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:

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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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