Tuesday, September 30, 2003

Hey, that’s Wrigley Field!

Entertainment

I have gotten so tired of entering my name and address for interweb registrations that I went to the post office website to look up the zip code for 1060 W. Addison, so that I could consistently enter the same incorrect information for all these nosy marketroid dungbreros.  In fact I encourage, nay, insist that from now on everyone should enter the following personal information:

Dick M. Stickrod *
[a valid email address]
1060 W. Addison
Chicago, IL 60613

If they ask for more info:

Female
birthdate - 01/01/1901
Income Range - as close to zero as possible, or the highest.
For the rest, whatever feels right.

* An actual person.  I sold him five triple pane vinyl replacement windows with the optional low-E coating for ultraviolet protection.  It took me three days before I could look at the name without breaking into laughter, or tears.  Three abortive attempts to call before I got through without choking.  Nice guy, a bit defensive about his name.  But, it’s Dick, not Richard, Rich or Rick.


Posted by Buckethead on 09/30/03 at 08:33 PM
Entertainment • Permalink

Why are we late?

Lead Pipe Cruelty

I hadn’t looked at the Onion in a while, but this made me titter:

I have been guilty of #1, 2 and 5.

My favorite part of the Onion has always been the headlines on the right sidebar.  Couple good ones in the most recent issue:

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Wildfire Somehow Rages Back Into Control

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Eiffel Tower Washes Up On Delaware Beach

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Fun, fun, fun


Posted by Buckethead on 09/30/03 at 07:14 PM
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Have You Seen, der Deutsches Band?

Unmitigated Gall

Wis ze bang, and the boom, and the boom boom boom boom bang?!

A Texas high school has apologized after the school band waved a Nazi flag during a performance on Friday, the start of the Jewish New Year holiday of Rosh Hashana. “We had an error in judgment,” band director Charles Grissom told the Dallas Morning News. . . .

During a half-time show, a student from Paris High School went running across the field waving a Nazi flag.

At the time, the Blue Blazes band was playing the composition by Franz Joseph Haydn that eventually became known as ”Deutschland Uber Alles.” . . . .

Let’s hear it for the Paris, Texas Marching Band, winner of the September 2003 Perfidy Prize in Inadvertant or Vertant Asshattery. Congratulations, Asshats!

This was the bright idear, which must have looked great on paper: “[Grissom] said it was part of a show entitled “Visions of World War Two,” in which the flags and music were intended to represent the warring nations.” During Rosh Hashana. Terrible, terrible timing. 


Posted by Johno on 09/30/03 at 06:44 PM
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More serious than Plamegate

War

The ever expanding story about espionage amongst the translators at Guantanamo has, well, expanded.  Johno’s favorite TV station, WCVB-TV channel 5 (modestly self described as the “Boston Channel") has a report that a third person was arrested at Logan airport, right under Johno’s nose.  And he says he’s serious about the war on terror. 

That American military personnel are passing information to the enemy is a very serious problem.  This is treason.  If they are guilty, the constitution is very specific about what the penalty is.


Posted by Buckethead on 09/30/03 at 05:41 PM
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Afghanistan to Unveil Draft Constitution

Crazy Foreigners

Fox News is reporting that Afghanistan is on the verge of unveiling its new draft constitution.  For most of the last year, the constitutional commission has been working to write the constitution, but this bit was heartwarming:

The commission sent 460,000 questionnaires out to the public this year and held meetings in villages across the country seeking public input.

“So many people replied, including women who said they wanted more rights and good education,” Constitutional Review Commission spokesman Abdul Ghafoor Lewal said. “The illiterate sent cassette tapes and we got tens of thousands of letters.”

When the elections are held next June, we can hope that it will be the beginning of a prosperous and peaceful future.  If that many people participated (however indirectly) in creating their future, I think they might even have a good shot at it.


Posted by Buckethead on 09/30/03 at 05:33 PM
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For Those About To Rock….

Music Wonkery

As I read this article, I am reminded anew of the crazy shit men will do in the quest for record sales.

(Oh, it’s for a cause, I hear you say? What about the rats in a blender? Was that for a cause too?)


Posted by Johno on 09/30/03 at 03:21 PM
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But THIS is surprising

That Buck Rogers Stuff

China… well ahead of the rest of the world.

(And I refuse to use the word “chinkonauts,” though a certain sophomoric glee won’t stop me from typing it here.)

As I read Neal Stephenson’s “Quicksilver,” I am reminded anew of the crazy shit men will do in quest for knowledge. 


Posted by Johno on 09/30/03 at 03:16 PM
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Unsurprising, actually

Just So You Know

Well, I don’t see what’s so remarkable about this. Did it all the time during grad school, and I’m fine.


Posted by Johno on 09/30/03 at 03:12 PM
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Novak speaks to Wilsongate

Partisan Politics

via Drudge, this quote from Bob Novak, author of the article back in July:

“Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this. In July I was interviewing a senior administration official on Ambassador Wilson’s report when he told me the trip was inspired by his wife, a CIA employee working on weapons of mass destruction.

“Another senior official told me the same thing. As a professional journalist with 46 years experience in Washington I do not reveal confidential sources. When I called the CIA in July to confirm Mrs. Wilson’s involvement in the mission for her husband—he is a former Clinton administration official—they asked me not to use her name, but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else.

“According to a confidential source at the CIA, Mrs. Wilson was an analyst, not a spy, not a covert operator, and not in charge of undercover operatives.”

This, to me at least, sounds less like Machiavellian scheming than what many people are making of it.

[Update] Dan is pretty sure it wasn’t Rove.  “There’s still a lot of smoke at this point—but I don’t see a fire just yet.”

Instapundit has a roundup which links the Drezner post I mentioned above.  Insty makes the comment that, “the excessive gleefulness and point-scoring of the anti-Bush bloggers in general on this topic, only serves to make this matter look more political, and less serious, than it perhaps is. More and more, these guys remind me of the anti-Clinton fanatics of the 1990s. Which doesn’t necessarily make them wrong, any more than the anti-Clinton fanatics were always wrong. It just makes them a lot less persuasive.”

Also, I heard on (I believe, I was channel surfing) CNN that the CIA request to the Justice Department is not exactly an uncommon thing.  Fifty or so of those go to DOJ every month, to check out possible revelation of classified information.  Apparently, it is a relatively pro-forma inquiry process.

[Moreover] This whole thing doesn’t make sense.  If, as he seems to be, Novak is telling us that he was just providing background for his story on Wilson’s efforts in Africa, what is the deal with the supposed hit job?  This is the most ridiculous political hit I’ve ever heard of.  Revealing that Wilson’s wife works at the CIA, and thus used her influence to get him appointed by a Republican administration for this job?  The fact that his wife may or may not have been outed does nothing to damage Wilson’s credibility, or his conlusions - which everyone except the Brits seem to agree with.  I would think that if someone wanted to do real damage, they would have released, you know, damaging information.  It seems more like Wilson’s a bit paranoid, though he is apparently backing off his accusations against Rove.

I don’t know, but it doesn’t seem terribly likely to me.  Read this for more skepticism.  See Ross, I was just early with my skepticism.  Now I have people at my back.  Including the one you linked in your earlier comment.  I may have been slow to judge harshly, but many have been altogether too quick to assume guilt.

We’ll have to wait and see.

[Update Update] Apparently, the WaPo has altered the wording of its story, downgrading “Top White House Officials” to “White House Officials” and the like.


Posted by Buckethead on 09/30/03 at 03:00 AM
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Monday, September 29, 2003

New Ministry Logo

Perfidy

Attentive readers will have noted that immediately to my right is a brand new perfidy logo.  This stunning piece of artwork was created by John Karapelou, who is an award winning and stupendously compentent Bio-Medical Illustrator.  The Ministry was forced to use ...persuasion… to convince John of the importance of the project, and to point out the consequences of failing to act with generosity and goodwill towards the Ministry.  Happily, John recognized the need for a new Ministry logo, and his pets are as a result unharmed.

Lest you think the Ministry composed of unfeeling, nekulturny brutes, the unknowing contributors of our previous logo, the 1108th US Army Signal Brigade are given a plug here.  They truly do set the standard.

Shoulder patch of the 1108th US Army Signal Brigade


Posted by Ministry on 09/29/03 at 07:20 PM
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Two teams on the verge of claiming X-Prize

That Buck Rogers Stuff

From Peter Diamandis, head of the X Prize Foundation:

“We expect to have a winner within the next nine to 12 months.’’

Diamandis says that the two front runners are Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites effort, of which I have spoken previously, and John Carmack’s (inventor of Doom and Quake) Armadillo Aerospace.

Lindbergh made his solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927 in pursuit of the $25,000 Orteig prize.  He was not the first to fly across the Atlantic, not by a long shot.  He was the first to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic.

According to the Space.com article, Diamandis said Lindbergh’s flight “was a mind-shift breakthrough’’ for the public. Within 18 months after that daring flight, the number of people boarding airlines rose from 5,700 a year to almost 200,000.  Demonstrating that private companies can build and fly spacecraft can be a major step toward making human spaceflight as routine flying on an airliner is now.”

Diamandis and many others hope that an X-Prize winner will light imaginations as Lindbergh’s flight did, and lead the way to a new golden age of aerospace development.

Given the troubles that NASA has found, I can only say it can’t happen soon enough.


Posted by Buckethead on 09/29/03 at 07:02 PM
That Buck Rogers Stuff • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

What He Said

Perfidy Attacks

Andrew Sullivan’s reader email of the day:

“Maybe I am just getting older and don’t get it or it could be the fact that I grew up in a small Midwestern burg and understand how hopeless my friends and family are who stayed there. Either way these people are jerk-offs. Two things came to mind when I read this. The first is these people would get their asses kicked if they threw a half-full can of beer at someone at a party. Not just because of the action, but because it is a waste of beer. Secondly, these “hipsters” would not last five minutes in any of the number of small towns in this country where this kind of culture really thrives. Any real goat roper who grew up drinking Pabst will tell you it is skunk beer and small town people know this. The only way to make it better is to add salt to it, I mean how wrong is that? My point is rural Americans don’t need condescending pricks in New York to tell them they are cool. We already knew it and embraced it years ago.”

Fucking A! That whole dipshit trucker-hat and Midwest chic thing (which, by the way, has been covered in the Times and is therefore officially over) really pissed this Ohio boy off. Whenever I see an “ironic” trucker hat around town, my arm automatically does this sort of Dr. Strangelove jerk, and I must physically restrain myself from knocking the ironic hat off the dimwit’s head in a decidedly un-ironic, looking-to-kick-ass fashion.

The one silver lining is that, as of a couple years ago, one could step into Welcome To The Johnsons on the Lower East Side and get hosed on PBR for under $20. The same could also be said of Joe’s Bar on E. 6th, but Joe’s doesn’t have tabletop Ms. Pac Man, and the bathroom door doesn’t actually close.

Also, we prefer the term “briar hopper.”


Posted by Johno on 09/29/03 at 06:38 PM
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The Comfortable Chair of Mediocrity

Entertainment

The Browns are 1 and 3 after losing to the Bungles.

It’s so nice to be back on familiar territory. I’m a Browns fan and a Red Sox fan, primarily (with minors in Steelers and Pirates/Indians) so I KNOW how incredibly reassuring, in fact psychically necessary, perpetual disappointment can be. 


Posted by Johno on 09/29/03 at 06:33 PM
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NASA takes a giant step backwards

That Buck Rogers Stuff

As China prepares to launch her first chinkonauts, and Europe launches a nifty new lunar probe, the United States is preparing to retro-60s style plan for American manned space flight.  NASA is so, like, hip.

ABC is reporting on the push to design an orbital space plane to supplement the space shuttle.  NASA is cleverly calling the designs “next generation shuttles” but the fact is, the Air Force had something very similar in mind when it was designing the X-20 Dynasoar back in the fifties. 

This image shows the four possible designs:

image

The vehicle on the upper left is functionally identical to the X-20, a lifting body glider.  The one on the lower left is basically a reusable Apollo capsule.  All four of these contenders would be launched atop a disposable launch vehicle like the Delta 4 or Atlas 5.  The ABC piece quoted John Junkins, Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A & M University:

“The Space Shuttle is 25-year-old technology that has not kept up… But it has done everything asked of it — carry people and carry huge amounts of cargo. No other space vehicle can do that. But it is time to separate the responsibilities.”

So, to replace a twenty five year old technology, NASA is reaching back fifty years.  We very nearly had a Orbital Space Plane in 1964, with a design going back to the late fifties.  While I am not averse (certainly!) to NASA developing new space vehicles, trumpeting this as a next generation shuttle reveals the fundamental vacuum at the heart of a once great institution.


Posted by Buckethead on 09/29/03 at 06:17 PM
That Buck Rogers Stuff • (1) Trackbacks • Permalink

Rush not to judgment, lest ye be rushed…

Partisan Politics

Or something.  Drudge has linked to an article by Clifford May in the National review online, which suggests that the fact that Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA was not exactly, well, secret.  If this is the case, then there was no “outing” of a CIA agent, and therefore no treason and no reason for getting our collective panties in a bunch. 

Remember that the primary focus of this is still the uraniumgate pseudo-scandal, and that the British still insist that their intelligence was correct, and that Saddam was trying to buy Uranium somewhere in Africa.  Also, Wilson, by his own admission, spent several days drinking mint tea and talking to people, and on the basis of this thorough investigation concluded that Saddam wasn’t trying to get the fissionable materials.  It sounds as if Wilson, who was a vocal opponent of the administration before his mission, was doing a decent job of discrediting himself before any of this happened, which makes you wonder why someone like Karl Rove would go to this effort to do it himself.  If Karl Rove is the satanically brilliant Machiavel with his hand working the strings controlling marionette Bush, why would he be so stupid as to commit an easily discovered treasonous act?  We have a problem with conflicting conspiracy modes.

Unless I hear a lot more evidence, or at least a significant amount of convincing evidence, this goes into my unlikely at best folder.  It tastes a lot like the BUSH LIED!!! story we’ve been hearing so much of lately. 


Posted by Buckethead on 09/29/03 at 05:12 PM
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