August 13, 2008
Dave Berry, Call Your Office!
Who will save us from the flying inflatable dog turds? I think I will mail this to James Taranto for his "everything is spinning out of control" section. Blog friend Perry Eidlebus brings us the art news from Switzerland
GENEVA (AFP) — A giant inflatable dog turd by American artist Paul McCarthy blew away from an exhibition in the garden of a Swiss museum, bringing down a power line and breaking a greenhouse window before it landed again, the museum said Monday.The art work, titled "Complex S(expletive..)", is the size of a house. The wind carried it 200 metres (yards) from the Paul Klee Centre in Berne before it fell back to Earth in the grounds of a children's home, said museum director Juri Steiner.
The inflatable turd broke the window at the children's home when it blew away on the night of July 31, Steiner said. The art work has a safety system which normally makes it deflate when there is a storm, but this did not work when it blew away.
Steiner said McCarthy had not yet been contacted and the museum was not sure if the piece would be put back on display.
UPDATE: Didn't make BOTW. Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control...
Taranto didn't include this? He's so full of dog ****.
Posted by: Perry Eidelbus at August 14, 2008 9:36 AMMay 28, 2008
Wealth Gap
The Onion: Nation's Poorest 1% Now Controls Two-Thirds Of U.S. Soda Can Wealth
According to the sobering report, the disproportionate distribution of soda-can wealth is greater than ever before, and has become one of the worst instances of economic inequality in the nation's history. Data showed that over-salvaging of cans by a small and elite group of can-horders has created a steadily growing and possibly unbridgeable gap between the rich and the mega-poor.
Hat-tip: Don Luskin, who wonders "Where's Paul Krugman When We Need Him?"
April 24, 2008
Good Blog Tags
SFcitizen.comTags: heel, High, miniskirt, San Francisco, scooter, Yamaha
Heel, check; High, check; miniskirt, check; scooter, check; Yamaha, I can't tell.
April 6, 2008
Rethinking "The Daily Show"
Every time I try to watch "The Daily Show," I am quickly turned off or enraged by Jon Stewart's pomposity and smugness. But I frequently see some extremely funny clips on the Internet. "Hillary's 3AM Call of Duty" Video Game with "John McCain's Virtual Fireplace" was hilarious. This takedown of Code Pink is perfect.
Hat-tip: Terri
March 11, 2008
TOO GOOD!
Eliot Spitzer Vows To Crack Down On Excess Prostitute Pay
Okay, a serious comment on l’Affaire Spitz: The GOP is overreaching one more time. They can't help it. Rep Peter King was fulminating on Kudlow Last night, and a Yahoo/AP Headline (since changed) was "Republicans Push for Spitzer Impeachment."
Folks, just look grave and mouth about how serious this is and how the Governor will have to make up his mind. Let his own party push him out or allow him to stay damaged for a while. There is no good that can come from Republicans pushing this, and plenty of bad from appearing to capitalize.
UPDATE: And one more, unserious, comment. Don Luskin points out "There's one advantage of having Spitzer replaced by his legally blind lieutenant governor: the new guv can make do with less expensive hookers." I really wish I were too good to post that. That's not what ThreeSources is about. Maybe tomorrow.
January 29, 2008
Cool Site
This site has semantic analysis on all the SOTU speeches (not yet counting last night's). Each is analyzed for length and grade level required for comprehension. Each has a "word cloud" visualization of important words in the speech, and a mouseover shows the number of times they appear.
Most cool. Yet another Club for Growth Hat-tip
October 25, 2007
Worth 1,000,000 words
Too funny:
Hat-tip: Althouse via Insty
Will cross-post this weekend!
Posted by: TrekMedic251 at October 25, 2007 10:27 PMSeptember 11, 2007
Income Inequality
Onion News Network explores the growing gap between the rich and the super-rich in America:
In The Know: Are America's Rich Falling Behind The Super-Rich?
Hat-tip: Prof. Mankiw
"Not everyone can vacation in Italy, some of you have to vacation on Martha's Vineyard!"
Posted by: AlexC at September 11, 2007 2:13 PM"If the rich were just a little more motivated, they wouldn't be such a drain on society..."
Posted by: jk at September 11, 2007 2:34 PM"The super-rich have, really, no idea what the rich put up with."
Posted by: johngalt at September 12, 2007 3:03 PMAugust 20, 2007
How Are You Paying Yours?
The Onion brings us this informative graph.
Hat-tip: The Big Picture
July 30, 2007
Got 'Em
Hat-tip: Club for Growth
July 26, 2007
What a Grouch
Jonathan V. Last is a great blogger at Galley Slaves, a superb journalist from the Weekly Standard, and is technically my "sire," as I started watching Buffy mostly on his recommendation.
I was stunned to read his "Casual" column in last week's Weekly Standard (paid link). The casual column is a short piece that runs right after the Masthead and gives writers a chance to cover a light topic or personal reflection. They're frequently fun and a few have stuck with me.
Last's is the first one that has angered me: I think he is at least a few years younger than me, but he thought it was time for a curmudgeonly old fart column:
As if that weren't dispiriting enough, my friend Phillip Longman tells me that progress is actually slowing down. Between 1910 and 1960, indoor plumbing, electricity, and automobiles became common. Jet airplanes were invented, and a space program was begun that in a few short years would put a man on the moon. Nuclear power, plastics, lasers, and computers--the stuff of science fiction in 1910--all had been developed by 1960.But from 1960 to 2007, little changed. With the exception of the Internet, on which the jury is still out, most of the advances of the last 50 years are merely improvements on existing technology. Previous generations conquered disease, went into space, and split the atom. We came up with the iPhone.
Okay, the Internet crack is a joke. Last is a professional journalist and is uneasy with the blogger/"Army of Davids" culture. Fine.
Galley Slaves has three political writers who do no politics. They discuss Philadelphia sports, pop culture, video games, &c. Last, David Skinner, and Victorino Matus are modern young men and his disregarding the advances of the last 47 years is out of character. To be fair, he is complaining that the futurist visions of his youth have not panned out. There's certainly truth to that.” Where once they dreamed of advanced food pills, we're shopping for heirloom tomatoes at farmers' markets."
To claim the computer was created in 1960 and that his xBox is just derivative achievement is incomprehensible. That a professional journalist doesn't see the value of Google® or cell phones or that the sports fan doesn't mention satellite or HiDef Plasma televisions is dishonest.
Laugh at the iPhone all you want, but take it back to 1965 and show it to a kid who has a black, rotary phone in his home and a color TV in the family room if he is very lucky. I think he'd be pretty impressed. Take the back off and show it to his engineer Dad.
Heirloom tomatoes? That's a sign of wealth.
In the end, that's what gets me. He can make fun of the Internet or the iPhone if he wants, but his derision carries him down the Paul Krugman path of denying that our freedom and innovation have created wealth, better lives, and a foundation for even more incredible achievement.
UPDATE: Ah yes, one advance is the search engine, where anyone you call "a grouch" on the Internet can find you. I received a kind email from JVL, who stands by his point and hopes I am enyoing the Season 8 comic books.
The baby boomers promised us rocket cars by the year 2000 and vacations on the moon.
I blame them for grinding progress to a halt.
Must've been all that dope and free love.
Damned hippies.
Posted by: AlexC at July 26, 2007 6:26 PMJuly 24, 2007
Dear Mister Taranto:
I'm a big fan of Best of the Web. But, this one time, I think you missed:
How'd They Know Which Was Which?
"Shark Attacks Lawyer Off Oahu"--headline, Seattle Times, July 22
I think the correct meta-headline is:
"Whatever Happened to Professional Courtesy?"
Cheers,
jk
Obviously the creature that did not attempt to sue and insist that the pants were worth 64 million dollars was the aquatic one.
Posted by: mdmhvonpa at July 24, 2007 7:37 PMJuly 23, 2007
Four in the Morning
I have seen so many excellent TEDTalks. Today, Don Luskin links to Rives's take on oh-four-hundred. It's entertaining and effectively needles conspiracy theories. Cost you about nine minutes.
July 9, 2007
The Five Second Rule
I did not grow up with the five second rule. I think I was at least 30 before I knew it by name, though I think some Jungian cultural memory of it guided my actions in my younger days. I watched as the five second rule was explained to a distraught young boy at the bagel shop this weekend. (Dad overruled the customer and the bagel was replaced).
Terri at ithinlthereforeierr, links to a WaPo article where the five second rule was tested by researches at Clemson. Obviously, it has no scientific basis (I hope we didn't pony up too much Federal jack for that). But the real clarifications come from kids:
Following the rule requires understanding its intricacies. "I would never eat a pickle," says Anaiah Grissom, 9, "not even after one second." She also would not eat a hot dog, a burger or a piece of broccoli, because those get dirty really fast. A Chips Ahoy, according to Anaiah, can last up to 15 seconds, and Pop-Tarts, like, never get dirty.Indoor floors are better than outdoors, but grass is better than carpet.
June 26, 2007
Way Too Cool
Create your own Simpson's characters,
Hat-tip: Galley Slaves
June 15, 2007
Little CH4 Producer!
Terri is calf-blogging over at I Think ^(Link) Therefore I Err.
Gotta love Fridays.
June 14, 2007
Darkness and anti-modernity
A frined sends this:
I love modernity but it's nice to see the old school stuff come through.
May 6, 2007
Crabbin'
I've been on some hairy flights and hairy landings, but I don't know if looking at the runway over the wing tip is my idea of a good time.
Ich nicht verstehe, enschuldigung.
Posted by: jk at May 6, 2007 1:50 PMEnschuldigung?
Posted by: johngalt at May 6, 2007 8:52 PMI think it's Icelandic.
There doesn't seem to be much difference between it and a fast-forwarded audio.
Posted by: AlexC at May 6, 2007 10:38 PMMay 2, 2007
Wolfowitz Memo
Doc Mankiw links to an amusing parody of a Paul Wolfowitz memo to World Bank staff, ordering them to abjure playing his resignation contracts on TradeSports:
I hope you understand that any attempt by World Bank Staff to buy or sell these contracts will be considered insider trading in clear violation of my anti-corruption guidelines. Your knowledge of normal World Bank personnel procedures gives you a clear information advantage in predicting whether I will be forced to resign. You must not abuse it. Please note: the Bank’s prohibition on insider trading applies not only to immediate family but also to significant others (e.g., girlfriends).Some of you have already queried my office about whether it would still be insider trading if, when you buy “Paul Wolfowitz resignation” contracts (betting that I will leave before 2008), you also sell short “Alberto Gonzalez resignation” contracts. (This is a bet that my friend, the U.S. Attorney General, will hang on through end 2007.) My emphatic answer is no! Long Wolfowitz, short Gonzalez is only a “relative value play” that hedges out the value of loyalty to President Bush. You would still be guilty of insider trading on your Bank-specific knowledge. (And who says I don’t know enough about finance for this job!)
I think Wolfowitz is 100% innocent and wish the rest of the piece did not credit his opponents. But it's funny.
March 16, 2007
She don't hear so good
Terri at I Think ^(Link) Therefore I Err thought it was Friday Calf Blogging. The little calf is going to ruin the planet with greenhouse gases, but she sure is cute.
Nope. "Cow" means "an adult female who has had more than two calves." (With a little help from wikipedia.)
"Breed" refers to the "domesticated subspecies or infrasubspecies of an animal." (again, wikipedia)
A fairly comprehensive bovine breed index can be seen pictorally here. (four links, by first letter of breed name, near bottom of page.)
'Sides, ain't you dun never gone ta the Stock Show boy?'
Posted by: johngalt at March 16, 2007 6:23 PMNot until I was growed. My Grandmother left a Willa Caheresque existence to move to the city and we have not looked back for a couple of generations.
I love Atlantis farm and SugarChuck's spread, but I am city folk through and through. My siblings consider me bucolic for choosing a small town. Wrong it may be, I deserve points for "cow."
Posted by: jk at March 16, 2007 8:05 PMAnd you get points for "cow". Thanks for the link!
Posted by: Terri at March 19, 2007 11:23 AMNot too many points, since Terri says that she was there when, "he," was born indicating that he is a bull calf rather than a cow at all.
Also, since when does it take, "more than two calves," to be called a cow? I thought it was heifer only until the first calf was born. Anybody with some real bovine expertise to clear this up?
Posted by: dagny at March 19, 2007 4:13 PMHeifer's get to have one calf. Once they have their second, it's to the cows.
Apparently she needs to be over a year of age too. I didn't realize that part!
http://www.allwords.com/word-heifer.html
Posted by: Terri at March 20, 2007 12:48 PMNice, thanks
We usually don't get eight comments around here without mentioning immigration. And I never once called it a "moo-cow" I'm getting better.
Posted by: jk at March 20, 2007 1:35 PMFebruary 27, 2007
TEDTalks
I've just discovered a very bad time sink at the exact wrong time in my life, but have y'all see TEDTalks?
I found this one on Classical Values (H/T Insty) and it is awesome. Here's the description:
Steven Levitt is an economics professor at the University of Chicago and the best-selling author of Freakonomics. In this talk, filmed at TED2004, he goes inside an inner-city gang to examine economic principles at work in the real world. (Recorded February 2004 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 22:00)
The series is sponsored by BMW, and I went a Googling (actually, I’m a Yahoo guy still) for TED and TEDTalks.
The editorial slant looks distinctly left of center, but they advertise a talk by Bjorn Lomborg that we're worrying about the wrong thing with Global Warming, and they have a couple talks by his VicePresidentness himself, Mr. Albert Gore, Jr.
I prefer blogs to podcasts and most video because I find it easy to read a column while I wait for a machine to reboot or a program to compile. Double-digit minutes of devoted attention are productivity sappers. But there are a pile of these TEDTalks I have to see.
I wanted to post about this one and not the series, because it speaks to something that was very important to me before 9/11. I took some of the same ideas Levitt takes from the research from the novel "Clockers" by Richard Price. The problem is the lure of money in illegal drug sales as recruitment for gang membership.
Levitt points out that it's "the worst job in the world" but also that the idea of rising in the organization to a senior level is pretty alluring against other inner city opportunities. The drug war is government intrusion into economics as surely as ethanol subsidies. Levitt points out how the economics changed with the introduction of crack cocaine.
Whether you agree with my libertarian view of the drug war or not, this is a fascinating, entertaining, and smart piece on application of economic principles. At the end, you even enjoy economic principles translated into gangspeak.
February 23, 2007
Ten Largest Databases
Business Intelligence Lowdown: Top 10 Largest Databases in the World
There are currently organizations around the world in the business of amassing collections of things, and their collections number into and above the trillions. In many cases these collections, or databases, consist of items we use every day.
Hat-tip: Club for growth
February 20, 2007
Sticking It To the Man
I wonder if liberals and Democrats who look for tax deductions while demanding higher taxes are hypocrites.
In any case, CNN Money lists 10 ways you can save some cash come April 15th.
February 12, 2007
Socialist Paradises
Really. I had it so wrong. AlexC emails a link to Cuba: making poverty history that celebrates the economic achievements as well as the unparalleled freedom, human rights and self-direction available the island nation.
The only thing resembling a gulag in Cuba is in the US’s illegally-held enclave at Guantanamo Bay where the Bush administration has built its notorious concentration camp.Contrary to the impression given by the Western media, Cuba does have competitive elections. Much is made of the fact that there is only one party, the Cuban Communist Party (PCC). The PCC does not, in fact, endorse candidates in elections. While party members can, and do, run in elections, so can non-members. In any given electorate there may be one, or more than one, PCC member standing or there may be only non-members as candidates.
I was packing my bags to emmigrate, but then I saw this:
What a dupe I have been.
You are right. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea IS a paradise compared to the "hell" of "America." It must be the Lost Horizon.
And the word "obesity" isn't even in the North Korean vocabulary!
(My favorite parts of the video were the Patton quote and the goose-stepping Korean school girls.)
Posted by: johngalt at February 13, 2007 3:07 PMJanuary 29, 2007
Let's Talk.
Attila, at Pillage Idiot has a new installtion of his photo-comics: Hillary begins a conversation
Maxima heh.
OMG! ROFLMAO! (and all those other IM-type sayings).
I damn near p***ed myself reading that!
Posted by: TrekMedic251 at January 29, 2007 8:43 PMThanks for the link. We aim to please, but without increasing the methane supply.
Posted by: Attila (Pillage Idiot) at January 29, 2007 9:51 PMYou've had several good ones, Attila, but this one is probably my favorite.
Posted by: jk at January 30, 2007 10:32 AMJanuary 26, 2007
Friday Humor
The Wreck of the Patrick Fitzgerald from The American Spectator. Mea culpa to young readers who do not get the allusion to Gordon Lightfoot's lugubrious '70s ballad; mea maxima culpa to those who will be reminded...
The legend lives on from main Justice on down
Of the thrill of the big prosecution
The "kill," it is said, gives a rush to one's head
When the perp for his sins makes ablutions.
And with yellowcake tales and reporters in jail,
Well, then, Patrick Fitzgerald sensed vict'ry.
But Fitz, the fed man, soon would get his hide tanned
When Bob Woodward did clear up the myst'ry.
Hat-tip: Extreme Mortman
January 18, 2007
Falling From Space
Penny Meyers was giving her 4-year-old daughter a bath Wednesday night when suddenly something came crashing through the roof.Meyers said the impact sounded like a wrecking ball coming through their home.
Investigators said they believe the brick-sized block of ice fell from an airplane that took off from nearby Philadelphia International Airport.
It wasn't blue ice, as jets no longer dump their waste out the bottom, but regular old water-ice.
Still, there's a 12 inch square hole in the roof, and someone's bedroom has a new sun-roof.
I wonder when the lawsuits for 'emotional trama' and psychological damage will begin.
Posted by: mdmhvonpa at January 19, 2007 1:29 PMTrauma ... jeeze, I need to spell check.
Posted by: mdmhvonpa at January 19, 2007 1:30 PMNation of Islam Sports Blog
Too funny. The whole site is great, but you have to read:
Nation Of Islam Sportsblog: Hockey: Let it Die
White devils on ice. Whirling dervishes on skates. White athletes propelled and assisted by physics to speeds they can not reach on land. The ice. The last refuge and hiding place of the white athlete.Relegated to minority status in most team sports, the white athlete has retreated to frozen water as a means of preserving his one "major" remaining sports league. Knowing full well the Negro athlete has a traditional distaste for performing on or in water. After all, it was across a great body of water the Negro was shanghaied and stolen.
Hat-tip: Galley Slaves
December 28, 2006
The Caffeine Curve
Hat-tip: Club for Growth
This is why the TrekMedic drinks tea,...hot,...Earl Grey,...make it so.!
Posted by: TrekMedic251 at December 28, 2006 10:11 PMCaptain Picard,
Earl Grey contains plenty of caffeine as well. Not that I should talk, as I drink Chai.
Posted by: dagny at December 29, 2006 12:38 AMThe problem with me: I start my first cup at about 0445... so I'd need a wider curve.
Posted by: Charlie on the PA Tpk at December 29, 2006 10:36 AMSo does that shift the whole curve to the left or increase its amplitude?
Posted by: jk at December 29, 2006 1:38 PMyou people and your chemical dependancies.
the government needs to be involved.
Posted by: AlexC at December 29, 2006 3:11 PMDagny,..chai on a cold morning works for me, too!
Posted by: TrekMedic251 at December 30, 2006 11:33 AMDecember 20, 2006
The Sartre Cookbook
This is the funniest thing I have seen on the Internet in, umm, forever.
The Jean Paul Sartre Cookbook.
I would have nothing kind to say about Sartre, except that he inspired Joss Whedon to create my favorite TV villain of all time. Jubal Early, the existentialist bounty hunter in the Firefly episode "Objects in Space" comes from Whedon's love of the Sartre book "Nausea." I think that's one of two that I have read. Sadly, it inspired nothing so grandiose.
Hat-tip: Insty.
December 19, 2006
Peace in Our Time (Again)
LMAO!
(tip to HotAir)
That'll be cross-posted by the end of the week!
Posted by: TrekMedic251 at December 19, 2006 9:47 PMThis is far too close to the truth to be funny. "50 million dead" may be a slight exaggeration, but only slight.
Posted by: johngalt at December 20, 2006 12:47 AMA Blogger in Need
Well, I'm too far away, and i cannot imagine AlexC mackin' on a fruitcake eater.
Posted by: jk at December 19, 2006 3:03 PMAccentuate the positives, my friend.
Posted by: AlexC at December 20, 2006 12:03 AMFruitcake ...
... or vomit?
I'm more partial to the vomit, myself.
December 6, 2006
Black Hole-y Crap
The language and decorum is taking a tumble around here.
I thought this was interesting: NASA telescope sees black hole gulping remote star
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A giant black hole displaying horrifying table manners has been caught in the act of guzzling a star in a galaxy 4 billion light-years away, scientists using an orbiting NASA telescope said on Tuesday.
I know some folks are depressed about the elections, but a Democratic 110th is still better than being swallowed by a black hole. I guess we'll see.
Hat-tip: my lovely bride, by email.
The corrected headline should read, "NASA astronomers see star "gulped" by black hole 4 billion years ago." First, because telescopes don't see things, people do. Second, because light seen today that originated 4 billion light years from here, necessarily began its journey to us 4 billion years ago. (Now we need to figure out how to capitalize on the advance notice with respect to those rubes 1 billion light years downstream from us.)
Posted by: johngalt at December 7, 2006 2:55 PMHole-y Crap
- More than a mile below the Earth's surface, South African police are waging a battle against a new breed of pirate: wildcat gold miners who live underground for months at a time in unused mine shafts, smuggling out ore worth millions and defending their turf with homemade grenades and booby traps.
In the past six months, in response to pleas from outgunned private mine-security squads, South African police have created a task force to ambush the thieves. The force has arrested 60 of the pirates in six perilous underground raids.
"It's very, very dangerous," said Mike Fryer, an assistant police commissioner who helped create the new mine unit for the South African Police Service. Police teams, equipped with explosives experts and Special Task Force officers, have dodged shotgun-wielding miners, defused bombs and managed to wrestle out the invaders so far without any loss of life, Fryer said.
Naturally, the cops are afraid to fire guns in the mines, a problem the illegal miners don't seem to have. But they did allude to some "alternative weapons" that they don't want to reveal.
I bet it's water. Flood 'em out.
(tip to Ace)
December 5, 2006
Better or Worse
Available for sale....
November 30, 2006
Tax Free Christmas
Though not a done deal, this might be your last Christmas to stick it to the man.
- Last year, Sen. Michael Enzi, R-Wyo., and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., introduced similar bills that would require online and catalog merchants (or at least bigger ones) to collect sales taxes for any states that met standards set by the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSUTA). The Enzi-Dorgan proposal stood no chance with taxophobic Republicans in control of the House.
Next year, with Democrats in charge? "The stars are lined up better," says Harley Duncan, executive director of the Federation of Tax Administrators, which represents state tax officials.
It's not just the change in partisan control that has raised the states' hopes. They also believe they can make a stronger case for new collection authority now that the SSUTA, which is designed to harmonize and simplify sales tax laws, is finally operating. As of Jan. 1, 15 states will be full participants in SSUTA, meaning they've adopted the required changes to their own laws. State officials spent years haggling over such issues as whether bakery bagels should be considered groceries, which few states tax, or prepared food, which is widely taxed. (The conclusion: If a bakery provides a utensil with your bagel or heats it for you, it counts as prepared food.)
November 29, 2006
Speechless
I don't know what to say.
Yeah.
Uhhuh.
Posted by: jk at November 29, 2006 1:33 PMIndeed.
Makes you wonder why any women bother to blog at all. It must be like decaf coffee and near-beer to them.
Posted by: mdmhvonpa at November 29, 2006 10:16 PMNovember 21, 2006
Interesting Site
I clicked on blog ad link somewhere last week, and signed up for a free account on BackPack. Working from home on many different machines, I am finding this site pretty handy.
For nothin', you get a few web pages that function as to do lists, virtual whiteboards, even collaborative work areas. You can email a page to have an item appear and you can also schedule reminders to be sent to your email or cell phone.
Paid accounts get you a calendar, storage, more pages, yadda. I'm not sure their pricing points are right, but the free service is priced right and does some cool things.
November 18, 2006
Weekend Fun
Attila at Pillage Idiot brings tales of internecine strife in the new Democratic House Leadership.
So much for "Let the Healing Begin,.."
The next two years will be "interesting times," for sure!
Posted by: TrekMedic251 at November 18, 2006 9:37 PMYeah, I'm not much into "healing." Like Larry Kudlow, I like full contact partisanship. I don't quote Ann Coulter very much, but she had a riff I really liked. President Bush (41) said "I know you didn't send us here to bicker." And Ms. Coulter said "yes we did, we sent you there to out-bicker the other guys."
Not only the Democratic Party gains, but also many of the referenda and ballot issues make me think this nation is poised to take a left turn toward European style, mixed economy socialism. I'm certainly not looking to get along and I doubt many ThreeSources, Pillage Idiots or Is This Lifers are. Interesting times indeed.
November 6, 2006
Most Popular ThreeSources Post
Our biting commentary, witty political insights, and stunning exegeses have attracted a small cadre of devoted readers -- and we appreciate every one.
But I was looking at the web stats and found that we have a runaway hit on out hands:
When they were all coming for NATALEE HOLLOWAY PICTURES, I feared they all went away disgruntled and empty-handed. Folks coming for CHOCOLATE BUNNY CARTOONS, however, are at least sighting their quarry.
October 31, 2006
So not everybody loved 'em
Attila at Pillage Idiot notes all the favorable press that the Ford Taurus has received as production of the popular vehicle ends.
Speaking as a Taurus owner for 13 years, and as someone who actually had an emotional attachment to the car, I can only say: GOOD RIDDANCE! GOOD FREAKIN' RIDDANCE!Fact is, the car sucked eggs. Major eggs. My 1993 Taurus LX had less than 75,000 miles on it, but I have a thick file with all the repairs I had to have done on it. Just by way of example, I went through 5 or 6 starters and starter relays. The water pump and various other parts of the cooling system failed on me. And my all-time favorite (cue scary music): the head gasket. The head gasket failure, which Tauruses were extremely prone to suffering, cost about $3000 to fix and took a week or more at the dealer. Ford agreed to pay for the repair for some owners, but limited that offer to certain model years, thus stiffing a large number of us whose head gaskets survived a few months too long.
If anyone from Ford happens to stumble on this post, I just want to say that I bought a new car this year. It was a Toyota. Feel free to send me your apology by email: pillageidiot -at- hotmail -dot- com. I still won't buy another Ford, but at least an apology will make me feel the company is not malevolent but simply incompetent. Oh, and enjoy your evening.
Bold Moves, Attila. Bold Moves.
Attila is correct. I owned one of those farging wallet leaches. Died under 80K and I spent the last 2 years nursing it every step of the way till ... dun-dun-dunnnnn ... the head gasket took a dive. And yes, I own a Toyota now. Ford ... ford ... must be a democrat ... the more money you dump into it, the more it sucks.
Posted by: mdmhvonpa at October 31, 2006 6:49 PMAnd the damned thing is still sitting on the street in front of my house, gathering pollen and leaves and costing me insurance, because I haven't had time to call the charity I'm going to donate it to. If you want it, I'll sell it to you cheap.
Posted by: Attila (Pillage Idiot) at October 31, 2006 9:49 PMI have a theory that four or six bangers have problems with head gaskets because there's not enough "tightening" of the head bolts.
And don't get me started on wrong-wheel drive cars.
I likes my cars with eight cylinders and rear wheel drive. They way God intended them to be.
Posted by: AlexC at October 31, 2006 10:07 PMI currently have a 2001 Taurus w/ 75K on it. Yup,..I've spent more on it than its worth, but I'm gonna keep it until the wheels fall off, just for spite!
Posted by: TrekMedic251 at October 31, 2006 10:32 PMAww man, i totally forgot. A friend of mine hit black ice and ended up going over a curb and through a stop sign.
The stub of a sign tore his gas tank open.
The Taurus pretty much made a superfund site of some guy's front yard.
Yet ANOTHER strike.
Posted by: AlexC at October 31, 2006 10:48 PMDo you all think it's a coincidence that Ford Motor Company brought us the Taurus, the Merkur, the Explorer (Exploder), the Edsel and the Pinto? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me five times...
Posted by: johngalt at November 1, 2006 11:20 AMOctober 25, 2006
Quote of the Day
Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies, The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.- C.S. Lewis
From Samizdata, who also provide a link to these beauties. See if you can spot which are from Sweden, and which are from the UK.
Don't these young females realize that they are inviting rape by going about with their head uncovered? It's like so much uncovered meat, right Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly al-Dumbass?
Excellent quote, by the way. It demonstrates what's wrong with both the Dems AND Reps.
(And man, are those Cockney birds hot or WHAT!)
Posted by: johngalt at October 27, 2006 2:02 AMOy! Not only 'ot, but after y' buy 'em a few pints...
Posted by: jk at October 27, 2006 9:55 AMOctober 19, 2006
Cheese Wit or Witout
- The battle for cheesesteak supremacy -- usually fought with beef, onions and cheese -- has moved out of the kitchen and into the courthouse.
Pat's King of Steaks, a South Philadelphia institution since the 1930s, is suing Rick's Steaks for trademark infringement.
The two eateries involved, located less than two miles apart, each are owned by a grandson of Pat Olivieri, purported inventor of Philly's favorite sandwich.
Scott Pollack, the lawyer for Pat's, said Wednesday that the businesses are not connected in any way -- even if the owners are. Pat's owner Frank Olivieri never gave permission for cousin Rick Olivieri to use the trademarks in his advertising and signage, Pollack said.
''Obviously, Pat's Steaks is very, very famous. It's known all over the country and the world,'' said Pollack.
The lawsuit filed Monday by Pat's claims that Rick's has been illegally trading on Pat's name, its crown logo and trademarked phrases, including ''Pat's King of Steaks Originators of the Steak Sandwich.'' It seeks unspecified damages and an order preventing Rick's from using the material.
I've never been to Rick's. But Pat's was my favorite until I found Tony Luke's.
At that point all looking stopped. I was home.
Hmmm, I'm still looking for a good lutefisk store around here. No luck yet.
Posted by: mdmhvonpa at October 19, 2006 3:50 PMUff da! mdmh included a link to a lutefisk description on Wikipedia but our default lutefisk filter removed it before anybody could get hurt.
(Perhaps Sugarchuck could mail you some from Minnesota. No doubt that contravenes the Commerce Clause, but a man has needs.)
Posted by: jk at October 19, 2006 4:24 PMOhhh, sure. You betcha! I usually pick up a case at water-rama but the crappies were biting this year soooo I went quick down to da lake to pull some out, don-cha-know.
Heh ... I'll have Alex pick up the covertly wrapped package next time he is commuting through Commiecrapoulos.
Posted by: mdmhvonpa at October 19, 2006 7:47 PMI'll be there tuesday am between 5:30 and 7:15.
Just have somebody throw it to me behind security. ;)
Posted by: AlexC at October 20, 2006 2:08 AMOctober 18, 2006
Happy Birthday, Chuck
Name a song that has been recorded by all the following: the Beach Boys; Conway Twitty; the Sex Pistols; Tom Jones; Bill Haley; AC/DC; John Denver; Jerry Lee Lewis; Elton John. No, it wasn't "White Christmas." Or "Stardust."Also Chubby Checker and Elvis and Jimi Hendrix and the Dead.
Give up? "Johnny B. Goode." The presumed model for the title character, the pianist Johnnie Johnson, died last year at the age of 80. And now the composer of the song has hit that mark. Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is 80 today.
Sugarchuck and I have played that tune once. Or Twice. Hail, hail.
And He Admits It!
AlexC is on publicity and promotion duty for ThreeSources this week and scores a link from Extreme Mortman
AlexC of the great blog threesources.com and legendary Extreme Trivia winner Peter Roff correctly said The Starland Vocal Band Variety show.
Well done. Much better than my bikini-photoshopped entry on Fark.
I'm mildly interested in 70's variety shows. They gave them to *everyone*.
I don't understand why a band with one catchy pop title gets a show.
That's a pretty shaky premise.
Posted by: AlexC at October 18, 2006 2:32 PMOctober 13, 2006
Everything is For Sale
So The Everyday Economist worries when he reads this from AP:
The White Sox will start weeknight home games at 7:11 p.m. as part of a sponsorship deal with the 7-Eleven convenience store chain.
I know this stuff drives people crazy (my guess is that Josh is pretty tongue-in-cheek here) but I am nonplussed. If my beloved Rockies could get a new revenue source (to spend on relief pitching) or could lower ticket prices, why not?
October 5, 2006
Chance
I was going to Photoshop this, but there's a web site, you just type it in.
Damn you! I just wasted 30 minutes playing with that page!
;-)
Posted by: TrekMedic251 at October 5, 2006 9:59 PMSeptember 27, 2006
Bill CLinton targets Santa
Brit Hume closed his show last night with this video from the Tonight Show. Funny stuff.
September 22, 2006
Chavez: Buy Berkeley Square CD!
 |
Venezuelan collectivist Higo Chavez made headlines at the U.N. for calling President Bush "el Diablo." That's noteworthy, but caused people to miss his message.
At the start of his talk Wednesday, during which Chavez referred to President Bush as "the devil," Chavez held up a jazz CD by Berkeley Square "A Nightingale Sang" and recommended it to everyone in the General Assembly, as well as to the American people. Well, actually it was a Noam Chomsky book, but Donald Luskin notes that the endorsement put the book in Amazon's Top Ten. The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid. Top ten, huh? I wonder how much he charges for such an endorsement? Hat-tip: The Everyday Economist
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I'm guessing because The Dixie Chicks would have been too obvious??
Posted by: TrekMedic251 at September 23, 2006 9:55 PMCrimeny! I had this CD on my Christmas wish list until this. There must be some sort of subiminimable messaging in there or something. I hope none of my family members already bought it before I could wipe it off the face of my list!
Posted by: johngalt at September 24, 2006 11:04 AMYeah, I wouild get the backlash...
Posted by: jk at September 24, 2006 3:43 PMSeptember 18, 2006
The Bloggers Burden
Frequent ThreeSources commenter and fellow Philly area co-blogger Trek Medic has saddled me with another one of those internet memes.
In the spirit of blogger cameraderie, I will bare my soul to you all.
Were you born before the end of the first Gulf war?
Yes. 1977 was a good year.... for polyester, chest hair, ostentatious gold necklaces, and white-fros.
Childhood nickname?
"Al", I suppose. That's when I wasn't being addressed by my friends as any assorted profanity. Neither was my choice.
Historical person you have the biggest crush on?
Odd question. A crush?
Ok.. but any of the classic babes of yesteryear. Ingrid Bergman, Jayne Mansfield, even Marilyn. All babes. Crush worthy.
How about admire? Moses. Jesus. Ben Franklin. Ronald Reagan. (chronological order)
Favorite type of candy?
Goldenberg's Peanut Chews. Before they changed their whole product "gestalt."
Favorite foreign country?
Lately I've been digging Australia. Probably one of America's best friends, ever.
Fish or chicken?
Fish, always.
Do you have your own perfume line?
Sometimes after a hearty meal.
Have you ever written a children's book?
Yes, I have. In 9th grade. ... and one more recently.
It was posted here at ThreeSources!
It's a childrens book about government.
Have you been in a movie based on a book?
Yes. 9th grade (again). Homer's Odyssey. (It was a contemporary adaptation) Once And Future King... we did the might makes right scene. Did it for a slam-dunk extra credit points. It was done so well we didn't get any extra-credit for our effort. ...and a book about Theseus and the Minotaur whose name escapes me. Nothing quite says 9th grade dork English project like standing around in the woods with your friends taping a movie. Those degenerated into impromptu bonfires in the woods. Except for the Odyssey. Because we taped it at the house of a "cool" girl, and setting something on fire there would have been uncool.
Ever posed nude for a photo?
No. But sometimes I wonder if hotel showers have cameras.
Guiltiest pleasure?
My soul weighs heavy because of many things.
Your best nonguilty pleasure, then?
Reading "classic" good books.
What are you allergic to?
Freshly cut grass. I can't even think about it without watery eyes. It makes mowing the lawn a nightmare.
Worst pickup line you've heard?
"I just vomited, can you kiss me to see if I still have the taste in my mouth?"
I heard it senior year in High School. Yes, it worked. No, it wasn't me.
Were you bar mitzvahed?
No. But I've played "coke & pepsi" a number of times.
Have you ever cried during a TV interview?
Not to my recollection. Reagan's funeral was the last thing on TV I cried to.
If they made a movie of your life, who would play you?
It'd be a pretty boring movie. I'd be more interested in who'd actually watch it.
Pet peeve?
People on cell phones in cars. Cell phones in general. Crackberry close second.
If you weren't doing what you do, what job would you like to have?
Political consultant. I've been digging around some campaign finance reports. It pays nicely.
Place you will never be found?
MoveOn.org meeting.
Like a dog marking his territory, I'm going to add a question.
Why did you participate in this tagging?
The peer pressure was staggering.
I guess now I have to tag someone.
I'll share the pain with JK and JohnGalt, also of ThreeSources, Mark AND Blonde Sagacity.
Were you born before the end of the first Gulf war?
I was born before the Vietnam war, thanks for asking.
Childhood nickname?
None. You don't have to shorten John. I got jk from work in my late teens and kept it as a stage name and blog d'plume.
Historical person you have the biggest crush on?
Also question crush. FA Hayek is my spiritual and intellectual godfather, but the relationship is strictly professional.
Favorite type of candy?
Choc covered espresso beans.
Favorite foreign country?
Australia is a great ally. My work used to bring me to Ireland and I am quite taken with it.
Fish or chicken?
Fish.
Do you have your own perfume line?
Not since I no longer play hockey.
Have you ever written a children's book?
Nope.
Have you been in a movie based on a book?
World's worst actor. Keep me behind the camera at all times.
Ever posed nude for a photo?
Nope.
Guiltiest pleasure?
Shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die. ...no I don't have guilt, I'm a carrier.
Your best nonguilty pleasure, then?
Live music, either side of the proscenium .
What are you allergic to?
Used to be nothing, now I have hay fever in the late summer.
Worst pickup line you've heard?
Knock Knock. (who's there?)
Emerson {Emerson who?)
Emerson beautiful [notable body part]s you have.
Were you bar mitzvahed?
Oy. no.
Have you ever cried during a TV interview?
I think Romo closed that genre.
last thing on TV I cried to.
9/11 recollections.
If they made a movie of your life, who would play you?
Hugh Laurie.
Pet peeve?
People who don't respect your time.
If you weren't doing what you do, what job would you like to have?
Lawyer.
Place you will never be found?
"The Knack" reunion concert.
I'll answer only the ones without null answers:
Were you born before the end of the first Gulf war?
Yes, but who wasn't? The damn thing still hasn't ended!
Childhood nickname?
Flash (because I did everything slow and methodically in wood shop.)
Historical person you have the biggest crush on?
A very, very young Ayn Rand.
Favorite type of candy?
Callard & Bowser's 'Treacle Brittle' (thanks mom!)
Favorite foreign country?
Deutschland
Fish or chicken?
Fish. Oh, you mean to EAT? Chicken.
Do you have your own perfume line?
I would if I could bottle it. I'd call it "Achievement."
Have you ever written a children's book?
Wrote a short story as an english class assignment. I found it great fun and would love to write an entire book. One day...
Have you ever been in a movie based on a book?
Only if there was a book called "Skateboard Jungle" with a handful of long-haired punk kids doing tricks in the backyard and filmed in Super8.
Guiltiest pleasure?
Bacon. Other than this, I have no guilt.
Your best nonguilty pleasure?
Fine single malt scotch while stargazing from the hot tub.
What are you allergic to?
Collectivists
Worst pickup line you've heard?
"Ever posed nude for a photo?"
Were you bar mitzvahed?
No, I'm an engineer not a lawyer.
Have you ever cried during a TV interview?
Someone else's interview, right? Sure. Can't remember the last time though.
If they made a movie of your life, who would play you?
Clint Eastwood. He'd have to wear platforms though, and be made up to look tougher.
Pet peeve?
Chain letters.
If you weren't doing what you do, what job would you like to have?
President of the United States. Wanna win the war on terrorists? Swear me in.
Place you will never be found?
San Francisco during a "Smug Alert."
Why did you participate in this tagging?
Because it was Alex's idea and I'm worried that he doesn't like me. :P Sorry though, I'm going to break the chain.
The Left's Breeding Problem
- "Liberals have got a big 'baby problem,' and it risks being the death of them," contends Arthur Brooks, professor at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Public Affairs. He reckons that unless something gives, Democratic politicians in the future may not have many babies to kiss.
"When secular-minded Americans decide to have few, or no, children, they unwittingly give a strong evolutionary advantage to the other side of the culture divide," writes Phillip Longman, senior fellow at the New America Foundation. "If 'Metros' don't start having more children, America's future is 'Retro.' "
James Taranto calls part of it "the Roe effect"... Democrats are slowly aborting themselves to smaller numbers, but also factored in are other considerations. Urban liberals vs suburban/rural conservatives and the cost of space.
Religion also makes an appearance as well as this..
- Liberal women are statistically more likely to delay childbirth into later years than are conservative women, and they may also be more open to abortion, although the data is unclear. Gays and lesbians, who vote Democratic by a roughly 4-1 ratio, are much less likely to have children than heterosexuals.
No! How much less likely?
Finally, there's this.... and it sounds like natural selection at work.
- some on the left advocate fewer children as "socially responsible" to lessen the toll on the planet's finite resources.
Darwin would be proud.
Perhaps Marc Steyn is right. Demographics is destiny.... and the Democrats demographics are on the downturn.
On this note, for any of you that have not heard the news, we are working on producing our second little girl, due in January. BWA-HA-HA-HA. Lots of little objectivists running around.
Our first, the pre two-year-old, is busy developing an appropriate acquisitiveness. She clearly states, “Mine, go away.” She does a pretty good job with, “touchdown,” too if only the Broncos could score any. Also, what the heck happened to the Eagles yesterday AlexC?
Mazel tov!
Posted by: jk at September 19, 2006 10:23 AMI know you guys are not big on the P-man, but do you ever worry about Plato's "Generation of Opposities:" your children rebelling and looking leftward?
Posted by: jk at September 19, 2006 10:28 AMI've thought about it and I can't imagine what could cause our children to be different than us. We're going to teach them how to think critically, which empowers them, and impose reasonable limits on their freedoms, which gives them security. We won't ask them to believe anything is so because "we (or anyone else) said so" and we won't ever let them believe that life is fair.
In short, we'll teach them how to live happy lives and they won't need pot or hippies or rebellion to search for some kind of false happiness.
To be precise, if our children were to swing opposite of us it would not be to the left, but toward irrationality and collectivism. (That happens to be what the left is right now, but that can change. Our underlying principles will not.) When they find that these things get them nowhere at home, I doubt they'll give them a try when they leave the nest either. And if they do, they'll find those things still get them nowhere, or at least, nowhere they'll want to be.
Posted by: johngalt at September 20, 2006 7:53 PMSeptember 12, 2006
The One & Only Lileks
I dislike most TV, most modern music, and most movies, but love the big messy hot throbbing blob of Western pop culture, partly because I connect with part of it like a dog biting on a live wire, and partly because the loud rude crass mess spells freedom, and that is the root word at the heart of the American experiment. We can always learn ! from others, but they’ve much to learn from us. Unless they have a 200+ year track record of expanding rights and unimaginable prosperity as well.
So young James enumerates the contradictions that would make an all-political site under his direction bad. Sorry, I am not convinced!
September 6, 2006
Boorish Benefit
I consider myself a courteous driver. I let people in, keep my composure in almost every situation, and try not to be an ass****.
Yet, like much of life, there are times when attempts at kindness have unintended consequences. I have long felt that one of these was "left lane closed in 2000 feet." The nice guy thing to do is to merge right, the ahem thing to do is to wait until the lane ends, then force yourself into the stream of good decent folk who merged early.
Attila at Pillage Idiot takes this on in Highway game theory.
My question is: Assume you have to comply with all traffic laws. You're on a highway with four lanes in each direction, and traffic is fairly heavy. You see a sign telling you that the two left lanes will be closed in 2000 feet. What's your best strategy to minimize the time you will be delayed? (Using the shoulder isn't a legal answer, because the traffic laws don't permit it.)Let's call the four lanes 1, 2, 3, and 4, from left to right, where 1 and 2 are the left lanes that are going to be closed, and 3 and 4 are the two right lanes. Which lane or lanes do you drive in?
In spite of doing some time in Mathematics and the AI industry, my game theory is weak. My economics is slightly less weak.
The lane is a scarce resource, by merging early, you are increasing the scarcity -- why not use all 2000 feet? More significant still, all that early merging creates 2000 feet of stoppage. At the end of the lane, there is a natural merge point where everyone can choose the same spot.
Attila claims empirical evidence that it works best for the driver (he uses the nicer work jerk). I claim it's fairer and ultimately faster for everyone.
Objections?
What I didn't mention is that efficiency is improved even more if, when you see that "lane closed" sign, you move into the lane that's going to be closed -- and use it until the last minute. I say "efficiency" because it seems more like jerk-itude. But I've tried it, and it works.
By the way, thanks for the economic analysis. Now I don't have to feel like such a jerk. I'm avoiding the use of scarce resources.
Posted by: Attila (Pillage Idiot) at September 6, 2006 3:30 PMWhen you need a buzzword, man, I'm there.
You East Coast guys can move into the empty lane -- that will get you some severe disapprobation in a square state.
Posted by: jk at September 6, 2006 4:14 PMMathematics, artificial intelligence, economics... how about fluid dynamics?
I agree with Attila if the percentage of closed lanes is less than 50%, as in his example. If only 1 lane is closed on a 3 or 4 lane highway, however, the best place to be is... the lane furthest away. Once lane 1 ends, the traffic from lanes 1 and 2 is now squeezed into lane 2. Traffic will be least affected in lane 3 or, if it exists, lane 4 (since some of the traffic in 2 will move to 3 to escape the merging pressure.)
This analysis presumes that traffic is actually flowing at decent speeds. At very low speeds all the lanes move at about the same rate and Attila's solution works because you're passing parked cars (like his off-ramp example). In that case you are maximizing use of a scarce resource, it is true, but you're also increasing risk that you'll have to risk jerkitude when the scarce resource is exhausted.
Speaking of jerkitude, have you ever needed to merge from an on-ramp but another car was right next to you, blocking your merge? I give cars to the left the right-of-way so unless that traffic is clearly slow and I have a long ramp, I wait for them to pass before merging. Most drivers see this and speed up. Not the jerk I saw this morning. He had what I've dubbed "CCAAC" disease. "Cruise-control at any cost." You see these people in the left lane too, shadowing traffic for miles at a time as they barely, excruciatingly, overtake slower traffic. You know, the cruise control can be temporarily overridden by the accelerator for a reason you sanctimonious self-absorbed public nuisances!
Posted by: johngalt at September 7, 2006 3:30 PMAugust 16, 2006
12 Planets
Back in my day, we only had NINE PLANETS! .... and that's how we liked it!
- Astronomers, hold on to your telescopes.
The solar system has 12 planets, not nine.
That's the earthshaking conclusion of an influential international committee, which on Wednesday will recommend a new definition of what qualifies as a planet.
The change is necessary, experts say, because of discoveries in the past decade that have revealed a glut of Pluto-sized bodies beyond the orbit of Pluto - until now considered the furthest planet from the sun.
Kids today, with their iPods and Internet. They don't know what it was like out in the cold, watching Uranus through binoculars in the snow...
Posted by: jk at August 16, 2006 12:35 PMBarefoot and shivering is the only way astronomy should be performed.
Posted by: AlexC at August 16, 2006 1:24 PMThese guys are bozos. Most people can name 3 planets TOTAL. Earth, Mars and Saturn. And that is because Saturn is a car and Mars Needs Women.
Posted by: mdmhvonpa at August 16, 2006 2:24 PMOn a related note, I heard on the radio the other morning that some large percentage of Americans can name the planet that Superman is from while only a much smaller percentage can name the planet closest to the sun in our own solar system.
Are they trying to make it even more difficult on our poor ignorant populace? It must be a Karl Rove plot to damage the egos of minority students.
Posted by: dagny at August 16, 2006 5:07 PMName the planets after famous civil rights leaders! All the children will know the orbital period and distance to the sun of Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and Planet Al Sharpton!
(The sound you hear is jk's last hope of holding electoral office glugging down the toilet of Google cache...)
Posted by: jk at August 16, 2006 6:21 PMAugust 7, 2006
Definitions
Greg Gutfield defines fear from the left
- Fear that you hate the right for the same reason you hate your dad because you know that he is right and that you are a loser and you will always be a loser and that you are sabotaging your life and those of everyone around you because that makes you that angry.
Awesome.
It's a good mix of seriousness and levity... but they're mostly serious. Like the above example.
August 2, 2006
Faith
True enough, but as the information age advances the strength of these pillars is compromised. Even today I suggest that most of these five are severely cracked.
Posted by: johngalt at August 3, 2006 1:35 AMName calling seems pretty robust...
Posted by: jk at August 3, 2006 1:44 PMJuly 31, 2006
Choice
- Author Linda Hirshman is calling stay-at-home mothers a "brain drain." She is even calling for a reproductive strike until men agree to take on more work at home. Hirshman said she believes it is time for a revolution.
"It is time. After 25 years of hearing from nothing but the stay-at-home moms and why it's so wonderful to stay at home, it is time for another message," Hirshman said.
Hirshman said women could only lead flourishing lives if they have a career outside the home.
"My most important message is that women are bearing the full burden of housekeeping as well as childbearing, and that combination makes it very difficult for them to work in the public or larger world," Hirshman said.
...
- Hirshman said she thinks women who stay at home, especially highly educated ones, are not using their capacities fully. She said they should stay on the job and push for change in society.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Linda Hershman is pro-choice. Except when it comes to raising kids.
For the record, my wife is one of those "highly educated" stay at home moms. She wouldn't have it any other way.
If she were pro-life, Channel 10 wouldn't have given her the air time!
Posted by: TrekMedic251 at July 31, 2006 10:16 PMMs. Hirshman gives us a classic example of Pillars 3 and 5 of the liberal faith shown above. Decisions regarding child-rearing should be made by individual mothers, and fathers based on what is best for their individual families. Yet, Ms. Hirshman’s form of thought control insists that all men should do more at home and all women should work outside the home.
For the record, my husband does more dishes and changes more diapers than I do.
The next step is that thought control is enforced via pillar 5, unearned guilt. Those, "highly educated," stay-at-homes, are made to feel guilty that they are not contributing their brains to society’s good. Maybe the cure for cancer won’t be found since the genius woman doctor who would come up with it is at home wiping up baby drool. Hmm, cure for cancer or baby drool? I feel guilty just thinking about it and I do work outside the home. This is a very insidious form of thought control more commonly known as political correctness.
The other side of the coin is perhaps we already missed out on the cure for cancer since the Dr. who would have discovered it dropped out of high school since he was raised by a $10/ hr. day care worker and NOT by his highly intelligent and educated mother. This difference would be even more pronounced if the highly intelligent and educated mothers were not only staying at home but home-schooling.
It’s clearly foolish to try to make these decisions on a general basis, which brings us back to the concept of an individual making her own decisions for her own life, both before AND after the birth of her child.
Posted by: dagny at August 3, 2006 3:50 PMJuly 24, 2006
Goldstein Green-Lighted
Jeff at protein wisdom relates an unusual story:
I don’t what to make of this, but I was out picking up lunch from a small middle eastern restaurant near the university when three men, their faces partially obscured by green and yellow bandanas, launched an orchestrated strike on me using heavy falafel balls and what I think must have been shanklish.I wasn’t seriously injured—one of the falafel balls grazed my shoulder, while the shanklish overshot me and landed on a table to my flank, causing a bit of shawarma to lodge in a toddler’s ear and some tabbouleh juice to blind his mother momentarily—but unfortunately, in the ensuing chaos the three attackers were able to flee the scene on a pair of old, dirt-crusted Vespas.
But the really strange part of all this was that I hadn’t even begun to wipe the fried chick pea detritus off my Fubu madras before a nattily dressed gentleman claiming to be from the State Department slipped me his card and told me that, should I wish to respond to the attack, I’d have roughly ten days to do so.
After that, he said, I would either have to go back to being a Zionist oppressor hated by the vast majority of the world, or else “come up with some of that really funny Jew stuff like Larry David does.”
I've been there. I think it's the first MidEastern restaurant in the Denver area. More importantly, I salute Jeff's right to self-defense. If there's a march or a scotch tasting on his behalf, I'm there.
Back in tha Day
I got on the internets in the fall of 1995, as a young and dumb freshman at Drexel University.
One of these days, my 3 year old daughter will come across this page, and say, "Daddy, in 1996, the internet was LAME!"
... and with a tear in my eye, I'll say to my grown up daughter, "Yes, Veronica. The internet was lame back in the day."
"All I had was a 9600 baud modem and we were glad to have it!"
.... and perhaps some thirty years down the road beyond that day, my grandson will come across that page and say "Grampa, how could use use the interweb back in 1996? It was so ugly!"
"Yes, grandson, it was, but the porn was way easier to find."
But until that day, all I can say, like my parents and their gold / avocado colored 70's era kitchen.... "We didn't know any better."
Have them call "Gramps jk." I was excited to see the (really lame) web pages I had created myself, when the company first went online.
Sadly, mine are too old to register. Their first entry for Spectra Logic is in 1996. I directed this but used a real artist.
http://web.archive.org/web/19961218232019/http://www.spectralogic.com/
(Four ThreeSources have worked for this company. LatteSipper and I work there now.)
No, wait, if you follow the links in you get to my lame stuff. Live Oracle backup at 505GB/hour, btw, was a big deal. We threw a mountain of hardware at the problem to get that figure. Ahh, the glory days.
Posted by: jk at July 24, 2006 10:54 AMAh yes, remember it well. My first impression then was, "Is 'gonna' a real word?"
Posted by: johngalt at July 24, 2006 3:00 PMIt turns up 31 times on ThreeSources and 20 times on Berkeley Square Blog. Obviously a real word.
Posted by: jk at July 24, 2006 4:15 PMJuly 23, 2006
How I learned to love the market.
One of my favorite radio talk show hosts, Michael Medved, is a thief.
But he's changed his ways. Thanks to market based innovations.
After a lifetime of taking hotel soaps and shampoos, a bath product dispenser has changed his life.
- Meanwhile, I’m so struck by the sensible, ingenious nature of the bottle-on-the-wall scheme that I think I’m finally ready to give up my embarrassingly extensive soap and shampoo collection. If anyone wants to buy it in return for a worthy contribution to an institution promoting free-market economics (Heritage Foundation, say, or American Enterprise Institute, or even Cato Institute), I’m ready to sell (on the free market) and to provide you with an exotic, aging, and occasionally elegant collection of personally-sized bathroom supplies. Any takers?
Sad that other people don't see the market's influence in innovation. The example I use is the built-in ZipLock(r) seals that are standard on tortillas and cheese and luncheon meat and now dog treats. No company would bother to use more expensive packaging and do the work of changing -- unless they felt they could sell more.
Posted by: jk at July 24, 2006 10:47 AMJuly 19, 2006
Odd Military Installation
Aren't you glad they didn't model Montgomery County?
Posted by: jk at July 20, 2006 10:18 AMThe only aspect of their model I'm judging is this one...
How bass-ackwards is their military tech that they have to put dirt and cement nearly 1km on a side so they can model something.
Can't they do VR? It's not like there's a city to model. It's all hills.
Damn. They should have just bought MS Flight Simulator.
Posted by: AlexC at July 20, 2006 1:59 PMBeing China, they wouldn't even have to buy it -- they could just copy Pakistan's...
Posted by: jk at July 20, 2006 3:04 PMNaked Man, Stolen Pigeon
SUFFOLK [Virginia] — A naked man clutching a pigeon was arrested over the weekend after beating the bird against a car.Attila at Pillage Idiot notes a story with all the key elements: "a naked man, a stolen bird, flailing, and the police."
Sometimes you have to come to terms with what you accomplish in life. Some people devote their lives to changing the world for the better. Some people start businesses to create products that alter the way in which people live. And then, some people post idiotic stories about naked people.
103" Plasma Screen
Must. Find. Spare. $50,000.
- Matsushita, the world's largest consumer electronics maker, has said it aims to sell 5,000 units of the 103-inch plasma panels per year worldwide, with TV demand counting for a little less than 20 percent of that figure.
Measuring 2.4 metres by 1.4 metres and weighing 215 kg, the 103-inch panel is bigger than a double-sized mattress and almost as heavy as an upright piano.
It would probably through the floor into my basement, but it would be awesome.
Watching those Senate hearings on C-SPAN, close-ups of Senator Kennedy...
Posted by: jk at July 19, 2006 12:26 PMUrp! Teddy close-up? There goes dinner! :)
Posted by: TrekMedic251 at July 19, 2006 10:01 PMJuly 2, 2006
Rick Monday
Amen. We need more Rick Mondays and fewer Amendments.
Posted by: jk at July 3, 2006 9:53 AMA Disconnect
Chris Bowers at the liberal blog, MyDD asks....
- Establishment media? Traditional media? Corporate media? Mainstream media? Top-down media? Something else? Which term do you think best describes the national media in America that is not overtly partisan, but has been sucked into the vortex of the right-wing noise machine? For example, what term best describes CNN and the Washington Post (ostensibly neutral), but not Fox News and the Washington Times (overtly right-wing partisan).
Whew... if the media is right wing, where does that put me?
For the record, my vote is "clueless media."
Definitely "Corporate Media" Chris. The ability to share risk and rewards of enterprise through legal contracts is the root of all evil. Don't ever be afraid to use "Corporate" as a pejorative!
Posted by: jk at July 2, 2006 1:25 PMJuly 1, 2006
Secrets
So if (for whatever reason) you wanted to know where the Vice President's wife shops, what would you do?
1) Stalk her?
2) Hang around the Naval Observatory?
3) Read the New York Times.
It's not a top secret, obviously, but c'mon.
June 29, 2006
Oil Prices Going Down?
Kudlow says we're going to be surprised.
- The Energy Department just announced that crude oil supplies rose 1.4 million barrels to 347.1 million for the week ended June 16. Analysts had been expecting a drawdown, so this news caught them by surprise. More, crude oil supplies in the U.S. are now at their highest levels since May 1998, when oil was trading around $15 a barrel. Add in the fact that Canadian oil inventories are fully stocked, and the more imminent reality is of a sizable oil-price decrease -- not a huge increase.
Recently I interviewed four oil-tanker executives who control a combined 85 percent of the oil coming into the United States. They confirmed market rumors that the amount of oil being stored on large carriers on the high seas is abnormally high. One of the CEOs even predicted the possibility of $40 to $50 oil in the next 6 to 12 months. In another interview, Chevron CEO David O'Reilly suggested that gasoline and energy demands have flattened in the U.S., and may be showing signs of decline.
June 28, 2006
Truth, Justice ...
... and all that stuff.
- Mike Dougherty and Dan Harris, the two credited screenwriters for 'Superman Returns' have changed Superman’s famous motto, "Truth, Justice and the American way", to "Truth Justice and ... all that stuff". Seriously. No, really.
- Dan: "I don't think 'the American way' means what it meant in 1945." Mike: "He's not just for Metropolis and not just for America." Dan: "He's an alien, from Krypton; he has come to Earth to be kind of a savior for this world, not our country . . . And he has no papers." Mike: "What would happen with the immigration laws we have now?" Dan: "I'd like to see someone kick him out!"
Yes, yes, good for you two jackasses. Aren't you just so clever. I bet Stalin and Kim Jung-il couldn't be prouder.
... and there's more.
I was disappointed when I first heard that "..and the American Way" had been expunged. But as a free trader, I have to accept it as a side-effect of exporting American intellectual property to wide international distribution.
It would not be "the American Way" to alienate a potential customer, nicht wahr? N'est ce pas?
Posted by: jk at June 28, 2006 3:54 PMMillions of tired, poor, huddled masses did not risk everything to come to America mid-way through the 20th century because America was the land of "all that stuff." The "American Way" is freedom and opportunity. No other country can claim these as their guiding principles like America can.
Posted by: johngalt at June 28, 2006 4:41 PMWell said jg.
Posted by: jk at June 28, 2006 4:49 PMJune 27, 2006
Defining the Mainstream
I think the size of the mainstream has been determined!
- As another Tapped commenter stated, "I'm no believer in astrology, or in virgin births, transubsantiation, or any number of very mainstream religious beliefs..." And, indeed, belief in astrology is quite mainstream. In 2003, 31% of the population, including 27% of Christians were believers (down from 37% in 1998 with 37% of Christians believing). I'm not entirely sure how to classify astrology, but presumably it falls under the general umbrella of religious/spiritual beliefs.
For an agnostic/atheist like myself lots of religious beliefs sound pretty nutty to me, but as Amy Sullivan keeps telling us we keep losing elections because people like me aren't sufficiently respectful of religious beliefs even though, you know, we generally are. And, now, from left to right, from Tap to TNR to the wingnutosphere, people are falling all over themselves to mock someone who had a perfectly mainstream belief apparently shared by millions and millions of Americans.
In related news, liking George Bush's job performance, might just be mainstream.
- President Bush's approval rating rebounded from its lowest point a month ago and now stands at 38 percent. That is five points higher than it was in May, though still weak enough to cause Republicans to worry about their electoral chances in November.
38% is right in line with 1998's definition of mainstream and way better than contemporary definitions of mainstream.
It's so good to be back in the mainstream again. Despite my disagreement with federal spending lately (really for a while), the line-item veto stuff has brought me back. Let's hope it passes.
That may be the secret of all those mainstream Democrats winning all those elections. In Israel, I'd bet 31% is a plurality.
Posted by: jk at June 27, 2006 3:19 PMJune 26, 2006
Fool Me Once?
If this is true, Rush is done.
- Sources have confirmed to CBS4 News that conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh has been detained at Palm Beach International Airport for the possible possession of illegal prescription drugs Monday evening.
Limbaugh was returning on a flight from the Dominican Republic when officials found the drugs, among them Viagra.
Not sure what Viagra has anything to do with it. Other than a cheapshot.
Maybe he's got a prescription.
It would be odd for him to fly somewhere for the price break.
Update: Move along, nothing to see here.
- While going through routine Customs inspection of luggage at Palm Beach International Airport upon his return from an international trip, Rush Limbaugh was detained by customs agents after they noticed a non-narcotic prescription drug, which had been prescribed by Mr. Limbaugh's treating physician but labeled as being issued to the physician rather than Mr. Limbaugh for privacy purposes. After a brief interview, Mr. Limbaugh was permitted to continue on his journey.
From the looks of things, Rush Limbaugh has little to worry about, saving for local Customs agents looking to make the local media for bringing in a big-fish.