Mental Meanderings

How to answer a pollster

2008-08-07T07:14:00.000-07:00

In the Chronicle of Higher Education, Dan Greenberg has a profound suggestion of how to respond to political pollsters. Namely, LIE! He suggests that polls are so consistently inaccurate that a little push, namely dishonest respondents, could just kill them off all together.

So, whenever a pollster calls, tell them you are voting for Bob Barr. Really screw up the system. Make it a game, see if you can dumbfound the dithering heads on the TV. It could be fun.

Skip Carey RIP

2008-08-03T20:07:00.000-07:00

It was announced that Skip Carey, the voice of the Atlanta Braves for all of my formative years, passed away today. For practically all of my life watching the Braves and listening to Skip and Pete Van Wieren and for many years Ernie Johnson Sr. was a daily experience between April and September. Back then, the Braves were so bad that it was truly comical.

That Skip and the rest of the gang have never been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame is a travesty and a sign of how the baseball establishment is so dominated by the annoying teams in New York and Boston.

Skip will be missed. The crews today are so inferior and yet it is all we have left.

Life and death of external harddrives

2008-08-01T13:13:00.000-07:00

I have a Cavalry external hard drive that I had been using as my data backup which just inexplicably up and died last week. Very Annoying.

I was unsure what I would do to replace it but now I may have my answer. Thanks to Popular Mechanics which is one of the coolest outfits around.

It is a sad, sad day.

2008-03-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

We should all now mourn. Will this kind of genius ever be found again?

Thought Leaders Unite

2008-03-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

Simplicity

2008-03-18T15:30:00.000-07:00

This is far to true.

Congressional spending

2008-03-12T08:49:00.000-07:00

I saw part of a speech by Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn on C-Span 2 last evening in which he decried wasteful government spending, rampant fraud and abuse in government programs, and earmarks writ large. An interesting speech, the text of which is available via Thomas at the link above. Coburn is many things and not all of them positive, but he is a man of conviction and seems truly dedicated to cutting government spending.

Voting

2008-03-11T18:37:00.000-07:00

The Mississippi primary was today and I cast my vote in a way I would not have considered three months ago. I voted for Barak Obama, not as a protest vote against Hillary Clinton, but rather in a serious vote for him. The Republicans have some messed up so badly over the last eight years that I am more disgusted with them than anything else. While I disagree with Obama on most issues, I think he might actually be able to find a way out of the never ending death match that the Bushes and Clintons, abetted by the ideologues on both sides, have trapped us in for the past two decades.

Some things should not be eaten.

2008-03-10T13:51:00.000-07:00

And Bacon Ice Cream is one of them.

We all live in Gary Gygax's world

2008-03-10T13:41:00.000-07:00

In the New York Times. Adam Rogers, editor of Wired Magazine, writes that today's world was created by Gygax and the Geeks who played Dungeons and Dragons, of which I was proudly one, opened the door for the modern interconnected world of today. That Facebook and MySpace and derivative of the early gaming communities that focused of Gygax's work as well as those that copied him. This makes the passing a a great man a little easier to bear.

If only we could

2008-02-08T06:54:00.000-08:00

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2008/02/08/

Librarian video

2008-02-07T11:26:00.001-08:00

This rules

Tin Man

2007-12-05T13:02:00.000-08:00

I have enjoyed watching the SciFi Network's mini-series Tin Man. It's connection to the Wizard of Oz and clear and yet somewhat tenuous. It has been so long since I read the books by L. Frank Baum that I simply do not remember if Dorothy ever returned to OZ as this production clearly intimates. All of the original pieces are present, if slightly altered in their functionality and presence, and there were distinct similarities in plot to the original movie. That being said, no one dropped a house on anyone and the wicked witch was really something of a poser in the end. The flying monkeys were cool and having them stored in the witch's bosom was a neat visual effect.
Neal McDonough is an under rated actor who brings something interesting to whatever he is in, even if a vast majority of his work is in less than stellar productions (can anyone say Walking Tall).

It was worth watching and it is something that I will probably watch again.

Non Fru-Fru Food Snobery

2007-12-03T08:45:00.000-08:00

http://www.seriouseats.com/required_eating/2007/12/serious-eats-reverse-food-snob-quiz.html

I am sort of a reverse food snob but I don't take it to extremes.

Candidate Calculator

2007-11-29T15:29:00.000-08:00

How to determine if you are voting for who you should be voting for.

http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html

Put in you positions on the top issues of the day with their importance and it will match you to a candidate(s). Interestingly enough, my top guy is Mike Huckabee and the calculator said he was the best match so I must be very self aware or just dang lucky.

Arrogant Worms - Carrot Juice is Murder

2007-11-05T07:15:00.001-08:00

The video for one of my favorite songs of all time.

Enjoy.

2007-09-14T06:32:00.000-07:00

I have not posted much lately mostly because this is A. the beginning of the school year and life gets rather hectic around now and B. I just found out that I have diabetes and thus have become the petri dish for a number of medical professionals.

However there is an article in Inside Higher Ed today that once again reminds me that far to many people put their brains in neutral once they are appointed to the Federal Court System. Article, entitled Big Loss for Fraternities, explains how the U.S. Appeal Court in New York (the Second Circuit) overturned the district courts decision that the College of Staten Island could not refuse to recognize a fraternity because it did not admit women. Under this ruling no gender exclusive social organization can exist on a college campus.

I was not a member of a fraternity in college, and actually, spent a great deal of time mocking those who were. That being said, they had every right to associate with those that they wished to associate with. And they still do. Hopefully the Supreme Court will inform the Court of Appeals that they should pull their heads out of their butts. This is the type of ruling that one would expect from the Ninth Circuit which is filled with utter nutjobs but it is said that this type of insanity seems to be infectious.

Cool Toy

2007-08-30T14:45:00.000-07:00

I want one of THESE too!

Michael Vick

2007-08-27T14:55:00.000-07:00

There have been many comments. Big Dogs, a clothing company that specializes in T-Shirts with images that often have a dog theme (obviously from the name) have two new ones for Vick. I have posted them here. I doubt they will mind.

Baseball Trip Day Seven

2007-08-13T10:27:00.000-07:00

After six days of minor league baseball, we decided to finish the trip in the majors. We took off for Atlanta and a 1:00 meeting with the Colorado Rockies. Chuck James started though it seemed that he really liked tie scores because every time the Braves scored a run he would give up one to the Rockies. The game was 5-5 at the end of the ninth and after Winston-Salem's collapse the night before I hoping for a different outcome for the home team. Luckily Escobar drove in the winning run in the 10th. A great finish to a great week.

Baseball Trip Day Six

2007-08-11T08:42:00.000-07:00

Day six was an easy day. The drive from Durham to Winston-Salem was only a couple of hours and the stadium was fairly easy to find. We actually had enough time to kill in W-S that we went and saw the Bourne Ultimatum that afternoon. When we got to the stadium though our good karma from the cheap tickets early in the week came back to bite us. It was Christian Concert night and all tickets were $12 which was by far the most expensive seats we had seen all week.

The game between the Winston-Salem Warthogs and the Potomac Nationals was actually a good game. It was not necessarily well played as there were a number of errors, mistakes, wild pitches, etc. Both catchers were about to kill members of their pitching staffs by the end of the game. The score was close all the way through and we got extra innings with a 5-5 tie. This lasted till the top of the twelfth when the Warthogs imploded and gave up 9 runs. The game ended with a 14-5 National win.

The stadium was attractive but had less leg room than any stadium we had seen all week. It was rather uncomfortable. See the knee photo below. We are jammed in there.

Baseball Trip Day Five

2007-08-10T23:12:00.000-07:00

Day five had leaving Columbia and heading north for Durham, NC to see the Bulls (made famous in the movie Bull Durham) play. First can our bout of excitement followed by a quest.

Just north of Kannapolis, NC on I-85 while traveling in heavy traffic at a fairly high rate of speed the left rear tire on my car exploded. I suspect that I hit some debris of some kind that damaged the tire but have no idea what it could have been. There was a very short period of high adrenaline until I successfully pulled the car off the roadway onto the median (being in the left lane this was easier than the shoulder). The tire was shredded and the tread was off the tire completely and wrapped around the axle. We did not take any photos but kind of wish we had now. Changing the tire was straight forward and we were able to continue to travel but since the spare is a dough nut, I knew that I needed a new tire right away. The next town north along I-85 was China Grove. There were two local tire shops in the town. The first did not have a functioning air compressor, seemingly a necessity for a tire shop, and the other did not have a tire to fit my car. Now I drive a Mercury Sable which is functionally identical to the Ford Taurus which was the move commonly sold vehicle during the 90's. There are thousands upon thousands of these cars on the road, but now tires. Feeling somewhat frustrated at the lack of success at our first two attempts, we stopped at an Auto Zone (which do not sell tires) for directions to some where that we could get a tire. Directions were given, though they were ultimately unsuccessful as I never saw the shop they directed me to. We did drive down a highway towards Kannapolis and Concord in our search for a tire. We did see a Meineke tire shop and stopped there thinking that for sure a national chain store like that would have what we needed, only to be disappointed once again. We were able to get directions to another shop called Tire King that in the end did have a wide variety of tires in the correct size and it was able to replace my destroyed tire and get us back on the Interstate in less than an hour. All in all though, the quest for the tire took about 2 and one half hours and a fair amount of frustration before success was achieved.

Then it was on to Durham for more baseball. We once again were ready for AAA baseball. I did order seats ahead of time for this game worrying that a Friday night game might sell out. We had seats three rows off the field down the left field line. It was a little different view than what we had had in all the other games. The game itself was not very exciting as the Bulls destroyed the Clippers 11 to 2. There was one very exciting moment though. With men on first and second one of the Clippers players was seemingly hit by a pitch and went down hard. He laid on the ground for several minutes while the trainers came out to check him over. The two runners on base moved up to second and third. All seemed clear until the batter stoop up, at which point the home plate umpire announced that the ball had hit the bat before it struck the batter and thus is was a foul ball. The batter went ape shit and tried to physically attack the umpire. Several of his coaches and team mates had to carry him from the field. Needless to say the Clippers Manager was also ejected as he spent several minutes discussing a number of topics with the umpire that I am sure included his eyesight, mental acuity and parentage in addition to the merits of the call. In the end the umpire won the argument, as they always do, but it was interesting for a few moments there.

Baseball Trip Day Four

2007-08-09T20:10:00.000-07:00

Day Four was the Charlotte Knights and the Toledo Mud Hens, but first it was barbecue to die for. We had lunch at Little Pigs Barbecue. This was buffet with several types of pulled pork, wet and dry ribs, baked and barbecued chicken and a vast array of vegetables and salads. Not to mention the banana pudding for dessert. A lovely way to spend an hour or two. Check their times before going, they are open odd hours.

The Knights and Mud Hens are both AAA teams which is significantly better than any of the teams we had seen up till now. Interestingly, while the quality of the play went up with the talent and experience of the players, the quality of the games did not necessarily go up as well. The lower level teams still produced good games because the talent was equally divided. For you baseball fans, go see your local minor league team, even if they are part of a hated major league system, after all most of the players on an A team will never make it to the majors and if they do it will probably be for some other team anyway.

The Knights have a dragon as their mascot for some reason and it was a pretty good mascot. One of the promotions we saw at every stadium was a race around the bases between the mascot and some young person. In Columbia, the players were clearly uncomfortable with this intrusion into their space. In Charlotte, each of the infielders impeded the mascot in some with the first baseman actually tripping him helping the child with his or her inevitable win. (The mascot always loses)

The Knights had a better mascot than team. The Mud Hens won 5-4 and the game was really not close till the very end when the Knights scored 3 in the ninth to make it interesting. They were 11 games out in their division at the time.

Baseball Trip Day Three

2007-08-09T19:52:00.000-07:00

Day Three brought us to Columbia South Carolina to see the Blowfish face the New Bern River Rats. These teams are only kind of professional. The players are actually college players in a summer league designed to give them more experience. These teams are members of the Coastal Plain League. The league has teams in South and North Carolina and southern Virginia. The other change was that our sister who lives in Columbia joined us for this game the one on Day Four in Charlotte. It was only fair to take her to the games with us since we slept at her house for these two nights.

The game itself was not very good as Columbia blew New Bern out 14-4 with a 10 run second inning that included a grand slam home run.

I want one.

2007-08-08T14:01:00.000-07:00

Back to the baseball trip soon, but first, I want one of THESE!!!!

I do not know what I would do with it. But I want it.

Baseball Trip Day Two

2007-08-07T18:43:00.000-07:00

Day was scheduled to be in Charleston. We were hoping for better weather after Monday's rain out. Fortunately for the whole trip, Charleston had been rained out on Monday as well so there would be a double header on Tuesday. The Charleston Riverdogs were going to play two with the Hickory Crawdads.

As we drove into Charleston we passed in front of the building where the nine firefighters were killed. There was a large memorial out front of what was left of the building. It was a rather somber sight.

We had plenty of time before the game and so went into the historic district and went through a large flea market. One of the remarkable things were the large number of booths with identical Saw grass baskets. Clearly someone has developed some designs and taught some low-income people to make baskets as a way to make a living. There were some really nice examples but they were hideously expensive so I passed. We also saw a couple of nice galleries including one that was a co-op for craft artists that had some very nice pottery and stained glass pieces. We also went to the waterfront and looked across the river at the USS Yorktown. We passed on going through the aquarium but it did look nice from the outside.

At the stadium, we were pleased with another promotion with Two for Tuesday which once again gave us $2 tickets. Karma would pay us back for this at the end of the week but it was nice while it lasted.

There was a short rain shower just before the game was scheduled to start but in the end there was very little delay. Hickory defeated Charleston handily in both games. One of the interesting things here was that the stadium announcer was mobile and we could see him moving around and making announcements from where ever in the stadium he happened to be. Charley the Riverdog was just the first of many interesting mascots that we enjoyed during the week.

Baseball Trip Day One

2007-08-07T16:39:00.000-07:00

We started our baseball trip in Savannah with a game between the Sand Gnats and the Greensboro Grasshoppers. We went down early and wandered through City Market spending a fair amount of time in the art galleries. This is an area that has finally become what the developers said it would be, namely a center for local artists and the arts. There was a very lovely painting of the Tybee Lighthouse from the beach rather than the more typical view from the river that was very appealing. While I thought about acquiring it, the $500 pricetag was enough to dissuade me.

We then went out to Grayson Stadium arriving about an hour before game time and were pleasantly surprised to find a $2 promotion which meant that GA tickets, hotdogs and sodas (as well as beer) were $2 each. We went in got something to eat and got settled in some really nice seats behind home plate, as there are advantages to getting there early, and then it started to rain. It looked like a traditional afternoon shower and the stadium personnel seemed confidant that it would stop and there would be a game. They even got so far as having the tarp about half-way off when the rain intensified and that was the end of that. Not an auspicious start but a start all the same.

Baseball trip

2007-08-05T19:12:00.000-07:00

With more (far more) detail to follow, I have almost completed my week-long vacation of baseball. All I need to do now is go home. Which I shall do soon. In the past seven days, my brother and I have seen seven games with one rainout and one double header, keeping the numbers even. One one potential catastrophe which led to one of the most abs0urd quests ever. (Don't try to purchase an automobile tire in the greater Concord/Kannapolis/China Grove section of North Carolina.)

when I get home I will assemble my photos and ephemera and provide a more detailed account of the adventure.

More in the next couple of days.

Scary

2007-07-27T11:04:00.001-07:00

Just when I was starting to be a little more comfortable with the world, the Zenpundit has to go and do this to me. Now its not just rogue nations, international terrorist organizations and criminal gangs that we have to worry about, the Superpowered Individual is out to get us as well.

I think I'll take a nap and hope it all goes away.

Politics and the Supreme Court

2007-07-26T17:17:00.000-07:00

An Op-Ed piece in the New York Times by Jean Edward Smith decries the political nature of the decisions of the Roberts Court and suggests that to end the tyranny of the conservatives, additional members should be added to the court as soon as someone trustworthy (i.e. a Democrat) was elected President. While it is true that the number of members of the court has changed over time, nine has been the number since the Grant administration and the only significant attempt to change that was FDR's attempt in 1937 which almost derailed his presidency and was the biggest debacle of his three plus terms.

I am always amazed how the MSM always sneers and scoffs at the conservatives for their ideological positions and never seems to notice that the likes of Stevens and Ginsberg and Souter are just as ideologically driven as Thomas and Scalia and Alito. What made Sandra Day O'Connor and to a lesser extent Anthony Kennedy so significant is that they tend to be less ideological in their decisions. Smith suggests that the recent decisions of the Roberts Court are out of sync with "popular values." What she means is that they are out of sync with her values. Millions of Americans are uncomfortable with the Stevens and Ginsberg's of the court and millions more dislike Thomas and Alito.

Perhaps the liberals elites such as Smith and the editorial staff of the NYT should realize that they are as out of touch with most Americans as they seem to think the Supreme Court is.

Silent Drill Team

2007-07-22T12:15:00.001-07:00

Precision, skill, practice and professionalism. And on top of that just to cool.

Procrastination

2007-07-14T08:55:00.000-07:00

A mathematical proof for procrastinating. Something only a grad student could think of.

Snicker

2007-07-11T15:03:00.000-07:00

Chortle

Doug Marlette RIP

2007-07-10T18:29:00.000-07:00

MSNBC is reporting that Doug Marlette, Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist and the creator of the Kudzu comic strip has died in an automobile accident in rural Mississippi today. I really liked Kudzu, in particular the ongoing church league basketball and softball. He also wrote The Breach which was the best example of southern literature written in the last decade in my opinion. A truly magnificent book that has received far less notice than it deserved.

He will be missed.

Chuckle

2007-07-02T14:02:00.000-07:00

A sense of humor similar to mine.

Useless Departments

2007-06-30T22:30:00.001-07:00

While in DC last week a took a walk through the area surrounding the White House. While on this walk I passed the offices of what had to be the most useless (but needed) department in Federal Service.

They clearly need to start supervising Congress.

Piracy

2007-06-28T07:52:00.000-07:00

One of the traditional roles of the United States Navy was the suppression of piracy and the protection of the trade routes. Until World War One, this was the major job of the navy. Perhaps it is time for it to be reintroduced. The Admiralty will not be excited by this, because this will require fairly small vessels operating singly or in small groups and the huge carriers will have little more than a support role.

There is an interactive map of pirate attacks (successful and not) for this year at the International Maritime Bureau's website. There are a bunch of little red flags.

via Coming Anarchy

Fanboy moment

2007-06-26T19:32:00.000-07:00

I have just returned from the annual meeting of the American Library Association (about which I will post more later) at which I had a major fanboy moment. The Cato Institute had a reception at which P.J. O'Rourke spoke and signed books. I got my picture taken with him as proof. If you have not read O'Rourke, drop everything and do so at once.

Shuttle Launch

2007-06-09T14:08:00.001-07:00

I watch the space shuttle Atlantis take off yesterday afternoon. A space launch is still on the most spectacular events there is. The massive nature of the event is coupled with the hope of discovery and adventure to symbolize what Fredrick Jackson Turner call the frontier theory of American history. He argued that the history of the country centered on identifying and overcoming frontiers. As Gene Rodenberry said, space is the final frontier. I can distinctly remember the first shuttle launch. I skipped school twice to watch it on television. Twice because the first launch was scrubbed and it was rescheduled for a couple of weeks later. Now we only notice the space program if there is a disaster like Challenger or Columbia. The space program is still great adventure and this country should have been investing in it significantly for the past two decades. Instead, our legislators sell their votes to donors and special interests like prostitutes and our future remains unfunded and unconsidered. The shuttle fleet is going to be retired in 2010 and there will not be a replacement until 2013 at the very earliest. Which means that US participation in the International Space Station and all the research that can only be conducted there will be dependent on Russian rockets. I do realize that the Cold War is over but this is pathetic. Tropical forests in Iowa and Bridges to Nowhere are obviously more important than making the scientific and engineering discoveries that will define technology in the next generation. The US Congress should be proud. I know I'm not.

Family and/or Religion

2007-06-08T07:41:00.000-07:00

Something that is regularly taught in my church is that the family and religion are inextricably linked. Mary Eberstadt, writing in Policy Review agrees. In her article "How the West Really Lost God" she takes exception with the notion that increasing secularization has led to the breakdown of the nuclear family and suggests that the contrary is actually true. The breakdown of the family, most prominent in Western Europe, is responsible for the reduction in religious belief and activity found there. She also suggests that those who argue that increased modernity will result in decreased religious activity everywhere based on the European model are incorrect and that Europe is the exception rather than the rule with the rest of the world going in a different direction led by the United States.

An interesting article.

No More Aid

2007-06-07T17:28:00.000-07:00

An interesting interview with James Shikwati, an expert in Kenyan economics, in Der Speigel. He argues that if the West (Europe and the US) really want to alleviate suffering and improve economic conditions in Africa they should stop sending aid. All the aid does is promote a bloated and corrupt bureaucracy created to administer it, and destroy the local economy by undermining local farmers and manufacturers.

Bemused

2007-06-01T07:38:00.000-07:00

I am not sure if this is one of the coolest things out there or just sad.

Chicken fingers are apparently evil

2007-05-30T14:04:00.000-07:00

In the New York Times, David Camp has declared that chicken fingers, as well as their smaller cousin the nugget are possibly end of the civilization as we know it. I guess I should remove them from my diet immediately. Though somehow I doubt I will be successful. I will probably give in to their siren song again one day.

Immigration Policy

2007-05-24T09:52:00.001-07:00

There have been many, many critiques of the immigration bill that John Kyl and Ted Kennedy are trying to foist off on the country. I particularly like Thomas Sowell's. Sowell argues that the bill is not designed to solve the problem of illegal immigration, but is rather designed to solve the politicians problems leaving the real problems to be dealt with by future generations. This is a popular modus operandi for politicians who would always rather be thought to be doing something useful rather actually solving a problem because that might upset someone.

I have a very simple solution to illegal immigration. Fine every employer $250,000 for each undocumented worker they employ. Very soon there would be no illegal immigration, because no one would hire them. Put the onus where it belongs, on the employers who are breaking the law.

Treason in Langley

2007-05-23T21:27:00.000-07:00

ABC News' Brian Ross reported that covert action against Iran had been authorized by the President. This story was based on leaks of classified information from the Central Intelligence Agency. This is not the first time during the Bush Presidency that the CIA has been the source of leaks of classified information designed to make the President look bad or to undermine his policies. For the average citizen, there is no restriction on our speech, we can say what we want about who we want with little or no consequence. For individuals employed by the government with security clearances, this is not the case. They have sworn oaths to not divulge information. They are also forbidden to do so by law.

Apparently, the CIA doesn't really care about security any more. Some prosecutor in the Justice Department should call Brian Ross before a grand jury and ask for the names of his sources and when he refuses to answer throw him in jail until he changes his mind. At the same time the FBI should go out to Langley and rip the place apart until they find the individuals responsible and then see to it that they are prosecuted and when convicted sent to jail for a very long time. An object lesson on the consequences of treason should be made. We should spend at least as much effort tracking down these dirt bags as was spent on locating and then not prosecuting Richard Armitage for leaking Valerie Plame's name. After all, in this case, a real crime has actually been committed.

ESPN luvs the Yankees

2007-05-23T21:20:00.000-07:00

When I got home from work today I sat down and turned on television and checked ESPN to see what they had on. On ESPN 2, they were showing Roger Clemons minor league start. My reaction was two fold. First, "What kind of load of crap is this?" Second, "Boy, ESPN might as well be referred to and the Yankees television network" It has really gotten old seeing the way they gush all over the Yankees (and the Red Sox to a slightly lesser extent). Maybe these guys should occasionally go on the road and realize that for many baseball fans, the Yankees and Red Sox are thought of either with disdain or apathy.

A Yankees-Red Sox game is only worth watching if one is cheering for career ending injuries. Otherwise, it is just not worth the time.

Do our Generals suck? cont'd

2007-05-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

The Core Competence of America’s Military Leaders: Third in a series about a serious threat to America

Fabius Maximus weighs in. (Via Zenpundit)

Do the generals suck?

2007-05-16T14:50:00.000-07:00

Lt. Col Paul Yingling called the general officer corps into question in an article in the May issue of Armed Forces Journal. This article has been widely discussed on the military blogs, but according to Fred Katz in Slate magazine has been largely ignored by the MSM. This is somewhat surprising as many reporters seem to enjoy any reason to slam the Bush administration and the conduct of the war in Iraq. They probably are skipping this one because either it is above their ability to comprehend, being more than knee jerk foam at the mouth criticism, or because it actually calls for constructive change in order to more effectively fight wars. Katz seems to suggest that Yingling, who has been on the fast track in the army, is right on the button and should be taken more seriously.

Who knows, now that Rumsfeld has been shipped off the wood shed maybe something could actually be done about the systemic problems in the Pentagon.

2007-04-26T13:01:00.000-07:00

I have not written much lately. I really hate personnel evaluations. They are the absolute worst part of my job. I am almost finished which is good.

I have a huge stack of books to read and I think I am going to start putting reviews of at least some of them here on this blog. Just for fun. Maybe I can suggest something that those of you reading this will someday enjoy reading.

The Death of the I-Man

2007-04-12T16:15:00.000-07:00

I am here not to praise Imus but to bury him. (Paraphrasing Cicero slightly)

CBS has pulled the plug on Imus in the Morning ending, this stage at least, his lengthy career in broadcasting. After several days of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson railing against Imus and threatening all sorts of boycotts the advertisers started jumping ship and this really left CBS with no choice but to fire him. Were his comments about the Rutgers Women's basketball team reprehensible? Yes. Were they any more reprehensible than any number of other comments and/or comedy sketches that have appeared on the program? No. I always found the anti-Catholic nature of Bernard McGuirk's Cardinal Egan particularly offensive. There was no round of censure for that from the media. In part because comedy is often offensive by its very nature. Listen to comics from Lenny Bruce to Sam Kinnason to Richard Pryor to Dave Chappelle and you will find this to be the case. And in part because most Catholics are generally white and who cares if you offend white people?

Taking one offensive line driving it to this level was a little extreme. I suspect that the majority of the people who complained never listened to the show. That was their choice of course. They have of course removed the option for those enjoyed an obnoxious curmudgeon in the morning.

What I have found particularly reprehensible in all this are the media stars who made millions as a group off of promoting their publications and their books on Imus who now are pretending to be outraged that an offensive comment was made. The superficial hypocrisy of the like of John Meacham and his fellow Newsweek writers and all the politicians like Harold Ford Jr. who built a national presence there knowing full well what the show was is astounding. They have shown themselves to be the money grubbing bottom feeders that we always suspected them of being.

Also, having a man like Al Sharpton who built his name on race baiting behavior proclaim himself the arbiter of what is acceptable is simply absurd.

The I-Man is gone, and perhaps he should be. But those that orchestrated his fall are not much better and perhaps they should go along with him to the dustbin of history.

Grindhouse

2007-04-07T06:35:00.000-07:00

I saw Grindhouse yesterday and had a few thoughts. I preferred Planet Terror, Robert Rodriguez's contribution, to Death Proof, Quentin Tarantino's. The story held together better and was a better horror film. My second thought is the Eli Roth is really a demented individual and probably needs psychiatric assistance. My final thought is that Zoe Bell is one BAD individual and the Tarantino film is worth seeing just to see her on the hood of the white Dodge Challenger.

It was a very cool film if you are into seventies B movies.

Bloomin' Trees

2007-03-25T14:22:00.000-07:00

I planted a dogwood tree in my front yard last winter. Survival of stuff that I plant is always questionable. With spring, the blooms have arrived which shows success. See the proof.

Cool, huh?

Oops!

2007-03-02T17:18:00.000-08:00

Oops

Truly scary numbers

2007-02-28T14:33:00.000-08:00

There is an article on CNN's website entitled "Rising STD rate sparks online dating sites." As I read the article the fact that niche dating services had developed for people infected with herpes did not surprise me. First, the Internet allows for niche connections in all sorts of ways and second, if one was infected it would seem logical to try and connect with others in the same condition as despite the television commercials for herpes medication, I suspect the most people without the disease would be hesitant to enter into an intimate relationship with someone who had it. I can remember 25 years ago when herpes was terrifying to many people but since the arrival of HIV/AIDs, it is not as scary. What I found scary in the article were the numbers, according to the CDC, one in four women and one in five men are infected with genital herpes.

Like I needed another reason to be worried about dating.

Walter Reed

2007-02-19T07:40:00.000-08:00

My reaction from reading this article in the Washington Post was anger and embarrassment. The officers responsible for this mess should be court martialed and the politicians should have long since fixed it, but since there are no votes in wounded veterans, I guess they would rather build bridges to nowhere.

I am firmly in the throw all the bums out.

Which Science Fiction Writer are You?

2007-02-10T14:52:00.000-08:00

I am:

E.E. "Doc" Smith

The inventor of space opera. His purple space war tales remain well-read generations later.

Which science fiction writer are you?

Zombie Movies

2007-02-09T09:23:00.000-08:00

Zombie movies rule for many many reasons. There are great ones, good ones, mediocre ones and awful ones. All are great for their own reasons. It apparently may be possible to over think a good thing. "We the Living Dead: The Convoluted Politics of Zombie Cinema" by Tim Cavanaugh may be a prime example of this.

Children of Men

2007-02-03T20:41:00.000-08:00

I saw the new Clive Owen film "Children of Men" this afternoon. Hollywood has taken dystopia to new heights in a very interesting way. I am often intrigued by the movie industry's fascination with dystopia. If the world is not ending, can the film get made? I don't know.

In this film, the world becomes sterile and twenty years later it is clearly falling apart. Social systems are in collapse and Britain is the only country with any sense of order and that is only because of a very repressive control system. Clive Owen is a man who had once had ideals and was now just trying to get through the day. He is sucked back into caring by an old flame (Julianne Moore in a barely present role) who cons him into escorting a young woman to the coast. It turns out that the woman is pregnant, the first successful pregnancy in 20 years. The terrorist group that hires him double crosses him and he tries to get her to safety through the vast array of people who end up trying to kill or use them for their own devices.

The most amazing moment in the film is towards the end. After giving birth, they are trying to successfully get out of the refugee camp they were hiding in through a riot caused by the terrorists chasing them and the army trying to put down the riot. The baby starts crying and literally everyone stops shooting a stares in amazement as they walk out. Both sides simply stop and stare at something none of them thought they would see again. Then the moment passes and fighting starts again and they slip off to safety. Or relative safety as all heroic figures have to sacrifice something for their success.

A well done film.

Smoking Aces

2007-01-26T21:13:00.000-08:00

I went to see the new film Smoking Aces this afternoon. It had an incredibly talented cast with Jeremy Piven, Andy Garcia, Ryan Reynolds, Matthew Fox, Ben Affleck, Peter Berg to just name a few of the participants. Unfortunately, there was not script, plot, or characterization. It really looked like someone said, "Hey this studio will give us umpteen million dollars to make a film so lets all have a huge party while we do it."

Someone had to have been drunk to make this piece of drek.

Skip it.

Amtrak tales

2007-01-25T10:03:00.000-08:00

I had the Midwinter meeting of the American Library Association this past weekend in Seattle. I took advantage of crossing the country on the company nickel so to speak to go a few days early and visit my brother and his family who live outside of Portland, OR. So I flew into Seattle and took the train south.

Everything was moving along smoothly until the moment arrived. I was reading the Philosophical Strangler by Eric Flint, an amusing book that I can recommend to those of you with slightly bent senses of humor, with my headphones on when I noticed to two high school age girls sitting across the aisle from me jump up and stare at something out of the window. This attracted my attention. Almost immediately the conductor came on the intercom and informed us that the train had just hit a car and we would have to stop while the crew checked for damage. So there we sat for about an hour and half waiting. It turns out that after the serious snow storm that had hit the Pacific Northwest a few day earlier some black ice had developed on the railroad crossing which had caused a car to become stuck. The people had all abandoned said car prior to the train coming along and smiting it.

While this delay almost doubled my travel time, it did leave me with this not so interesting tale to tell.

John Grisham's The Broker

2007-01-17T16:09:00.000-08:00

I picked up a copy of John Grisham's fairly recent work entitled The Broker to read during my time locking in Northwest Airlines Torture Chamber of Doom. Grisham seems to be trying to get beyond courtroom dramas and into spy thrillers. He failed rather miserably in this endeavour. The book was boring and poorly plotted and the end came to a wimpering blob.

Not a book to read.

Questions to ask before marriage.

2006-12-31T18:58:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago in the New York Times there was an article about issues couples should address prior to getting married. There was an attached article with fifteen questions that should be discussed.

I was intrigued for two reasons. One, as a single guy who is not opposed to the institution of marriage I sometimes think about this process. The more interesting part is that I have discussed all of these with women I was dating at one time or another except for #7. That is a question that never really crossed my mind to ask. I will be sure to add it to the list.

Is there any other kind?

2006-12-30T14:35:00.000-08:00

This headline leads me to the obvious question. Is there any other kind?

Woman Charged With Malicious Castration

March to Mecca

2006-12-19T12:24:00.000-08:00

I can only assume that this is a joke. Greg Grutfeld on the Huffington Post expounds on a celebrity led march from Riyadh to Mecca in support of Gay rights in the middle-east. I assume its a joke for two reasons. One the celebrity leftist activists are far to busy condemning the US for everything under the sun to actually look around and realize that it ain't that bad here. Also, there is no way the Saudi's would allow it happen. After all, having the religous police beheading famous American actors would look very bad on TV and the Saudi's always want to look good on TV.

Are men funny?

2006-12-11T08:07:00.000-08:00

Christopher Hitchens writes in Vanity Fair that men are funnier than women. Why you ask? Because they have to be he answers. Men's lives are genetically predisposed to impressing women and Mother Nature has not been kind.

A condemnation of American education

2006-12-05T12:51:00.000-08:00

John Derbyshire in his article The Dream Palace of Educational Theorists refers to education in the US today as "basically a series of rent-seeking rackets." As someone who works in the higher education I do not agree with all of his assertions; however, as someone who works in higher education, I must say that his arguments are not without merit.

IQ Tests for Federal Judges?

2006-12-05T10:13:00.000-08:00

The Ninth Circuit is full of the some of the most batty people to ever sit in a court room and there is a new candidate for dumbest. Audrey Collins, a judge in Los Angeles has ruled that President Bush's executive order freezing the assets of terrorist groups is unconstitutional, apparently because she likes terrorists. To suggest that the PKK or the Tamil Tigers are anything but terrorists is absurd. This also deterroistizes (I know its not a word) groups like Hamas and Hezbollah and Al Quaeda. This effectively prevents the US government from taking steps to cut off the funding for terrorist groups around the world.

I hope she sleeps well. No one else should.

Deer Suck

2006-11-30T20:47:00.000-08:00

As do airbags. Last weekend I clipped a little doe with my car causing minor damage to the the vehicle.

Unfortunately, a sensor in the nose of the car was tripped which unnecessarily fired the airbags. This cause significantly more damage.

Thus, deer suck.

As do airbags.

McCain on the loss

2006-11-17T09:08:00.000-08:00

John McCain in a speech to GOPAC outlined why the Republicans lost the election. He pulled no punches and largely blamed the Republicans in Congress for their profligate spending and the failure to live up to their conservative ideals.

If this is how he is planning to run for president, he should do very well.

Sage on the Stage

2006-11-17T08:36:00.000-08:00

For years, there has been an ongoing effort to change the nature of instruction in higher education that has often been encapsulated in the shift of the instructors role from being a "Sage on the Stage" to being the "Guide on the Side." Put simply, professors should cease being the ultimate arbiter of knowledge in the classroom and instead be a facilitator to student driven examination of the topic.

I have not been a big fan of this and often felt outside the trend. I now have support. Mary Burgan, former general secretary of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and a former English professor at Indiana University has written In Defense of Lecturing in Change Magazine. I feel somewhat vindicated. After all: I am the Sage on the Stage.

No Knead Bread

2006-11-13T12:46:00.000-08:00

The New York Times had a article on a bread maker with a recipe for bread that does not need to be kneaded. They also included the recipe. As soon as the guy comes to fix my oven, which has annoying quit getting hot (thank goodness for warranties) I plan on trying it. It should be fun.

Michigan and Affirmative Action

2006-11-09T09:25:00.000-08:00

The people of the state of Michigan overwhelmingly passed Proposition 2 which banned affirmative action from all state agencies. Washington passed a similar measure about the time I moved there and while there was lip service shown it, in reality I saw no appreciable impact. I suspect that Michigan would most likely be the same.

What has me and little intrigued though are the comments by the President of the University of Michigan. In the Chronicle of Higher Education today it read:

Mary Sue Coleman, president of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, said she had directed the university's lawyers to give their "full and undivided support in defending diversity," and vowed to "immediately begin exploring legal action concerning this initiative."

"I will not stand by," Ms. Coleman said, "while the very heart and soul of this great university is threatened." Ms. Coleman offered assurances that, despite the measure's passage, no student would lose a scholarship, fellowship, or grant; no university employee involved with a program that promotes diversity or tends to minority affairs would lose his or her job; and Michigan would continue to reach out to high schools to draw a diverse student body.

I find it a trad interesting that the head of a state agency, which is what the university is, has publically announced that she intends to flaunt the law. I am sure that there will be a grace period while any legal challenges are at least acknowleged, but if it stands up this could be an interesting legal showdown. Or, she could be sent packing.

Election Day Jitters

2006-11-07T11:36:00.000-08:00

I guess that even experienced politicians get a little nervous on election day. This morning I was watching Imus on MSNBC, as is my norm, and during his conversation with Jeff Greenfield, Greenfield said that political reporters would spend much of the day calling each other with odd bits of new such as "It is raining in Memphis and that's bad for Ford." Not two minutes later, Imus interrupts Greenfield because Harold Ford Jr. is on the phone assuring everyone that there was no rain in Memphis. (As an aside, there has been intermittent rain in northern Mississippi all day) Greenfield suggested that perhaps Ford should switch to decaff. It was a rather humorous moment showing that even the professionals get a little frazzled at the end.

Napping

2006-10-31T08:55:00.000-08:00

Naps are good and here is proof, or at least a good argument. We should all just nap.

Juan Pablo Montoya

2006-10-30T09:16:00.000-08:00

I was present for JPM's first drive in a NASCAR event. I had purchased tickets months ago and and vagaries of airlines meant that I was actually home for the race so I went deciding not to waste the $55 I had spent for the experience. I had just sat down for the beginning of qualifying when the announcer announced that JPM was attempting to qualifiy for the race. It was an exciting race won by Kevin Harvick in a last lap pass of Carl Edwards but I spent most of the race watching to see how JPM would perform. He qualified well and was fast but it looked like he was having a tough time passing on the short and narrow track at Memphis Motorsports Park. He actually caused two spins (one by J.J. Yeley) trying to force the issue in turn four (where most of the wrecks occurred). He was spun out and ended up 36th with about 100 laps to go. He was slowly picking off cars, usually passing when the car in front of him did by staying close and controlling the inside lane. Then with about 60 to go, he seemed to get it. He passed 10 to 15 cars in the closing laps of the race by beginning his move a little later. He had been trying to get under a car going into three and completing the pass coming out of four. This had not been working. He instead got the inside position coming out of turn four, maintaining it down the frontstretch and then completing the pass going into turn one. I suspect that it was his road course experience from CART and F1 that helped out here. On road courses there are often limited passing zones and passes are often set up far in advance. This is what he did.

It was interesting to watch him change his style to fit the track and the competition and be successful. If he can keep this up he will be a big success in NASCAR.

Russian Nukes

2006-10-17T07:57:00.000-07:00

One of the most terrifying moments of my life happened in a classroom more than 10 years ago. I was a graduate student at Ohio University and we had an official from the NSA on campus to speak and he met with a group of graduate students in the Contemporary History Institute, of which I was one. As the conversation progressed the issue of the collapse of the Soviet Union, then still recent history, came up and he said that eventually some Soviet nuclear weapons would find their way onto the Black Market becuase, no one knew where they all were. Not us, not the Soviets, no one.

A short piece on Strategy Page today relieved some of those fears. The point of the article being that Soviet nukes need constant maintanence and without it they cease to function fairly quickly. So even if someone had one, they would be hard pressed to make it work (explode). While the material inside is still very dangerous it is not as dangerous and the alternative.

I will be off line for the next couple of weeks. Be well any and all readers.

The Departed

2006-10-07T21:04:00.000-07:00

I saw the movie the Departed today. It was nice to turn off my brain and just watch the movie. And it was a movie worth watching. Not a great film but good. I suspect that if I was not a HUGE fan of both Tony Leung and Andy Lau, who starred in the Hong Kong original that is a better film, I would have enjoyed it more. It was some what unfair of Scorcese to put Leonardo Decaprio in the position of trying to match Tony Leung at his best. IMHO Tony Leung is one of the best actors in the world period and Decaprio was OK but it was an unfair standard for him to meet. Matt Damon did a little better but in the original Leung's perfomance is really the center piece of the film but in Scorcese's remake, he handed the central role off to Jack Nicholson who so often is becoming a charicature of himself.

Watching this movie is certainly a good idea. Watching Infernal Affairs is an even better idea.

Nine Reasons to Become an Evil Super Villian

2006-10-06T10:24:00.000-07:00

Come to the Dark Side. There are advantages.
http://www.sandstorming.com/2006/10/9-reasons-to-become-an-evil-super-villain/

A New Strategy in Iraq

2006-10-05T16:29:00.000-07:00

In the New York Times today this is an article outlining a new manual that the military is developing for dealing with the insurgency in Iraq. The is not only necessary but way past due. There is only one problem that I see. Namely, that this manual already exists, it has simply been ignored for over 60 years. The Marine Corps in the 20's and 30's conducted a larger number of long term deployment in Latin America training local troops to combat insurgents. They also did a great deal of what we now call "nation building." They took the lessons they learned and incorporated them into the Small Wars Manual. It is available from Amazon in a larger number of printing. It is sad that a 1940 manual has consistently been ignored by the military and its civillian leadership. So now we get to recreate an already existing wheel.

Foley

2006-10-04T13:12:00.000-07:00

I have been watching with Foley scandal develop with an ever sinking feeling in my stomach. When will these numbnuts ever learn. They simply have no moral courage or sense of right and wrong anymore. All they can consider is potential political fallout, continually forgetting the lesson of Richard Nixon. It is always better to ask for forgiveness than to try and cover something up. If Nixon had, in March of 1973, came out and admitted that his campaign had done wrong with Watergate etc. and that he was taking full responsibility and apologize to the nation it would have been a one week story. Instead, he ended up resigning and many of his closest aides went to jail for aiding in the coverup.

The Speaker of the House should have stood up a year ago and denounced Foley and demanded a full investigation and then thrown him out of the House and he would now be lauded a a leader of strength and someone to be respected. Instead, even if the Republicans hold on to the House, something that is looking less likely every day, the odds of him retaining his position are slim. He will become the House Republicans' sacrificial lamb when that should have been Foley.

Maybe they should take a good look at anyone on the Missing and Exploited Children Caucus just to be sure there are not anymore pedophiles lurking about.

Working with one's hands

2006-10-02T07:24:00.000-07:00

An interesting article on the joys of creation versus the efforts of thought. Read this.

Clinton and Terrorism (Throw all the Bums Out)

2006-09-27T12:01:00.000-07:00

Bill Clinton, as everyone knows by now, self-immolated during and interview with Chris Wallace on the Sunday Morning show on Fox this past week. By all accounts, he was surprised and upset that Wallace would deign to ask him about his record. This is surprising on two levels, first, ex-presidents alwasys get asked about their record and how they did and could or would they have done something different. This is part of what it means to be ex. Also, the Clintonistas have running off at the mouth for months about his record and the outrage they showed when ABC made a docudrama that did not canonize the lot of them certainly left the subject open for discussion.

The follow ups of charge and countercharge between the Bushies and the Clintonistas sound unmistakible like a group of fourth graders in a playground. "It's your fault!" No, it's your fault!" Nuh-uh! Uh-huh! and so on forever. These people are supposed to be the leaders of this country. Why oh why can they not just GROW THE HELL UP!!!!!!

Both political parties have become so enamoured of this garbage that I am desperately looking for a sane middle of the road person to put together a new party for the sane and rational. Then we can send Bush, Clinton, Kerry, Frist, ..............(the list goes on and on) to the unemployment line where they all so obviously deserve to be.

Variable Star

2006-09-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

In 1955, Robert Heinlein wrote the outline for a book, one that would have been a juvenile in the same vein as Farmer in the Sky and Have Spacesuit Will Travel. He never actually wrote the book. In 2003, after the death of his wife Virginia, the outline was discovered in his papers. The Estate asked Spider Robinson to finish the work. Variable Star, just published by Tor is the result. It is the last Heinlein novel ever.

While is has the very evident structure of the Heinlein juvenile, with a young man setting out on his own and trying to make a success of himself despite the obstacles that life throws him. Without divulging to much of the plot, thereby spoiling it for any of you that should happen to read this, it follows a fairly predictable path. Robinson has put his own spin in here, as any writer would, creating a not quite juvenile juvenile. I was particularly pleased that he took pains to place it within Heinlein universe through the referencing of familiar points such as the Martians from Stranger in a Strangeland, and other references to the Lunar civilization from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. He does not however, try to cement it within Heinlein's timeline as the book suggests an ending that would have certainly bemused Lazarus Long.

If you are a fan of either Heinlein or Robinson, this should be a book for you to read.

The Protector

2006-09-25T20:22:00.000-07:00

Tony Jaa just might be the next Jet Li or Jackie Chan. Li and Chan have dominated the martial arts film genre world wide for three decades. (The US was the last part of the world to catch on and their best films do not include any of their Hollywood projects.) Both have stated that they are done with the genre largely because they simply can not keep up the level of activity necessary with their aging bodies. While they have physical skills far superior to almost anyone else in the world is beside the point.

With them stepping off of the stage, there is room for a new star to emerge. Tony Jaa just might be that guy. His physical skills are outstanding and in this film their are extended fight scenes that are shot with a single camera and without apparent cuts. He simply goes from opponent to opponent without break. His style (he is Thai) is also impressive. They demonstrate this against several different styles including an extended sequence against a Capoeira fighter (a Brazillian style) and a Wushu (Chinese) fighter with a sword that concludes with a HUGE western fighter (he looked like a professional wrestler) and it was interesting that he adapts himself to each fighter through the scene. It was very well done.

A very watchable film with some outstanding action sequences.

World War Z

2006-09-24T15:44:00.000-07:00

I have been commenting on movies rather frequently on this blog. I have decided to do so about books as well.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War is by Max Brooks the author of The Zombie Survival Guide. His mode of storytelling is somewhat unique. What he has preported to do is interview survivors of the Zombie War and recount the tale through the recollections of these individuals. The war was the result of biological event where the Zombie Virus was first seen in China and then spread around the world.

Since anyone bitten by a Zombie became one, there was a rapic spread that took draconian efforts to overcome. By keeping the story personal, the grand scope of events was at times hidden within the local remembrances of each individual.

It was a very interesting book with a unique construction.

Have a good read.

Flyboys

2006-09-23T08:49:00.000-07:00

I went and saw the new movie Flyboys yesterday after work. It was a pleasant enough movie though not outstanding. The flying scenes were so much better than the rest of the film that it led me to a certain conclusion. This is the nest Top Gun. I can remember watching Top Gun on Video where you fast forward through any scenes without airplanes in them (unless there were women in the room in which case you had to watch the volleyball game). Flyboys would be best watched in this fashion.

Sugared Ethanol

2006-09-20T14:23:00.000-07:00

Thomas Friedman in his column in the New York Times asked if the 54 cent a gallon tariff that the US has placed on Brazilian sugar ethanol is stupid or really stupid. The answer he got (from the Brazilian energy secretary though Friedman is in complete agreement) is that it is really stupid. Sugar cane ethanol produces more energy and less green house gas than corn based ethanol but the first presidential caucus is in Iowa and no one wanting to be president can not do whatever the Iowa ethanol lobby wants. It is interesting that the only energy imports with a tariff as the sugar cane ethanol. Not oil or natural gas which compete with domestic producers very well but I guess we would rather pay Hugo Chavez and what's his face from Iran than some poor farmers in Brazil who may actually like us.

What is this might mean though is a windfall to Florida sugar producers who have been demanding federal subsidies in their never ending battle to destroy the Everglades. Now they have a new arguement. "Hey, we're making gas!"

I have not included a link to the column because the New York Times has it locked behind their subscription wall. NYT columnists are traditionally the most influential in the country so what does the paper do, severely restrict access to them thereby marginalizing them. It is only a matter of time before others will ascend to primacy in the national debate simply because more people will be able to read what they have to say.

New look stormtroopers

2006-09-06T10:12:00.000-07:00

Taking body armor where it had never gone before.

Return of the Tribes

2006-08-31T18:06:00.000-07:00

Ralph Peters, a retired Army officer, has an article in the Weekly Standard in which he argues that globalization has passed its peak and that tribalism is on the rise. One of his prime examples is the utter failure of the European Constitution at the hands of the Dutch and French voters despite massive support from the elites in both countries. This has been followed by and increasing level of nationalism in Europe with trade and other restrictions with the EU cropping up in almost every country.

It is even more evident in what Thomas Barnett called the unincorporated Gap with tribalism and local customs remaining a dominant factor in the people's lives often despite national or religious connections with a broader community.

He suggests that the flat world of Thomas Freidman is actually a collection of elites that are becoming more and more isolated from the broader populations becoming a feudalesque artistocracy with closer ties to their economic and social peers around the world than their ethnic or geographical neighbors much as the Feudal nobles of the Middle Ages had done.

An interesting article.

Movies

2006-08-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

I have seen two very different and yet interesting films lately. This has been a welcome surprise since this year has been one of drek in the theaters.

I saw Snakes on a Plane which I commented on earlier and A Scanner Darkly which was an interesting film and yet one for which the advertising missed the central focus of the film. The advertising suggested that the two personas on the main character were unaware of each other and this is patently untrue. He is the only one who knows that Officer Fred is Bob Arcter until the very end but he clearly does know.

The twist at the end suggested issues about the society in which the film was constructed that were never addressed leaving me feel like the whole thing was unfinished. The notion of the corporate power and independence from governmental authority was reminiscent of a movie from the 1970's and yet it was never discussed or dealt with. It was shown and then left hanging on the screen. If they wanted to suggest that it was representative of current events in some way, they clearly missed their mark.

The French (still useless)

2006-08-25T09:11:00.000-07:00

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah ended with a UN Resolution sponsored by Franch in which a UN peacekeeping force led by the French would go in to enforce the ceasefire. Since the resolution passed, France has been retreating from active participation like the weenies they truly are. Now they are trying to sabotage the entire process. The resolution called from 15,000 troops. The French now think this is excessive. I guess they want to continue the situation of Hezbollah troops training in clear view of peacekeepers playing volleyball. If that is all they are going to do the French should go ahead and send troops since they should at least play volleyball well. To bad their national leaders are gutless and balless and so arrogant that they can not just sit down and shut the hell up and let someone else try to actually accomplish something.

Butchering the language

2006-08-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

I know that the English language is a moving target in which there is a great deal of flexibility in the creation of words, in particular as catchphrases. The Associated Press seems to have taken this to an almost absurd level. In sports the term three-peat was created to describe the an event that followed a repeat. It has filtered backwards now.

Riley seeks 'two-peat' with Miami Heat is the title of a story just posted on the Internet (I accessed it via Yahoo News). He wants to REPEAT a champion. If the word exists you don't have to make some stupid combo up to represent it.

Perhaps we should send the AP a dictionary.

Snakes on a Plane

2006-08-22T14:32:00.000-07:00

I went and saw Snakes and it met my expectations. Not high art by any stretch of the imagination but probably the best popcorn film so far this year. It had some memorable lines and a few never to be forgotten visuals (the crotch bite still gives me a little twinge).

Much of the coverage of the film was that it did not do as much business as expected on the opening weekend. I believe that the film will make plenty of money for the studio but it will do so over an extended period of time. Studios are so enamoured of the opening weekend box office that that is all they consider. This has caused their marketing to become skewed. They also attempt to fix the reviews (or prevent them from appearing by refusing to allow reviewer to preview the films) so that nothing will break the weekend box office. If they spent more time trying to make movies people would enjoy rather than marketing crap, they would make more money in the long rum.

Snakes is a film that many will go to again and again just to find all the snake bites. It will be a profitable film. They just need to be patient.

Vacation

2006-08-16T10:11:00.000-07:00

The fall semester is about to start and I decided that I needed to get away for a few days so I did this past weekend. Sometimes taking a long weekend is a really good thing.

I drove to Atlanta to see the Braves play on Friday. I had a seat right behind home plate. It was very nice and the Braves won a very good game with Smoltz going the entire way and Francouer hitting a game winning double in the ninth. In the eighth inning Smoltz came up to bat and Bobby Cox did not pinch hit for him and in the at bat Smoltz fouled off a number of pitches a drew a walk and received one of the loudest ovations of the night. It was great to see a true competitor dig in and do his absolute best. Very cool.

On Saturday I drove up to some friends' house in North Carolina for a very long overdue visit.

Then on Sunday I drove through the Great Smokey Mountain National Park (a gorgeous drive that everyone should do if they haven't already.) to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge where I futzed about the rest of the day. I think I want to go back and spend several days there.

Then I drove home. I did use the Natchez Trace Parkway rather than the Interstate for the bulk of the distance between Nashville and Oxford. Another lovely drive though this one was largely devoid of cars unlike the Smokies.

A very relaxing weekend to help me get ready for a new school year.

College Rankings

2006-08-07T09:09:00.000-07:00

Washington Monthly has published its College Rankings. These are based more on notion of how the university serves the nation and is based on such outputs are the number of graduates in service postions or that go on to get PhD's and graduation rates of poorer students rather than the size of the endowment or faculty salaries.

Their ranking system has resulted in some unusual outcomes. South Carolina State University ranked 9th and Alabama A&M was 24th. Neither even appeared on US News' rankings and yet here both were ahead of most of the Ivy League including Harvard and Princeton (US News' #1 and #2 schools).

Will Power

2006-08-03T08:37:00.000-07:00

I have not posted anything lately, in part because I have been rather busy and in part because many of the main events (the war in Lebanon for example) in the world are ones about which I am torn and do not have a single opinion to express.

I did however, read an interesting article that I thought I would mention to you all. Cordelia Fine, a research fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne, wrote that success in education is a result more of will power and self discipline than intelligence. An interesting view point. She goes on to suggest that this self-discipline is a finite quality and should only be used sparingly and when necessary. If used for lesser accomplishments, it may not be available when really needed. This may just answer a large number of questions about me, or at least provide me with a built in ready excuse.

Marriage: the next big business opportunity

2006-07-21T07:12:00.000-07:00

There is an interesting thesis on the privatization of marriage in the Independent Review online at http://www.independent.org/pdf/tir/tir_11_01_07_jones.pdf. The author calls for a total privatization of marriage in effect creating corporations that manage the style and terms of union and customers can pick and choose what style or type of marriage they would like. With all the discussion of the nature of marriage this is just another take.

I personnally am not a fan of this idea but thought I would share anyway.

Truck Racing

2006-07-17T20:18:00.000-07:00

My father and I (it was a late Father's Day Gift for him) went to the Nascar Craftsman Truck race in Memphis this past Saturday. Though I have been a race fan for years, it was my first trip to a live race and my father was not sure when I invited him if we were going to a race or to see Monster Trucks.

This a photo of Johnny Benson's Toyota that I was cheering for. Unfortunately Ron Hornaday punted him early in the race and he finished 34th dropping him to 3rd in the points standings.

This is a shot of the trucks lined up on pit road prior to the race. I had Fan Walk tickets which allowed us to go over and see the pits and the track up close. While it was unbearably hot, it was very cool to see.

Here is a shot of the grandstand from the race track. Our seats were on the left edge (facing it) about 2/3 of the way up. Very good place to see the race from.

Unfortunately, my digital camera's shutterspeed was not fast enough to get a clear image of the trucks at full speed. They become blurs.

For example Todd Bodine's #30 Lumber Liquidator's truck crossing the start/finish line.

Or this shot of the trucks on the far side of the track.

It was a very fun evening and I almost turned my dad into a race fan. I am very excited for the Busch race in October. I have tickets and think it should be even cooler (in temperature if nothing else).

Moving

2006-07-03T14:04:00.000-07:00

I have successfully purchased a home and moved into it. I was beginning to think that the fates were conspiring against me and that this would never happen. The closing was rescheduled twice at the last minute and even with everyone sitting around the table the wire transfer from the bank had not yet arrived and I was afraid that this would collapse. This would have been very bad as just prior to going to the lawyer's office for the closing, I with the assistance of my brother and a few other guys had finished loading the U-haul with all of my material possessions. I went to close and they went to the house to wait for me to show up with keys to unload. A problem would have been a significant problem. Fortunately it all worked out.

I have now joined the landed aristocracy and own my own dirt. How cool is that.

Mea Culpa

2006-06-27T11:06:00.000-07:00

I was wrong. The city of New Orleans pulled it off without a hitch. It was obvious that there had been a great deal of gearing up for the arrival of the librarians. Service in hotels and restaurants was occassionally iffy either because of shortages of staff or lack of training and experience. It was obvious that many staff had been hired recently to cover the volume of business that ALA brought.

I never heard an official number of attendants. Some of the vendors in the exhibit room said traffic was considerably less than normal for this conference.

Last year's meeting in Chicago had 27,000 people. This year was not close to that.

Apparently there are a number of large conferences who are looking to schedule New Orleans who have been waiting to see how ALA goes. The success of this meeting should be a good sign for business in New Orleans.