Tuesday, January 06, 2004

Clark’s Tax Plan

Partisan Politics

A bold stroke by Clark.  A lot of people are going to realize that under this plan, they won’t be paying any federal taxes.  Damn.  Shows you just how much the top end in this country makes…


Posted by Ross on 01/06/04 at 09:28 PM
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Mars is Boring

The Miracle of Science

Don’t believe me?  Check out this picture.

Why are we doing this again?

Oh yeah—because the universe contains many things we do not know, and we might as well learn a few of them while we’re still here.

Seriously cool stuff.


Posted by Ross on 01/06/04 at 09:09 PM
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Mmmmm! I’m just MAD for American Beef!

Unmitigated Gall

Let’s compare and contrast, class! It’ll be our brain exercise for the day.

Eric Schlosser ("Fast Food Nation") has an op-ed piece in the New York Times last weekend about Ann Veneman, spokeswoman for the Secretary of Agriculture. Prior to this gig, Veneman was PR director for the beef lobby. Her message to America, about the threat of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy? “Remain calm, all is well!”

Meanwhile, the USDA is sending 450 calves to slaughter because they have no way of tracking which one is the offspring of the cow diagnosed with BSE. Also, a batch of beef bones sold mostly in San Jose California is being recalled. “Mmmmm, mom! This sancocho is really good! What’s the secret ingredient?” “It’s prions, mi hijo!”

According to Ms. Veneman, does the USDA need a better tracking system for cow lineages, and tighter observation of existing nerve-matter feed restrictions? Of course not, silly! All is well!

(also posted to blogcritics)


Posted by Johno on 01/06/04 at 02:26 PM
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More Crushing of Dissent (serious this time!)

Partisan Politics

Norbizness has written a nice little screed about the “Free Speech Zones” the Secret Service enforces around the President. You know, the fenced-in lot a half mile away, and if you leave it carrying a sign that says “Bush NO!” you get arrested and hauled off for endangering the president with your pointy sharp words.

On the other side of the coin, Eugene Volokh has written a sensible and thought-provoking piece for (of all people) the scenery-chewers at the National Review Online, arguing that it’s really not ‘the liberals’ who are enemies of free speech, at least from a judicial standpoint.


Posted by Johno on 01/06/04 at 02:11 PM
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USS Clueless - Consistent resolve

Perfidy Attacks

Den Beste is a good writer, and I certainly wouldn’t want to get into any kind of intellectual pissing match with him; I wouldn’t last long.

But.

“For thirty years we’ve been told that patriotism was shameful. “ “ For thirty years we’ve been pelted with the message that there was nothing about America that justified any pride.”

What the hell is he talking about?  “Pelted” with this message?  By who?  Most of the time?  Some of the time?

Be honest.  Exactly how much of the time are you pelted with the message that there is “nothing about America that justifies pride”.  The answer is, of course, hardly ever.  The reason?  The world’s gray, and so is America.  There are some very great things about this country and some not very great things.

In Den Beste’s America, you’re either with him, or you’re against him.  That is exactly what America is not about.

Several hundred words of bitching about poor, trod-upon “Patriotism”, and he doesn’t bother to define the term.  That seems like something of an omission, until you realize that is isn’t an omission.  Everybody’s definition of patriotism is going to be different.  Den Beste’s might be “unquestioning adoration for anyone who kicks random ass in response to terrorism”.  Mine might be “liberty and truth for all”.  Who knows?  But it is almost certain that we disagree.

Den Beste further obscurs by failing to point out that virtually all criticism of America comes from overseas.  His “real Americans” are in a sea of, well, people who don’t agree with them!  Dammit!

The constitution is a fuzzy document, deliberately, so that multiple viewpoints can find a home in this country.  We reign in the extremes, and trust that the majority will be reasonably correct.

The poll question I’d like to see answered: Given what we now know about Saddam Hussein’s WMD (there aren’t any), would you have supported the invasion? 


Posted by Ross on 01/06/04 at 12:55 AM
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Monday, January 05, 2004

76 Days

Just So You Know

This NY Times article on Captain James Yee’s case is rather sobering.  Yee, as a few citizens in America may remember, was charged by the military with aiding the enemy, treason, or some such nonsense.

The result of all that is that there has been no evidence whatsoever supporting the charges.  They are a complete fabrication.  Good, you may say to yourself...the system worked. 

Except that this guy spent 76 days, a fair number of them in leg chains, while the assholes who put him there did everything they possibly could to justify their having done so.  They’ve destroyed his life, his family, and everything they could get their hands on.

The military’s reaction to this?  Pretty much nothing.  Would somebody please explain to me how two officers, being charged with exactly the same crime, can be treated so differently?  One is given immunity from prosecution, and tells her story.  The other is thrown in jail for two and a half months.  There must be some kind of legal principle that prevents this.  Of course, that may not apply in military courts.

I am just stunned by the whole thing.  At what point does a prosecutor figure that it’s time to back off? 

The double standard is appalling.

I wonder if Donanld Sensing, the team players at LGF, Winds of Change might care to refine their assessment of the case, and perhaps state their views on prosecutor infallibility.


Posted by Ross on 01/05/04 at 07:20 PM
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Employment to Population

Just So You Know

Want to see a very scary graph?  Check this graph.  If you’re not employed and you’re in the population, you’re being supported in one way or another...this is the real drag on the economy.  I’d sure like to know how many of these people are employable and are not working…


Posted by Ross on 01/05/04 at 06:25 PM
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Charlie Hustled

Holy Shit!

Welly, welly, welly! Here’s one from the obvious files, kids! Pete Rose bet on baseball. Yup, he said it.

In other news, OJ is thisclose to finding the real killers.

All kidding aside, it sucks that it took Pete this long to just fess up. Everybody in the world knows he did it and not very many folks care (this assertion being the result of an informal poll I just conducted on myself). Hopefully now that he’s earned his lesson they’ll let him back into baseball with all those other paragons of restraint and Christian virtue like Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Darryl Strawberry, Gaylord Perry, Doc Ellis, and David Wells.

It’s a pity. Baseball makes heroes and legends of its players, but off the field baseball players usually end up coming off as petty, small people. Rose could have been spending the last fifteen years managing the Reds and burnishing his legend as “Charlie Hustle, king of the baserunners.” Instead, we all remember him as a bullheaded player who ran out every single and very stupidly put Ray Fosse in the hospital during an All-Star Game.

Let’s get him in the Hall of Fame quick, before he makes matters any worse for himself.

[wik] Eric Olsen, Godfather of Blogcritics and my lord and master, offers this assessment of Pete Rose, man and player:

I always prefer extraordinary talent over the “overachieving slob who doesn’t have the talent but achieves on guts” crap, and especially if that overachiever is a swaggering, egomaniacal shit ranch. That turd had/has zero style and he hit like a girl - that’s what his HOF plaque should read: “Pete Rose, more hits than anyone in MLB history, but he hit like a girl.”

Well. Egomanical shit ranch it is, then. I rather disagree with Eric’s “talent over guts” philosophy but I’m pretty sure that this bias isn’t what drives his animus against Mr. Baseball. No, I think it’s that Eric takes exception to Pete Rose being an egomanical shit ranch and with that I can’t disagree. 


Posted by Johno on 01/05/04 at 05:29 PM
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Fox Hopes Fiancé Delivers Big Fat Win

Just So You Know

This show is what they’re basing their hopes on?  Gimme a break!  Idiots!  Arggh!

Fox had one of the best shows in memory in their stable in 2002—the vastly underappreciated “Firefly”.  Having purchased the DVDs and finally watched the episodes in order, I can say that this show would have been their season.  Dumb-asses!

I have been busy writing a screenplay for a dead show, over the past few days.  It’s a boatload of fun.

Die Fox, Die! 


Posted by Ross on 01/05/04 at 04:14 PM
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Let’s get right back into it

Just So You Know

Having returned from flyover country seventeen pairs of socks richer, and bearing the bounty of “The Family Guy” on DVD as well as a new television, I welcome all and sundry back from their nondenominational yet subtly Judeo-Christian state-supported holidays.

Best gift: Rose Beranbaum Levy’s “The Bread Bible”, which contains enough wonkery for ten cookbooks (want to compensate, gram for gram, for the hydration levels of the salt you’re adding to a recipe? Ever wondered how to convert recipes calling for active dry yeast into instant yeast? Ever wondered what the gluten-content difference was between Gold Medal and King Arthur all-purpose flours?), and makes incredibly good bread to boot. Well, I made incredibly good bread, but it was Levy’s recipes. Highly, highly recommended.

Most necessary gift: Seventeen. Pairs. Of Socks.

And so, let’s awaken from our tryptophan and sucrose slumbers to kick off the new year by reading this powerful and insightful piece by Aziz Poonawalla on being Muslim and being hated by other Muslims for your beliefs. On a pilgrimage to a holy spot in Yemen, he ran into trouble. Excerpt:

Inside… stood the young men, one armed with a nasty-looking rock. He made it clear in no uncertain terms (and despite the language barrier) that if we bent to our knees to prostrate, they would attack us. We were a small group of a half-dozen pilgrims surrounded by an entire village - but it was still enough to make me almost blind with rage. I could have snapped this fanatic in two, given his relative undernourished size. But even if we survived a confrontation, there would have been serious repercussions for the other pilgrims who were arriving later that day and the rest of the week. We were forced to grudgingly retreat, humiliated and seething with frustration at having our simple desire to express our devotion thwarted.

On the way out of the building, I deliberately dropped something I was holding right near the gravesite and then knelt to pick it up. In so doing I sneaked a hurried pseudo-prostration into my action. It escaped the notice of the rock-wielding fanatic and was, in retrospect, a foolish thing to have done. We encountered no resistance as we made our way back to our useless driver and vehicle, and began the long and bruising drive back to Hutaib.


Posted by Johno on 01/05/04 at 03:36 PM
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Friday, January 02, 2004

2004

It'll Be a Cold Day in Hell

Well, here we all are.  And we are all here, which is a good thing, given that a big chunk of the planet can’t stand us right now.  Feel free to insert my standard “bush sucks” boilerplate here.  But...my light reading for the plane ride home was Irshad Manji’s “The Trouble With Islam”.  It’s light fare, but quite sobering.  She’s decidedly on the opposite side of where I’ve been on certain issues, with regards to Islam...a lot of what she says rings true.  If so, and I can’t find a way around it, certain opinions of mine are going to have to change…

Greetings, 2004, the year of the robot.  We are all on autopilot now, automatons entering a maze, programmed with a rule set for some reality.  Let’s hope our maze is roughly the same.


Posted by Ross on 01/02/04 at 04:56 AM
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Thursday, January 01, 2004

Perfidious Comment Policy

Perfidy

Comments are a service provided by the Ministry of Minor Perfidy to you, the gentle reader.  This service is subject to revocation on a retail or wholesale basis at the whim of the Ministry.  Only one individual has thus far incurred our wrath sufficiently to be permanently banned.  Don’t be that guy.  Any advertisement made in this space is subject to a fee of $500 per ad.  Posting an ad indicates your agreement with this fee schedule.  If you are a comment spammer, please immediately die a prolonged, agonizing and messy death.  After you pay the fee.

Swear, curse and spit if it makes you feel better.  Generally speaking, saying “fuck” a lot doesn’t improve the quality of your writing, unless you’re Charles Bukowski.  I don’t think you’re Chuck, though.  In any event, we won’t delete your post for foul language.  As to general purpose offensiveness, we all have pretty thick skins and you’d have to be a real jackass to get a post deleted for that reason.  So don’t be that guy. 

To sum up: play nice, share your toys with the other kids, and pretend you’re having a nice conversation with friends at your favorite restaurant.  And remember, we’re watching you.


Posted by Ministry on 01/01/04 at 02:01 AM
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