November 10, 2005

Money Quote Of The Day

Or, yesterday, rather:

For several years, these people have been testing the water, trying to gauge the size of the lies they can get away with. Unsurprisingly, they’ve come to realize that, if they all simply insist on the “truthfulness” of a given lie of their own creation and marketing, that little piece of the greater war narrative will, with the help of a compliant media, slowly ossify into “fact”—or at the very least, will dig beneath the skin of settled history and fester there, constantly picked at by the conspiracy theorists and fantasists who stroke their own egos by pretending to know more than the surface reveals.
Yes. Yessssss!

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Smart Enough To Know That This Quiz Is BS









"Intellectually" Intelligent


You're 'Intellectually Intelligent.' That pretty much means that you're good with theoretical ideas and concepts - but this comes to you naturally. More or less, you're a natural brainiac. Good for you.


40% theoretical intelligence
40% natural intelligence
















Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

via Kitty.

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November 09, 2005

Francis Urquhart Lives

Tony Blair's days as PM are numbered?

(You might say that. i couldn't possibly comment.)

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U.S. Marine Corps Stamps

JCrue has pictures of the new distinguished Marines stamps. Nice.

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Wednesday Is Poetry Day: Williams

Again, from Willliam Carlos Williams:


To A Solitary Disciple

Rather notice, mon cher,
that the moon is
tilted above
the point of the steeple
than that its color
is shell-pink.

Rather observe
that it is early morning
than that the sky
is smooth
as a turquoise.

Rather grasp
how the dark
converging lines
of the steeple
meet at a pinnacle—
perceive how
its little ornament
tries to stop them—

See how it fails!
See how the converging lines
of the hexagonal spire
escape upward—
receding, dividing!
—sepals
that guard and contain
the flower!

Observe
how motionless
the eaten moon
lies in the protecting lines.

It is true:
in the light colors
of the morning
brown-stone and slate
shine orange and dark blue

But observe
the oppressive weight
of the squat edifice!
Observe
the jasmine lightness
of the moon.


What do i see in this poem.

Optimism?

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California Über Alles

Everything lost.

It's easy to blame the lying public employee unions, and to feel discouraged about the future of democracy. i do. But those feelings will pass, because i know the main reason Californians voted for the status quo yesterday.

Californians, like most of the country, are very pissed off at their government for various, often opposing, reasons. So when you have a bunch of propositions that are intended to improve things and change the status quo, but you introduce them into a climate of voter dissatisfaction, it's very hard to expect people to vote "yes" on anything. The "no" is their way of saying "we don't like things the way they are."

Remember, the recall election was itself a "no" vote.

Add to that, the legions of well-funded and motivated, goose-stepping union members who were certain to get out their own vote yesterday, and you see why the reform measures had no chance.

Oh, and San Francisco voted yesterday to invite gun-toting outlaws to visit the city, stay a while, and while they're there why not rape rob or kill a San Franciscan for added fun and profit.

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November 08, 2005

Essential Riot Reading

i know everybody's been pimping the 2002 Thomas Dalrymple article on the Parisian suburbs. i found it via A Nation Of Riflemen. If you haven't yet read it, believe the hype. It's one of the most interesting things i've read all year.

Kevin Kim links to it too. But Kevin has much more on the riots, including English translations of some French sources i had seen elsewhere. Not knowing French, i'm thankful to Kevin for doing the work. Just keep scrolling down on his blog. He'll like that.

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Cotillion Ball

Stacy at Not A Desperate Housewife did a beautiful job on today's Veteran's day theme Cotillion Ball. Please go check it out.

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Media Double Standard?

AP's report about today's Tennessee school shooting contains an unusual choice of quotes in the third paragraph, as printed in this ABC News post.

The motive for the shooting at Campbell County High School, 30 miles from Knoxville, was not immediately known, Sheriff Ron McClellan told WVLT-TV.

'We don'a0644t [sic] know yet. I have the individual at the hospital,' McClellan said. 'These men are all fine Christian men, and I am at a loss for words.'

Now i don't have a problem with the quote per se. Sure it's a dumb thing for the sheriff to say. Obviously one of those students was not a fine Christian man.

But i find it interesting that AP seems to take special care to identify the religion of this particular murderer at the top of the story, when i usually have to read to the end of a typical AP story on terrorism to find out that kind of information -- if they disclose it at all.

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Californians Must Vote

If you are a Californian, you must vote today. The special election is the difference between changing things or giving up. Don't you give up. Vote for change. Unless of course, you like things the way they are in CA.

The cool thing is, if you haven't studied the propositions, don't worry. Just vote like i did.

Proposition 73: YES.

Proposition 74: YES.

Proposition 75: YES.

Proposition 76: YES.

Proposition 77: YES.

Proposition 78: YES.

Proposition 79: NO.

Proposition 80: NO.



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Things You Think About At 3:30 a.m.

The mahi-mahi fish is also called the dolphin fish. (It's fun to watch people freak out when i tell them i've eaten dolphin meat.)

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November 07, 2005

French Riots

It amazes me that after eleven days of rioting, the French have not yet called out the military or instituted a curfew. Isn't that riot control 101? i mean at some point, you gotta do something, don't you. What are they doing over there? Sheesh, Mike Brown could have done a better job than Chirac and Villepin are doing.

Update: i have two more semi-facetious observations. First, it's a measure of how much things have changed in Europe, that the German government is actually advising their citizens to "be careful" about traveling to France. Come on guys. Now is the perfect time to strike! Whatever happened to "Let the last man on the right brush the channel with his sleeve?"

Second, a lot of people are saying it's poverty that's causing these riots. So maybe France isn't socialist enough. Taking that line of thought to its logical conclusion, i'd have to agree. If France were a full blown Communist dictatorship, you can bet these riots would have stopped soon after the first rock was thrown. Just ask any Czech or Hungarian of a certain age.

Update 2: Read Sarah's personal experiences living in one of the Parisian "suburbs."

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MNF Pick, Week 9

Colts vs. Patriots, at Foxboro. Indianapolis is 7 and 0 this season, but they've only played one team with a winning record. They're soft and they've lost to New England the last six times they've met. You could say that Indy is due for a win against the Pats. But you could also say that Indy is due for a loss this season. The law of averages cancels itself out. New England has had a much tougher schedule, and they seem to have been reborn with Bruschi's return last week.

Indy is favored by 4 points. i really think it will be a close game, so i'm taking Indy [New England] and the points.

Update: Okay, i'm an idiot. That was a typo, obviously i meant to say New England up there.

Update 2: i'm now 2 and 5. That's a .286 winning percentage, which is better than the Jets, the Ravens, the Titans, the Texans, the Packers, the Saints, the Cards, and the Niners. Plus, i'm cuter.

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November 06, 2005

What If...

What if journalists on September 1, 1939, followed today's journalism rules, and refused to identify the enemy by its name?

9139.jpg


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1300 Cars Burned Last Night

Time to buy Renault stock.

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November 05, 2005

Project Valour-IT








Allow me to quote Beth from My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy regarding this worthy fundraising effort:

I'm writing to ask for your support for a project sponsored by Soldiers' Angels (click for more information on SA, if you aren't familiar with them) called Project Valour-IT. This project is designed to provide voice-enabled laptops for severely wounded military members. From the Project Valour-IT website:

'Project Valour-IT, in memory of SFC William V. Ziegenfuss, provides voice-controlled software and laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand and arm injuries or amputations at major military medical centers. Operating laptops by speaking into a microphone, our wounded heroes are able to send and receive messages from friends and loved ones, surf the 'Net, and communicate with buddies still in the field without having to press a key or move a mouse. The experience of CPT Charles "Chuck" Ziegenfuss, a partner in the project who suffered hand wounds while serving in Iraq, illustrates how important this voice-controlled software can be to a wounded servicemember's recovery.'

Right now there is a major fundraising effort ongoing among blogs, with certain blogs assigned to different service branches, to make it a sort of friendly competition. . . .

In previous generations and wars, all Americans were asked to sacrifice for the overall war effort, but during this war on terror where we are ALL affected, we haven't had to shoulder the burden that our military (active, reservists, and their families) have. May I ask you to sacrifice just a bit for the good of our troops?
i've selected the Army team. Please help out, for those who have given so much for us.

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Dateline NBC

i hope you saw Dateline NBC last night. If the subject matter wasn't so disturbing and serious, i'd say it was one of the funniest hours of television ever.

Basically, NBC's Chris Hansen did an elaborate sting operation to catch child predators, who try to hook up with kids over the internet. They arranged for the predators to meet the "kids" at a house, then they filmed Hansen confronting the sickos.

Freakin funnier than shit.

One of the dudes was a doctor, and another was a rabbi who worked with kids! The rabbi at least dressed up for his date, but one dude showed up naked. That was the funniest scene. The creep was waiting butt naked on a stool in the kitchen, thinking a 13 year old boy was about to come downstairs. Then Chris Hansen walks out and he's all "'sup freak, here's a towel." And the dude's like "whaaaaa?" It was great.

It got better. 12 hours after that perv was totally humiliated on camera, he was back on the internet, and got stung again. He went to meet another fake kid at a McDonald's the very next day and there was Hansen, shaking his head. The guy was like, "dude, i was just getting something to eat." Then later he's all "Yeah, I got a problem. I'm seeing a shrink."

By the time they were done, Dateline caught 19 perverts in this sting operation, and the DA is looking into it. Hopefully they'll all land in jail. Too bad they didn't catch them in Vegas though, because i think the mayor there would have some ideas on an appropriate punishment. Have you heard what he wants to do to taggers?

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November 04, 2005

Lunch Planning

Do i want pizza; do i want bbq, or do i want smorgasbord?

Update: i went with J.R.'s Texas BBQ.

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November 03, 2005

Attention McGoohan Fans

Regarding this crazy secret CIA prison story, Varifrank reaches for the obscure "Village" reference first. Damn, i should have done that. [i'm such a sci-fi geek, i love that show. Best episode, The Schizoid Man.]

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Danish Ramadan Rioters

You've heard of the suburban Paris rioters. Now meet the Danish rioters.

The police has to stay away. This is our area. We decide what goes down here
and
We are tired of what we see happening with our prophet. We are tired of [Danish newspaper] Jyllands-Posten.
Transterrestrial Musings has the story.

via Instapundit.

Update: Here's what's prompted the violence. A couple of cartoons.* Funny, i don't seem to remember Evangelicals rioting in this country after Flynt spoofed Falwell some years ago. But whatever.

* link updated.

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