddy said. "It just looked like a shoe with wheels. At first, I thought it was strange, but after more people started to get them, I knew what they were."

For those without a 10-year-old in the neighborhood, a word of explanation: Heelys come with one or two wheels in the heel so wearers can go from walking to rolling just by shifting their weight. The wheels are not retractable; they do not spin when a person's weight rests on the front of the shoe. The wheels can be easily removed, however, transforming a Heely into a pedestrian set of sneakers.

To keep from falling when heeling, the wearer is advised to stagger the feet, placing one ahead of the other for stability.

Some backlash was inevitable.

The journal Pediatrics highlighted the shoe risks. A study conducted by the Temple Street Children's University Hospital in Dublin reported that 67 children ages 6 to 15 had been injured on wheeled sneakers during a 10-week period last summer. More than 80 percent of the injured children were girls, and the most common injuries involved broken wrists, arms and elbows. There were no head injuries, and none of the injuries was life-threatening.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that 1,600 emergency room visits a year are caused by wheeled sneakers. But the commission also reports that scooters send about 44,000 children annually to emergency rooms.

"The recommendation to parents should be, if you're going to buy wheeled sneakers, you should buy a helmet after that," commission spokesman Scott Wolfson said.

Some Fairfax County schools have banned them, but there is no districtwide prohibition, spokesman Paul Regnier said. Montgomery County has reported a few problems, but no districtwide policy is in place, spokeswoman Kate Harrison said. The D.C. schools' public relations office did not return calls seeking comment.

The only reported fatality of a Heelys wearer occurred when Ryan Carmichael of East Bridgewater, Mass., was hit by a car while crossing the two-lane road in front of his house to collect the mail. Police Chief John E. Cowan said last week that there was no evidence the boy was heeling at the time of the accident and that the circumstances suggest that he had been walking. A 12-year-old English boy and a 10-year-old boy from Jersey City, N.J., suffered critical head injuries while wearing wheeled sneakers after they fell and were hit by cars.

But the shoes' fans, which include parents, say that heeling is no worse than many other outdoor activities.

"It's in the same league as table tennis, billiards and bowling," Edward J. Heiden, a Washington-based consultant who, at Heelys' request, analyzed more than 2 million incident reports compiled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Between January 2001 and September 2006, Heiden found, sneakers-on-wheels had a better safety record than bicycles or skateboards or playing basketball, soccer or tennis.

Scott Freedman, medical director of the pediatric emergency department at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville, said the hospital has treated about 10 children injured while using wheeled sneakers in the past 12 months. "It's not a number that's astoundingly alarming," he said.

Still, Freedman urged users to wear helmets and other protective gear. And he advised parents to use common sense.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/20/AR2007062002361_2.html

$ & the power

2007-06-21T09:49:00.000-05:00

“Power, not reason, is the new currency of this [Supreme] court’s decision making”

- Justice Marshall, on the final day of the court’s 1990 term. Two hours later, he announced his own retirement"

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/21/washington/21memo.html

water conservation

2007-06-20T10:20:00.000-05:00

Dear person in front of me filling up your big water bottle at the water fountain:

I hate it when you refill their one liter water bottle while I stand in line waiting. For one thing, it takes forever to fill your bottle - more time than you are actually supposed to spend at the fountain. You are like those people who go to the ATM and check the balance in each of 10 accounts while people wait behind them. Or maybe they are actually applying for a mortgage.

But the worst part is that after I have waited for 5 minutes while you and your buddy chat it up, I finally get to step up and grab my 2 second sip of water to wet my whistle. And what do I get? A mouth full of pee-warm water.

If you need indications that water fountains are not designed to fill water bottles, it's that they don't hold enough cold water in reserve to fill water bottles in succession. They DO have enough cold water to let people come through and grab a sip of water.

Besides, if they were intended to fill water bottles, don't you think the spicket would be higher so that you didn't have to use advanced geometry to get your bottle wedged under the stream of water, which still only allows you to fill it 2/3rds of the way?

money at work

2007-06-16T09:33:00.000-05:00

This is an example of what I guess I'll call moral capitalism. Kellogs isn't doing this because it's the right thing, and they aren't doing it because some government regulation says they have to. They're doing it because in the long run this will be better for them financially, and that is just fine with me. As Walmart unveils its line of organic food, we can all be confident knowing that we make a difference and send a signal every time we spend a dollar. That is why it is important to know where your money is going.

Adult-Only Froot Loops

Childhood obesity too often starts at home — in front of the television set. Children are defenseless against the wiles of Madison Avenue, and studies show most cannot understand the difference between an advertisement and the rest of their television fare. Even worse, these snappy ads directed at the young help create bad eating habits for life.

Now, the Kellogg Company has added its heft to those trying to address the growing national concern about young waistlines. The $11 billion company has established nutrition standards and promised that by the end of next year, many of its less-healthy items will either be healthier — “reformulated” to cut down on fat, salt and, particularly, sugar — or will not be advertised on children’s television shows.

The company’s new standards allow advertising for products with up to 12 grams of sugar per serving. That means if Pop-Tarts, Apple Jacks, Cocoa Krispies and Froot Loops keep their current contents they’ll be off the cartoon circuit. Frosted Flakes, with 11 grams, will still be pitched to the young.

Kellogg is now the latest corporation to respond to growing efforts by educators, parents’ groups, pediatricians and experts on obesity to cut down on advertising junk foods to children. A threatened lawsuit from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and two Massachusetts parents also helped nudge the company in the right direction.

Kellogg’s plan to limit advertising — like Walt Disney’s promise to stop using Mickey and his pals to sell sugary treats or Kraft’s limiting Oreo ads aimed at children — is only one small move in the right direction. The sugar content for Kellogg’s new list is high, and there is concern that more effort will now be made to sell these fattening treats to moms. There is still a lot more that these big, powerful companies could do to make products that lead to healthy profits and even healthier customers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/16/opinion/16sat4.html

resurrection

2007-06-15T14:57:00.001-05:00

This is one of the best movie scenes of all time. For any of you out there who may have gotten laid off today, enjoy:

(contains explicit lyrics)

defeatism

2007-06-07T10:46:00.000-05:00

I don't know if I should be more surprised that proponents of staying the course in Iraq continue to use amorphous and simplistic terms of "victory" and "defeat" without ever explaining what they mean, or that I continue to expect them to put meat on the bones and enable true dialog.

This is not an issue of victory or defeat, or supporting the war or not. In order to have an informed and intelligent discussion about the best way to proceed in Iraq, as a political society we have to use words that have actual meaning.

No one advocates accepting defeat or rejecting victory. What they disagree about are actual specific actions - those are what we should discuss.

As much as I love a good conspiracy theory, this article from today's NYT suggests that the Russian invasion of Afghanistan was because of American defeat in Viet Nam. If only America had stuck it out until victory, there never would have been the Khmer Rouge genocide.

Accepting defeat is speaking in amorphous terms that remove the opportunity for meaningful discussion and suggesting that support for a single action or decision will mean the end of the world. Victory is embracing confidence that our American system of democracy will prevail; the people will ultimately make the right decision, and trusting that your ideas will stand on their merit rather than hollow rhetoric.

Defeat’s Killing Fields

By PETER W. RODMAN and WILLIAM SHAWCROSS

SOME opponents of the Iraq war are toying with the idea of American defeat. A number of them are simply predicting it, while others advocate measures that would make it more likely. Lending intellectual respectability to all this is an argument that takes a strange comfort from the outcome of the Vietnam War. The defeat of the American enterprise in Indochina, it is said, turned out not to be as bad as expected. The United States recovered, and no lasting price was paid.

. . .

The 1975 Communist victory in Indochina led to horrors that engulfed the region. The victorious Khmer Rouge killed one to two million of their fellow Cambodians in a genocidal, ideological rampage. . . .

The defeat had a lasting and significant strategic impact. . . . [the Soviet] of Afghanistan was one result.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/07/opinion/07shawcross.htm

Tan-credo

2007-06-05T19:54:00.001-05:00

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this republican debate. Tancredo just said the we need to stop immigration until we can assimilate the ones we have, and we'll know when that happens because the phone menus will no longer say 1 for English & 2 for Spanish.

I understand that this early in the primaries, there are always fringe politicians, and I always cringe when Dennis Kucinich gets his turn at the mic. But I'll take a wacko love hippie over a hate preaching fear monger xenophobe any day.

pick one

2007-05-30T09:08:00.000-05:00

Which of the following is the real The New York Times quote of the day:

(A) "If you want to scare the American people, what you say is the bill’s about partial birth abortion. That’s empty political rhetoric trying to frighten our citizens."

(B) "If you want to scare the American people, what you say is the bill’s an amnesty bill. That’s empty political rhetoric trying to frighten our citizens."

(C) "If you want to scare the American people, what you say is there's a war on terror. That’s empty political rhetoric trying to frighten our citizens."

(D) "If you want to scare the American people, what you say is there's a gas shortage. That’s empty political rhetoric trying to frighten our citizens."

Answer: who cares? It's all empty political rhetoric and that's the way we like it. We're Americans. OK, it was B. Full story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/washington/30immig.html

Personal Responsibility

2007-05-11T07:34:00.000-05:00

An article in today's Times sets forth scientific research into obesity that indicates being over weight is determined by your genes. The article is quite interesting and provides some useful insight into how the body works and how it responds to changes in eating habits and weight gains and losses, but it is clearly an example of science in a vacuum. The sample sizes may be large enough enough and may provide results that are consistent enough to be statistically significant, but the fact is that they simply don't account for the public health realities of obesity.

There is no doubt in my mind that genes play a large role in determining your body type, including your metabolism. In some areas that role is probably exclusive and in others it is probably much weaker. There are most likely people who are genetically predisposed to have extreme problems with obesity. But genetics cannot explain the demographic trends of obesity.

Genetics cannot account for the disproportionate effect that obesity has on the poor, or for the increase is obese children. These are cultural and societal problems, not just genetic ones.

Genes Take Charge, and Diets Fall by the Wayside

"There is a reason that fat people cannot stay thin after they diet and that thin people cannot stay fat when they force themselves to gain weight. The body’s metabolism speeds up or slows down to keep weight within a narrow range. Gain weight and the metabolism can as much as double; lose weight and it can slow to half its original speed."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/08/health/08fat.htm

happy mother's day

2007-05-09T15:08:00.000-05:00

There is nothing more inspiring than when you are out for a jog feeling pretty good about your fitness level & performance when a woman passes you . . . going uphill . . . pushing a jog stroller . . . with twins.

The Fire is Burning

2007-05-05T11:31:00.000-05:00

The Arcade Fire is no longer an underground sensation or one of those bands where people say "oh yeah, they sound familiar." I first heard of them in the fall of 2006 and they didn't immediately grab me. At the time I was more skeptical of semi-electronic sounding music and preferred being able to listen to each instrument in turn. They vocals on the songs I heard also seemed a bit obscured, which doesn't generally suit me.

It was the following spring or summer that I learned - listening to their first full length album "Funeral" on the metro to and from work and internships. Their music has something special and I still can't quite put my finger on it.

Friday night I saw them in concert for the first time. They played DAR Constitution Hall here in D.C., which is not one of the better places to see a show. Having come up on the Allman Brothers and then Phish and Widespread Panic, I am accustomed to seeing concerts where there aren't a great deal of stops between songs and the songs are generally between 6 and 8 minutes, so it was difficult to adjust to shorter songs with longer stops after each song. The 80 minute set is what I'm used to being the first set, not the whole show.

But all that said, the show was great. The energy in the room started to coalesce about half way through and the band did a nice job building momentum into the end of the show and the encore. If you have a chance to see them live, I highly recommend it.

Their records, however, absolutely must be on your shelf. No collection is complete without them. This could be the best band of the decade.

Even more taken than I was, a writer from the Washington Post characterized the band as "a sort of modern-day art-rock answer to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band" and found "an undeniable grandeur and a thrilling vastness to the songs . . . but it's no empty bombast: In the studio and especially in concert, Arcade Fire's emotional music plays as deeply meaningful, soul-stirring art."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/05/AR2007050500995.html

Here are 2 mp3s from their show in New York on February 17 of this year. The first is a bit slower and close to spoken word. The other is not:

My Body is a Cage

Keep the Car Running

* I should recognize that the brothers who lead the band are from Texas, although they moved to Canadia before forming the band.

tit for tat

2007-05-03T08:11:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure what Ms. Goodling expected to happen when she declined to go before Congress and lie for her boss, but we all could have seen this one coming:

Justice Dept. Announces Inquiry Into Its Hiring

By ERIC LIPTON and DAVID JOHNSTON

WASHINGTON, May 2 — The Justice Department has begun an internal investigation into whether a former senior adviser to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales improperly tried to fill vacancies for career prosecutors at the agency with Republicans loyal to the Bush administration, department officials said Wednesday.

The inquiry focuses on whether the former adviser, Monica Goodling, sought to determine the political affiliations of job applicants before they were hired as prosecutors — potentially a violation of civil service laws and a break with a tradition of nonpartisanship in the career ranks at the Justice Department.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/washington/03attorneys.html

And I sure am excited to learn that the biggest richest most complex tax evaders don't get audited because they are too big rich and complex. Now that's something to set your sights on:

I.R.S. Curtails Many Audits in Tax Havens

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

WASHINGTON, May 2 — The Internal Revenue Service is curtailing audits of many people who use offshore tax havens, even when agents see signs of tax evasion, because agents fear they cannot meet a three-year deadline for finishing an examination, Congressional investigators have found.

In a report to be released on Thursday, the Government Accountability Office found that I.R.S. agents are so hobbled by “dilatory tactics” by offshore taxpayers and other problems that it takes almost two and a half years to complete a typical audit.

Many I.R.S. agents told the G.A.O., the investigative arm of Congress, that the “safest way” was often to stop an audit prematurely and sometimes to refrain from starting one in the first place.

The I.R.S. reported that almost $300 billion in investment and business income was moved out of the United States in 2003. Analysts at the Joint Committee on Taxation have estimated that the annual outflow has shot to more than $400 billion since then.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/business/03tax.htm

not as easy as it seems

2007-05-02T10:41:00.000-05:00

at first blush, even the NRA agrees that people who have been involuntarily committed and deemed mentally ill or a danger to them self or others should not be able to purchase guns. Indeed, it is a rare thing that the NRA supports a restriction on gun sales, or individual's right to purchase guns, so this must be a no-brainer right?

I'm not sure. Of course, it is already illegal for people falling within these categories to purchase guns. The problem lies in reporting by state agencies who are bound by state privacy laws. With the events at Virginia Tech fresh on everyone's mind and conscience, there is a new push to enforce these laws by creating or giving full effect to the national data base against which background checks are performed. That is something I do not support.

There should not be a federal law that preempts state privacy protections, especially for the mentally ill. There should not be a federally centralized list of all the crazy people in the country. If you want to buy a gun, then I think you give up certain privacy protections and one of those is being forced to divulge your mental health history.

But I do not want to buy a gun, and I do not want my name or anyone else's name in that database. Being put in a database is an infringement on your privacy, and you should not be forced to do that so that other people can buy guns more quickly. This returns us to the world of a couple day waiting period - it could even be an overnight or several hour thing. Each state would be networked and when you want to buy a gun, the dealer sends out the request and any states that have you on their list respond.

Privacy Laws Slow Efforts on Gun-Buyer Data

By MICHAEL LUO

WASHINGTON, May 1 — Momentum is building in Congress behind a measure that would push states to report their mental health records to the federal database used to conduct background checks on gun buyers.

But a thicket of obstacles, most notably state privacy laws, have thwarted repeated efforts to improve the reporting of such records in the past and are likely to complicate this latest effort, even after the worst mass shooting in United States history at Virginia Tech last month.

Federal law prohibits anyone who has been adjudicated as a “mental defective,” as well as anyone involuntarily committed to a mental institution, from buying a firearm. But only 22 states now submit any mental health records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, against which all would-be gun purchasers must be checked.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/02/us/02guns.html

see also http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/02/AR2007050200282.html

in other news, this is why I try to stick with Organic foods as much as possible:

Millions Of Chickens Fed Tainted Pet Food
Risk to Consumers Minimal, FDA Says

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 2, 2007; A01

At least 2.5 million broiler chickens from an Indiana producer were fed pet food scraps contaminated with the chemical melamine and subsequently sold for human consumption, federal health officials reported yesterday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/01/AR2007050102071.html

These Gray Days

2007-04-26T22:36:00.000-05:00

The funny thing about spring time is that you oscillate between days of gray skies and rain, wishing for the sun to come out, and then the sun comes out for a couple days and all you want is some rain to wash away the pollen.

These Gray Days
Lyrics by Jerry Joseph

It's a thin line hanging on the wall
Strike a little balance, shattering a fall
A thin line between charity and greed
What I want, what I need
Lately I ain't had much to say
Something seems to tie my tongue
On these gray days

A thin line between loneliness and crowds
Talking till you're burning, baby
A thin line between heaven and catastrophe
Who we really are, who we really want to be
Lately when things don't go my way
I'm taking comfort in these gray days

These gray days are better than others
It's a thin line between the oven and the sun
Thank God for giving me the cover
These gray days are better than none

Thin line hanging on the wall
Strike a little balance, shattering a fall
Lately I've tried to learn to pray
To see the miracle in these gray days

These gray days are better than others
It's a thin line between danger and the fun
Hold tight, my enemy and lover
These gray days are better than none

Lately I try to understand
Am I acting like a child or acting like a man
Do we take each other hostage
Or are we simply holding hands
Who's to say, on these gray days

Download an mp3 of this song from The Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh NC, April 21, 2007.
Full show from http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=506103

Sidetrack hijacked

2007-04-26T20:56:00.000-05:00

I remember in college a good portion of my friends had prescriptions to ritalin or other ADD drugs. They would doll them out when people had tests or papers, or honestly sometimes when people just had a hair up their ass and wanted to snort some pseudo cocaine I guess.

The trick that people learned was that when they took the stuff, they had to go study before it kicked in because if they didn't, they'd end up totally focused and zeroed in on something other than their books. I can't count how many times the house got cleaned up because someone forgot that rule, or I'd come home during spring exams and the grass that hadn't been cut in months would not only be perfectly mowed (with the diagonal checkerboard no less), but the clippings would be raked, the sidewalks edged, and the hedges trimmed.

What made me think of this? Well, it's 10:00 on a Thursday night. I have my first exam of the season on Saturday (which is also happily my second to last exam of all time, assuming all goes well). I put the coffee on around 8:30 and so far I know a lot about lawn striping and the failures of previous Carolina Panther drafts, but I don't know much more about Conflicts of Law than I did when I dropped an extra sugar cube in my java.

prologue: based on my google searches, I have discovered that the lawn care term of art is not "diagonal checkerboard" but that the effect is a variation of "lawn striping"

All my Ex's live . . .

2007-04-26T09:26:00.000-05:00

Over a year ago I started a serial topic called "Texas is Great," but it never got off the ground. Well here is the latest installment. You can check out previous posts here, or by scrolling down a little and clicking on the "Label" list at right.

Texas Legislators Block Shots for Girls Against Cancer Virus

By RALPH BLUMENTHAL

HOUSTON, April 25 — A revolt by lawmakers has blocked Gov. Rick Perry’s effort to make Texas the first state to require sixth-grade girls to be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.

In a 135-to-2 vote that appeared veto-proof, the Texas House gave final passage on Wednesday to a Senate bill that bars the state from ordering the shots until at least 2011. Even many supporters of the governor resented Mr. Perry’s proposal as an abuse of executive authority.

“There was no public testimony — why we were jumping so fast into a vaccine that was not for a true communicable disease,” said Senator Glenn Hegar Jr., a Republican representing a district just west of Houston who sponsored the Senate bill to overturn the governor’s order. It passed 30 to 1 on Monday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/26/us/26texas.html

The worst thing about this episode is that the Gov. was trying to do something that is truly progressive and what I think is a wonderful expenditure of resources. I understand that to many people an STD may not be a "true communicable" disease, but legislators need to look at public health realities rather than their personal sense of morals when deciding how to address medical issues.

The reality is that girls are sexually active at a young age. They are unlikely to ask their parents for the vaccine and many of the highest risk families probably can't afford it anyway. The government is in a position to save their lives, and the Texas legislature voted almost unanimously to let them die instead.

on the iPod:
Ryan Adams, Jacksonville City Nights

marching one by one

2007-04-25T19:41:00.000-05:00

Today the ants are busy
beside my front steps, weaving
in and out of the hill they're building.
I watch them emerge and—

like everything I've forgotten—disappear
into the subterranean, a world
made by displacement.

These are the first words of Natasha Trethewey's poem Monument, from her Pulitzer Prize winning book Native Guard. She was on the News Hour this evening. Check the MP3 and more of her poetry here: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/entertainment/poetry/profiles/poet_trethewey.html

News of the Day

People like this give good normal liberals a bad name. When Nancy Pelosi thinks you're focusing on the wrong part of the story, that should make you stop and reevaluate the reasons why you're doing what you're doing and why you get out of bed every day.

Democratic lawmaker seeks to impeach Cheney

Reuters
Tuesday, April 24, 2007; 7:44 PM

(Corrects day of the week in lead to Tuesday)

By Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Democratic lawmaker opposed to the Iraq war initiated a bid on Tuesday to remove Vice President Dick Cheney from office that even his own party leaders dismissed as futile.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio introduced three articles of impeachment in the Democratic-led House of Representatives against Cheney, accusing him of having misled the country into its 2003 invasion of Iraq and, more recently, threatening Iran without cause.

"I believe the vice president's conduct of office has been destructive to the founding purposes of our nation," said Kucinich, who is making a long-shot bid for the White House.

Shortly after Democrats took control of Congress in January from Bush's Republicans, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would not consider impeachment, a highly divisive issue that could tie Capitol Hill into knots.

"Nothing has changed. It's off the table," said Nadeam Elshami, a Pelosi spokesman. "We're focusing on tough issues like bringing the war in Iraq to a responsible end."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/24/AR2007042401963.html

$$$

2007-04-24T22:01:00.000-05:00

This is the time of year that everyone hits up everyone for fund raising support for a good cause. Tina is my fourth friend to send me such an e-mail - I've already contributed to a charity that rescues homeless animals, a ride for research into childhood diabetes (that's the one you're born with, not the one you earn by eating like shit for years upon years), and my cousin's Relay for Life team, which earned over 20k.

Soon I'll be sending my own e-mail trying to raise money for the Race for a Cure breast cancer run/walk here in D.C.

I know that receiving these e-mails can get tedious, but after participating in the Race for a Cure last year, I can attest to how meaningful it is to see someone contribute to your cause and support your efforts. So - don't blow your whole wad on the first e-mail that comes across your in-box. The important thing is giving something, not giving a lot. Drop a 10 or 20 spot and the person will feel huge.

I kept a mental list of everyone who contributed to my fund raising and thought of them all as I ran my race.

So, if I did it right, I added a $ tracker on the side of my blog for Tina's efforts to go work with children in Costa Rica. Costa Rica - I know, that was my reaction, but what are you gonna do? She's my friend and I support her. You can too.

OCD Much?

2007-04-24T21:16:00.000-05:00

The people that live above me vacuum a lot. I mean like, WAY too much. They are vacuuming right now - 10:17 on a Tuesday night. I hear them vacuum about 4 times a week, and I'm not home THAT much.

I don't know what to tell them. It doesn't bother me that much, but that's only because I am a student and it isn't that loud. I figure I just shouldn't say anything in case I ever start playing music late at night and they try to complain.

"What? You think my music's too loud?!!? Shouldn't you be vacuuming anyway?" And then they will suddenly realize that I am right, they should be vacuuming, and run back upstairs having forgotten that my music was too loud.

NEWS OF THE DAY:

I'll start working for the government next year, making less money than I could if I were working for the private sector. I hope these clowns don't ruin what really is a good benefit for me - and a program that probably goes a long way to getting commuters off the road.

U.S. Employees Selling Transit Passes Illegally, Investigators Say

By MATTHEW L. WALD

WASHINGTON, April 23 — To save gas, cut air pollution and unclog roads, the federal government gives its workers about $250 million a year in bus and subway passes. But many of the employees drive to work anyway and sell the transit passes on the Internet for cash, according to Congressional investigators.

“The metro cards are brand new, never used and do not expire,” read one online description for subway passes in Washington, where many of the sales originate. “I am selling these because I receive them monthly as part of my benefits at work, and I now have too many.”

Government employees who resell the passes are committing fraud, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office, scheduled to be released Tuesday by Senator Norm Coleman, Republican of Minnesota.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/washington/24perk.html

the bad fight

2007-04-19T10:18:00.000-05:00

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the Supreme Court upheld the abortion ban, but it is still troubling when we see an issue that is so clearly decided by the composition of the court rather than anything else.

While I generally don't agree with them, I understand what motivates anti-abortionists who view a fetus as a life as worthy of protection as all of ours. I think this most recent case really misses the target by focusing on late term pregnancies where the pregnant woman has demonstrated a serious commitment to caring for her child, but by some tragic misfortune is faced with a significant risk to her own health or the possibility of giving birth to a child with substantial debilitating physical or mental defect. In many ways, the early term abortions present a much more compelling moral argument for regulation. But that is neither here nor there.

What really troubles me is that this law doesn't actually save any life - it doesn't prevent a woman at a certain point in pregnancy from getting an abortion. All it does is prevent a woman who has made that difficult decision from getting the safest available treatment - she will still have an abortion, just with a procedure that presents a greater risk to her health. That is something that anti-abortionists are not talking about, and that is why this particular law looks more like paternalism designed to restrict women's freedom than a law motivated by saving fetal life.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/18/AR2007041802253.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/19/washington/19scotus.html

drugs are good

2007-04-17T09:14:00.000-05:00

I would be remiss to fail to mention the shootings yesterday, but even though I am never anything more than a voice in the wind, I hate writing about the same thing that everyone is writing about. I will say only that this country is screwed. Things like this don't happen in other places. To be sure, Iraq has it's own problems with violence, but that does not mitigate what happens here. These types of things will continue.

On more upbeat note, until last week it had been well over 5 years since I last took antibiotics. Faced with the over-prescription of drugs in our society, I decided to fight the trend and not contribute to breeding the super-bacteria. But last week over the course of 2 days I entered an accelerating decline that left me hacking up things of unspeakable size and color. Unable to do what I normally do (which is shut down for 2 days and eat drink & sleep until I get better) I went to the doctor and grabbed a prescription for amoxicillin. It took all of 15 hours for me to start feeling extremely better. I have 2 days left on the prescription, and have been pretty much back to full strength for a while now.

I figure that since I feel better, I can stop taking the drugs.

SIKE!

Only your hatred can destroy me

2007-04-16T09:22:00.000-05:00

If you want to know something about someone, check out who they are sleeping with. In case anyone is under the impression that Google is still part of a counter culture free internet revolution >>>

Google Reaches Deal With Clear Channel to Sell Radio Ads

By LOUISE STORY

Google will begin selling advertisements across all of the stations of Clear Channel Communications, the No. 1 radio station owner in the United States, at the end of June, the companies will announce today.

Google has been working for months to expand its ad sales operation into traditional media like newspapers, radio and television. To do so, it needs traditional media companies to allow it to sell some of their ads, and it had seemed to be making little progress in radio.

But the partnership with Clear Channel represents a step forward for Google. The deal will run for several years, and will give Google access to just under 5 percent of Clear Channel’s commercial time. That will include 30-second spots on all of Clear Channel’s 675 stations during all programs and all times of the day, executives at both companies said in interviews yesterday.

The companies did not disclose the financial details of the arrangement, except to say that Clear Channel would receive the majority of the ad revenue.

“It represents an opportunity to put what is arguably the hottest sales organization in the world to work selling our inventory, and we’re very excited about that,” said John Hogan, the chief executive of Clear Channel.

Mr. Hogan said that Google would bring new advertisers to his stations and would work with those companies rather than with Clear Channel’s existing advertisers. But, he said, the Google advertisers would have access to premium inventory — in contrast to some of Google’s deals with newspapers that are allowing Google to sell only leftover ad space. And, he left the door open for a broader deal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/technology/16radio.html

on the iPod:
Daniel Johnston

little did he know. . .

2007-04-14T14:51:00.000-05:00

Remember that movie trailer that you saw a while back and thought to yourself "man, that looks pretty good. I should go see that when it comes out." That movie was called Stranger than Fiction. If you haven't seen it yet, it's on DVD now and waiting for you at Blockbuster, Hollywood, or Netflix. You should see it. I don't see a lot of movies, but I will say that this is one of the best movies I've seen in a while.

It is not a Will Ferrell vehicle. It is a funny and dark and life affirming all at once. Dustin Hoffman is all that you would expect from him, and Maggie Gyllanhaal and Emma Thompson are perfectly cast. Mix in direction by Marc Forster of Monsters Ball and Finding Neverland and you have an impeccably acted film that is not too intense but not too bubble gum.

news of the day:

Lawyer Says Rove Assumed E-Mail Was Kept
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Karl Rove, the chief political strategist for President
Bush, did not intentionally delete e-mail messages to avoid
creating a paper trail, his lawyer said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/14/washington/14emails.html

This is actually not that surprising to me and while it is difficult for me to believe anything that comes from anyone associated with the Bush administration, when I interned at a government agency I remember being shocked that each individual was responsible for retaining their own e-mail.

on the iPod:
Paul Weller, Days of Speed

written just for me

2007-04-13T08:29:00.000-05:00

With just one week of classes left in my law school career, to be followed by a summer studying for (and hopefully passing) the Virginia Bar exam, and a cozy desk at a federal agency already waiting for me, I wonder what that high school me would think. I wonder what the college me would think, or even the post-college me that put everything I owned in a storage unit and drove cross-country for 10 weeks one summer.

Kurt Vonnegut

By VERLYN KLINKENBORG

If you read Kurt Vonnegut when you were young — read all there was of him, book after book as fast as you could the way so many of us did — you probably set him aside long ago. That’s the way it goes with writers we love when we’re young. It’s almost as though their books absorbed some part of our DNA while we were reading them, and rereading them means revisiting a version of ourselves we may no longer remember or trust.

Not that Vonnegut is mainly for the young. I’m sure there are plenty of people who think he is entirely unsuitable for readers under the age of disillusionment. But the time to read Vonnegut is just when you begin to suspect that the world is not what it appears to be. He is the indispensable footnote to everything everyone is trying to teach you, the footnote that pulls the rug out from under the established truths being so firmly avowed in the body of the text.

He is not only entertaining, he is electrocuting. You read him with enormous pleasure because he makes your hair stand on end. He says not only what no one is saying, but also what — as a mild young person — you know it is forbidden to say. No one nourishes the skepticism of the young like Vonnegut. In his world, decency is likelier to be rooted in skepticism than it is in the ardor of faith.

So you get older, and it’s been 20 or 30 years since you last read “Player Piano” or “Cat’s Cradle” or “Slaughterhouse-Five.” Vonnegut is not, now, somehow serious enough. You’ve entered that time of life when every hard truth has to be qualified by the sense of what you stand to lose. “It’s not that simple,” you find yourself saying a lot, and the train of thought that unfolds in your mind as you speak those words reeks of desperation.

And yet, somehow, the world seems more and more to have been written by Vonnegut and your life is now the footnote. Perhaps it is time to go back and revisit that earlier self, the one who seemed, for a while, so interwoven in the pages of those old paperbacks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/13/opinion/13fri4.html

I wish this was a surprise

2007-04-13T08:14:00.000-05:00

It should be fully clear by this point, with all that has been coming to light in D.C., that the administration really sucks. Not because of their political positions, but because of their underhanded back room corruption and sense of entitlement.

But I know I am wasting my time with this post. Everyone who has half a brain and an ounce of integrity knows how insulting and embarrassing the Bush Administration has been - regardless of your position on Iraq.

Turmoil Grows for Wolfowitz at World Bank

By STEVEN R. WEISMAN

WASHINGTON, April 12 — Paul D. Wolfowitz’s tenure as president of the World Bank was thrown into turmoil on Thursday by the disclosure that he had helped arrange a pay raise for his companion at the time of her transfer from the bank to the State Department, where she remained on the bank payroll.

In a chaotic day of revelations and meetings at a normally staid institution, Mr. Wolfowitz apologized for his role in the raise and transfer of Shaha Ali Riza, his companion, to a few hundred staff members assembled in the bank building atrium, only to be greeted by booing, catcalls and cries for his resignation.

Earlier, the bank’s staff association had declared that it was “impossible for the institution to move forward with any sense of purpose under the present leadership.” The association had helped spearhead an investigation into Ms. Riza’s transfer and raise, details of which came into the open in the last 24 hours.

The events injected a new ugliness into what had already been a bitter rift between Mr. Wolfowitz and many of the bank’s employees, who have questioned his suitability for the job as a former deputy secretary of defense and architect of the Iraq war, and have challenged many of his policies at the bank, especially those cracking down on corruption in which he suspended aid to several countries without consulting the board.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/13/world/13wolfowitz.html

and so it goes

2007-04-12T12:04:00.000-05:00

Kurt Vonnegut was my first favorite author. Well, my first favorite author was the collection of people who wrote the Black Stallion books, but I gave up on being a jockey some time in late elementary school and didn't latch on to anyone again until we read Slaughter House 5 in highschool.

I'm not sure if people can understand the significance of finding a true counter-culture rebel with a cause in something that was being shoved down my throat unless you too found yourself trapped in a hoity-toity southern private school where everyone thought they were better than you but smiled to your face and focused on the most materialistic popularity oriented aspects of life, never thinking to see if they would like you because you weren't like them.

I wanted to be Kurt Vonnegut. I wrote my papers that semester in a copy-cat style that probably allowed me to get a passing grade only because my teacher was happy to see that I finally gave a shit about anything in school. I read other books that criss-crossed characters from that one. His work solidified my affinity for books and movies that deal in time travel. Not just going back to the past, but loops where your actions that haven't happened yet change what happens in the now.

One of the most memorable things I read by him in the last ten years was a piece in Playboy's millennium edition. He told the story of being a young boy riding down an old dirt road when his father pulled their Studebaker over to the side of the road and he and his sister leaned forward and they all looked at the odometer as it stroked 100,000. Just because. If we shared nothing else on the millennium, we shared a collective pause to stop and look at the odometer.

And now we can stop to share a collective pause and reflect on Kurt Vonnegut's contribution to our lives and our society.

I searched Google for a photo to put up here. There is no lack of selection, but it was difficult to find just the right one, with the right mix of anguish and mystery and "I know something you don't know" and happiness and love for life. I think this is the one:

Links:
http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2007/04/12/vonnegut/index.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/12/AR2007041200164.html
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/achenblog/2007/04/kurt_vonnegut.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/books/12vonnegut.html

"Astronaut had Bondage Photos"

2007-04-11T10:51:00.000-05:00

I'm glad I'm not the subject of that headline. Based on stereotypes though, doesn't it make sense that a control freak power trip astronaut would get off on being dominated? Here's the article: http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/04/10/astronaut.arrested.ap/index.html

Even the Washington Post ran this story. Embarrassing for them if you ask me. But I think we are missing the real issue here - why is this taking up valuable new space when we should be focused on the father of Anna Nicole's baby?

Forever testing the theory of "there's no such thing as bad publicity," I wonder how Target feels about this picture:

mo money

2007-04-10T19:23:00.000-05:00

"Many experts have concluded that the nation's real estate boom of recent years was fueled in part by weakened lending standards that sparked excessive demand and drove up prices."

Everyone knew that interest rates were really low, and that the "interest only" mortgage structure was risky unless you expected to see a marked increase in your income - but people still decided to prospect on property. I was the beneficiary of the low rates for a while and exited the market earlier than anticipated.

To tell the truth, I am glad that the housing prices have chilled out while I finish school and get ready to find my home. It is completely likely that in a year or two if I buy property, I could buy some 5 year old construction previously owned by someone who couldn't afford it.

I don't feel that bad for people who made risky decisions, but I do feel bad for people who were swindled like this:

"In Atlanta, entire neighborhoods and condominium developments, especially those in affluent areas, were hit by organized fraud rings. Initially, these schemes pumped up housing values for everyone as artificially high appraisals helped the swindlers get inflated loans. Legitimate home buyers rushed in to get a piece of what they thought was a soaring real estate market. Now as the fraud is being exposed, their home values are taking a hit.

As more of these cases come to light around the nation, the question is: How much did an epidemic of fraud contribute to the frenzied housing market of recent years?"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/09/AR2007040901463.html

You say you want a what?

2007-04-03T10:07:00.000-05:00

A while back I wrote about Nike's AC/DC add.

Why is YouTube so great? Because you can watch the commercial that changed it all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztSYJNO4kac

This is also my first attempt at embedding a YouTube video in my blog.

Talk to the Hand

2007-03-29T09:31:00.000-05:00

Walking back to school from grabbing a few fish tacos at Baja Fresh the other night, I came to an intersection where people regularly cross the street against the cross walk.

I was 3/4 of the way through the intersection when a woman drove by behind me and yelled "That's a red hand sir!"

It didn't even register that she was talking to me. I was rockin out to something or another on my iPod, and didn't flinch when she yelled. Once I realized she had intended her parenting for me, I wished I'd given her the bird or yelled something back.

Then I realized that my seemingly oblivious reaction was probably even more frustrating to her.

Stadium Arcadium

2007-03-27T09:37:00.000-05:00

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been up and down several times over the last several years - they are smart enough and good enough to pen at least one single per album, guaranteeing that they can keep some fans, sell concert tickets, and sell records. But in my estimation, these records have often lacked depth. Californication and Scar Tissue were both very good songs, but the record didn't do it for me as a whole.

When I saw RHCP on Saturday Night Live performing the first single from Stadium Arcadium, I was throughly disappointed and sad to see that such a great band was in continued decline. But the single eventually caught my ear, as did the next one.

I've now listened through the double disc several times. This is no return to Blood Sugar Sex Magic or Mother's Milk, but those are some of the best albums of our generation. But to put together two full discs of songs is a big challenge, and this was not a product of trying to put out bulk and refusing to distinguish one poor song from the next. There are other very good songs on there, and while the sound may not be as revolutionary as their earlier work, the RHCP continue to advance the funk and hip-hop influences in their brand of (somewhat punk) rock.

Here is their Grammy performance of Snow (Hey Oh). You'll have to excuse the squealing girls at the beginning. This is a wonderful song and while it is too bad that Anthony Kiedis has spent so long battling addiction, at least we get the benefit of his troubles.

p.s. - it should come as no surprise that Rick Rubin produced this record. He was all over everything at the Grammys

sleep a little easier

2007-03-23T08:48:00.000-05:00

It's good to know that the Attorney General throws more weight when it comes to the war on terror than the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State combined:

Mr. Gates’s appeal was an effort to turn Mr. Bush’s publicly stated desire to close Guantánamo into a specific plan for action, the officials said. In particular, Mr. Gates urged that trials of terrorism suspects be moved to the United States, both to make them more credible and because Guantánamo’s continued existence hampered the broader war effort, administration officials said.

Mr. Gates’s arguments were rejected after Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and some other government lawyers expressed strong objections to moving detainees to the United States, a stance that was backed by the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, administration officials said.

As Mr. Gates was making his case, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined him in urging that the detention facility be shut down, administration officials said. But the high-level discussions about closing Guantánamo came to a halt after Mr. Bush rejected the approach, although officials at the National Security Council, the Pentagon and the State Department continue to analyze options for the detention of terrorism suspects.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/23/washington/23gitmo.html

Fight the Power

2007-03-21T15:40:00.000-05:00

I've been on Spring Break, but rather than bore you with tales of 50 degrees and blue skys at Vail, I figured I'd pass along this treat.

the band moe. recently covered Guns of Brixton, originally by the Clash. I'm not sure how long moe. has been playing it, but it's a great choice if you ask me.

When they kick at your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun

When the law break in
How you gonna go?
Shot down on the pavement
Or waiting on death row

You can crush us
You can bruise us
But you'll have to answer to
Oh, the guns of Brixton

The money feels good
And your life you like it well
But surely your time will come
As in heaven, as in hell

You see, he feels like Ivan
Born under the Brixton sun
His game is called survivin'
At the end of the harder they come

You know it means no mercy
They caught him with a gun
No need for the Black Maria
Goodbye to the Brixton sun

You can crush us
You can bruise us
Yes, even shoot us
But oh-the guns of Brixton

When they kick at your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun

You can crush us
You can bruise us
Yes, even shoot us
But oh-the guns of Brixton

Shot down on the pavement
Waiting in death row
His game is called survivin'
As in heaven as in hell

You can crush us
You can bruise us
But you'll have to answer to
Oh, the guns of Brixton

Here's moe.'s version (7.3MB).

I added transition & fades

In case you were wondering . . .

2007-03-08T11:03:00.000-05:00

In Virginia:

A character combination may violate the personalized plate policy if it contains a combination of characters that could reasonably be seen by a person viewing the plate as:
A. Profane, obscene, or vulgar in nature.
B. Sexually explicit or graphic.
C. Excretory related.
D. Used to describe intimate body parts or genitals.
E. Used to describe drugs, drug culture, or drug use.
F. Used to condone or encourage violence.
G. Used to describe illegal activities or illegal substances.
H. Socially, racially, or ethnically offensive or disparaging.
DMV reserves the right to refuse to issue a character combination that violates the personalized plate policy. All personalized character combinations are screened by DMV to ensure that they do not violate our policy.

I swear to god, I once saw Georgia plate that was "Deznutz"

Long May You Run

2007-03-02T12:37:00.000-05:00

As far as I know, the Houride is still in my parents driveway. I may be "grown up" but apparently I am still a slouch in some ways. Well, probably a lot of ways, but that is neither here nor there. At any rate, my mom gave me her car for my birthday and today the hand-off was completed when I ordered the permanent plates from the VA DMV.

My new plates are a lyric from the Neil Young song "Long May You Run" as a homage to the Houride, which was a loyal steed that served me well for many changes in my life. I love the car more than I should, but I couldn't love the memories any more than I do.

LONG MAY YOU RUN

We've been through some things together
With trunks of memories still to come
We found things to do in stormy weather
Long may you run.

Long may you run.
Long may you run.
Although these changes have come
With your chrome heart shining in the sun
Long may you run.

Well, it was back in Blind River in 1962
When I last saw you alive
But we missed that shift on the long decline
Long may you run.

Long may you run.
Long may you run.
Although these changes have come
With your chrome heart shining in the sun
Long may you run.

Maybe The Beach Boys have got you now
With those waves singing "Caroline No"
Rollin' down that empty ocean road
Gettin' to the surf on time.
Long may you run.

Long may you run.
Long may you run.
Although these changes have come
With your chrome heart shining in the sun
Long may you run.

Mississippi Burning

2007-02-22T12:25:00.000-05:00

I am not exactly sure why I had never seen Mississippi Burning until last night, but I am glad I finally did. If you haven't seen it, you should. Being from the South, I didn't really need a lesson on how terrible things were - and are. But the movie is good and would be even if it were fiction. It's chock full of actors who you know and will recognize and enjoy seeing at a relatively young age.

On top of that, it reminds you of the deleterious effect that hatred has on people and society.

I can never pretend to know what it is like to be black in the south (or the north) today, much less back then. But I can imagine what it is like to be a white racist and have that kid of hatred in your soul. What a pitiful existence that must be - to devote energy to negative and exclusionary goals and feelings. I don't think you could ever truly love when your heart is broken with that much anger and insecurity.

The most powerful scene for me was when Gene Hackman's character recounts a story from his childhood when the black sharecropper down the road got a mule.

Save the Cheerleader . . .

2007-02-13T16:07:00.000-05:00

In case you didn't notice, Rolling Blunder stopped rolling a while back when the heroes of the story landed in Denver, CO. But as they say, the end of one adventure is the start of another and they promptly began doing their part to save the world.

Check out their new blog (at least new to my list), which tracks the green renovation of their home. It's been going on for a while, but scroll to the beginning of the blog to start where they did.

More importantly, scope out their contracting business at http://www.suvillage.com for your renovation needs & ideas.

on the iPod:
hopefully the Grammy performance by Christina Aguilera

wash your mouth out

2007-02-13T10:47:00.000-05:00

Insulated travel coffee mugs are great, but the "do not put in dishwasher" thing is a pain. I'm half way through my coffee and I just pulled a big swig of soap because I apparently didn't rinse the lid well enough after hand washing. Dang.

tougher than leather

2007-02-10T21:42:00.000-05:00

I was way too young to fully appreciate the significance of RUN-DMC & the fact that, on top of everything else, they also made a commercially successful rap movie.

It's funny how you feel tough when you wear leather. I was on my way out last night, sporting my leather jacket & rocking the iPod on the train. Forget that I am a middle aged white male law student - the point isn't whether I am tough or even look tough. The point is that wearing a leather jacket makes you feel tough. How could it not?

But that feeling quickly fades away when you reach into your pocket and find a tube of Blistex. It's hard to feel tough when you have Blistex in your pocket.

you're not wearing enough clothes

2007-02-05T18:44:00.000-05:00

When it's 17 degrees outside and the wind chill is 4, it doesn't matter whether you wear long johns, or layer an extra fleece, or do whatever you plan to do to beat the cold - after walking to the grocery store, your face will still be so numb that you won't realize your nose is dumping gallons of snot onto your upper lip until you taste it running in your mouth.

At least that is what this guy told me.

. . . and for the record:

It's Snot Lunch
Boogers are those hard, crusty globs that get stuck in your nose. They form when dirty snot dries out. What ever you do, don't eat that booger! Not only is it really gross, it's also bad for you cuz boogers are full of germs and other yucky things. However, you can't help eating a lot of snot cuz you're constantly swallowing the stuff. The average person swallows about a quart of snot a day. Yummy.

To learn more, check out http://www.kidzworld.com/article/3267-bone-up-on-boogers

Frogs

2007-02-01T12:23:00.000-05:00

At the risk of relying too heavily on the news for my inspiration, I direct you to this headline from the NY Times:

Chirac Unfazed by Nuclear Iran, Then Backtracks
By ELAINE SCIOLINO and KATRIN BENNHOLD
France's president said that if Iran had one or two nuclear
weapons, it would not pose a big danger. A day later, he
retracted many of his remarks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/world/europe/01france.html

This is how he back-tracked:

Mr. Chirac said repeatedly during the second interview that he had spoken casually and quickly the day before because he believed he had been talking about Iran off the record.

“I should rather have paid attention to what I was saying and understood that perhaps I was on the record,” he said.

That is not exactly a statement that he was wrong, but that he shouldn't have said what he said. This is why people in America don't like France. Don't get me wrong, our president says and does stupid horrible things. But if there is one thing that the world (at least the west) should be unified about, it is that Iran with nukes is very very bad. This is not complicated.

I can't help but think that part of the reason Chirac can have such a nonchalant attitude is that if Iran ever did do anything, it would be the US that has to respond. When Iran launches a nuke at Israel, do you think it is going to be France that initiates the counter strike? Obviously Israel is pretty capable of retaliating on their own, but these kinds of things inevitably fall at the feet of America. I don't remember North Korea holding out for bi-lateral talks with France.

All of this responsibility is due to the way we have positioned ourselves in the world, and is fine with me. It's just frustrating when the people who are supposed to be our allies are so blind to realities of world hegemony.

A horse is a horse

2007-01-30T10:39:00.000-05:00

The America fascination with Barbero has really been interesting to me. This article from today's Post is pretty good take. In the end, we all want heroes that we can idealize and hold up as examples of perfection. With a horse who won the Derby so dominatingly and then fell on hard luck, we have the perfect hero. And this hero won't go out and get in a gun fight or get caught using drugs. We can make him everything and anything we want to, and that is what we have done. May the ideal that he embodied persist . . .

this image is copyright(c) cindy pierson-dulay and copied from http://www.thestickhorseracing.com/headline60.html

A 'Bottomless' Heart

By Sally Jenkins
Tuesday, January 30, 2007; E01

In diagnosing the public's unreasoning love for Barbaro, maybe it comes down to the fact that he never lied to us. Human nature seems like a sorry, wastrel thing, compared to that horse. No doubt, we idealized him, but the fact is, we could have used a happy ending for Barbaro, given some of the Gilded Age characters who parade safely through public life into retirement. His survival seemed like one good thing, a balm for foreign wars, domestic deceit, and the bimbo cocktail party circuit, ruthless wealth-swappage, and cross-entouraging that we lately call American culture.

Barbaro was an honest, blameless competitor. Our ridiculously soft feeling for him was based at least partly on that fact. Unlike so many people in the sports pages, he was neither felonious, nor neurotic. He let us place burdens on him, whether a saddle, a bet, or a leg brace, and he carried them willingly, even jauntily.

On the track, his trainer and jockey reported that there seemed no end to what he was willing to give. "Bottomless," was how they described his heart. He obviously raced for pleasure, and he ran with such dynamic abandon that he made circling a track seem an impetuous act. His effort was always sincere and supreme, and when he won the Kentucky Derby by 6 1/2 lengths, the largest margin in the race since 1946, it was less of a surprise than an affirmation to the people who had reared him. "Why shouldn't we have felt that way? Every time he had run before, he never let us down," trainer Michael Matz said to the Thoroughbred Times. "His will to win was obvious in whatever he did."

Also, he was handsome. On display in his stall, he had the calm expression of an inveterate star, and a preening stance that suggested he'd heard the roar of the crowd and knew he'd won the big one. Even his doctor, Dean Richardson, who hardly saw him at his best, noticed this. When he was asked why Barbaro excited such affection from perfect strangers, a choked Richardson replied, "He was good looking."

We followed his medical reports like they were our own. Phrases like "laminitic area," and "deep subsolar abscess" became familiar, as did the anatomy of his horribly damaged hind leg, the shattered pastern and sesamoid, and the pinned cannon bone.

There have been continual attempts to analyze why Barbaro's fight to survive so captivated the public, but maybe it's fairly simple: He had both innocence and greatness and it's not often you find those ephemeral qualities alive in the same creature. What's more, anyone who watched Barbaro run in the Derby felt that they saw traces of a distinct character: He was winsome. This gave his suffering specificity. We felt we knew him.

Possibly, this is anthropomorphic, and some have rightly pointed out that we should care as much about human beings. But it's not anthropomorphic to say that horses are irreproachably benevolent creatures, and this is surely one of the causes of our grief over Barbaro. It's a fact that of 4,000-odd animal species, only a very few are tame-able, none more so than horses. They are peaceful grazers by nature, and willing by disposition. Despite their considerable size advantage, they tolerate us and even bear burdens for us. While thoroughbreds can certainly be fearsome, their misbehavior is a flight response, not sadism, or outlawry. They have followed us, and favored us with their gifts to an extent that few other animals do, and partnered with us throughout history, from Persia to the Pony Express. "Gallant" is a word often applied to them, and it's apt.

Barbaro seems to have had all the virtues of his breed, and a few more besides. His character wasn't a matter of wishful projection, it existed, and was quite vivid to those who cared for him. He was indefatigable and had a high tolerance for pain. He was mettlesome without being spiteful -- and how often do you find that? He was expressive. In a lovely piece a few weeks ago by John Scheinman of The Washington Post, one of his night nurses described him as "mouthy." He befriended another patient at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa.: a cow. When he slept, his night nurse would pet him.

Despite pain and confinement, he wasn't mean. Among the things that caused his owners, Roy and Gretchen Jackson, to give up hope yesterday was that, in the grip of wounded exhaustion, he finally tried to bite the hand of his doctor, Richardson. It was a first in eight months of treatment.

Novelist Jane Smiley wrote a strange and wonderful book a couple of years ago called "A Year at the Races," in which she explained, with an articulacy missing here, that the human engagement with horses is nothing less than a love story. If you were wondering why the death of Barbaro hurts so, there is the answer:

"A love story, at least a convincing one, requires three elements: the lover, the beloved, and the adventures they have together," Smiley wrote. "If the lover isn't ardent, then the story isn't a love story. If the beloved isn't appealing, then the lover just seems idiosyncratic or even crazy; and if they have no adventures, then their love is too easy, and they have no way of learning anything important about themselves and one another."

Barbaro was appealing, and he was obviously beloved by the public, and by his owners. If the public learned anything from him, it was that with enjoyment of thoroughbreds comes responsibility for doing the right thing by them. One of the few consoling results from the Barbaro tragedy was an anonymous gift of $500,000 for the establishment of the Barbaro Fund, for animal care at the hospital where he died. Yesterday, it was Gretchen Jackson who best summed up the public outpouring for a horse. "Certainly, grief is the price we all pay for love," she said.

article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/29/AR2007012902109.html

That's news to . . . nobody.

2007-01-29T09:36:00.000-05:00

These are the 3 top stories from the New York Times today. I'm sure Bill O'Riley will blame the media, but I'll just skip the middle man and blame our dumb ass president:

- TOP STORIES -

Iranian Reveals Plan to Expand Role in Iraq
By JAMES GLANZ
Iran's ambassador to Baghdad outlined a plan to expand its
economic and military ties with Iraq that will almost
certainly bring more conflict with the U.S.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/world/middleeast/29iranians.html?th&emc=th

..................

250 Are Killed in Major Iraq Battle
By DAMIEN CAVE
An American helicopter was shot down in fighting near Najaf
between gunmen and Iraqi forces backed by U.S. firepower.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/world/middleeast/29iraq.html?th&emc=th

..................

'Man Down': When One Bullet Alters Everything
By DAMIEN CAVE
On Haifa Street in Baghdad, the cost of an escalating
street fight is painfully real for American soldiers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/world/middleeast/29haifa.html?th&emc=th

How is your Sole?

2007-01-28T15:24:00.000-05:00

I developed a suspected stress fracture in my foot early last fall. I went to the doctor and among other things, he suggested I try new inserts that would offer more cushioning. I got heat-moldable inserts called Soles.

Running shoes these days are about 100 bucks, so I was not thrilled with having to shell out an extra 40 for inserts, even if they do have technical looking diagrams on the internet.

On the other hand, you spend a lot of time walking or at least wearing shoes. I know a guy who shelled out a lot of bucks to get the most comfortable perfect mattress he could find. Mattresses are expensive anyway, and he got one that is expensive even for mattresses. He explained that he spends at least 8 hours a day in bed, and he wants to be comfortable. That makes sense on a certain level.

By that same rationale, life is too short to wear shoes that are uncomfortable. After wearing my Soles for a couple months now, I can't go without them. When I put on a different pair of shoes, I switch the "soles" and it makes all the difference in the world.

You should get some.

The company website is here: www.yoursole.com

You can order direct, although I got mine cheaper from my local running store.

auto-play

2007-01-23T11:01:00.000-05:00

With the expansion of broad-band internet access, more and more content is available on-line in the form of music and video. This is not news. And don't get me wrong, I think it's great that I can go on YouTube and watch your cousin's girlfriend's brother's home video of him playing guitar or ripping the bumper off his car when he tries to pull it out of the snow.

But what I don't like is when you go to websites and they automatically start playing music or video - ESPN was the first and worst, with some commercial starting up whenever I visit their page. Bands are the next worst. If I am visiting your website, I am already interested in what you are doing. You can have material available, but let me control whether and when I listen to it rather than interrupting what I am already listening to.

In life generally, just because you can do something does not mean that you should. see also, power point animations.

on the iPod:
Phish; Spartanburg, SC 1994

No more illegal wire taps. . .

2007-01-18T11:08:00.000-05:00

This is one of those situations where the administration can't win for losin'. Among the may possible criticisms I could level, I will focus on just one. From what the Post reports below, it sounds like the administration is adjusting its national security policy for political reasons. That is not good.

"Administration officials suggested that the move was aimed in part at quelling persistent objections to the NSA spying by Democrats who now control Congress and that it is intended to slow or even derail challenges making their way through the federal courts. "

full article available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/17/AR2007011701256.html

Little Miss Sunshine

2007-01-16T10:40:00.000-05:00

This movie is funny, but it is not for everyone. If you fall into these categories, you probably won't get the movie:

- If you have never been on a roadtrip, you might not laugh.
- If you never were, or don't know anyone who has been, a disaffected rebellious teenager, you might not chuckle.
- If your family has no dysfunction, or if you are unable to laugh at your family's dysfunction, you might think the movie is dark.
- If you don't see any humor in a gay porn mag called "Buns & Ammo" then you might just get grossed out.

Now that I think about it, in some ways LMS shares a lot with the Royal Tennembaums, although it is much more accessible than that movie. My mom & aunt took my grandmother to see Little Miss Sunshine. In the end, both these movies are about the strength and importance of family.

When you are family, you stick together just because.

Legal Quote of the Day

2007-01-09T19:22:00.000-05:00

SCOTT, A MAN OF COLOR, v. EMERSON (15 Mo. 576)

"As to the consequences of slavery, they are much more hurtful to the master than the slave. There is no comparison between the slave in the United States and the cruel, uncivilized negro in Africa. When the condition of our slaves is contrasted with the state of their miserable race in Africa; when their civilization, intelligence and instruction in religious truths are considered, and the means now employed to restore them to the country from which they have been torn, bearing with them the blessings of civilized life, we are almost persuaded, that the introduction of slavery amongst us was, in the providence of God, who makes the evil passions of men subservient to His own glory, a means of placing that unhappy race within the pale of civilized nations."

The idiocy that has come from our mouths never ceases to amaze me.

In 6th grade I wore this in public

2006-12-30T16:53:00.000-05:00

and thought - knew - I was cool.

Christmas Movies

2006-12-23T09:19:00.000-05:00

Well exams are finally finished. I've been at my folks house for a couple of days now and I am settling into being a lump on a log.

In the Christmas Spirit, here are my top 5 favorite Christmas movies:

#5 - Elf
This is a new addition - I saw it for the first time about a week ago, and I've only seen it once. But, I thought it was great. I laughed out loud . . . a lot. It was a great Will Ferrel vehicle, and it did a good job mixing in the message of holiday cheer.

#4 - Scrooged

It's been too long since you watched this. This is an under appreciated classic. Take Bill Murray at what was probably the height of his comedic career and mix in the greatest Christmas story of all time, and what more could you ask for?

#3 - The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

I'm not sure any comment can do this one justice. I saw this in the last week and couldn't stop asking "Where would the world be without Dr. Seuss?"

#2 - A Charlie Brown Christmas

This year, I actually fell asleep in the middle of this. Well, maybe it was closer to the beginning. That fact not withstanding, there is no better movie to get you up and running when you are having a hard time getting in the swing of Christmas spirit.

#1 - A Christmas Story

This is THE movie, the big one, the queen-mother of Christmas movies. There is a reason TBS or TNT or whatever Turner network pulls the long straw each year runs this movie non stop for 24 hours, and there is a reason that people always tune in. That is the same reason that I got it for my family on DVD. There are too many great scenes to count - too many favorite quotes. Too many classic moments. You can walk into a room of ten people you have never met and they will all have a favorite scene, which they can quote, and they might all have different ones. But each will be unassailable in its perfection.

Merry Christmas.

First in Flight

2006-12-17T13:08:00.000-05:00

Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first successful man-powered airplane flight, near Kitty Hawk, N.C. on this day 103 years ago.

And that is why North has the dopest license plates in the union.

attitude

2006-12-16T12:14:00.000-05:00

The Carolina Panthers are having a terrible year on the field - but one of our best "off the field" years that I can remember.

Ours is the franchise that released one of it's wide receivers after he was arrested for murdering the woman carrying his child. About a year later, one of our ex-running backs was killed when his estranged wife blasted him in the chest with a a shot gun. No charges were filed against her because he was violating a restraining order. Later, we released one of our offensive linemen when he skipped a court date for domestic violence charges.

A special teams player of ours was released after several DUI's, including an arrest where he had pills rolling around on the floor of his car. Steve Smith once jumped a fellow player in a team meeting and broke his eye socket. Almost the entire offensive line from our superbowl has been linked with a doctor in south carolina who apparently proscribed testosterone cream - a banned substance in the NFL. Our old punter was also implicated, and after he got a dui we sent him to Denver, where he has subsequently been replaced because the team doesn't like his off the field problems.

But this year, this year we have (so far - knock on wood) not had off the field problems. This article in the Post lists arrests of NFL Players this year - is it a coincidence that 3 of the better defensive teams in the league (Bears, Chargers, Bengals) all have a lot of players who have had run-ins with the law? Maybe it takes a certain attitude to play football at a consistently high level, and that attitude also gets you into trouble. Take away the outlaws, and you take away the edge that makes the difference between good teams and the best teams.

If that is the trade that we have to make, I'm fine with it.

list available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/nfl/longterm/2006/nfl_chart_12162006.html

article available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/15/AR2006121502134.html

Batteries not Included

2006-12-10T11:50:00.000-05:00

These land lords better watch out, or some alien robots are gonna come down and foil their whole plan . . .

D.C. Tenants Move From Building in Fear
Owner Denies Wrongdoing in Vandalism, Threat and Arson

By Allan Lengel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 10, 2006; C01

In trendy Adams Morgan, in the midst of a protracted eviction battle this fall, came the broken windows, cut electrical lines, a death threat from strangers pounding on doors and a brazen arson that caused a fleeing tenant to fall from the second story and break her leg.

The District recently ruled in the tenants' favor in the eviction fight, saying they did not have to move out while the landlord renovated the worn, three-story, gray-brick apartment building to bring it up to code. But it was too late.

By last week, all but one family had given up and moved from the 12-unit building at 1846 Vernon St. NW, a block from the bustling 18th Street entertainment strip. And that family plans to move, too.

"We were very scared to live there," said Rabia Begum, 20, a Montgomery College biomedical student who had lived in the building. "You don't know what could happen."

With a shrinking pool of affordable housing, landlords in Washington frequently urge tenants to move so they can convert apartment buildings to condominiums or, as in this case, renovate rental units. But the battle on Vernon Street between the management and tenants, most of whom are from Bangladesh, was especially ugly.

Tenants have accused management of orchestrating a campaign of fear and violence to get them to give up their rent-controlled apartments to make way for extensive renovations that ultimately would generate higher rents from new tenants.

The building's co-owner, Perseus Realty of Washington, denies any wrongdoing and suggested last week that tenants were behind the vandalism -- perhaps in search of financial gain.

full article available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/09/AR2006120900838.html

p.s. - You get some pretty 'interesting' hits if you google "batteries not included." This is by far not the weirdest one:

hey baby, wanna get to know me?

2006-12-08T15:28:00.000-05:00

I am a terrible party-goer when I don't know anyone at the party. I have a tendency to latch on and just hang out with a few people all night, rather than get around and talk to different people. Part of that is because I don't especially enjoy niceties and would rather engage in more in-depth conversations with people. But of course, a bigger part of that is because I am not at all an extrovert - the two are surely related.

So this morning on NPR Steve Inskeep did a piece on Jeanne Martinet, author of The Art of Mingling. Of particular note for those of you who happen to get trapped in a corner over by the hors d'oeuvres with me (so you can't even use "getting a bite to eat" as an excuse to leave) are her methods of escaping a conversation:

The human sacrifice: Where you escape a boring conversation by grabbing some other poor guest and throwing him into the conversation in your place.

The smooth escape: This is for getting out in the middle of someone's long arduous and boring story when it would be rude to just leave in the middle. It involves three steps: (1) Take control of the conversation (i.e. interrupt and respond to an irrelevant detail of their story) , (2) change the subject, (3) then make your break.

Read more and listen to the story here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6595823

on the iPod:
Super XX Man, Vol. XI : A Better Place

think you're having a bad day?

2006-12-06T00:45:00.000-05:00

This actually happened to me in Boston - summer 99. It's true.

MeTube

2006-12-04T10:11:00.000-05:00

So maybe I'm a little slow on the uptake, but I haven't really "gotten" YouTube - until now. Here are two precious performances that you & I probably never would have seen otherwise.

Howlin Wolf (Note that one of the guys who posted a comment noted that he had never heard of Howlin Wolf until Taylor Hicks turned him on to him - who wudda thunk it?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF51597U7Xs

or this video of CSNY playing Neil's "Down by the River" (which I found thanks to Aquarium Drunkard)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=yYZ50PjDTi8

I'm sure there are tons more of gems out there. Now, if only I could load these videos onto my iPod.

this just warms the heart

2006-11-30T01:14:00.000-05:00

I don't even know where to begin with this one. . .

Gatlin, banned from track, works out for Texans

The Houston Texans worked out the world's fastest man, Justin Gatlin, on Tuesday, but that doesn't mean he's making a fast entrance into the NFL.

The Texans didn't make a big deal out of the Tuesday visit. They looked at Gatlin like they did two other receivers: Kevin McMahan of Maine and Jovan Witherspoon of Central Michigan. NFL teams usually bring in players for Tuesday workouts while the 53 players on the regular roster take a day off.

In April, he tested positive for the banned substance testosterone and accepted an eight-year ban from track and field.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2679967

I'm actually a little conflicted here - the guy is only 24, obviously made a huge mistake, and should be given a second chance. You can't just tell him to never be an athlete again; that is what he does. But he put his entire career on the line by cheating in track - an 8 year ban is essentially forever. That is some risky behavior, especially when he could just take the undetectable stuff that Balco sells.

The Olympics have been in a downward spiral ever since Katerina Witt hung up her skates, but I'm pissed that we can't even keep the one good memory that came out of Greece.

What if Keri Strug had turned out to be on the juice?

Or what if that Dominique girl in the foreground of this picture ended up freaking out and rebelling from her parents who were whoring her out for endorsement money and getting legally emancipated at the age of 15?

What? Oh yeah, that did happen didn't it? I got it confused with an old Law & Order re-run.

on the iPod:
Phish, Billy Breathes

file sharing

2006-11-28T14:24:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure why I never heard of this before - maybe it is new - but www.savefile.com lets you post files, and then gives you a link to share with your friends. That means you can expect to see me posting music some time in the future.

straight to hell

2006-11-22T16:35:00.000-05:00

It always shocks me when people don't know who Kevin Kinney is. He was the front man for Drivin & Cryin and remains one of the better contemporary song writers.

What? Oh yeah - a lot of people don't remember Drivin & Cryin either. The title track from Fly Me Courageous was all over the radio back in the mid 90s. Despite popular success, the record is one of the best from the decade.

Drivin & Cryin still gets together from time to time - with annual Thanksgiving shows in Atlanta and an appearance on Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Gimmie Three Days" cruise.

Kinney's song Straight to Hell (just like my mama said) was an anthem for teenagers across the south who probably never even stopped to listen to the actual lyrics.

So I walk on down to the parking lot,
hang around with all my friends,
and roam the streets til dawn breaks again
I come in at five a.m. and she is waiting for me
She said where have you been, I said I was out,
She said you're no good cause you're running without love

Cause I'm going straight to hell
Just like my momma said
I'm going straight to hell

parking cars

2006-11-21T13:01:00.000-05:00

Finding a parking spot in my neighborhood can be a real pain, so it is especially infuriating to see cars that are parked in two spaces. Sometimes this happens in spaces with lines painted on, but usually it happens when someone parallel parks where there s room for two cars, but doesn't pull up or back and just stays in the middle, with a half space in front and a half space in back. That does me a lot of good when I want to park there too.

I used to assume that these people were so concerned about their brand new BMW SUVs getting a mark on the bumper, that they took measures to keep other cars away. My idea for a remedy was to keep a broom stick handle in my car and smash out their tail lights. If you are gonna freak out about other cars touching your bumper, you need to live somewhere where you have a driveway or garage or parking space. If you live in the city and use on-street parking, people will tap you with their cars.

BUT - I have noticed that it is not just the prissy luxury cars that do this, so I have modified my theory: People are just idiots and don't know that they should pull all the way into one spot so that other people can park in the other spot. One option for a remedy that was suggested to me is to leave a note on their windshield - in lipstick. That is a good idea, but might take too long. Instead, I am thinking about ordering some of these and sticking them on the windows - or maybe on the paint so that I will also piss off the prissy people who park like that on purpose.

Here are my ideas:

Right Now

2006-11-20T20:27:00.000-05:00

Remember Pepsi Clear? I actually liked that stuff - but then again I was 15, so I would have fallen for any gimmick.

One gimmick I did not fall for was the Van Halen commercial - the song was super pop, but the video was interesting, and the sell-out was absolute. Of course, that presupposes that Van Halen had any original fight the power real rock and roll soul left in them by the time OU812 was released and they settled into the Van Haggar years.

At any rate, I have always thought the lyric was "right now, there's no tomorrow" and then "right now, it's everything" (emphasizing that we should live in the moment) .

Today, I looked up the lyrics on a random inspiration and, at least according to lyrics freak, the real words are "right now, it's your tomorrow"

That really changes everything.

Seasons Change

2006-11-20T09:41:00.000-05:00

No, not the hit single by Exposé, although you can watch that video here.

I mean that each year, the seasons are different - and this year Christmas really has come early. No, not in the form of presents to me, but in the form of skipping Thanksgiving all together and going straight for the commercial kill. I have gotten fliers advertising toys - clearly for Christmas. Starbucks is pushing its "Holiday Roast." Someone at school was walking down the hall yesterday whistling "White Christmas." The Salvation Army guy is already posted up at the grocery store ringing his bell - which seems to have gotten smaller and emits a higher pitched more ear splitting ring than the old ones.

It's still warm out - well, sometimes. We have had days in the mid 60s in the last week. Can we just enjoy where we are and look forward to the gluttonous all-american tradition of celebrating all that we have by gorging ourselves on enough food to make ourselves pop before we move on to the next all-american tradition of super-hyped consumerism where we show how much we care about each other by spending money on pre-fabbed materialism?

on the iPod:
Wilco, Live at William & Mary, 4/22/06

Quote of the Day

2006-11-18T09:58:00.000-05:00

“The shells themselves are made of different materials, a barrier shell, that is relatively much more impermeable.” Dr. Scott L. Spear, the chief of plastic surgery at Georgetown University who has conducted clinical research for Allergan of Irvine, Calif., describing new silicone breast implants approved by the FDA and available for you use on Monday.

My first thought, well - maybe my second thought - upon reading that the FDA has approved silicone breast implants and dismissed earlier safety concerns was "wow - Dow Corning must be pissed." But, it looks like they emerged from bankruptcy ok and have a spiffy website up and running, so I guess that whole "class action" thing is in their past.

The more I read the article, and the more I reminded myself that this FDA is part of the Bush administration, the more skeptical I became. And then I came to today's Quote of the Day, and other comments that 70% of implants rupture and that women should only assume that their implants are safe for 3 years, after which they need to have regular MRIs. If you are gonna put a plastic bag in your body and fill it up with liquid, wouldn't you want it to be close to the fluids that are already there? Silicone? Forget about it - you might as well have kerosene implants as far as I'm concerned.

As is rightfully pointed out by "Dr. Sidney Wolfe, chief of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group. . . 'The approval makes a mockery of the legal standard that requires ‘reasonable assurance of safety.’ ”

At any rate, someone needs to send Dr. Scott L. Spear over at Georgetown a dictionary. American Heritage Dictionary defines 'Impermeable' as "impossible to permeate" - as in, nothing can get through; zero; zilch; nada. Something can't be more impermeable, more impossible. It is impossible for me to fly - but is it more impossible for me to fly in outer-space?

As if that wasn't enough, he even qualifies the "more impermeable" with "relatively." I guess that means that the new implants are more "more impermeable" that some things, but less "more impermeable" than others?

full article at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/18/washington/18breast.html
read more at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/17/AR2006111701246.html

G6

2006-11-16T11:50:00.000-05:00

This weekend I drove a Pontiac G6. Probably the best thing about the car is its super sweet name. "G6" - that just sounds cool.

The G6 is supposed to be a sports sedan or something like that. I guess it is made for people who have to get bigger cars for practical reasons, but wish they didn't. To me, creating something in between a sedan and a sports car means that you have a sports car that is too big and clunky (although it did have nice pick-up, esp. for a rental car) and you have a sedan with a terribly stiff ride.

In the tradition of Pontiac, there was nothing special about the interior. It did feel relatively open & the lay-out of the controls was fairly convenient and easy to reach etc. I've always wondered why so many cars have the button for rear defrost in completely nonsensical places, and apparently the engineers behind the G6 wondered the same thing - the button for the rear defrost is right by the other buttons & knobs for the rest of the climate control. Of course, this is probably not a good reason to buy the car.

The drivers seat was fairly comfortable, a conclusion based on about 10 hours of driving in 2 days - but the passenger seat was not. The drivers seat had adjustable height; the passenger seat did not. The drivers seat had adjustable lumbar support; the passenger seat had none.

I like driving, and I like driving all sorts of cars - from my 81 Volvo 242 (which is on its retirement tour) to minivans, Chrysler 300s, and trucks - whatever. I did not particularly enjoy driving the G6, and it did not seem to be especially practical.

>> After drafting the preceding text, I went on Washington Post. com to see if Warren Brown has ever reviewed this car. He has. This is what he said (back in 2004 about the 2005 model - the car I drove had 4k miles, so it is probably an 06):

"Pontiac should drop the base G6-6 Cylinder. It is the kind of automobile car-rental companies buy because it's the cheapest model in the lineup. The rental companies then advertise that they have the "all-new Pontiac G6!" Excited customers take that bait only to find out that they're renting a base, marginally enjoyable car."

Go figure. The rest of the review is available here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2004/10/10/AR2005032405082.html

on the iPod:
nothing - Radio Paradise today:
8:56 am - Chuck Berry - Nadine
8:53 am - A Band of Bees - A Minha Menina
8:50 am - Tom Waits - Clap Hands
8:45 am - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Supernaturally
8:38 am - Guster - Ruby Falls

8:33 am - Neko Case - Star Witness
8:28 am - Paul Simon - Slip Slidin' Away
8:24 am - Chris Smither - Link of Chain
8:21 am - Ellen McIlwaine - Up From the Skies
8:17 am - Jimi Hendrix - Rainy Day, Dream Away

Bling-Blaow!

2006-11-10T17:11:00.000-05:00

the mack daddy pimp belt:

"Bling-Blaow! This LED Name Digital Belt Buckle is like having a piece of the future on your waist. Be one of the first people to floss this new LED Belt Buckle. You can put up to 256 characters on it.

Wanna make a statement? WELL BRING IT ON! Write whatever you want and let it scroll across the screen! Your name , your number, your hood! Stand out in the club without a bottle of bubb. Scroll on playa.

disclaimer: I have no affiliation with, nor do I endorse, Iced Out Gear dot com

quote of the day

2006-11-08T16:38:00.000-05:00

"If the [law] be clear, we are bound to conform to it even though we do not comprehend the principle upon which it is founded."

From Commonwealth v. Pullis, the first American criminal prosecution for conspiracy against striking shoemakers in 1806.

the next Dubya

2006-11-08T11:34:00.000-05:00

The "macaca" quote is old hat, but check out some other Senator (for now) George Allen quotes:

"Stay strong for freedom . . . and accuracy in elections will prevail." Do the terrorists hate our recounts? (Speaking to his supporters when it became apparent that the only way for him to win would be after a recount.)

"When we get to the future, I'll determine the future" And I thought being the Decider was a good gig! (Replying to a question about his presidential aspirations.)

source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/07/AR2006110701844.html

The Carolinas

2006-11-07T17:29:00.000-05:00

This is why people from North Carolina don't like it when you get us confused with people from South Carolina:

South Carolina governor's goof delays his vote

SULLIVAN'S ISLAND, South Carolina (CNN) -- A sheepish Gov. Mark Sanford was turned away from a South Carolina polling place Tuesday because he forgot his voter registration card.

The casting of ballots in front of the news media is a well-worn tradition for politicians, but it was no Kodak moment when Sanford discovered he had left his card behind.

Off camera, South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford could be heard telling her husband that she had reminded him to bring it. (Watch his wife's stunned reaction -- 2:09)

Eventually, the poll manager at Sullivan's Island Elementary School politely told the governor that he couldn't vote unless he had a registration card.

The first lady's identification was in order, and she was allowed to vote, said poll manager Bob Crawford, according to The Associated Press.

Later, Sanford told reporters that his card was in the capital, Columbia, but he planned to obtain a replacement immediately so he could cast a ballot.

"We had the number, we could read it over the phone, but as a credit to the poll manager, she said that ain't enough -- you've got to have the card," the governor said. "I'll vote here shortly."

Sanford said he admired the poll manager for being conscientious.

His office later said the governor had returned to the polling station and successfully voted.

According to the South Carolina State Elections Commission's Web site, voters can obtain a duplicate registration card -- even on Election Day -- if their card is lost or stolen.

The Republican is expected to win his bid for re-election against Democratic state Sen. Tommy Moore.

Sanford has had a tough few days.

Bright stage lights injured his eyes on Sunday, forcing him to skip campaigning on Monday to go to the doctor and recuperate, AP reported.

Sanford's eyes were red and watery as he stood in line at the voting site on Tuesday, but he told AP, "It's behind me and the prognosis is good."

available at http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/07/sanford.votes/index.html

Andy Rooney

2006-11-06T11:44:00.000-05:00

In case you missed 60 Minutes last night, this is what Andy Rooney had to say (of course, if you are thinking to yourself "what kind of flaming liberal watches 60 Minutes when O'Riley is on, then you are probably the exact person who this is aimed at, and you are also the kind of person who thinks Andy Rooney hates our freedom):

"There's a silent little war going on in this country. It's between people who wear the American flag in their buttonhole and people who do not.

(Footage of various politicians with American flag pin on lapels; flag pin; political debate; photos of President Bush; photos of President Bush's father; footage of President Bush when he was governor; photo of Harry Truman; photo of John F. Kennedy; photo of Dwight Eisenhower; photo of Richard Nixon; photo of woman; photo of Condoleezza Rice; photo of Senator Charles Schumer; photo of Oprah Winfrey with woman; footage of American flag)

Mr. ROONEY: (Voiceover) Every night on the evening news, you see people, politicians mostly, being interviewed or giving speeches wearing a little metal American flag. Are are they suggesting they love America more than I do?

If a politician running for office has an opponent who wears a flag, he usually thinks he has to wear one, too. Afraid people might say he isn't as patriotic as his opponent is.
President Bush always wears an American flag. Would we think he was un-American if he didn't? His father wore one sometimes, didn't wear one other times. I think politicians wearing the American flag is a fairly new phenomenon. Politicians weren't wearing them as much just a few years ago, not as much as they are now. President Bush didn't wear one when he was governor of Texas. I don't remember seeing Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy or Dwight Eisenhower wearing one. We did come across a picture of Richard Nixon in the '70s wearing a flag. Maybe he started it.

I've always wondered if a politician who wears a flag when the cameras are rolling wears one on Saturdays when he's home alone in his old clothes. Or is he only patriotic in public?
Women politicians don't seem to use the flag as decoration like men do. Maybe that's because they have no good place to hang a flag or they don't want to put a hole in their dress with a pin.

I suppose it isn't a very popular opinion I have, but I don't like to see a politician or anyone else for that matter wearing an American flag. Using the flag as decoration is demeaning to a great symbol. The American flag may be the best symbol ever designed. It's perfect. It represents our current 50 states and the 13 original colonies. It's both attractive and meaningful, and it stands for who we are. That's a lot to ask of a piece of cloth. And the American flag does it magnificently. It should not be used as a bumper sticker.

traveling gnomes

2006-11-03T20:18:00.001-05:00

If you were essentially a one hit wonder band with a loyal, although small, devoted fan base and you struck it big earning a gold record with your most radio friendly single, what would you do with it? I mean the record - you know you actually get a gold record when your record goes gold, although I am not sure that it is made out of real gold. Presumably you don't get real platinum records when you go platinum, but it sure would be a lot cooler if you did. OK - so hold that thought. You would take your Gold Record - the one sign of popular success after all those nights playing in smoky dive bars with people more interested in the video poker machine than they were in your music - and you would do _____ with it.

OK - now imagine that you are a ragged out fan of a do nothing band that made it big with one hit single, and all of a sudden the same posers from school who used to make fun of you for listening to weird indy california fruity music are the guys showing up with brand new t-shirts from the band and cranking the same hit radio single out of their never-seen-the-mud rag top jeep with brush guards that daddy bought them for their 16th birthday. You tough it out, knowing that your band would never really sell out - it was just the big music industry moguls polluting the essence of the music's soul. And sure enough, a few later when the band is mentioned most often as the answer in Trivia on tuesday nights at at the local bar & grill, the band is still appreciative for its loyal fans who stuck with them. So one night, one of the band members has some fans over at his house and they are playing fooseball in his garage . . .

Well, if the band was Toad the Wet Sprocket and you were drummer Randy Guss, you would but the Gold Record on the line. And if you were the fan that won the gold record, you would travel the world uniting Toad fans and start this website:

http://www.toadgold.com/

FYI - Toad was on tour this summer. If you are so inclined, you can check out their official website at http://www.toadthewetsprocket.com/

Quote of the Day

2006-11-03T12:14:00.000-05:00

“When I see someone wearing headphones in the New York City Marathon, I feel sorry for them,” Mr. Solarz said. “They don’t even know what they are missing. The hoots, the hollers, all the bands, the excitement. When else can a skinny white guy wearing little shorts run in Harlem and get cheers?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/02/fashion/02fitness.html

Smoking Hot Dogs

2006-11-02T21:18:00.000-05:00

Apparently this Friday at 7:00 there will be more going on than you rewinding your cd's and re-laceing your shoes. Oh yeah - the Smokin' Hot Dogs of Frankfort High School in Frankfort IN will take their four game winning streak into the Hamilton Heights Huskies' house looking to avenge last years loss in the championship game. The Huskies, for their part, haven't lost a sectional game in 5 years.

In celebration of the game, cafeteria lunch will be:

Foot Long Hot Dog
Baked Beans
Fruit
Frito Lay Chips

Should be a barn burner.

Smoking Hot Dogs stand in Huskies' way

Frankfort has won 4 in a row; Heights takes shot at 5th straight title.

By Ted Schultz

November 2, 2006

The streak stands at 14 and counting.

It was five years ago this week that Hamilton Heights last lost a sectional football game. The Huskies are one win away from their 15th straight sectional victory and their fifth straight title going into Friday's 7 p.m. battle with Frankfort.

"This will be an emotional game," Heights coach Steve Stirn said. "Like always, a good start will be an advantage for the team that gets out of the gate quickly."

Last year's sectional championship came down to these two teams, and the Huskies (8-3) prevailed 35-21.

"Last year's game with Frankfort was a contrast in style, but it was a great game," Stirn said. "This year's game appears to be very similar. They are playing with a high level of confidence."

The Hot Dogs (7-3) have won four in a row following a 3-3 start. They went on the road and blanked West Lafayette 28-0 last week after receiving a first-round bye.

Heights and Frankfort have played two common opponents. The Hot Dogs opened the season with a 28-6 win over Western and a 26-7 loss at Twin Lakes. The Huskies lost at Western 21-20 in Week 8, downed Twin Lakes 21-14 the first round of the sectional and avenged the loss to Western with a 13-3 win last week.

Heights is a team that usually throws about as much as it runs, but in the rain and mud last week, ran 48 times and threw six.

"We have smart kids that understand the game of football. Ross Eckart, our center, is very intelligent. (Quarterback) Justin (Boser) is smart on and off the field. That had a lot to do with it," Stirn said. "They kept their poise, and they understood the conditions that we played in."

Frankfort doesn't throw the ball much. Tyler Brown has completed 15-of-32 passes for 215 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions.

Ben Kelly has carried 188 times for 1,234 yards and 18 scores, and C.J. Smith has 129 carries for 659 yards and four touchdowns. Kaleb Thompson has caught four passes for 121 yards and two scores, and Smith has five catches for 85 yards and a touchdown.

Kelly leads the Hot Dog defense with 102 tackles.

"Frankfort appears to be very physical with outstanding speed," Stirn said. "Frankfort will use an offense that is not conventional, just effective. They will use a very tightly bunched formation. Defensively, they will use multiple alignments and stunts to keep us off balance and to cause hesitation."

Full article at: http://www.thenoblesvilleledger.com/articles/7/079682-1567-094.html

play it all night long

2006-10-31T02:18:00.000-05:00

"Grandpa pissed his pants again
He don't give a damn
Brother Billy has both guns drawn
He ain't been right since Vietnam"

Tonight is the first late night of the semester. It won't be the last. There is a certain tranquility in the overcaffienated haze that sets in around 2:19 in the am when you are typing away, digging out some really good quotes, and then mid-sentence you look up and realize you have no idea what your point is or what you were trying to say.

But you are working hard, and that is what counts. . . . right?

"Daddy's doing Sister Sally
Grandma's dying of cancer now
The cattle all have brucellosis
We'll get through somehow"

Apparently there are some elections going on, and everyone thinks they are going to win. I only really know that because last night when I tried to take th eevening and enjoy myself watching football I was subjected to the same lame negative political add at almost every single commercial break. The other guy didn't run a single add - I;m not sure if that means that he thinks he has it in the bag, is totally screwed, or is simply more in touch with the fact that the demographic watching Sunday Night Football is not exacty "likely to vote."

I probably would have been annoyed that this guy kept butting into my evening with the same lame political commercial, but I was too busy being annoyed at my football team as they proceeded to make every mistake imaginabe en-route to giving up 35 unanswered points and getting embarassed on national tv.

Of course, that also meant that I had to wear my team t-shirt today. There is nothing more annoying than front-running fans, and for some reason last year with the Steelers in the Superbowl was even worse than normal. All of a sudden everyone was breaking out their sweatshirts etc. I wear my gear when we lose. The team doesn't need my support when we win.

"Sweet home Alabama"
Play that dead band's song
Turn those speakers up full blast
Play it all night long

on the iPod:
The Drive By Truckers, 10/26/06, Cannery Ballroom, Nashville, TN
(covering Warren Zevon)

changing expectations

2006-10-24T10:09:00.000-05:00

you'd think that if I am only posting here once a week (or less) that I could come up with some kind of original material - instead, I will just let you enjoy the begining of this article from today's Washington Post:

Bush's New Tack Steers Clear of 'Stay the Course'

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 24, 2006; A01

President Bush and his aides are annoyed that people keep misinterpreting his Iraq policy as "stay the course." A complete distortion, they say. "That is not a stay-the-course policy," White House press secretary Tony Snow declared yesterday.

Where would anyone have gotten that idea? Well, maybe from Bush.

"We will stay the course. We will help this young Iraqi democracy succeed," he said in Salt Lake City in August.

"We will win in Iraq so long as we stay the course," he said in Milwaukee in July.

"I saw people wondering whether the United States would have the nerve to stay the course and help them succeed," he said after returning from Baghdad in June.

But the White House is cutting and running from "stay the course." A phrase meant to connote steely resolve instead has become a symbol for being out of touch and rigid in the face of a war that seems to grow worse by the week, Republican strategists say. Democrats have now turned "stay the course" into an attack line in campaign commercials, and the Bush team is busy explaining that "stay the course" does not actually mean stay the course.

full article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/23/AR2006102301053.html

on the iPod:

The Clash, London Calling

Jamie Cullum, Twentysomething

swimmin

2006-10-19T15:32:00.000-05:00

If you check your voicemail while going to the bathroom, you might drop your phone in the toilet. You can wash your hand after reaching in, but your phone will probably still be broken.

Cardtoons

2006-10-12T15:27:00.000-05:00

Anyone remember these? When they were printed, did anyone tink they would be leading teams in the 2006 LCS? Even if you would have beleived it, would you have beleived it would be the Tigers & the Mets?

Where's the Beef?

2006-10-10T15:13:00.000-05:00

"Neutral-seeming ads influence people's social and political attitudes, and themselves arouse political controversy. "Where's the Beef?" turned from an advertising catchphrase into the only really memorable thing about the 1984 presidential campaign. Four years later, Michael Dukakis called George Bush "the Joe Isuzu of American politics.""

White v. Samsung Elec. Am., Inc., 989 F.2d 1512, 1520 (9th Cir. 1993) (Kozinski, J. dissenting)

typographical error #2

2006-10-05T20:05:00.000-05:00

if you hit the "y" instead of the "u" when spelling "antitrust" you get "antitryst"

how old are you?

2006-10-04T19:50:00.000-05:00

Do you remember when Listerine was advertised as a cold remedy? Me neither - the Federal Trade Commission made them stop the 100 year old campaign in 1977.

FYI - Excepting the new flavors, Listerine's formula has not been changed since 1879.

mix it up

2006-10-04T09:15:00.000-05:00

My iTunes library is up to 554 albums by 267 artists taking up just under 50GB of hard drive and constituting 27.6 days of continuous music. Granted, 101 of those albums and 25GB of the memory is devoted to live WSP I pulled down from Digital Panic . org. But still, that only counts for 8 days of music (while I do convert the songs to mp4, I use a higher sample rate, so the files are about twice as big as traditional mp3s)

Needless to say, this is really an unmanageable amount of music. There are hours and hours - probably days - worth of music that I have never listened to since I got my iPod last January.

And that, I assume, is why Apple invented the shuffle function. Here's the song list that I got this morning:

Freak Mama, Mudhoney & Sir Mixalot, Judgment Night Soundtrack
Stop Go, WSP, 6/28/96
Horn, Nick Drake, Pink Moon
L.A., WSP, 6/22/01
Dr. Butcher, Psycho-Possum, Assorted Fruit Flavors (Ghostmeat Records compilation)
Come Closer, Porter Davis, Bootleg Series Vol. 1
You Could Be Mine, Guns & Roses, Live Era '87-'93

fear germs

2006-10-01T12:54:00.000-05:00

I was at the grocery store the other day and right beside the entrance, next to the carts, was a "disinfectant wipes" dispenser, and a diagram of a hand wiping down the handle of a shopping cart. Seriously. I don't know about you, but my brother and I grew up going to the grocery store with my mom and we pushed & rode in the cart and to my knowledge she never used a disinfectant wipe to wipe down the cart. She probably let us eat the free cookies without giving our hands a bath in Purell. Both of us have turned out pretty well - there might be some argument about that, but at least we are not sickly people, we never contracted a life threatening disease from the grocery cart or got sick from some germs on our hands.

Nevertheless, now that this amazing new technology is available, I'm sure parents everywhere will be going that extra mile to shop at the grocer that has disinfectant wipes for the carts.

typographical error

2006-09-27T16:24:00.000-05:00

if you leave the "i" out of "arise," it spells "arse"

come on ride that train

2006-09-26T22:04:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to get back on the horse - to get some kind of momentum generated to post here on a basis more regular than once in however often I feel like it.

This weekend I wrapped up the Great Wedding Tour of 2006, which started on August 12th in Charlotte and wrapped up on Sept 23rd in Cranberry Lake NY, with dates in Vermont, Atlanta, and Germantown MD.

It should be fairly self-evident, but somehow it seems that people continue to get wrapped up in the wrong things. Every wedding I went to was different, and every one had its own vibe - but they were all magical. Some were big formal affairs, some we smaller, and some were in between. One wedding I went to had a traditional Jewish ceremony and another included a naming ceremony and presentation of the couple's baby to the world. Some were destination weddings, some were at hotels, some were at lodges, some were in museums. Some had full open bars, one had a couple kegs and red & white wine. Some had full service meals, some had buffets, and some had family style platters at each table.

But they all had the only element that is really necessary to make a good wedding - the couples were in love and the friends and family were excited. Don't go to weddings for the food or the desert or the drink or whatever - go there to celebrate in whatever way the bride and groom want you to celebrate. Share in their enthusiasm and share in their wonder. Listen to the service and remember your vow to support their marriage when times are tough.

And when you plan your wedding, let it reflect your own enthusiasm and your own wonder and your own love and remember that the people who love you will have fun no matter what you do.

lunch?

2006-09-25T18:11:00.000-05:00

Legal quote of the Day

2006-09-18T21:38:00.000-05:00

When special interests claim that they have obtained favors from Congress, a court should ask to see the bill of sale. Special interest laws do not have "spirits," and it is inappropriate to extend them to achieve more of the objective the lobbyists wanted. . . . What the industry obtained, the courts enforce; what it did not obtain from the legislature--even if similar to something within the exception--a court should not bestow. . . . Recognition that special interest legislation enshrines results rather than principles is why courts read exceptions . . . with beady eyes and green eyeshades.

Chicago Professional Sports Ltd. Partnership v. National Basketball Ass'n, 961 F.2d 667, 671-672 (7th Cir. 1992) (Easterbrook, J.)

cash flow

2006-09-13T16:38:00.000-05:00

"[bin Laden] understood that one tool he had in waging war against the United States was to drive us crazy, into bankruptcy, trying to defend ourselves against every conceivable threat,” Mr. Chertoff said at a hearing of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “We have to be realistic about what we expect and what we do. We do have limits, and we do have choices to make.” From http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/13/washington/13chertoff.html

I sure am happy people are starting to realize that we cannot be absolutely safe no matter how much we spend, or that even if we could, it would not be worth the sacrifice.

The next step is realizing that we cannot be absolutely safe no matter how many of our civil liberties we give up - no matter how much they tap our phones and watch our bank accounts. More importantly, the incremental increase in safety is not worth the sacrifice.

shoping carts

2006-09-12T15:46:00.000-05:00

I can't stand it when people puch their grocery cart out to their car and then just leave it sitting there in the parking lot. Is it really that hard to push it back? Then, of course, people push them most of the way back but leave them sitting on the sidewalk or curb. So what do people entering the grocery store do? Do they grab one of those carts and shop with it? Hell no. They walk by about 8 carts that are outside - they weave through a veritable obstacal course of shopping carts, and then grab a new one out of the stack of carts just inside the door.

These are probably the same people who refuse to bag their own groceries.

fashion sense

2006-09-06T20:06:00.000-05:00

We had a dress code at my highschool that prevented us from wearing pretty much any cool clothes that highschool kids like to wear. No t-shirts of any kind, much less a perfectly faded black Led Zeppelin t-shirt with the Swan Song logo on it.

. . . So one of the ways we would "beat" the dress code was to wear these types of t-shirts under a white or thin dress shirt so that the t-shirt graphic would show through. (incidentally, we would also go to school "crossed out" with our clothes on backwards - but that is neither here nor there).

Right now, as I sit in class, there is a guy at the front of the room wearing a dress shirt with a logo t-shirt underneath.... only rather than Led Zeppelin or The Doors, I can see the "Haliburton" logo showing through.

That pretty much sums up my school.

Little Things, pt. 5

2006-09-05T15:44:00.000-05:00

Of the many developments in technology in the world, one that goes under appreciated is the advecement of trash-bag science.

There is nothing worse than having an over stuffed trash bag that is too weak and when you try to tie off the top, it rips. Rememer twisty-ties? This things that you used to have to wrap around the top of the bag to keep it closed? Across america there are small town that sprouted up around twisty-tie factories, and now they law desolate and unemployed, praying for a Wal Mart call center to move in because now we have not only moved into the Cinch-Sack world with draw-strings built into the bag itself, but we have Flex-Force.

Discover a revolutionary trash bag that redefines strength. GLAD ForceFlex® trash bags are actually stronger because they stretch.
The bag has a unique diamond texture that stretches around objects to help prevent rips and tears, so you can fill it, stretch it and stuff it with just about anything.
Available varieties: Drawstring, Quick-Tie® and Odor Shield®

There are some things that just make life easier - that are worth spending a little more money on. When I saw the box of 70 bags on sale at Target, I jumped on the babies. You can stuff them full of broken coat-hangers, and it will stand strong. Taking the trash out sucks enough, so go ahead and spend a little more on the good bags.

The rest is basic economics.

2006-09-03T16:43:00.000-05:00

When I was a teenager, I don't remember a huge distinction between the people who where having sex, and the people who were having oral sex. One eventually led to the other. No one I knew was getting into either when they were twelve.

"When the price of Coca-Cola rises, rational cola-lovers drink more Pepsi. When the price of penetrative sex rises, rational teenagers seek substitutes. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that even as the oral-sex epidemic rages, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the percentage of teenage virgins has risen by more than 15 percent since the beginning of the 1990s. Those who are still having sex have switched to using birth-control methods that will also protect them from sexually transmitted infections. Use of the contraceptive pill is down by nearly a fifth, but use of condoms is up by more than a third. The oral-sex epidemic is a rational response to a rise in the price of the alternative."

Full article at http://www.slate.com/id/2148583/nav/tap2/

The New Addition

2006-08-31T10:28:00.000-05:00

I have finally, and inexcusably tardily, added my buddy Eric Martinez ("G") to the "music you should know" list at right. Check out his myspace page, and look for G on a forthcoming album with Daniel Hutchins titled "Love Songs for Losers."

on the iPod:
still nothing, although I am looking forward to cranking WSP 10/31/96, which I am currently pulling down off digitalpanic.org

oatmeal

2006-08-30T10:20:00.000-05:00

Oatmeal for breakfast and oatmeal in my brain. I have been trying to keep up with this and reward you for checking back every so often, but I am flailing a bit.

It's not so much that I haven't had any bolg-worthy thoughts; I actually recall thinking 2 or 3 times yesterday "hmm, that would make a good blog post." It's just that I can't remember what t was that I was thinking.

I have too much going on. At least I think I do.

on the iPod:
nothing, but I have been pulling down a butt load of live Widespread Panic and a few other bands from a bittorrent site. Bittorrent is cool.

Legal Quote of the Day

2006-08-23T19:56:00.000-05:00

"Men cannot always, in civilized society, be allowed to use their own property as their interests or desires may dictate without reference to the fact that they have neighbors whose rights are as sacred as their own. The existence and well-being of society require that each and every person shall conduct himself consistently with the fact that he is a social and reasonable person. "

Tuttle v. Buck, 107 Minn. 145, 149 (Minn. 1909)

why pretend?

2006-08-23T16:22:00.000-05:00

I was at the grocery store today grabbing some granola bars and I looked up to see "Quaker Breakfast Cookies." Really? I don't even know what to do with this one.

Perhaps not suprisingly, a the first three Google hits are all blogs:
The Impulsive Buy
Cheap Eats
Junk Food Blog

The corporate cite has this to say:

"Quaker® Breakfast Cookies

Help yourself to a soft-baked cookie made with whole grain Quaker oats. Plus, there are real pieces of delicious fruit in every bite!

Quaker goodness in every cookie:

Made with Whole Grain Oatmeal
Good Source of Fiber
Excellent Source of Calcium & Iron
0g Trans Fat
9 Vitamins and Minerals"

http://www.quakersnackbars.com/CHW_Products/BreakfastCookies/

. . . and these things are endorsed by www.singlemom.com, because what could be better than saving some time by slinging a breakfast cookie down your kid's throat as you send him out the door with a homemade tang-wich for lunch.

Well, I gotta run make myself a dinner milkshake.

the last time

2006-08-21T09:58:00.000-05:00

Today is the first day of classes, which means that yesterday was the last day of summer - and both are the last time I will have those. After this year, I will be done with school and into the working world (hopefully).

I still remember - although not clearly - when I was a little boy and I asked my dad why he didn't get summer vacation.

I also remember when Davis Love III won the PGA Championship (before Tiger-mania had taken over).

"It took Davis Love III 11 long, frustrating seasons to finally achieve his moment in the sun; and then, just a little while longer through the rain that pelted Winged Foot during his closing holes on Sunday.

In one of the most moving moments in golf history, as the man so often described as the best player never to have won a major, walked his final fairway at the 79th PGA Championship, on a course called the toughest they would ever play, the storm clouds actually parted. The sun beamed down again. And not one, but two rainbows settled majestically over his head.

"I tried not to look," Love said. "Everybody was yelling, 'Look at the rainbow! Look at the rainbow!' It was hard to keep my composure those last few holes, much less think about my dad. But it was very neat, and I hope there's a great picture of that, with those two rainbows overhead as I was putting out."

His brother and caddy, Mark Love, was helping Davis stay fixated on golf.

"We were trying to not think about it until we got it done," Mark Love said. "We were trying to not think about that rainbow until we finished the last hole."

Believe what you will, but who would dare doubt that Davis' late father had a hand on his son's shoulder, steadying him, guiding this enormous step. Davis Love Jr. was a golf pro who gave his son his name, his game and so much of his inspiration even after perishing in a plane crash nine years ago.

"I told Davis, 'Dad knows.' And he said, 'Yes, I know,' " said Love's mother, Penta Love. "So, yeah, he was along all the way."

In that sense, Love said the final round of his first major victory was no different from any other day he plays.

"It's hard to explain, and maybe that's not right," Love said. "But this win is an accumulation of a lot of hard work from a lot of people. My dad didn't want anything out of my golf game except for me to do my best. And I think his influence is great for me every day."

That Love's best came at Winged Foot made it even more special. It is one of the great and historic courses in the world, where even par was considered an achievement, but where Love managed to reach 11-under, turning back the reigning British Open champion, Justin Leonard, at every turn.

"This is just a perfect golf course for me," Love said. "It sets up great. The way the rough was around the greens, it just played right into my hands. I knew if I could be patient, I could win."

Full story at http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/golf/pga/news/1997/08/18/love_huber/index.html

crusin'

2006-08-15T15:23:00.000-05:00

After spending 20 hours on the highway over the last 10 days, I think all cars should have their drivers' cell numbers posted on the bumper.

I also think everyone would be a better driver if they got to do more of this:

wow - super slack

2006-08-04T22:51:00.000-05:00

DANG! I haven't written in like fity - just when there seem to be at least one person in teh world who checks this site every once in a while. I know that is no way to build a readership.

Well - I'm off to the beach for a week, and then to the first of a 5 wedding marathon stretching from Aug 12 to Sept 23. That means I probably won't post for another week. The good news bad news is that I start school on teh 21st, so hopefully there will be more time for me to bitch to you about the things that I bitch about.

On the other hand, maybe we will be knee deep in the rapture by then. If that is the case, at least I'll be at the beach.

on the iPod:
Guns & Roses, Lies
Tom Petty, Last DJ
Stone Roses, ?

where to begin

2006-07-28T15:25:00.000-05:00

I honestly don't even know what to do with this:

Bush Sees a Chance for Change to Sweep Mideast
By DAVID STOUT

WASHINGTON, July 28 — President Bush, vowing to turn conflict in the Middle East into a “moment of opportunity” for broader change, said today that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would be dispatched back to the region on Saturday with a plan for a multinational force that would help Lebanon’s army take over from Hezbollah in the southern part of the country.
. . .
Mr. Bush said that, despite the bloodshed in Lebanon, Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East, democracy is taking root in the region and will flower “unless we lose our nerve.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/28/world/middleeast/28cnd-mideast.html?hp&ex=1154145600&en=12e22262bf272690&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Do you think the "multinational" force in Lebanon will be as diverse as the ones in Afghanistan & Iraq? Do you think the people will be as welcoming? Do you think change will be as successful? Do you think Bush will pay for it with more tax cuts? Do you think people will wonder why we let Israel flatten cities and blow up power plants, and then pat ourselvs on the back when we build them tin huts and hand out energizers?

on the iPod:
Coldplay, X&Y;
U2, Joshua Tree;
Drive by Truckers, 4/22/06;