Ok, he did mention North Korea, but he didn't actually provide any content. He said *nothing*, really. He'll babble on about Iraq, but North Korea just gets a "we don't like blackmail!"
God, I really hate this man. It's astounding how out-and-out angry he makes me. I heard something on NPR tonight re: the rock-solid anti-Clinton bloc on the right, and the now-developing anti-Bush bloc in the middle and on the left...I'm not the only one.
Sorry about the continued lack of useful updates - work is insanely busy. But the State of the Union is provoking me. Did Bush just say "Hitlerism"? Seriously? What's wrong with "Nazism"? Or "fascism"?
And he's not going to say anything about North Korea, is he?
I accomplished something amazing yesterday: I made chili. And it came out well. A_____ told me she was having a massive craving for chili - and so I volunteered. She gave me a recipe - a very, very detailed recipe, to make sure I couldn't screw it up. And I didn't! Chili plays to my two real strengths in cooking: browing ground beef, and chopping vegetables - my semester of kitchen prep at Keep co-op back at Oberlin paid off when it comes to cutting an onion without crying. That's about all I got out of that place, but it's something, right? Anwyay - the chili was delicious, A_____ liked it, and there's plenty of leftovers. I'm feeling good about myself. =)
Visit Miguel Octavio's blog, Venezuela, for an authentic view of the Venezuelan crisis.
I'll post the banner, though I'm personally skeptical of both sides of the conflict in Venezuela. Sure, Chavez is a power-mad wanna-be Castro whose economic policies haven't really worked, but whenever I hear an interview with a representative from the opposition, it's someone with connections to oil corporations. That, combined with the Bush support for the failed coup last year (or was it the year before?), keeps me uncertain. Hell, Chavez has far more legitimacy behind his election than Bush. The Venezuelans elected him - doesn't that mean they have to accept the consequences? They can vote him out when the next election comes around. That's how democracy works.
Opposition to Iraq war widens. China joins growing calls against a possible US-led war on Iraq, as ministers from key Middle East states meet to seek a peaceful solution. [BBC News | World | UK Edition]
But here's the thing: does anyone really think this opposition is going to stop the Bush junta? The US' only allies on this seem to be the UK (for now), Australia, Israel, and the new Eastern European NATO members (as if Poland and Lithuania are going to disagree with ANYTHING we say at this point). That's pretty pathetic, really. Polls in the US show a strong third of the country opposes war, period, with a majority of the remainder requiring multilateral UN approval before going to war. One poll shows near 70% in favor of giving the UN inspectors a lot more time. Oh, and Bush's approval ratings? Down to 54% here, which also says 72% believe that Bush needs to show evidence of Iraq having WMDs before war, and 48% think al Qaeda is the greatest threat to the US, as opposed to 24% who think Iraq is.
And I'm afraid NONE of this means anything. Powell got sent out to threaten war, Rumsfeld blew off two of our most important allies, Rice says Iraq is failing to cooperate...and CNN.com's headline is a desperate "US: We have allies on Iraq" in response to the ample evidence to the contrary. It doesn't matter - the Bush junta wants its war. I don't know why, exactly. Oil isn't reason enough. Potential political gain isn't reason enough. National security sure as hell isn't reason enough. Add 'em all together, and I don't even see an argument that can be made, let alone a convincing one. What the hell is going on here? What'll it take to make them see the light and stop?
Bush appoints anti-gay member to AIDS panel.. Bush appoints anti-gay member to AIDS panel. Jerry Thacker runs the Scepter Institute, a Christian Ministry. Their website states that "Both Jerry and his wife, Sue, [are] HIV-positive. How could it be? Jerry and Sue were committed Christians." The L.A. Times notes that Thacker has described homosexuality as a "deathstyle," and describes significant revisions that have been made to the Scepter Institute's website. I wonder if Thacker will be applying for some funds to renovate Scepter's offices, now that he is providing such a valuable social service? [MetaFilter]
...are you freakin' serious?
French outrage at 'old Europe' remarks [BBC World]
See? Well done, Rummy.
Are you kidding me? Germany and France make their opposition to invading Iraq clear, and Rumsfeld just dismisses them as unimportant? Is he nuts?
Oh, and I loved the Rumsfeld quote about NATO - "the center of gravity is shifting to the east." So what, Poland is more important now than France or Germany? Are these people all insane?
No one writes to the tyrants. Despots: Saddam Hussein could join a long line of dictators who have sought a new life in exile. Sarah Left looks at how some of the world's most notorious despots have spent their retirements. [Guardian Unlimited]
It turns out Idi Amin is still alive and kicking in Saudi Arabia. I thought he was dead. Huh. Learn something new every day, I guess.
The Blind Watchmaker ain't so blind after all.. The "Blind Watchmaker" ain't so blind after all. An article in this week's Journal of Theoretical Biology claims that simple chemistry makes the evolution of complex organisms with nervous systems inevitable. Is random Darwinism being replaced by a more sophisticated notion of "directed evolution"? Could this confirm the "intelligent design" theory of Creation? This may have profound consequences for our understanding of how life has come to be on this planet (and others). [MetaFilter]
Uh, could this confirm "intelligent design"? Nope. The only thing that could confirm "ID" would be God coming down and dropping some tablets on our heads. "ID" is Creationism with a less obvious name. "Random Darwinism" is not null and void simply because there might be a predictable outcome. In fact, isn't that the whole premise of Darwinism? That all kinds of attempts will be made to evolve in all kinds of different directions, but only some, the "fittest," will prosper?
A great quote from Teresa Heinz, John Kerry's wife:
``I was sickened by that,'' she said, noting Cleland was a war hero who lost three limbs fighting in the Vietnam War. ``Does he have to lose a fourth limb to be patriotic?''
US 'sure' of Turkish support [BBC World]
Of course, the US government is also 'sure' that al Qaeda is working with Saddam Hussein. At this point, I just take whatever administration officials say and assume that the opposite is true - their pattern of bullshitting and lying has gotten that consistent.
Ok, Radio's being a bitch. It hasn't upstreamed anything since Saturday - TCP/IP error code 10054 and whatnot. I'm going to try quitting/restarting, and then kicking the thing a few times. My network connection has seemed pretty crappy in general, lately, so I think there might be a connection.
EDIT: Ok, it seems to be working now.
I'm about to do something that'll make me fell, well, bad. Not real bad, more dumb than bad. I just now clicked the confirmation button on an order of a CD from Amazon. Amazon UK, that is. The new Alabama 3 (aka A3 in the US) album, Power In The Blood, doesn't seem to have a US distributor - which is a little odd, since they're only the band that does the theme for the most popular cable drama of all time (The Sopranos, silly!) but hey, American record labels have an astonishing history of stupidity.
I love these guys. Exile On Coldharbour Lane is fun evil techno with some of the silliest yet high-quality music I've heard in a long time (especially "Mao Tse Tung" and "U Don't Dance 2 Tekno Anymore," a country rave-up on the subject of, well, techno..). Their second album, La Peste, isn't near as funny, but even darker instead, with the only version of "Hotel California" the world has ever needed. So of course they don't have a US deal. I had to do this before with the new Primal Scream album, though, of course, it proceeded to get a US distributor a couple months later. But I'm impatient. I want my techno-from-guys-who-really-love-the-Rolling-Stones (best possible description for a genre built around Primal Scream and Alabama 3) NOW!
Good for you, Colin Powell. Condi Rice and Rod Paige, the other senior black members of the Bush administration, are happily kow-towing to Bush's anti-affirmative action attack, but Colin Powell has asserted himself by opposing it. Rightfully so.
I have a confession - it's not just work and reading and A_____. It's Metroid Prime, too. The damn game is too addictive for words.
And I just ended up on the Golden Globes for a minute - is it just me, or is it possible to get nominated for Best Actor In A Miniseries or TV Movie without being on HBO? Is this just a function of the fact that HBO is about the only damn place making good TV?
Oh my GOD! Someone just shot Kareem Said!
On Oz, that is. He just got shot. And it looked pretty sure that he died - two bullets in the chest, lots of coughing blood, end of the episode. Damn. Same episode, Beecher got paroled. Big changes. Good stuff. Well, not good - dead Said - but you know what I mean.
Went to a science fiction convention in Boston today. I know, I should've been out protesting, but, honestly, I forgot. I know, I know, it's pathetic. I'm a bad leftist. But anyway.
The trip started out poorly - it was -2 when I woke up, and 3 degrees above 0 when I got moving...which was a little later than planned, so I missed (by 30 seconds) the train from Lowell to Boston. The train would have afforded me an easy ride to the right subway line, just a few stops from where I needed to be. But I missed it. By 30 goddamn seconds. I had to pay my $3.50 for parking up front, too. So I drove off to the end of the Red Line in Cambridge, half an hour away, and took the T in after all. The con...well, it was a sci-fi con. I bought some books, I went to a couple semi-decent panels, I saw a great Eric Bogosian-like performance artist/ranter/anarchist (which, honestly, was worth the price of admission to the whole damned con - really, really good stuff). And I saw a bunch of people who made me feel like I'm part of the American mainstream.
I shouldn't say this kind of thing. It's really quite offensive, I know. But good GOD! It's not just the bad hair and the smelliness, and the desperately exposed bosoms (and yes, I deliberately used the word bosoms there. If you've been to a con, you know why.) - it's the whole image that many con goers present. They're angry that society won't accept them on one level, and terrified of acceptance on another. And a large portion of them have no social skills to speak of. Oy.
More later - must cook now.
Where've you gone, Bucky Dent?
I don't know where he is at the moment, but I suspect a certain person's contract with Bucky &c@#'n Dent stipulates the final destination of Bucky's soul.
--posted by Jim Furtado at 2:06 PM EDT / Discussion (3 Comments) [Clutch Hits]
I'm too young to really hate Bucky. I wasn't even a full year old yet, in fact. But I'm not one of those nutcases who blames Buckner for '86 either - I blame Bob Stanley and Calvin Schiraldi. That was the first night I ever stayed up past midnight, and I've never really recovered.
Today's a very baseball-centric day, isn't it? Hopefully it didn't bore the rest of you. I promise that I'll get back to political rants soon enough - I need to lay out my plans for the Republic of Greater New England for you all soon enough. Maybe during my meeting today...it's a wonderful plan, let me tell you...
Giant squid 'attacks French boat' [BBC Science & Nature]
...retaliation for the Greenpeace incident, maybe?
Is tech eating away at liberties?. Balancing civil liberties with national security has become a difficult juggling act following terrorist attacks, says technology consultant Bill Thompson. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]
Commentators like US journalist Declan McCullagh argue that the law cannot protect us and we should take up the electronic equivalent of arms and fight back against government.
This is a typically American and typically wrong-headed response to the problem.
The solution has to be political and has to involve better law.
Here's the thing: the appropriate way to secure our rights is to follow legal routes, yes. But the problem is that the word 'privacy' isn't actually anywhere in the Constitution. And, in the aftermath of 9/11, I don't see a privacy amendment passing into law any time soon. Until then, we're only protected by favorable readings of the 4th Amendment, more or less. Surveillance issues are, of course, only one facet of the whole movement by the Bush administration towards something that, in a certain light, resembles a police state.
I don't want the Feds reading my emails - I don't want them to listen in my phone conversations if I happen to share a phone with a suspected terrorist - I don't want them to track my purchases and viewing habits. But I could give some ground on these actions, if it weren't for my very rational fear of the Federal government going beyond them. Jose Padilla is being held unconstitutionally by the US government because they think he might know something useful. While it's highly unlikely that they'll decide I might know something, it's certainly not impossible. That's why we have to resist the attempts to push the limits of privacy back - there is a very, very real slippery slope.
Oh, and I don't think I'd say that Declan advocates taking up "the electronic equivalent of arms". That's a far more radical message than Declan and other mainstream thinkers have been conveying. We're not planning to go to war with the government. Rather, we intend to use passive resistance agianst what we consider violations of our most integral constitutional rights. Crypto is not a weapon - it's a shield.
You know what's fun? I mean, real, real fun? Writing your performance review. How am I supposed to do this? As best as I can tell, I'm supposed to come as close to lying as I can without actually crossing the line - make myself look as good as the facts can make me look, while ignoring any failures I've had in the last year. I had real problems with this last year - I was too self-deprecating, basically, and too informal in my writing style. That, and I really hadn't done much of anything in my first year on the job. I wasn't cut out for development, really. This year, at least, I've accomplished quite a bit, but I still feel awkward.
I think the news aggregator in Radio is pissed at me for ignoring it for so long - it doesn't seem to want to be doing my hourly updates. Ungrateful son of a... =)
In response to Frank Galassi's comment re: Dwight Evans' reasons for not being in the Baseball Hall of Fame - I sponsor his stats page at baseball-reference.com -
Yeah, his offensive numbers are reasonably similar to Parker - Dawson's really a later era than him, but the point stands. But when you compare him to his most similar hitters (according to baseball-reference.com), you see that they're either Hall of Famers (Billy Williams, Tony Perez, Al Kaline), fielding non-entities (Chili Davis, Darrell Evans, Harold Baines, Joe Carter, Jim Rice), or Parker and Dawson. Evans and Dawson are reasonably comparable defensively - Evans won 8 Gold Gloves, as did Dawson. Parker won three GGs, but doesn't have the reputation Evans did in the field. Let's take a quick look at the offensive numbers:
Now, you'd think Parker and Dawson would both have significantly better offensive numbers. After all, both of them won MVPs. And Dawson did have 438 homers to Evans' 385, but Parker only had 339. But take a look at their career OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage, the best simple stat for evaluating a hitter): in almost exactly overlapping careers, Parker put up an OPS of .810, while Evans put up an .840. Dawson, whose career started four years after Evans and ended five years after Evans (getting him into the beginning of the '90s offensive explosion) had a career OPS of .806. Even more noteworthy are their OPS+ - based on comparing their park-adjusted OPS to the park-adjusted league OPS for their careers. Dawson has an OPS+ of 119 (100 means league average), Parker 121, Evans 127. Parker's peak year was a 166, Dawson's 157, and Evans' 163. It's worth noting that Parker was erratic - putting together an excellent five year run from '75 through '79 (148, 132, 144, 166, 141), but only once more topping 120 (148 in '85). Dawson tailed off dramatically, posting sub-100 OPS+ for his last four seaons (in only one of which was he a full-time player, too). Evans, on the other hand, put up only one sub-100 OPS+ in his entire career - a part-time season in his rookie year, 1973. From that point on, he only dropped below 110 twice.
Now I'm just babbling stats. Let's just put it this way - Evans, at the least, is offensively worthy of the Hall. He had a long career in which he consistently put up outstanding on base percentages to go with very good slugging. His counting stats aren't that impressive, but his overall performance, especially once his 8 Gold Gloves are thrown into the mix, is truly stellar. He should certainly make the Hall ahead of Parker, who had a great five year run and was never again a great player, and, in my opinion, ahead of Dawson. Of course, I'm a fanboy. =)
Damn, I'm a bad, bad blogger, aren't I? That's, what, 11 days without anything? Well, I have no excuse...well, except for my excuses. A_____, even more work (I get to go to a two hour meeting with a bunch of managers at 4pm every day now! Joy!), general laziness...eh, you get it. But I'm gonna try! I'm gonna try again! I can CHANGE! Please don't leave me!
Fun with google: I'm the number one match for a search for "mad axeman of waltham abbey" at google.co.uk. I'm honored. =)
Friday morning, I woke up at 6:20am, to my second alarm. I looked at it, in a haze of barely-consciousness, and thought to myself, "Why is THAT going off? Why am I awake? I'm on vacation!" I then turned the alarm off and went back to bed for another three and a half hours.
Needless to say, I wasn't on vacation any more.
So I tried to go to sleep early Friday and Saturday nights, to wake up at reasonably early hours the following mornings - I was aiming at 9am. Well, Friday night, I fell asleep at 2am, which was pretty much as counter-productive as I could get...waking up at 11am didn't help. Saturday night, I fell asleep at a more reasonable 12:30am or so, and woke up at a marginally acceptable 10am. Ok, I'm thinking, I'll watch the new episode of Oz at 9 tonight, then go to bed. I made it to bed by 11...though I didn't fall asleep 'til closer to 12:30.
And then I woke up.
At 4:30am.
Argh.
Didn't bother trying to fall back asleep - my alarms were set for 6, 6:30, and 7, respectively, so if I *did* fall asleep, I'd've gotten MAYBE an hour and fifteen minutes of sleep, unless I turned off the alarms or otherwise overslept...which would be completely counterproductive anyway. So I've been up for about three hours, reading about the history of the Israeli-Arab conflict. Ah well - at least I'll get to work early.
Here's something strange: I'm watching TV and I see a commercial for a correspondence course for high school diplomas. What seems weird about this is that I'm watching a show about the fall of the Byzantine Empire on the Discovery Civilization channel. I tend to doubt that many, if any, over-18 non-high school graduates are actually watching this. I think they may have missed their target demographic.
Two hurt by Abbey axeman. An axeman injures two people before causing damage valued at £200,000 in Waltham Abbey. [BBC News | Front Page | UK Edition]
This is just strange - a guy going on a rampage with an axe? In a church? Huh?
Wonderful...it's snowing like mad out. Sometimes, I hate winter.
Ah well...off to go grocery shopping. Of course, I forgot to do this LAST night, before the "Oh no! It's snowing!" mob descended. Now it'll take me forever to park, check out, etc...but I need food. Argh.
A Sect Shuns Lettuce and Gives the Devil His Due. It proves tricky to extract a straight answer from the Yazidis, who are ethnically Kurds, when it comes to what, exactly, defines their sect. By Neil Macfarquhar. [New York Times: International]
In summary: Northern Iraq is a weird, weird place, with lots of weird, weird microcultures. Good reading.
President To Seek Dividend Tax Cut [Washington Post: Front Page]
...because it's not like we're DEFICIT SPENDING ALREADY or anything...
From the comments to a post I made yesterday, linking to an article at the American Prospect on the lack of Democratic women candidates for president:
Good article at Prospect, thanks. One female Dem I'd like to see run for POTUS is Jennifer Granholm, new governor of Michigan -- but she was born in Canada, can't run for Prez. Damn shame.
That's from your friend and mine, Rayne, by the way. But it reminds me: we really should just hurry up and annex Canada. It'd move the US to the left...while Canada isn't Sweden, it's definitely not Christian Coalition country. Sure, there's the nutty conservatives in the prairie provinces, but they're much less significant than British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes. Plus, Granholm could then run for president. =)
In an article at Salon today on the radical religious right's power in Washington today (sorry, it's Salon Premium - go subscribe! Good reading!), there's a reference to Jerry Falwell's presidential expectations for the next two elections: George W. re-elected in 2004...and then Jeb Bush elected in 2008. Gah. That's so repulsive it's not even funny. The whole article made me feel sick - these nutcases have hijacked the agenda to the point where I honestly don't expect Roe v. Wade to still be on the books within a couple years - but the idea of electing ANOTHER Bush is just terrifying. This is supposed to be a democracy, right?
Someone PLEASE get McCain to switch parties and run for president. I'm afraid that he may be our only hope for getting the Bush Junta out of office...
Shaqzilla dethroned.. Shaqzilla dethroned. Shaquille O'Neal, who warned Chinese citizen & #1 draft pick Yao Ming to "Look Out, Shaqzilla is coming" (presumably unaware that Tokyo is not part of China), has been dethroned; currently in fan balloting, he is running a distant second to the rookie for starting center in the All Star game. Even though his numbers are effectively double those of Yao's, even though he's a three time NBA Finals MVP. [MetaFilter]
Haha! Screw you, Shaq!
...why do I feel like it's Tuesday? I haven't been to work since a week ago Tuesday...I could see it feeling like Monday, for that reason, but Tuesday? Unless my brain is somehow adjusting to the knowledge that I don't have a full work-week ahead of me, but can't quite grasp that it's even shorter than if today were Tuesday.
I just keep feeling like 24's going to be on tonight. And it isn't.
John Edwards announces presidential candidacy [The Smirking Chimp]
...to much national attention that will not be accompanied by any, y'know, votes. C'mon - he's going to lose re-election to the Senate in 2004...there's no way he's going to win the nomination.
Speaking of Democrat candidates for 2004, check out this article at The American Prospect Online asking why we don't have any women running...
Funny - the Salon Premium Headlines RSS feed seems to have barfed on the whole New Year thing...it's giving me the new articles as of a year ago. Hey, I meant to read that article about Ion Storm back then and forgot...cool. =)
Perv Priest Will Spill Boston Beans. New York Post Jan 2 2003 10:44AM ET [Moreover - Boston news]
How can you not love the Post's headlines? Concise and descriptive. Not neccessarily ACCURATE, but who wants THAT anyway?
Happy New Year. And stuff.
Yeah, it's been a while - I decided to not spend much time on the computer during my 8 days away from work...which meant not blogging, since that would have consumed a lot of my free time. So, after getting back to work (argh!), I'm back to blogging. More will come later today - I'm going to wade through some of the aggregator - and I'll try to be more regualr in my writing for a while. =)
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